Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 2

Skint_Lynne

cha97michelle wrote: »

Evening gang.

I am a bit annoyed this evening. I have been sat in all day waiting for delivery of a water butt from Agr0s. 7am-6pm delivery slot, I rang customer services when it wasn't delivered to get some rubbish story. 1st they said they tried to deliver it and no-one answered, then it had been delivered to a different house, and then that the delivery driver noticed it was cracked so didn't deliver it. As they have no more in stock i feel like i was lied to. They offered to keep my money until they had one in stock again, but i declined that one. Grrr. Can't even spend my own money. :mad:

So a full day wasted really. The kids were going stir crazy and i was hoping to take them up the park or something. DS2 in particular was a pain as he can't walk but wants to climb up everything (bookcases, onto toy boxes, up the shelves on the TV cabinet) and also teething so bit me 3 times, once hard enough to draw blood. I was greatful when it was bed time tonight i can tell you. Far more difficult than DS1 was.

I'm going to chill a bit tonight, DH is working a long day tomorrow. The boys are at nursery and i have a to-do list a mile long.

BB i caught that programme too. I think Michael Moseley is fab in that sort of programme. Some good ideas that i think i knew some of, but worth a try. It made me think i should get out for a long walk with the kids at least on my days off and it would probably make a difference, but the bit i found funniest was the large lady who only ate 1100 cals a day but was really 3000. I bet she felt so silly.

Just going to eat dinner, so i will catch up with you all tomorrow when i'm all calm again.

Michelle x

Michelle,

I had a similar problem with Argos when I was getting a washing machine delivered. My sister waited in my house all day, I called a couple of times during the day and first they said that they tried to deliver it, then they said no one was in, then they said it wasn't in stock and would be in about 3 weeks later. I wrote to them and got £40 in gift vouchers and they gave me a better machine.:D

Drop them a line, if you don't ask, you don't get.

Not much doing today, I'm tired as was working late, so off to bed. xx

slowlyfading

Night SL xx

Pips_Mum

Deleted_User wrote: »

I think I might have to stop 'officially' doing the challenge I just cant keep up with logging all the spends (altho there isnt very many) I am going to carry on doing it in my own little way, but please can I carry on lurking and contributing every now and again?

Its a baby thing Loopy!

I find it so hard to find the time to log everything and keep track properly now I have Pip. If he is asleep I have housework or cooking or just a rest to catch up on. But I keep reading what everyone else is up to and getting fabulous ideas to keep me on track. I have definately changed my entire way of thinking. Things I wouldnt have thought twice about chucking out now gets turned into another meal or goes in the freezer for another day. And previously I wouldnt have grown my own veggies but I am enjoying doing it.

Thanks everybody :T:T

Nyk you asked ages ago how much Pip weighed now and I kept forgetting to answer you. He is 5 months on Friday and weighs 20lb 2oz :eek:!! He is always going to be a hefty lad I think!:rotfl:

purplevamp

I'm back for my usual late night post

Nyk - who in their right mind would pay over £1 for tinned toms? It's madness. Does the lemon curd work out cheap to make? We get basics for about 30p.

bb - I saw that diet programme last night, I thought I was quite clued up about diet (don't practice it enough though) but I was surprised by a couple of things, the soup being one of them. Those x-stiches are beautiful :T. I haven't done any for years, but mine are not in that league, well done

patchwork cat - if you want bees there's loads in my garden, and butterflies. They seem to like our plant with orange buds on (don't know what it is). What annoyed me about food waste was watching Big Brother a couple of years ago when they were just chucking food around, and all the tasks seemed to be food-based. That really wound me up :mad:

cha97michelle - :mad: @ Argos, that really sucks. What a long winded story, and you're probably right about it being made up. Glad you asked for your money back


I decided to put the tomato/seed house up that I bought ages ago. I started at 2.30pm and finished it at 8.30pm, with a 2 hour break to charge my screwdriver up :eek:. If it hadn't have been for DH helping me with the frame it would still be in bits. I started getting blisters on my hands from putting the screws in so thought I'd use my cordless one but the battery was dead, so had to wait hence the break. It does look nice though and is housing my lettuces tonight!

Well off to do scratchcards, then bed as I've got work tomorrow. Nighty night peeps :hello:

Frugaldom

Hi fruguys and gals

Quick update to let everyone know that SM and Mr SM arrived in Frugaldom safe and well at 11pm last night, I'm just hoping Mr White didn't wake them too early this morning.

SFT - I'm the calendar culprit, I take photos every month to compile into a 2010 edition of the Frugaldom Calendar. It's fun and it's frugal and there are loads of free sites with the dates part listed for downloading or else you can upload to somewhere like V!sta print, which is what I did in 2008.

Sorry to read about your Arg0s debacle, Cha, we're waiting for collections by Parcelforce for their 48 hour delivery and they haven't shown up. Email response from Parcel2Go says it'll be Monday before they get to us!! Considering the parcel is supposed to be with the customer today, that isn't much good to us and makes me so angry. It's happened 3 times now!

Well done to all the blogsters! I can add your links to mine, too.. I cheated and got a cheap domain name to mask the webspace & free blog space. Can anyone guess what it is? :cool: yep! It's Frugaldom.co.uk :rotfl: (Don't want to add a link just in case I'm not supposed to but it's attached to my username as my homepage.)

Purplevamp - You'd be surprised at some of the prices people have to pay when there are few shops. Right now, there are no high street supermarkets that do own brand saver varieties in our area because S0merfield is closed until Sa!nsbury refurbishes and reopens the store. We do have a new Aldi store, however. (Does anyone else think Aldi is quite expensive for much of their stuff compared to the hyped up expectations of expecting to be able to buy cheap stuff? ) The lemon curd works out cheap if you have hens laying loads of eggs We can't get 30p store bought stuff here so it's cheaper for me.

Pip's Mum, Pipette sounds like a right little bruiser already, I'll bet he's at that rolypoly, wants to sit up by himself, but can't really be bothered stage. It's quite a good age, if I remember correctly, as you can prop them up with pillows all around and they are little enough not to escape but big enough to amuse themselves with a baking bowl, some yoghurt and a wooden spoon to chew on. I used to spread out a play mat but it was still soooooooo messy! I think that's why my DD hates to get her nails dirty now, she was sick of it by the time she got to school. :rotfl: But she still likes yoghurt.

Welcome back, SF, how was Paris?

Going for a quick peek at the new blogs now.

MrDT

Hi guys, not kept up with the thread I'm afraid but still recording spends. Just read the last page as I can't go back much further (no time) - SFT, things seem to be moving very quickly, seems only a month ago you were 'considering' moving! I'm very pleased for you, this move to the countryside sounded like something you really wanted and it all seems to be faling into place

I've gone overbudget again this month, mainly thanks to buying a new sofa. We only had the one two seater, and the lounge would suit two, so have just bought another one. I think I got a pretty good deal - paid just under £160 including delivery, price reduced from £400+delivery!! There's a very similar sofa (very similar style, exact same size) selling at £440+delivery. Very happy with the deal Only problem is that it's an argos delivery, cha michelle hasn't filled me with confidence lol

I'll update with proper figures nearer the end of the month. Not sure what I'm doing this weekend yet so no idea on spends. I think I might go fishing on sunday so that'll be cheap, but tomorrow could well involve a day at the pub if the weather sticks!

I need to sort a decent internet connection at home, I think it'd pay for itself through extra earnings (matched betting etc) to be honest. I've seen a mobile broadband offer by 3 that allows 15gb of transfers a month for £15 per month. Considering line rental alone for a landline would be about £12 a month I think this is pretty hard to beat. Anyone have any experience with these? I think mumzy used to use one, but not seen her for a while (hello if you're reading ). I need to know what the speeds are like, and what happens when you've used up the 15gb (do they not tell you and charge insane £/mb or do you get cut off)?

If I don't see you all again, have a good weekend. Hope you get good tomato growing (or beer garden lounging) weather lol

lyndasharp

Hi everyone! I'm back too!

Scotland was mostly cold and rainy. Dunvegan Castle was a good idea, thought it was a lovely place. Eigg was fab, the only sunny day we had, followed by meeting the locals at an impromptu music evening in the only pub on the island. I'm back at work now, so will catch up with the posts later.

Annoyingly, came back to find H2B's car windscreen cracked, from a chip that Autoglass hadn't been able to repair, we think it was hit by a football or something, as it's pretty close to where the local kids play. His left over holiday spending money is now having to go on a new windscreen...

I have two weeks to finish the cross stitch for my Nana's birthday, but I should be able to manage it...

Edit: MrDT, I've got the 3 mobile broadband. Speed is slower than standard broadband, and having moved house I don't get a signal. If you're in a good reception area it's fine though, and was useful before I moved! They do charge if you go over your allowance, but they have a tracker on their website that can tell you how much you've used. Mine's only 5gb and I never managed more than 2, I'd be surprised if you could get to 15gb unless you download lots of tV and movies?

MrDT

lyndasharp wrote: »

Edit: MrDT, I've got the 3 mobile broadband. Speed is slower than standard broadband, and having moved house I don't get a signal. If you're in a good reception area it's fine though, and was useful before I moved! They do charge if you go over your allowance, but they have a tracker on their website that can tell you how much you've used. Mine's only 5gb and I never managed more than 2, I'd be surprised if you could get to 15gb unless you download lots of tV and movies?

Thanks lynda. They also offer a £10 for 1gb 'pay as you go' option. It might be worth me giving that a go first before signing up for a two year contract, could see what the speeds are like and how quickly we eat through a gig. If we need more can always sign up for the 15gb contract at a later date. Thanks :money:

redglass_2

BB, I am knocked out by the cross-stitch - really beautiful.

Sorry to hear stories of companies not keeping to delivery times (I HATE THAT and I hate it even more when they ask if my 'husband' could stay in for me - what husband? Haven't companies noticed that quite a lot of us live alone nowadays? :mad: ). I'd just like to say that I've had very good service from a company called organiccatalogue.com. It's for organic gardeners. Their stuff isn't the cheapest, but I can't buy slug pellets that won't harm wildlife, and that are safe to use with veggie gardens, anywhere round here and the slugs were destroying every last cabbage i had, so i phoned these people yesterday and talked to a lovely lady who said they would do their best to get slug pellets to me as fast as possible, before all the veg was gone. The pellets arrived this morning. :T One of the fastest deliveries I've ever had.

cw18

MrDT wrote: »

I need to sort a decent internet connection at home, I think it'd pay for itself through extra earnings (matched betting etc) to be honest. I've seen a mobile broadband offer by 3 that allows 15gb of transfers a month for £15 per month. Considering line rental alone for a landline would be about £12 a month I think this is pretty hard to beat. Anyone have any experience with these? I think mumzy used to use one, but not seen her for a while (hello if you're reading ). I need to know what the speeds are like, and what happens when you've used up the 15gb (do they not tell you and charge insane £/mb or do you get cut off)?

I have use of elder DS's T-mobile one when he's in Germany (they charge a small fortune for him to use it abroad, but cancelling early would have cost him the same as keeping it until end of minimum term contract!).

Used to use it when babysitting at DD's (but she now has a wireless connection on her b/band, so I use that). Was painfully slow in comparison to my home connection - but at least it worked!! DS told me that if he/I/we went over the usage allowance they just slowed the connection down ( :eek: ), but I don't think we've ever come close. Isn't anything like fast enough for his on-line gaming, and I find this forum (and another using the same s/ware) run much better if I turn off avatars, images and signatures. Also has a habit of disconnecting itself if you don't load something every 5 mins or so as busy times, and takes a while to connect so that can be frustrating too!! It is faster than accessing the 'net over my mobile phone though - and that's with T-mobile as well.....