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

Snow_White_5

Happy New Year belatedly! I'm so excited to be doing this challenge. :j have had 2 NSDs so far but am almst out of food - my stockpiling was all cleaning poducts and tea .

Lollopybear - how did your 1st batch of soup go? I made curried carrot soup this week - just got a couple of onions and 6 carrots, chopped them, fried them, simmered for 20 mins in 500ml veg stock, blended, mixed with 100ml milk then added a dessert spoonful of curry powder. Serve with swirl of plain yoghurt or craime fraiche, and a bit of parsely and Bob's your uncle. Cheap, easy and very tasty.

Have a lovely evening everyone. SW xx

PS Mrs McCawber - your fried rice recipe from a few pages back is fantastic - and I made mine veggie, so it will be even nicer when I make it again with chicken. I'm going to make it for my dad too as he loves Chinese takeaways, let's see whether he prefers hm ones!:T

andan

Today has been another NSD for me, so feel like i am off to a good start! Wait till tomorrow and direct debits go out!

I also cooked some roast potatoes in the oven whilst cooking tea, i will use them for tomorrow's lunch with the left over turkey from yesterday. I also made extra veg tonight to use for tomorrow's lunch. In fact it wasn't extra veg but our usual amount, but often i cook too much and it goes to waste. The veg was also about to go off soon! Feel like the challenge is helping already.

Have also eaten up some fruit that was about to go off and a yoghurt that was a few days out of date, all this would have previously gone in the bin, so already feel like my budget is improving and its great not to be wasting the food.

Naomim

My, my! One day off the lappy and there's pages of posts!

My plan for this evening was to actually sit down and do a proper spreadsheet to make sure my £5k was actually going to work rather than being a pie in the sky figure I picked But after reading all the posts (and dealing with a major tantrum from a tired 3 year old) I'm not sure I have the energy

I have spent £23 in the last two days and £10-ish of that was on the evil cigarettes I have however been to the Doctors and got champix tablets but now I think the pharmacist has given me the wrong dosage so I need to go back tomorrow :mad: Hopefully by this time next month I will be off them and saving myself £1800 a year :T

Naomi x

MrDT

Well, although the first two days of the year should really be no spend days (due to me not leaving the flat!!) I just realised my first tv licence direct debit of 2009 has wriggled out of my bank account, so no more shiny untouched 4k in sig

Tomorrow will see the first grocery shop of 2009, so more damage to come soon...

Done some more meddling with my new 2009 spreadsheet, relatively happy with it for now lol, no doubt more modifications will come throughout the year :rolleyes:

Now then, start on shopping list, go cook some supper, or watch tv? Tough call!

fallen_angel_shelley

Naomim- re the champix, watch out for side efffects, i was on them last year and got bad depression. i know they work for a lot of people with very good results, but just watch out.

shelley x

nad_

well if i was in africa poor country then i would lived my whole life in 4000 lol

fizzel81

evening all

well i was hoping for a nsd but it didnt quite happen, spent £34 in total (that includes whatever i stuck in the jar)
also spent some boots points still have just over £99 of them to use

got ds some unifrom from woolies, at 75p for polo shirts im not mega worried if he has a growth spurt between now and september as owen can wear them under his clothes got 2-3 and 3-4 so either way i have polo shirts for septemeber when he starts and a pair of trousers for 60p so spent £4.98 in woolies on 8 polo shirts a pair of trousers and some pick and mix (for the boys)

spent £5 in poundland on face wipes, 5 flannels (for faces) and a book each for the 3 boys

naughty naughty bit just under £15 on kfc (i know i know) makeing up for it tomorrow with homemade soup and homemade bread for tea

and fineally
i went in sommerfield to stock up on loo roll charmin is half price, i now have enough loo rolls for the year i think added to the stock of what i already have, in theory if i have accounted enough i dont need to buy any cleaning, washing, and tolitries for the whole of 2009

tomorrow and sunday will be nsd and im hopeing monday will be too, shouldnt need any milk,fruit or veg untill tuesday and that should come in at under £15, for that i will draw £50 out and then use that forwhats needed and anything else that arises

lingojingo

Wow! over 5 pages added since I logged off this morning! It'll soon be a full time job just keeping up with this thread :rotfl:

Still feeling full of cold so not been out yet, but not a nsd as TV licence dd has gone out. Done inventory of freezer, cupboards still to do, then stockpile shop next week. (thanks to CW :T for news of supermarket price wars - hoping to get better deals by waiting a few days). Never thought of asking for raincheck vouchers in Tesco, so thanks for pointing that out SFT :T. Looked at appr0ved f00ds and may order some from there - thanks Nyk :T.
Glendam - very impressed you can get cheese to last couple of months - no matter what amount is bought it all disappears quickly here, so I just buy it in smaller amounts :rotfl:

Welcome !st time mum and CannyClaire - it really is addictive, and great fun.

Glad the trip to Cornwall went ok Marru.

Sorry for everyone else who deserves a mention, my poor brain is addled now.

Vixstar

I don't know what happened I popped into Mr T near the DIY store for bread and milk and came out £8 lighter. It may have had a little to do with the tins of soup I stocked up on for my lunches (I know I know hm is probably better) and a lot to do with the slightly reduced frozen desserts that I probably don't need but will thouroughly enjoy. Should've walked to the local coop instead - definitely couldn't have carried £8 worth of stuff!
No NSD tomorrow as am meeting a friend for lunch and investigating what remains in the sales.

whitewing

Oh heck, more gets added as I log on. I'm never going to keep up.

Resisted fish and chips this evening as popped into family on the way home and they fed us!

Would have spent at the hairdresser but MIL is going to do it for me tomorrow, so NSD apart from DD's.

Need to swap some money around and could do with JennyBee's sister, but apart from that all is currently calm in the whitewing household.