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

cw18

Online party!!! Humph! You wouldn't believe how long it is since I went to a party

Thinks back...

thinks further back.....

thinks even further back.......

Nah! Can't remember (unless you count GD's birthday parties :rolleyes2 )

GotNoMoney

Sorry to break this to you all but I actually live off £1820 a year.

Yes, I live of £1820 a year.

No joke, no typing error, one thousand eight hundred and twenty pounds a year.

How, you might ask?

Simple - I am on the dole and have parents that insist that I pay them £25 a week out of the £60 dole money. This leaves me with £35 a week. Multiplied by 52 weeks equals £1820.

Beat that.

Do I win a prize? Didn't think so. :A

I'm not called "GotNoMoney" for no reason.

If you want a breakdown of what I spend that £35 on:

£25 goes on food.
£10 goes on rolling tobacco.

I can't for the life of me quit smoking.

Good job I don't have a big appetite and keep my spirits up huh.

cw18

Yes, but that £25/week is covering overheads like gas & electric (and water) that a lot of us pay, plus TV licence, house insurance, home insurance and (probably) internet connection and home phone - all of which I (and others) include in the figures. So that extra £1300 really needs including in your annual total, making it £3,120 a year rather than £1,820 -- so a lot closer to the £4k that some people are using to feed, clothe and house a family !!

(And by the way, £25/week on food is a big appetite in my household - the weekly budget for food per adult here is £12.60, so I'm close enough to feeding 2 of us for what you spend on food for just you)

Frugaldom

Good morning to all
Another beautiful, sunny day here; I hope SM has a safe trip home and one that's less eventful than the one getting here. Didn't get the chance to speak to her much yesterday, think I must have upset her OH. (Sorry Mr SM, but I really do need the washing all done & dried when the weather is dry, hope you're feeling better soon.)

CW, I'm not going to bother responding to the new poster, look at the time they posted and at what they said - it's just some attention seeker with nothing better to do with their time, IMO.

Updating post as I catch up.

Whitewing - here's the link to the picture of the weird fixy-up a couple of miles from us, but they have taken the picture from the side of the main road, which you can't see. It's a 17th Century Smithy with a wooden chalet built on top. You'll maybe remember it from when I first posted about it. SM was laughing at me when I complained of the road & local town being busy as, apparently, it isn't anything like busy. (To my knowledge, I have no association, whatsoever, with the linked property, it's owners, the sellers or anyone else vaguely familiar with the place. I spotted it whilst property searching for a place with land or a large garden.)

cw18

Sounds like your new neighbours are doing some serious mileage in the car at the moment Nyk !!

Checked my mileage for the 'year to date' (in terms of insurance year) yesterday - I capped it at 4k when I renewed last August (due on 1st of that month), and the woman I was speaking to (when I planned to renew after making some changes, which was before I realised I could do it on-line as a new policy - which meant the cashback cancelled out the extra cost for having a zero excess!) was concerned this could be too low for "any" driver in this day and age. I'm currently on a smiddgen under 2.5k, with just 54 days left of my policy year - and the last two weeks of that are school holidays, which means no 3.7miles/day to pick up the GDs

Frugaldom

CW, Serious mileage hasn't been the problem, SM will update shortly.

I sold my car a few years back and can borrow either HS or DS's as they each have one. DS does his daily 25 miles round trip for work plus his extra mileage socialising and visiting other family, but he still manages to keep under 10,000 miles a year. HS, on the otherhand, probably only does about 2000 miles a year and that includes me borrowing the car for the 200 mile round trip to visit parents now and again and the weekend trundle into town. I can't remember how far SM said it was from here to her work, would I be right in thinking it's closer to 380 miles round trip? She might be online at lunchtime, can check then.

Work is calling, but I can usually manage to keep MSE running in the background Hope everyone has a good day.

whitewing

That explains that then. I missed some of the thread at the start of the year so I hadn't realised that sm was still at work. Good. We can get some free alcohol from the naughty kids via the police for our online party, lol. I was hating to think that her oldies were going to have to give up drinking!

That strange house has potential. I'd be happy to stay in it when we come to visit if you want to run it as a holiday cottage.

I did a mortgage overpayment today so am happy. Got diddly squat money until tomorrow now.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

whitewing wrote: »

I am more cheery today. Eon has just written to say they are reducing my monthly DD by £27 a month. That'll be partly due to us having our loft and cavity walls done, so I am most delighted. I like it when good news comes without having to chase it up. Sometimes I get so fed up with having to keep tabs on it all.

Hi whitewing

Great news about the Direct Debit. :j

Loft and Cavity Wall Insulation definitely help to reduce energy usage. There are a lot of other things you can do to bring it down even more.

Check the interactive house out on our website. There are a lot of good energy saving tips here. :cool:

Also, ask for a copy of our 100 Energy Saving Tips booklet. More good ideas in this to help you cut down.

Malc

bails

Morning all, I am seriously intrigued to know what has been going on on SM's side of the Frugal Commune....

That house is indeed unusual Nyk! I'm looking more for a small cottage to build a cob extension on...

Taking the dog for a long walk today as she is way too bouncy, posting some important letters for travelling and menu planning to start using up the contents of the freezers. Not the most exciting of days, especially as I was meant to be working and now that's not happening but hey ho. Have a good one everyone!

Savvy_sewing

cw18 wrote: »

Mooloo - how old is your son? Is he going to college in September?

DS is 16. He is leaving school and going to an apprenticeship mechanics job as soon as he can. Something that his father has set up with DAF Trucks I believe. But I dont know the finances of it. As yet. anyway. Thats what worries me. His school mate mentioned to him to day that "did you know that our mums will loose the child benefit for us when we leave school", and I thought and the rest. The maintenance from his father, the child tax credits, and possibly some of the housing benefit/??? :eek: