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

Sarah147

Thank you so much to everyone who posted advice following my thread about over eating, I am really going to take your great ideas on board and change things. Going in the right direction, today I only had two bags of crisps instead of four trouble is, where I work temptation is at every turn. There are two newsagents within a couple of metres of the entrance of the building and I kept popping in, so I stopped it by leaving my money at home. But the trouble is, we do some catering lessons for locals young Mums so there is ALWAYS food on the go an lots of leftovers, plus boxes of donated crisps. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Its going to be all about listening to my body and saying a firm "no thank you" I think. I am determined to do it anyway so that is half of the battle won.

Anyways, busy day at work today as ever so I treated myself to a trip to town after work to do some clothes shopping as I had a voucher to spend that some lovely friends gave me. Bought a "going out" top, a great t shirt and a jumper for work and when I got to the till was told it's buy three items and get 50% off your third item (H&M) so when my voucher was taken off there was only 47p to pay. Happy days

I then went into the Co-op looking for reduced bargains but there was only some bread reduced and it wasn't that cheap either. I also don't like the new labeling systems in there, instead of ingredients it says "this product may contain or may have traces of..." and lists a million things even including seafood in some cases. Does it contain it or could it just have traces of it from being on the same production line? You don't know. They do the "traces of" thing for those with allergies I presume but for vegetarians how are we meant to know if it actually contains fish or not? All very confusing.

the_cat

Sarah

I know what you mean about food always being around to tempt you. I daren't not have plenty of stuff around as I have 2 teenage boys with huge appetites so am constantly cooking cakes and stuff to fill them up.

I borrowed the Paul Mckenna book/cd on weight loss from the library and found that very helpful in learning to listen to when I am really hungry and find it easier to walk past the fridge now when I'm not hungry. I was very sceptical but it seems to work for me. Maybe you could reserve it and give it a try

Brighton_belle

sarah - I agree, some great ideas: good luck with taking them on board.

Very pleased with myself today: I am so glad I added cards and postage to the present budget of £100 for the year. This made me make a card for my bro today rather than buy one. And hopefully it should make him laugh.
kitschy: I started 'practising' last Julybefore joining the challenge proper this January and it was great, so do join in as much as you like: it's good to learn at your own pace and it takes a while to work out your budget/track your spending so goodluck and enjoy the ride: it gets addictive.

We're sitting here sharing the free body shop chocolate:D .

1274

Hello all. I need to come up with some new life goals as I'm in danger of just drifting, so here's my first stab.

Zero based monthly budget
I have deleted the things from the SOA calculator which don't apply to me. Can you suggest how to cut this down to around £450 whilst still living an OK lifestyle?
Council tax............................. 102
Electricity............................. 61
Water rates............................. 18 (can't have a meter so am on the assessed charge)
Mobile phone............................ 15 (for business)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Internet Services....................... 30 (for business)
Groceries etc. ......................... 75
Clothing................................ 30
Other travel............................ 90 (for business)
Haircuts................................ 27
Entertainment........................... 60
Total monthly expenses.................. 520

Fitter not fatter
You can see my embarrassing habits here! Are these targets challenging enough for someone with no health problems but who is very unfit?
By end April...........................run 3 miles without stopping
By end June...........................run 5 miles without stopping
No more than 6 cups of tea/coffee per day (currently probably 12+ OMG :eek:) Herbal doesn't count if I can bring myself to drink the stuff
Absolute ban on buying ready meals from today (there are none in the fridge/freezer right now)
Absolute ban on buying crisps from today (there are 10 packs in the house though :rolleyes:)
A maximum of 3 alcoholic drinks per week from today

I know you will all have some good ideas for me to turn my life around. Thanks in advance.

redglass_2

1274 wrote: »

Are these targets challenging enough for someone with no health problems but who is very unfit?
By end April...........................run 3 miles without stopping
By end June...........................run 5 miles without stopping .

Hi 1274
I don't know what you mean by 'very unfit' (might be impressively fit by my standards!) but two very good sites are walking.about.com and the sister site running.about.com. They have lots of help and advice on every aspect of walking and running from starting out to running marathons.
AngelAtGraceland - Thanks for the support! :T
Welcome, Kitschy.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone
Spent entire evening tidying house for viewers tomorrow.
Will catch up tomorrow but hope you are all well and welcome to Kitschy!
SFT
Oh did stop to watch Mat win Master Chef with his Hokey Pokey desert. x

Skint_Lynne

I've been gassing on the phone most of the night to my friend. She is an awful gab and I say nothing.:rotfl: :rotfl: I need to do this:lipsrseal .

Didn't spend a lot today, except for when the window cleaner caught up with me, it was £9.:eek:

I got a free warburtons loaf from a coupon in the sun today, but as it was out of mum's paper, she got the loaf.:D

I didn't get my butter, they said in Asda that the offer was finished now.:mad: Never mind, I'll just need to keep my eyes peeled in case there is a next time.

Off to bed now, nite nite. xx

angelatgraceland

1274 wrote: »

Hello all. I need to come up with some new life goals as I'm in danger of just drifting, so here's my first stab.

Zero based monthly budget
I have deleted the things from the SOA calculator which don't apply to me. Can you suggest how to cut this down to around £450 whilst still living an OK lifestyle?
Council tax............................. 102
Electricity............................. 61
Water rates............................. 18 (can't have a meter so am on the assessed charge)
Mobile phone............................ 15 (for business)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Internet Services....................... 30 (for business)
Groceries etc. ......................... 75
Clothing................................ 30
Other travel............................ 90 (for business)
Haircuts................................ 27
Entertainment........................... 60
Total monthly expenses.................. 520

Fitter not fatter
You can see my embarrassing habits here! Are these targets challenging enough for someone with no health problems but who is very unfit?
By end April...........................run 3 miles without stopping
By end June...........................run 5 miles without stopping
Thanks in advance.

Well done on all of your aims-sounds a lot of running to me. Where do you start off at 100yards???:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Anyhow-the things which look like they could be cut down may be: haircuts-£27 a month? I spend £16 every 6 weeks. If you ask around its amazing how many people you work with/know who are probably trained hairdressers and never mention it.Maybe aim for average of £20 pm
Clothing-well its not a fortune but you could trim a bit off-I used to aim to only spend £5 per week on clothes so maybe trim £10 off
Grocery-well I dont know your situation-if that is £75 for you it possible to cut it down to about £60 after a while.
Travelling-thats a difficult one but do you car share-look at all modes of transport available?
Check your internet package too-see if its competitive. My internet including phone is approx £25 pm and all "normal" calls are free inc abroad 24/7
The first few categories you cannot really alter. If you do get it to £450 I think it will be close.

cw18

1274 - Must admit I'm confused by the inclusion of £135 of business expenses If that's for an employer don't you get it reimbursed? And if it's for your own business, then surely it should be a business overhead (and therefore not part of your personal budget)?

thriftylass

:eek:

Good morning. OMG just went through my spreadsheets again. And I think this time I got the sums right for last month, but it means I actuall spend another £100, so a total of £748 :eek: :eek:

Och well, I guess I just have to try harder next month and get back to writing everything down in my little black book and no more spending when emotional.