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

purplevamp

Hi peeps

Just a quick update on my spending...

Took DD and DS2 for a long overdue haircut and came away £15 poorer :eek: . DD only had a small trim. My bank have charged me £18.83 for interest on my OD, even though I've paid off 2/3rd of it. I'm hoping next months will be way less. So far this month I've spent £885.50 but DH is popping to Mr S later on for the weekly shop, so I'll wait until then to give a full run down.

We had a lovely chinese takeaway last night £60 worth :eek: :eek: , there were 8 of us and my FiL paid for the whole lot, he wouldn't accept a penny :T . And there's still enough for dinner tonight.

Vixstar

Well my second month of recording my spends and now i can see some areas for improvement.Firstly i'm going to try to buy no new clothes in March. I also think my grocery spends can be improved on. Also think i can get another £5 off my mobile bill and next month should see my final sofa payment which'll be another £62 to my savings. Definitely think i can get my spends down and my savings up without too much pain and a little will power.

Frugaldom

bargain-chic wrote: »

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!!

Please tell us more or point me in the right direction, thank you.

Nice spreadsheet, MrDT!

SM, glad you are feeling a bit better today, sometimes we get to dips in the road that make us think too much, if I'm guessing correctly. If not, that's my excuse for getting down about anything. It's just a pothole in the road that needs filling and raking over to prevent any further trip-ops or fall-downs. :rotfl:

Redglass, I am having the same problems as you with trying to work out what's best to do for the ISA and got so fed-up worrying about it that I stopped and decided to leave everything alone just the way it is, other than the ICICI money because of the question mark over accessing it quickly if/when needed. It's now been €gged for the 4% and the ISA ignored until things become clearer. A while back I posted about the effects of zero interest rates and negative inflation, which could bring about bank charges just for keeping our money in there, so I'm now looking into wise spending rather than wise saving.

Change of plan for today as HS ended up elsewhere. I guess it's end of month accounts time.

sophiesmum_2

Brighton_belle wrote: »

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 .

Well done BB, Funny how sometimes you get stuck on one thing and it turns into a big deal - then you eventually do it and wonder why it took so long:rolleyes: Okay now you have done that I pledge to finally make a start on painting/transforming the chest of drawers in my bathroom that I have been meaning to do since forever. I have everything for it, undercoat, sandpaper, cupboard paint, pebbles for top, grout etc and still never got going.:o TODAY MIGHT JUST BE THE DAY:p

Blairweech

Hello all,

Have not updated my totals yet, will do so in a minute

Mr DT - Lovely table but would you mind shrinking it down ever so slightly? I hate scrolling

Have made a big pan of broccolli soup, that will keep me in lunches for the week. Also want to make a beef stew in the slowcooker, plus a cottage pie.

Am considering going for a walk in a minute, the sun is actually shining here! Feel like I am wasting the day being sat inside. Was going to go into Tavy and walk along the river but I will most likely just end up buying lunch in my favourite little cafe, so thought it best not to. Have done two loads of washing which are hanging on the line

My month was going quite well until I want to Mr T. with the intention of only spending £10, as that was all I could afford...then spent £50 :doh:

So, need to update my totals, do a menu plan for Feb and find something to make with half a pack of casserole beef, as I froze the whole pack by mistake instead of splitting it in two.

sophiesmum_2

Went to town with my friend this morning. Spent £2.50 on strawberries, blueberries,2 x cauliflowers and a butternut squash.:D in the market.
Nipped into boots to use up my two N0 7 vouchers, used 1 x £5 voucher on a big tub of reduced moisturising cream so that cost me £1.13:D , used 1 x £5 voucher on a reduced foundation cream for DD so that cost me £2.
Decided to treat myself to some sanctuary body scrub and a body scrub bar to use at the gym - was just under £12 but I also got a lovely free sanctuary body treats gift pack currently retailing at £10 and will make nice treat for mothers day.Also got another £5 voucher for next time;)

Todays spend just under £18 - bit of a splurge on the sanctuary stuff but but just felt like something for myself:p

Will update this months figures later I when check receipts and update spreadsheets but overall it has been a good month here.:D

andromache_2

Hi all!

I've been reading everything but not posting much. Well done to Mr BB on the job, glad you're feeling perkier now sophiesmum (I definitely think the Sanctuary splurge is well-deserved with all the hard work you do), and I hope your mum learns how to budget with your help, SL.

