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

[Deleted User]

Hello all!

I am still here... just nothing exciting to say but have been lurking away reading about what everyone else is up to.

Still no baby, its due on Saturday tho. I just got it in my head that it was going to appear early dont know why tho. Every little tummy ache or back ache I think is this it but then it stops :rolleyes: very annoying. I'm ready now!!

Still going well on the challenge, like I posted last month not going to update every month but see how it is half after each quarter I think.

Poor DH.... I had it in my head to start decorating our bathroom (he really does put up with alot!) when i say 'we' should decorate, I mean him. But this weekend he had put a new sink and cupboard in (bargain in focus £15 normally £100!!!) and a toilet and ripped out old stinky carpet and put new floor down. Lovely DH
Thats the house pretty much up together now, theres a few bits but nothing urgent. Now I might let him relax (until baby gets here). I dont mean to be a slave driver!

I'll let you know when anything happens on the baby front! xx

LollopyBear

I have well and truly blown the budget for this month (and last month), but there is hope! The majority of the entertainment and eating out spends were for the London weekend, which is an extreme rarity.

I'm pleased that I have managed to reduce the alcohol spends down by £15 and that I've been able to shave £25 off travel.

March is going to be another expensive one as the friend's wedding is next weekend. The hotel is costing us £75. I'm giving them £30 towards their honeymoon and there will be petrol costs etc. involved. I'm being very good and not buying a new dress, but their will be dry cleaning costs involved with my existing dress as I discovered white wine stains down the front .

I think I'm going to be playing catch up between April and June!

Brighton_belle

SF - don't agree that hunger is no excuse - you need fuel to maintain peak performance and you chose to have 2 bananas rather than junk or sugar or anythig from the bakery: a very healthy choice that I applaud.

Been a day of bulk cooking for me after last nights trip to asda for the new month's shop. Picked up some whoopied bead(13p a loaf) & 2x 500g double cream for 5p: is double cream freezable and is cottage cheese freezeable?
Someone was recently asking about mysupermaket.com: I use it to prepare my shoping list for asda - it really helps me work out before I go which are the best deals for what I want and when it is cheaper to buy the larger size: I find being in the huge shops very mind boggling and decision making skills go slightly to pieces. This way I know exacatly what I am looking for when I get it there. Whoopies are just an added bonus.

I've made large apple crumble in the remoska to freeze in portions for the month & a large pot of sweet potato & splitpea soup ditto.
And I've had fun working out OH's exact income to be with tax and NI deductions curtesy of www.ir35calc.co.uk and then creating a spreadsheet to show him how he needs to spend it:D

Blairweech

That *should* be my totals for February.

Have had a really good day today. Went driving around Dartmoor with a friend, plus popped into the carboot on the way there - did not buy anything though. Changed all my screensavers/background on my lappy to Spring

Have made a beef stew in the slow cooker, not tried it yet so not sure what it tastes like! Just about to make cottage pie, with a potato and parsnip mash. Packed lunch is made for tomorrow, really cannot afford to spend anything until I get paid on Thursday - made sure I have enough in my account to avoid charges, so hopefully my 'everything else' category will go down :rolleyes:

PLEASE can someone post instructions for the tables? I have uploaded mine as a picture but it is unreadable

Brighton_belle

Blairwich - it's the colours you've chosen that make it unreadable: in my experience some colours make the writing go blurred and others don't (I too post my through tinypic after converting to a bitmap image with MWsnap) tinypic.com) HTH

An amusing article here: sounds the perfect 4k member:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/01/frugal-living-recession

cw18

I use some software called King Kong

Once downloaded and installed, press <ctrk>K to open it while looking at your spreadsheet

This then changes your cursor to a 'cross hair'

Click on one corner of what you want to copy, then while keeping the mouse button pressed drag to the diagonally opposite corner to select the area of the screen you want to capture

When you release the mouse button it will open a small window, within which is a window containing your data

Click on save icon (far left if I remember correctly) and specify where you want to save a file (change it to a 'jpg' while you're at it)

Then upload the image to a photobucket (or similar hosting site) account

You can then insert it into a post on here as an image

slowlyfading

Brighton_belle wrote: »

SF - don't agree that hunger is no excuse - you need fuel to maintain peak performance and you chose to have 2 bananas rather than junk or sugar or anythig from the bakery: a very healthy choice that I applaud.

Thanks sweetie

sophiesmum_2

BB _ yes and yes both freezable - just defrost and stir then use as normal:D

I still hve lots of tubs of 5p cream from xmas in freezer, it whips quicker once it has been frozen too.:D

I am now off to empty some of toiletry stash out of drawers so that it will make me get started on project





Right can't go to bed now until this lot is back in drawers so off to do some undercoating

slowlyfading

^^ oh my goodness, that's a lot of stuff!

Skint_Lynne

sophiesmum, I really hope that one day, I can make my cash streeeeeeeetch as much as yours does. How do you spend so little money and have so much stuff???

That toiletries stash is impressive. Hope the drawers turn out the way you want them to.

I will need to get some soap and bleach to wash my mouth with, the forum police keep catching me swearing and I'm so not.

Number 1 bad word was s**t when I was talking about my wee dog he is a shih-tzu. Number 2 bad word was c**k but I was telling shaz about the famous scottish soup. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I even checked the wording in my recipie book and it is actually spelt that way.

I'll need to watch from now on, I might get a warning or something.:o