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

JennyBee_2

savingfortravel wrote: »

Wow JennyBee!!!!! What a wonderful, unexpected surprise.. maybe it will bring on the baby!!! SFT

:rotfl: That's not even funny! I've got stuff to do before this baby arrives!!

cw18

JennyBee wrote: »

:rotfl: That's not even funny! I've got stuff to do before this baby arrives!!

And I'm still expecting you to hang on to this frugal-teeny for an extra 5 days, as I'd love to get to share my birthday with someone this time around :j

JennyBee_2

Cheryl - I'll see what I can do!!

macwah97

Hi Everybody

Happy New Year - and thoughts to all nursing hangovers - we just all have the flu here - so little alcohol was consumed and singing at Jools Holland has wrecked what little voice we were regaining anyway - But sure it only happens once a year!!

NSD for us here. Money has gone into bank account and I have not touched it. Shopping list ready for to-morrow.

Dinner tonight - Christmas Dinner again - last of Beef and Ham, use some more turkey and last of sprouts. - Turkey Curry for to-morrow!!!

Once again - congratulations on all expected babies and good luck with all your personal and public challenges.

Annie

sophiesmum_2

Now xmas is over again for another year I have been pondering my pressies needed for the coming year.
Have lots of birthdays sorted thanks to sales and some of next years xmas gifts so decided to think about Easter as that is next main thing for me.
This is what I have come up with:

For some of my easter gifts I am potting up some daffodil bulbs into recycled plastic pots now so that they will be ready about then, then I will wrap the pots in tissue paper and ribbon.

Also I picked up lots of boxes of sugared almonds in sales for 10p each which i will be putting into cello cones and tying with a nice pastel ribbon and gift tag.

Also thinking of making some individual mini fruit cakes for the adults and then icing and decorating, before wrapping in cello.For kids will be doing easter bunny gingerbreads and icing/decorating then putting in cello bags.

That should sort out most of my easter gifts at very little cost:j

JAMIEDODGER

Jenny - what a lovely suprise and what a thoughtful sister you have!

SM - Easter???? lol....see you are so organised but your posts often give me food for thought!

Kids still full from lunch so have opted for cereal for dinner instead of pasta and pesto, will have tomorrow instead:) Im a bit peckish so may have a browse and see if there is anything i fancy!

My dad popped round earlier and bought me a nice bottle of my fav wine my mum had asked him to bring round, plus a lego set for ds3 from my grandad:D

Off to do washing up now, before it breeds....

Frugaldom

Hello, welcome newbies and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all. I hope all the poorly people (or those who are just a little bit 'under the weather') are starting to feel better and that everyone has arrived in 2009 with a will to succeed in beating this so-called credit crunch. Cheers to one and all! :beer:

I've just added another few names to the challenger list at post 2, please keep checking to make sure I don't miss anyone and apologies, in advance, if I do. I do try to keep up with all the posts but the memory is as frugal as everything else about here and tends to miss bits out when it comes time to 'sum up'. :rotfl:

It's been a beautiful, sunny and frosty day here, so we went for a walk before dinner and I collected another bag of kindling sticks. One of my new year's resolutions is to collect enough kindling to keep us going all year, another is to practice frugal, digital photography every month so we have a year's worth of photos to choose from when it comes the time to make up the 2010 calendars as part of next year's Christmas gifts.

Dinner was homemade soup followed by roast beef, roast potatoes and mixed veg and I have a cheesecake waiting to be eaten. I have to admit that I am not as frugal at saving leftovers as I probably could be, but I can never resist putting the scraps out for the birds, Bagpuss, Mr Fox and Mr Hedgehog. The wildlife also accounts for some of my grocery spending and my 'everything else' spending, but it's a hobby that I'm not prepared to give up, as I like watching everything. Today we've seen the usual assortment of small garden birds plus a flock of long-tailed-tits that seem to live in the reeds and bushes at the side of the drive. I'd love to see one of the badgers but, so far, all we've seen are the foot prints. Maybe I need to leave them out some peanuts, the same as Bill Oddie does on TV. :rotfl:

I was all prepared for 2009 spending starting right away, so I have already deducted £30 for topping up the electricity meter, 50p for the box of Christmas cards that have been put away for next year (was cheaper than making them), the stockpile foodstuffs I ordered from Approved Foods plus err... £10.33 (inc P&P) for 4 pairs of mock Crocs from http://www.underfivepounds.co.uk/special-offers/ because they are brilliant for wearing as garden shoes and are so comfy! I'll also be adding a pair into each of 2 gardening hampers I'm planning as gifts for later in the year, so have split the cost between gifts category and clothing/footwear. I really need to stay off the Internet so I don't spot bargains! Bargains are my downfall! :rolleyes: I guess I better sort out my shiny new signature and start off 2009 for real!

Edited in - I missed this, sorry! Congratulations JennyBee, I so agree with your decision to save your 4k until such times as it is really needed. Your sister seems extremely wise, and such a lovely person, presenting you with the cheque just as you are expecting your baby. I think that is a wonderful thing to do and can only think that your sis truly believes you deserve it and your grand father would be so proud. My gran did similar with a small amount of money she left for each of the grandchildren (6 of us), so the amount had grown and was made up to £1000 as we each reached 21. It was enough to pay the deposit on a house back then and came as such a welcome surprise that I decided to do similar for my own DD & DS, squirrelling away some savings over the years so they could each have £1000 for their 21st birthdays.

slowlyfading

Hello to everyone, and happy 2009!

It is wrong to be so excited its the start of the new year? I've got my new income spreadsheet sorted, as well as an outgoings section, and I'm so excited to start filling it in! I even want to spend something so I can add something in! :rolleyes: I hope this year will be even better than last, money wise, and that I can say no to so many unnecessary impulse buys that may tempt me to stray. My main weakness is dvds, and I don't need any more! (Note to self: NONE!)

Thanks for the words of comfort you all left regarding my dog. It has been so hard here the last few days, but I'm getting by. The worse thing is getting up in a morning, and not having her gorgeous face to greet me with a whine and a lick. Its really quiet in the house without her, but I guess that's just something I will have to get used to.

So, here's to a happy, successful 2009 :beer:

sf x x

cw18

My spreadsheet seems to be working OK so far :T

But I'm spending tonight overloading it with the start of my grocery cupboard stocktake -- so I guess only time will tell how well it survives that :rotfl:

I've managed to do 4 cupboards and the 2 part cupboards so far. Thought I had 5 full ones to do when I started off this morning, but I'd forgotten to count in my baking one -- so still 2 full cupboards to do, then the one where my spices wrestle for space with my lesser used pans (which I'd also forgotten about), then the fridge, then 2 freezers. (And at some point in the year I'll catch up with all the stuff dotted around the house in boxes as well :rolleyes2 )

angelatgraceland

gillst wrote: »

Happy New Year to all - wishing a speedy recovery to those feeling under the weather. My dad was supposed to join us today, but he is not feeling very well at all. Have spent quite a bit today, but hopefully long term it will mean a savings. Spent £25 on a box of goodies (apparently worth £150) on the ArtyMiss web site so I can try and make birthday/christmas cards etc this year. Never done anything like this so hopefully not a waste of money. Got a big shop from Asda (£80) coming on Saturday, stocking up on cans and non perishables, so hopefully these will last some time. Popped to our local shop to get some meat for dinner today (forgot to get something out of the freezer!!!!!!) and found an offer on HP baked beans (4 for £1), so bought 28 cans!! So quite a big spend day, but hope this will save us in the long term. Going to go through all my christmas cards and cut out bits i can use on home made cards for next year. Had some lovely ground coffee for a present which we had for breakfast this morning. Unfortunately did not have any coffee filters, so used a double sheet of kitchen roll instead, which worked remarkably well. Made a large jug and put in a thermos flask to last during the day and put the coffee grouts in my composter - I AM LEARNING!!!!!

Get yourself one of the nylon filters for your coffee machine. They are easy to clean and last forever!
I also use washable filters in my Dyson DCO1(not a coffee machine I know) so Im saving a lot on filters!
Still havent eaten the chops I bought yesterday so they will go in the freezer in a mo. tubbed up the curry-7 for the freezer and I think another 7 got eaten! All form a recipe which cost me about £2-£2.50(not inc rice)
Still eating cheese and biscuits which I bought for last night and some bacon butties. The others have been tucking into the curry-good job too as there would not have been room in the freezer for all that lot. Breadmaker been on so now have a loaf awaiting me-I dont enjoy shop bought any more.
Great for those using up the odds and bits for other recipes-using up baked beans in not going a step too far-its automatic. I recued a tomato today from our veggy bin for the guinea-pigs-perfectly ok for them! Got lots of carrots in lidl yesterday for 19p per kilo. Decided to do more shopping there in future-it will also save me hoarding carrier bags as I will remember to take them with me. Bought a couple of mangoes and may make some chutney-not sure yet-going to investigate a recipe making small amounts. They were only 20p each in Lidl and its not anything I normally buy but as chutney is about £1 a jar or so and we rather like it I figure it will be very cheap chutney.:money:

Jenny-thats lovely for you! What a great sister and I think her timing is perfect-she is giving it to you when you need it most-I think she may have planned this long ago???
Sounds like the way I think on things for my younger siblings!

Nyk-we used to have badgers come right up to our patio doors at night some years back and we used to feed the right there. They were nightly visitors. Our cat was at the patio doors one night and it worried us but they just sniffed each other and didnt fuss! Have some lovely vhs video somewhere of the badgers. They were so regular that we felt like asking Bill Oddie around for a cuppa.