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

savingfortravel

Knew you'd be ok SF. As for the shower, remember to get in early!
SFT

Skint_Lynne

Good evening everyone,

It's been quiet on here today I see, it must have been because it has been such a nice day. I have been busy for most of it, but not here in this pigsty, I will really need to clean it, it looks like it's been burgled it's that messy.:eek:

Well, I done the shopping and came in at £106.00, so that's not too bad for a first attempt I think. I got a lot for that, including toilet roll, kitchen roll and some cleaning stuff. I decided to buy frozen green beans as you can get a big bag for £1 and they taste quite nice, so you are getting a lot more for the money. I also bought the meat from the supermarket which I don't ususally do, it is either the butcher or costco, but as this is a cost cutting exercise, we'll see how the supermaket fares for the moment. However, I did not buy sausages as these need to come from the butcher as the supermarket ones are usually dodgy. I bought 24 cans of fizzy juice in with this as well, but I have told them that this will be stopping, and diluting juice will be bought instead. Everyone is fine with this except the brother, he looked a bit put out, but he can buy his own if he really wants it, then he might figure out how expensive it is. The only downside to this is that I won't have as many cans to recycle, I had 800 and odds last time.:eek:

Will check in later everyone. xx

cw18

Didn't think I'd done a great deal today..... until I started listing it here

A bit more number crunching on my grocery spending on and off through the afternoon/evening (still on-going)

Tidy out of freezer, transferring frozen soups and meals from tubs to bags to free up some space

Shopping trip (bought 2 litres of milk yesterday, and DS drank a whole litre while I was out at a crafting get-together :eek: ). Got midly distracted by Whoopsies again, but didn't spend much. Did get the ice-cream DS has been pestering for over the 10 days though - didn't have freezer space until the box to bag transfer

Managed to get the contents of 5 boxes of Frvbes into the freezer

Mowed the front lawns - just hoping the weather holds so I can do the back one tomorrow !!!

Finally dealt with the carrots I was given on Wednesday, so they're all diced, blanched and freezing now

Replaced two light bulbs that have been out for months!! Now it's starting to get dark a bit earlier I decided it was time to replace them :rolleyes2





Well done on the shopping trip SL :T Sounds like you did really well, especially as cleaning stuff and toiletries don't come out of my grocery budget......

Brighton_belle

SL - an excellent first shop:T I think you are going to do well: you've taken on all the challeges of this forum so enthusiastically this year and seem pretty clued up about food budgeting these days. Look forward to hearing how it goes.
SF - good luck with your new housemates - I'm sure they are all anxiously hoping everyone is nice - so you're bound to be a relief to them:D
sft - glad to hear the gym may be paying off not just physically. It's good your roof is nearly finishes and can soon be put behind you. It's now just a question of time before paying off what you owe: how much and when is all in place.
sc, superb post re heritage days: I have made sure I have put it in diary for next year so I can plan beter. However, unknown to me, my OH was actually leading a property tour as part of the heritage weekend! Communication is a wonderful thing:rotfl:. So today I was his groupie as he led a group around a farm dating back to the doomday and at one point owned by the Knights Templar. Great value free entertainment.

cw - I'm really lucky that my mum just spontaneously started writing down her memories a few years ago. Typing them up gave me the opportunity to clarify a few things and fill in gaps. There's quite a stong oral history dept at Sussex uni that run diplomas and such like (evening classes) and the uni also hold the mass observation diaries made famous by the Victoria Wood Drama Housewife 49. The memories of ordinary folk have so much to tell. Makes you realise there is no one simple single 'truth' about history.

Need to go to the butcher this week and do some batch cooking to see us through to the end of the month - v nearly half way through already!

Mrs_Tradition

Hi All
I really need some help/guidance if anyone has the time. I am really interested in this challenge but not sure how I can apply it to me as mine is live on about 25k a year which is what I earn - ie I never have anything left. As you can see from my sig I am a DFW and have that all in hand - snowballing and plans set up and working fine. However does this class a necessity - to me it does as paying debts off but then my whole spare cash goes on that....Soo here's my annual estimates/actuals for a year - any tips on what to apply for this challenge would help loads - thank you xxx

MonthlyAnnualCouncil Tax £ 176.00 £ 2,112.00 Car Ins £ 24.00 £ 288.00 Car Tax - £ 220.00 Petrol £ 70.00 £ 840.00 Groceries £ 175.00 £ 2,100.00 Nursery £ 58.00 £ 638.00 TV £ 11.95 £ 131.45 Phone £ 22.00 £ 242.00 Water £ 33.49 £ 368.39 Mortgage £ 270.00 £ 2,970.00 Loan £ 167.63 £ 1,843.93 CTF £ 10.00 £ 120.00 Gas and Elec £ 100.00 £ 1,200.00 Xmas £ 70.00 £ 840.00 Mobile £ 10.00 £ 120.00 Debt Other- £ 8,183.56 Bdays250 £22,467.33

Skint_Lynne

Hi Mrs Tradition,

Nice to see you here. The 4K challenge purely focuses on living expenses only, eg, food, heating, lighting, entetainment, clothing etc. It does not include your mortgage, council tax and debt payments etc. There is a full explanation on the first page of this thread.

However, lots of people on the challenge adapt it to suit themselves, eg, living on 12k for the year, which would include all monies spent, eg the mortgage etc would be included in this.

It's a good idea to have a look around the threads, on DFW and OLDSTYLE especially as there are loads of good ideas to be had.

There be some of the others along sometime today to give advice who are much more qualified than me.

Hope this helps meantime, I'd better get back to work.:rolleyes:

Mrs_Tradition

Thank you ever so much - common sense to be applied I think.....now where did I leave it....;)
I will keep checking back for ideas from other people also and in the mean time I think I'll make a start crunching some more figures.
xx

Brighton_belle

Do come back Mrs T, this is a great forum:j Lynne has summed up the essentials of the challenge: well done on sorting your debt payments:T. Taking up the 4K challenge has for many of us been done in stages - getting to grips with writing down every penny we spend and keeping good records is a great start. Then you can bein to build a picture of where your money goes and and what could therefore be cut back on. As lynne says, it does not include, debts, mtg/rent/C Tax.water rates but all other living xpenses that are essential. We have all tweaked our to suit what we want really.

I do the challenge to minimise expenses where I can, so I can use my spare cash for quality of life things, like my hobbies, others for travel and others to reduce the number of hrs they need to do a 'proper job' so they can lead the life of self sufficiency they want, or be a stay at home mum.

Frugaldom

Good Morning frugallers

Special thoughts to SM, especially today - thinking of you and will see you Wednesday about our 'girly day in the city' on Thursday. Belfast, here we come - frugal travellers courtesy of Stena Line Special Offers

Thanks for all the info re urns and accommodation for cheap hols. The urns did arrive into our local Ald! but were withdrawn as faulty, so not such a bargain afterall.

Glad things seem OK at uni, SF and glad your roof is now fixed, SFT. Keeping a roof over your head is really important, so it should be a longterm investment for you.

SL, well done with the shopping, good luck feeding the family and keeping them away from ye olde Irn Bru etc, I used to love the stuff!

Mrs_Tradition, thanks for sharing your details, welcome to Frugaldom Like Skint Lynne says, this challenge is about the cost of living, so you need to keep tabs on everything associated with that AFTER having paid essential debts, rent/mortgage, council tax, water, work associated costs, nursery etc. It;s about lifestyle and making the most of what you have, so concentrate on clearing the debts as fast as you can. I'm assuming that your 25k income is what you clear and hopefully not at the top, judging by your outgoings?

Congratulations on all the awards, Shaz & junior Shazman

Appropriate thoughts to each and every one of you and apologies for not spending more time on here.

Managed to make 12 jars of hedgerow jelly, so the pantry is not choc-a-bloc full of preserves to last us until next harvest time. The hen coops & runs did get completed before DD's wedding but we've just managed to finish slabbing the worst bit that had got flooded and muddied. I didn't get my paving slabs via eBay, though, I got mine via LETS.

Grocery budget still taking hit after hit and I really don't know why! People just keep on wanting to eat stuff that I don't have! Fingers crossed that the breadmaker will arrive this week, it's been posted out by friend but there was a postal workers' strike on at weekend. :rolleyes:

Hope everyone is still confident about continuing with the challenge, it's onlt a couple more weeks until we get a shiny new thread and launch ourselves into the final quarter of 2009 - how scary is that!? :eek:

Any word from Whitewing or Aeb?

Mrs_Tradition

nykmedia wrote: »

Good Morning frugallers

Special thoughts to SM, especially today - thinking of you and will see you Wednesday about our 'girly day in the city' on Thursday. Belfast, here we come - frugal travellers courtesy of Stena Line Special Offers

Thanks for all the info re urns and accommodation for cheap hols. The urns did arrive into our local Ald! but were withdrawn as faulty, so not such a bargain afterall.

Glad things seem OK at uni, SF and glad your roof is now fixed, SFT. Keeping a roof over your head is really important, so it should be a longterm investment for you.

SL, well done with the shopping, good luck feeding the family and keeping them away from ye olde Irn Bru etc, I used to love the stuff!

Mrs_Tradition, thanks for sharing your details, welcome to Frugaldom Like Skint Lynne says, this challenge is about the cost of living, so you need to keep tabs on everything associated with that AFTER having paid essential debts, rent/mortgage, council tax, water, work associated costs, nursery etc. It;s about lifestyle and making the most of what you have, so concentrate on clearing the debts as fast as you can. I'm assuming that your 25k income is what you clear and hopefully not at the top, judging by your outgoings?

Congratulations on all the awards, Shaz & junior Shazman

Appropriate thoughts to each and every one of you and apologies for not spending more time on here.

Managed to make 12 jars of hedgerow jelly, so the pantry is not choc-a-bloc full of preserves to last us until next harvest time. The hen coops & runs did get completed before DD's wedding but we've just managed to finish slabbing the worst bit that had got flooded and muddied. I didn't get my paving slabs via eBay, though, I got mine via LETS.

Grocery budget still taking hit after hit and I really don't know why! People just keep on wanting to eat stuff that I don't have! Fingers crossed that the breadmaker will arrive this week, it's been posted out by friend but there was a postal workers' strike on at weekend. :rolleyes:

Hope everyone is still confident about continuing with the challenge, it's onlt a couple more weeks until we get a shiny new thread and launch ourselves into the final quarter of 2009 - how scary is that!? :eek:

Any word from Whitewing or Aeb?

Hi there - Correct re 25k in my pocket and thank you all for the welcome - it's so nice :-)
I have done some reworking of my figures based on your comments and next year will be doing a live on 5k challenge. This means I should have another 5 k to pay off my debts on top of the other normal payments which I make monthly now (snowballing with whatsthecost). So I am feeling pretty positive now :-)
My aim for the rest of this year is to get used to the grocery challenge I am doing and keep complete spending diaries to allow me to see what's going where. I have been doing this on and off but will stick to doing it for eveything.
Also I have a 30th to buy for (OH) so need some ideas for someone who is very hard to buy for - plus I need to budget for this....as always.

There is light at the end of the tunnel after all. I am so pleased I found these forums xxxx