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

1st_time_mum

Hi Guys,

I'm a complete and utter Newbie to this thread. I've been reading for a few days and been lurking around without signing up but have taken a massive deep breath and just enrolled onto the MSE forums and decided to take part in this challenge, if you'll have me of course!!

Please be patient and bear with me. I have lots of questions and will need some support from this lovely community. I've got lots of ideas for goals that I want to set myself this year. However I'm not going to post my budget up straight away, need some time to get going!! .... I'll update you on the situation first of all and then the rest can come later....

Firstly, I'm technically a soon to be 1st time mum.... thats right another pregnant lady joining the challenge. LOL! I'm due Feb 09 but Im being induced early so poss baby will be here in the next few weeks (by end of Jan! Scary & exciting!!). Anyway I'm going through lots of changes to income and possibly I'm thinking about not going back to work after Mat leave, (for various reasons that I'm not ready to share just yet). Basically I need to live well within my means if I'm gonna get thru this yr in one piece.

At the mo, my pregnancy has not been too kind to me, I'm having some health issues plus I'm exhausted all the time! I'll try to keep involved over the next few days in the forum but I may be lax with spend updates...bear with me ok!

Love this forum and all the support and kindness you've been showing each other, take care!

1st time Mum.
xxxxx

glendam

Dont think i am going to very good at this challenge. Went shopping today and seemed to have spent a fortune on food. Admitidly cheese and salmon should last a couple of months if not more. Needed petrol too.
Only good thing was didn`t pop in for the usual latte and muffin. So probably saved £4 there alone. Good job i am only in training.

Glenda

JennyBee_2

1st_time_mum wrote: »

Firstly, I'm technically a soon to be 1st time mum.... thats right another pregnant lady joining the challenge. LOL! I'm due Feb 09 but Im being induced early so poss baby will be here in the next few weeks (by end of Jan! Scary & exciting!!). Anyway I'm going through lots of changes to income and possibly I'm thinking about not going back to work after Mat leave, (for various reasons that I'm not ready to share just yet). Basically I need to live well within my means if I'm gonna get thru this yr in one piece.

There's a lot of us about....I think the temptation of trying not to go back to work does weird things to our brains and means that all of a sudden budgeting is an exciting thing to do!!! Or maybe that's just me

Kittikins - All the parks are listed on thesun.co.uk/holidays and the first token is in tomorrow's paper (plus a bonus one online). We've been on one for the last couple of years and have now converted my parents to them as well!

JAMIEDODGER

welcome 1st time mum.....a new baby how exciting:D:T

Kittikins

I've been off looking, but the more you look, the harder it is to choose where to apply for!! I'm quite ashamed to say I don't know many parts of the UK, I live just outside Brighton and so am blessed with the sea and gorgeous countryside kind of on the doorstep, as it'll probably be just me and DD this year, will want to choose somewhere friendly and with a good beach, as weather permitting, all a 3 year old wants to do is play on the beach, eat icecream and know that mummykins is there to build big sandcastles to be knocked down

Aaaaaaaah, bring on summer, I'm fed up of winter now!

Hello 1st Time Mum

JAMIEDODGER

have taken the plunge and ordered a chocolate mould and some bags to have a try at making my own easter chocs this year as I have about 19 kids to get for :eek: this comes out of 2008 money as i made a mistake and still had some leftover!!!

charliedavis

JennyBee wrote: »

There's a lot of us about....I think the temptation of trying not to go back to work does weird things to our brains and means that all of a sudden budgeting is an exciting thing to do!!! Or maybe that's just me

Kittikins - All the parks are listed on thesun.co.uk/holidays and the first token is in tomorrow's paper (plus a bonus one online). We've been on one for the last couple of years and have now converted my parents to them as well!

Thanks for that, I thought I had missed the start, will definitely be using this offer!

sophiesmum_2

JAMIEDODGER wrote: »

have taken the plunge and ordered a chocolate mould and some bags to have a try at making my own easter chocs this year as I have about 19 kids to get for :eek:

:j :j what mould have you gone for Jamie? Always fancied trying an egg but never got around to it yet:rolleyes:

OH has requested another choc slab for his easter goodie.

cw18

I've been to the local shops today, but haven't spent much :T

39p for 2.5kg spuds from A!di, plus 41p (instead of £1.65) for a pack of 4 peppers from S'flds -- and a resulting 10p of shrapnel for my sealed jar.

And 39p for 1kg of carrots from A!ldi, but these are out of my 'dog food' budget rather than groceries -- 'cos they're being chopped and used as treats for the Dalmatian as DS is working on 'recall' with him (allergies to additives rules out all but the most expensive dog treats)..... and another 1p for my sealed jar.




I've got some chocolate moulds knocking around (including some egg ones), but haven't yet tried using them. Could well be a task on my list for this year

JAMIEDODGER

sophiesmum wrote: »

:j :j what mould have you gone for Jamie? Always fancied trying an egg but never got around to it yet:rolleyes:

OH has requested another choc slab for his easter goodie.

I went for a mould with 12 cottontail bunnies:D Remind me to [STRIKE]pester[/STRIKE] ask nicely for your sweety recipes and your easter prezzie tips:D