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

Frugaldom

FrankieM wrote: »

I love your chick...I'd love love ducklings but DH says we have no room in our garden for water so I can't have any. He says he can make room for chickens!

:T :j :beer: That's great! Are you going the DIY route (incubate eggs, brood & rear chicks), rehoming route (ex-battery or any other type) or purchase at POL route (buy hens at point of lay stage)? The runs are easily made if you have wire & wood, they just need secure housing to protect from weather & predators. Ours will be free ranging in the garden with the veggies behind wire rather than the other way about. :rotfl: Shouldn't be long before we're ready to collect the ones we are being given and I've another lot of eggs in the incubator.

'Gizmo' is doing fine, has started pecking at feed and plays a great game of grabbing a beakful of water and then jumping backwards before drinking it!:rotfl: S/he also likes trying to catch the second hand on the clock that's attached to the thermometer/hygrometer in the homemade brooder! :rolleyes: All in, it cost less than £10 to build, so a very frugal chick home.

Sophiesmum - You sound as though you have been really busy! Chests of drawers make excellent mini-raised beds and drawer edges make great borders but maybe I'll make a more permanent chick brooder with the next item of furniture I reclaim.

Lynda, well done on the frugal greenhouse for veggie seeds! Just make sure you tie it down securely.

I've already planted loads of stuff for this year (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, spring onions, cauliflower, herbs) so it's never to early to get started I'm hoping to be eating homegrown lettuce by next week but have planted enough that the chickens & ducks will have self-service salad bars too. :rotfl:Plus there's the guinea pig's raised bed still to plant up with spinach & brussels sprouts, then the carrot & beetroot & leek tubs and... I need a bigger garden already! :eek:

Nickynoo, good work with your car savings, it's amazing how quickly it mounts up, especially when the focus is drawn away from the actual act of 'saving' and more towards the act of not over spending. Well done! :beer:

My own savings plans are slightly ahead of schedule because of a few things, but mainly because of ALL OF YOU HERE! :rotfl: I planned on sticking to my rigid budget, just as I have done for the past few years, so I can keep out of debt and fill my ISA each year. However, I now have loads of new savings pots for almost everything I could ever want! And that is entirely down to the support of fellow frugalites and the MSE site for encouraging me to branch out and try new things, like making free money and earning cashback etc, etc, etc... It really is amazing! Thank you to everyone who follows this thread and to those who take part in this, or any other, frugal challenge. :T

lyndasharp

Good news, H2B has sold my washing machine to someone he works with! I bought it off ebay when I was expecting to get a house without one (anyone remember my long chat with the very friendly washing machine seller from last year?....). Anyway, he delivered it a couple of weeks ago, and I was hoping to find it a new home somewhere, as it's not much use sat in the garage. H2B has sold it for the amount I paid, so I'm actually a few pounds in profit, thanks to cashback for buying it on ebay!

Nyk, glad your chick is doing well. Greenhouse is weighed down with bricks at the moment, the patio edging is made of loose brick, so we've taken away the bricks we keep falling over, and put them in the greenhouse instead!

[Deleted User]

Hello all

I'm still here waiting for baby to arrive..... not due til tomorrow but was SO convinced it would be early :rolleyes:
Am saving SO much money being at home!! Had letter thru from mortgage company because of the interest rate went down again beginning of Feb, our repayments are even lower! Means we can overpay by £146 a month for now :j so while we can afford to we might as well. Very pleased with that.

Nothing else interesting to say! xx

lyndasharp

Can I have a vote please, should I buy a wedding dress? I know it's early (by a year) but there's one I really like on ebay for £80...

lingojingo

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hello all
I'm still here waiting for baby to arrive..... not due til tomorrow but was SO convinced it would be early :rolleyes:

There's still time - DS was born at 22.45 on the day before he was due! (have to add that DD was 12days late though)

Can't wait for you to post the news that your baby has been born, it's sp exciting. A friend at work left for maternity leave today, ahe's due in 3 weeks.

Frugaldom

lyndasharp wrote: »

Can I have a vote please, should I buy a wedding dress? I know it's early (by a year) but there's one I really like on ebay for £80...

If you like it, and he's already popped the question and received the appropriate response, you'd be daft to miss a golden opportunity. I know a couple of people who have bought from there and the dresses were beautiful, even if they did need a few little alterations What a HUGE saving! Good luck and don't miss the auction

Frugaldom

Loopylou, if it's any help, I have you pencilled into my diary from midnight tonight so I wouldn't get confused with chick hatch dates. :rotfl: I think mine's a lazy girl, so you'll need to even the score with a lazy boy.

lingojingo

lyndasharp wrote: »

Can I have a vote please, should I buy a wedding dress? I know it's early (by a year) but there's one I really like on ebay for £80...

Go for it!
Got DD's prom dress on ebay, it was advertised as a bridesmaid dress.
When we won the auction they asked for her exact measurements, so the dress was a perfect fit! And only £35 + postage.

Lesley_Gaye

nykmedia wrote: »

I've already planted loads of stuff for this year (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, spring onions, cauliflower, herbs) so it's never to early to get started I'm hoping to be eating homegrown lettuce by next week but have planted enough that the chickens & ducks will have self-service salad bars too. :rotfl:Plus there's the guinea pig's raised bed still to plant up with spinach & brussels sprouts, then the carrot & beetroot & leek tubs and... I need a bigger garden already! :eek:

I sowed some winter Cos lettuce before Christmas and was all excited because it said that they crop in 6-8 weeks. I put them in a bottom heat incubator until they sprouted, and every seed sprouted. So I put some on the windowsill, some in the unheated greenhouse and some in the unheated conservatory to see which did best. The ones in the conservatory are doing best, but they are still only 2 inches high.

I am holding off sowing anything else until it is a bit warner as it feels like a waste of time at the moment. Do you give your plants heat at all Nykmedia?

andromache_2

Hello frugalites,

I've been reading and not posting recently because, well, not much has been happening! But I thought I should pop on and fess up that I've ruined today's NSD by buying a pretty silver bracelet for £10.40, RRP £34.00 which I would normally consider way too expensive for a bracelet but I gave into temptation! I haven't had any entries in my 'Clothes, shoes & accessories' column for over 8 weeks so I needed a little fix :rotfl: Can't wait for it to arrive in the post (there is a jewellery sale on amazon plus a 10% discount code on the codes board if anyone else is tempted :shhh:) I've also got a free personalised card for my dad's birthday to balance the purcahse out with a frugal act as well - the site is www.greetz.co.uk if anyone is interested; you get your first card free once you've registered.

Anyhoo...

I love the picture of the frugalchick, nyk, thanks for posting it! I hope you have more hatchlings in the next batch.

I don't see anything wrong with getting your dress now, lynda; if you love the dress and it's a bargain then go for it! I am an ebay convert after getting a gorgeous silk monsoon cocktail dress for £8.30 off it last year just because the seller had put the sale as ending at a weird time It will make sense to spread the cost of the wedding out as well. And once the dress has arrived you can take it out and have a peek now and then to keep you excited as the day gets closer

Good luck for the birth loopylou - you must be so excited! I'm looking forward to hearing the news

My mobile contract is up for renewal next month and I am looking at if it would be worth going PAYG over the summer when I won't be using it much before getting a fresh contract in October but PAYG seems really expensive, and it's not like I use my phone *that* much more research needed methinks. Ideas welcome.

Have a nice Friday everyone