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

Brighton_belle

Lynda -life is never simple is it:rolleyes:. I hope you are both able to weight this opportunity up and take the best decision for you now.

Thanks for the assurance that bakery work is hard cw & sf: no suprise really as just 4 hrs of on feet selling was hard work, but was fun because I knew I wasn't going to be doing it 7 hrs a day all week:D

I think the subject of beach combing kind of comes under 'frugalling' doesn't it:
OH was at the end of his warden duty yesterday at a local NT beautyspot when a visitor came up to him and said "just found this on the beach mate" and promptly put a live hand grenade in his hand:eek::eek:

Skint_Lynne

:eek::eek::eek: OMG BB,
Your OH must have got such a fright, it is very 'different' to be handed a live grenade, my DH works with these all the time, but he is in the army.:rolleyes:

We had a good time at the weekend sophiesmum, but I'm afraid that there was a 'difference of opinion', shall we say.

He decided to buy himself a jacket at £175.:eek::eek: Needless to say, I did not approve. It was not just the price of the jacket, he did not need it. I done a rough count and he actually has about 30 different jackets of all styles for all weathers. He has a similar style jacket to this already. At the end of the day, it's up to him, but i did not think it was a good idea.:cool:

I have been in the shop today, it's not been busy at all, never mind, tomorrow is another day. I've not spent anything today, so that's something. Will check in later. xx

The_AA_Company_Representative

cha97michelle wrote: »

Expensive day in our house. We set out to go shopping as i needed some clothes/shoes for me for work, so might as well go today while the weather was grim. To cut a long story short, DH went through a pot hole in the road - not even a very big one, and we heard a big bang. We thought it was a burst tyre, but he has managed to snap part of the suspension on his car. Spends today was £100 to get it towed to our house as we couldn't leave it where it was. The AA wouldn't pick us up as they classed it as an accident, and the insurance company excess was way to high. I could have cried as we haven't even paid the credit card bill yet from both cars needing fixing last month. I wish we didn't need them.


I'm trying to look on the positive side. At least we were only 2 miles from home and had the double buggy in the car, so could get ourselves home easily. At least it didn't bang on the motorway or it probably would have burst the tyre and made us have an accident. Anyone else feel though that they get all the bad luck? I like to think i am a nice kind person yet things pile up like this all the time.

loopy glad to hear you feel a bit better. I got mastitits with DS2. Hot baths and putting a flannel on the area, and also expressing a bit of milk helped. I also used baby oil and massaged the blocked duct, and it cleared within a week without antibiotics although my skin was a very weird texture for ages afterwards.

sophiesmum sounds like your corner is coming along nicely. A good idea to get yourself a bit of privacy. Must be hard to be on site all the time at times.

BB i am envious of your sea views. I went to Brighton while DH was working a few years back, and it was bliss to sit in the hotel room as it faced the sea, and just read my book and look out. There were loads of cyclists, and it looked flat and safe to cycle. I'm often put off by traffic here although we like the old railway lines that you can cycle along. We are hoping to do some this year with the kids in the boke trailer. Great fun although hard work for DH as he has to pull at least 65 Ib on top of his own bike and weight. I found it hard just me cycling. I think i need a gel seat if we get well into it.

I am thankful i am on this thread. I have had loads of urges to spend, but as we walked back from the car we were talking, and said although we aren't flash with cash at the moment, we can afford to put the car repairs on the credit card and pay next month. Our savings have dwindled a lot while i have been on maternity leave, but i have also put money in our ISAs and kiddies trust funds. I know if it wasn't for this thread i would not be as comfortable as we are. I only hope i can keep it up when i am back at work and pushed for time so i can really make a difference to the kids lives as they get older. I know we are fortunate.

