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

grandma247

We have had one very busy week. Last Saturday not one but two DD moved house with the help of my dh and ds2. I looked after dd3's kids so they did not get underfoot.
DD3's school age kids had to stay with us till thursday as she had not got them a new school. She took them on the bus Friday and has now got 1 into school other is on waiting list so she will have to travel for time being.
DD1 gave us her cooker as new place already had one. I got up 4am monday (could not sleep) cleaned my cooker and dragged it in the hallway and put it on freecycle. DD3 saw it and asked to swap it for hers so I said ok,had hers brought here. I had to spend 3 hours cleaning it then explained to interested peron. They did not show but another person did and was very pleased.

Also spent a lot of time on phone for dd3 trying to get her gas and elec sorted.

Early hours Friday got woken by bleeping sound and thought it was house phone so put it on the landing. Bleeping continued and eventually dh woke up and realised it was his mobile with message from virgin:mad:

Friday morning went for my mamogram and got lost because the signs were useless and after walking round the building twice a nurse showed me the way. I would not have found it unless by accident!

Saturday helped dh with some decorating prep and bought wood and paint for front room then felt so ill had to lie down the rest of the day.
Today done a bit of sanding and wiping down with stardrops then did one coat of undercoat. Made a cake with apple pie filling I bottled earlier in the Autumn and baked a loaf in bm.

I have been trying breads using flours usually used for roti and chappatties.
will post about them tomorrow.

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Please grandma247 what are stardrops and where do you buy them? I keep on reading about others using them and whilst I'm asking what is actifizz? From what I read everyone who uses both seems to think they are very efficient at cleaning. Thanks.

grandma247

stardrops is a cleaner that has been around for a very long time but people often thinks its too oldfashioned but it does the job cheaper than any of the modern cleaners and is just as efficient. I get mine at homebargains for 67p for the concentrated version and it lasts ages. it is callstarDROPS for a reason, you only need a few drops in most cases for cleaning.
I do not know what actifizz is but it will be one of the more modern cleaners.
I am off to bed now. Goodnight.

Masomnia

I've been too busy to keep up with the thread, it's making me sad! And now I have to go to bed

Good, solid NSD for me today. I've started to keep track of my challenge through percentages, as you may have noticed, and I've worked out I can have 8.3% per month. So I have around £30 left for this month, which is ok as long as I'm careful and no bills come in!

Hope you're all doing really well and have a great week.

redglass_2

My 'awkward heirlooms' are my grandmother's engagement and wedding rings. I was given these by my mother who explicitly said, without my asking, that if I ever wanted to sell them I was free to do so. I haven't sold them and yet I don't know why I'm keeping them. I don't wear them, I don't particularly like them and I didn't get on all that well with my gran (few people did) so they don't bring back happy memories, in fact I associate them with sadness. I don't have kids to leave them to, and I worry about burglars stealing them! I hesitate to sell them because it doesn't seem right, somehow...but I could buy a lot of useful things with the money!

Advice welcome....

Masomnia

redglass wrote: »

My 'awkward heirlooms' are my grandmother's engagement and wedding rings. I was given these by my mother who explicitly said, without my asking, that if I ever wanted to sell them I was free to do so. I haven't sold them and yet I don't know why I'm keeping them. I don't wear them, I don't particularly like them and I didn't get on all that well with my gran (few people did) so they don't bring back happy memories, in fact I associate them with sadness. I don't have kids to leave them to, and I worry about burglars stealing them! I hesitate to sell them because it doesn't seem right, somehow...but I could buy a lot of useful things with the money!

Advice welcome....

Mmm that is a knotty one. My mum sold her own wedding ring recently and got £20 for it, neither of us had any idea whether it was fair or not but she just wanted to get rid of it. She had another ring which was worth £20, but my sister liked it so she decided not to sell it. I guess my point is see how much you can get for it, and then weigh up your options. If it isn't that much and it doesn't seem right then don't sell.

It may sound cold hearted but I personally would sell them. If they have no sentimental value, then there's no point in keeping them, especially if it puts you in a better postion. And, maybe someone might see them in a pawn shop or something and fall in love with them, they could buy the rings and then you'd have done them a big favour.

JAMIEDODGER

Morning frunchkins!

Ds3 went out to Brighton Sealife Centre yesterday with his carer and had a great time, this cost me £15 but he has such a nice time with her and does lovely things so I dont begrudge at all!:)

Also decided I needed my mop cut as it was getting unmanagable and was finding it hard to see cost..£10

Have updated signature, will probably end up over budget for jan by about £50 but never mind, will pull back over the coming months!:)

sophiesmum_2

Good morning Frunchkins:D
Back to work again, the weekend passes so quickly doesn't it?
Looking forwrd to having a boring week with no training managers and no tenant forums to see to, should be able to finish sorting my office and get back to normal.( got a meeting with my manager tomorrow so need to move chicken house out of my office today) Glad the lurgy has cleared too:D

General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard lunch and tea
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item-recycled a gift into my pressie stash
• do something nice for me -took some xmas smellies to gym for my shower
• do something nice for someone else - found and printed off directions for someone in my lunch hour
• do one thing just for fun - go for swim , jacuzzi and sauna
• fitter not fatter - swimming

Todays frugal meals;

• fruit smoothie
• Batch cooked lentil and carrot soup from freezer
• pasta with batch cooked spicy vegetable sauce from freezer

Fruit and veg portions;
2 fruit, 2 pulses,4veggies,:D

Expenditure or additional income

No spend day planned - spent £1.85 on boots goodies but got £5 in points





Remaining target cash for first 6 months food spends - £256.84 left from budget of £400 for first six months.

grandma247

I bought a 10kg sack Pilsbury chaki atta flour half price in mr t. a few weeks ago and as it said it was wholewheat flour thought I would try it in bread. I got a shock when I opened it. The flour was ultrafine and a little yellow. I suspected it was soft wheat that was more suitable for cakes but used it anyway. I put 300g of it plus 200g white bread flour in the bm and adde a little extra water. The loaf was ok but a bit small and the texture was closer than my normal bread which confirmed that it was soft wheat.
The next loaf I used 300g ch. a. and 300g white with about 400ml.water and milk. The loaf was bigger , still close texture but it did cut very well. It was very nice tasting too.
I made some chocolate buns with the flour and they were beautiful.

Then this weekend I bought a 25kg sack of wholewheat chapatti flour for just over £9.00.
It looked just like any other wholewheat flour when I opened it. I did the 300x 300 for the first loaf. It was a little large but just like normal bread. That means it is made from hard wheat.
I have posted this info because I think someone asked if flour from the Asian shops was suitable for breadmaking..

the_cat

Hi all

Not been on much as internet connection has been playing up so just catching up. Congrats to JennyBee on the new arrival!

Sophiesmum - I bought some wire racks designed to fit on inside of cupboard doors from Ikea a few years ago which would be ideal for slotting packets etc in. Not sure if they still do them but they were cheap, so it might be worth a look?

Nothing much to report spend wise as only spent £2 on milk all weekend. As it's on offer for skimmed in Mr S at £1 for 4 pints I decided to get a couple.:D Would have got more if freezer wasn't already heaving with whoopsies. Might need to spend some time this week taking the meat out of boxes and wrapping seperately to make some more room.

Have a good day everyone
Cat