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

Blairweech

Hi folks :wave:

Have only just caught up as not been able to get to my lappy this week, been far too busy.

Had a fantastic birthday on Monday - got a new lappy (from family), DVD player and camera (from frugal beau), so v.pleased. Frugal beau came up to stay for a few days, we had a great time.

Went to IKEA yesterday, spent £112, so could have been worse...the car has just had its service/MOT, another £130 BUT it only needed new wiper blades to pass its MOT, so I am :j. Now I have to buy tax @ £150 :rolleyes:, cause my car is new enough to be done on emissions, not engine size.

Oh, Mum and I did a carboot on Sunday, and I did manage to sell a few bits - I mostly just wanted rid of it, so what did not sell has gone to the charity shop as I am NOT dragging it home again (I have moved it through 4 different houses).

Have not updated spending diary because I am currently using two different computers and have not had chance to collate all my data yet

Plans for the rest of the week - hopefully do some Ebaying today/tomorrow, trying not to spend more money. There is open gardens in my local village this weekend, so will take a mooch around there, then carboot on Sunday

Bails - WELL DONE on reaching 5% of your Dream Pot

sophiesmum_2

Great achievement Bails :j

Frugaldom

Hi guys and gals

Sending best wishes SF's way, hope neighbour gets a positive prognosis.

Bails, well done with the savings pot, you are doing exceptionally well this year! :T:beer:

SM, we all loved your potato wedges made in Remoska. I'm tempted to try them in the oven but can never get them to taste right, mine always taste half cooked. :rolleyes:

Washing went out and has come back in as wet as it went out in the first place - the heavens opened and we had another torrential downpour. Despite that, the sun is now shining again and the sky clearing! Thinking I'll just dry it over the airer tonight as it isn't worth risking another soaking.

When I brought in today's eggs, I decided to make meringues, so they are baking in the oven now. That means another half dozen yokes to use, but DD's birthday is coming up, so I think they'll be going into custard for a trifle, once I've made a few sponges. SM has offered to get me large tubs of margarine next time she's in the mega huge A$da store, costs much less there than I can find it here. (Cheers, neighbour ).

Have been watching Royal Ascot and old workplace has been on every day in mini series, but have only spotted one colleague so far. Final part tomorrow, but it kind of makes me miss the place despite only having done a temp contract there. Newmarket is a fabulous place to live and work if you're interested in horses, but it's not a very frugal hobby if you're on that side of the rails

Frugaldom

Just popping back after reading an email offering free tickets for an eco home show. However, it's in Swindon area, so no good to us here, but if anyone else is within travelling, you can get free tickets for various events here. Mainly about self-build, renovations, home improvements, eco friendly building, green living etc, so possibly of interest to some of you.

sophiesmum_2

Good afternoon frunchkins:D
Not much on the frugal front today but have made a seeded loaf in the breadmaker which I had got a bit lazy with since we came back from Malta, but OH likes the seeded bread and it is £1.40ish a loaf so back to the HM bread:D fortunately we don't use a lot, but as I still have good stores of flour and seeds/nuts etc in my storecupboard it makes better sense to make my own.Also made a batch of marmalade for oldies coffee morning sale.
I have rhubarb and gooseberries almost ready now so some jam making will be in order soon too.Still have quite a lot of jars of jams,marmalades and chutneys left from last years efforts despite havaing given quite a few away, maybe these will be tradeable through the LETS scheme in the future - or bartered directly over the fence for eggs;)

Also managed to recycle a carrier bag of foil to local charity collection, reuse jam jars for the marmalade, collect another pile of newspapers for turning into paper logs and rescue a few planters for new veggie corner, so not a bad day overall I suppose.

Frugaldom

Sounds like a good day to me, SM, and jams are always welcome in this household - got plenty marmalade, pickles, chutney and lemon curd, though, even after sending mum home with some by way of a thankyou for the bag of groceries she brought. Breadmaking here has slowed considerably since the opening of Ald!. Despite not being overly keen on the limited choice there, it does offer a much cheaper option for bread by way of their 38p leaves. I noticed only yesterday that the Co-0p's own wholemeal loaves that were 39p are now 85p! :eek: If Ald! loaves go that high in price, it'll be back to homemade for us, too.

Huge pot of potatoes boiling, so I'm hoping to make up some fish cakes later, as well as get some extra mash for the freezer. Tonight's task is the marmalade cake to use up some of the [STRIKE]burnt[/STRIKE] caramelised marmalade from last week then I'll get some cookies into the oven.

Hoping for a dry day tomorrow as the lawn is beginning to look scruffy with the mucky duckys and hens wandering all over it, plus I can tie up more peas and pick more lettuce. Apples coming along nicely on 2 of the trees, maybe enough for a few pies or crumbles later in the year.

cw18

On the subject of bread prices - DD ended up with the 38p from A!di today rather than the requested Mr T value. Had been working out how much her share of the bill was likely to be (using Mr T's website) last night, so I knew how much (if anything) I needed to spend on stock-piling in order to use this weeks Mr M voucher -- and in doing so I spotted the bread had gone up to 50p/loaf. The last prices I have recorded are early March at 43p and late March at 38p.... so it's come down and then shot up again !! DD was really pleased I checked as she'd asked for two loaves, meaning I saved her 24p on those. Also saved her 34p by getting her milk at A!di instead of Mr T while I was there for the bread (for both of us in the end) and my milk (and my ice-cream!)


Was a very good shop for me in Mr T itself though - I spent under £9 on food (after deducting the £5 voucher) which was great. Also got myself 2 pairs of cropped trousers (am getting a tan for the first time ever, which must be all the walking to/from the shops and school, but my legs are pure white!!) and 4 cheap white T-shirts. These carried combined price tags of £14 (though at the till they deducted 30p as a VAT adjustment!), but DD also wanted school tights for the girls which came to another £7. So I converted £10 worth of clubcard vouchers (which I only ever spend back in the stores) to use against the clothes with their current 'double value' offer. So the total bill for clothing was £20.70 less £20 in vouchers, then DD paid me back the full £7 for the tights. So the spend in my 'anything else' budget has actually dropped by £6.30 today, and I have new clothes to show for it


Just a shame I had to fill the car while I was there - another £41 gone :eek: But that is my first purchase of fuel since 6th May (when it was 8p a litre cheaper !!!! ), so that one lasted 44 days and I still had slightly more left in the tank this time around. I think it would probably have just about done me until Monday, but I decided not to risk stretching it until Wednesday which is when I'm likely to next be near a filling station......

Skint_Lynne

Hi everybody,

Not much to report today, but I was just reading sophiesmum's post re: logmaking etc. My mum buys lots of newspapers and just puts them in the recycling bin. I am defo going to visit frugaldom this summer, so would you like me to keep the newspapers for you both SM and Nyk?

I'm afraid you would be making paperlogs for the next 6 months solid if you use all of my mum's papers.:o

sophiesmum_2

Thanks SL but I think we should be okay for supplies - got 50 oldies on the recycling job:rotfl:just need space in the car to transport them up-

Skint_Lynne

no probs, I think you will be okay after all.:D My mum buys 4 papers a day, 3 morning and 1 evening and then the sunday ones, she is a nightmare as it is the same old trash in them all. She gets around 30 papers in total every week.:eek:

I hope the oldies don't buy 4 papers each that's 200 papers a day.:eek::eek:
You'll be making logs for the next 10 years.:rotfl::rotfl: