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

whitewing

sft,

I love your cottage. It's perfect inspiration.

(Have only just had a chance to look).

Morning everyone!

All I want to do at the moment is spend money I haven't got. We are looking at ways of arranging our current lifestyle better for when DH starts his degree (which we haven't registered on yet; we're awaiting the prospectus for him to make a final choice).

I bought a new cupboard from Argos and am waiting to hear when that will be delivered. Can't wait. Have a real urge to tidy up, declutter etc and I am a messy person usually.

I want a dishwasher too. DS didn't take any persuading (as he usually helps with washing up and is disgruntled as he is the only person in his class who knows how to wash up!) DS is so keen he's offered to pay for it out of his savings, but I won't let him. DH didn't take much persuading either as he is currently going through a 'quality of life for working so hard' patch. I told him we can sterilise baby bottles in the dishwasher. However, we've been trying for a baby for 16 months now so the dishwasher will probably have fallen apart by the time it happens. Don't know when I will buy it. I may not; sometimes it's enough to quell the spending urges just to think about doing it, lol!

I joined a slightly less local freecycle group yesterday. I seem to get on with it better than the very local one. So, who knows, that may come in useful. I want to try to get MIL a sofa. We gave her our old TV and video the other day, which she was very pleased with.

I also have plans - but no money - for revamping the outside of our house, ie paint and redo our small garden area.

Has anyone used an Ebay Trading Assistant? There is one with very good feedback in a village next to us. I wondered about using her. I don't like ebay buying; I find it irritating. Well, I suspect I just need someone to show me. Anyway, at the moment I'm so intent on decluttering that we are passing on stuff to friends and charity shops, which gives me that warm glow. But I think there will be further stuff that I can get rid of if it's sold. (Nothing of high value).

I would like to earn some extra funds to pay for:
a wardrobe for DS
a dishwasher
DS school uniform
a few casual clothes that DS needs
paint for the house
(plants, but I didn't say that. Our very good local garden centre offers a 'landscaping/garden design service for free, so I may book into that with a view to budgeting to do it properly next year).

I keep telling DH that I have 'nesting syndrome' and he looks at me blankly, lol. If I do get pregnant ever, it will be a big shock to him I think - he does know we're trying!

I must get on. Have a wonderful day it the sunshine.

Frugaldom

Good morning to all

It's lovely here, today, sun is shining, sky is blue, and I need to go into town because we are runing out of milk & bread again. :rolleyes: I'm assuming DS got to where he is going as last message I received was he'd met a few others on the trains between Glasgow, Carlisle and Cambridge going the same place. I was worried he'd miss connections but, with several of them there, it's much less likely they'll all get lost trying to find their way to Bury St Edmunds to meet the bus. :rotfl:

SFT, I LOVE your cottage, it looks like something out of a fairytale story book. You must be so happy to be living there. Re the chicken types, I have Pekins but am not sure what sort of lacewings and grey spots you were meaning, as they sound more like feather patterns than actual breeds. I have lacewing markey Wyandotte type chickens and I have grey spotted hen (Mrs Grey) plus a couple of grey spotted chicks. My day old chicks are now 5 week old chicks. I wonder if I could disguise our 60's style brick bungalow look with an arch and some climbing plants for next year? I just need to fathom out how to protect it all from the hens & ducks.

CW - You're leaps and bounds ahead of me on the income stakes and there are 3 of us here to feed all the time plus any family and/or friends who come to visit or stay on holiday. The biggest spends over the year are rent, council tax, electricity and food. Thankfully, there is no debt or I haven't a clue how I'd manage. In saying that, there isn't enough left over to ever afford to buy a house or stop paying rent but I do manage to save a little.

Whitewing, I am a member of 3 different regions of Freecycle and it's amazing the difference in what each region offers. I joined the adjacent county one plus the one for region where parents stay. I'm sure there was a dishwasher offered only a couple of weeks ago and there are always fridges & washing machines being advertised. Like you, I want to revamp outside our house. I'll blame SFT for that, though, as I want that country cottage look.

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

CW - You're leaps and bounds ahead of me on the income stakes

I know

But as soon as DS leaves college this time next year I drop to an annual income of just £3k :eek: I was horrified when I realised that I'll lose almost £220 a week literally overnight :eek: :eek: The only saving grace is that I might get my council tax paid for me, which equates to around £20 a week. My latest sums indicate I could (at that point) be entitled to £14 a month top up through Job Seekers -- whoopy doo !!!

