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

Frugaldom

Just popping in to say 'good morning' from a soggy, wet Frugaldom. Nothing much to report from here. Workload is diminishing by the day, so house and garden stuff is taking priority today, even if it means getting soaked. Still haven't got around to searching for those waterproofs!

savingfortravel

Morning all!
Woke up to a beautiful day here. What a contrast to the thunderstorms of last night. We had 2 leaks :eek: because at the back of the cottage the previous owner has put cement where there should be valley tiles. Getting 2 quotes for the work (1 today, 1 tomorrow), so more money from the bathroom pot! I just hope we've got enough.


Plan for today:

• Doctors for innoculations-Pick up Malaria tablets and start taking.
• Hairdressers
• Big look at finances-including trip finances.
• Make medical list for our trip.

Want to get back to my frugal/MS ways. Feel like I've lost direction over the last few months. Also check up on people's blogs.

Bails-During the drama of last night I managed to read about your trip. It sounds great! Can't wait to read all about it on your blog.

sft

bails

Thanks guys, it does make me realise what a wonderful chance we've got to do something special. I've always tried to look at my illness as an opportunity rather than a burden and this is definitely one of the best opportunities to come out of it :j 'Meeting' all of you is another, and in particular BB who is now a close real life friend too :T

Sorry to hear about the leaks SFT, hope the quotes are reasonable. There will always be teething problems with a new house, sometimes money just needs to be rejigged to accommodate that for a while. As for feeling like you've lost a little direction, your priority has been finding and buying your dream home - all your MS and frugal ways are what made that a reality, something to be truly proud of :T You've been concentrating on the bigger picture, which has been completely worth it, and now you can refocus on the day to day MS. If it helps, I feel the same, with the trip taking priority, but I still remain dedicated to the frugal lifestyle even if I can't pursue it wholeheartedly right now x

Still pondering the Dream Pot, £233.90 to find in exactly 3 weeks now! We've got some door handles from my parents faulty kitchen (about 50!) we're going to try and sell, then there's the car boot sale next weekend (although we expect to raise a lot less from this one) and trying to eek out minimum money for the rest of the month so we can put the rest in the Pot. Thing is, we have friends here til Monday, also a trip to Birmingham next weekend then a trip to Brighton the weekend after; it's difficult with trying to say good bye to people as well, makes it an expensive month. Still working on it though, I WILL magic that money from somewhere!;)

Obsessed, moi?

shaz_mum_of__2

Just a quickie for lynne yes it is the ods but you have to crush them first to get the seeds from inside then discard the husk( use it to flavour sugar for rice pudding or i think weezl uses for tea too )


Shaz

Kittikins

Morning all, I'm envious of the travelling, wish I hadn't wasted 10 years with a boring man, ok he ended up with my OH and father of DD, but whilst we went to some good places, he didn't want to go and explore, and put me down so I felt like I wouldn't be able to do things unless he was right beside me. Grrr. Anyway, once DD is a bit older, I don't yet feel comfortable travelling too far with a 4 year old, I want us to make the most of the world and maybe re-visit some of the places I went to with him, but with someone who is curious and interested about life, lol.

My mum was a lot better than I was anticipating, she's got to have another op in a few weeks' time and was very lucky she got to hospital when she did or she wouldn't be alive now, so I'm very thankful for that.

On an irritating note, I did slip off my diet yesterday, I was very stressed when I drove to the hospital, so like a numpty went and ate 'real' food (but in true MSE fashion, it was reduced in price, lol, so my slip was at least cheap, tee hee!). It doesn't seem to have put any weight on, but I feel sluggish today, grr.

Going to have to spend money today though - taking DD for a swim to occupy her, but will take plenty of snacks for the inevitable post-swim starvation frenzy!

Thank you everyone for your wishes, it really means a lot xx

bails

I feel like that sometimes too Kittikins, that I've wasted time, but it all serves a purpose and makes you who you are, which sounds like a person very determined to travel :T Where would you like to go? We both love travelling and are determined to manage it even with a family - what greater thing to do than help them explore? Really pleased to hear your mum is better than you'd expected, hope she makes a good recovery. As for the diet, one day is nothing and in exceptional circumstances too x

Kittikins

I've always wanted to go to Chile, India, Thailand, Australia/New Zealand, more of Canada (I would love to live in Vancouver) - I have lots of colleagues in Delhi who say they would show us around Basically, I want to get on and LIVE more, now I'm properly over the split and am sorting my body out, lol. There's just that minor issue of ready cash but thanks to this challenge and MSE in general, I look at "must buys" with a lot more scepticism than I used to :rolleyes:

I've got a vague plan to save up for a big trip somewhere exciting of 3-4 weeks with DD in probably 2 years time, as being lil miss organised, I've already booked us a very cheap holiday in France for next August as I couldn't resist the bargain! It sounds like it might be a garden shed on a holiday camp but for £140 for 2 weeks including travel insurance, it couldn't be turned down! Just the ferry to pay for now...My sealed pot is probably going to be the starting point for that trip, and when I open it, I'll set up a new online savings account to maximise the huge amounts of interest I can earn :rotfl::rotfl:

DD and I also have other dreams of having a 'farm'; we've decided on the animals we'd like there - ponies and animals that "give" us milk/eggs/wool, a goat or sheep will give us milk and wool and be ultra cute, and chickens - well, there are plenty of experts here to advise if we ever get to that stage.

Methinks I'll need another sealed pot for that!!

bails

Your plans sound wonderful Kittikins! I say start those pots now. When I started the Dream Pot it seemed so unrealistic but I needed something to hang my dreams on. I started on the 16th October and I'm amazed how much we've saved in those 9 months, simply from money we would've spent and not noticed otherwise :T It may not seem so much to some but this represents a huge chunk of our joint annual income so I'm very proud And by having the Pot there, each day is a choice with our money - do we need it for x or would we prefer our dream home? It keeps the dream alive daily for me, I love it!, and means the day we sit down in the house we built from scratch will be a truly magical one indeed.

EDIT: ha ha, inspired by my own post I've just sent more money winging its way to the Dream Pot - we'll have to find a way to manage on what's left. I couldn't help it, I'm so passionate about it! OH said last night he'd really like to build a home for us one day, so that's Chief Building Engineer sorted; I'll project manage, now just to persuade lots of friends and family they want to help :rotfl:

CharliesAngel

Hello All...

bails fabby news on your sister in law's new arrival! Not great that she had to push for 6 hours before they relieved her! Bet you're so proud.

I've become more of a lurker on this board these days... come clean about my debts with family and well into the swing of a DMP which is going surprsingly smoothly, the best thing I could have done. My only regret is not doing it sooner! Nationwide have stopped interest and accepted payments, Alliance and Leicester loan have accepted CCCS's offer of reduced payments, MBNA have stopped piling interest on at ridiculous % and Lloyds are happy with my offer. Since I last posted I've shaved 2k off my debt and now it's down to around the 8k mark.. hoping that DFD will be sooner than CCCS have told me!

Cutting out the reliance on credit is a short sharp shock but in the long run it can only be a good thing - this year i managed to pay for my MOT and service (over 300 quid) on maestro card!

Loads of things are going on in this thread as usual and all your piccies of food are making me hungry! Lunch (two hours ago) seems days ago lol..

Anyhoo i'll shut up before this turns into an essay and hope you all have a fab weekend...

CA xxx

Frugaldom

Hi CharliesAngel, great to see you posting again and better still that you have got the debts sorted out - you are now controlling them instead of the other way about and, if you say it quickly, £8k isn't that much. When you consider this is the 4k challenge and we've been here almost 2 years already, time flies by when budgeting, so enjoy the ride. You'll have a whole new outlook on life once the debt's gone and then you, too, can become a tight-fisted, penny pinching frugaholic

Just made chicken filling for a huge puff pastry pie that will do two meals, plus baked a marmalade cake and a tray of oat biscuits. I now have veggies & tomatoes (with oats) in the slow cooker so it can be used for spag bol, chili and lasagne. That should take care of meals until well into next week.

Frugal cousin was in contact to say she'd managed to get booked for a week in Paris flying with £1 Ryana!r tickets to a different airport then bus from there to Paris for 13€ so she's delighted at that. I'm delighted for her, as she is really getting into frugal living, but I still can't tempt her on here. She isn't even shy and she'd be able to join all the other teachers among you, so I'll keep trying to coax her on board.

Kittikins, if you want to travel, go for it! When I lived in Suffolk my plan was to quit smoking and use what I saved to jump on a plane to wherever I could get a cheap flight to from Stanstead. (There was a regular bus into the airport from where I lived.) Sadly, I put off for too long and ended up completely missing the opportunity to pursue such a jetsetting, yet frugal, hobby.