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

skint_chick

SFT - glad to see someone else has been music magpie-ing

BB - I agree on the camera and bike front - go for it! Your old bike should sell easily too because of the credit crunch. I've started taking more pictures of crafty things, food I make, and beautiful scenery. I'd love to start a blog like Soule Mama's-she has some beautiful pictures and makes amazing sewing projects.

I've asked for a new camera for my birthday because mine is 10yrs old and doesn't keep its charge for long. I've picked a photography evening class and started putting money aside for it. I also joined the gym:D as I need to shift the weight if I want to try for a family. I've already been this morning for 15 mins on the exercise bike and 25 lengths of the pool. Planning to go tomorrow and Friday and twice at the weekend too.

I've got my fabric to make a new handbag for work, after that I want to make a stationery wrap for letter paper, envelopes and stamps and an apron for cooking! I was thinking about making my mum a bag for her birthday with ducks - her favourite -on, maybe a reusable grocery/book bag. I thought I could make the ducks from little scraps of material and sew them onto plain cotton canvas. I have so many ideas and so little time to get everything done:eek:

skint_chick

bails - forgot to say - is the credit card to buy something specific or just to increase credit score for your friend? If they're not registered to vote then their own bank is their best bet - or if it's bad credit there are companies like aqua (part of hbos) or vanquis - sky high interest rates if not paid in full and low credit limits - but you have to be registered to vote.

It might be a good idea to check experian on the free trial before applying for anything to see what you have showing - and then run it past someone on the sub prime credit card thread- they can usually tell you which cards you're more lilely to be accepted for if you don't have much of a credit history:D

purplevamp

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

Purplevamp....Where did you buy that cup cake carrier, I could really use a couple of them to carry my creations in.

I got it from here. They've got one in Lakeland but it wasn't as suitable for me. They also have paypal facility, which suited me as it's like free money from my ebay sales.

cha97michelle

Morning Frugang.

We finally have sunshine here. We have just been chilling at home after the car fiasco, so the garden is looking great. Thanks for all the tips about the council and making a claim. DH already took a photo of the pot hole with that intention, but i doubt we can do one with a ruler as the road is just so busy. The whole of the road through our small town is littered with pot holes, and that one was probably one of the smallest. The biggest inconvenience is going to be that we can't get it fixed till a week today and DH goes back to work tomorrow. That means he will have to take my car i expect, and have 3 days of dropping boys off at nursery and picking them up (one of which i'm at work too which isn't great) but i guess that is what happens when bad things occur on a bank holiday weekend.

Anyway, more pleasant things - the garden.
The veg patch has come along great. We have 3 beds now marked up with square feet (each one is 5 x 4), and have planted 10 squares with potatoes which got there first covering off the stems yesterday, 5 have garlic, 4 have courgettes, 2 have cabbages, and we did 3 with lettuces yesterday. I repotted all the mini-lettuces which have had several weeks in one large pot into individual pots and there will be about 40 of them. I didn't expect such good germination rates i'm afraid, but i am sure we will give some to relatives/neighbours if we have too many.

I also have 12 strawberry runners planted in pots (4 of 3 varieties which fruit at different times to extend the season), 3 vareties of mini-apple trees in pots, 1 x mini pear, 1 x mini orange, 1 x mini-lemon, and on my living room window sill i have 3 blueberry varieties and 1 x cranberry which really need to go into pots outside but i need some bigger nice pots and some compost.

I think next i need to start off some carrots/butternut squash/cucumbers, retry my tomatoes as i think i did them too early, and the same with peppers.

DH also spent about 3 hours pulling dandelions out the 2 lawns yesterday and is giving the lawn its first cut today. We have quite badly neglected the garden in the past few years while we did the house/had the kids but we are back with a venegance this year.

cw your wedding piccies were lovely. Dare i admit on here my dress was £1300 and my entire outfit £1800. :eek: I would sell it but won't for peanuts as it's a bit of an insult really. I did love my dress though, and didn't get into debt for the large/expensive wedding we had, so i don't think i am too out of place here. We also payed nearly £10,000 off our mortgage that year. We just worked and played hard, had what we wanted and enjoyed it. I justify it by thinking i will only do it once. We both have the mentality you marry for life. I just wish i had that kind of money spare now

I'll get my coat now, none of you will want me back after that confession :rotfl:

enjoy your day folks

Michelle x

cw18

cha97michelle wrote: »

cw your wedding piccies were lovely. Dare i admit on here my dress was £1300 and my entire outfit £1800. :eek: I would sell it but won't for peanuts as it's a bit of an insult really. I did love my dress though, and didn't get into debt for the large/expensive wedding we had, so i don't think i am too out of place here. We also payed nearly £10,000 off our mortgage that year.

Sounds like your's wasn't anything like as 'bad' a spend as some of my friends.... they had the whole expensive wedding to go with it, honeymoons that set them back thousands of pounds (plus I dread to think what they spent while there after seeing photos of excursions they did, and some of the pressies they brought back), plus they were just setting up home with first mortgages. I suppose it was really a combination of all these things that scared the living daylights out of me!!

