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

skint_chick

Aeb - good luck for Tues hope it goes smoothly - and let us know about their names

Nyk- hope the wedding went well and you had a lovely family day

SFT- Having a good think about your future is important to make sure you're happy - as we all know life is far too short to be thinking at the back of your mind something in your life isn't quite right and we're all here for you to run new ideas past about career and life options

I've been out on a long forest walk today and had a huge chat with OH about everything so we are much closer and I feel so much better about my plans for the next few months. Also had a chat with my boss this week and explained the whole situation with last job - and then was reassured it has no relevance to my current life and made me glad I made the change when I did:D Haven't been on much because my best friend's dad just had surgery for cancer and she's been struggling to deal with it

bails

Have only skim read but see that there are a few people struggling for different reasons at mo. Thinking of you all and hoping happier times are on their way soon.

SFT, I can relate to the questions you're asking of yourself and teaching so if you ever want to chat, you know where I am xx

We were up at half 5 this morning to go and get some prayer flags blessed by a Rinpoche (part of OH's birthday pressie). We've hung some of them on the stupa here and are taking others to Everest at the end of the week; the rest will come home with us to hang in our garden (our old ones are very faded now). We've been very busy so I'm quite tired and have just finished off lesson preparation for today, off to school in a minute! Hopefully soon I'll have a bit more time to update the blog, but with leaving for Everest on Friday it could be tight!

Speak soon, love to everyone xx

ps we got given a toaster yesterday, woo hoo! It's the little things that make us happy...:D

Skint_Lynne

Morning all,

I was in bed at 9.30 last night, so I am up and about early. I've already got the washing machine on, what a rock and roll lifestyle I have.:rotfl:

I've to deliver my brother (sam the shi-tzu) to be groomed this morning, his appointment is at 10.30. I must admit, I done a bit of grumbling about this as I have been driving and out early all week, but there is no one else available, so I will need to do it. He goes to me eldest brother's house for this and then I need to wait for him, so I'll see the wee fella whilst I am there, which is good.

I really should have been getting to grips with the pig sty I live in, time is ticking on and it is still a mess, a deep clean would not go amiss.:o

Also, it is annoying me that I have not looked at my pressie stash, that will need to be done pretty soon. I hope this rain goes away, I am fed up with it and hate when I have damp washing lying everywhere.

Hope everyone has a good day, and there is no sign of Nyk yet, there must have been plenty of partying going on into the small hours. I hope everything went well.

Speak later. xx

shaz_mum_of__2

Morning guys

sons 18th party went well ,i have a clearish head but no one else is up

got most of the cleaning up done last night so not much to do barr furniture moving furniture back etc which hubby will have to do

Had a bad week with shoulder/arm someone suggested it could be the change in weather i really hope not as that means it may get worse yet

hope the wedding went well nyk and the head isn't too sore or wet (leaky roof)

Shaz

lyndasharp

Hope the wedding went well Nyk, and glad the party hasn't trashed your house too much Shaz.

I sold 7 of my ebay items, not bad but would have liked to get rid of the other 14 things too! I relisted yesterday and have a bid on one already, so that's a good start. It's paid for a bit of the wedding ring I've just got H2B on ebay. We found second hand ones on there in our sizes, and they are both two tone gold - mine is white and rose, his is white and yellow gold. I'm really pleased about that, as the two tone new ones we liked were £200+, and we got these for just under £80 in total.

We collected the new greenhouse yesterday, and the warehouse we got it from had various wooden pallets outside... and they are happy to give away the damaged ones! We've seen suggestions about building chicken houses from wooden pallets so think that may be the way to go. Chicken keeping class this afternoon (free) but we're going to take them some home made chutney as a thank you.

bails

Ooh, Lynda's getting chickens too?! :T We're turning into a virtual farm indeed! Happy belated 18h to your son Shaz, glad the party went well. I never think of you as being old enough to have an adult son, isn't it funny how we can't tell these things online.

I'm sure I've asked before but when's the wedding Lynda? Brain like a sieve :rotfl: Well done on the rings!

I had to come on here and just have a quick moan, as I know you and noone else will understand. I got home from school to find that OH had bought a pot of honey - great, as we needed one, until he told me he paid £8 for it!! :eek: Now that's a lot for honey in England but to put it in perspective, it was the equivalent of a quarter of a month's rent here!:eek::eek::eek: What WAS he thinking?!! The worst part is that he bought it infront of our landlord, which I think is incredibly insensitive and reflects badly on both of us. It's so strange because for the most part he's an incredibly sensitive guy and tries really hard with the money thing despite not having a clue before but sometimes, he makes me want to tear my hair out!

And breathe...rant over...thankyou

cw18

Geez! A weeks rent on a pot of honey!!!! I'm not suprised you're mad at him :mad:

DS loves the honeycomb honey (as do I), and I used to treat us on high days and holidays - so basically, Easter, Christmas, and when we went away self-catering in this UK (which meant most of our holidays :rolleyes2 ). He asked a couple of months ago when we were next getting some, and was told 'when I get at least 5 numbers on a single line in a single draw of the Lottery :rotfl:

But I've got it tucked into the back of my mind to get some at Christmas..... It looks like I should have plenty left in my Grocery budget to cover it (even though I'll need enough for elder DS as well, as he expects to be home again then :eek: ), but the other option is to use my 'sealed jars' as I'm saving all coins under a 10p for extras over that couple of weeks.



Currently working on my grocery spreadsheets - again! After seeing this weeks MSE poll (weekly grocery spend per person) I did some number crunching - and was horrified to discover that I'm in the £10-£20 bracket using the figures I've actually spent, but the £20-£30 bracket if I use the full value of my Whoopsies as I'm "saving" £10-£12 per week per person with my Whoopsie savings :eek: And that's after deducing vouchers from papers and gift cards from a survey site, and without adding anything in for the freebie plums, pears, apples, cucumber, potatoes, garlic and chicken portions I've had from friends and neighbours !!!

So I thought I'd go through them and work out what I wouldn't have bought even a cheaper option of (ie. croissants, donuts, cheesecake etc), and see where that left me. I've almost finished categorising everything into groups like meat, fish, sauces, baking, drinks (tea bags, squash and pure fruit juice), milk, cheese, bread.... and snacks. The last of these is the one I'll then be going back through carefully, but I've already been shocked at how much I've bought in this classification some months - and a fair bit of it in the early months is biscuits, sweets and nuts that were full price !!!!!!

shaz_mum_of__2

Cheryl

Don't forget that despite spending a little more than you thought you are "in hand" as your money is in your freezer so to speak...................apart from the items you wouldn't ordinarily buy you save money when you take something from there rather than the shop iykwim?

Leftover mexican here for a week i think used the tortillas up at lunchtime with tostados - flour tortillas smeared with mango chutney,scattered with chopped ham and spring onions topped with cheese and grilled ................lush

Lots of dessert to use up too ........................shame

typing one handed due to sore arm ......time for more painkillers i think

Shaz

cw18

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Cheryl

Don't forget that despite spending a little more than you thought you are "in hand" as your money is in your freezer so to speak...................apart from the items you wouldn't ordinarily buy you save money when you take something from there rather than the shop iykwim?

Only partially true.....

I started the year with full freezers and cupboards, but didn't stock take and value them as a starting point. So if I end the year with them any emptier, then I've spent more than my spreadsheet tells me (due to 'shopping' from my freezers/cupboards and not replacing from the real stores :rolleyes2 )


Have been working on my categories around other jobs (blasted h/work gets in the way of everything ), and have just finished. Definitely need to assess my snacks section !!!

Actual spends for each category as a percentage of total actual spend has 'Meat' as my highest spend (16.74%) which doesn't suprise me. But the second highest (at (15.54%) is 'Snacks'

But if I sort the data by percentage of 'real' value per category against total real value 'Meat' comes third (13.22%), with 'Fruit' second (13.38%)....... and top of the board is 'Snacks' at a whopping 23.04% :eek: :eek: :eek:

Brighton_belle

ooh, I love it when you talk stats cheryl:D.
I only buy snacks with cash and they feature a bit too often on days I work: generally I would say that is partly boredom related and partly pavlovs dgs - Iwork next to a newsagent and I leave home content with my breakfast and start salivating the moment i walk past the shop:rolleyes:.
I don't think i buy any snacks with our main asda shop.
Never buy in biscuits or crisps at asda. I buy the basics saltanas for cooking but occasionally they become a snack. OH buys his own biscuits and choc from his own money so he can munch without feeling guilty.
What do you buy as snacks?

Had a good day on my own today and have stormed through the domestic 'to do' list so feel very smug. I need to make sure that tomorrow I spend plenty of time on my creative projects as haven't got any of that done.

Also hand washed some clothed and ironed for the week, including getting clothes ready I wish to wear to my friend's funeral this friday. So I feel as ready as I can be for that.

I've stared using a large free diary from work for my to do lists, with the main list on Mondays and spread through the week as it passed and whatever hasn't been done carried over to the next monday. So far it is working really treally well and helping me get back on top of things. Don't know why I didn't think of this before.

Bails - I would be very very embarrassed about the front of landlord bit. The Everest trip sounds fantastic:j.

skintchick - sounds like you are doing really well keeping on top of your positive changes
Hope you recover soon sf, or that it hasn't turned out to be the flu. Make the most of the rest - once the pgce starts your feet won't touch the ground from what I have seen from a friend and alodger doing it in recent years.