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

grandma247

this site has lots of downloadable baking help. You can sign up for the emails on this page and if you look at the left side and scroll down to great links there are other things too.

thriftylass

Hello fellow frunshkins!

Hello to the new members, hugs to everyone in need of one and well done on all the recent achievements.
Here’s my monthly update since it's payday tomorrow :T . I nealy got a shock when I did my numbers the first time and I thought I’d fallen off the wagon spectactularly. It’s bad but not too bad (I keep telling myself ), since I still managed to save quite a fair bit. Especially after finding out we lost our baby, we’ve drowned our sorrows quite a few nights (I know it’s not the best way of dealing with it) and I started smoking again, which definitely wasn’t good for the budget.
I overspend the grocery + household budget by ₤ 30 by spending ₤160. Bills stayed roughly same (₤104, including 60 leccy which is finally coming down with the warmer weather) but all other spending came to ₤380 :eek: (my initial calculation was ₤600, God knows how I got it that wrong). So in total the budget for this month was double of what is should have been (₤648 vs ₤324)
On a positive note I finally got all my cashback, made money on free scratchcards, got some vouchers from surveys, got 2 400ml P@ntene shampoo and conditioner bottles as a samples as well as facial cleaning wipes and pads, and started seeding my veg and herbs. :j This week I also had a few days off and used them to get the house in order and clean. I also took stock of what we have and prepared loads of work lunches.
I’m a lot more positive now and so my plan for next month is to stop smoking again, get my fitness up by taking up running again (stopped about 6 months ago) and stop spending unnessecarily. Although my yearly budget of 3600 is out of the window I’m not giving up just yet and I’ll try my best to do some damage limitation.

Take care

kitschy

*gingerly stepping into the room....*

Hello

I have spent the last few days reading the thread, and think it's fantastic. Weirdly getting a picture of slightly mad (in the loveliest way ) people running around after ducks and puppies!

I would like to tentatively try shadowing the challenge for the next month (like a dry run before I set a budget in stone) if that's okay with you guys? I'm renting at the moment with a view to saving enough for a deposit to buy a house, work full time and have a little job two evenings a week, so batch cooking is my saviour!

I'm going to sit down at the weekend and work out a budget using my receipts from last month - wish me luck! :rotfl:

SiannieLaz

Mornin All :hello:
Hugs and everything to you all, have just spent two hours trying to catch up!!
Haven't been able to post this week as I've been manic at work, trying to clear everything up before my last day tomorrow. I start the funeral arranger job on monday :T and can't wait!!
Anyhoo, I'm still under budget so far and should be able to stay that way for this month. Next month is going to be hard, as I'm moving from weekly to monthly pay as well as taking a £10k pay cut!! Also trying to move into new rented accommodation, if all goes to plan, should be at the end of March, but no contracts signed yet.
I don't know when I'm next going to be able to post, as I've mentioned before, my strange laptop at home won't let me post on this site, and i've got 3 months training in my new job, so I don't know when I'll next get the chance to say 'hi'!. However, I can still read all your wonderful posts from home which is what I'll keep doing and I'm planning to stick to the challenge. I'm determined to have everything paid off this year, as well as money in the bank.
You guys all provide the inspiration to keep going, and my thoughts, if not my posts, will be with you always xxxx

chika

Hi Kitschy :hello:

Welcome, this is a great bit of MSE and everyone is reall lovely. I'm sure you will do great with the challenge, its a great idea to trail it for a month. You seem to have it sorted with two jobs so I'm sure the house deposit won't be too far away!

chika

Hi everyone, how are you all today.

Yesterday was really busy so didn't have time to post properly but just had a catch up and I hope you are all well. Yesterday was a nsd (yay) and I got £6 of vouchers from Pinecone in the post so that will pay for any little bits I get in the supermarket at the weekend. I have enough meat in the freezer to last a couple of weeks so only need to get veg.

In a moment of stress last night I emailed uni and got an extension on my assignments so less stress. I start a teaching placement in a couple of weeks so need to get everything in order for all that.

Good Luck with the new job SiannieLaz.

Hope everyone has a good day.

Frugaldom

Good afternoon, Frugaltoon residents

Welcome Kitschy, shadow us for as long as you like and feel free to jump in at anytime. Just let me know when you are ready to join us on the list of challengers so I can add your name

SiannieLaz, good luck with the new job

Ram, sorry your offer was rejected. Have you done a property search to find out how much current owners paid for the property? Ourproperty.co.uk is quite good, I now prefer it to the 'upmystreet' site.

:hello: Hello, Pennib, thanks for the suggestion but I don't have a local anything since moving house, unless you include fields and forests. The guinea pig and birds get free property papers on the bottom of their cages, courtesy of supermarket anytime we venture into town, and my shredder is in full swing as soon as any junk mail arrives. :rotfl: My paper brick maker would be great if only I had enough to make bricks; I can't even resort to dry leaves, as it's mainly pine forestry. Cones are ok when I get them, though. One day, I'm going to own my own woodland and have an orchard and a willow plantation, I just need to frugalise like mad and save for a while longer. I'm sure the hens & ducks will love that!

I've adapted Grandma's suggestion of making the quick 'hot pockets' at 'grab-a-bite-to-eat' times during dry weather when most of the day is spent in the garden. S0merfield is still selling packs of 6 pitta breads for 20p, so I'm using these sliced and stuffed with a variety of fillings. 20 seconds in the microwave and they taste lovely. A pack of 6 feeds 3 of us at lunch or snack times, so it's a fairly cheap option for using leftover anything that needs using.

kitschy

Thanks for the welcome

I am getting much more to grips with using the car less/combining chores to make less journeys, and the groceries are coming down - just need to go on a voucher hunt and make sure I make the most of them!

Hoping my girls all pay with £2 coins tonight so I can annoy the people in the bank tomorrow with my coins :rotfl:

DdraigGoch

Hello everyone

Just a quick Heads Up note:

in ASD& the rissotto rice [Arborio] is £1/500g box but coming up in Lid! it's going to be £1.79 for 1Kg boxes .... guess where I'm going to be shopping?

It's also good because it's in a cardboard box [usually with no plastic inner liner] and so that'll help me in my Plastic Diet during March.

For those who don't know what this is, I'm going on a diet in March - I'm avoiding buying ANY plastic, as far as possible. This is the link to it, if you're interested or want to join in:


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1492805


Hope that helps
DG

cw18

DdraigGoch wrote: »

in ASD& the rissotto rice [Arborio] is £1/500g box but coming up in Lid! it's going to be £1.79 for 1Kg boxes .... guess where I'm going to be shopping?

Thanks for that :T

I don't use a lot each month, but I've used some I've had for positively aaaaages before now with any problem -- so will be heading down to to ours on Monday evening or Tuesday to see if there's any left.

I can't get down during the day on Monday, as I help out in school in the morning, and have younger grand-daughter here for the rest of the day -- and the walk is a tad too far for her