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

sophiesmum_2

Glad you are feeling a little better EFC:D ,food stockpiles and boots bulk buy goodies really come in handy when you can't get out and about.

A winter holiday sounds like a great idea too hopefully you can save enough on your challenge to make it reality.

xnatalie81x

Bit of good news, my student account does end in Sept BUT i will automatically be transferred to the graduate account for 3 years which is also interest free overdraft. Wahoooo. I can relax on that a little and carry on with the smaller payments rather than waking so much into it thinking i was going onto interest in Sept

Am hoping to be debt free by dec 2013 (although aiming for jan giving a bit of lee way) but wanted od gone by dec this year. Now am going to streeeeeeeeetch it over 2 years and save the extra for some f&f - cahoot is 9k and i have had that loan for about 6 years!!! I was rich back then lol (eldest son is 5) and it should have been over 4 years. Oh how children have changed my life (for the better mostly of course )

Skint_Lynne

Good morning,

I've just attempted to make treacle scones. They tasted nice, but did not rise, despite using self raising flour. I suppose if I added a teaspoon of baking powder, that would do the trick. Does anybody have any tips for this sort of thing?

MrDT

The first loooong section of this post will probably bore most of you to tears. More of a braindump that I can refer back to later in the year than anything. Feel free to skip it lol!

There are 314 days of 365 left to run this year, that's 86%.

Overall I'm doing ok so far, I have 88.7% of my budget left, with only 86% of the challenge left to run. Things like Christmas being once a year skew this figure so I've broken spends down into categories:

+----------+-------+-------+------+
|Category  |Remain |Budget |  %   |
+----------+-------+-------+------+
|electric  | 520.00| 600.00| 86.7%|
|tv        | 126.10| 150.00| 84.1%|
|shopping  | 998.40|1200.00| 83.2%|
|clothes   | 180.00| 180.00|100.0%|
|eatout    | 281.99| 360.00| 78.3%|
|nightout  | 502.13| 540.00| 93.0%|
|trip      | 240.00| 240.00|100.0%|
|gadget    | 180.00| 180.00|100.0%|
|christmas | 240.00| 240.00|100.0%|
|birthday  | 158.53| 180.00| 88.0%|
|other     |  71.14|  80.00| 88.9%|
|charity   |  50.00|  50.00|100.0%|
+----------+-------+-------+------+
|total     |3548.29|4000.00| 88.7%|
+----------+-------+-------+------+

I've slightly overspent on electricity, not by much though. I expect to claw this back in the summer months (I rely on electricity for heating here).

I'll be able to fine tune my tv license budget to the penny once I know exactly how much it'll cost me this year. I think they'll be sending me a letter within the next month. Unless the tv license has gone up 5%+ the budget I set should be ok.

I've overspent a bit on shopping. This is after adjusting the budget up a bit last month. I've bought paint and stuff out of this amount which I won't be doing often, and have a fairly decent stockpile of tins and a half full chest freezer. I still need to see if I can rein it in a bit though.

Haven't bought any clothes yet this year. I could do with a couple of new pairs of jeans and a few shirts, nothing wrong with what I've got, just that I'm not quite as athletic as I was a few months ago... I'm working on losing the extra couple of inches that have mysteriously appeared around my waist, so don't want to waste money on clothes that will soon be 'too big'. Once I'm back to normal I'll maybe buy myself a couple of new bits, nothing until then!

Eating out has gone overbudget. I've justified this as we've not really gone out on big drinking nights out this year, but I doubt that'll last once the sun is out and the invites to barbacues followed by drinks in town start flowing. So far this year I've bought lunch at work seven times, two takeaways, and two meals out. I don't think this is excessive, maybe I'll see about revising the eating out budget up a bit.

Nights out have been very few - I still have 93% of the budget intact! We'll probably go out a lot more in summer, but so far the clean living is helping me balance the books, and isn't adding any more to my waistline! I have considered revising this budget down a bit, but will leave it as is for now.

Zero spends on trips so far, though visiting friends and a music festival are on the cards for later in the year. If we go on holiday it'll totally blow the budget. I have supposedly won some free flights, but the travel company is really messing us about. If I do get the flights eventually then we'll probably look at taking the holiday outside this challenge. I'd like to stick to an all-in challenge just excluding the usual rent, council tax and commute, but might switch to 'luxuries' i.e. holiday not included if we decide to go. I'll still aim to do it as cheaply as possible so I hurt my house deposit progress as little as possible!

No gadgets have been bought so far this year. This in itself is quite amazing! There's not really much in the way of 'stuff' I want anymore. I've been decluttering, and it feels good to keep things simple. All I have now are things that I use, no junk. I've considered getting a wii, but I barely ever play the video games I already have, so not much point getting a new toy really. If I see a really good deal I might grab one, other than that I can't see what this spending pot will go on. Maybe I'll revise the budget down.

Any good MSE'r would have all Christmas 2009 presents bought up in the January sales I'm sure... Not me lol! I probably won't touch this pot until Novemberish. I think it's a realistic budget.

Birthdays are a funny one, obviously they aren't spread evenly throughout the year so the percentage spent so far this year is a bit misleading. I think the budget may be too low. It depends what I get LF for her birthday really, I have no idea!

The 'other' pot is holding up well so far. I haven't had much need to use it yet really. I considered sticking some savings into premium bonds and never buying a lotto ticket again, but I'd end up losing a lot more than a pound every week or two in interest. Better for me to keep my savings in accounts that pay ok interest for now and buy the occasional lotto ticket out of the interest to get my 'millionaire daydream' fix. I think there's more chance of hitting it big with the lotto too lol! I might have a pop at premium bonds once my fixed rates end, if the base rate is still low and they don't cut the 'interest rate'.

Finally, the charity category - nothing spent yet, but £15 already earmarked for various sponsorships. I don't deduct the spends until I actually pay out, but make a mental note that it has been pledged. I'll probably need to revise this budget upwards.

So, in conclusion - things are going well so far, but the more expensive months are up ahead. The individual pots will no doubt change over the coming months, and I'm prepared for the evntuality that if we do go on holiday I'll have to cheat and take it as a 'luxury' outside the 4k challenge. Savings are way ahead of schedule so I can't complain. "Other income" currently stands at £147.59, if I can keep up the cashback and scratchcards maybe I'll use this money to pay for a holiday, that way I wouldn't feel as though I were cheating quite so much!

Yesterdays slow cooker turkey curry was excellent. A bit too hot for LFs liking, but she managed to clean her plate so can't have been too bad. I'll try similar with stewing steak next time I think. I also made a giant jaffa cake! Challenge veterans will know how much hassle they can be, but I'm pleased to say I've cracked it and managed to make one without fuss

Plans for today are to paint a kitchen cupboard or two (didn't get round to it yesterday), cycle about 10 miles on the bike, and err, not a lot else. It IS Sunday afterall!

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Quiet day planned here today - need to drop birthday pressie off at friends and take some more stuff to recycling point but apart from that not much planned so far.

General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard lunch and tea
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item- pile of stuff to recycle banks
• do something nice for me -manicure. pedicure, read my book for an hour.
• do something nice for someone else-make tortillas for OH
• fitter not fatter - treadmill and swimming

Todays frugal meals;

• frozen berry smoothie
• HM sausage on HM seeded bread / HM tortillas for OH
• Turkey from xmas, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts,butter beans

Fruit and veg portions;
2 fruit, 1 pulses,3veggies,

Expenditure or additional income

low spend planned (eggs and veggies)
spent £1.40 eggs, £1.00 on broccoli

Remaining target cash for first 6 months food spends - £244.96 left from budget of £400 for first six months.


Extra income generated £152.43 /spent £33 / left £101.08
(tortilla press/flour £33, boots pressies £18.35)

Mollymop5

MrDT I have read your post.Nothing boring about it but I am a little confused.
Is your spent column what you spent last year? and your budget what you've budgeted for this year?
At first I thought it's what you'd spent so far this year and couldn't make sense of it.Maths isn't my strong point but I do love reading peoples figures and comparing them with mine

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!!
Well we have a great frugal day in London. Rail fare was reasonable:£15 but was a bus service on and had to avoid using circle line on underground.
Had our meal at Pizza Express. Only paid for drinks as BOGOF on pizzas and OH bingo win paid for other one.
Play 3 days of rain was brilliant..noticed a lot more women in audience than men and we were 4 rows from front and OH started nudging me when James McAvoy came on stage but its his acting I like..honestly. So pleased I spent the gift vouchers wisely. Just needed £4 extra of own money.Did spend £3 on a programme. Brought own water and choc for interval.
Just bought water and crisps for return journey-glad we did as was a fiasco with trains and didn't get back till 8 then had tea.

House Update-Well I read about further housing in villages quite close to our cottage. Thought we'd better check if any of it affected our village and.... it does. Planning website for local council is down ..typical ..but what we do know is
All of this is planned to start 2012-2014:
Either (A) An A road dual carriageway will end at the entrance of our village with a roundabout..Noise and air pollution will increase for our area.
(B) Same A road will join end of main road near our village so also noise/air pollution.
OH thinks that its a positive as better road links..I'm not so sure..I loved the peace and quiet when I was there...
Also unsettled about our house not selling (silly to worry about this as its out of our control..but wondering about bringing price down closer to what we would accept so it is more attractive to buyers).
Now trying to avoid thinking that I am not destined for my move as it didn't work out last time I loved a house.
So sorry to be doom and gloom. Just would appreciate some advice.
Nyk-Thanks for the advice about water and sewage. Will look into that.
SFT

MrDT

Mollymop5 wrote: »

MrDT I have read your post.Nothing boring about it but I am a little confused.
Is your spent column what you spent last year? and your budget what you've budgeted for this year?
At first I thought it's what you'd spent so far this year and couldn't make sense of it.Maths isn't my strong point but I do love reading peoples figures and comparing them with mine

Hi Molly, I've altered the column headings to try and make more sense.

The first column is the category of spends, next the amount I have remaining from my budget for that category, next what the total planned budget for the year is, and finally what I have left for the rest of the year as a percentage.

Using electric as an example, I have £520 of my £600 budget remaining (I've spent £80 so far this year). So that's 86.7% of the budget still intact. Another way of looking at it is to say I have spent £80 so far, which is 13.3% of my annual budget. That's probably a clearer way of getting it across to others, but personally I prefer the decreasing 'pots' approach.

I visualise it as a bunch of seperate bank accounts, the 'budget' is my start balance on 1st January 2009. As I spend throughout the course of the year my account balances decrease. The aim is that none of these 'accounts' are overdrawn on 31st December 2009.

Even better, visualise it as 12 jam jars stuffed with cash. Whenever I spend I pay for it with cash out of the appropriate jar. If the jar is empty, I can't spend (unless I decide to spend money from a different jar, e.g. cut out takeaway to get grocery shop in).

Some old stylers actually use physical jam jars in real life. Me, I don't think having a wad of cash in the house is a sensible approach, I like my interest, I like my credit card cashback, and I like shopping online - so a no go for me haha!

the_cat

:mad: SFT - Just read your news about the cottage, that's really rotten.

You mentioned at least 2 other houses within close range that are also up for sale if I remember right (if not, ignore me:rotfl: ) As a natural cynic this makes me think that a lot of existing residents are either unhappy with the plans and want to get out now or they possibly think their property will decease in value when the new work is done (there is usually a premium on quiet rural locations as we would all love to live in them)

Mollymop5

MrDT wrote: »

Hi Molly, I've altered the column headings to try and make more sense.

The first column is the category of spends, next the amount I have remaining from my budget for that category, next what the total planned budget for the year is, and finally what I have left for the rest of the year as a percentage.

Using electric as an example, I have £520 of my £600 budget remaining (I've spent £80 so far this year). So that's 86.7% of the budget still intact. Another way of looking at it is to say I have spent £80 so far, which is 13.3% of my annual budget. That's probably a clearer way of getting it across to others, but personally I prefer the decreasing 'pots' approach.

I visualise it as a bunch of seperate bank accounts, the 'budget' is my start balance on 1st January 2009. As I spend throughout the course of the year my account balances decrease. The aim is that none of these 'accounts' are overdrawn on 31st December 2009.

Even better, visualise it as 12 jam jars stuffed with cash. Whenever I spend I pay for it with cash out of the appropriate jar. If the jar is empty, I can't spend (unless I decide to spend money from a different jar, e.g. cut out takeaway to get grocery shop in).

Some old stylers actually use physical jam jars in real life. Me, I don't think having a wad of cash in the house is a sensible approach, I like my interest, I like my credit card cashback, and I like shopping online - so a no go for me haha!

Ahh makes much more sense now.good luck with the challenge