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

2NDTIMEROUNDER

Thank you for your answer. Just as I suspected my budget needs serious reductions, in all categories. You are such a hard act to follow BUT inspirational none the less. :eek:

Hope you enjoy the rest of your day!
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NYK, I totally agree with you. It is addictive and so hard to realise because you just say its only a fizzy drink, BUT when one drinks huge huge quantities like I used to, its bound to be no good for one s health. Hence my decision to stop drinking it. I take my hat off to you though, because quitting smoking is one of the hardest things to achieve so well done! :T Mine will pale in significance.

I like your (quitter s savings)challenge, I have already factored it in my budget. The money used to be spent on this bad habit will be going straight in my savings.
My overall goal is to be financially more secure by the age of 45, so it will be had work for me as I am already 37...:o

Marru

OMG!!! Look what you have done to me! I wasn't going to sign up for the i-measure as I have enough things on my plate but somehow I just registered and submitted my first meater reading and I can tell that I am hooked already as I can't wait for my first results... Off to have a cup of tea to soften the shock...:rotfl:

kittiej

2ndtime my budget is to cover food, diesel, gas and electric.

My household consists of 2 adults and 2 children aged 3 and 4

jtb2412

Hello comrade challengers ....... I hope everyone had a good Christmas ! :beer:

I got some fantastic pressies this year (lots of gardening goodies :j !) - will all help towards the budget next year

I can't wait to get started (If I'm honest I think i'm a little more excited about this than I was on my birthday (xmas eve) .... ) ..... my spreadsheet is ready to go .... I've paid my bills a bit earlier so they come out of Dec wages (and not January as I usually would !) so I'll have a bit of a head start.

We popped out for some fresh air earlier (I came down with the flu on Xmas day :mad: ) and did a bit of shopping and I got my wrapping paper and cards for next year. Also popped into the supermarket and got a few (about 40 lol) pints of milk reduced - has gone in the freezer .

Hubby has cooked up a storm for the freezer with all the left over turkey (there was a lot of it ! :rotfl: ) so we have 2 turkey and leek pies (hugeeeee ones !) ...... a few pots of turkey curry, some turkey stock and a few pints of soup ......... should keep us going for a while .

So, we're all set .......... bring on 1st January !

Here's to 2009 ....... I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year xxxx

kittiej

I checked my emails over an hour ago and discovered Asda had sent me a free delivery code, oh joy of joys cos i was just thinking about this yesterday.

I have now stocked up with toiletries to last us for the year. My next port of call will be Lidls for my washing tablets, £1.84 for 36 tabs, I will have to check but I think 10 boxes should do.

Now I know it might seem like I'm being a bit crafty stocking up but I am justifying it by using the money I won on a certain bingo site. I won £50 odd, I must admit I played about £20 of it but before I lost it all completely I transferred £35 back to my bank. Not bad seeing as though I had less than a pound on that site to begin with so I'm happy.

I did consider using my clubcard points but now I can save them for emergencies or pressies.

My only dilema now is do I reduce my shopping allowance because I have stocked up?

Any ideas anyone?

candygirl

Hi everyone:hello:
Just popped into town wiv DD, and got a vegetarian slow cooker cookbook for £1.50 from the charity shop, so am chuffed as never see cheap veggie books:j :j
DD is due in march so we got the steriliser n stuff today all at discount prices, as I am trying to teach her to be frugal too, esp for when DGD arrives:D

ram_murdock

Again, i have been reading the 2008 thread for ages and i was inspired for the last three months to sucessfully live on £100 per week.

I've decided to put myself down for a budget of £5200, being £100 per week but this time i'm going to try to include all my direct debits in this budget and all presents and holidays etc.

Fingers crossed!! - are there any other similar boards i could join? I loved the olympic challenge last year!!

Frugaldom

JTB, way to go! You have the makings of a true diehard frugalist, next year's cards & paper, freezer filling nicely... excellent!

Kittie, I have my annual budget for groceries and just deduct my spends then recalculate my monthly average budget from there. It would depend what I was buying (needs or wants). If I was buying general household groceries then I'd deduct it, however, if it was for a special occasion / gift / party fare that had been bought from winnings, cashback or vouchers, then I don't intend counting it. Hope this helps.

Well done, Candygirl. Bargains are brilliant, aren't they?

Well, I failed on the garden chores today because it was such a nice afternoon that we decided to go walking in the forest. I took my trusty green bag and filled it with sticks and cones for the fire, which I've now lit. (Our landlords own the land and doesn't mind us taking the fallen stuff for the fire.) I did get the washing hung out before we left, but found it frozen when I got back. :rotfl: Still, it's drier now than it was, so will be fine overnight on the airer.

I have now added a couple of extra links to post one, thanks to Rosieben for pointing them out to me, as they are really helpful indexes. Happy reading, I'm going back to scan through all those great recipes for some inspiration.

kittiej

Yes NYK that's made things much clearer. :T

grandma247

Kittiej know some people are going to think me a right tightwad (esp. at work) but that's my business and they can say what they like.


I suspect they probably will envy your ability to be frugal and your courage to say no to wasteful ways. A lot of people are so scared right now they have their head in the sand.