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

Frugaldom

Hi fruguys and frugals and welcome back, Shelley

Annie, I've added your name to my challenger list, will update post 2 accordingly and it's in alphabetical order to make it easier for checking the names are all there.

I am pleasantly surprised by my findings regarding the true cost of living during 2008, but I am also shocked by just how much of my budget goes on wants rather than actual needs. Umm... less than 50% was spent on absolute essentials. :eek: This made me look more closely at my 2009 budget and it has become very obvious to me that the cost of living has not, as I had anticipated, gone up by loads over the past 3 years. On the contrary, it is a simple fact that I now include many more luxuries that I take for granted, I have allowed them to fall into the essentials category without even noticing!

Theoretically, I could safely keep the 3 of us for about £2,000 for the full year, but we prefer to have our little luxuries - colour TV, telephone, broadband, mobile phone, hot water on tap, heating throughout the house, hobbies, pets, a garden and tins/packets/boxes/bottles of food & drink that people in third world countries can't even begin to imagine, let along consider having. So, for new year, I'd just like to say how much I appreciate all the extras that I can afford and assure any friends, colleagues or family (who think it's ridiculous to be 'living like this') that none of us here go without, nobody starves, we don't live like neanderthals and we don't intend to change anything during 2009, other than giving you all homemade or homegrown pressies & cards. :rotfl:

32 hours to go... and counting! :j :beer: :T

Frugaldom

Annie021063 wrote: »

can anyone explain stockpiling?

Piling up stocks of stuff you need all year round whenever you get the chance to buy it cheaply, like bulk buying when it's at half price or BOGOF (buy one get one free) etc.

MrDT

Hello all! :hello:

I've put up a huge post on part 4 of the 2008 thread here but to save you the pain of reading through all that I'll just post up the bits pertaining to the 2009 budget here:

Budget for 2009 - 4k challenge:

Shopping - 1080 (90 a month)
Electric - 600 (50 a month)
Night out - 600 (50 a month)
Eat out - 360 (30 a month)
Trip - 240 (20 a month)
Gadget - 240 (20 a month)
Christmas - 240 (20 a month)
Birthday - 180 (15 a month)
Clothes - 180 (15 a month)
TV - 150 (12.50 a month)
Other gifts - 60 (5 a month)
Charity - 60 (5 a month)

The only things not included in my budget are rent, council tax, and the cost of commuting (or running a car if I decide to run a car next year). Mobile and internet are paid for by employer, water rates covered in rent.

Aims for 2009:
Meet deposit saving target (at least 25% of purchase price, actual amount changes)
Career development
Money-neutral gifts
Have fun and still manage to stay true to MSE

Hope you all have fun tomorrow night, will catch up with you next year

savingfortravel

Help!!
Any ideas about whether its better to buy a grade b energy efficent oven and save £70 or buy a grade a which is £70 more. Any ideas or past experience would be appreciated.
Thanks SFT

sophiesmum_2

savingfortravel wrote: »

Help!!
Any ideas about whether its better to buy a grade b energy efficent oven and save £70 or buy a grade a which is £70 more. Any ideas or past experience would be appreciated.
Thanks SFT

I would buy the grade B one save the £70 and put it towards a remoska which will drastically cut the amount of energy used for cooking.:D

cw18

SFT - it depends how often you'll use it !! Most appliances list average consumption somewhere so you could work out how long it would take to recoup the £70 in saved energy

savingfortravel

Thanks
We think we'll go for Grade B as it would take 14 years to save £70 difference (according to OH). What's a remoska???
SFT

Bonaventure_babes

Hi everyone
I have created a budget of sorts...which I know will be tweeked as time goes by.

Food £120
Petrol £80
Dinners £60
Electricity £40
B.T £10
Top ups £15
Window Cleaner £5
Total £330 /Month

Target £3960/Year
£40 extra for emergencies....(Hope its a small emergency )
I havent included Direct Debits like mortgage,policies and broadband and also didn't include one offs which occur through the year like household rates, car and home insurance, heating oil and TV licence.
I really hope to cut back on the food spend, as there's just me,teenage DD,the lodger and the cat.
I hope that making out this budget will encourage us to be more aware of wastage and carelessness.
Good luck to everyone :j :j :j :j

shaz_mum_of__2

savingfortravel wrote: »

Thanks
We think we'll go for Grade B as it would take 14 years to save £70 difference (according to OH). What's a remoska???
SFT

Are you sure


When i bought my freezer the b grade used almost double the electric the a grade did but i guess cookers are different


Remoskas are a type of electric frying pan !!! oven only available at lakeland theres a thread somewhere very energy efficient apparently



Not got one but theres an army of followers

Healthy Veggie recipes here
http://www.fatfreevegan.com/





Shaz

MRSMCAWBER

Savingfortravel

A remoska is the best bit of kitchen kit EVER invented lol its like a mini oven wil get you the link to it in a moment
I have had mine about 5 months now and have only switched my oven on twice in that time (in fact It was hubby who did it when I was in hospital )

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/remoska

I have the standard (well 2 actualy) -and they cook brilliantly