Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 3

bails

Afternoon all and well done BB on your budget, very impressive :T

Here I've done 3 viewings and have another 4 tomorrow! The second couple weren't interested - as soon as I saw his designer shoes I knew they wouldn't be - but the 3rd couple were lovely and seemed v keen. They said the house had a lovely feel to it so that was nice.

For anyone who fancies a nose it's here - unfortunately the photos aren't great, especially the one of the attic, but you get the idea. The dog is even in one of them! We were going to do better photos as I wasn't expecting them to take them but it seems we don't need to!

We have hundreds and hundreds of redcurrants ready, picked some last night and had them on my breakfast this morning, yum! I am SOOOO looking forward to growing lots of produce next year :j

Watching Murray so better concentrate! Tonight we're having a fire in our fire pit and burning lots of my old paperwork from school - shame I don't live closer to help you with your paper bricks but it'll be quite a symbolic incineration, ready for a whole new start when we get back :j

Sorry about the promotion Lynda and well done on the open day Blairweech - for a moment I thought you were going to say you were pregnant :rotfl:

Savvy_sewing

Son in law to be, and his mate came around with the travel cot, so that I can look after granddaughter tomorrow. They polished off my banana cake. So thats got to go on the list of things to make more often!. One of them said he likes carrot cake, so I will have to try one of them, as i do have a few carrots in the fridge. (And a few growing in the ground!).
Have faffed about on the computer all day. Not achieved anything. The sun is finally coming back out. So the Roses at the front of the house are looking good.
Am on my own tonight, again, so will have to think of something for my tea!. Not sure what I fancy though. Least there are lots of things in the cupboard/fridge/freezer at the moment. And left over rice from last night. I always manage to cook either too much or too little!.

savingfortravel

Bit behind with posts.Will catch up tonight.

Just wanted to say congratulations to Whitewing!! :T

Really looking forward to the weekend.
We've got all our shopping done-had lots of Mr T vouchers with points on them to use up.
Mr SFT has Fridays off so he has done the housework.
Got a bit of school work but my reports are now done. We break up on the 14th so not much longer with my lovely class. I will really miss them. They looked so sweet doing their swimming gala today.
Will not be using the car all weekend. Planning to walk on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This has been one of my 101 goals. And just enjoy our lovely cottage and spend a bit of time together and maybe unpack a box (very low priority-will get my full attention when I break up from school)
Finally got our budget sorted out. So are now on a 2k challenge, if thats okay Nyk.
Only 3 weeks to go until our holiday in Central America!! Can't wait.

Have a great evening all! Hope Murray wins (got to support all the Scottish folk on our thread).

sft

mama67

bails wrote: »

I know exactly what you mean - one couple friends of mine are a solicitor and teacher on Upper Pay Scale and they are struggling and another friend who's a DOCTOR had to borrow a deposit for her house...

So hot here too, I'm struggling! About to take the dog out, although I'd rather sit in the garden with a cold glass of Chardonnay (if I had any) Next year I'm keen to try the Eldeflower champagne Nyk. We have a tree in our garden although I think it'll get the chop to make way for more fruit and veg (we have lots of elderflowers around us).

I have an elderflower tree in my garden also, made loads of cordial last year which is still in the freezer, so will be jam making this year.

mama67

nykmedia wrote: »

MooLoo, you could always trade goods and services for your repairs - work out the costs, suggest they pay by exchange of goods to that value - home cooking, fresh produce from their garden, free range eggs... that's how LETS works, no cash required. I'm hoping my new next door neighbour will trade in Crees for eggs, jam etc

Mama67, I did a little further research and next week's exercise is flying out of Kinloss, it's post-grad pilot testing or something like that. I reckon the surveillance plane came over just doing a general sweep checking for anything going on that may need prior warning. According to the MoD site, we are Low Fly Area 16, Tactical Training Area 20T. If you check their site you can check your area and see a list of exercises that will be taking part there. It's probably the same thing as here. Picnics, bins, cameras and sunspacs from dawn at this rate and not forgetting the factor 50, just in case.

Went into town for milk, bread, fruit & veg. Spent about £20 but that included buying a fly screen for the back door and stocking up on sterilising fluid & firelighters whilst I had the chance of them cheap. Brilliant bargain with mixed peppers, bananas, tomatoes & grapes being in the Ald! 6 this week! Made the most of those 49'ers.

we are in area 11 so it wull be pegasus fury

bails

Hmm, OH and I have just had a disagreement about money It's so rare I can't complain and he's learnt so much after being money clueless thanks to no education in that area at all but I just don't like it when it happens. I've been so reasonable and am so fiercely independent despite having such a low income, sigh. I can't wait til I have a salary again

Your weekend sounds lovely SFT; I'd really like to use my car less and plan to do so when we get back.

Have a great weekend everyone xx

MrDT

Hello, not checked in for a while. Congrats whitewing And nyk, I saw your comment back on the first page, don't even joke about that kind of thing lol! :eek:

Just a quick post to announce end of June / half yearly figures:



£1840.75 of the budget spent so far, leaving £2159.25 to go "Extra income" so far this year sits at £729.91, adding that to my spendables leaves me with a massive (for us on the challenge at least!) £2889.16 for the rest of the year.

