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

lyndasharp

Congrats to Jennybee on the new arrival!

I had an expensive weekend, £50 on petrol as bf drove me to Dad's to collect a load of stuff. I'm now surrounded by boxes and a 6 foot long metal lizard. Luckily I'm working in London all week so will only be spending one more night here before I move! Plus I set up home insurance on my new house. Mr T gave me the best price, as I got my quote when they were still doing the half price offer. They are now also doing £35 cashback for taking out a policy, so it will cost me £122.50 once that cheque comes through. Not bad given that I've not had home insurance before, and I was worried it might cost a lot as I don't have any no claims. Most other companies were £100 more than Mr T.

Pips_Mum

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hello again everyone

When I've finished work I'm going to cook alot of the meat into 'ready meals' so when babys arrived, it will be abit easier (in theory)

xx

I did this before Aidan arrived and I have to say it was so, so useful. I had made lots of stews and bolognaise and bits like that and it really did save us reaching for the phone for a takeaway. I swear since I had him at least 12 hours from my day have disappeared!!!:rotfl:Wouldnt change it for the world though.

SM - Bettterware and Kleeneze do racks that go into your cupboards to give you double the space. Ive got them and they are good. Like Grandma I store my packets in an old icecream tub, I stand them up so I can "file" them in an order and so you can flip through easily and find the one you want.

mama67

Janey51 wrote: »

I have just read your other thread and I have to say I agree with the replies you have received across there.
I am hoping to offer F&Fs to all my creditors this year and know I have to have their response in writing with no wishy washy comments.

I have already sent CCA requests to nearly all my creditors which I see you are going to.
Depending on your creditors' responses, you may be in a good position to bargain on what you can offer.
In the current financial climate, it seems silly that a creditor would refuse a genuine offer to clear a debt with a lump sum. It will cost more in admin charges to keep chasing it.

What we did when we cleared our debts 2 years ago was I took the total amount we had available to use and then did a pro-rata offer in relation to the amount owing.

I then offered a bit less, so for arguments sake we had cash to cover 80% of our total debt I offered figures pro-rata included the schedule each time of 65%; obviously not all agreed but the ones that did freed up some extra cash for the ones that wanted a bit more.

Doing it this way we ended up with £2k cash for a new to us car and a bit in the bank.

And the big thing ALL debts were cleared with f & f settlement and letters showing this.

thriftylass

Hello fellow frunshkins!

Warning, longish post!

Finally a life sign from me. Thought I pop in again with my first month’s summary (already included planned/allowed spending fort this week til payday on Friday).
First of all hugs to all that need them and a big cheer for everything that’s been achieved this month and hello to the new arrivals. I’ve only been checking the posts sporadically this month as I couldn’t be bothered. Although I have had a pretty unproblematic pregnancy so far (no sickness or anything else bad) I had the mood swings (big time – poor BF) and tiredness. They only started to cease now. So since my energy is finally coming back, my resolution for February is to keep up with the thread again and get back on track with the spending. I’m really glad now that I joined here and got all those hints and tips and lovely support otherwise it would have been much worse this month.

I’ve gone about 30% over budget this month though due to said factors. Boohiss...

Total spend £ 452 instead of planned £ 350 (£102 over :eek: )

£177 on groceries and household (£ 3 under budget )
£ 70 on electricity (£30 over :eek:) first time I really noticed the price hike
£ 34 on other bills (fixed price)
£ 141 on birthdays, pub including new year (only soft drinks!!), dinner out, me (should be less, but most was unavoidable like birthdays, new year etc.) (£31 over )
£ 30 frittered away mainly on comfort food when I was in a bad mood or too tired to cook (not planned at all )

But I also got my first ₤35 through from TCB and I was able to save my target amount this month :j . Plus I won an Ipod shuffle but that will go to a work mate as I won one last year as has almost everybody else in my work group apart from this one girl.
With the mood swing and tiredness gone I’m back on track with the cooking and more sensible shopping so that I’ll hopefully come in on/under budget next month which is luckily a short one. This month I started counting from the 30th of December, so it was really long. The only night out in February will be my birthday apart from maybe dinner at friend’s houses, so no big spending expected.

My budget for February is £ 334

£150 on groceries and household
£ 10 mobile PAYG
£ 40 on electricity (prob way more)
£ 34 on other bills
£ 100 on going out, clothes, gifts, trips etc.

Additionally I plan to reach at least 43% of my savings target in February since I want to reach about 80% now before I go on maternity leave in July.

