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

sophiesmum_2

Lovely feedback marru, will be keeping everything crossed for you.

Just had phone call from council allotments lady and am now on waiting list for ALL allotments within borough, currently about two year wait on most so just wait and see now. She is also sending me some more contacts for some private allotments - cost a little more but may have shorter waiting times.:D

Also just been given another no 7 voucher by one of oldies so now have two to use at weekend towards pressies for my stash:D

nickynoo08

Afternoon peeps
Congrats on the new house kay
Fingers crossed marru

Went for walk to the shops today to get some milk yogs and veg, had my £8.50 left over from yesterday and the blummin total came to £8.93! I was gutted. There was no way i was gonna pay by switch so used my nectar poits to pay £7.50 and i paid rest in cash.
Had a long chat with OH about our monthly budget (he hates talking about money and generally leaves me to get on with it but lately he's been eating like there's no tomoro so had to gentley tell him to stop being a pig), anyhoo i seem to have gotten through to him and seems to be totally on board with all of my ideas - even if he does call me a penny pinchin skint flint, good job i know he's joking even if i am;). So hopefully next month should be a breeze compared to jan.

Today....
Paint kitchen - done, one coat left to do
Paint front room
go on wii fit
Last of spag bol for tea

Frugaldom

Good luck Marru.

Sophiesmum, have you tried advertising on Freecycle wanting someone's garden in exchange for their having a small percentage of whatever you grow? I'm told this is also the type of thing that can be done on an exchange basis through LETS but still haven't had time to find out more about the scheme.

Nickynoo, well done getting OH aboard the frugal-train

Anyone know the best way to get rid of a tumble dryer? Been trying to sell it for over 6 months and it's now out of its 12 month statutory guarantee. It's hardly been used since DD and DGD moved into their own place a year ago, I have tried advertising it to no avail. It's about 13 months old and still looks like new, but I have neither need nor space for it. Should I bite the bullet and Freecycle it?

Brighton_belle

sophiesmum: another idea is here:

http://www.rivercottage.net/landshare/

Hugh fernly whatsit and river cottage have set up a landshare scheme: though with spare gardens advertise it for people to grow veg in it in exchange for some of the produce. If my garden was bigger than a victorian backyard I would definitely sign up for it.

Marru - everything crossed for you.

Nyk - gutting you haven't been able to sell it, and very suprising. I guess if you have been trying for 6 months and you are desparate for the space, Freecycle is an answer.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Boomdocker-Hope the boiler's ok.
Marru-Glad the interview went well. Fingers crossed.
Bails-Qype voucher has not arrived. Think they are sending them in February.
I'd like to use mine for the Theatre too...you're right its a real treat to go, I bet your parents will love it.
Picking up a shoe rack from freecycle on Friday. And maybe..fingers crossed...a bread maker..
Thanks also BB and Bails for your messages. Had a non-contact day today, which actually meant I still saw my wonderful class from time to time but barely saw the difficult colleague. I know its not the answer but maybe not trying to be the person's best friend and remaining professional but distant is the answer.
Will update my sig and accounts at the weekend.
SFT

Pips_Mum

Hi All

I am still around, and reading the thread to keep motivated (not easy with a 2.5 week old!!) but still finding it tricky to fill in my budget each day. Really am trying though, honest!!! :rotfl:

Edit - Just managed to sit and add up my spends and I am over my "other" budget by £85.15 :eek: in my defence have had to buy loads of baby bits that I hadnt anticipated. Because I am not allowed to drive due to the C section I have saved the £10 budgetted for petrol and tax dsc was only £66 ot £70 like I had budgetted for, also have £11 or gifts that I havent used due to buying them in Boots sale before challenge started.
So all in all I reckon that makes me £60.15 over my budget so will need to make that up next month some how.

I have £9.25 left of Grocery allowance but sure that will get used up!!!

fizzel81

deflated no phone call at all so will ring them once ive taken ds2 to doctors

hi eczema is so infected that he has been nightmare today by the time i got him to bed was too late for me to ring them, worst thing was he was fine last night, appeared during the night and got worse all day yet they couldnt fit him in till tomorrow morning

not much else to say

updated jan spends im a little over but in my defence thats boots and lush for you, lost of gifts sorted though and no personal washing stuff etc needed for this and looks like next year plus think im gonna end up shifting some of the boots via ebay when i have my next listing sesh

sorry to cut it short going to sulk to my washing now, im gutted i was so looking forward to today as silly as it sounds

Blairweech

Hello all,

Spent £14.65 today, DD for Internet came out.

Also signed up to 3 offers from Cashback Kings: 1 month free trial at Blockbuster (£7.50 CB), 1 month free trial at Equifax (£5.00 CB) and 1 month free trial at TIME (£5.00 CB).

Plus, I put a wanted on Freecycle for a hoover. So all in all, a pretty frugal day.

ram_murdock

Good evening all!!

Hope everyone had a nice day!
Marru - Good luck with the job.....fingers crossed!!

I've got £24.73 left out of this months £333.33.......i'm really pleased with this as i know if i wasnt doing this challenge my spends would have greatly exceeded £333.33. And i've managed to transfer some month into my savings account which is great!!

I've been checking out allotments in my local area - unfortunately none available but in the last meeting they proposed a trial to see if allotments would work in this area - so might ring tomorrow and ask if i can participate in the trial.

Today i wrapped my dad's and sister's bday presents - felt really good knowning that i had already got the presents (boots sale) so wasnt running around at the last minute and the presents look lovely- i could never have afforded to buy the presents if they hadnt been in the 75% sale.

Anyhow off to watch CSI - hope everyone has a nice weekend!! I'm off to pizza hut to celebrate my 2lb weight loss this week!!

fallen_angel_shelley

Evening everyone.

So much for me having a few NSD, I had to drop an essay of at uni early this morning and then poped in to the city centre, manchester, and picked up some reduced HE at b00t's, 6 shampoos & 5 conditioners, total £8.08p & 1100 points:j
decided to go to as well and used a £3.00 sanctury vocher on some shower wash that should of been £4.**p, follwed by a quick look in lush:rolleyes: , I left with 3 grab bags, 2 X £10 and 1x £5 and 5 bath bombs, so I have enough bath/shower/shampoo etc to last most of the year. I gave DD some stuff and DS got abit annoyed that I hadn't got him anything, again, I must start looking out for some bits for him.

My mobile DD went out this morning and I still need to up date sig from todays spends.

while I was out today I started getting an awful pain in my foot, I can't walk heal to toe, IYSWIM, I can only walk on the heal of it, so I went to the NHS walk-in centre this afternoon and the nurse said that I ever have ever, tendonitis or meta something!!!! and that I need to rest it for a week but I have uni tomorrow and friday so will have to wait untill weekend for that. how I did it I do not know

Big hugs for everyone,

Shelley x