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

Marru

Hellooo Everybody!

This morning brought me a news letter from one of my role models. It was so lovely that I couldn't finish reading it as I got into tears. I want to be her when I grow up (for those who don't know I will be fourty this year). This is one of the things she gets to do:



Anyway, I have now decided to quit college and start job hunting. I will first try where I was supposed to go for my summer block placement but failing that it will be back to accounting for me I am afraid. I am a bit sad but feeling a huge amount a relief at the same time.

On a frugal note, I am running out of milk but as I haven't earned anything this year toward my challenge I can't go and buy it so it will be dried milk for my teas for now. Also will run out of eggs tomorrow - only breakfast DD is willing to eat at the moment, but on Saturday and Sunday she has to settle for cheese toasties.

I had some whoopsied meatballs with tomato sauce in SC last night and that will be lovely supper for us with some rice. Lunch will be leftovers.

Have a frugalistic day everyone!

Marru

dND

whitewing wrote: »

Does anyone know if crocheting is easy? I want to make a patchwork throwover in blues, purples and creams for our bed as a surprise for DH but I'm not too good at big stuff. I could have done basic knitting of not-so-square squares but I am worried it will look too boring so I thought crochet may be better?

Hi Whitewing,

I find crochet really easy - only got one or two loops to drop most of the time :rotfl:. There are lots of tutorials online but you do need to know if you have UK or American instructions. They are different I think it's something like US single stitch is our double, or possibly the other way round. There are sites that tell you - sorry I've not had time to google, I'm playing at chimney sweep and wood-burning cooker engineer at the moment. Luckily it's not cold here today as I've had to let the stove go out and get cold. I'll have a look a little later.

Deborah

FrankieM

Happy New Year everyone.....
So, today is the start of the challenge!
We are having a lazy day today and eating leftover chinese from last night. That should mean a nsd...I have loads of 'things' in the freezer so I'm hoping to keep shopping down to a minimum this month.
What is this site I keep reading about to do with meter readings? I feel like I've missed something...

January20

whitewing wrote: »

Does anyone know if crocheting is easy? I want to make a patchwork throwover in blues, purples and creams for our bed as a surprise for DH but I'm not too good at big stuff. I could have done basic knitting of not-so-square squares but I am worried it will look too boring so I thought crochet may be better?

I have done both knitting and crochet and I think crochet is actually easier than knitting.
It will be easy to make small squares to put together to make a full throwover for your bed.

Is this the sort of thing you mean? http://www.craftycrafty.tv/2008/05/how_to_crochet_a_granny_square.html

lilac_lady

2009 - the year of positive thinking.

No spend today or for the rest of the week because I've got enough food in the house to feed a small army and put I petrol in the car last night.

Instead of saving £2 coins etc, I'm making this my only financial challenge because if I can stick to it, I'll have the equivilent of lots of £2 coins left at the end of the year.

Any "bargains" will have to come from my £4000 pot so I'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul all year. Swings and roundabouts spring to mind too.

If I have any cash left at the end of a month, I'll put it aside in case I need it later in the year. I'm trying to simplify the way I work at my budget so my motto will be "spend it now if you want to, but there's no more money till next month!" In other words, if I spend all my monthly allowance in the first week, I'll be suffering till it's time for the next's months top-up.

I feel that I'm fighting with myself already!

Good luck to all this year.

MRSMCAWBER

Happy newyear everyone and so it begins

I used youtube to learn to crochet a couple of months ago - after much huffing n puffing "I got it" although only the basics

Here is a little bag that I think might be nice for putting smellies in as a little gift -I have now made a bigger chunkier one (just in need of sewing up) that will be part of my nieces gift -along with a scarf, poncho and a couple of those stretchy hats -once I have knitted them all :rotfl:

and this was my 1st attempt..its much bigger now -a work in progress -it will eventually be a full blanky , using up all the odds n sods of wool



Today will consist of lots of knitting and x stitch ..which also means "NO spending" :j .....
My first aim is to see how far through the 1st week i can get before I have to spend anything
I have spoken to my mum this morning and she has picked me up some parsnip seeds -so now I have all the seeds I need for the year -and beyond :T ...can't wait to get started on my veggies again

MrDT

*groan*

happy new year everyone... SOOO glad to hear all the reports of 'no hangover here' etc. really. i'm not jealous.

_pale_

no more drinking for quite some time...

whitewing

HELLO Mr DT!

(Sorry did I make the hangover worse)?

I may have missed it before - can you tell us now what you got the missus for Xmas?

In_Search_Of_Me

hello...isom creeps in tentatively....
I saw this last year and was full of admiration for you all. I would like to join but keep it simple for me if I may. Every month I have ddm's of 1300 (which I should inrease to 1350) and then about 700+ on top. I've worked out that if I have 4000 (333 pm) to "live" on (ie petrol, clothes, food, hols, seeds etc) that I should be able to hit my target of 10,000 this year. I know the way I want to do it isnt quite how you have all calculated but being honest my poor mathematically dyslexic brain just couldnt do all the calculations and I'd be setting myself to fail before I even started...also for me this would be a major achievement as I had a tendency to just spend and not think about what I am spending. So if its ok can I join you with my version of 4000?

LollopyBear

Happy Frugal New Year!

My husband and I are calling this the "year of doing", to stop procrastinating and being crap and just getting things done (including lots of fun things).

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday looking through budgets etc. and it has become clear that if we don't make even more cutbacks we are never going to improve our situation. DH said to me "but I'm not in any more debt now than I was three years ago. I'm happy to break even each month." I had to explain that things hadn't got any better either. The credit card debt is still exactly the same (about 5k) and our house is still a building site. He had several mini lightbulb moments, including realising that we simply have not got the money to make our house "perfect" but we can definitely make it a nicer environment to live in and just because we can't do it perfectly does not mean we just leave it as it is. This is a major one for DH as I've been saying this for about two years!

Last night we made a list of everything that we wanted to do this year and a major one is reducing the credit card debt by half, down to 2.5k and also to start menu planning properly! Way too much gets spent on groceries. What makes it more difficult is that it is DH who does the majority of the cooking as he doesn't have much work at the moment and he doesn't tend to shop around or have an interest in batch cooking!

I love reading the aims and goals of all of those in this challenge. It is so motivating to read. Best of luck to all taking part and those reading and preparing to join