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

bails

We're aiming to book flights around 5th August SFT. Hope you're getting on okay.
I was surprised by your news Andromache! It must be hard but concentrate on uni for now or you'll regret it, plenty of time for amazing times after
OH is still doing a placement, just not one of those. He'll be really disappointed if he can't find someone to use his skills out there. We're thinking 5 months placement in Nepal then 3 months travelling :j
Right, revision calls....

Frugaldom

Andromache, surprising news! Sorry to hear things aren't working out between you and BF but don't lose sight of your longterm goals and ambitions and try not to let the budget slip. Hopefully your BF won't be reading this or the shock news may not come as quite such a shock to the poor fellow. :eek:

Hello MrsMC, nce to see you popping in for a catch up. Can't agree more - ducks and chickens are a must have, beats TV or cinema any day. Well done with the savings! MrMC must be very proud of his frugal partner. :T

KKP, if anyone on here says they can live on less than £62.50 per week then I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of those statements. Personally, I have all spends and receipts logged within household accounts, so my own figures are verifiable - I run a house of 3 adults on £4,000 per year, which averages £76.71 per week or £25.57 per person. I certainly don't have £400+ per year to spend on toiletries, I have a budget of £50 for the year for that. Apologies for what may be perceived as impertinence but you come across as having some sort of grievance and I can only hope that it isn't with anyone on here. I can't quite work out what you are hoping to achieve here if you are happily managing to live on the budget you have. Am I missing something?

Bails, you are going to be away for absolutely ages! :eek: I hope everything goes to plan and you can find really good tenants who will take care of your house as though it was their own. Make sure you check all their references and their ability to pay the rent - we got stuck with 'bad' tenants in a former house and it all got a bit messy. Oh, I also hope we'll get to see that long awaited photo of the [STRIKE]pup[/STRIKE] dog before you go. BB, you need to go back to Bails' house soon.

whitewing

KKP, are you male or female? I assumed you were female, but am not so sure now (I don't mean this offensively).

I'm picking up on Nyk's comments really, and thinking maybe not a grievance as such; maybe it's just a more male way of posting?

Anyway, big apologies if I am wrong, I haven't read all the posts.

Frugaldom

Sorry, KKP, I thought you were male - different perceptions and all that, no offence meant, honest

KKP

nykmedia wrote: »

Apologies for what may be perceived as impertinence but you come across as having some sort of grievance and I can only hope that it isn't with anyone on here. I can't quite work out what you are hoping to achieve here if you are happily managing to live on the budget you have. Am I missing something?

I apologise if that post appeared offensive. But then I felt that money was being well spent - frugal doesn't mean we have to impact our health to pinch pennies. It means, at least from my understanding, that frivilous spending is cut and luxuries like expensive cars are done away with.

KKP

whitewing wrote: »

KKP, are you male or female? I assumed you were female, but am not so sure now (I don't mean this offensively).

I'm picking up on Nyk's comments really, and thinking maybe not a grievance as such; maybe it's just a more male way of posting?

Anyway, big apologies if I am wrong, I haven't read all the posts.

I am male. Sorry if that was not clear. Why does it matter, out of interest?

Buzzbox

*keeps on clicking on the refresh button with popcorn in hand*..... this is getting interesting! Sheesh, I sound like a proper stalker now....

cw18

KKP wrote: »

I am male. Sorry if that was not clear. Why does it matter, out of interest?

It doesn't matter, but I think we often find male posters tend to write things differently to female -- and what may be normal for one can come over as a bit terse from the other. Just makes it easier to know which 'side' a post is coming from sometimes

I'm another who's gobsmacked at £8/week on toiletries -- and I for one will admit that this alone had me assuming you were female. The biggest spenders on this in my family are my daughter (who's 25) and elder son (20) -- and neither of them spends half that :eek:

My toiletries budget (which is for 2 of us, although younger son does buy razors from his EMA) is merged with my household cleaning products - and stands at £109.50 for a year. So this equates to £2.10 a week, but also includes washing powder, washing up liquid, general cleaners (usually Stardrops, unless I've not found something specific under my kitchen sink that was bought when I had a job and better income), bin bags, cloths, scourers, kitchen rolls, freezer bags.........

KKP

cw18 wrote: »

It doesn't matter, but I think we often find male posters tend to write things differently to female -- and what may be normal for one can come over as a bit terse from the other. Just makes it easier to know which 'side' a post is coming from sometimes

I'm another who's gobsmacked at £8/week on toiletries -- and I for one will admit that this alone had me assuming you were female. The biggest spenders on this in my family are my daughter (who's 25) and elder son (20) -- and neither of them spends half that :eek:

My toiletries budget (which is for 2 of us, although younger son does buy razors from his EMA) is merged with my household cleaning products - and stands at £109.50 for a year. So this equates to £2.10 a week, but also includes washing powder, washing up liquid, general cleaners (usually Stardrops, unless I've not found something specific under my kitchen sink that was bought when I had a job and better income), bin bags, cloths, scourers, kitchen rolls, freezer bags.........

I don't buy from Tesco, perhaps that would explain the difference

Anyway, I don't want get into a business debate, but I could quite easily have made it higher if I bought from a London store...

Edit:

6. Deduct ALL regular debt repayments
7. Deduct annual essential health-related costs

Hmm, I think I could subtract quite a bit under those two categories...

whitewing

KKP wrote: »

I am male. Sorry if that was not clear. Why does it matter, out of interest?

Males tend to approach the understanding of the challenge differently, ask questions differently and give us less ((((hugs)))) ! So if we don't know you're male, you may come across as picky or more aloof. Females tend to witter on about nothing, whereas blokes don't tend to post unless they have something valid to say.

Anyway, we like our male perspective on this thread! (Hello Mr DT).

Welcome aboard KKP and your OH.