Anyway, enough of my musings, i hope you all have a lovely Easter tomorrow. We are just going to have a quiet family meal. We had DH's 80 year old aunty and her friend round for lunch yesterday, so we plan on just pottering in the garden. Got the courgettes and cabbages planted out today before the rain, but really plan to get on in the next few days and start the next lot of seeds off. Happiness, healthiness and good weather wishes for you all. Hope you enjoy however you spend it.

Michelle x

Hello Michelle.
I work for the AA and I am sorry to read about the difficulties you encountered following the pot hole incident. I thought it would be useful to clarify the situation. When a vehicle is involved in an incident such as this, and not technically broken down, there are a number of possible outcomes. First – if the car is repairable at the roadside, we would send a patrol free of charge under the membership with a view to helping you continue on your journey. Second – if the car needs to be recovered, we can certainly arrange that and would ask permission to invoice the ‘at fault’ insurer which may be the member’s own insurer if no one else is involved, as in your case. The other option would be for the member to pay us for the recovery and then reclaim it from theirs or the third party’s insurer, if appropriate.
The reason we would look to reclaim the cost of the recovery is because accidents are covered by car insurance policies and are not technically breakdowns, which is what AA membership (or any other motoring organisation membership) covers.
I hope this helps but if you would like to discuss further, then please give our member care team a call on 0845 6076727 or email them at [EMAIL="customersupport@theaa.com"]customersupport@theaa.com[/EMAIL]

sophiesmum_2

Good evening frunchkins:D
Have to confess to feeling a little guilty of neglecting this thread lately.:o Not that Ihave stopped monitoring my challenge spends etc as the challenge budget is doing fine, just I feel like I have lost my momentum a little with posting.
Just been having a little ponder and taking stock of how things are going

POSITIVES

• budgets under control
• stockpile finally showing some small signs of reduction (but only small!)
• savings doing well
• seeds sprouting
• veggie garden doing well
• greenhouse swinging into production
• freezers still 3/4 full of batch cooking
• recycling plans achieved on a daily basis
• still coming in under budget for food shopping over first 6 months
• menu planning, batch cooking and stockpiling second nature now
• most gifts for year now stockpiled
• boots points mounting up nicely
• 5 a day aims met every day
• fitter not fatter doing okay

NEGATIVES

• Need to make some extra free cash for unexpected spends - not been doing this much lately
• Not spending any money so no cash going into sealed pot
• Feeling stuck in a rut - seems like groundhog day sometimes:rolleyes:
• Need to challenge myself with a mini challenge to bump start my oomph again:p

So how is everyone else doing??

Think I will challenge myself to make at least £50 extra cash over the next month, that should help with two of the negatives.

[Deleted User]

Hello All!

Has been lovely weather here so have been going for little walks around the village.

Things are looking up with DH's work situation. We've had leaflets/business cards printed and have leafleted a few houses, spoken to a few people, hopefully he has got 6 weeks work starting Mon sub-contracting for someone else so that'll be really good. Then has had someone else agree to have a patio done and agreed the price so thats another 3 days etc.

I thought I was a frugal girlie before but now with the thought of no money coming in, the old belts been tightened a few notches but its a challenge.

Daisy's doing really week, she'll be 6 weeks old on Sunday, time has gone so quick. She's still a VERY hungry baby!

Hope everyones ok xx

andan

Hi guys, still doing the challenge and still plodding along with it all. Not much to report really. Spends are low, plants are growing well for first lot of veg. Bills are going down, so its all looking good at the moment.

Good bit of news though, my friend is moving into a house hare and i asked her if i could have her gardening pots as she can't take them with her and i can have that and all her lovely plants she planted. So that will be great for my garden.

Skint_Lynne

sophiesmum wrote: »

Good evening frunchkins:D
Have to confess to feeling a little guilty of neglecting this thread lately.:o Not that Ihave stopped monitoring my challenge spends etc as the challenge budget is doing fine, just I feel like I have lost my momentum a little with posting.
Just been having a little ponder and taking stock of how things are going


POSITIVES

• budgets under control
• stockpile finally showing some small signs of reduction (but only small!)
• savings doing well
• seeds sprouting
• veggie garden doing well
• greenhouse swinging into production
• freezers still 3/4 full of batch cooking
• recycling plans achieved on a daily basis
• still coming in under budget for food shopping over first 6 months
• menu planning, batch cooking and stockpiling second nature now
• most gifts for year now stockpiled
• boots points mounting up nicely
• 5 a day aims met every day
• fitter not fatter doing okay

NEGATIVES

• Need to make some extra free cash for unexpected spends - not been doing this much lately
• Not spending any money so no cash going into sealed pot
• Feeling stuck in a rut - seems like groundhog day sometimes:rolleyes:
• Need to challenge myself with a mini challenge to bump start my oomph again:p

So how is everyone else doing??

Think I will challenge myself to make at least £50 extra cash over the next month, that should help with two of the negatives.

I have been feeling as if I have lost my 'oomph' as well. First of all, I lost my notebook and then I started recording my spends again for a few days. I must be honest, I have not been recording my spending at all, but I know that I have not been spending much because I really am SL at the moment.

This time of year is historically hard for me because the shop is quiet just now, but as things have been extra bad, it is a bit worse. Thank god I have this job, but the money from that is being used to pay off some stuff at the moment, so I have not had the benefit from it yet.

I have some positives as well though:
: I have not been spending much on food as I have stockpiled.
: I have a lot of my gifts for the year in because I bought them in the sales.
: I have been to a couple of car boot sales and offset the costs from my present budget.
: I know how much money I owe people and businesses.
: I am more aware of the difference between wants and needs.
: I know that I will get out of my mess one day because of the tips I have picked up from this thread and others.
: I have made some wonderful virtual friends, who I can tell things to that I couldn't do to my real life friends.

So thanks to all of you, you really do keep me going and sophiesmum has made me pull my socks up tonight. I will start proper from tomorrow and start recording my spends again from 1st May. xx

sophiesmum_2

Looks like May is going to be get the oomph back month then:D
things should start looking up in the garden etc by then and soon summer will be here and lots of stuff to be doing outside towards frugal life.

Good luck everyone - and well done on still being here now almost a 1/3 of the way through challenge already.

BigMummaF

I know I'm not a 'member' as such but I do read the thread most days in preparation for that time I will be organised enough to sort out a comprehensive budget....just don't hold your breath [ 'Moi' & 'organised' rarely appear together in the same sentance, unless it involves the mention of what could happen in a brewery :doh:] I'm recording what I spend where & am fully embracing the NSD Challenge which, curiously, is helping with [STRIKE]clearing out[/STRIKE] rotating the store cupboard & freezer contents :T
Has there been any development on the pot-hole front Michelle, as there was a report on the news the other morning about some councils deliberately leaving them in the roads to encourage "traffic calming". I appreciate the thinking behind it, but as mentioned there is obviously little regard for those who travel on two wheels or more importantly, emergency vehicles on a 'shout'.
I know it's an mse kind of solution but methinks it has gone too far. I'm all for saving money but not to the point of compromising safety.

lyndasharp

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Had great fun yesterday selling cakes for the NT: made them £500 ish:D.

Thank you good to see people are working hard to pay my wages Seriously though, without the army of volunteers at the NT there's no way this organisation could survive, and it's much appreciated.

Having had the long chat with H2B I'm staying in my current job for now. Neither of us particularly liked the idea of yet another move having only just got settled in our current place, and I think I've got a lot more to learn from my job here that would make me a much better uni lecturer! There are a couple more people approaching retirement atthe uni, so hopfully another job will come around in a couple of years. H2B would like to do a PhD, if he can find something this year, it will mean giving up his permenant contract and the job security, but make him more employable in the future for a move elsewhere. Other option is wait until we move, then he can think about a PhD at Lincoln uni - as long as I get a job there of course! So we'll just have to wait and see what happens here first...