A couple of nights ago I sat down and added up how my savings were doing (they're in quite a few different savings accounts, fixed-rates and current accounts which pay a high rate up to a certian amount so a bit all over the place!). I was pleasantly surprised and I really think it's massively down to this challenge, which gave me the 'budgeting concept' of separating out my allowed spends for the year into one pot and then not touching the rest; otherwise I might have been tempted to dip into my savings more IYSWIM. I will probably have to fund a fair amount of post-grad study, depending on which career path I choose - worst-case scenario is £20,000 in tuition fees alone on top of SLC debts which will total £20k when I graduate :eek: which will have to come somehow from a combination of savings, scholarships, career development loans and parents - so the more I can build up my savings the less I have to rely on the last three. I'm a long, long way off at the moment though :rotfl: but I have a while to go yet! Anyway I was so chuffed with how I'm doing that I just had to thank nyk again for coming up with the challenge and everyone who posts here as it's really going to help me on the way to achieving my dreams I'm feeling really positive about the future at the moment.

Having said that, I'm getting close to breaching the £1,000 mark :eek: I think when I have less than £1,000 left I will be motivated to be extra-careful. I have a couple of expensiveish annual dinners to pay for in the next few weeks but after that I will be spending the next couple of months with my nose buried in revision books and not spending much money :rolleyes: (apart from the sneaky trip to Krakow, which will be cheap, honest) so I'm optimistic about making it last until I leave for India.

Well, that's me! Nose back to the grindstone now, I need to crack on with some more work Have a lovely weekend everyone

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Redglass.... dont worry about whatever decision you make after all its only money, not the end of the world. What I am saying is that nobody gets hurt, so OK you may loose some money but in the grand scheme of things there are other issues that are far more important. I think if I didn't take this attitude I would never be able to invest or save anything. I dont sound very frugal do I but as my name implies I just love financial challenges....Anyway being as you are a member of this forum we would all take care of you.

Hugs and cuddles to you all whatever you may be doing, we all require them in life.

cw18

I've just been out for what [strike]should[/strike] will be my last shop of the month, so have now finished updating my spreadsheets.



Am now slightly over in terms of groceries to where I should be by end of Feb - both as the actual amount I'd allowed myself until now based on numbers of days (£6.49), and - more shockingly as it's higher- one sixth of my annual budget (£1.31).

But I have milk for most of next week (bought today as I'm out - but away from shops - all tomorrow, and busy with younger GD all day Monday which is when I think we'd have run out!), and also stocked up on some tortillas -- 37p for a pack 8 in clearance at S'flds (so I bought the last 6 packs, which I plan to repack as 4's before squeezing into my freezer). DS will be happy (more chances to do h/m enchilladas) and I like them instead of bread/rolls for my lunch-time butties :T

Some of my regular payments look really low (mobile and water) as the direct debits normally go out on 27th/28th, but haven't gone out yet for the February payments I'm guessing that means I'll have two go out during March - one very early next week and one at the back end of the month - so it'll balance out again by the next month end........ Had they gone out yesterday, my total spend to date would be at £1258.43 - so just £74.90 under my 'budget 2 date' column

The phone/broadband looks skewed ATM, but will (hopefully) level out over the year.... this is due to an issue with my final bill from my previous ISP (for which I've adjusted the budget, clawing the extra needed from dog food as that one looks to be the one I'm certainly going to come well under on over the year), and the one-off 'set-up' fee from my new ISP.

I've "upped" the presents budget by a fiver - forgot about Easter Eggs for 3 children and 2 grand-children, but bought them last week whilst in Mr A (they had some nice ones with mugs for £1 each). I've adjusted my 'anything else' down by the same amount. I did debate just costing the eggs against the 'anything else', but would like to keep things in the most appropriate categories so I'll hopefully be in a better position to set more accurate estimates for the start of next year.

redglass_2

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

Redglass.... dont worry about whatever decision you make after all its only money.....Anyway being as you are a member of this forum we would all take care of you. .

Aw, that's so kind, EFC, bless you! :A
BB, as I understand it, if I close the S/W ISA and put the money in my bank account, I've permanently lost the potential for £3,600 of tax-free money a year, an allowance that could go on until I die (or until they muck about with the rules again) so I should either leave the money in this ISA or transfer it to a better one - definitely not just close the ISA. It's not the SW I'm bothered about losing, since it's cr*p, but all the other years of tax-free saving that will come after and with better providers. Or have I got things wrong?
Maybe I should just stick to stockpiling and £gg card like Nyk ! :rolleyes:

whew, have caught up now.....