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

Skint_Lynne

I forgot to tell you all that I had a card from the postie today, so my qype voucher must be there.:D

I don't know whether to keep it or ebay it. I'll have a think about that one.

sophiesmum_2

Still no sign of my qype voucher :rolleyes:

FrankieM

Morning everyone,
I've just been updating my signature. I've bought petrol, had groceries delivered, bought DD2's b'day present and bought 2 pairs of trainers and a pair of school shoes for various children...it soon all adds up!

I worked out a menu for 2 weeks and shopped accordingly. When it arrived last night everyone was very excited about the amount of everything. I haven't told them yet that its for 2 weeks!! I think I'm going to have to keep an eye on consumption, though!!

That should be it until next week when I'll have to pick up some food for the b'day meal DD1 wants but its only pizza and toppings so shouldn't be too much, oh and a cake!!

Sarah147

Morning all, I have caught the lurgy! Started feeling rotten yesterday lunchtime but carried on at work during the afternoon, got back in from work at about half 5 and went straight to bed. Feeling no better today so having the day off work but am bored already. Its funny, we spend our time at work wishing we were at home and then when we're home ill we wish we were at work :rotfl: I am not sure I can stomach a day of Jeremy Kyle, Loose Woman and Murder She Wrote but my stomache is feeling rotten (a virus I think) so I have no alternative. I am going to get loads of rest and hope I am alright for the football tonight. Well, even if I am feeling lousy I will be dragging myself off my sick bed as the ticket was £40 :eek: is it just me or has the price of football just got ridiculous recently? Was not that long ago that you were paying a tenner. Sill, NUFC v MUFC is always special.

And, on the up side, if I am not at work I cannot be tempted to spend money in the shop Apart from giving my friend money for the ticket I have spent nothing this week or even had the desire to buy anything as I have been v organised with my meal planning. They were making some soda bread at work yesterday so I was just eating that and it was absolutely delish so I will be having a go making that this weekend, and potato scones. Yum Yum yum.

Have a lovely day everyone!

lyndasharp

Sarah, get well soon!

I've just opened an ING account thanks to the money saving tips email, looking forward to my free £20! I'm also about to change bank accounts to A&L after Halifax decided to reduce the interest on my websaver to 0.1%!!!! So that should be lots of free money soon!

The housewarming / engagement party went really well on Saturday, all our random friends mixed very well and the chili was very popular - although we'd put celery in our 'hypoallergenic' version, which someone turned out to be allergic to... luckily she could eat the other version, as we'd not put celery in that.

Car is in need of a new brake master cylinder so that's £70 spent already this month, but it's good to be able to stop... I spent around £300 for Feb, well down on budget, but that will catch up with me at some point when the bills for the house start arriving!

After a moment of insanity we've decided to do some car swapping - H2B will use my ex police Morris Minor as his daily driver, I'll keep using Betsy for now but we will rebuild his ex police Morris Minor and I'll use her as my daily car when she's finished. Selling H2B's modern Rover will fund repairs on Rosie. My Dad's already said that he'd really like Betsy so she can have a new home with him, and (hopefully) everyone is happy!

cw18

Just received my 6-monthly water bill -- which I knew was due as my last was at the end of August.

Really, really pleased with it too :T

When my last bill came we'd crept from what I think was a small credit to almost £29 owing, but they said they weren't increasing the payment. This left me worried I'd be getting a huge increase this time around, to claw back the debit plus cover a full year at a higher estimate

So I phoned and asked them to increase the payments to a nice round figure I could remember - which meant all of £3.90/month extra, but I hoped this would only mean a small increase this time due to the debit not getting much worse.

New bill has come, which includes 1 old rate payment and 5 new rate - so they've had an extra £19 due to my increasing it.

My debit has shrunk by £20.63 to just £8.11 -- so even if I'd left the payment where it was it would have covered all the useage in the last 6 months (and a few pennies from the debit)...... which shows just how much water DH was using between hospital stays :eek:


And they're leaving my payment at the same amount :T That's extremely good news for my budget spreadsheet, as I'd worked on the basis of no further increase

Frugaldom

Good afternoon from snowy SW Scotland

The sun is shining and snow slowly beginning to thaw, so it's lovely looking across at the snow-covered hill tops. I've hung out a washing and might get out into the garden to start fence-mending this afternoon.

As per Lynda's post, I also took the opportunity to open an ING account, as per Martin's newsletter or thread HERE. Will look forward to the extra £20 free cash next month or whenever.
Edited in - sorry, the offer has been closed since I typed this.

CW, well done with the water. That's one of the things we don't pay for here, hence reason I don't include it in my budget.

Sarah147, hope you feel better soon and enjoy the football match - I'm afraid a love of football is something that completely eludes me, my guess at ticket prices being high would be to help finance the ludicrous amounts that footballers get paid .

Received Tesc0 leaflet today with £45 worth of 'money off' vouchers, doubt I'll can use them, though, as you'd need to spend £70 each week to get £10 off (followed by £7 off thereafter). Not much good for frugalers! :mad:

Egg update - one egg is continually rocking. It's ever so slight but enough to watch it (sad, or what? I was sat watching an egg!!), so at least one chickadee must be getting into position for tomorrow's big event. Amazed that anything survived the battering the egg box took originally and then the overnight temperature drop a couple of weeks ago. It will be frugally entertaining watching if anything hatches - camera is at the ready, just n case. :rotfl:

jtb2412

Afternoon all ...

Weather is glorious here ! Sun is out and I've been pottering about in the greenhouse and it was lovely . Planted up lots of things for the allotment, still a bit more to do so will go out after school run and finish off. DH bought a propagator with some of his b'day money and it's giving us a great head start on things - they pop up in days :eek: .

One DD out today (internet) and popped to Mr S yesterday. Have just placed my order with butcher and will pick up tomorrow so all being well, I should only have bread and milk to buy for the rest of the month. Am still over my average for grocery spending due to stockpiling, summer months should be better. I'm not panicking yet !

Not much else to update here, should be a low spend month although Gas and Elec bills due in soon - am hoping I won't need to sit down for this quarters bills :eek: .

Nyk exciting about the eggs ! Can you take some pics when they start to hatch or is it a bit dodgy with the flash? Would love to see them

Have a lovely afternoon all xx

Sarah147

nykmedia wrote: »

Sarah147, hope you feel better soon and enjoy the football match - I'm afraid a love of football is something that completely eludes me, my guess at ticket prices being high would be to help finance the ludicrous amounts that footballers get paid

Thanks nyk, I do agree with you that it is getting silly these days, you wouldn't mind so much if they broke sweat occasionally but half the time they just stroll around doing very little and you have mediocre players living in million pound mansions while those watching them struggle to pay the bills. Grrr.

About five years ago all my money went on following football. I had a season ticket which was about £400 odd (cheap by todays standards!) and went to all the away matches, as well as jaunts around Europe in the European Cup. Cost me a fortune but at the time I was young and naive and spent way beyond my means, still I have been left with loads of wonderful memories and great friendships from that time. I have not been to a Premier League match yet this season but as a Manchester United fan living in the Newcastle area, I could not miss my beloveds playing up the road tonight :T

feeling a lot better too, it's amazing what a days rest does for you. But day time tv.... urgh!!

lingojingo

jtb2412 wrote: »

Afternoon all ...
Weather is glorious here ! Sun is out

sun was out here at about the time you wrote that, but now it's snowing! Not settling so far as it rained first, but you never know.....

Had a great evening out yesterday, went to Leeds to see Lenny Henry as Othello. It was brilliant, performed by Northern Broadsides who do Shakespeare in Yorkshire accents, and I thought Lenny Henry was very good.
It was a frugal outing as the ticket was an early birthday present from my Mum and I got a new bus and train ticket which meant it was only £5.50 return for the whole journey (just the bus to town and back is normally £3.50 and the train is about £4.50 so that was a real bargain). I had a glass of white wine & soda in the interval, £3, but as I collected my £10 lottery win on the way, you could say it didn't actually cost me anything!

Nyk, how eggsciting, can't wait to see how many hatch.