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

skint_chick

Janey - you sound like you have lots going on - does your mum have a social worker because they and her GP should be sorting out the hip issues for your mum - even a temporary pain relief injection while she waits for surgery. Have you posted on the debt free wannabe board about your debt issues - OH is being pursued for money he paid in full too so I know the frustrating feeling of not being listened too. Hope your foot is recovering ok and you're not too stressed out:grouphug:

I've being working on creative projects this week so feeling quite pleased. But OH needs a new car so we're going to ring about some this weekend:( so some of my savings have to get spent. Other than that I've been quite well behaved - just petrol - but had to get a new window for rental house as someone kindly tried to break in - and claiming was raising my renewal price so much it wasn't worth it :mad: £85 :mad:

Don't really have much else to say so better go and do some cleaning

Frugaldom

Late night catching up here, so I'll try my best to get everything in order.

CW, congratulations on the win! Well done

SF, I hope you start to feel better soon.

Mumzy, you need to get back and tell us all what you've been up to and how you are doing - did you quit smoking yet?

SM, sorry to read about your mum's cat. It must have had a great life, though, to make it to 22, so that's something your mum should be really proud of - it was a very lucky cat to have had such a great home. I'm glad the arm is improving and hope you're fully recovered for the weekend in case there's more sun!

Bails, have a great time camping, wherever you end up going. Hmm, yes it does seem to be a loooooooooooong time since we all asked to see pictures of frugal pup!

Right, here's a photographs of the latest additions to the frugaldom family. We also got another hen today, from same lovely 'henpal' lady as before - I managed to avoid the temptation to scream yes when she asked if I wanted a pet lamb, though!


There are 9 chicks hatched - 5 Silkies and 4 Pekin bantams.


I think this is my favourite but they are all adorable and I'll never want to sell any of them - it's one of the Silkies.

And just for good measure, here's the latest one of frugalchick who, I am convinced, is far too delicate and dainty to be anything other than a pretty little girl bantam. She was outside freeranging with the others today for the first time!

FrankieM

Morning everyone,
I've had a quiet couple of days here. Children still around so not getting much done. I'll have to really crack on next week, though I'm hoping to get the house back to some kind of normality today. Once everyone gets up I'll get them helping, just general tidying and a vacuum through.
We've got some sprouting veg outside. Peas and sweetcorn and maybe some carrots...very exciting.
Had to buy some packing tape yesterday and I need to get a campervan panel sent back too ut will do that on monday. I'm hoping they will be my only spends till grocery day. I've done my menu for the week so hopefully that will keep me out of the shops!
Hope you all have a good weekend.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Hope everyone is feeling well.
CW-How fantastic for you to win! It really does sound like fate.
Nyk-The chicks are gorgeous..MrSFT loves them..calling them his 'brothers (and sisters) from another mother'.
Bails-Good to read your post. It must be hard not to get excited about the placement. Nepal what an amazing possibility. I'd be doing exactly the same as you...looking at the map..esp Bhutan..always wanted to go.

Hoping for a productive day today.
Trying to get another of the assessments out of the way first. All I can say is I am so glad I've worked on this over the holidays. There is no way I would have got them done otherwise.
Mr SFT has been down to Mr T and picked up some bits, using some MOCs of course. We have purchased the Daily Express today as it has 2 for 1 for Fish and Chips (including the best Chippy in our area-so this will be a treat dinner for us-we never have takeaways anymore), also a free TV mag and MOCs for £1.70 so a pretty good deal for 70p.
Weather is pretty good so planning a walk later. Also popping into Waitrose to spend a voucher we got for our Wedding Present. Hoping to pick up some lovely food. Don't need too much as hoping to run freezer contents down

Have a great day everyone!
SFT

purplevamp

nyk - cute chicks, can you pop one in the post for me?

I had the most humungous headache yesterday, so ended up taking a couple of ibuprofen and snoozing on the sofa for an hour or so. After that I felt a whole lot better. The miracle of modern medicine :rotfl:. I made a chicken chop suey for dinner which was meant to serve 1, but it looked so big it served 3, there's a portion left for me tonight as DH is "out with the boys". I also managed to get 4 tickets for the new Hannah Montana movie for free, so I have a very very happy little girl who squealed when I told her. I've sold 3 things on amazon and 1 on ebay this week. One of them was an unwanted xmas gift for DS2, so he got £10 and was very pleased with that.

Have spent £4 on milk today, under £20 in Mr S yesterday, so it should be a cheap weekend. We're going to have to pick up our repaired tv next week, £70 :eek:, but way cheaper than a new one.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

chika

Those chicks are the custest things ever! Wow I didn't know they were that sweet. I'm sat here eating a chicken sandwich that I can't bear to finish now. Duh!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend and enjoying this amazing sunshine

sophiesmum_2

Went to town this morning with friend,free parking, picked up some bits in boots for OH and topped up DS phone, ended up with another 400+ points by using £20 spend voucher and double points voucher.Up to £79.45 now:D
Had a potter in garden/greenhouse, then went to post office to send off two parcels and another shop to pick up something for someone else.
Had a little spend on a dvd for me £4.99 and two utility trays for seeds/pots £1 each.
Was given a flexi trug by my mum for garden, don't know what I'm going to do with that yet - may use it as a planter, already have a smaller one I use for weeds etc.

total spend for me today £14.97 (including £8 in boots)

lyndasharp

Yippee, the TV went to it's new home today and I got paid in cash for it :-) Spent the afternoon on the garden pruning the laurel tree. It's probably not the right time of year, but have only just got the shears and it was taking over the side of the house! Have planted several fruit bushes from H2B's allotment and I'm really looking forward to gooseberries - haven't had those in years!

No more veg seed planted yet though, and we've got free tickets to see State of Play tomorrow so that's the morning gone. Might get another bed dug tomorrow afternoon though, if the weather stays fine.

cw18

I went looking for a new lawn mower today - but am now thinking I'll have to rethink the sort I'm after, or manage with the one I have for this year (and hope it doesn't knock my back out again) while keeping my fingers crossed that I have enough left of the challenge budget to get a new one next year !!

I really wanted a petrol one, but the advice (given my back condition) is that I need a self-propelled one..... and I won't get much change out of £200 !!! Plus the smallest cutting width on the self-propelled machines is bigger than the push ones, which actually make them too big for my lawns..... I also have to add in to this that they don't recommend any petrol mowers for under 100 square metres of lawn, which is the size of my largest lawn (the 3 other areas are considerably smaller) and I want to 'trim' the large one back to 40% or less of what it currently is anyway !


Biggest problem I'm finding is getting advice I trust though. I hit H0meb@se first (was next door for something else), but didn't like the minimal selection or prices. Decided to try the F0cus near home on my way back (which I did, and they have even less choice and higher prices!), but then remembered a really popular (and huuuuge) garden centre I could detour past (though it meant an extra few miles). Got there to find it's not just garden stuff (kitchen ware, pets section, kiddies clothes, furniture, kitchen accessories etc) - but that they don't sell lawn mowers at all :eek: (Apparently they can't compete with the DIY places for price, and what they can make on them doesn't justify the floor space they take)



So my only spends today have been onions and milk from A!di - and boy! were they busy. The lass on the check-out says it's been like that since Wednesday (which is when S'flds closed). I did bob into C0-0p in the hope of mark-downs, but it looks like the extra customers through there (they've had queues every time I've been past in the last week or so, which is practically unheard of) is putting paid to Whoopsies

Roll on mid-July when Mr M opens up

FrankieM

Hi everyone,
I've managed to give the house a once over and it's looking respectable again. I've not spent any time outside..crazy really considering the lovely weather. I've been trawling frugal sites and reading blogs while working my way through the washing pile. If the weather holds out tomorrow then I may go out after church and put some pepper seeds in trays and see what other seeds I've got. I think I have swede and turnip so I should find somewhere for them. I'm keeping one of my raised beds for brassicas and a friend of mine wants to plant flowers in one so I think I'll have to search out some pots.....here's hoping I have the motivation.
I love the chicks. They are really sweet. I want ducks but no room in this garden....