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

taka

Pooh... I missed SFT! I hope they enjoy themselves...

:hello: Everyone else... I had loads to reply to but can't think of anything now... Glad its the weekend I think my brain has been washed away with all the torrential rain! :rotfl:

One of my friends submitted her (doorstop sized) PhD thesis today (after LOTS of running round at the last minute! :rolleyes:). I haven't seen her smile so much or look so happy in a LONG time! She is hoping to be viva'd by mid September and off to work at Harvard, Boston end of Sept/early October. :eek: :T

Frugaldom

Thrifty, as long as you have the receipt you can submit a claim to the post office after a specific length of time, it's all on the post office web site. Ask at your PO for a claim form and photocopy the receipt before including it with your claim in case that gets lost too. Better still if you have a proof of posting certificate, which I get for absolutely everything nowadays. It takes a bit of time but they should refund the value of the contents, assuming it wasn't something extremely valuable. Link is here

cw18

You need to allow 10 working days before you can submit a claim for non-delivery. A general receipt can make it hard work, unless the PO wrote the address details (of where it was going to) onto it - this is the "new" style of "proof of postage". (They normally only write the house number and postcode)

cw18

More budget figures adjusted before month end.......

Window cleaners came and did my gutters, eaves and downpipes today - and the chap came this evening to collect the money (along with payment for normal window clean which was done a couple of days ago, and which I'd paid in advance for so I only had to find the extra).

(had to borrow a tenner from DS until tomorrow so I could pay him :rolleyes2 )

Wasn't as bad as I'd expected though :T

Have now split the gutters/eaves out of my 'window cleaning' budget - figure it'll be easier to keep track of it for budget setting for next year.

The combined figure had been set as £200 - £104 for windows (26 @ £4, to try and allow for a long overdue price increase - was paying £3.80), and £96 in budget for the rest.

Windows have now gone up to £4.20 for the rest of the year, so over the year that's 15x£3.80 and 11x£4.20 - which makes for a total of £103.20, so my guess wasn't far out over the year (but I've managed to 'regain' 80p for 'anything else' )

Bigger surprise was that the gutters/eaves was only £45 :T So I've now managed to move £51 from that budget into my 'anything else'


I may shift some of that over to my 'toiletries/cleaning' before the end of next month though..... I'm looking to be overspent on that one for 'quite a while' due to the carpet shampoo I bought, but DD is supposed to be blitzing her house the second week of August so I can go and clean hers - at which point she'll be buying some of it off me.

If that comes off then I may be OK, if not I could be snookered by the end of the year As I can see me needing more carpet shampoo next year (if I retain some of the carpets I'd planned to replace), I'd rather be in a position to set a realistic budget for next January which will have to be based on this years.




Had my cholesterol appt this morning. My 'good' cholesterol has gone up from 0.96 to 1.18 - which looked impressive as I was told last year the target was 1.2 or above. But the nurse today was quoting 1.25 or above, so needs to improve a bit more than I thought

I'm not sure how they measure the other figures She did quote my 'bad', but I've nothing to compare it to as they don't measure that on a non-fasting test (which is what my last one was). All I know is my total (which should be no more than 5) has gone up from 5.26 to 6.4 :eek: Yet my 'ratio' (which should apparently show at under 6) has gone down - ie. improved - from 5.8 to 5.4

So all in all she's not over concerned. Two of the three we could compare have changed in the right direction, but she said I need to work on pulling the total down.

First suggestion was eat more fish and chicken. Once a week is a much as I can get DS to eat fish, and that's not really a 'good' type (I don't like many of those either - and those I do I can't afford on a regular basis and did't have local access to until our Mr M opened). DS would probably eat chicken slightly more than the once a week we currently have it without complaining - but not twice a week every week. Only way I can see of improving these for me is when DS has curry (about once a fortnight), as I normally have beef stew or casserole (or steak and kidney something) as DS won't eat those without a LOT of complaints. I can also do things with Qu0rn for me on those days, as I have a couple of recipes I enjoy it in but no-one else in the house will touch it (and, again, it's not a cheap option to be 'force feeding' it!)

