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

slowlyfading

Brighton_belle wrote: »

At which point sf can bring me down to earth and tell me that actually, working in a bakery is very hard work.

Lol :rotfl: to be fair, as I live in a very tourist-y area, it is hard work in the summer but i tell you when it does make me smile - when you get little kids come in for a gingerbread man, and i ask them what colour smartie they want (for the belly button) and to see how happy they are to get an orange smartie makes me smile

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Hi everyone hope you are all having a good Monday, the weather is glorious in deepest Suffolk.....BUT we nearly always have a wind to contend with.

Yesterday I did my first car boot sale for this year and it was a bit chilly standing in the middle of a field, I kept questioning my sanity actually because I could have been still in bed or in my warm greenhouse. Anyway I took my baking to sell and nearly cleared the whole lot, just a few boxes of biscuits left which will keep as I pack them in air tight plastic continers. I was interested to read from Blairweech that she paid £2.50 a slice and I only charge £2.00 for a whole shortbread made with butter!!!! am I doing something wrong I ask myself? I charge what I know people are prepared to pay taking into consideration my ingredients and electricity, I forget the time being used as I am retired and the cash I make is all extra for me . Anyway it was a good morning and it was nice to meet up with all my regular customers from last year.

Today I am starting to cook again I have to do a little everyday in order to have enough to, sell what with that and the plants I sell I keep busy, its usually my home that suffers by my lack of time and gets very untidy..I always say I could untidy an empty room . Lovely live-out-lover is coming to see me this afternoon so I must do at least a little housework first just to keep him thinking I am organised :cool:.

Surely cw18 its not appropriate to feel guilty about using Freecycle to obtain a bookshelf even if you can afford to buy one after all one of the reasons to use the site is to keep "stuff" out of the ground fill sites. So enjoy your bookshelf when you are offered one, you are doing the universe and us all a favour.Thanks :A.

Am going to start mixing shortbread now and make a few more biscuits, I also need to go to the Post Office to post my letters to the nurserys who are offering free Gladioli bulbs and a free floribunda rose bush for the price of the postage! I got most of my vegetable seed this way this year...very frugal as the nurserys are looking for new addresses to send their catalogues to and I benefit from the bulbs/seeds/plants etc Plus I like looking at the catalogues.

My time on the computer is up so will go and cook now, have a lovely day everyone.

Ps.Thanks slowlyfading for the idea about gingerbreadmen and the smartie belly button, I may use that idea myself if that OK wih you?

cw18

Thanks for the comments about Freecycle folks - I guess it's a case of re-training my brain so that I stop think "Oh, I could do with......" and rushing out to buy one. After 16 or 17 years of doing just that (while a couple with relatively high income and low mortgage compared to other families), I guess it's going to take a while to retrain my automatic reaction



And I can second working in a bakery as being hard work. That was my Saturday job from Oct 82-Jul 83 (with a lot of extra hours through the last month), although we didn't actually bake bread/cakes on site. This was also in a tourist area, but TBH it didn't really get much busier during the summer than at any other time.

Early start to check in the delivery and sort out the window display for the day, move trays of bread through to the shop front to fill the shelves, cakes out for display (including cream ones into the refridgerated area), pies and pasties into the ovens, then into the 'keep warm' area -- with everything carrying on right through the day to keep areas stocked, as well as serving customers (and adding up bills on paper as we had the old 'push down all the buttons at the same time' type cash registers!).

And then at the end of the day everything had to be scrubbed down (no cleaners brought in to do it), while anything left had to be recorded and repacked for return to the bakery proper......


For an 8 hour day (less 45 mins for lunch) I got paid the huuuuuge sum of £8.16 (and that was as I left after a payrise - I seem to remember starting on £7.92), out of which I had to pay £1.40 for the return bus fare :eek:

lyndasharp

Ooh, my wedding dress has arrived and it's GORGEOUS! And a perfect fit! It's not exactly what I ordered, wasn't expecting coloured flower embroidery, but I don't care 'cos it's so nice.

In other news, I have been unofficially encouraged to apply for a teaching job at my old uni. I have only just started my current job, it'd mean relocating nearly 200 miles north, H2B finding a new job.... I have only just bought the house etc etc... but it is a job I'd love to do, it was something I'd thought about going for in a few years time when my current contract finished. I wasn't expecting there to be a job there already.... aaargh.

Skint_Lynne

I'm back everyone, have missed you all!! I'm just going to get tidied up and read through what I've missed, not a very frugal weekend, but an enjoyable one, which is something. xx

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Lynda-Dress sounds wonderful. Great to hear about your job opportunity. How exciting!
EFC-Hurrah! Someone else from the south-east! Never thought about selling food at Car Boot Sales. What a clever idea!

My NCDay went well...found out my friend at school is desperate to go walking (she's walking the Inca Trail in October) so we are organsing some evening walks together- Went out tonight , as its been beautiful here today and had a lovely time.
Looking forward to seeing my class tomorrow (not the early start) and finding out what they have been up to over the holidays.
Ebay is going well-all 3 dresses being bid on, just my second pair of sandals to go. Hurrah!

Have a great evening all.

SFT

Blairweech

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

I was interested to read from Blairweech that she paid £2.50 a slice and I only charge £2.00 for a whole shortbread made with butter!!!! am I doing something wrong I ask myself?

I have a confession....

As I was ordering my shortbread...a load of firemen came in....and I got so flustered that I dropped my purse and its contents...so, I was not really worrying about the price at the time! :rotfl:

sophiesmum_2

Evening frunchkins:D
Just arrived back from an evening out with my mum watching Riverdance in Liverpool, which I had completely forgotten about until she rang me at lunchtime to remind me:rolleyes: Had a good night out with mum but decided that Irish dancing is not really my thing. I was getting a bit fed up with it after the first hour but it made her happy having me go with her so that's what matters really.The tickets were her pressie from my brother for mother's day.

Hope everyone is well, sft enjoy your walking:D, lynda - well done on getting a dress you love:T, lots to consider with possible job, better have a long talk with OH.

Hi SL - hope OH behaved at the weekend, and you persuaded him to take your car;)

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Oh well Blairweech I suppose thats one way to get the firemens attention, did they help you pick up your money? :rotfl:

Have just taken my last 6 shortbreads out of the oven, I wont cook less than an oven full and can get two tins on each shelf. I suppose thats what happens when you are brought up by a mother who had to cope with rationing during the war but very good training for when you have to survive on a pension.... I think I must have frugal stamped right through my middle.

Frugaldom

Good morning The mini-heatwave has left our corner of the country and it's now raining. The heat outside is fast disappearing and I've had to kindle the fire to take the chill off the house. The chickens don't seem to mind, though, as the babies are all outside playing 'catch me if you can' with one another, chasing whoever has the worm! :rotfl: If you're squeamish, then apologies for the following - they love playing tug of war to see who gets the biggest half! :rotfl:

Just paid off my last stoozing card in full, bye bye stoozing! It isn't worth it any more. Worse still, Egg card just quit giving 4% interest on +ve balances and are trying to make us feel lucky that they have kept the 1% cashback in place! How rubbish is that?! :mad: I guess I should be grateful for the cashback each year, and I'll need to make sure I pay everything I can vis card. Wonder if the coal man or log man take them? :rotfl:

Not much going on here today, so I might do some baking. I might even get a 'normal-ish' day rather than cramming work in from 7am - lunchtime then skiving in the garden all day, to finish the rest of my work after dark. :rotfl:The joys of self-employment. You've never seen a monthly report completed as fast as this month's! Pity I can't send out invoices before the last day!