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

savingfortravel

Nyk-Your cousin sounds like my kind of girl, I'd love for her to join us. Hope she has a lovely time in Paris.
Charliesangels-Congrats on clearing so much debt. You sound like a woman in control of her life..I bet that feels great.
Bails-Once again I've missed something in your action packed life! I knew about your dream pot and preference for programmes like 'Build a new life..' but I had no idea that the 2 were connected. Is that what the 20k target is for? Wow! Please tell me more. Can't believe I'm a teacher as sometimes I seem to be the only one on this thread who's not paying attention.
Kittikins-If you set your goals well in advance, like you have, then dreams can come true. I was brought up on experiences over possessions and it will have such a positive influence over your daughter's outlook. All your destination choices sound great. We went to New Zealand a few years ago and it was so affordable. I watched e*pedia until a decent flight price came up-we went with S*ngapore Airlines who were great. We hired a small car and stayed at Youth Hostels (which are of a great standard-with family rooms/facilities) so we could Self Cater and spend our money on doing things like visiting Yellow Eyed Penguins/a Helicopter landing on Fox's Glacier/Sailing down Milford Sound etc..

Well we've had our yellow fever/innoculations. Got a deal on Malaria tablets in boots (and lots of points SM). May have enough for when we go to South Africa as well.
Been to the hairdressers.
Chap has come round to quote us for the roof. We have 2 options a fix it for now job or a job which will last 10-15 years. Hopefully the lady who sold us the house may pay part of it.
About to tackle the finances...A*bbey National have sent us the cheque but not sure where it has gone to. Would be great to get that money paid in.

Catch up again later.

sft

bails

Don't worry SFT, I too find it hard to keep up with everyone, and I do witter on sometimes :rotfl:Yes, the Dream Pot started from a desire to build us a cob house - they cost 20k to build apparently, hence the target. Obviously there's the small hurdle of finding some land to build it on; hoping to finance that through the Ec0logical Building Society when the time comes as they do mortgages for this type of build. OH isn't yet convinced that he wants to live in a cob house - he likes the idea but isn't sold on it like me (I love the idea of circular walls, sculptures built into the walls, creating exactly the kind of spaces we'd like plus the environmental/MS benefits). I think our ideal would be some kind of bothy or barn we could extend (with cob) but as my dad pointed out the other day, that's everyone's dream! Still, dreams happen if you want them enough eh? OH already had a wealth of skills to bring to the project and since he's been building/designing things for other people this past year he has even more :T I think it would be incredibly hard work but so worth it to 'live the dream' (remind me of that when I'm cursing the day I suggested it several years from now :rotfl:)

Good luck with sorting the finances, I'm sure you'll feel better once you're on top of it again.

Well done with the debt clearing CharliesAngel, brilliant stuff :T
Get your cousin on here Nyk!

Friends about to arrive - why is the weather so pants this weekend?! - so have a great weekend all and catch up soon xx

Blairweech

CharliesAngel - Great news on the debt front!:dance:
Bails - Your positive attitude is a true inspiration to me :heart2:
Nyk - Ooh, marmalade cake, good idea!

Posted a couple of Ebay parcels and registered with a doctor this avo. Just got the work quarterly newsletter and the founder has been presented with a knighthood, which I am pleased about.

So, plans for the weekend: frugal beau is out for a meal tonight but coming over later. Hoping to get lots of small things done this weekend:hanging pictures, sorting the spare room etc. If it is nice at all, will go up the lottie and go for a walk/bike ride

Just heard on the news that Allied Carpets has gone bust!

And I thought you might appreciate this story about a bank error...they kept the poor guy on hold for 2 hours!!!

bails

BTW, does anyone use Skype for all calls? I didn't realise you can do this but my brother phones his friends on it here in the UK, and it is of course free. Going now...:D

Aah, thanks Blairweech

taka

Kittikins - Travelling is fab. I was lucky to spend almost a year solo wandering around Thailand/ Malasia/ Singapore/ New Zealand/ Australia/ Hong Kong. It was amazing and worth every penny. I stayed in Youth hostels too to keep costs down and managed to do loads of things while out there (Heli-hike on Franz Josef glacier in NZ, outback trip (the best £300 I have ever spent and the absolute highlight of my time in Australia), snorkelled the great barrier reef etc)

I went to Morocco a couple of years ago and it was fabulous and quite cheap! We got flights Edinburgh-London-Marrakesh then stayed in Marrakesh for several nights then travelled by train to Meknes for a night then on to Fes and flew back Fes-London-Edinburgh. Flights were ~£110 (in total!) and accomodation was ~£190 total in the end (I think) for 10 nights. Eating out was pretty cheap and lovely too. It sounds very exotic but was actually quite affordable! French is very common there so we could communicate enough to ask for directions, order stuff etc. The only hasle we had (2 women travelling together) was not being able to find our way back to our accommotation on the 1st night in Marrakesh as we were staying in the middle of the maze of the medina. :rotfl: We managed to find the nearby mosque ok but were the evenings entertainment for the locals as we went back and fourth down the ~10 exits from the square trying to find the right street! All the signs were in Arabic! They were in hysterics laughing at us... :rotfl:

If I manage to come in under budget for my 4k challenge (well £5k in my case) the money is going into my holiday fund for a trip to Peru to walk the Inca Trail. Its actually very effective at motivating me not to spend unnecessarily!

taka

bails wrote: »

BTW, does anyone use Skype for all calls? I didn't realise you can do this but my brother phones his friends on it here in the UK, and it is of course free. Going now...:D

My family use sipgate (which is very similar) and my best mate is addicted to skype as her hubby is in Greece at the moment. I have something similar as part of my broadband package. Works well as long as you know what all the types of calls cost (eg some calls eg 0845 may not be free with these VoIP providers) and use your landline if its cheaper. My landline charges are tiny now... One of my collegues regularly uses VoIP to phone Brazil as she has a skype mobile + uses it on her laptop.

Frugaldom

taka wrote: »

If I manage to come in under budget for my 4k challenge (well £5k in my case) the money is going into my holiday fund for a trip to Peru to walk the Inca Trail. Its actually very effective at motivating me not to spend unnecessarily!

Taka, I know so many people wanting to do this that we could probably organise a frugathering in Peru. :j Previously, I'd just thought it would be quite good and then, after reading Celestine Prophesy and similar books a few years back, I was convinced that it would be a great thing to do, even if the additional reasons came from a novel. :rotfl: I still think it would be a great achievement but doubt very much if I'd ever be fit enough to make the trek, especially with my now dodgier than every knees and creaky hip joint. Apart from that, I'm a coward and won't travel anywhere on my own.

Blairweech - I DROPPED my marmalade cake onto the wire rack when taking it out the tin! :mad: It's now in chunks in a biscuit box.

That was some error with the debit cards! Imagine getting 1% cashback on that when they cleared it? :rotfl:

Allied Carpets - wonder where the nearest liquidation sale is? We haven't replaced any carpets or flooring in here yet.

bails

Don't go on your own then Nyk, there are plenty of ways to travel with like minded people. (I'm always up for a Frugal team expedition...;))As for your dodgy bits my dad is about to come out and trek the Himalayas with us - his lifetime's ambition - and he had a hip replacement last year! It hurts like hell some days and his knees are battered but dreams are dreams aren't they? It will be one of my proudest moments to accompany him on that trip.

Anyone ever see Beyond Boundaries? Run by a friend of mine, awesome series.

Frugaldom

Bails, I just recently learned from SM that she'd also like to go to Machu Piccu but her OH isn't really into that sort of holiday, so who knows where the tenants of Frugaldom may end up one day? I still have a couple of walks to do here this summer - Cairnsmore of Fleet and then The Merrick. They're only a stone's throw from here, so getting there costs next to nothing and I don't need a passport. :rotfl:

bails

That's cool! A frugal pot to start then Nyk?