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

cha97michelle

Evening everyone, from a very tired but happy Michelle.

DS2's birthday party went down really well, although i overcatered and we now have lots of leftovers but i am sure that will solve my menu planning for this week, and i will be popular at work when i take some cake in to them. About 15 jacket spuds pre-cooked, loads of breadbuns and salad, 40 burgers, some pork steaks, some steak and some sausages. I'm going to need to have a major freezer sort i think and try and get some of it in there.

It was nice and chilled, and everyone was complimenting us on the garden and the veg patch in particular, so that was nice as we've worked blimming hard on them.

The frugal bit of today was that we managed to borrow a bouncy castle for free, though i feel obliged to pass a few beers or something in the guy who owns it's direction.

I need to work out spends from last month still, and this weekend, which i'm dreading, but then i will be good for the rest of the month. I'll need to as work overpaid me last month so i am assuming they will underpay me this month to compensate, and also child tax credits owe us a wedge but are being slow to sort it out so we will need to be good.

I'm loving all the craft stuff on this thread, it is so inspirational. It gives a nice positive vibe to the thread.

Just chilling with a glass of wine as i have done so much housework and preparation for this party and i am sure feeling it now.

ILs are taking us out for the day tomorrow, and then i'll have school work to do when we get in ready for Wednesday. This week is going to vanish in about 2 minutes isn't it.

Michelle x

Blairweech

Nyk - Have just used the laundry gloop. Pros: *Very* cheap, makes laundry nice and soft and smells fresh. Cons: Atrocious on whites. It almost makes them dirtier?
So I suppose in terms of cost effectiveness....not that great, as you would have to add something else to clean the whites. But, in terms of cheapness, brilliant. So cheap in fact, if you made it and did not get on with it, I do not think you would lose more than a couple of £

Had a great day today:

- Took last night's leftovers for lunch today (saving on one packed lunch, and wasted leftovers)
- Did a freezer inventory
- Made a meal plan based on what I have in already
- Got paid double time today at work
- Went to Morrisons and stuck to my list (apart fom one carton of ice cream)
- Waited until store closing for RTC fruit/veg
- Bought reduced nanas to make loaf
- Roasted a chicken, which will do me for lunches for the rest of the week, plus a couple more dinners, plus stock

On the downside...it is my friends birthday tomorrow, so I made a cake. About 5 seconds after I had put it in the oven, I forgot it was in there and opened the oven door :doh: So it came out flat and brick-like. Now I have to make another one, and get it right this time. I am sure the uh...'prototype' will find a home in my stomach though

whitewing

You could use the flat cake as a trifle base. Yum yum

angelicmary85

Hi guys,

This thread makes an interesting read (although I will admit to not actually reading all the pages!!)

This may be a daft question but how does the £4000 challenge work? I mean, I understand the concept of it but not sure how it would be put into practice? I did try to read page1 but I'm quite impatient and skipped it so I could see what kinds of things get posted here!!

Frugaldom

angelicmary85 wrote: »

Hi guys,

This thread makes an interesting read (although I will admit to not actually reading all the pages!!)

This may be a daft question but how does the £4000 challenge work? I mean, I understand the concept of it but not sure how it would be put into practice? I did try to read page1 but I'm quite impatient and skipped it so I could see what kinds of things get posted here!!

The 4k (or whatever your budget really is) is basically for everything except rent, council tax and water, but it would be far easier for you to understand if you read post one to save me typing it all out again - I'm a lousy typist

Cha, glad you had a very successful day with DS's party, sounds like you deserve a seat and a glass of vino.

Blairweech - thank for the blurb on the gloop :rotfl: I think I'll splash out the £4 for another bag of soap nuts this year. I am down to my last 6 now.

It's miserable, cold and wet here today again but all that rain is doing wonders for the veggies. Unfortunately, it's also doing wonders for the grass, hedges and weeds and the hens are beng 'wooses' and hiding in their houses! I'm having a 'use it up' week whilst HS is away on hols visiting family, so I'm going to try steaming chicken on tier 1, carrots on tier 2 and broccoli on tier 3 of the bargain electric steamer that's been sitting looking at me for months and never, yet, been used. I also have some onions needing used up but can see that these are going to end up in a tub in the freezer, defeating my attempts to empty it anytime soon. :rolleyes: I must also try making the bean pate, as I have about 3 kilos of cooked kidney beans! Maybe I'll wait for instructions from SM so I can store any extra that gets made.

Catch up again soon, have a good day everyone

taka

Ohhhh does someone have a recipie for bean pate - I love the stuff but my attempts at making it were evily vile... I have no idea why as I like all the individual ingredients - just not together! Maybe I used the wrong beans...

lyndasharp

Loobylou - have you tried asking your local Cats Protection branch? If you are on benefits they do vouchers that can cover the whole cost of neutering. Alternatively if the Mum cat is a stray, you may be able to get them to neuter her for free anyway, if you ask nicely.

I'm off work today with a cold, but am quite relieved that it isn't flu, given the amount of travelling on trains I've been doing recently! I just about got through the weekend dosed up on neurofen (and occasional absinth). We had H2B's niece and two nephews staying from Sunday to Monday. They are good workers, two more veg patches cleared and they built the BBQ and an earth oven from the turf they took up. We had our first BBQ yesterday evening, and it was really tasty - though have discovered that burning laurel is a bad idea as it's really smelly. I also introduced them to a game called 'War on Terror', so I hope I don't get into trouble from their Mum for teaching them to be terrorists...

Bought a lawnmower from Arg0s ready for all the gardening, and managed to get a nice one using vouchers, so didn't spend anything on that. Food was a bit pricy though, as we needed enough for the extra hoardes as well as us, and I spent two weeks worth of the food budget in one go! That did include £9 worth of cheap cheese though, and it's very tasty :-)

Ooh, just looked and I have bids on two of the 4 things I listed on ebay! Only 99p each so far, but it'll be good to get them out of the way.

Edit: £1200 plus food and drink to get my favourite band to play at my wedding. There are 10 people in the band so I guess that adds a bit to the cost if I'm feeding them as well, and they are amazing, it would make my wedding really special to me, but it's a lot of money...

Brighton_belle

Lynda - while not one to throw large sums of money around lightly - you have talked with passion an joy about the idea of this band several times. It's your wedding, I think you should go for it and have the day you dream of. I'm sure you will cut back on plenty of other areas. Budgeting if you don't have debts is about cutting back wher you can to have the things your really really want.

sophiesmum_2

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Lynda - while not one to throw large sums of money around lightly - you have talked with passion an joy about the idea of this band several times. It's your wedding, I think you should go for it and have the day you dream of. I'm sure you will cut back on plenty of other areas. Budgeting if you don't have debts is about cutting back wher you can to have the things your really really want.

I'll second what BB says.:D

(says SM who is currently ear marking savings for lots of spends on frugaldomtoo )

thriftylass

Blairweech wrote: »

- Roasted a chicken, which will do me for lunches for the rest of the week, plus a couple more dinners, plus stock

How big a chicken is this?? I can finish off a roast chicken by myself if I'm up to it (no sides then though ) but it definitely only lasts for a dinner for two in this household and maybe a sandwich (well, and stock). What am I doing wrong (apart from maybe eating too much ? ). I don't think I could stretch it into 6+ portions. What kind of dinners/lunches do you make out of it, I'm desperate for some chicken saving tipps.

Thanks