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

Frugaldom

Good afternoon frugalfriends and virtual neighbours

The Siberian blast has already reached us but there's no rain or snow, so I have risked horizontal washing on the line; it took 2 of us to hold onto the stuff to get it pegged up securely.

Janey, sending you my sympathies, know what you mean and there's certainly no need to feel any disloyalty to your DH. I'm sure he would have wanted you to be happy in all aspects of your life. Are you familiar enough with metal detector fellow to [STRIKE]take advantage[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]use him[/STRIKE] embark on a close, platonic relationship? (No really easy way of asking that question, sorry, diplomacy not my strong point, nor my redeeming feature. :rotfl: )

Well, it's the end of month one. I have tallied up my spends (ok, I copied the totals from my spreadsheets) and it looks like this:

Groceries - £186.99/£1,095
Toiletries - £10.22/£65
Cleaning - £4.10/£25
Electricity - £150.00/£1,200
Coal - £34.50/£138
Logs - £40.00/£125
Internet - £19.99/£240
Mobiles - £5.00/£40
Telephone - £0/£160
TV - £0/£145
Clothing & Footwear - £3.20/£75
Gifts - £46.58/£130
NTS - £6.50/£78
Travel relared - £12.20/£120
Insurances - £0/£47.50
L, P & V - £5.80/£200
Garden - £31.49/£75
Miscellaneous - £118.20/£41.50

Extra 'free' income generated - £35.36

Total £639.41/£4000
Balance = £3360.59
Monthly average remaining = £305.50

There's quite a bit in there that won't be repeated next month and I am hoping that the extra free income will catch up with the 'Miscellaneous' spending as the first stage of my money neutral lifestyle. Internet has already been reduced but I'll try for further reduction as soon as the fixed period has lapsed.
The grocery spending includes some bulk buying.
The coal and logs will last until March
The miscellaneous includes £100 deposit for DD's wedding photographer.

February is a nice short month, one I like th use for starting all the things I don't ever finish, like diets, exercise routines etc, but be prepared for it to feel like the longest month ever. I can't explain exactly why this happens but please don't despair when a day feels like a week and it seems like an eternity to get to the 28th. My main positive thought during this monthly transition is the fact that I DID succeed in getting the pantry into a useable state and I DID complete the unpacking.

February major target list
Complete the farmhouse kitchen design
Balance extra income against miscellaneous spending
Take another set of photographs for the frugal 2010 Calender project

Losing a few pounds and being a little bit fitter would be additional bonuses to the above, but I'm not going to dwell on attempting the near impossible. :rotfl:

Now, despite it being fairly late in the day, I'm going to attempt to retrieve the washing and hang out the curtain material I've just taken out the machine. It's been sitting on various shelves since 2001! :eek: I just cannot face another housemove (this is 9th address since then) and I'm really, really hoping that this latest move can be for the longterm, so have decided that the material is getting measured and made into curtains once and for all! :rolleyes:

Back later for a catch-up, hope everyone is having a productive weekend so far

bails

Afternoon all, just caught up and glad to see people pretty happy with their first month's spends :T I'm in the process of updating mine and will post when they're done.

Feel a little more rested today despite a short night's sleep - hoping I can get a few more longer nights to help with recovery.
Went out for lunch with Mum today and she paid was nice to catch up. Off to see my brother and SiL next weekend - apparently she looks v anorexic at the mo :eek: so hoping she'll improve soon (she seems to be keeping some of my mum's HM food down this week :T). Must be quite hard as her sis is 6 months and blooming, hopefully she'll be well enough to start enjoying it soon.

The boys are plugging away at the attic and OH reckons it might be finished in a couple of weeks :j
No more to update on the collie - I tried to get mum to come with me today but she wasn't feeling v well. It's unlikely unfortunately but never say never.
Off to update spends now, catch you later x

mumzyof2

My spends for January are £X.XX.

Really pleased with this as this was everything excluding rent,water,debt payments. I have including tv licence also at £5.50 a week as could not remember if you added it or not. This included a game for DS and DD birthday presents and also presents for 3 children that DS is going to over the next 3 weeks.

Mumzy

LollopyBear

Well done to everyone with their January spend/saves!

I'm more over budget than I was hoping to be this month, but it could have been much, much worse. My spending is as follows:

Travel£91.50
TV Licence£11.45
Groceries£74.98
Household£35.60
Bocca£26.46
Tobacco and Alcohol£80.26
Entertainment£29.75
Gifts£13.00
Misc£23.97

Total spends: £386.97


Travel cannot be reduced by much as my season ticket is £90.30 for a month. There was one bus ticket as well this month.

Bocca is my cat, if anyone was wondering, and that cannot really be reduced either. It includes food, insurance and a monthly amount to the vet for the healthy pets club (covers yearly vaccination, 2 free check-ups, weight checks, all flea and worm treatment etc.).

Next month my main target is to reduce the tobacco and alcohol block! I'm rather disgusted at that.

The reason utilities and mortgage are not on there and the grocery amount is so low is because I give Mr Bear £700 at the start of each month that covers the bills and he gets a lot of the groceries. I'm not counting this amount in my total.

Even though I was over budget I was still saving a lot of money and was able to give Mr Bear an extra £100 to go off his CC debt. I also made an extra £47.09 this month, mainly through MB, and have a bit extra in Quidco ready to come out.

Phew! I am glad that Jan is out of the way - looking forward to a more frugal February. :j

Frugaldom

mumzyof2 wrote: »

My spends for January are £X.XX.

Really pleased with this as this was everything excluding rent,water,debt payments. I have including tv licence also at £5.50 a week as could not remember if you added it or not. This included a game for DS and DD birthday presents and also presents for 3 children that DS is going to over the next 3 weeks.

Mumzy

:rotfl: Sorry, Mumzy, but disguising numbers as 'X' isn't fooling us, come on, spill the beans. :rotfl:

All washing is dry, including the yards and yards of curtain material that was out for less than an hour, so I am pleased about that. I've got hm [strike]quiche[/strike] ham & egg flan in the oven for tea, the fire is kindled and the howling gales have dropped slightly to just 'high winds' mode with a slightly less icy blast.

2ndtimerounder, it gets like this pretty much all over the UK, we're just in a particularly exposed location that makes it feel more island like with nothing to break the winds nearby - no other houses/buildings etc.

The worst weather problems I have ever endured from a lifetime in Scotland and 3 years working in England was in Suffolk in 2003. In fact, it was exactly 6 years ago to this very day! :eek: The entire county ground to a halt under the snowfall and I was one of those unfortunates caught up in the A11/A14 gridlock whilst trying to get to Peterborough train station from Newmarket to collect a friend who'd come down from Glasgow. That was a night we shall NEVER forget. I believe they even made a programme about it, so I could be a TV star without knowing it. :rotfl: Since then, I venture nowhere in inclement weather and if needs must, I always have food, drink and a mobile phone with me. Mind you, I still wouldn't travel the A11/A14 route without food & drink as back up because there was always something going on there!

mumzyof2

£269.71 is my january spend.. it wont save my edit post!

jtb2412

Nyk ..... I worked in the Mr Ts store on the A14 and that night we sold 42 duvets !!!!!

I got snowed in at work and couldn't get home until the next morning (was due to finish at midnight). Mind you, was a great sense of community spirit and we opened the cafe up to give people a hot drink and something to eat.

Not much to report weather-wise here in the South atm apart from it's really cold. I was going to go out and cut my raspberry canes down tomorrow but i'm going to leave it until the risk of snow has gone.

Just had a lovely saturday roast, now going to chill out with a bottle of wine and work out my montly spends (will update this in a bit). Hopefully i've not drunk too much wine already and my sums will add up ! hic :eek: :rotfl:

Been trying all day to get my doggie to rest (he's had the snip bless him) but he's up and about and almost back to normal - a little worrying but I suppose he knows how he feels. I felt really guilty yesterday but know it's for the best.

[STRIKE]Right off to do my sums ... wish me luck ! [/STRIKE]:p

Jan Spending

Food - £280.00
Window Cleaner - £0.00
Mobile (PAYG x 4) - £10.00
Sky - £37.50
BT - £89.89 (quarterly billed)
Gas - £0 (quarterly billed, due March)
Elec - £0 (quarterly billed, due March)
Internet - £19.99 (going down to £14.99 from next month :T )
Entertainment - £58.50 (includes 2 DDs Guides subs and bus fares)
Garden - £3.99
Toiletries - £25.20 (includes ladies products, tablets and OHs Nicorette :rolleyes: )

Total spending = £525.07

Slightly over the £513 average but this should even out over the year. I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself that i've got through the first month . Really looking forward to Feb !

Have a great evening everyone xx

bails

So my totals for January are as follows:

Food £169.33
Toiletries £0.99
Household £4.88
Bills £96.84
Mobile £10
Pressies £1.25
House maintenance £4.35
TOTAL £287.64

Although it looks as if I blew my food budget (£100) this is stockpiling so should even out over the months (total budget for 7 months in UK £700). The other unexpected was a higher phone bill than normal (still waiting for OH to get to bottom of that one :rolleyes:).
I may add some more things into my 4k challenge but will need to look into it more first. Will also look at my other spends in detail soon and perhaps post on here. I also want to post my savings so far for the year plus extra earnings, and compare to this time last year.
Off to try and track my Approved Foods order that hasn't arrived yet, than make dinner and head to cinema. Have a great night all x

lingojingo

Haven't done my end of month totals yet (sneaks off into the corner in shame) well done to all you who have. Looks like some good savings there.

Went into the 3 shop while I was in town this morning as my mobile contract is about to end, and got 'upgraded' with a new phone, very similar to the old one, a free PAYG sim card for the old phone and £6 less per month, so a saving of £72 over the year! :j Really pleased as I never used anything like the allowance on the old contract, so this will suit me much better. DD has her eye on the old phone now, except she doesn't want it on 3, so she'll have to sort that out.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!!!
We missed out on the freecycled breadmaker-we are too slow to get in I think but the shoe storage OH picked up is ace, could hold a number of items, not just shoes and is in good condition.
Came home early from school yesterday (the children had just gone) because I felt sick and promptly th**w up. So glad OH was around to look after me.
Felt better today so had my working day today so looking forward to my day off tomorrow.
Nyk-I think I may run everything month to month like the rest of you. So I'll run my grocery challenge like that too. So I've come in £333 as we spent the remainder of our money on stockpiling.
Pleased I can put £190 towards our big trip too.
Catch up later.
SFT
Oh got my Herbal Essences samples today. Thanks to the person who posted about it. X