I also need to plan ahead better for birthdays this year. One in January was unexpected (the one-year-old of BF’s pal I ended up paying for) and the other one I just didn’t plan money for. I will make a list of all that need a card and a pressie and start looking now so that these stop being impulse buys. My last Tesco shop was already more back to the way it should be and I’m on the way to have most of my lunches for next month sorted.

Take care

andromache_2

Mega congrats jennybee hope you're looking after yourself. On the topic of big babies, my old nanny recently had a 11lb 11oz baby boy - in a HOME BIRTH :eek: Apparently she holds the record for the biggest home birth in the borough or something like that.Tricky one on the heirlooms redglass but I think I agree with masomnia - check how much they are and that might affect your opinion on whether they are worth selling. And thank you for the PM, it is very thoughtful and I am mulling over the appropriate response Don't apologise for the long post, thriftylass, it's nice to have a full update on how you're doing! Well done on sorting everything out for settling into your new house, lyndasharp - it must be quite exciting though I'm sure the novelty of paying for your own home insurance will wear off, lol. And I agree with you about ISOM's Oscar Wilde signature, sarah147, it's so affirming - on a similar note, I've used slowlyfading's signature (something like 'be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind' (Dr Seuss)) as my msn tagline for ages cos I think it's great too.

Hope everyone is having a nice Monday morning. Some students are occupying my faculty in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza which is all quite exciting (though I don't think the university should cave into their demands: these things should be achieved by good arguments, not by ransom IMO) - anyway, MS-wise, we've just been told that we aren't allowed to bring food into the faculty - so what am I supposed to do with my lovely cheap healthy packed lunches? :mad: There's a shop selling baguettes and things (which I assume will be open, but I'm not sure) but it's very expensive! Not impressed. I guess I could hide a pack of oatcakes on my bike somewhere and go outside for lunch and and survive on those till the end of the day! It's all a bit silly really Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Back to my essay on trusts of land... I lead a thrilling life

mumzyof2

I have 8 bbq chicken breasts. and i dont know what to do with them any ideas?

been shopping so will update in a min

sophiesmum_2

Mumzy are they fresh or frozen??

8 is a lot for you and kids, probably do at least 3-4 meals.

fizzel81

morning all

sorry been a busy weekend here as nick came to visit me

hetic heti hetic is all i can use to describe my life but im not going to abandom you all completely

brother is moving in this afternoon untill june time, long story but i wont say no iykwim he is family

also dammit ive overspent this month mainly due to stocking up, (dare i say boots) and then today took a trip to lush and sprnt £50 on there grab bags so thats me well and truely stocked up for this year on anything wash wise

need to calm down from febuary, and save save save
(but been takeing advantage of sales)

cw thankyou sooooooo much there here this morning, will pop hem away for september that nearly school uniform sorted and he doesnt start reception till september

wednesday is creaping up on me im getting excited/nervous of the phone call and anxious to get it sorted thats 2 completely gone, not wanting to wish this year away but by the end of it im going to be on cloud 9

quick tea tonight, will pop a pasta bake in moska before i go and collect ds (will it be ok to leave it on for 30 mins whilst im out?) ds1 has a party tonight so quick tea for me and ds 2 & 3 plus brother if he has some.

then need to get more sorted for ebay i have so much no7 skincare that im going to be cheeky and ebay it and some other bits and bobs here, my house is going to be so streamlined soon bar the bathroom

will promise to update and try and catch up just things going to now get more hetic here, and from next month monday and tuesdays i should have had my crb check stuff back to help out in ds1's school 2 days a week so hopefully i can get some experance to get on a teaching assistant course

mumzyof2

sophiesmum wrote: »

Mumzy are they fresh or frozen??

8 is a lot for you and kids, probably do at least 3-4 meals.

There is 7 and there chinnese style not bbq.

They been frozen and i defrosted them overnight. I dont even know how to cook them let alone what to do with them.

slowlyfading

hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't been on lately, I just don't seem to have the time. I went bowling on friday night on a sort of date - my friend had set me up with her bf's best friend, and we went together and it was really fun, though I'm rubbish at bowling it seems! but the guy is really nice so we'll see how it goes.

I've been keeping track of my budget, and I'll do an update of that later, after I've been to teach and then babysitting.

I've got my pgce interview on weds and I'm so nervous already. There's so much to do and show what you can do and I'm not sure I'm capable to be honest!

Hope everyone is okay, and (((HUGS))) to those who want/need one.

sf xx