Next suggestion was eat more fruit and veg. Told her I'm trying to increase veg (much to DS's disgust) and often 'hide' it in meals when I can, but stuggle with fruit as not a lot I eat. Guess I'm going to have making serious in-roads into my mountain of tinned fruit, and try and remember to put salad into my sandwiches :rolleyes2

More exercise came up as another suggestion - and she looked perplexed when my answer to what I do included 'dog walking during school term-time'. Had to explain that this is the job of DS during holidays (and at weekends) - and I don't propose to change that as it's about the only thing I can get him to do without practically murdering him Guess I'm going to have to take longer detours to the shops - as long as the weather's nice anyway

Last suggestion - and the one I'm already working on (and have been for a while, mainly because of the financial implications) - is giving up the cigs. I've cut back slowly over the year - but still have bad days and can't get any further on my own as 'cold turkey' doesn't work for me..... I have an appt with her in three weeks time (first available) to address this one.

thriftylass

cw18 wrote: »

You need to allow 10 working days before you can submit a claim for non-delivery. A general receipt can make it hard work, unless the PO wrote the address details (of where it was going to) onto it - this is the "new" style of "proof of postage". (They normally only write the house number and postcode)

Unfortunately, they didn't write anything on it. I should have checked and asked them for it or should have sent it recorded delivery.

nykmedia wrote: »

Thrifty, as long as you have the receipt you can submit a claim to the post office after a specific length of time, it's all on the post office web site. Ask at your PO for a claim form and photocopy the receipt before including it with your claim in case that gets lost too. Better still if you have a proof of posting certificate, which I get for absolutely everything nowadays. It takes a bit of time but they should refund the value of the contents, assuming it wasn't something extremely valuable. Link is here

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, they only pay compensation in stamps, what use is that . Plus the item wasn't just £20s worth but a fair bit more. Stupid, stupid, stupid :mad:. Since I never had trouble sending stuff First Class I did it again. If it was a scam by the buyer then I probably just asked for it. Well Am@z0n said to wait another wee while, maybe it turns up ( I once received a parcel nearly three weeks after the postage stamp date).

Frugaldom

Bad luck Thrifty, I've had so many parcels go astray that absolutely everything gets a certificate of posting and if it's ober £10 worth, I insist on them using at least Recorded, but preferably Parcel or Special Delivery so it can be tracked online. So many scammers around that it's a shame to doubt everyone else but needs must.

No signs of the neighbours yet and no emails saying what time (or if) they intend arriving tonight, so I'm hoping everything is OK! My paranoia again, I guess, but, since their accident, I am always clock watching if I think they're on their way.

Just back our evening walk and saw several deer, rabbits and loads of bats! I'm always scared one hits me on the head and tangles in my hair, even although it's probably only something that happens in cartoons like 'Scooby Doo'!:rotfl:I guess it's only cartoons like Scooby Doo where they wait until it's dark to come out, too! It's a beautiful evening here, looks very promising for tomorrow with the red sky fading to indigo & blue. :j

cw18

I luuuuurve bats.

Closest I've ever been to one was in a cathedral, when the in-built radar of one them failed and it flew into a pillar. The poor things was lying of the floor totally stunned, but it fastinating to see it so close up (and to see just how furry their bodies actually are).

We used to regularly have three or four doing a 'low altitude fly by' outside the front door of our last house in the early evenings as it started to turn dark - and I loved standing outside watching them.

DdraigGoch

Sorry not to have been around much, been a bit busy.

Turns out that my eldest, DS, now has swine 'flu, so we're keeping a close eye on him. Around us they're not giving Tamiflu out like sweeties, you have to REALLY need it. A good idea, imho.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us all - not just the DG family, though obviously I'd appreciate it - but all of those who are worried for whatever reasons and particularly for those £4k-ers, our own little "e-family".

I may not pop in for a little while, ................ or you might not be able to get rid of me :rotfl:

All the best to SFT on her travels, to Bails on her journey to Cottage Heaven, and everyone else. It's so nice to see "old/unseen" members popping in again

cw18

hope your DS feels better soon - and that the rest of the family stays clear of it........

Hardup_Hester

Morning all
It's been ages since I posted on here, as there are only 2 of us I don't manage too badly on £4000 a year (actually £3732), unfortunately the school where I work is changing the layout of the day & I am losing my lunch duties so from September my wages will drop by about £200 -£250 a month. Hubby has work at the moment but his 3 month contract is also up on 1st Sept. From September we will have £1980 a year to live on once the bills are paid!!!! Wish me luck, both my 2 week dogsitting jobs fell through as people cancelled their holidays due to the recession, so that's £280 I won't be getting now. I just have 1 budgie sitting week booked, still it's an extra £10.
So I'm clearing out the spare room in the hopes of getting another lodger & setting up the sewing machine permenantly in case I get any more alterations to do, I've also crocheted us an extra woolly lap quilt each so we can use the heating less.
We have quite a lot of veg growing in the garden which helps with the food budget. I made DD an apron for her birthday & she was delighted with it, I found a beautiful blue duvet cover in the local charity shop for £3 & made 4 aprons & 3 sundresses for DGD. I'm making the extra aprons & hoping to sell them.
We had hoped to save some of hubby's wages, but instead frittered them away on getting the car through it's MOT & getting our eyes tested & getting me new glasses. We also had a weekend away, £60 £40 for the caravan & £20 for the petrol, what a wild & exciting life we lead!
Hugs Hester