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

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  • Frugaldom
    Frugaldom Posts: 7,136 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 12 June 2009 at 7:58AM
    Good morning frugalites :)

    Hope the sun is shining wherever you are. Here in Frugaldom, we've had loads of good weather and the sun continues to shine this morning. My sunburn has now turned a weatherbeaten sappled brown. :rotfl: It's my frugal-tan; I got it at the [STRIKE]sun[/STRIKE] raised beds.

    Eggs are still on the daily menu, so I haven't needed to spend much recently, especially with mum giving me a bag of groceries. My plan for a year's supply of turnips from the garden isn't going to plan, as my snowball turnips are all bolting and going to seed - I know not why. :confused: Too dry recently, perhaps?

    A walk along the drive shows just how many brambles we could get later this year as there are rows upon rows of bushes, so next year's jam will probably be based on them. I reckon I need at least 30 to 40 jars to last us from one year to the next, plus the lemon curd, so I'm saving all the glass jars I can at the moment. If I could become self-sufficient in veggies, preserves and desserts, that could cut a fair slice off the grocery budget, especially with it's soup & pudding lunches. Homemade gifts for everyone would save a good few hundred pounds a year, too, if only everyone was accepting of such frugality. :rolleyes:

    I have £160.81 to last me until 1st July to put me bang on target for average annual spending. This is a bit scary, as I haven't been stockpiling Christmas gifts and I'm over 60% of the way through my grocery budget without even considering Christmas dinner, so I'm really going to have to start getting strict with the shopping. I am very guilty of falling for the, "I'll pay for it when we get to the checkout", as HS drops extras like sweets & biscuits etc into my basket and then it all ends up going on my grocery budget card. :o I really MUST try harder.

    Great bargains, SL, we just don't get them here, unless the new Sa!nsbury can offer up anything remotely close to that. (Still cannot believe they are moving here and doubling the number of staff S0merfield had - they'll be falling over one another and the prices will need to be extortionate to support their wage bill.)
    I reserve the right not to spend.
    The less I spend, the more I can afford.


    Frugal living challenge - living on little in 2025 while frugalling towards retirement.
  • cw18
    cw18 Posts: 8,630 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    bright here today, but still cooler than ideal (the radiators were tepid this morning, so whilst warmer today than the last couple of days, it's clearly still not 16 degrees inside at 6am :rolleyes2 )

    had a play with my burglar alarm on Wednesday morning (and probably annoyed the neighbours when, at 8:45am, I managed to set it off and - in my panic - kept entering my bank card pin instead of the alarm code in my attempts to turn it off :eek: ). However I managed what I was trying, and now know how to set the alarm for all external points only - which means I can set it when the dogs are in the house (I'm guilt of hardly ever using the system in the last 4.5 yrs - basically only when I was out walking both dogs and the house was empty as a result). Feeling happier about this, as I was told on Tuesday morning that break-ins in our area are now running at 4 a night :mad:

    Younger GD had a birthday party last night (one of her pre-school friends), but as it was off decent bus-routes I got 'persuaded' to act as chauffeur for the evening. Put 14 miles on the car, but (as it was at a Wacky W/house) DD treated me to tea in the adjoining pub as payment - so I had steak, salad and jacket potato which I thoroughly enjoyed :T

    Going to have a go at cleaning some of my carpets in a little while, in an attempt to see if they'll come up well enough to be left down for a while longer. I have a cleaner, but it's a while since I've used it, so I'm off to G00gle for the instructions now ;)
    Cheryl
  • shaz_mum_of__2
    shaz_mum_of__2 Posts: 2,010 Forumite
    Nyk you can make jam from marrow /pumkins and courgette too and you dont need many plants

    really odd to hear someone else is thinking about christmas dinner already ...........i have a few presents for relatives but nothing for the kids yet although i have been eyeing up Mr m frozen turkeys especially with the £5 off vouchers i am hoping to produce enough spuds and veg for christmas dinner (parsnips red cabbage sprouts and carrots if i am lucky) I have already made the stuffing balls :o

    going to make rowan jelly instead of cranberry sauce (if i have identified the trees properly?) and no one likes pudding except me and my mum so probably make a cheesecake

    Already made loads of wine and some beer(need to do more) i will be cooking for 10 adults and 2 kids this year

    Is it just me or is anyone else this organised too:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:


    SFT hope you have good news today

    Shaz
    *****
    Shaz
    *****
  • cw18
    cw18 Posts: 8,630 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I'm well on with my present shopping for Christmas, but very little thought on food yet. I have some Cranberry Sauce and some Stuffing Mix in - neither of which I eat, but my "children" like them in different variations (think elder DS is the only one eats both).

    However I'm saving all my "shrapnel" (coppers and 5p's) in a collection of tubs around the house - and the plan is to use this money for the treats over the expensive week rather than having to stretch my normal grocery budget to cover them. I'll probably do a chicken rather than a turkey again this year - not sure how many I'm feeding, but the left over turkey would probably take up a lot of valuable freezer space as I'm the only one happy to eat it in various guises for several weeks afterwards :eek:
    Cheryl
  • Kittikins
    Kittikins Posts: 5,335 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Wow Shaz, you are organised! I'm chuckling at the thought of Christmas Day's stuffing balls maturing like fine wine in your freezer :)

    Talking of Christmas, I picked up a few DVD's in Mr A's the other night, all priced at £1, things like Shaun the Sheep, Peppa Pig, some really old Dr Who's, they had a really good range.

    I have sorted out a few friend's children's presents and my dad's stocking gift...Actually, thinking about it, I think I have all of DD's 'little' presents, all her and my parents' stockings, so only the "big" present to go - i.e. if, once DD goes to school, she discovers something "trendy" and wants to be like her friends, then I'll have space in my budget (I hope) to oblige. I'm a total bargain hunter, I can spot a reduced sticker a mile off, lol.

    I've been really struggling cash-wise since I last posted which was a scarily long time ago.....I'm now writing every single penny I spend down, planning NSDs, meal planning (although I'm on a VLCD, so I'm only planning for DD, so not too hard, lol), and attempting to save for a new bedroom window as mine is mouldy and doesn't open or close any more, it's part-open which is fine now, but I'm dreading the winter!
  • slowlyfading
    slowlyfading Posts: 13,429 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    sft, hope it goes your way today :) xx
    Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
    Personal Finance Blogger + YouTuber / In pursuit of FIRE
  • shaz_mum_of__2
    shaz_mum_of__2 Posts: 2,010 Forumite
    Anyone know anything about communal living ?

    i know its not all hippy anymore but unsure of the legalities .......i guess each project has its own.

    I know of the hockerton housing project in notts(lovely half buried houses and a reed bed system and a communal farm/garden ) but i know there are more

    http://www.hockertonhousingproject.org.uk/

    I kind of like the idea but like my privacy too what do you think ??

    Shaz
    *****
    Shaz
    *****
  • bails
    bails Posts: 3,196 Forumite
    :rotfl:at the Christmas dinner organisation, well done Shaz :T Luckily I don't have to do any of this yet and especially not this year as we'll be in Nepal :j Our mission in the future will be to discover special and delicious veggie options. My mum and SiL both love cooking though so they'll probably fight over who does Christmas ;)

    My MiL has lived in several communities, as has OH's step uncle but can't think of the names of any of them off the top my head except Findhorn in Scotland. Some have just been small groups of people in a large house and garden type thing, others more formal.. They both talk fondly of those times although it was some time back now of course. I like the idea of community but think my itchy feet wouldn't make me a worthwhile member :D

    Good luck today SFT, all things crossed for the move x
    The 1,000 Day Challenge:
    Feb 16, 2016
    500/30,000
    1.67%
  • shaz_mum_of__2
    shaz_mum_of__2 Posts: 2,010 Forumite
    http://www.cohousing.org.uk/

    There are loads of communal living projects, why didn't i know about this??

    Looks interesting must do some reading

    Shaz
    *****
    Shaz
    *****
  • lyndasharp
    lyndasharp Posts: 649 Forumite
    500 Posts
    edited 12 June 2009 at 1:55PM
    :j Good news about our new cat is that her biopsy shows she doesn't have cancer. I have photos, will post them this evening as they need uploading.

    H2B is off work ill, and cat is being very demanding and poking his leg whenever he stops making a fuss of her. That'll stop his attempts to make a computerised version of a train set...

    Tried suggesting a few new names to her last night, to see whether she liked any of them. Unfortunately the only one she answered to was Hellcat.... :eek: Wonder what we have let ourselves in for :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

    Edit: in case you're wondering why we even tried calling her Hellcat, we were playing around with some of the random name generators online!
    Live on £11k in 2011 :D
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