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

bails

Welcome back Boomdocker, hope you had a lovely holiday, anywhere nice?
Good luck Fizzel, hope you hear soon. Hope you get a f&f too Mumzy.
Fantastic news about the house Kay, it must feel amazing after waiting so long! I hope you're all very happy there.

I don't have a tumble drier either, we hang our stuff out on driers or on the radiators (even when they're not on as we have v little space). I'd like to make one of those old-fashioned driers on the ceiling but still working out where to put it. Sometimes it does take quite a while to dry and if it's like that I might put the heating on to help.

Hope the builders are doing a lovely job BB!

Sorry to hear you're behind with things Redglass, it's horrible when things stack up like that. Hope you can get on top of the important stuff and can come back to us soon.

Anyone who's done Qype - have you all got your vouchers? I haven't done any more reviews yet but am thinking if my lesson goes well today (ie have less planning to do for Friday) then I might try and squeeze them in. It's my parent's ruby anniversary in March and I'd love to give it to them to go to the theatre again. They have been so fantastic to me, especially in recent years, and it would be lovely to give something back. I'm also hoping to throw a surprise party (must get on with that) so don't tell them if you know them

SFT, I'm so sorry to hear you're finding work so tough :grouphug: I can completely relate, especially with the difficult colleague (mine was my D.Hd :eek:) I also had a similar problem once I'd made the decision to quit so I could write my book, work was a real slog each day. Bb's advice is sound - if there's any way you can take some time out from things then please do. We want to teach wonderful lessons all the time and yet sometimes it just needs to be 'good enough'. Take care hun xx

sophiesmum_2

Good afternoon frunchkins:D

Just come up for lunch hour so time to have peek at what everyone is doing. Have been out and about in grounds this morning and have spied a small corner where I might be able to discreetly grow a few more veggies,:p quite shady though.
No swimming planned tonight as Liverpool playing and gym area gets chocca with stadium traffic so keeping away tonight.
General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard lunch and tea
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item-foil trays recycled for guide dogs appeal,recycling lots of jars from oldies for marmalade making next week
• do something nice for me - relaxing evening in with OH - might open bottle wine
• do something nice for someone else - spent ages on phone this morning booking meals and transport etc for day out with oldies next month
• do one thing just for fun -
• fitter not fatter - was given box chocs today - opened them this morning and shared out between oldies at breakfast club.

Todays frugal meals;

• fruit smoothie
• HM batch cooked vegetable soup
• Grilled Tuna steak, new potatoes, butternut squash, mushrooms

Fruit and veg portions;
2 fruit, 0 pulses,4 veggies,:D

Expenditure or additional income

No spend day planned -





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

bails

Forgot to say SM, the allotments I know definitely have rules about them being used properly and looked after. Hope you find somewhere to have your chooks and grow as much as you'd like x

Boomdocker

bails wrote: »

Welcome back Boomdocker, hope you had a lovely holiday, anywhere nice?

Hi Bails, we went to Florida. As part of it we did a 7 night Disney Cruise. The cruise part was paid in full by a 3 year saving plan which was mostly the olympic challenge from another thread similar to this one that I did twice, ebay, boot sales and other bits and bobs. Starting to save for another one hopefully in 2011!! (Hopefully by the then the dollar may have improved too!! :rolleyes:

sophiesmum_2

The allotment the guy had was part of a series of fields rented out by a local farmer and not a council run one etc. It was huge too and completely fenced in would have been ideal. The one next to it the guy even kept pigs and a goat as well as chickens. Never mind will just persevere until I eventually get somewhere.:rolleyes:

Frugaldom

Good afternoon all

Kay, congratulations on the new house, I hope it brings you both happiness and longterm security.

Redglass, when I was browsing the options for future stoozing, the best interest rate I could find was 4%, so there isn't a lot in it. However, the 4% was interest paid on credit balance on the actual Egg Money Card itself, plus the 1% cashback on spends. I was wondering if it would be worthwhile lumping all the savings into that and using it like the household account and savings account combined.

Frankie, I have to second what's already been said about drying washing. I still hang mine out whenever I can but also have one of those ceiling airers plus a freestanding airer and the dehumidifier does the job just fine. However, with 6 in the house, I would be tempted to use the tumble dryer when there's no other quick solution. They don't really cost that much in comparison to many other things. If I had a 'car port', then my washing would got out every day whether it was raining or not. That's what a previous neighbour used to do and I thought it was a great idea.

I'm off to explore the possibilities for more spacesaving. I now have a slim box wired to the inside of the larder door and it holds 12 rolls of cling film and tin foil. That's freed up another bit of space elsewhere. I have used milk cartons (with tops cut off) attached inside the cupboard doors under the sink for things like scouring brushes, I have hooks and over door hangers wherever I can get them and now need to tackle what used to be a coal cellar to convert it into a mini-room of some description. Neat, compact and frugal, that's what I am aiming for indoors. :cool: Then I can get back to my attempts at making the outdoors pay for the indoors.

Forgot to ask - is anyone here a member of LETS? I must be a bit dim and can't fully understand the concept but have read the info I received from our local group and now have the application to join.

When I asked about the 'what ifs' of having no money, I didn't in any way mean it to be possible. I know it's impossible to live in the UK without cash. It was just a hypothetical question and one that I'm using to stay focussed on what's important when prioritising the budget.

Good luck, commiserations and congratulations wherever they are due, catch up with you all soon.

FrankieM

Afternoon,
Thanks everyone for the pointers about drying..I'm thinking I'm going to stick with the tumble dryer through the winter and then hang stuff out in the summer. I'd rather not put the heating on just for the washing and I don't really want it hanging around for days...it was just an idea.

I've been doing my meal plan for the week but I've found a few odds and ends to try to finish up in the fridge...I've done a lamb casserole in the slow cooker for tea tonight with some veg that needs using up. I've had some houmus on toast for lunch, there is still a bit left for tomorrow. I've got some leftover pastry bits, not sure what to do with those and loads of coleslaw, not sure about that either. It starts to feel a bit like Ready, Steady, Cook!!
DH is away tomorrow so he kinders and I will have a bit of a 'hotch potch' meal, I think!

Other than that its a quiet day here, no heating on, which is lovely after 5 days in a very hot, stuffy hotel. I have updated my signature finally..its a bit scarey but I've got the rest of the year to try to reign it back in...

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

The allotment the guy had was part of a series of fields rented out by a local farmer and not a council run one etc. It was huge too and completely fenced in would have been ideal. The one next to it the guy even kept pigs and a goat as well as chickens. Never mind will just persevere until I eventually get somewhere.:rolleyes:

I loved when we used to be able to do this - I reared a few lambs and we had a couple of goats (amongst other things) and friend had a pig. Sadly, legislation forbids it now without acquiring the relevant licensing / registrations / documentation / red tape shenanigans. Every single sheep / goat / pig etc must be licensed and every owner registered and it's illegal to move them without the correct authorisation. The Victorian Farm programme, I noticed, failed to point this out when they moved their livestock onto the farm. Same goes with poultry etc - I used to hatch eggs by the 100 but you now need to register if at any point you have 50+ birds. I know it's all in the best interests of public health and safety but I can't help but feel nostalgic sometimes - does this mean I'm getting old?

mollymunchkin

sophiesmum There is a recent thread about the National Trust releasing some of their land to be used as allotments.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1441835&highlight=National+Trust

Marru

Hello!

I am back from my interview and as far as I know it went really well. I will find out on Friday. It all depends now how well my competition does tomorrow. I hope I get it as the people were really nice and the job good balance of routine and challenge.

Really tired now so will have a quiet hour before picking up that noisy Monkey. Sometimes it turns into a parrot, comes to sit on my shoulder and makes terribly loud parrot noices and calls me a pirate. :rotfl:

Hope everyone has had a good day!

Marru

Edit: Just got feedback: "Marru has good set of skills and lovely personality" and they wanted to find out how much they would need to pay me. Everything crossed