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

whitewing

This may interest the Scottish contingent:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1428251

Nat Trust for Scotland cheap membership

sophiesmum_2

Just taken pile of stuff to recycling centre and popped into big branch of Boots which is nearby to see if they had any of "fizzels" shampoos left. All the cheap shampoo had gone but managed to pick up 10 bottles of herbal essences conditioners for 37p each = £3.70 and was given 100 points on each one = £10.00 - so thank you very much Mr Boots for paying me £6.30 to take 10 bottles of your conditioner home:j :j :j
Have now filled up the space in OH's hidey hole:rotfl:

Off to mumzy's in a minute.

Shaz - Also have a pine rocker

- used to cuddle my babies on it,and sit up all night rocking my DS2 who is autistic and never slept as a child, then it was used in lounge later on,and in dining room when we had our woodburners, retrieved it when I left my ex and it moved to my new place where it was used until I got better furniture,since we moved here it has been in lounge and both bedrooms and is currently in alcove in corridor outside front door with my wooden cat on it, never been able to part with that or the table. One day soon it may make it back into the lounge:D My eldest baby is now almost 22 and 6 feet 4 :eek: - doubt he'd even fit on chair now.

mumzyof2

Afternoon all..
had to walk into town this morning as thought DD needed some drops but apperently i need to just washher eyes with warm water. Spent £3.86 in the shop on way home.

In_Search_Of_Me

Thanks for the reply re the flooring. Have had a think and decided that I will keep my beading/jam making separate from the challenge as I have to pay out a fair bit before making it back IYKWIM! Also the floor will come out of the extra money I've made (loads in the last two weeks - 400 for craft stuff, 80 for garmin, 35 for jewellry and still jam, babysitting etec to go!). Am worried otherwise that the challenge will not be doable and its silly for me to scrimp on making money as that is the reason for doing the challenge in the first place - ie that living on the 4000 will mean more to pay off every month. Will keep track of beading and extra money spent/made but separately from the challenge. Love my spending diary.com - lovely to have visual graphs!!

[Deleted User]

Thanks very much for the butter bean gratin recipe, sophiesmum:T . I'll definitely be making that one someday soon.

And Marru, Candygirl's cheesy carrot and potato mash sounds yummy too. How is that made please?

The way things are with my meals budget at the moment it looks as if the kitten is the only one who'll be eating anything meaty or fishy for the foreseeable future:eek:

cha97michelle

Thanks for your thoughts on my cheque. I will talk some more with DH about it. I was thinking to myself we are managing at the minute, but we have to get to April 15th when my first pay cheque arrives. Perhaps i will cash it as the money gets tighter. It made me see a different perspective anyway.

Today is a NSD unless DH decides that he needs some more building supplies for his DIY project - he has pulled the large shrubs out of the rockery, and is now rebuilding the stone wall around the area so we can then sort out our veg patch. Costs for this yesterday was £23.50, but we are not counting that in the challenge.

Otherwise a quiet one as both boys have quite upset tummies. I wonder if it is from drinking too much pool water.

I have made them a fish pie with lots of mash for their lunch, and i think we will have sandwiches or something on toast for our tea.

I got him to read the elec meter and i put the results for the past month-ish onto the online reading service, and they have calculated my bill at £45. This is more than the £41.50 we pay per month now on DD, although we are still about £16 in credit. I am in shock at that. I will have to look into our price per kwh later, as we are averaging 15 per day, so costs must have changed again.

I think otherwise today, i had best start looking into what i can list on amazon, and try and shift some things so that i have a bit of income over the next few months.

Baby is currently snoozing, and i have a film running so i can clear some space on the digi-box as i want to tape some more films this week and then reduce the l.film membership to a light use package when that comes up for renewal.

Frugaldom

whitewing wrote: »

This may interest the Scottish contingent:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1428251

Nat Trust for Scotland cheap membership

Hi Whitewing :hello: I used this offer last year to get the family membership so we could all go places together when I have DGD staying. I took it out end of June so it means I have full membership for the entire year 2009. I don't miss the £6.50 per month DD as the membership had paid itself back within 2 or 3 day trips where it's even more exciting to be able to go inside the castles rather than frugalise and just visit the free parts or gardens.

Cha - don't forget to let in-laws know if you decide not to cash the cheque right away in case they forget about and then accidentally spend it if it's still in their account.

Shaz (I think it was Shaz, apologies if I'm wrong) if your cashback hasn't tracked from Cr0cus for the garden stuff, mine has just shown up today. I submitted the enquiry the week after paying for my order.

ISOM - I do my challenge on the premise of having 4k up front and then I deduct all my spends. Any extra income was used for extras and anything that wasn't previously accounted for was set as a mini-challenge to earn extra to cover the resulting shortfall.

Still windy but sun is shining. We have now completed the shed-building and got roof felted. Still need to take some piccies for project frugaldom online! :j

Guesty6

There I was being all good and my cars exhaust decides to rust in half! gonna have to pull in a favour to see if I can get it done cheaper

LollopyBear

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't been posting much - January became very, very busy! I am not caught up with the posts yet and will probably just go back through the last 10.

Just totalling up my weekend spends and I am overbudget for this month, with still a week to go Though if I have made an additional £40ish in matched betting and have £65 sitting in Quidco waiting to be cashed out. The most interesting part of keeping track of spending is looking at the individual categories (I colour code them and have a separate chart on the same page adding up each of the categories). I am ashamed to say that I've spent more on tobacco and alcohol than I have on groceries! :eek: I am not a big drinker - normally only have a couple of glasses of wine on a Friday night and occasionally on a Saturday if it's a birthday - so the total of £68.11 is quite staggering. I am also not a very heavy smoker. It just adds up very quickly. My target next month will be to reduce that section, though with a hen party weekend in London happening it is going to take some creative thinking!

Mr Bear has been batch-cooking like mad, experimenting with new recipes and cuts of meat all of which are delicious. The only trouble is that we have run out of space in the top of our fridge freezer. It's my birthday in March and my parents are going to get me a small chest freezer that will help tremendously. Mr Bear is also doing so much to get our house in some sort of order that I feel rather spoiled

I hope everyone is doing well on this frugal journey. I'm sure Jan/Feb are the most painful months!

candygirl

Cheesy carrot and potato mash:

Boil/steam about 10 small potatoes and 6 carrots
Mash in butter, black pepper and salt
pour grated cheese on and grill/microwave:p

See I told ya i'm a chef:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Had a very silly spends day today:rolleyes: :rolleyes: went to my old aunties whos 90 and my Mum was meant to be coming, so I spent over £6 on ice creams, and she never arived with the kids, cos dizzy SIL hadn't left her the car seats for the kids :mad: :mad: So we had to then console ourselves by going to maccy ds:o