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

slowlyfading

Brighton_belle wrote: »

LOL SF - bails isn't aiming to get to the top of everest, 'just' base camp (in itself a great achievement but I couldn't help but giggle at your ref to her trying for the top).

Oh my bad.

Frugaldom

Good morning

It was like a cold and frosty winter's morning here, but the sun is slowly fighting its way through, so the washing can go out soon. Despite that, I've had to light the fire to help alleviate the condensation problem. Can't imagine how damp it would be if we didn't use the dehumidifier 24/7.

I STILL haven't updated my spreadsheets as time just keeps disappearing into the ether but I'll do my best to catch up today. I boiled up apples and blackberries yesterday and now have the juices strained for more jelly making, so that needs doing too. I think I'm just trying to wind down after a year of getting ready for DD's wedding plus having had to fit the house move into that time. It's a little bit strange not having a date to work towards any more and also a bit weird getting back into the 'there's no rush' mode. I hope the next year doesn't fly past as quickly!

I'm going to hang out the washing now the sun is shining a bit - make the most of it while I can before winter madness sets in completely. Back again soon.

Savvy_sewing

Been side tracked this last week, first with being not to well, and second as I had to get my car swapped. With thanks to my Dad luckily. But now I have a small Vauxhall Corsa instead of my huge gas guzzling people carrier.
But that has meant that I have been helping the twins and yesterday I totally ended up blowing the budget on getting the twins a vacuum, and me a kettle, and then before I knew it, the trolley was full of bits that either twins needed or I did!!
So I think that the next month is going to be a rescue job on the finances. I really am not sure that I would manage the challenge full on!. I am just not disciplined enough. !
Been reading some entries in an old diary 1992, and I was struggling then, and had already been for 12 years!!! Oh dear. I have still never managed to make my money work well enough!
Back to the drawing board!. (At least I have only got a utilities bill debt, as far as I know now).
Havent had time to catch up on everything. Maybe I will have the time to read back through the thread later!.
Have a good day all. I hope to make a bit of Jam out of the masses of apples I have around the kitchn. They are taking over at the moment!.

Frugaldom

Mooloo you are doing great. It may have taken some time (lots of time, many years, even) but you have managed to conquer all your debts and have only the utilities remaining. The downward spiral was obviously stopped somewhere along that long line and from hereon in, it can only be up. Glad you resolved the car problem and I hope your jam making goes well. I'm in the middle of blackberry & apple jelly, have already done a few crumbles and am going to try a cottage cider recipe pointed out to me by Shaz. Let those apples keep on rolling my way!

cw18

Argggggghhhhhhhh!!!!


Postman just brought todays mail - and amongst it was another Council Tax bill.

Despite me going in on 10th August with proof that I was still going to get Child Benefit until September 2010, they've removed my single person discount from 7th September 2009 !!!!!

So I've just phoned, and the lady I spoke to was very apologetic. Apparently the detailed info on the system shows the correct details (end date for CB), but when it was then keyed to activate the discount they also increased the household headcount to 3 meaning the discount wasn't applied anyway :mad:

So I've now been promised she's changed it while we were talking, and I should get another bill in the next couple of weeks, with the discount reapplied......

Just as well they weren't trying to increase my payment from this month (due out of bank next Tuesday), as they now have chance to correct it again before I start cancelling the D/Debit at the bank to stop them taking too much

bails

slowlyfading wrote: »

Oh my bad.

Lol, thanks for the compliment SF. The summit is next year's plan

See you all once I've seen Everest hopefully....:hello:

Frugaldom

Good luck with the Council Tax shenanigans, CW, I can never understand why there are so many complications when it seems something as straight forward as updating a system and it's the job of the person on the other end of the phone (or across the desk). I mean, they must get trained in systems updating and there must be supervisors if they aren't sure how to do it.

I've now updated my spreadsheets to reflect last week's spends but haven't included any wedding related expenditure other than the groceries I bought in for feeding the extra 11 mouths at the weekend. I'll bet they'd all be shocked to find out that food for that lot amounted to umm... less than £5! :rotfl: Here's how...

Sa!nsbury's has an offer on packs of chicken portions (drumsticks & thighs), packs of 6 on half price, so I bought 2 @ £1.50 and boiled them up to make soup stock (£3 total)

I then chopped some onions from the garden and grated up about 6 whoopsied carrots (20p) added a few handfuls of chopped celery (10p), salt, pepper, a crushed clove of garlic from garden and 2 cups of rice (probably another 20p) plus a few slices of bread loaf of bread (25p) Total so far = £3.75

Next, I removed all the meat from the chicken bones and divided it into 2 bowls. Into the first, I added 2 jars of 4p Te$co curry sauce (8p), into the other I added 2 tins of Te$co sweet & sour sauce (56p). Allow 50g (4p x 15 = 60p) of rice per person and boil this up (I did mine in the microwave) Total cost = £1.24 and hey presto - enough food for 15 people.

