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

bails

Morning all, in a bit of a haze today after bad night so have already forgotten what to reply to :rolleyes: The other illnesses are doing my head in now - my biggy I can cope with pretty much most of the time but with these on top my body is struggling :rolleyes: 30 days into a UTI is so not funny! Luckily my lesson has been postponed til 3pm as tutee is struggling so I can prepare at a more leisurely pace.
The_cat, also good points about the dog. I wouldn't take her unless I was sure I could manage in all eventualities (well, except for armageddon). I will be going to see her again today though
Good luck to SL and Sianne, I hope you have success too!
Right, off in search of more resources, have a great day everyone x
ps OOH yes, now I remember, a little something about BUYING A HOUSE TOGETHER Mr DT :T:j
EDIT: yes,after India if we go would be most sensible Smlsave. I'm very good at walking away from many, many dogs I'd like to rehome - I've been waiting 8 years so far - but this one has really got to me. Will still be sensible though I promise.
Oh, and I got a tenner from Littlewoods today (£1 bonus today peeps) and it seems my A&L £50 has been validated in Quidc0 after all :T That's £60 towards the adoption fee :rotfl:

Frugaldom

MrDT wrote: »

...I've got a mini challenge that's not really being documented anywhere (other than my spreadsheet) to try and earn a bit of extra cash each month, the idea being I try to earn whatever I'd spend on gifts as extra income...

Hi DT, quite a few of us are doing this at the moment under various guises - mine's the earn £1000 in 100 days and it's going really, really badly

Oh, by the way me and the "ladyfriend" have been talking houses. Maybe you were all right lol, maybe I won't be a bachelor all my life! We were both saving towards buying houses before we got together, now it's looking like we might be saving to buy one house together.

I always highlight the posts because I can't read some of the coloured ones very well. This way, nothing gets past me. :rotfl: Good luck with the joint-savings and I hope things go to plan for you :beer:

We have horrendous gales here yet again and the felt on the new shed is taking a beating. The whirlygig cover is completelty shredded and now looks like a mass of ribbons tangled around it and the final conclusion is that ANYTHING for outside needs to be solid, sturdy and substantial, so I'll need to alter the garden plans slightly to make allowances for how exposed this part of the county really is. Yet again, various weather forecasts have failed to pick up on local conditions. :rolleyes: I also now [strike]suspect[/strike] know there's a leak in the roof, which isn't helped by the torrential downpours blasting the back of the house almost horizontally for most of the night. Janey, hope all the trees over there are staying upright!

Should be NSD today and I have now decided to use €gg M0ney card for housekeeping/household accounting so I can get the 4% interest as well as the 1% cashback. It's more than my ISA is generating at the moment! :rolleyes: I wonder how much that will have dropped this month AGAIN.

Update on the frugal-cooking: I boiled a ham hock and now have about 3 litres of split pea & ham soup plus enough meat for 2 ham & mushroom pies, which I'll get made this afternoon. Thankfully, these can be frozen once cooked. The rubber chicken has stretched to roast dinner for 3 plus curry for 3 plus enough meat left for 2 chicken & vegetable pies, one for dinner tonight and the other for the freezer and a pot of chicken & rice soup. Bulking out with veggies (and grain or pulses) is certainly the way to go as this was all from a chicken that cost £2.79 and a smoked ham hough costing £1.78. My pie-making practice is paying off at last, thank goodness! I've also defrosted some more stewed (homegrown) apples to make another crumble and we (over) indulged last night with a syrup sponge made in microwave. Now you see why dieting just doesn't work out in this household! :rotfl:

Taka, let me know when you're heading home and I'll get ready with big wave for the fly over. :hello: Have a great time!

Bails, hope you're feeling better soon. Just out of curiosity, how much is an adoption fee these days? (Not that I'm heading off back to the website of our nearest animal home or anything, I'm just curious :whistle: )

bails

Yes, have a fab time Taka, not jealous at all!

Popped back to say my library send me email updates so I don't forget to renew/take back my books :T so yours may well do this too if you look at your settings/ask next time you're in. I also write the date in my diary a couple of days before they're due.

The adoption fee for a puppy is £145 here, which presumably includes jabs etc. You also have to sign up for puppy training classes. Not sure how much for an older dog (I've never allowed myself to get so far with the proceedings before ). Thanks for the well wishes x
Taken from our local Home website:
Adoption fees
Our adoption fees rarely cover the full cost of the treatment and care your chosen animal may have received whilst at the Home.
Fees are necessary if we are to continue helping unwanted animals in need and we always welcome additional donations! All of our dogs are vaccinated, neutered/ speyed, wormed, de-flea’d and micro-chipped before they are adopted.

Neutered male dogs
Up to 16 Weeks (4 months) £155
Up to 32 weeks ( 8 months) £125
Adult £95

Speyed female dogs
Up to 16 wks (4months) £175
Up to 32 weeks (8 months) £145
Adult £105
Pure breeds are individually priced and reductions often available for elderly dogs

Adopting a puppy
We frequently have puppies available for re-homing with the majority of them being cross-breeds.
We have specific criteria for the adoption of puppies and there is often a waiting list of families wishing to adopt. Please visit us and ask for more details.

He either told me the wrong price yesterday or she's older than it says Happy looking!

Marru

Hello!!

Bails - perhaps before India just "practise" by volunteering as a dog walker/puppy socialiser at the Home - however I do happen to know a very good dog walker near you

Mr DT - excellent news! :T re the house!

Kay - meant to say earlier that congrats re the house and respect for saving for the furniture and being so focused

Nyk - hope the weather settles for you soon, and :T for frugal menu

BB - sorry to hear that you have not been well

Whitewing - also think that the boxes are great idea

Skint Lynne - best of luck for your interviews

Lynda - hope your move goes well, very exciting!

Anybody else -

Been busy this morning. Went to my placement and took some chocolate as thank you and went to see my favorite horse. He has been poorly so promised to go back on Wednesday afternoon to do some work on him. They were ever so nice there and said to go and visit anytime and when they have training courses just go and sit in.

Also went to college to sign myself off and say goodbye. I was ok until I went to my group and was a bit struggling with tears as they have all been so lovely. Then trip to garage to ask about the car and at the moment just waiting for the news. Just to cover myself I have extended my rental car till Tuesday as it looks now that Monday could be the day that my car is sorted. Lets just hope that the French have coded my key correctly. (The garage owner was really cute by the way...)

So the rest of the day is dedicated to finish my accounts for 07-08 and file tax return. :eek: On that note, another cup of tea me thinks...

Have a great day everyone!

Marru

FrankieM

Hi All,
Thanks so much for all the advice inregards to motivation etc...I decided to start putting it into practise this morning by not putting my pc on until I'd done the housework I'd wanted to get done. I also put a big star by 4 items on my list so I didn't feel overwhelmed and the upshot is...its worked. I've got the housework done I really wanted/needed to do and also the paid work I was putting off doing yesterday has been done and sent off, though I did most of that last night before going to bed...
I've been itching to get online all morning cause DH got paid today and I wanted check online banking and move money around...it would seem that's my favourite job!!!

nickynoo08

:j Yay i'm very happy. I've just finished making my calls to change and cancel my phone and tv packages and i've managed to save myself £25 a month or £300 A YEAR. I'm well chuffed:D

bails

Well done Nicky, no wonder you're chuffed :T

Glad the advice has helped Frankie :T I plan to save everyone's great suggestions to help me too so thanks everyone!

Great that you can go back whenever you like Marru and sit in on courses too :T Saying goodbye is hard and now you can also move on to better things :T
I'm planning to try the dog walking and see how I go - great minds

skint_chick

Made the decision today to take £1800 of my savings and pay it off my flexible mortgage since the interest rate on the extra borrowing part of the mortgage is almost 2% higher than my savings - it's flexible so I can borrow it back if there's an emergency - and I stil have 3months outgoings saved.

Got myself a slow cooker on Freecycle so its had a wash and dinner is being made in it! Still no sewing machine though and Cash Converters don't have any either. Mortgage balance is now lower than I'd aimed to get it by end of year so now I'm aiming for £140k -which brings total debt about £15k lower than last year

Today is food from freezer for lunch and dinner and same tomorrow - and I'm opening bottle of wine freecycler gave me Sat night as I've only had 2 alcoholic drinks in 2009 I'm doing some artwork this afternoon making OH's Valentines card

Kittikins

Feeling really pleased this morning, have been putting off renewing my car insurance and breakdown policy (due on 4th Feb) as they are something I pay in one go rather than pay interest and am squeezing my accounts dry at the moment!

My renewal quote was £272, but after my success with Mr T home insurance, I tried them for a car quote, £235 PLUS £50 cashback direct from them (don't think I could have got any cashback with Quidko or others, am hoping not).

Was going to get breakdown cover with them, noticed it was with [EMAIL="GreenFl@g"]GreenFl@g[/EMAIL], so went onto Quid, and have got it (a) cheaper than being branded as Mr T's and (b) with £20 cashback eventually

And paying for both on my 0% credit card so have a bit of time to pay it off - phew!

Think we're off to parents' again to help out with some stuff, so think it'll be a cheapie weekend, especially if my dad puts some petrol in the tank

Although January was quite good money-wise, am determined that February will be better. Only managed 2NSDs, must do better!!

Hugs to all :x

MrDT

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi DT, quite a few of us are doing this at the moment under various guises - mine's the earn £1000 in 100 days and it's going really, really badly

I've checked out the £100 in 100 days thread, I'm a serial lurker Won't take part as it's a bit too ambitious for me, my aim is about £500 in 2009. If can make that much extra "free" money from various internet wheezes I'd be over the moon lol! I'm still avoiding MB and have no idea why, could probably make that £500 in a month or two :rolleyes:

Hope the £1000 in 100 challenge picks up for you