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

System

i was being a bit pedantic when i said a frugalpup would be 'no trouble'!

I have been studying itroducing a new dog psychology so i think it would be ok

and (unfortuantely) i dont even have a job so leaving it with its granny is wishful thinking!

ps did i miss any great grand national sign ups this year? i forgot it was on this year

oh, and i got funding for the driving lessons cos it will 'advance my career'

redglass_2

skint_chick wrote: »

SFT - if it's been standing for hundreds of years it's obviously a well built house.

Tend to agree with this, and I do realise that you also said to get a survey, but can't resist....Dear Frugalites, are you sitting comfortably? (Vincent Price voice) Here's a little Horror Story....

Near me there's a row of eighteenth-century cottages. One of them was covered in pebbledash. It was bought at auction and I was told that the new owners didn't have a survey done, presumably on the grounds that something so old must be basically sound. The owners eagerly set about removing the pebble dash to reveal the lovely old stonework...and the cottage turned out to be two amazingly narrow cottages knocked into one. :eek: This might have been OK except that one of them was brick, the other stone, so the cottage appeared to have a split personality. :rotfl::rotfl: So after weeks of hard work exposing the stone, the entire thing had to be covered up again before it became a local landmark. The moral of the story, dear friends, is that you should always have a survey....no matter how long it's been there. (Sorry if you're reading this and you are the owners, but you have to admit, it did look funny...)

Frugaldom

Good morning

Love the little tale, Redglass! :T

There's an old property for sale near us and the schedule makes it look fabulous with spectacular views and fantastic garden with ponds etc! It's a converted, 17th Century Smithy house with a full acre of land and it went on the market last year at o/o £150,000. We reckoned it would be snapped up for closer to the quarter million. However, several months have passed and it's just dropped to o/o £125,000 so I had to go take a drive-past look for myself. And I did! I drove straight past without realising it! It's such a shame to see something with such huge potential with a main 'A' route running alongside but not shown in the schedule. My guess is that it's unmortgageable but what a bargain even just for the one acre of land - Shaz? What's in your piggybank? :rotfl:

SFT, don't be put off your new old house, I think it sounds ideal and could offer you the best of both worlds, especially having a field at the bottom of the garden! :j These old houses are built to last, not like some of the buildings that got rattled up in the 50s/60s, most of them near where I used to live have been demolished. Even the wartime pre-fabs outlived them. :rolleyes:

Miserable and wet here today again, so I guess I really SHOULD make a start on the annual accounts. I'll also need to juggle savings and accounts to get out of stoozing and get started on my 2009/10 ISA.

lyndasharp

The Easter bunny has been round at work and bought us all easter eggs!

I'm pleased to say frugalitis is catching... I got home yesterday and H2B was very happy to have reduced his car insurance renewal premium by £200. Funnily enough, it's with the same company... He also then paid it all up front instead of monthly, as it saved £30 in interest payments.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Npower have offered to reduce my direct debit from £60 a month to £56.
Not sure whether or not to tell them to leave it at £60 though. It would be a saving of £32 over the rest of the year. It's funny that this offer has come a couple of weeks after I asked them when my annual direct debit refund (£100) is due. Probably coincidence but it makes you wonder.
I was thinking of switching supplier but with the £100 due to be credited to my account on the first bill after July 5th, it's probably not worth me reviewing this until after the credit has been made.
It seems a pretty good wheeze only crediting it once a year rather than monthly as it makes it harder to leave - probably why they do it.

thriftylass

Hello fellow frunshkins!

Thought I pop in briefly after my holiday. My friends came over from back home for a week and we had a great time. Unfortunately not a very frugal one (traveling, coffees in town etc.). Also, I'm already 70% through my grocery budget for this month as I bought loads before they came so we don't have to eat out much and then had to buy loads more as my friend has a very selective (i.e. restricted) taste which I wasn't aware of before (partially to blame are her pregnancy hormones and moodiness I guess). But on the plus side, I made some money selling my bass guitar :j . And I still have all the food in the freezer/ store we didn't eat last week :rolleyes: .

Will catch up on all the last weeks posts tonite

Cherio

slowlyfading

Evening everyone

I seem to be in the frame of mind at the moment of spending all the time :rolleyes: managed my 5th nsd today, but only just. It was the Farmers Market today, and there was a sweetie stall literally outside the bakery, and I was craving cola bottles all day, but managed to resist. I don't know what is wrong with me lately!

I'm in the process of transferring my ISA to another place, as the interest is currently 0.10% which isn't even worth it being in there! I'm transferring to get 2.15% so thats much better. I think its a bit scary though, as my money will disappear for a while, whilst its in transfer :eek: so hey hum, but it'll be worth it. The woman in the bank said it'll take 4-6 weeks so I can't pay anything into my ISA until its all finished, so I don't have to focus on that for now, its just a waiting game.

I have read through the thread, but I'm covering at my old restaurant tonight as 2 of their staff have called in sick so I'm off out in a minute - after working 10-5pm at the bakery today, so i'm shattered. I'm working 16 days straight so I reckon it's going to be a long slog until my next day off.

So, sending (((HUGS))) to those who want/need it.

sf xx

blueberrypie

Leccy bill arrived. Suffice to say that I won't be staying within my limit this month unless we stop eating :eek:

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Going to visit the cottage on Saturday armed with a list of questions. Organising a full structural survey. We will then be in a position to ask our solicitors to put clauses into the contract before we sign.

Sophiesmum: Any ideas about the chives?
Also I have 212 points on my boots card. What does that mean?
Also a voucher for 500 points when buying from Ruby and Millie colour cosmetic range? What could I buy to use the voucher? Thought I'd ask our resident Boots Points expert. Wondered if it would be worth saving up points to use for presents?
SFT

[Deleted User]

Hello All!

Woke up today feeling fluey and horrible... went to Doctor turns out I have mastitus!! :rolleyes: So have been told to take paracetomol and nurofen.... Just want to get back to normal now! I had such a good healthy pregnancy and have just felt rotten after having her, keep getting ill.

Daisy is doing well now, putting on lots of weight now shes being bottle fed (such a fatty!), cant remember if I posted it before but when she was weighed on Mon she'd put on 10 oz in 4 days. She was 9 1b 12 on Mon!! Good for both of us now shes on the bottles but not very frugal £7 a tin and shes nearly gone thru a tin in a week! :eek: But I'm tightening the belt everywhere else!

Looking a bit brighter on DH's work front, has had a few enquiries and has a few people to phone about casual work. Is definatly starting up on his own tho, the email address has been set up and leaflets and all that will be printed in the next week. He's got 2 weeks left of being employed and we're out in the big bad world!

I do like a challenge tho! Thanks for all your good wishes and kind comments xx