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

jtb2412

Evening everyone, struggling to keep up but trying very hard !

I haven't had time to read properly yet so apologies for not mentioning anyone - i'll catch up tomorrow hopefully (swapped my Tues day off for tomorrow so I can be at home with doggy). He's doing fantastically btw ! Wouldn't even guess he's had his bits chopped. Daft dog's running round as if nothings happened :eek: I keep telling him to lay down and he looks at me as if to say "why!" lol

Been a busy weekend. Have put up DS new wardrobe and finally sorted his room (until he messes it up again :rolleyes: ). Ironed all school uniforms and caught up with washing. Cooked roast lamb dinner (enough left for lamb stew tonight as well). Taken DDs shopping for new bras (why do they grow so quick once they hit 12 !!! :rolleyes: ) Baked raspberry muffins (I had tubs and tubs of them off our canes last year and still have about 6 pots left in freezer - need to use them up to make some space for this years ). Hubby did a Madeira cake today too although I don't think it will last past tomorrow.:rotfl:

We also got out in the front garden and started to clear some old bushes. We have 2 huge fir trees, plus about 4 others varieties to chop down this year so that we can landscape it and make it look nice. It's very overgrown and people keep chucking their rubbish in there and I can't get in to clear it out. We've checked there's no preservation orders so can get on with it now but it's a big job :rolleyes: . We might have it done by the end of the year if we're lucky but one bonus is that we're going to make a log pile so that we can have some summer fires in our fire pit. Don't have a log burner in the house (working on that one ) so will have to use them up outside (for now ).

Spending wise, only DDs bras and a bit of grocery shopping (some whoopsies so got them while I saw them). Am getting lucky atm :T . A few small DDs out of the bank today/tomorrow so have updated sig (which hopefully won't go up by much for the next couple of weeks !)

Right off to make pack-ups ........ have a lovely Sunday evening everyone ..... stay warm and cosy !!!

bails

We have a (HM) fire pit too jtb, it's lovely sitting out on a cold night with a glass of red :T
Forgot to say, there's a 10% Eb@y offer on at the mo, valid until 12th Feb. OH told me about it - by jove I think he's getting it :j
:rotfl::rotfl:Pipsmum
Done 4 out of 5 things on my list today so very chuffed,especially as I've done some extra things instead of the 5th thing. Tomorrow's list:

• phone drs re tests
• sign language (maybe pop to Lidl but unlikely)
• start lesson planning
• gym

mumzyof2

Hello all

I rang the doctors but they told me it was just musculer pain and to take tablets for 3 days. So by time sophiemum had come i had to tell her i didnt need to go doctors as doctor said i didnt need to go.
But sophiesmum let me have a bath in peace while she took kids for some sweets I never have a bath in peace so thankyou.
The bath helped with my neck also and isnt as bad as before :T goin to have a hot chochlate and relax with a book in bed later.

Candy Yes sophiemum told me it coul be a virus also god knows but i just want it gone!

Frugaldom

Back again, decided that a trip to town was needed afterall, so went to S0merfields and ended up spending £20.23 so I don't need to go back for a couple of weeks. By then, hopefully, the new Ald! store should be open and I can venture in there to see if it's all it's cracked up to be. Not much by way of bargains today but I am really glad that I stocked up on their Fruit & Fibre breakfast cereal when it was 99p per box (I bought 8 in January, which should last us until summer) because it's now back to £2.09 The saver brand pitta breads were back in stock, so I got the last 5 packs of those (20p for pack of 4) and popped them all into the freezer. We eat these with curry instead of Naan bread.

I've now received all the info about LETS - is anyone else involved with this barter system? I'd really appreciate some unbiased feedback before committing myself to paying the £5 annual membership. Apparently the town of Lewes, in Sussex, has been doing similar for years and even had its own currency. I also took a brief look at justfortheloveofit.org website, which sounds quite similar, but there's a LETS group started in a town not too far from me, so I figured this could be handy. Anyone who has already become a part of one of these groups, please let me know as I'd love to be able to barter more, I'm just not quite sure that I fully understand the concept of how to get started.

I've just printed off a recipe for bagels but haven't tried making them yet. I'll pass on my words of wisdom (or hysterical rants) as soon as I have tried to make some of these. Dropping uncooked rings of dough into boiling water sounds umm... quite eventful to me! :eek:
I hate to think what will happen! :rotfl:

mumzyof2

Nyk its says for lancashire on the LETS website -

When you are ready, please register your new or intended group with LETSlink UK, by sending a £25 subscription fee

Thats to register a group but to join LETS it also £25

£25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cw18

Nyk - I've made bagels before, but it was at our last house so pre-dates the summer of 2001 !!! It seemed a weird way of cooking 'bread', but actually worked quite well. (Seem to remember I had to disolve sugar in the water )

cha97michelle

Mumzy - good to know it is muscular, and i bet it was good to have that peaceful bath while sophies mum watched the kids. I did similar while DH did bedtime stuff as i needed to wash my hair and didn't want to do it too late as it is freezing here.

We had a productive but pricey day here. I have done some houseworky stuff (beds changed and had a really good sort out of our filing cabinet and now have a big pile to shred). Then we went to Meadowhell, and had to buy some babywipes for the kids, but also got a big roll of cotton wool as i am thinking it would be cheaper to head upstairs to change them and wet some of that to use. I am just being lazy.

We also got both kids feet measured in Clarks, and got DS1 a new pair of trainers as his feet had grown, and DS2 his first pair of cruisers ready for starting nursery. So that was £46. We were going to get a greenhouse using some vouchers in Argos, but there was a big queue, and the kids were thirsty as were we, so we ended up coming home rather than getting a drink out like we normally would. So £65.53 spent.

I have a couple of DDs coming out tomorrow, my union sub, and the tiscali DD. But, on the bright side, DH is getting a tax rebate of about £650 tomorrow due to some mix up with his tax code, so that should come in handy.

We also paid in the cheque MIL gave us. We decided that it was a gift, so we shouldn't turn it down. It will also mean i can perhaps sneak some money to one side so we have a bit of savings again, even if i only then pay it off the mortgage or into DHs ISA (once back at work).

Foodwise, a cheap toad in the hole using up 4 leftover sausages from yesterday (managed to save them from DS1 the sausage monster, and we had yellow stickered bread for our lunch, using up some sandwich stuff we had.

I'm glad no-one said anything bad about my spending. It was a lot, but i am hoping i will learn and get better.

Michelle, x

In_Search_Of_Me

before I forget...NYK if you pm Ceridwen she has alot to do with letts and will be v. good at answering questions on it...
a nsd for me...figs slightly out of date but things going in and back so will wait to update when thats done! sightly over but manageable! I do mine 20-20th as thats my payday!
nsd today...
Hugs re valentines...have been single for years - some years it gets to me andothers it doesent...am ok this year but who knows next lol! Am a firm believer in best to be with the right person than wrong one (been there...got the decree absolute...etc) and if mr darcy arrives then great but if not I have a full life and wont have wasted it waiting for him! anyway...hang in there!
hugs those that need them and hope youre feeling better those under the weather. Snowed briefly here today...

Marru

Hello,

Here I am with the promised update:

Spent/Earned/Budget: 268.99/461.64/310.00

So wery good month for me as £41.01 under budget. And here is the break down:

Utilities: 73.58 (incl. £15 towards TV license due in September)
Household: 8.69
Food: 147.87 (incl. food on my weekend course £24.- + Friday take away £11.-)
Animals: 41.36
Other: 12.49 (incl. £10 towards a new TV that I am saving for)

I have decided that all the internet income i.e. scratchies, bingo, surveys, MB etc plus income from dog walking/house sitting will, starting February, go against my "courses" budget. In January these were needed for £4k challenge as I didn't have salary coming in. All business income i.e. selling books and freelance accounting work is going to be allocated towards the shelves I bought and my broadband and landline costs and I am hoping to break even in a tax year. From salary only the budgeted amount is going to be allocated towards £4k challenge from now on i.e. tenner per day and the rest is going to cover my other budget that is rent, Ctax, water, car and nursery.

At the moment it looks like I might have a deficit of 13.79 in my "other" budget but as I have said before I might have overestimated nursery costs and also at the moment it is difficult to estimate my petrol costs until I have couple of "normal" weeks under my belt.

So that is it from here. My budget for February is £280.

Oooh, will get £80 from Quidc0 this week. It is from car insurance (50) and breakdown cover (30). Now I have to decide should I put this into my "other" budget to reduce car costs or into my "courses" budget. Decisions, decisions.....

On that note, I shall go for a bath.

Marru

Skint_Lynne

Evening everyone,

I'm not long back in so I'm just going to have a bath and fill in the application form I need to take to interview 1 tomorrow. I'll have a quick mooch at their website as well.

I have more or less re-organised my kitchen but will get it finished properly on Wednesday. The freezer is great so I'll have fun filling it with whoopsies. There were some this morning in Tesco, but there was not enough money off them for my liking, just a few pence off of some items.

I made a ginger loaf thing and some tablet this afternoon, I'm going to try and do some more baking as it's better than the stuff you buy outside. I find it really easy too.............I hope the bagels are okay Nyk, I'm interested to see how you get on as I might try them. My sis loves them.

I'll need to get my bank statement out of the shop tomorrow so that I can tally up what I have spent properly.:o

Marru, I would strike up a conversation with your love interest and just casually ask him what he is getting his girlfriend for valentines. If he says he doesn't have one, then get to work on him girl. :smileyhea If you don't ask, you don't get.:D

Speak later guys xx