Still an overall drop of more than I'm comfortable with though.....

Frugaldom

cw18 wrote: »

I know

But as soon as DS leaves college this time next year I drop to an annual income of just £3k :eek: I was horrified when I realised that I'll lose almost £220 a week literally overnight :eek: :eek:

:rotfl::rotfl:I've never earned £220 a week continuously for any length of time EVER. Next year, when your DS finishes college, he'll go to work. If you charge him £40 per week dig money then that would give you £4,000 to live off plus more than enough to cover your council tax. He won't find full board and lodgings plus all the perks of living at home for that amount anywhere else.

cw18 wrote: »

I know

How do you know? (Paranoia sets in - please don't tell me you're my bank manager :eek: I don't NEED a loan, how often do I need to tell you? :rotfl:)

PS: I could be a secret millionaire just doing this challenge to find out who is most deserving of my spare cash that I have to burn. :rotfl::rotfl:

cw18

He's hoping to go to Uni - and until I find out what he'll qualify for in grants etc (and what costs he really has for the course), I can't really set a figure to charge him. Currently hoping £25/wk won't cripple him, and that's also the figure DD is starting to pay towards the costs of me having my GDs from September (I reckon that's what it's currently costing me, and it's coming out of MY income!)


C0-0p dividends just arrived :T

But I may have to reconsider having it paid into my bank Last lot came as a few £1 and £2 vouchers which was great as I spend that in Whoopsies from time to time. However this payout is £22.76, and I have one voucher for £11 and another for £11.76...... I'll never spend £11 in one go unless I'm buying stuff that's more expensive there than in the alternative shops :mad:

Frugaldom

CW, my dividend hasn't arrived yet but I just checked my online co-op membership page and it says payments should be out by end of this month, so fingers crossed mine arrives soon. Online info says: Your current points total is: 38.27
Do points make pounds? I do realise that will be including the few bits and pieces I have bought this year, but the bulk of it was from previous address where Co-op was only store we had within walking distance. (Now that I am 'out of town', we need to drive to nearest shop and I have been using the new Ald! store and S0merfield, until it closed down.)

cw18

statement says 2p per point - but they deduct the small payments we had 6 months ago from this.

mine was 1,530.69 points, with a value of £30.61. but I had a payment of £7.85 in December.

of my points, a grand total of 18.69 were from the store - the other 1,512 are from having my bank accounts with them :rolleyes2

ETA: Just double checked my vouchers, and they say they can be used in branches of the bank - so it looks like I can pay them in anyway :T Must put them into my purse for next time I'm anywhere near a C0-0p bank

cw18

oh! And I just got 8 free chicken thighs and two thirds of a pot of cottage cheese :T

My asian neighbour came round, and sheepishly admitted she wasn't sure how I'd take the offer of the items..... told her I take anything going :rotfl:

They had a houseful of visitors over the weekend, but never used these items. She and her hubby are vegetarian (so won't use the chicken), and apparently they don't eat cottage cheese either (another purchase specifically for the visitors).

Frugaldom

:rotfl: 2p per point and I only have 38 points? :rotfl: I'm surprised they even bothered to inform me I was getting a payment. The paper, ink, envelope and postage would have cost more than my dividend. :rotfl:

cw18

Well, it looks like I've just ruled out one option I had for this next academic year :mad:

I'd decided that when the college prospectus came out (all F/T and P/T courses from September) I'd have a look through and see what my options were there - and if anything tempted me.

Pamphlet came this morning, and reading it made me think I was liable for full fees and exam costs. So I've just phoned them to double-check - and I would be!!!

Income declared to Tax Credits is £9,007, but because I don't get WTC or any Income Based benefits I'm not exempt/don't get assistance.

But if I worked for 16 hours a week on minimum wage (which would mean an additional £4,767 a year coming in) then I'd also get WTC of £695 a year. So if I had an extra £5,462 a year coming in, then I could pay just £40 for an accountancy course. But as things stand I have to pay £668 for the course plus £217 for exam fees :eek: Anyone would think the government didn't want me to train for a new 'trade' :mad: