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

sophiesmum_2

Undercoat now done and drying off:j , now that I hve actually started it doesn't seem such a big task:p


SL - that is only part of stash:o - but in my defense I don't think I have paid cost price for any single item, all have been bogofs, 3 for 2, clearance deals etc bulk bought and then stockpiled.

As I keep saying stockpiling stuff bought on offers is the way to go for saving stacks of cash - you just have to keep finding ingenious ways to store it.

While waiting for paint to dry now watching the beachcomber programme OH recorded for me earlier looks interesting.

Penny2myName

Brighton_belle wrote: »

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

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

Think I could do with that husband!!!

sophiesmum_2

Loved the programme I just watched "Monty Hall's great escape" BBC2 9pm I think. Setting up a croft in Scottish Highlands. Did anyone see it, should be interesting it is on for next 4 weeks.
Nyk/Shaz might be up your street too:D

Sarah147

Its that scary time of the month when we post our totals... eek. I thought I had done very well but when you total everything up it doesn't look that good at all :rolleyes:

Supermarket/eating out- £58.95
Clothes - £90.41
Gifts - £41.32
DVDs/Cds - £5.13
Transport - £131.56
£62.96 of this was a flight to a friends wedding in August
Gig/show tickets - £54.50
Hotels - £35.00
Mobile - £11.62
Charity - £2.00
Ebay selling fees etc - £13.75
ATM - £180.00
really need to break this down into categories (I do have a little diary for cash spends) but at the moment I just do not have the energy
Lottery - £10.00


Feb Total £634.24
take away the money made this month from cashback
So the grand total is.... £622.05

Making a grand total of £1209.76 so far for Jan and Feb combined

More than I had hoped but the figures above were the total amount spent (I do not currently pay rent as living with parents and they do not expect it as I buy all my own food etc) so I have managed to put aside about half my salary every month into my ISA aka the house fund :rotfl: .

It may seem a lot of money spent to the more frugal among you but a few months ago I would spend my entire salary every month (and usually more than my salary in most cases) so have done very well to claw it down to the level it is currently at. The little steps all add up as SM would say... Since discovering this site about a year ago I have totally changed the way I view money and have wiped clear a £800 overdraft, a £900 overdraft and about £600 on a credit card. I also now live within my salary means and not my overdraft (I used to be in the black for about five minutes when I was paid, before descending into the red again), so this site has really changed things for me, mainly thanks to the wonderful and inspirational people on it so keep up your good work with your money journeys everyone :T

redglass_2

Penny2myName wrote: »

Think I could do with that husband!!!

Yes, his wife doesn't know how lucky she is. (She got on my nerves, TBH - carrying on about the awfulness of 'living with a family member whose appearance upsets you' or however she put it - not a loved one tragically mutilated, but a tiny child with a less than perfect haircut! :rolleyes:)

savingfortravel

SM-Yes I watched Monty Halls Great Escape. The position of his croft looked beautiful. Made me hope and pray we get the bungalow sold..(Keeping fingers crossed about young couple yesterday but who knows..)
Not that we are going as rural as that..I thought of Nyk too..(believe you are over to the South West of Scotland)
Hope the area doesn't get unindated by city types now (yes I know I'm one but I'm thinking of the more priviledged type who are looking for second homes).

Feel very naughty because I was completing school work yesterday so haven't got final figures for Feb complete yet. Perhaps tonights project..
Have a great day all
SFT

cha97michelle

Thought i would pop in while the baby is sleeping and DS1 is eating his snack to post my Feb totals. It was another weekend spent in the garden, and i can see us actually being able to plant stuff in the next few weeks. It was a bit pricy though as i bought a few different types of mini fruit trees, and lots of soft fruit bushes, but none of that will come into this budget as i have classed it separately, also i was given almost that amount from my parents and aunty at christmas, so i have put that to good use.

Feb was a bit pricy as i had both my Mum and Dad's birthday, and my BIL. This month isn't a lot better as we have FIL birthday and my step gran, plus mothers day and DH's Aunty's 60th birthday/40th wedding anniversary (which they've asked for donations to the special school their 2 granddaughters attend - does £20 sound ok???)