We went to Italy for two weeks on a 'tour and stay' package - and only paid for one optional extra excursion . We also bought the house the year before, which was the second time of buying for both of us although the first together. And as we'd both bought our first just before the 1980's boom, our mortgage was 50% or less of friends as well

taka

cha97michelle wrote: »

cw your wedding piccies were lovely. Dare i admit on here my dress was £1300 and my entire outfit £1800. :eek: I would sell it but won't for peanuts as it's a bit of an insult really. I did love my dress though, and didn't get into debt for the large/expensive wedding we had, so i don't think i am too out of place here. We also payed nearly £10,000 off our mortgage that year. We just worked and played hard, had what we wanted and enjoyed it. I justify it by thinking i will only do it once. We both have the mentality you marry for life. I just wish i had that kind of money spare now

I'll get my coat now, none of you will want me back after that confession :rotfl:

enjoy your day folks

Michelle x

I think that as long as you can afford to buy a more expensive dress/ have a big expensive day then there is nothing wrong with that! Its only if you get £1000s into debt that you can't afford to repay thats its a bad thing! If what you want for your special day involves spending money and you have the money to spend then good! I've seen to both extremes - a small wedding with 16 people (it was really cosy and beautiful!) to a huge wedding (abroad!) that cost a fortune with ~200 guests. Both were lovely and special because they both celebrated the marriage of 2 lovely couples in their own way!

CW - I love the pics from your wedding!

:hello: to everyone - my brain has turned into mush from reading too many (scientific) papers so sorry I'm not replying individually.

Its soooooo quiet here today (I'm at work) - hardly anyone is in! Everyone has swapped next Mondays (local) holiday to today so are off for an even longer weekend over Easter. Oh well it means I have more chance of writing my report without umpteen interuptions I guess...

purplevamp

cha97michelle wrote: »

cw your wedding piccies were lovely. Dare i admit on here my dress was £1300 and my entire outfit £1800. :eek: I would sell it but won't for peanuts as it's a bit of an insult really. I did love my dress though, and didn't get into debt for the large/expensive wedding we had, so i don't think i am too out of place here. We also payed nearly £10,000 off our mortgage that year. We just worked and played hard, had what we wanted and enjoyed it. I justify it by thinking i will only do it once. We both have the mentality you marry for life. I just wish i had that kind of money spare now

I couldn't agree with you more michelle. A wedding is for a day but marriage is for life. So many people forget this, and also think "if it goes wrong we can just get divorced". IMO if you go into marriage with this in mind then you shouldn't get married. My dress cost me £550 and the whole wedding was £6,500. That was nearly 2 years ago. Actually it's exactly 4 weeks yesterday :eek:. I'd never dream of getting rid of my dress and it's still vacuum packed in my wardrobe. Don't apologise for your wedding costs, you didn't get into debt and you had a great day. Perfect :A

I made a huge pot of veg soup today with HM chicken stock (yes I know it's not vegetarian ). My DD helped me peel and grate the veggies, but she still wouldn't try any :rolleyes:, fussy moo!! DS2 had some, loved it, DS1 is still in bed...

cw18

taka & PV - you're both spot on with the thoughts about wedding costs (including the not going into it with the thoughts of an 'easy out'). I just couldn't understand how much some of my friends (and/or their parents) were openly borrowing to pay for all the extravagances! I suppose with having run a home for 4 years before booking mine (and having been a parent for 7 years at the same point), I could just see so many better places (for me) to spend the money


Just back from S'flds.... not much left, but still managed to spend £5.89 :eek: However the shelf ticket value of this lot is £15.08, so I'm actually really pleased :T It includes some treats (Cinammon Swirls & Jam Donuts, which are the first treats I've bought for the holiday weekend), and also a 50% off block of Red L cheese which I love (but can't normally justify the extra compared to Cheddar, especially as it's only me that eats it)

MrDT

I have struck upon a fantastic money making scheme! No effort, no hassle, just magic money... Any old rubbishtreasure you want to get rid of, instead of listing on ebay, or giving away for free on freecycle, hand it all over to your mum that happens to be doing a car boot on bank holiday weekend. Wait a few hours, then collect the cash when she returns :rotfl:

Ok, so maybe not something you can get away with doing too often lol! Didn't make much, £10.80 lol, still, it was just stuff I no longer wanted and wouldn't have bothered listing on ebay, so a tenner beats clutter in the attic I need every penny of 'extra money' I can grab right now tbh, haven't got proper internet access, which means no scratchcards, quidco, or matched betting income

Spends have been relatively high the past week, mainly thanks to birthdays and easter. It doesn't look like letting up soon either - think we need a second sofa Still, I'm keeping an eye on things and am currently underbudget, though April could possibly be my first 'overbudget' month of 2009, there's only £60ish left to last 17 days!!

Hope you're all having a nice bank holiday. I'm off to do some more DIY now

sophiesmum_2

Another day spent doing garden related things:D
This is the garden furniture we picked up the other day

and this is the little space we have created for it, not a lot of room but nice and private, (concrete corner is at the other end of this path - my empire is expanding lol)


I managed to spend another £6 today at the garden centre on three plants to make the greenhouse end of the garden a bit prettier. I have enjoyed the Easter weekend and feel like we have achieved quite a bit in the garden despite my bad arm. It is good to get some of the indoor grown stuff finally outdoors as I am being over run inside with seed trays and plant pots:rolleyes:

Hope you have all had a great day xxx