So, for a grand total of £4.99 you can feed a hungry mob of 15 for less than a fiver. Beat that, Jam!e 0liver. :rotfl:

Wonder how Aeb is feeling today, has anyone got any idea how things went on Tuesday?

Bails, LOVING the piccies in blog, it truly is amazing what you are doing. I feel rather humble at my thoughts of hiking up the Merrick when compating it to visiting base camp on Everest! :T

As my pantry is still pretty much filled with sauces and preserves, I suspect that we'll be eating a great deal more by way of curries and the like to see us through to the new year. My lovely friend arrived in yesterday carrying yet another gift! (I have been extremely fortunate recently for gifts!) After getting me a pasta maker for my birthday, she has now brought me a deep fat fryer. I haven't had a chip pan or fryer for many years, so it will be the first time I have made chips with home made potatoes in just as many years! I'm going to be as fat as a barrel by next year but I do love chips with curry sauce. :D

I'll soon get back to the C25K programme, but I now have 2 good [STRIKE]excuses[/STRIKE] reasons for not starting just now: 1) my ankle still hurts and 2) the shooting season has started so it makes the forest out of bounds and I'm a cross country runner rather than a road runner. Meep meep! :rotfl:

Savvy_sewing

I havent got any equipment hardly for the production of my jam, its just my heavy old pressurecooker and a wooden spoon. Pouring into the odd jam jar I have lurking.

I hadnt looked at things that way Nyk, thats a more positive thought for the day.
Waiting for my soup to be cooked, then I can use the pan to make the jam. Apple and ginger. Dont have any black berries around me. Must wander out into the fields. Perhaps I shall investigate in a walking stick for the uneven ground. Not sure how the hip will hold out so I havent been out and about.
Waiting in for a parcel delivery. So maybe this evening I will persuade the giant of a DS to come for a wonder with me.
Soup is the left overs from a chicken carcass that I froze a few weeks ago, as I didnt have time then. And carrots, onions and parsley from the garden. With a few potatoes alas not from the garden. Maybe next year I will be able to grow potatoes in the garden (ah hem weed plot).
Mince and onions on, as it needed cooking. (Meat is a little expensive as its from the mobile butcher, but he has promised to get me some stock bones tomorrow, so I wonder what they will turn out like? )
Mending the side of the travel cot, so that I can have a grandchild for an overnite stop occassionally.
Want to get on top of the housework today, so I can go to Oxford in my new little car tomorrow.

lyndasharp

Hi all, the internet in this hotel is a bit unreliable so I'll post before I try and read through, in case it all stops working again!

Bad news - (well, it could have been a lot worse) - I was in a crash yesterday. It was a rear end shunt, but the car was only scratched and I'm fine, just a bit shaken and not looking forward to a 5 hour drive back to Swindon. I was stopped in a queue at some traffic lights, when a van being chased by a police car decided to drive at top speed into the stationary traffic instead of stopping. The 4 cars behind me looked like they were write offs, as the van caused a bit of a domino rally and all the cars were shunted forwards into each other. Apart from cuts and bruises, and probably some whiplash, everyone seemed OK, and as I was the final one shunted I am totally fine. I'm in H2B's car rather than the Morris Minor so at least it was his modern one that was scratched... I had to do a witness statement and I'm just waiting to hear back from the police about insurance.

The good news (apart from the fact that myself and car are fine) - is that Quidco emailed to say I've won a sat nav in their competition! I've already got one, so as I don't know what sort it is I'll wait until it arrives before deciding whether to sell it, or sell my current one and have the new one, or possibly give the new one to Dad for his Christmas present....

cw18

Glad to hear you're OK Lynda - a car (whilst often like part of the family!) is still only a lump of metal. Sound like you got off lightly though.....

As best I understand the rules of insurance, if you rear-end someone who's stationary then - in theory - you're at fault (for not having sufficient braking distance or - from what it sounds like in this case - for not having your handbrake applied). So I think the van is responsible for the one it hit at the tail of the queue (that driver's going to have fun claiming if the van was stolen or uninsured), then each driver is responsible for the one in front that they hit. The problem is when the insurance companies decide to deal with it as a 'knock for knock' and you both end up losing NCD (hmmmmm..... I wonder why the companies are so keen to settle this way :mad: )