Anyway, here goes :-
month spend year spend
food £183.73 £491.03
eat out/entertain £40.09 £133.49
life insurance £10.99 £21.98
presents £93.24 £161. 08
household bits £12.42 £18.80
cattery £0 £137.50
window cleaner £5.00 £10.00
electric £41.50 £83
gas £30 £60
toiletries £100.38 £138.72
clothes £46 £50.58
Tiscali £24.05 £50.42
Account fee £17 £34
kids entertain £3.10 £7.06

total £607.50 £1477.32

so some progress as last month we spent £869.82 on the challenge, so i must be doing something better. I'm hoping to keep food spends low this month as the kids will be back in nursery 3 days a week ready for me to start work, so our costs go up a lot before my wages appear. We also could do with putting some more cash in DH's ISA and we switch mortgages from our current fixed deal on the 1/04 with unlimited capacity to overpay, so lots we want to do, so i have to find spare cash from somewhere to do it.

I'm hoping i can get my food budget to about £200 a month or less. I can't drop it too low though as DH eats lots of fruit in his pack up and the alternative would be at least £5 a day on his lunch. And the kids have a lot of milk and yoghurts that i would not want to scrimp on as they need it at the ages they are. So, lots more home cooking.

At least MIL will feed us up next weekend and probably send us home with leftover cereal/milk/yoghurts she buys for the kids as they would go off/stale before we would visit again.

Thought i would just point out that Mr M has nice pork joints for £2 a kilo at the minute. We got a 1.8kilo one for £3.70. I am thinking of trying to squeeze a couple in the freezer as they would make good sandwich filling for DH and be cheaper than his usual packed meats.

That's all from me for now, anyway.
Have a beautiful day everyone. Take care x

MrDT

Blairweech, I think you must have saved your images as a compressed jpeg. If you're pasting into paint, cropping, and saving the image, try saving as a png file. Small file sizes but sharp images.

I received my qype voucher yesterday. Put it on ebay this morning - starting price 99p, 7 day auction, buy it now for £45. It sold as a buy it now within two hours lol! After fees I should see £40+ in cash as 'extra earnings'. I'd rather £40 cash than £50 of stuff as I couldn't really see anything I wanted. I think my buyer must be saving for a holiday or something, has bought 4 virgin vouchers recently, quite a clever idea really, instant 10% off by buying vouchers for less than face value - everybody's happy

I also completed a £50 quidco deal yesterday (ladbrokes casino). Expect to make £40 profit when that eventually pays out... Not bad for 10 minutes work

Frugaldom

Hello fruguys and gals

First of all, well done Sarah on noticing such a change in your finances :T

Sophiesmum, I watched the programme about Monty and Beachcomber Cottage - Monty needs my dog house more than Reuben for allowing the dog in with the chickens! :rotfl: Did anyone else notice Monty was whistling the theme tune to 'Local Hero' at the start? And the whole thing with the injured seagull, remind anyone of the injured rabbit? Or did anyone recognise the bay or ferry crossing? I'll bet they don't screen any of the military jets swooping over their heads, though! :rotfl: (I totally recommend 'Local Hero' to anyone who considers moving to rural Scotland, it really IS like that here! :rotfl: ) We'll be watching with interest next week. 6 months isn't long to do all he wants to do and it's looking like a costly exercise with a huge amount of 'artistic license' on the part of the production team. Have to admit, Skye is a beautiful island, even if it's difficult to find 'real' Skye people. I think most of the islands and coastal rural areas here are full of holiday homes and people relocating from the south for a change of lifestyle. Even my local self-sufficient, yurt-dwelling, wind-powered, solar-panelled good life neighbours across the fields are from London.

Cold and wet here today, fire's lit and more logs brought in, not much chance of getting into the garden today. I suppose I could dig but it wastes too much electricity turning on heaters to dry soggy, muddy clothes afterwards. Maybe it could be a baking day!

Well done, MrDT, I failed to even attempt the £50 Qyp€ thing.

thriftylass

Sarah and LollopyBear, don't take this wrong but I'm a bit glad it's not just me not quite making last month's budget (sounds odd but it gives me some consolation and motivation not to give up), although I guess I was the most over so far :eek: :eek:

We saved loads on heating the last few days :T although partially involuntary. It's a lot warmer now in the flat and we can't be bothered to find the new right fuse for the electric fire so the two of us make do with a blanket and swopping the cat now and then .

Finally got my survey vouchers and soon be able to have some more free scratch money paid out. Last weekend I got a nice soap/bodystuff gift box from MIL that she didn't want. Also found a good T3sc0 voucher online and used it to do a big stockpile shop.