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

bargain-chic

i just wanted you all to know, i have had a good month money wise, i have been writing everything down, like everyone says to do! and my purse has exactly the right amount in, as what my spreadsheet says:T

and next month and the following months should be even better, as my ds (20) has now got a lady lodger and she is feeding him, so i do not need to buy as much.

i picked up 2 x meal deals out of m&s - i got 2 x oakham chickens each arouynd £7.50 each, 2 bottles of wine - 1 for me for tonight and 1 x present next week, compleat with veg, stuffing, strawberry trifle and a profiterole tower - all for £20.00.

re- bb buying the radio times - did you know that you can buy the radio times for a year, using £16.00 in tesco's clubcard vouchers.

bargain-chic

i don't know if any of you have sent for these, but mine have arrived in the post this morning - 15 weeks of half price daily mail/mail on saturday-sunday - PLUS £50.00 IN M&S VOUCHERS!!!!!:rotfl:

that's 5 meal deals for me - and tesco's will take the coupons, without me buying the paper!!

redglass_2

Hiya
Apologies if I'm ignoring something important, I haven't caught up yet - will do so later today.

I'm new to the world of ISAs and I've asked this question before but didn't fully understand the answer so please reply as if to a total idiot.

I have a Scotch Widders ISA, the first one I've ever taken out, and it's paying almost nothing. It won't have expired at the start of the new ISA year. I've just found a regular saver iSA I like better and I want to open one next April. Its high rate ends on Monday 2 March but you can reserve it for next year at the same rate, if you do it by MOnday. So I have to post off the stuff today.

Now: shiny New ISA is a regular savings account, no lump sums, so can I open another ISA (not Scotch W and not Shiny New Regular Saver) and switch my Scotch WIdders lump sum into that? I thought you weren't allowed more than one ISA but you can carry money over from one year to another and can switch...but what into? Does everything you carry over have to go into one ISA account? I am sooooo confused! (and need to get that application form in, this is terrible timing but such is life):o:D

I have just spent nearly 30 minutes trying to get through to the ISA providers without any success. They are like everybody 'currently experiencing an exceptionally high volume of calls' - yeah, right :rotfl:

edited in: have just seen in the teeny weeny print that you can't transfer in another ISA during the high interest period, so that solves that, but what do I do with the Scotch Widders, then?

cw18

I think a transfer to a 3rd ISA provider would depend on what their rules are. The couple I looked at only seemed to accept a transfer in if you also deposited something from your current years allowance (which you wouldn't be doing, as you're using the shiny new high interest one for 2009-10 - unless you could get the transfer all done and dusted by 5th April). But you can leave the S/W one where it is for now, and make a decision on whether to withdraw, move or leave later on. (Presumably you could leave it with S/W for now, and transfer into the 'shiny new' one after the high interest period has ended )

redglass_2

Thanks, Cheryl. I'm beginning to wonder if the regular saver is such a great deal as I thought - might be better to just go for another ISA that allows transfers. I hate this bit of money management - the anxiety that I might make a stupid error and be kicking myself afterwards!

cw18

I guess it really depends on the rates being paid by S/W. the high interest, and any other you may transfer into...... if S/W is practically zero, then the high interest one would need to be double the rate of a.n.other in order to make up for not transferring the S/W one. But if the high interest is guaranteed, you also need to bare in mind that a.n.other could drop their rates before the end of the year if the BofE continue to drop the base rate !!!

redglass_2

Am starting to emerge from the fog...thanks.xx

lilac_lady

Just caught up with all the posts again (whew!). It seems as if the frugal mood is still with many of us even though it's been whole 2 months since we started.

I'm having a NSD so have done my calculations for this month.

Over January/February I've come in £110 under budget but before I become complacent, next month brings an annual breakdown fee and a buildings/content renewal. I pay those bill annually since I realised that it costs more to split them over 12 months.

I think March will be a hard 5 week month for us all so we'll have to dig deep (literally for those with the vegetable patches) and try and keep going on our cutback paths.

Brighton_belle

bargain-chic wrote: »

i
re- bb buying the radio times - did you know that you can buy the radio times for a year, using £16.00 in tesco's clubcard vouchers.

I don't shop at tesco's bargainc so don't have a club card, but thanks for the thought. I did get the deal of 12 weeks for £1 and then £19.99 for the 6 monthly DDM (costs £28.60 for 6 months in the shops) so that is quite a saving on buying it weekly of £26.22 this year, though my figures are higher as the 2 x6 monthy DDM's will come out of my account before the end of the year but will carry over for 5 months of next years challenge before I have to pay again.
Big well done's of the purse contents being the same as spreadsheet bargainc - excellent result:T

reglass - I don't follw the 'scotwid doesn't expire' bit - what needs to expire if they are paying such low interest?

Big news - I have finally taken the box of stuff to the charity shop that has been hanging around for a month and featuring regularly on my 'to do' list .

MrDT

I've added a worksheet to my accounts spreadsheet that gives an overview of the year as a whole. Makes posting my progress so much easier!


(edited to a link, click for a readable version)

Another month underbudget, wonder how long the good habits will last lol!?

I've altered some individual category budgets again too I think I'll probably be tinkering with the budget throughout the whole year :rotfl: