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

cw18

I turned off my freezer a couple of hours before the removal men were due. Several containers of hot water (from kettle) were then put in to defrost it, and it was wiped dry first with cloth kitchen towels, and then finished off with paper kitchen towels.

(Much the same way as I defrost them when I need to get the food back in ASAP)

savingfortravel

Thanks Cheryl! So do you think KKP will join us? SFT
Bails-When do you go?

Skint_Lynne

Good morning all,

I was so tired last night, I was in bed at 9pm, got kept awake the night before.

Just a quickie, Nyk, I noticed that you were going out for milk. I don't know if farmf00ds is near you, if it is it is £1 for 2 litres of milk there.

DH drinks loads of it, I bought 5 yesterday as the dates are good. The nicky toilet rolls are good as well, £2 for 9, so that makes it around 22p a roll. I have to look out for these types of bargains for the toilet roll monster being here.:D

Hope the move is going smoothly SFT.

Will check in later. xx

andromache_2

Hi everyone!

I've been catching up on the thread every day but I realised that I haven't actually posted in ages so *hugs* to everyone who needs them, of whom there seems to be quite a few, and, in particular, welcome to aeb I'll offer babysitting - I'm just getting my CRB check through to start volunteering with disabled kids next year - and, er, substandard legal advice, if that's of any use to you :rotfl: I'm glad you've found this thread and I hope you find it supportive as you've got a lot on your plate.

Sorry about your OH not getting the placements but wow! to the travelling plans, bails - sounds amazing! In many ways not having the placement means you can move around more and see more stuff, so you win some you lose some. I'm sure it'll be brill, and how lovely to be able to do a trip which you planned ages ago.

Unfortunately my plans to go to India with the BF are looking a bit rocky due to lovelife developments... don't want to over-share but basically I've been feeling a bit dissatisfied in my relationship for a while for various reasons which I won't bore you with and then, even though I obviously wasn't looking, I met someone a few weeks ago on another forum with whom I started chatting and we just clicked straight away - it's like nothing else I've ever experienced. So I am on the one hand and on the other hand as I can't break up with BF until after exams and I know I'm going to really hurt him. So everything's very messy and distracting and I'm not getting as much work done as I should :rolleyes: Hmmm, watch this space. As far as this thread goes, I've been spending money in the 'travel' and 'entertainment' categories in order to meet the new guy but not too much, and everything's on hold now till after exams anyway. If only life were simple! Not sure what I'll be doing with the second half of my summer now but I'm sure an opportunity will present itself

Have a lovely Sunday

lilac_lady

andromache - Life is NEVER simple, although we try!

Spent £9.99 on a shredder (reduced in Argos) so I'm planning my Sunday entertainment reading, shredding and filing paper. I know how to enjoy myself.

Actually, before I start I'm off to collect DGS so that we can feed ducks and swans while it's dry here.

Bought DGS new wellies (gumboots to some of you) so we're going to test them. I keep a pair of wellies for each of the grandchildren here so that they can do their worst/best in my garden and I don't get a row from their Mums for wasting their shoes. Gardening at Granny's house usually involves water at some stage!

Hope you all have a good Sunday.

lilac_lady

QUOTE from savingfortravel

Lilac Lady-What did you pick up from the library?


I limited myself to two books as I have so much paperwork that I should be dealing with instead of reading!

"Days like this - a portrait of scotland through the eyes of its people". Sounds heavy but it's short essays by people like Irvine Welsh, Siobhan Redmon, Evelyn Glennie etc. Really enjoying it and the essays are short so you can pick it up and put it down between whatever you're doing. I love short stories and always had a book of them when travelling to work by bus or train.

I also picked "Seriously Funny" - the Unauthorised biography of Julie Walters by Lucy Ellis and Bryony Sutherland. I haven't started it yet but I love biographies, especially unauthorised ones. I hope it'll be as funny as Julie Walters herself.

I'll know I've given up on life when I don't want to read anymore!

KKP

nykmedia wrote: »

Good morning frugalites

I see the on-going exchanges are continuing - KKP why don't you just give us a run down of your current situation and join us here? Otherwise we are all left guessing. From what I can guess, you rent a single occupancy room for X amount

The rent isn't part of the calculation, as far as I can see from your first post.. yes, its a single room as I've said.

nykmedia wrote: »

which does or doesn't include £15 (per week?)

I said £12.50 a week, as a guess, but it is usually included in my rent. Hence me not having a more concrete figure to offer.

nykmedia wrote: »

possibly have an 'OH' but don't have an 'OH' as you live in a single occupancy room?

I'm not married to her, yet. Perhaps I should have been a little clearer there, when I say other half I don't mean spouse.

nykmedia wrote: »

Perhaps if you gave us an idea of what your £50 per week paid for then we'd understand your situation. Most of us here are running households, a couple are students or still live at home contributing 'dig' money, others live in mansion-like abodes and spend more on heating per week than I spend on everything. Please also consider reading some of the thread and then feel free to come and ask questions. You joined the MSE forums for something, it may as well be to live within your budget, clear debts and/or save money whilst getting to know a few of the regulars on here.

Apparently some of the regulars say they can live on less than £50 a week (or should that be £62.50) per person (with the exclusions in the OP). So maybe they know something I don't when it comes to living frugally.

Here's a breakdown of that amount:

£5 travel
£10 food
£8 toiletries (soap\shampoo\etc)
£25 debt repayment (credit card)
£12.50 utility bills (NG, electricity, water, sewerage)
£2 (saved)
£62.50

The other £2 is put aside for clothing and other incidental costs.

I believe thats clear enough

MRSMCAWBER

Hi all

Its is yonks since I have stuck my nose in on here for a catch up -chance of ever catching up now *nil* :rotfl:...

NYk -I want ducks now -howwwww sweet are they..will add that to my "I want" list

Even though I dropped out right near the begining...Im still trying to be super frugal -In fact hubby now claims I "squeak when I walk" :T:rotfl:
Im saving as much house keeping as I can -hopefully towards moving into something with a bigger garden once hubby has done in the army -€3358 stashed so far ..plus a few £s in the UK.... will need to save harder now as I will need room for a few duck ducks too -to go with the few chickens I would like:p -*I knew I shouldn't have popped on here*
The spends for this year far -on groceries stands at under €400 and that includes loads of bulk stuff like coffee and loo rolls :jand I had allowed €140 a month so Im €300 under budget :dance:and hopefully that will continue once all the veggies get going ...Everything is planted out now and for some strange reason I have 2 courgettes flowering and this morning an outdoor cumber has joined in ... my sweet potaoes seem to be going great guns -well if the amount of foliage is anything to go by
48 peas and 46 beans through out there so far and loads more should be making an appearance soon -pinkies crossed...and so far all 42 tomatoes have survived :j

Anyway -enough waffle from me for now....hope everyone is well..will try and pop back again -now there is a threat :rotfl:

lingojingo

andromache wrote: »

L
lovelife developments... it's like nothing else I've ever experienced.

That says it all - so you have to go for it.
Please don't let it spoil your chances in your exams, remind yourself why your course is important to you and concentrate on that for now. Of course BF will be upset, and I can understand you feeling bad about that, but it's not meant to be and he will get over it in time.

KKP £8 per week on toiletries just for one person? What on earth are you buying?

hi Mrs.McC nice to see you again, have missed your posts

KKP

lingojingo wrote: »

KKP £8 per week on toiletries just for one person? What on earth are you buying?

Unfortunately quality goods come at a price. Since the particular companies I purchase from don't pay their staff slave wages, and at least half is produced in the UK that is what they cost (monetary inflation has resulted in a 25% increase recently). £8 might be an overestimate though, as I tend to buy in bulk for at least a month's worth...

Edit: I could quite easily halve the credit card payment, as its not necessary for me to put £100 a month on it ( 0% interest deal)