Will be heading off on holiday next month, probably an all inclusive beach type holiday for a week-ish, we're not too fussy on destination, will take it as it comes. I'll be paying my share out of the 'extra earnings'... that's a good feeling, holiday paid for with free money

Feeling good about the challenge, and feeling good about my savings progress Hope you're all just as chipper

Buzzbox

Ok, Nyk, I bit the bullet and signed up to my local LETS group! You make it sound good and I think it is a good idea, don't know why I have not joined earlier!

Frugaldom

Good morning fruguys and gals

Bails, thanks for the link and brief glimpse of (not so small anymore) pup. Hope you find good tenants soon. Re the shoes thing, isn't it hreat what you can tell from someone else's footwear? I always used to check out the lad or lass leading up a horse at the races to see how they were presented and footwear was always either new or polished if the trainers thought their horses were in with a chance of a win. Can't be seen in the wineer's enclosure with cheap or mucky shoes.:rotfl: (But I wouldn't know designer and don't know what mucky mock Crocs says about me )
Try not to get too stressed out over the money disagreement, it'll blow over soon. Tensions are bound to be running high at the moment with the trip so close, the house being viewed etc, etc, etc... he probably thought he had your best interests at heart whatever the reason for the disagreement, or else just didn't think at all. :rotfl:

Buzzbox, well done on joining your LETS group! Our local cafe in town has just joined, so we now have a great meeting place and can pay via our LETS currency if we're buying coffee, lunch etc. Hoping to go next week, as it's once a month, and meet a few or the others.

SFT, I haven't posted this year's budgets in the challenger list, I just keep mine in my signature. Bet you can't wait for the school hols so you can enjoy the cottage to your full advantage.

Our schools have already gone on holiday, so we can expect to see more of DGD, who is currently feeding all my bread to the ducks at the back door! :rolleyes: Her favourite chicken is Silkiechick, except she calls her Clucky Lucky. :rotfl:

MrDT, you are safe, I met my number 3 mum-to-be whilst in town on Thursday. Free holiday sounds good, well done on all the extra cash and the budgeting. Will there be any homebrewing this year?

Blairweech, congratulations on your decision to attend the open days. It's half the battle when you decide for sure what it is you want to do.

MooLoo, I have my GD this weekend, too. She's been up since 6.30am with me and is currently singing everything into one big, long sentence - "Gran, when are we going back out, gran, are you nearly done, gran, can we go to the forest, the hens want more food, the lambs are at the fence, why is that cow watching me through the window, la, la, la, la, ..." I think the song is called 'Gran'. :rotfl:

Catch up later, DGD has gone without me! :eek::rolleyes::rotfl:

cw18

Morning all.

Had a hectic day yesterday - with most of it spent helping out on a school trip.

There had (apparently) been some confusion as to which class I was going with (pre-school asked me to go with reception, and told me they'd informed the teacher I was available - but as the two classes had trips on the same day the reception teacher thought I was going with pre-school !!! ), so I didn't actually have any children assigned to me for the day. So I was "just" an extra pair of hands/eyes, and took over if another helper needed a few mins (normally to 'pay a visit').

We went to a farm that's 30 miles or so from school, as the one they normally visit - which is much closer - was already fully booked. Have to say I didn't rate the one we ended up at all, and don't think I'll help out at that one again... The other is brilliant, and my GDs keep asking to go again (they've been several times already, and alway spend about 5 hours there), but I think they'd be bored within an hour at yesterdays :eek:

There was one path we had to use where we came off a single step straight into a puddle - it started to rain as we got to the farm, and stopped as we were leaving :rolleyes2 - that was too big for the children to step/jump over. So, as most were in normal shoes/trainers (and even PE pumps!), I swung almost all 38 over it. I took my back into account before starting, but was positioned such that it shouldn't be a problem - and worked it like one of my exercises with just an extra bit of weight on the swing one way...... but have woken up this morning with slightly stiff/sore muscles So I think I'm going to have to take my meds (codeine and anti-inflams) for the next couple of days else I may not be fit to help in pre-school on Monday !!!

I am actually a bit worried about the stiffness, as if I'm not careful I think it could lead to another flare up - and I've not have any problems at all for a few months now, despite humping boxes around while I carry on with my major declutter


I collected elder GD on our return to school, which was half an hour after we were due back - and quarter of an hour after the end of the school day - due to major traffic jams on the m/way. The class teacher had phoned school to advise we expected to be late before the end of day bell went, and arranged for two children (my GD and the the daughter of another helper/member of school staff) to be held onto until we got there. I then became totally child free at around 5pm, struggled to make tea (spag bol and garlic bread from freezer, with spaghetti from cupboard - so not exactly hard work) as I felt shattered, did a couple of minor tasks, had a couple of hours on my laptop while I slobbed in front of the TV, and fell asleep there at around 9:30pm Woke up and moved into bed around 11pm, and work up just before 6am today.

Have a washload on the go/almost finished now, and have washed the pots from yesterday (and Thursday!). Have heaps more that needs doing, but no ooomph to actually get started on any of it........