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

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Mr SFT has asked for a refund from other survey company and arranged a new one with another company for Tuesday (they could have done it today but the owner of our new house wasn't available). Hurrah!! but I can't wait until its done...
Take care
SFT

shaz_mum_of__2

ooh SkintLynne take it easy your being braver than me

welcome back mollymop sounds like chaos

I have just booked myself onto a free pottery class next week (a la kirstie Alsopp)

aparently its adult learners week and there were lots of freebies to choose from ,try your local adult ed centre to see if they have any


Shaz

Mollymop5

cw18 wrote: »

Think one of the biggest pieces of news is that SophiesMum is going to be Nyk's neighbour in real life !!!!

???????????????????????? where can I find this news? Need to start reading back.This isn't an April fool is it? I know I've been away for ages but was here April 1st lol


Just read back and though I seem to have a few posts missing I think I have caught up with the main event!!!
Sophiesmum I'm sooo pleased for you.Nyk as a neighbour will keep you on track with budgets I'm sure lol.

grandma247

Hello everyone.
Just put my head in to say hello and to post my budget for the last three months. We have decorated our room and the bathroom in the last few weeks (the paper was given to us) we have also been busy at the garden and everything is growing well. Just waiting till its safe to put stuff out.
I havent had time for reading posts but will do it soon. I have finally got into a better routine for home edding my youngest and he is happier now. it took ages to find a way to make it work for him. Thanks to a gift for him from one of my friends he has discoverd the joys of Enid Blyton . He read the two books she got him within a week so I have had to get some more out of the loft!
Now for the figures.
FEB.
Tv lis.11.62
groc.189.83
gas 127
elec 76
petrol 80
other 48.81
The grocery budget for this month is high because we bought a lot of woopsies and put them in the freezer. it evened out during march and april.

MARCH
tv lis 11.62
groc 84.70
gas 57
elec 60
petrol 80
other 18.59


APRIL
tv lis 11.62
groc 72.56
gas 40
elec 55
petrol 80
0ther 58.17

other includes paint and paste and anything else we needed for decorating.
Garden rent was 64
the years earning were much higher than I put in because overtime and extra payments because of hubbies new qualifications so things have not been as hard as they might have been but I misscalculated when the loan would be finished. it will be at the end of May not April.

purplevamp

Hi everyone, hope you're all well. SL - hope your arm is better today, that must have been really scary :eek:

We had a power cut yesterday which lasted an hour. BB, you probably didn't have one as we're on a different circuit to the main part of town, and this has been happening quite a lot recently.

Nothing much to report, no major spends, but we're going out for our anniversary tomorrow, 2 years :j. I still need to buy DH a present, it's only going to be for £2 as we thought it would be fun to spend £1 for each yer we've been together! 2nd anniversary is cotton so I may buy him some socks :rotfl:.



Cr*p day alert...

Today I decided not to go to work as I was feeling a bit poorly, dizzy and sicky in my stomach (no, I'm not pregnant!) so went home and went back to bed until about 1pm. I picked up the children from school and on the way home my DS2 told me some boys in his class made him move at lunchtime because they wanted to sit where he was, and they threw his lunchbox and drink so he had to move. Also DD said one of the girls in her class punched her on the arm for no reason and although the teacher saw this the girl in question wasn't punished, just told not to do it again. This has been going on for months now. :mad: This has made me feel very angry and frustrated as I can't do anything until Monday. Their school used to be lovely, but it just seems that there's something every week. I did get very tearful when I got home and I know that it upsets the children but the school seem to think the children should sort it out themselves.

Frugaldom

Good morning from the wee small hours - I'm not up late, I'm just up incredibly early as I want to be awake to welcome SM with a nice hot cuppa when she arrives here just before dawn. :coffee:

Purplevamp - I totally disagree with the school's decision to let the kids sort it out for themselves, they are supposed to have come down really hard on all forms of bullying to help eradicate it. There's definitely some sort of problem going on when your children both come home and tell you of different incidents, so I'd be like you, desperate to know exactly what has been going on in school and what is going to be done about it.

Welcome back Mollymop, you have loads of catching up to do but basically, yes, SM was up visiting us at the new place and the house next door was vacant! It's more likely that she'll can teach me a few new tricks - like better meal planning, batch cooking and squeezing even more into my frugal garden in an attempt to keep up with the SMs. Hope you are well and enjoy your new kitchen and decor.

Yesterday, I succeeded in making my first ever lemon curd when I'd to use up egg yokes left over from meringue making. I can't believe how easy lemon curd is to make! Anyway, I've just been for a wander into AppFood website and spotted that their lemon juice offer was still on! Assuming everything's in stock, I should now have enough lemon juice to make another 20 small jars of lemon curd and, as my eggs are free range frugaleggs from my hens (another one started laying yesterday :j), it works out relatively inexpensive for a rather luxurious item.

Oh, and we're in the middle of hatching again - there were 5 chicks when I counted last night, no idea if there'll be any more today and Mrs broody hen isn't very friendly at the moment so I can't get too close. Apologies if you're all sick hearing about chickens but it's all part of my frugalising combined with self-sufficientish project.

Off to put the kettle on, Mr SM just called to say arrival is imminent It's very exciting getting a fellow frugalite friend as a next door neighbour LOL

Edited in: I had tea with my new neighbour at around 4am. Landlord must REALLY think we're all nuts now. :rotfl:

cw18

Glad to hear SM and OH arrived safely...... seems like they think the same way as me, and prefer to do a long drive overnight Twice we went on holiday to Great Yarmouth, and twice we were parked up on the Mr T car park half an hour before they opened waiting to get breakfast in the cafe (and to shop for the perishables for the week). Mind, we had young children - so it was much easier to drive while they were sleeping (and as they'd probably fall asleep in the car anyway, a day-time drive would knock their body clocks for days :eek: )

Purplevamp - I'm totally with Nyk on the fact the school should be doing something. And believe me, if either of my GDs ever comes home complaining of such problems their school had better do something if they don't want to face the "wrath of Grandma" :rolleyes2

Nyk - sick of hearing about chicks? NEVER!!



Now for my bad news

Spoke to Tax Credits a couple of days ago to chase up my appeal from 2007-08, which has been in the system since October 2008. I was told there's a letter on the way which basically says they've checked all their records and they did everything they should have done - so they still want the £1050-and-coppers back.

They say I can't appeal this again (unless I have further proof to support my claim - but as I made all the changes by phone how am I supposed to be able to do this :mad: ), but the lass did say it was because I hadn't told them I'd "stopped working" in time. But I didn't "stop working" in the way I'd understand that..... I didn't lose (or give up) my job, I was off on sick pay/Incapacity Benefit. And when they awarded us WTC (for the first time ever) while I was on IB, I actually queried if this was correct

They will apparently work with me on a 'repayment plan' if I'm in financial hardship - so it looks like I could be losing £20/week for the next year or so :eek: :eek: :eek: Means I'm probably going to have to look a lot closer at my budget and see if I can shave that down from £8k to £7k (even £7.5k would help, but I really can't see where without getting rid of the dogs and/or car) as I currently have a budget of £8k against a taxable income of £9k -- and a negative tax code!!! (I'm not 100% sure that the pensions people actually took enough tax off my April payment to cover my underpayment here by the end of tax year either, so I need to find my code notification and double check that now!)

I do gave Child Benefit, whatever CTC they leave me with, and DS's 'dependants pension' (from the company scheme, which is officially paid to him but gets paid into my bank account) on top of this, so not in dire straights YET but it's certainly going to be tighter than I'm comfortable with !!!!

I'm also worried that this indicates they've almost certainly over-paid for the period April 08-November 08 when we still had a joint claim in, as the calculations were done on the same basis. So I could have another bill to come from them, but I haven't actually had the review pack for that claim yet (though I have had one for my single claim from Nov '08 to April '09 that I need to get completed and returned ASAP - and will do my Tax Return at the same time to see how much more damage there is there !!!)

lilac_lady

Reading the latest posts on another horrible (weather wise) day here, a couple of thoughts crossed my mind.

I think that this forum has genuine people on it and it's been proved by such news as Nyk and SM are going to be neighbours. Imagine if everyone was leading a fantasy life here just as some posters on other sites seem to do!

Thinks - why would anyone want to fantasise about stuggling to keep a budget in place so scrub the fantasy life theory!

It's because we seem to be such like mided people that the thread keeps running. I know that it encourages me and I feel that I'm following a serial with some of the stories of your lives so keep posting.

Positive vibes (yes, I am a child of the 60s) to everyone and extra ones for those who need them.

Blairweech

Hi folks :wave:

CW - Sorry to hear about your tax credits problems, it seems everyone that gets tax credits has problems one way or another! I am sure you will cope with your new and 'improved' budget

Am having a lovely day today...went into Tavistock, mooched around the market, the butchers, the charity shops etc.....then went for a nice walk along the river and sat down for a bit of a read. I was tempted by a Joules bodywarmer/jumper combo for £45....BUT I didn't buy it, I actually only spent £2.00 on parking and £1.50 on an ice cream. I got some good ideas and inspiration for my house as well
Went to Mr M, and they have various bedding plants at 3 packs of 6 for £3, so bought some of them and have just planted them up.

Plans for the rest of the day involve baking a banana loaf, making some sort of dinner...maybe Spanish Omelette as I have peppers that need using....and generaly chilling out. Frugal beau is comoing over later and we will watch a film.

Oh look, just gone 4.00, think I will open a bottle of wine now Enjoy the rest of your Saturday all!

redglass_2

Purplevamp, your children's school definitely should not ignore incidents like this. Schools are supposed to have a bullying policy. :mad: A letter with the word BULLYING in it might focus their attention.

Got the Bodyshop body butter with Marie Claire magazine this morning - quite a nice big sample and allegedly worth more than the mag.