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

savingfortravel

Bails-I am fine. Hope you're ok too.
Just been going through trip finances..We don't have alot of cash spare, once we budgeted for excursions and food. Interestingly what we have budgeted for food on this trip (based on figures given to us) is more than our annual food budget last year!:eek:
Would it be wrong to treat this as a grocery challenge in itself? I am sure we won't need £20 each for food each day!


Glad we've got it all written down. Feel like Cheryl would be proud of my lists. :rotfl:

Tomorrow and Thursday will be spent buying the last few bits like Insect repellent and packing/repacking.

Taka-Hope you get everything sorted out and feel better soon. XX

sft

sophiesmum_2

Bails - i am fine too just being quiet:D

cw18

savingfortravel wrote: »

Feel like Cheryl would be proud of my lists. :rotfl:

:eek: Why do I feel like I'm getting a bit of a reputation

:rotfl:

savingfortravel

cw18 wrote: »

:eek: Why do I feel like I'm getting a bit of a reputation

:rotfl:

Only in a good way Cheryl! :rotfl:I am one of your biggest fans. Yesterday we went through the trip figures and realised we only had budgeted for one person's meals, not 2. :eek: I went back to my financial spreadsheet and managed to beg, borrow and steal from other 'pots' so Mr SFT will not go hungry :rotfl:I felt quite proud of myself for doing so. I think a couple of years ago I would have just gone to pieces..... Cheryl, you give me the confidence not to do that.

Since we have to pay for every meal over the month if we didn't have a budget we could easily overspend. And if I'm totally honest I'm one of those sad people who enjoy saving a bit of their holiday fund and bringing it home.

Today we are entertaining my mum and her friend (who made my beautiful frugal wedding bouquet) with a cream tea in the garden.
A*da was fantastic last night, managed to pick up reduced fruit scones and extra special ham. A pack of Oxford Cooper's marmalade and strawberrry jam for only 1.98 (normal sized jars, nice present for someone...). We also picked up their highly recommended (above all the posh brands) sun sytem sft 30 for £5 for 2!-packaging is dreadful but who cares!
Later we will do final washing, start gathering our packing together and hopefully go for a walk because the weather isn't too bad today.

Have a good day all.

sft

Frugaldom

Morning guys, hope everyone who has been under the weather is feeling better.

SFT, I'd make that a challenge and aim at HALF what's been recommended. £20 per person, per day sounds like an awful lot of money just for food

Blairweech, are you removing the fat from the meat before cooking it? I don't know much about meat cuts, as I only ever buy chicken or the odd piece of ham and I always strain the stock off for soup. If something has fat in it then that fat is going to melt during cooking and it needs to go somewhere. Sorry, I'm not much help on this one.

Frugal soup still on the go from yesterday's Ham stock and I managed to spend only £7.10 yesterday on bread, milk & fruit. My grocery budget is atrocious this year with all the price rises, so I've spent far too much on stocking up non essentials and not enough left for basics like flour, pulses, sugar and meat products. If I allow an extra £25 for Christmas week to cover turkey and whatever extras, I have an average of only £13 per week from now until year ends. That isn't each, that's for all 3 of us! Weezl, here I come - this calls for a reread of your 50p per person per day thread.

cw18

:eek: at the grocery budget Nyk !!!

Mine's going well. Almost £60 in hand by the end of last month - but that was after deducting £30 in Mr M vouchers and £20 in Mr T gift cards from doing surveys (meaning I'm actuallly only £10 under in real terms), so I know I can't afford to relax the purse strings as I'd then struggle to get back to this years target daily budget come Jan 2010

I'm currently over £27 'under budget' for this point in July (eating from freezers is serving me well, as I've even splurged about £16 on food for DS's party tea that I hadn't budgeted for), and have another £10 Mr T card in my purse - plus another on the way, that I'm hoping will be here in the next couple of days :T


SFT - I'm sure Nyk has some very impressive lists running behind the scenes from the way she quotes all her averages to date and available for the rest of the year But I'm glad you realised you had a holiday budget shortfall before you left, as it's given you chance to adjust now and removed the worrying about where they extra will come from while you're away :rolleyes2




Am waiting on a call from DD. She phoned last night with some concerns, and I advised her to stay off work until she'd spoken to her GP (not that she can afford to lose any salary). She's called them this morning and is waiting for a call back, but it seems as if she and elder GD are showing symptoms of Swine Flu that are too "mild" for treatment (no temperature), but younger GD has a high temp as well so may get medications. She works in a private nursery with the toddlers, and yesterday they had to announce 2 confirmed cases of Swine Flu in staff - one of which is a lass from DD's room who was sent home ill part way through the afternoon :eek: Unless the GP states she HAS to stay off work the management are chasing her to go in - and expect her to be able to find someone (namely me) to care for GD(s). Have told her to tell them there's no way I'm putting my house into quarantine as well - partly 'cos if both households have it there's no-one available to go shopping/pick up meds, but also partly 'cos I'm expecting elder DS home on leave within what would be the quarantine period, and I'm not doing that unless one of the girls ends up in hospital meaning I have to look after others.

savingfortravel

nykmedia wrote: »

Morning guys, hope everyone who has been under the weather is feeling better.

SFT, I'd make that a challenge and aim at HALF what's been recommended. £20 per person, per day sounds like an awful lot of money just for food

Exactly what I was thinking...a Central American Grocery Challenge!
Speaking of which..I am keen to rejoin the OS Monthly grocery challenge when we arrive back. I see lots of join are members in conjunction with this challenge and I loved taking part last year. Mrs Mc I salute you! sft

savingfortravel

cw18 wrote: »

:eek: at the grocery budget Nyk !!!

SFT - I'm sure Nyk has some very impressive lists running behind the scenes from the way she quotes all her averages to date and available for the rest of the year But I'm glad you realised you had a holiday budget shortfall before you left, as it's given you chance to adjust now and removed the worrying about where they extra will come from while you're away :rolleyes2



Exactly.
I hope your DD is ok Cheryl. Sending hugs your way sft x

blueberrypie

nykmedia wrote: »

If I allow an extra £25 for Christmas week to cover turkey and whatever extras, I have an average of only £13 per week from now until year ends. That isn't each, that's for all 3 of us!

Wow! I know there are eight of us here, but I spend at least twice that amount per week on fruit alone. I am seriously impressed at your budgeting skills!

(Mind, my budget for the year is shot anyway, because I need to change my car, and even if I get a good price for the one I'm selling, it's going to take at least an extra £2k to buy what I need.)

Frugaldom

Nobody panic, I only mean that my £4,000 per year budget allocated £1200 to groceries and I've already spent £874.64 of it this year so far, mostly stockpiling. If I want to stay within my 4k budget then I have about £13 per week for groceries to allow an extra £25 for Christmas week. Personally, I think it could be done but if the others object, then I'll rejig the budget somehow - or go over the 4k if I really, really HAVE to. I don't have a car to run, go-out-to-work expenses or any expensive habits, holidays, hobbies or passtimes except hen keeping but that, literally, costs chicken feed. :rotfl:

CW, your spreadsheets and knowledge of all things money put my limited efforts to shame. Have you ever considered helping out at Citizens Advice?

Fingers crossed you aren't in quarantine. Got to agree, there's no way to control such a virus outbreak, it's holiday time, folks are travelling all over the world with no way of knowing they are carrying it unless symptoms begin to show. At least we're a fairly healthy nation in comparison to some third world countries where the introduction of flu can wipe out a huge proportion of their population. No proper quarantine for humans unless we go to the moon! :rolleyes: