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

cw18

Welcome aboard

Great idea to spend the next few weeks getting ready for this - I was a "hanger-on" for a few months at the end of last year, and found this really helped me to get prepared mentally for it (and work out what I needed from my spreadsheets too!!)

Pauper1

nykmedia wrote: »

Pauper, I lived in Suffolk for a few years until 2004, it's a brilliant place with some spectacular properties and some really beautiful thatched cottages. Loved it down there but it is a bit flat and absolutely chaotic when the snow fell. I couldn't believe how many accidents there were as soon as the snow started to fall. But living there has given me so much to talk about in my old age, it was well worth it.

I agree, I do love Suffolk and all it's bumpkin ways.. but it does make me laugh in the winter, we come to a complete standstill! My family come from Leeds, so when there's snowfall, they obviously get a lot more of it, and cope absolutely fine. Whereas, down here, we get 1cm of snow and no one can get to work!! :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

zoe260373 wrote: »

hi again all,
would you mind if i joined please?im thinking of hovering until the 1st july then starting with a fresh month,although i will try and be good(ish) until then ;-)
hope everyone is well,x

That's what I like to hear, some new enthusuiasm and another new name on board our Frugalship. I have tagged your name onto the list, on page 1. Hope you have fun, clear any debts you may have and then stash some savings for whatever it is you really want out of life. Thanks for joining us. :T Just one cautionary word - if you do catch the Frugalitis bug, which is highly contageous, it's chronic.

Morning everyone - sun's shining, sky is blue, washing is on and I'm beginning to wonder where it all comes from, as there are only 3 of us here! I'm glad I don't buy expensive laundry detergent, that's for sure! (£4 for a year's supply of soap nuts and 10 litres of homemade laundry gloop at a cost of about 50p :rotfl:) Thank you to whoever it was that pointed out the recipe. My only problem is that it looks good enough to eat because I used strawberry pink. :rotfl:I must add the link to page 1 as a handy link.

Work needing done now, got mum visiting for a couple of days so I did a small Tesc0 order delivered to her address and she's bringing it with her. I meant to give SM my A$da voucher just in case she spotted any of these incredible, unbelievable whoopsie bargains that I have now discovered exist in places where lots of people live. I still can't get over how cheap the stuff is/was. It never gets price-slashed like that in Co-op and, no doubt, our new Sainsbury. To be honest, I'm astounded that someone like Sainsbury are even risking setting up shop in a place like this. Where they'll get the custom to support their staffing policies I do not know. It's completley beyond me.

whitewing

Hi zoe. As nyk says, we like new people joining in.

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Had an interesting few days over the weekend, which were not very frugal as it involved OH writing off my car on the M6 :eek: this was especially annoying as I had just paid out for 4 new tyres and filled the tank up with £40 quids worth of perol so felt a bit :mad: about that. On the postive side we managed to walk away with just sprains and bruises which was amazing considering we were involved in a 3 car pile up on the fast lane, must have had a guardian angel around at the time:A, the highways police, recovery driver and paramedics were all brilliant - can't praise them enough - they do a fantastic job:T:T
Had to fork out £150 quid for a hire car to get where we were going though so not a moneysaving weekend.

Some frugal things I did manage:

• replaced all lightbulbs in cottage with energy savers
• removed the tax disc from car for a refund - 6 months left
• used recycled newspaper logs on the fire
• recycled packaging off new appliances to recycle bank
• made a cold frame with the plastic sheeting from new sofa
• bought a pack of turkey pieces and made meals for weekend - curry with a 7p curry sauce, pasta, rice.
• made raised beds from some very cheap decking planks
• was given some free range eggs from neighbours for brekkies
• fed all the foodscraps to the birds

Not a lot considering the expenses we had after the crash but it all helps:rolleyes:

Hope everyone is okay, hugs to those who need one.Welcome to new frugalites.

Cheryl - That house looks good but juggernauts rolling past feet from house 24 hours a day en route to stranraer ferry to Ireland spoils the rural idyll somewhat. I wouldn't live there.Think East Lancs road outside front door;)

Blairweech

:eek: :eek: SM, thank heavens you and DH are alright.

:wave: zoe . As nyk says, frugalitis is chronic. Uncurable in fact

nyk - you made gloop then did you? How are you getting on with it? Mine does not seem to be going down, I will be using it for the next 10 years at this rate :rotfl:

Well, I am trying to get some bits together to do a carboot with my Mum on Sunday, hopefully I will make a little money and get rid of some stuff (emphasis on th latter ). Made a yummy Somerset Pok Casserole in the s/c last night, I really must use it more. Have had 3 NSD in a row so far, making this months total 5 so far , with plans for another one today.

Almost finished my 101, just 3 more left, then got to organise it into categories. Even though I am not starting it officially until my birhday (next Mon), I have already completed one thing :j

Hope you all have a lovely day

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Well E.on since you are searching this you tried to put my STO up to £157 per month!!!! on friday. When I queried this you wouldn't budge even though it is now summer, so I paid a lump sum, changed my tariff and you still tried to get £16 per month more than uswitch told me it would be even when I had put in my actual usage in for the last year!

Hi patchwork cat

Sorry you are unhappy with your payment arrangement. :sad:

By STO do you mean Standing Order? If you do, Eon has no control over these and cannot change your payments. However, if you have a Direct Debit this works differently.

Eon review Direct Debits regularly and will adjust them, either up or down, if they are not matching the energy you are using.

Direct Debits need to cover the energy used otherwise a debt will build up. Sounds like this is what happened to you as you have just paid off a lump sum.

Also, Direct Debit arrangements are spread over 12 months. This lets you build up a credit during the summer which then goes towards the higher winter bills.

Keep a check on your meter readings. If you are using significantly more or less than your payments give us a call and ask for a review. We are always happy to adjust payments so they better reflect what you are actually using.

Not sure about the Uswitch quote. Were you looking at like for like products? Has your usage changed since you put the figures in?

Hope this helps a little.

Malc

patchwork_cat

Pip's Mum have seen the BBC best reads list before and on reading your version realised I have read 25! However some of them are going to be HEAVY going! Very much agree with the Jane Austen's obviously excellent books, couple of surprises that I loved, but didn't think were particularly popular were A Town Like Alice and Thorn Birds, the Ragged Trousered Philanthropist now I would like to read that again ( don't think I have my copy any more). Anything by Thomas Hardy I might just miss! After studying The Mayor Of Casterbridge for English Lit O level I find him too depressing!

Aeb I don't know that area of Leicestershire well, but it looks more than a fixer up rather a rip down! What would worry me beyond the price, which seems high, is the restrictions potentially.

Thrifty Lass do you have a good local repair man or would you be ringing a big company?

We found a local man who does allsorts and was recommended by a friend at the school gate about 10 years ago. He mends everything from microwaves, oven to washers and dishwashers, admittedly some better than others, but he is incredibly honest and won't charge to come out if it is not worth repairing, he has condemned a couple of our machines and not charged! ( Since I found him have discovered that in fact about 3 or 4 other friends also use him!)

To be honest with a 10 year old machine I would call it a day and thank your lucky stars it has gone so long! Oh for a machine to last 10 years in our house!!

I get through washing machines and dishwashers at an amazing rate, in fact I am really quite fed up with or kitchen applainces, the only one we have had since we moved here 7 years ago is our tumble drier, we have had to replace 2 dishwashers, 1 washing machine, 1 fridge/freezer, 1 oven (although the old one did have a new element, but then DH dropped something on the door and it smashed into a thousand pieces).

Nyk very nice house, you could quite play at being Lord of the Manor their couldn't you! (or should that be Laird!) My Gr Uncle was called Wigtown, I bet that is were they originally hailed from.

SKintLynne my grandparents were Canadian too, I have never met anyone whose grandparents went this way over the pond, too, before. Grandpa was 1st generation Scottish Canadian ( from the Isle of Stroma originally) and Grandma's family had been in North America since the pilgims, her ancestors were some of the first 2000 people in America, but moved to Canada after the War of Independence as they were loyal to the King.

EON It is a DD, the problem comes when you reasses at the start of the summer, but your staff were very inflexible. I put actual usage for the last 12 months into Uswitch and the figure that they gave was for the plan I am on, but you still wanted £16 more than that, despite my paying a large lump sum off. Your staff didn't seem to make any allowance for seasonal usage and were taking the figures used for the last 9 months, that I have been with you as continuing for the whole year, which obviously they won't.

Sophie'smum scary. You are very lucky (I used to think this after our motorway write off, but then I thought no lucky would be for it not to have happened!) Are you having flash backs or anything?

JAMIEDODGER

Sm - glad you and OH are ok x

Have troeed of to tesco this morning and spent £25.91, this will be one of two shops i do this week. bought enough stuff to last until friday. no need to fill up car today as still plenty of petrol, dont do that many miles!

about to start on spreadsheet for next 6 months, this will be a paper version though! until i get laptop fixed!

cw18

sophiesmum wrote: »

Had an interesting few days over the weekend, which were not very frugal as it involved OH writing off my car on the M6 :eek: this was especially annoying as I had just paid out for 4 new tyres and filled the tank up with £40 quids worth of perol so felt a bit :mad: about that. On the postive side we managed to walk away with just sprains and bruises which was amazing considering we were involved in a 3 car pile up on the fast lane

S0d the money - you and Mr SM walked away from it, and that's ALL that really matters !!!!

Cheryl - That house looks good but juggernauts rolling past feet from house 24 hours a day en route to stranraer ferry to Ireland spoils the rural idyll somewhat. I wouldn't live there.Think East Lancs road outside front door;)

I've lived near busy roads before (and still do, though not quite as bad as the E. Lancs), but there is something else in the area that's almost as equally appealing -- Nyk said she'd have a quick chat with the postman if she sees him...... And I've actually spotted a third possibility too!! Looks like I may HAVE to take a trip up to check them all out first hand, although DS - and DD and GDs - won't be happy about me moving, especially that far :rolleyes: