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

zoe260373

Hi everyone,thought i should drop in and say hi as ive been neglecting mse lately,(trying to de junk my house and clean etc) getting there slowly.
*CW* i too bought an ex council house,which i wasnt really very proud of doing but i was a single parent with 3 children and would never have been able to afford to buy a house any other way,its sad but true.i do feel rather ashamed by the politics of it though,but my 'must provide for my children' head overruled:oso dont feel too bad,i guess we all got to do whats best for our families and as long as its not downright evil to others then.......;-)
anyway,has anyone heard of a company called arise?they offer positions where you are self employed,work from home taking customer calls for littlewoods group,same principle as a call centre but cheaper to run for them im guessing,just wondered if it was worth following up or if anyone had any advice at all please?
my veggies are doing really well,had mountains of scrummy spuds for sunday lunch,had peas too but DD and i accidently ate them before they found their way into the saucepan:phehe.bought 2 goji berry plants and one of them is going wild while the other has barely grown,hmmm weird eh! courgettes about 4/5inches at the moment,cant wait,ive also got spaghetti squash,has anyone tried it?i cant wait,never seen one and dont know anyone who has either,so will let you know what its like,
hope everyone doing ok,big hugs to all that need one,xx

cw18

Nyk : In the "interest of research" I decided to do some car counting of my own this morning. Left nursery (where DD works, and where I collect my GDs) round 8:05am, and counted on-coming traffic for just over a mile until I entered a one-way system..... 86 cars/vans/lorries/motor bikes (but no buses today, which is very unusual - normally see 2 or 3 of them as well), and that's NOT a busy road compared to the one behind me which also hooks into the one way system. Traffic my way was never less than 3 in front and 4 behind, but sometimes more behind as there are 4 chicanes on that road to try and stop speeding.

Frugaldom

FREE BINGO at Butl!ns today for any of you freebie fans tring to make tax free pounds. There's an auto-buy function you can set to max price = 0 and it seems to do everything for you. I've only been disconnected once but that's more to do with my really bad Internet connection here.

:eek: CW I would be freaking out at all that traffic. I kid you not, I get stressed trying to cross the road in town when there's traffic moving in both directions. I still maintain it's a busy little town, but it's all relevant when comparing it to where I grew up and previous houses I have lived in over the past 40+ years. :rotfl:On the affordable housing topic, basic earners can't even afford to buy an ex-council house nowadays so I think we'll see a gradual slide towards widening the gap between those that have and those that haven't. So much for our Government's aim for a classless society! :rolleyes: As if that would ever work.

Today is digital switchover day, so the Freeview box is attached and is scanning for frequencies and channels... and finding nothing. :rotfl:On the ordinary telly, we have channel 5 as normal and that seems to be it.

Went out into the garden at 7am ish as usual and ended up working out there until almost 10am. I have now ... oh, oh, oh!!! I just won a fiver in free bingo!

I'm back - I withdrew the balance from account as soon as it showed as available, just in case they changed their minds. :rotfl:

Now, for the next bit of excitement - I think we just got 'buzzed' again! What a commotion outside, there were sheep, cows, chickens, ducks going all ways! I did try to warn SM about this before she decided to rent next door, honestly, as she hasn't witnessed this for herself, yet. There have been a few low flying jets whilst she's been here, but nothing major. We are slap bang in the middle of a military TTA - Tactical Training Area - so when exercises begin, the farm can be on the flight path and, indeed, looks like it is used as a mock target. Today is one of those days, and the batteries on my camera were flat! (Recharging now!) I am convinced we just got buzzed by a flying battletank! It was so low that it scattered livestock everywhere in panic and rattled everything, including my heart from the palpitations :rotfl:. Luckily, I felt the vibrations before the mighty aerborne beast appeared over the hill to cross over the top of the house but it still gave me a bit of a jump along with everything else on the farm! It looked like an Apache (AWESOME!) and I reckon it broke the 100' lower limit flying level! We can literally wave at the pilots, which I usually do. That's another 3 choppers just gone past, and there was a big Chinook type went over - can't wait to see what arrives next but please, pilots, if you are going to buzz my house, email me via my Frugaldom website so I can have a flag flying and the camera ready! :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Apologies Mr MoD man, I stand corrected - during low flying exercises and tactical training exercises, (I prefer to think of them as free air shows ) helicopters can come down to ground level. We are, apparently, in the middle of Exercise HAWK OWL, which is the "final phase of the Rotary Wing Operational Evaluation and Tactics Unit's helicopter tactics course and will involve up to 7 helicopters."

Does that mean the pilots could actually land in the field and pop in for some freerange eggs? :rotfl:

Sunshine, free air show, methinks it's a gardening day and any other work can wait until tonight. Isn't it great to be a resident of Frugaldom? :j:T

SM, There's another BIG training exercise between 6/7/09 & 16/7/09 that involves up to 50 jets. I've just read the Typhoon is listed and now I can't wait! They really are spectacular and I have only ever seen 3 of them fly over here and one performing at Leuchars air show. Truly, truly awesome jets.

