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

ladymoon

Hi
I'm a long term lurker and have finally decided to take up a challenge.

I will be aiming to live on £5,000 this year plus Child Benefit (I have a 3 month old and a 2 year old)

I am moving in with my sister and brother-in-law, we will be renting a 5 bedroom house with seperate bathrooms and living rooms so this will halve my monthly bills and reduce my rent.

£ 600 Gas & Electricity
£ 65 Home Ins
£2000 car and travel expenses (this covers 2 cars Insurance, MOT's, tax petrol as well as bus/train to work)
£ 240 mobile phone
£1200 Groceries
£ 120 Internet
£ 60 TV Licence
£ 444 SKY (which will be going down)


Here's hoping I can stick to it

ilovetea

HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Haven't been out,so haven't spent ny money.Meals today are either leftovers or from the store cupboard.I haven't been stockpiling as I don't think that will teach me money management:o .
Have a lovely book to write my "spends" in and I haven't had any:D
Must update sig later,but off to put a couple of things on e-bay (£10 a day)

ilovetea x

candygirl

HNY fellow challengers:j I'm not even dressed yet, and am going to Mums for tea so it's deffo a NSD here today:T :T and hopefully many more to come;)

wendywitch

Had to get some gas and electric today and put some money on my virgin payg card to pay estranged husbands loan as I forgot before Christmas and spent the money he gave me for it . Also brought some reduced bits from the coop while I was in there to pop in the freezer.
Have the vets again tomorrow don't know how much that will cost but they've been really good and have been letting me pay it off bit by bit.
I'm going to sit down and work out a sort of budget thingy for the year and sort out my weekly budget book. I desperately need to keep to it and get some of my debt with my mum paid off.

Brighton_belle

happy new year all:j .
So we are finally off. Hurrah!
So many newbies - too many to mention but I enjoyed readuing all your introductions and big welcomes to all. I joined half way through last year and was 'practising' at my own pace, so don't be afraid to do this any of you who feel under presure: it's not a race, it's about improving the quality of our lives while at the same time eliminating unecessary spending. You are unlikely to beable to change everything at once, so one step at a time is ok if it keeps you at it.
Kittikins - what's lovely about joining a community like this , is itdoes help reduce a sense of isolation, so it becomes fun to beable to report how you resisted buying something expensive you didn't really need.
Nyk: love the new quail run:D
Today I have spent ages doing loads of bulk cooking. I've roasted about 6 butternut squashes to freeze in portions. I kept the seeds and toasted them (in my remoskma for other moski fans out there, as near the lid as poss) with salt and they are such a delicious snack yet so low fat compared to peanuts/crisps. We are chomping on them now.

For those who tend to run out of milk and dashing to the shops result in an unplanned £20 spend, you could either keep some in the freezer to tied you over between supermarket visits, or keep some dried milk for such times. Some brands seem to bebetter than others but l*dl's is good in tea I find, where as the one I have bought from a*da this week is too weak.

SforT - I got all the 2 day family left overs too:D . No one else could be bothered and I have about 10th of their income as well. So that was two turkey carcases that I got several meals out of plus stock. And some savoury pies and cake for OH.

taka

_party_ Happy New Year! :dance:

:hello: Welcome anyone joining/rejoining us Some strong coffee/tea/drink of choice:coffee:for anyone suffering the after-effects of last night... :rotfl:

I had a nice warm evening snuggling up on my sofa watching Pirates of the Carribean Box set with my duvet and a bottle of pear cider. :drool: :rolleyes: Who knew those films were so long - I still have part 3 to watch

Ok time to unveil my 2009 budget! :eek: Just for little old me...

Category £monthly (£yearly)


Food - £110 (£1320) - A decrease from the ~£130/month I spent in 2008. Must keep out of the canteen This will be the biggest challenge!
Christmas/Birthdays/random collections at work - £40 (£480) :eek: - Rather high so I will attempt to bring down the actual spend by making some presents and using surveys, etc to neutralise some of the spends

Gas + Elec - £30 (£360)

Phone + Broadband - £25.49 (£305.88)

Charity - £10 (£120)

Entertainment - £70 (£840) :whistle: - Erm... no excuse for this one really. I have no debts other than my mortgage so I want to have some money I can use on going out/meals out etc without feeling guilty. I've cut myself off from lots of things and people over the last couple of years and I want this to change in 2009. Unfortunately some of this needs money... :rolleyes:

Hairdressers - £18 (£216) - Erm...

Clothes +Shoes - £38.75 (£465) - I managed on less than this in 2008 but quite a bit of my clothing and shoes will need replacing this year as they are beginning to fall to bits. I'm also hoping to loose a bit of weight this year too by healthy eating and more exercise so I want to allow enough to replace things with smaller sizes

Dental + Medical - £25 (£300) - I have problematic teeth so need to keep a bit set aside in case I need it. :doh:

Misc Spends + Emergency - £49.437 (£593.12)

Total = £5000 :think: :eek:

Its quite a generous budget and includes random luxury things (my all in budget is ~£13k excluding mortgage overpayments and savings) but its one that should be do-able and would allow me to save/ do household renovations/ make overpayments to my mortgage so I would love to make it work out!

redglass_2

First NSD but then the shops are shut and the house is full of stuff, so hardly an achievement!

Pip's Mum, a Janssen's Temptation (sometimes called Mr Janssens' Temptation) is a (Danish? Swedish?) potato casserole with onions, cream and anchovies. It sounds like a weird combination but the result is a savoury, salty, creamy dish and it's very more-ish. JT's were quite trendy a mere 40 years ago (showing my age a bit here) but they are genuinely good. There are lots of versions on the web so just pick one you fancy.

Whitewing, I agree that crochet is easier and faster than knitting but I also think knitting is prettier!

There seems to be a sort of retro theme to the thread just now. Make a Janssen's Temptation, crochet yourself some granny squares....whatever next? Old videos of Jason King? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

savingfortravel

Hope you feel better Blairweech and Lingojingo (and your OH)!

BrightonBelle-Great money saving from leftovers...You sound like my kind of girl..just have this thing about wasting food.

SFT

Queen_B_3

Happy new year!

I spent last year lurking around this thread and thought I was too late to join last year so I am going to take part this year.

Every month after I've been paid and my share of the household bills/mortgage has gone across to the joint account and my loan payment on my car has gone I have £509 which covers everything else, savings, mobile, contact lenses etc. If I times it by 12 months of the year my total disposable income is £6108. My aim is to try and live off £4000 for this year so I can save the rest.

I think I might find it quite challenging as at the end of every month there's not much cash left in the pot but I'm hoping by tracking and recording everything more carefully and asking myself if I really need that 'new top' I can save in 2009!

Marru

redglass wrote: »

Janssen's Temptation (sometimes called Mr Janssens' Temptation) is a (Danish? Swedish?) potato casserole with onions, cream and anchovies. It sounds like a weird combination but the result is a savoury, salty, creamy dish and it's very more-ish. JT's were quite trendy a mere 40 years ago (showing my age a bit here) but they are genuinely good. There are lots of versions on the web so just pick one you fancy.

Oooh, now I know what you mean. I used to have this as child in Finland. Don't really know which Skandinavian country it originates from but it is yummy.