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

Skint_Lynne

Good afternoon everyone,

I done a post earlier on which I lost.:mad: Not to worry. My arm is a lot better thanks for asking nyk. I know how you feel SF, a burn is a really painful thing to get.

I'm in the shop today, so I am going to get cracking and give the place a good clean, it needs it.

Speak later. xx

cw18

Have decided to delay my trip to Mr T until tomorrow - can't delay it later than that though as it's the last day the voucher is valid.

Instead I've batch cooked 8 portions of steak & kidney this morning, and have 4 portions of chicken chasseur (using my freebie chicken thighs) on the go now. I portion into 500g margarine tubs and freeze that way (s&k already in freezer), then transfer to bags which take less space. Dawned on me that if I hit Mr T for a freezer stockpile before these are done and frozen, then I wouldn't have space for the tubs to enable me to do them for another couple of weeks :rolleyes2 Had to nip to L!dl before I could start the chicken though, as I needed a casserole mix. Only 25p there, so better deal than getting at Mr T anyway

On my meander around the store I spotted that they have the 2 litre bottles of semi-skimmed milk for 98p, which works out the same as buying 2 x 1 litre bottles at A!di. They also have marrows in, so I might nip back for some of them tomorrow - once I work out what else I need to make up the chutney. (I was really annoyed I missed out on them last year, so don't plan to chance it this). I know I need onions, so that's something else to add to my Mr T shopping order - and another item closer to my required £30 spend

Also picked up some minted lamb grillsteaks as we haven't had those in an absoluuuuute age, and I forgot L!dl have them at a pretty reasonable price). So I'll slot a couple of meals of those into the meal plan for the next 5 weeks, which means I'm now up to 30 of the 35 meals.

Actually I've added chicken and mushroom pies to my shopping list too, as that's something else DS and I both enjoy - so make that 31 of 35 meals planned out :T And I still need to fit in Pizza at least once (possibly twice as we have it every 2 or 3 weeks normally), so that's 33..... and I still need to sort out what we're doing for DS's birthday which makes 34. Guess I can just chuck omelette into the equation somewhere, and I'm all planned to the end of July :T

sophiesmum_2

cw18 wrote: »

((hugs))

Have to confess that when your move first got mentioned I did wonder about your Dad (and whether I'd missed something).

So for now you've got a 'holiday home' of your very own (even if it is rented you still have exclusive use of it) - lucky you

We don't look at it as a holiday home , it is our home and now we see there as home and here just as work, things are moving up there gradually soon it will be like camping out in the flat at "work" as things progress, and we spend more and more time there.No different from anyone who works awy from home several days a week, OH is thinking of giving up work and moving up there soon while I commute until DD is sorted.

Talking of freezers we are currently eating the contents of our chest freezer as that is next on the hit list to be moved to new house

shaz_mum_of__2

SM - I think it's great that you already fel settle and hope its not lng before your there permamently .........i wish i was so close to my dream home ..............although they say home is where the heart is so maybe i already live there!!



Shaz

sophiesmum_2

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

SM - I think it's great that you already fel settle and hope its not lng before your there permamently .........i wish i was so close to my dream home ..............although they say home is where the heart is so maybe i already live there!!



Shaz

Shaz - loking at your blog you seem to have everything you need right where you are Your garden is looking very productive:D

Frugaldom

Hello everyone

Weather is still hot and dry here, so I got out for my evening stroll and even managed a tiny bit of jogging just to see if the knees would hold up to it. I haven't done much since my little accident last October but they now bend and hold me upright Must stick with the get fitter, not fatter, as I've gained a(nother) stone since knee incident! :eek: But I digress, again. :rolleyes: The evening walk is when I normally gather my kindling sticks and cones in the forest but we stuck to the road tonight, so it was only kindling sticks and an inspection of the hedgerows. There are thousands of little green sloes on the bushes, plus miriads of elder flowers and flowering bramble bushes. When I got home, I ticked something off a list that has been there for some time now...



:jI made elderflower fritters and they were delicious! I used self raising flower and then thickened up the extra batter to make pancake mix then added some flowers to that, too. Tomorrow I'll make the elderflower pancakes. I'm also going to have a go at frugal elderflower champagne. :beer:

Frugaldom

Good Morning fruguys and gals,

There doesn't appear to be anyone about at the moment so I'll keep it short.

Sun shining here, we've had a shower of rain through the night and the veggie garden is looking quite green.

Only 2 days to go until many of us have reached the halfway stage of the 2009 challenge. If you started the year with £4,000, how close are you to having £2,000 left? I'm a little too close for comfort but am still within my own 'limit'. I'll have a full breakdown ready for Tuesday so I'm ready to start into the third quarter on Wednesday.

Hope everyone has a good day.

cw18

I'm here - and have been for almost the last hour :eek:

Need to do a final check through my menu plan, as I want to make sure I have all my "needs" on my shopping list before hitting Mr T later on this morning...... not looking forward to that, as it's my first weekend visit for months. But delaying it any longer would effectively "cost" me a fiver (as I wouldn't be able to use the last Mr M voucher).


We had a pretty nice day yesterday - threatened rain a couple of times, and the heavens finally decided to open at full belt at around 6pm...... kicking up all the dirt from the drive onto my front door, so I now have another job on my 'to do' list :mad: It continued more or less all the way to midnight, though it did let off a lot and we did get the odd break in the rain.

Not quite sure what's in store for today, though it looks promising ATM. Forecast on radio last night said we're in for a "mini-heatwave" until Wednesday, with the highest temps so far this year - and hitting 30 degrees by Wednesday :eek: So that'll be me pretty much confined to the house then :rolleyes2


As to mid-year figures - I'm looking to be well under half my budget. But I still have more than 80% [strike]two thirds[/strike] of my 'one off' payments to come (and that's only allowing for minimal increases - but I expect my car insurance to go up by more than I've allowed as I'm going to have to increase the mileage on it slightly), so I would have hoped this would be the case

Frugaldom

cw18 wrote: »

I'm here - and have been for almost the last hour :eek:

See? If you lived closer, you could have met me earlier and helped with the livestock and then had a cuppa whilst reading the posts. Just wear a sun hat, goggles and breathing aparatus, you'll be fine with the haycutting. Or else I can get some antihistimine to serve with the coffee?

I found one of those Morris0n £5 off vouchers in one of the newspapers I made into fire bricks. It was for this week. Unfortunately, it still got made into a brick, as there's nowhere to spend it without spending £5 on petrol to get there and having a couple of hours spare to make the trip. I also need someone about the place to keep an eye on the feathered friends if I'm away for any length of time. However, the vouchers, if available in the future, would pay for the trip if I was organised enough to remember which paper and when to buy it.

My mid-year figures are VERY close to the bit, CW. I have only £46.56 between me and the half of budget level But I am on the right side of it.

Edited in - PLEASE ignore all my typos, the letters have worn off my keyboard again and I'm getting fed up editing my posts.

cw18

I've got my (free) anti-H's here thanks :rotfl:

Needed to take one last night too..... but not 'cos of hayfever!! DD is away for the weekend, so I had to go and feed her cat. Unfortunately I had to pick her up and throw her into a different room while sorting the food and water out (she tends to scratch and bite me, but we think this is due to me smelling of dogs as she only ever catches my GDs on the days they've been here after school) - and that was enough to kick off my allergy to her :eek: I'm fine in the same room and even sitting on the couch where she's been -- until she come up and rubs against me


Oh! And make mine a very stong tea with very little milk and no sugar thanks..... I'm not a coffee person (or not unless it's a "Gold" type with brown sugar and real cream - so the cost prohibits it apart from a couple of times a year, like Christmas and Easter!)