That's my summer entertainment sorted and it is all FREE. Hoping for picnic & BBQ weather that week.

cw18

just make sure your camera batteries are charged before the start of the next free airshow Nyk :rotfl:

taka

Rather you than me Nyk! I hate low flying planes/helicopters etc! I'm close to a big stadium that has them doing umpteen low flypasts (or red arrows style aerobatics) when important matches are on and I hate it. It invariably sets off 4-5 car alarms in my street and shakes the windows so badly I always worry about them breaking! :mad:

As to the cars I think I get 20+ in my wee side street in 5 mins in rush hour - I think you'd hate it here :rotfl:. I find it really odd at Xmas etc when its really quiet - it feels like I'm missing something. I'm definitely a town/small city person. That said I hate big cities - I found Sydney really stressful when I was there. I think Edinburgh is the perfect size - big enough for everything I want to do but small enough you can still get around (ignoring the tram building chaos :mad: :rolleyes:) and leave if you want to! Horribly expensive housing though...

whitewing

If pilots were dropping in near me, it wouldn't be eggs i'd be offering. Oops, forgot, I'm a married lady now so I withdraw the offer, lol!

It struck me over the last couple of days how many of the old-timers (on this challenge) dreams are beginning to come true - my own included, altho I am not pregnant yet before anyone draws conclusions!

If that isn't inspiring to everyone I don't know what is.

In terms of being excited about small things, I may have a new part-time career (!) as a Royal Mail Monitor. I got an email telling me there's a vacancy in my postcode now. However, I have been out all day and only just replied so someone else may have beaten me to it. (It was mentioned on thread on MSE somewhere round the start of the year I think.)

savingfortravel

Whitewing-How long do I have to wait until I become an old-timer? :rotfl:
Certainly feel like I'm fulfilling my dreams now.

Forgot to mention that my sister gave me 2 great moving in pressies:
a paper log maker
a wood axe
She has got really the grow your own bug now and also has dreams of her forever house-with her partner-when my nephew and niece leave home. Nyk-My sister has told me that a chap can deliver wood but would have to pay for delivery-not wood and it needs to be dried out for a season. Would this be a cost effective choice..or should I just continue to pay the coal man who has previously delivered to the cottage?

Been working on my 101 goal list today. Feel more organised about it. Drunk my chamomile tea to relax. Enjoying my frugally bought book..very interesting and the author mentions collecting pine cones for kindling which made me smile as that's what I've been doing. Want to get it finished by end of June so I've read my book for the month. Also listened to 2 new pieces of classical music on Radio 3.
On Saturday we are off to Alfriston YHA for a night..one of my 101 is to walk along river to coast and back. Looking for wild flowers of course (camera in hand)
Mr SFT has been busy making raspberry (harvested from old garden last year) muffins for neighbours (cutting our agricultural land this week and its a big job).

Now watching Hugh FW making strawberry jam (Mr SFT has been collecting his jars..we have a greengage tree in our garden so we hope to make jam (maybe cake/crumble)...

Have a great evening all

sft

whitewing

You're an old-timer as soon as one of your long term dreams has come true.

We're watching Hugh too. Cream teas are best with the cream on then scone, and then the jam. (I am an expert).

Frugaldom

Hi fruguys

I'm an old-timer but I have always fancied having a swimming pool.... I'd have it in a converted barn at the opposite end of the yard from the stable blocks, so as not to disturb the racehorses. if I say that often enough, can I have my wish granted, please? :rotfl:I don't even mind if I only have the one racehorse, so long as I have the pool and it's heated.

OK, back to reality - SFT if you have somewhere to store the wood then I'd say get it in, get it cut and stacked and let it season for next year. My log man does similar but we don't have the space and I really don't want to be playing with a chainsaw. (OK- just in case anyone knows me, I would play with a chain saw, but only a little one. :rotfl:) Like you, I have already started collecting my pine cones and I think my paper logs should be dry soon, so I can make some more tomorrow, if it's sunny, and get them out to dry.

Whitewing & Taka - One would have loved my last contract and the other would have absolutely hated it - it was MOD related, my last office was next to a runway and fighter jets have some kick when they take off - I loved seeing the planes and was lucky enough to get closer than most to the Stealth bombers - awesome machines! So now you have discovered that, as well as being a secret birdspotter and secret millionaire, I am also a secret planespotter who asked a pilot friend to get me clearance for a trip in a C130 to see the base from up there. Thankfully, and much more frugally, G00gle maps have aerial pics of the bases where I worked. :rotfl: Did I mention that last time I was at Leuchars there was a jet sat with a 'For Sale' sign on it? Now that would look cool in any (BIG) garden with a few planters along the wings and some tomatoes in the cockpit. :rotfl:

Taka - I think I have been in that stadium, if it's Murrayfield. That was the first place I ever attended a live, open air concert when David Bowie was there, supported by Thomson Twins and Bauhaus. Good grief! How old have I got? :eek::rotfl: