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

slowlyfading

it says it can't find it

savingfortravel

try again, the link works now!!
sft

cha97michelle

Hi everyone.

I have lost the plot a bit with this challenge this month. I havn't been recording down the spends for most of the month and i am not sure i will be able to find all the receipts. Not like we've gone mad and spent loads, but it will still schew my figures.

I've had a strange one today. I had an appointment at the Drs again and he signed me off for another 3 weeks which basically will take me to nearly the end of term. He seemed to think i had improved somewhat, but wants to give me a bit longer to recuperate fully.

Also, had DS2 poorly today. He was ill in the car again on the way to nursery. It is beginning to become a bit of a regular occurence and i am starting to think he might be a bit lactose intolerant. Not every time but enough to concern me. He was a bit off it this morning then fine as the day wore on.

I need to try and find the missing receipts i think and have a catch up.

slowly try removing the second ' : ' from SFT's blog address and it worked for me.

Nyk I am in shock at that fuel price. Most alternative fuels are then starting to look a lot more appealing. That would completely blow most people's budgets out the water, let alone a £4000 one.

Michelle x

savingfortravel

Well done Michelle or should I call you Miss Marple-I had indeed put the : in the wrong place.

sft

cw18

savingfortravel wrote: »

CW-I would love to know how much you save from doing your challenge..must be very satisfying.

Save isn't really the word for it - survive is more the true situation.

Including CTC and CB.....

From April to October last year our household income (gross) was just short of an annual equivalent of £40k. Household income is now just over £14k on the same basis, including the dependants pension that's payable to DS (but not including his EMA of £30/wk during term time) - and I'm actually paying tax on around £7k due to mess ups (because of extended sick pay) last tax year.

savingfortravel

cw18 wrote: »

Save isn't really the word for it - survive is more the true situation.

Including CTC and CB.....

From April to October last year our household income (gross) was just short of £40k. Household income is now just over £14k, including the dependants pension that's payable to DS (but not including his EMA of £30/wk during term time) - and I'm actually paying tax on around £7k due to mess ups (because of extended sick pay) last tax year.

Sorry Cheryl..I meant the storecupboard challenge x

bails

SF, that's what we're here for xx

Off to look at your cottage photos now SFT :j Oh, it's SO lovely! :T:T Lucky you x

slowlyfading

bails wrote: »

SF, that's what we're here for xx

Thanks
sft, the pics of your cottage are so nice - it looks lovely xx

Well, the good news is that I've only spent £149.20 in June so far, and £66 of that was on a pair of new glasses! So I think I've done pretty well so far, though I never seem to have any money ever, I don't know where it all goes I'm trying to save most of my money for spending money when we go to Greece (in 18 days! :j) but its gonna be pretty tight I think. I want to go holiday clothes shopping, but then I'm not so I'll have money to spend whilst I'm there. Lol its not happening at the moment. Hopefully I'll not spend too much this week so then next week when I'm paid I'll have a bit so I can get a couple of cheap summer-y dresses to take with me. I'm really really really looking forward to the break away, just 7 days to ourselves will be bliss.

I hope everyone is okay this evening. xx

savingfortravel

Thanks Bails..you know we would never have gone for it if it hadn't been for this forum which has sorted us out financially and this thread motivated us to take this cross road in life. Thanks Nyk..its been life changing. x
Well I love it..there is a little seat in front garden which I love sitting on when its sunny there in the morning. Then we have sun in the evening at the back..so love all the light in our little conservatory or sitting outside watching the sunsets over the fields.

Mr SFT has almost finished the walls in the lounge/dinning area (divided by beams)-helped by my nephew who is on study leave-got 1 more GCSE to take. So we went to C*rpetright with our Daily Express voucher. Salesman told us how we could change our order to save even more (about £100 altogether..so very pleased).


sft

cw18

savingfortravel wrote: »

Sorry Cheryl..I meant the storecupboard challenge x

Ahhh! Well it's certainly going to be interesting.

So far this year I've spent £725.73 on groceries, but (if I look at full shelf prices of the items, and ignore the fact that if some hadn't been on Whoopsie I'd have bought cheaper versions) these goods have a value of £1379.83. Given my annual grocery budget is currently set to £1530.90 it's just as well I have a keen nose for 'those' stickers and a sharp eye on the times they get applied to the packs :rolleyes2

My June budget is £121.00 - and so far I've spent £57.27, but have also had £15 of 'freebies' thanks to the Mr M vouchers.

My budget for July (when I still have GDs for 2 weeks round school) is £118.60 - but I'm hoping to come well under target by using up from the cupboards.

August will be the tough month though....

My budget will be £111.60 as it should be just DS and me all month (haven't yet been told there's even a vague chance of elder DS coming home on leave), but as he's now off college until mid-September that means extra meals for him. When he's at college he gets a couple of sausage barms (instead of breakfast) and a couple of lunches out of his EMA - and those will be replaced by meals I pay for So if I can be comfortably under my 'year to date' budget at the end of August then it'll have been worth stockpiling (some of it was done early this year - still have chicken and cheese in the freezer, and baked beans, chopped toms and pure orange in the cupboards from the trip to Costco I did back in January!!!)