Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 1

whitewing

Morning All!

Have been out walk/jogging regularly and feel much better for it. I have more motivation in life at the moment, and managed to take a good look at my finances. Not so much the finances themselves but how I organise them. Have some new plans and have decided to stop being scared!

DH got a pay rise this week. 10p an hour but he was so pleased. I was quite impressed too as it would have been easy for the company to not give any rise in the current climate. He has put in for some extra shifts too. He's an angel.

DS is back to school today after two days off with a cold. Bless him; he's an angel too.

Must get on. Lots and lots to do today.

nickynoo08

Skintchick - I totally know where your coming from. I've just been offered a childminding job from a friend of mine. Money will be roughly the same as i get now, but no holiday or sick pay, but i'll be able to spend all the time i like with my little un. Also OH has been asked if he can take on some o/t for the next few months possibly more. If i stay where i am we'd have to find a sitter ourselves so OH can work more hours so i'd only be working to pay for sitter which is totally crazy. So after much thought and deliberation i've decided to accept the job offer from my friend. I know i'll be much happier, I'll have more time to make food from scratch again, plus it'll give OH more flexibility for o/t. Go for what makes you happy;)

So annoyed with myself:mad:. Thought i had my budget all sorted, but went and made a silly mistake yesterday. I got my statement through from cc+ and it said my closing bal was £88. Brill i thought, money i didnt know i had. I knew there was some money left in the account but not that much. Anyhoo off to mrT's i went armed with my stockpiling shopping list, filled my trolley, got to the cashdesk, total came to £71 (bit more than i thought but got loada bargains) and my card was turned down!!!!! I was sooo embarassed and angry. I eventually got through to tesco personal finance this morn only for them to confirm to me that i had gone shopping earlier in the month and used my card so my bal wasnt £88 but £38:o . I felt soo stupid. How could i have forgotten that i had been shopping, i've still got the blummin recipt! I've just transfered £30 back into my cc account but still eneded up spending £41 that i shouldnt of. On a more positive note my kitchen is full now:rolleyes:

Plan for today....
Go check on mum
Make pack up for my lunch
Sort recycling
Hoover

WOOT forgot to mention my slow cooker turned up yesterday:D, cant wait to use it.

andromache_2

I have a long to-do list as well :eek: bit stressed at the minute. I'm distracting myself by worrying about job application, career-type stuff when I should just be getting on with my work but things should calm down soon.

OH enjoyed going to Spain so much that he persuaded me to book another Ryanair flight in the sale for a couple of nights in Krakow just before our anniversary at the end of March. I'm determined to only do it if it can fit into my 'entertainment' spends so I have to be more frugal elsewhere! Flights £10, accommodation ~£15, travel to airport ~£15, spending money ~£20 I reckon so it's doable but I will have to be careful as it's so easy to overspend...

Have a lovely Friday everyone - weekend soon! Take care of yourself, sophiesmum xxx

Edited to add: Forgot to thank you for pointing out the Mecca Games offer, the_cat - I didn't win anything but £20 is not bad for 5 minutes' work thanks!

the_cat

Andromache - don't forget to check your mecca account tomorrow. They have given me another free £10 to play with overnight:j :j

Went on a massive whoopsie trawl last night and managed to pick up some good bargains espec meat and fish. Got enough to do the four of us at least another 11 main meals, plus some bits and pieces for lunches and enough bread for the week for just under £17. Need to spend some time today sorting out the freezer and making a meal plan.

Sold a book on amazon yesterday so need to post that but otherwise a quiet day. It's pouring with rain here so indoors is looking like the best option!

Have a goood day everyone
Cat

andromache_2

the_cat wrote: »

Andromache - don't forget to check your mecca account tomorrow. They have given me another free £10 to play with overnight:j :j

Thanks so much! Just bought a load of random tickets with the free tenner and won £24.15 so £44.15 altogether! GL GL GL for playing with your £10! Thank you so much for reminding me! OMG, that's like a 7.5 hour shift at my rubbish minimum wage holiday job for freeeee

that's made my day off to the gym now while I'm feeling happy and motivated, lol...

dND

I’ve totted up the challenge spends for yesterday and I actually not doing too badly with the things I’ve included in the challenge – it’s other areas where the cash is flowing.

I’m finding it difficult to classify which spends to include and which I feel are outside the challenge as they are to do with setting up my place from scratch. Not a great problem really as all spending is somewhere on my spreadsheet.

My trip to Lidl yesterday produced the most things for debate. They had first aid kits so I bought a new kit for the car (4€50) as the one that is in there is very old and probably not up to current standards – I must have a kit in the car by law. I also bought a home first response kit. I hum’d and hah’d over that for a while. I have most of the stuff in the house but this is a grab kit that I want to have with everything ready to go. It cost 5€49 but it would have cost me more than that to buy the articles in the kit that I don’t already have, such as the silver blanket. In the end I decided not to put them into the challenge but I may change my mind. Same with the energy monitor – I’m hoping it will encourage me to save more than the 9€99 it cost.

I’ve included my vodka stockpiling, first bottle purchased. I made some cherry vodka liqueur last year and very nice it is too, so I want to make more this year, some for me and the rest for gifts. Wine is also in the groceries but may get moved to gifts when used that way – if I remember. :beer:

It’s just as well I’m doing OK on the challenge bits, today’s post brought the bill for the tractor repair work from last year – 815€ :eek: so I’ll have to get that sent off by the end of the month. It also brought the electricity bill with the end of year adjustment, and this month I only have to pay 20€72. My monthly payments shot up to 66€ half way through last year, partially due to my son being here and there being 2 computers on plus extra TV being watched etc. So hopefully I won’t get a further increase this year.

New total 302€22/7900€00

I think we’ve finally had the weather you’ve been having, it rained last night, 39mm (1.5 in) with the promise of violent winds to come as well. My neighbour’s field at the bottom of my road looks like a lake – I might take a drive round the block and have a look at what’s happened – no very frugal but it is quite impressive.

After that it’s back to work and I’ll hopefully catch up on the posts when I have lunch.

fizzel81

morning all

its cold wet and horrible here and im comeing down with something as snuffly with a headache.

dropped boys at school/preschool then had a wonder round asda with ds3, picked up enough woopsies meat for 8 meals, ive had to sacrifice a loaf of woopsied bread to fit it all in (but it only cost 10p so done feel too bad) and the bagals ive got out will be used for lunch today

spent £28.42 in total but i also brought ds2 and 3 some much needed pyjamas, 4 bags of half price porridge oats, 2 box's of de caff tea bags, ober half the bill was the nightwear so all in all did ok, and have around a months worth of meat for meals, thats pretty much all the freezer contains now, all split and re wrapped by me into portions.

must get to the post office later and post ebay bit, ive sold everything for this months and made just short of £400 in total which im waiting to hit the bank so i can pay them 2 debts off wednesday (and as illy as it sounds im looking forward to paying them)

need to find a way for the mince to defrost, got it out last night and its still frozen in the fridge, but the utlity room is quite cold, cottage pie again for dinner cooked in the remoska

all i really want to do now is go and snuggle under my duvet but so much to do before bf comes tomorrow night

lyndasharp

Andromache, I spotted the Kracow trip. sounds fab :-)

My work have decided to send me to Northern Ireland in March, so I get a free (working) holiday looking round the National Trust properties for a week.

Only one more week until I own a house :j Hopefully off to my Dad's this weekend to pick up my bike and the hoover, just waiting to hear if bf's car passed it's MOT. Fingers crossed! The bike won't fit in a Morris Minor so I can't collect it with my car!

Frugaldom

Good morning, just checking in to update signature and will edit/update this post later. So far today:

A$da voucher from Ipo!nts arrived
Stock made from the turkey leg
Washing done - about to hang it out
Shed to be built (hopefully)
Catch up with accounts

Bails - this is what's on front news page of AOL today - the cost of raising a child - their columnists must read this thread too! :rotfl:

andromache_2

lyndasharp wrote: »

Andromache, I spotted the Kracow trip. sounds fab :-)

Congratulations on the imminent home-ownership :cool:

nykmedia wrote:

Bails - this is what's on front news page of AOL today - the cost of raising a child - their columnists must read this thread too! :rotfl:

It seems like they make it sound as expensive as possible! Like assuming that parents pay for the entirety of their child's university education when almost everyone I know funds themselves through student loans and holiday work, and maybe a small allowance from their parents if they only get a minimum loan. All the other costs strike me as being quite high, as well... it does make me feel slightly bad for how much I must've cost my parents over the years though