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

Skint_Lynne

Thanks again for all the good vibes re: the job.

The meatballs are on, the sauce is lush, but I have used turkey mince and am not sure about it. Maybe once they are cooked through it will smell better, turkey mince does not smell the same as whole turkey (if that makes sense). It's not off or anything, it's maybe because I usually use beef mince for things.

Just had SIL on phone, the wee one has a sore bot, so she is slapping the cream on it. She is paranoid that she has done something wrong, it's probably his teeth or something.

Well, off to bed now, nite nite. xx

bails

SF, have you bought anything you can return? I sometimes have a spending spree (well, by Frugaldom standards!) and then come to my senses and return it! Hope August is a better month for you; don't be too hard on yourself, you're amazingly well financially educated - I wish I'd been so good when I was your age :T

Taka, thanks for sharing your house story. Sorry you had to spend your 21st money like that but what fantastic life lessons :T How great that your parents trusted you at such a young age :T
Glad the interview went well SL,:T keeping everything crossed for you.
Lilo, it's lovely to be seeing more of you :T Weree your % wrong, I thought they were spot on? (will go back and check)
Well done on completing your C25K tonight Nyk, much respect :T

Lots of :T tonight :rotfl:I forgot to mention in today's obsessing about the cottage (sorry folks ) that I discovered it has a much larger piece of land with it than we thought. Good in some ways, bad in terms of the price :eek: but if we did manage to get it we could also sell part of it to the other cottage to make some much needed funds :T
Just having a bottle of Cava to celebrate my return to health and all the amazing possibilities I now have in front of me; what an awesome chance at a new life I now find myself with :j
Love to you all (and no, I'm not three sheets to the wind, just really happy!) xx

bails

Morning all, it's moving out day here so lots to do but I'm excited as this means we really are going :j
And I have made it to £1400 in the Dream Pot :jnot the recent £1500 target as the money ran out completely in our joint accounts :rotfl:but still amazing!:T Now if I could just find another £248600 I'd be laughing

Have a lovely day everyone, seems like the monsoons have come to us! We'll be at my parents tonight then Brighton for the weekend but I'm sure I'll get on here to see you all x

ps can anyone help with a decent way of finding out what a property was sold for previously please? I can't find whichever one I used to use and I am getting very random results from the ones I have found! Thanks.

sophiesmum_2

Have a fantastic trip Bails and enjoy every minute and every experience :j:j

Frugaldom

WELL DONE with the dream pot and GOOD LUCK with the move, Bails. Maybe you'll have a windfall and reach your next target - quarter of a million in savings is just something I couldn't even contemplate - I'll be celebrating if I fill my ISA. :rotfl:

First lot of washing is on the line, second lot almost ready to go out. I forgot to switch the hot water heater back onto the timer after last night's power failure, so not hot water this morning but no great loss. Glad I keep the flasks filled, though.

The lightning hitting the cable last night made me think, yet again, about alternatives to electricity. Bottling (or canning) certainly looks the way to go with regards to preserving foods rather than risk losing the entire contents of the freezer, but I'm also thinking of actual baseline costs - is it really cheaper growing and making everything? From an environmental point of view, for us, it means far fewer miles in the car, but it doesn't save us the cost of running a car, as we need one. If HS and DS didn't have one, I would need to go out and buy one. The cost of running it would far outweight anything saved by homegrowing food, that's for sure. It brings me back to the previously discussed subject of shared living environments. I know of several around here, but they're more like hippy communes than shared living for people with regular day to day lives to lead. Is there a happy medium? How many of you know all your near neighbours and can go to any of their houses for a cup of sugar?

Washing's finished, back once it's hanging out, then I'll catch up properly.

Edited in - Bails, is it 5th august you leave and will you have Internet access until then?

bails

Thanks SM, we're not flying til next Friday so I'm sure I'll see you before then The 7th Nyk and I'll have internet access until then, and beyond too hopefully!

I only know one neighbour and I could ask for something if I really needed it. I've definitely found no community spirit in the 2 years I've lived here, it takes a long time to get that it seems which is such a shame.

whitewing

I don't suppose this is very cost-effective, but I thought it'd be interesting for you guys (I would quite like one myself; don't know why really)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1202932/The-high-tech-mini-allotment-Nasa-allows-grow-fruit-veg.html

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

How many of you know all your near neighbours and can go to any of their houses for a cup of sugar?

I don't "know" know my neighbours (we don't visit for a cuppa or anything), but do feel I know them well enough to ask for assistance if required on one side anyway -- and the first house that side has asked for help from me a few times (with house problems or child concerns - they have mixed sex twins who are 15 months old and real cutey pies)

The two houses with lower numbers are actually around the corner from me, and their back gardens back onto the side of my drive/house/back garden. But we do exchange pleasantries and ask about families. I'm actually on a shared driveway with the first two houses on the other side of me, so know them a lot better (and have actually borrowed an egg from next-door-but-one). The next one up again is actually side on across the drive, and I can walk out of my door, past my car, over the width of the shared part of the drive, over a narrow piece of grass and be on their drive -- and this one is also our local vicarage, so they do tend to look out for me these days (have done so since DH was diagnosed with his cancer in Jan '07). I don't think the vicar has more than a few years left until he has to retire though, so remains to be seen what the new one will be like at that point

I also chat to 'the lady of the house' from a couple of properties further up the road - but I've really only got to know them through school (they both have boys who were in the pre-school group I helped out with, and one of them will still be in pre-school when we go back in September).


Weather wise things are awful here, so no washing for me today!! The thunder and lightening kicked in around 11:30 last night. I'm not sure when it let up, but it was looking promising at 4am (don't ask!). However, by 7-ish it was chucking it down, and by about 8 we were back to thunder and lightening!!

I'm making a concerted effort to do some dejunking today, and have already sorted out two fairly big bags of rubbish and a huge pile of cardboard. The card has to be taken to the tip if I want it recycling, so I'll take the rubbish up as well and save the bin for the weekend (elder DS normally half fills it as soon as he gets home by cleaning out his car - and he's due back late tomorrow/early Saturday). Only problem is I'm having to dive out to the car with it between downpours, so not necessarily at the most logical points of the dejunking process :rolleyes2


Off to take the latest pile to the car now, as it sounds like the rain has eased off for a short while..... back here later today

sophiesmum_2

bails wrote: »

Thanks SM, we're not flying til next Friday so I'm sure I'll see you before then The 7th Nyk and I'll have internet access until then, and beyond too hopefully!

I only know one neighbour and I could ask for something if I really needed it. I've definitely found no community spirit in the 2 years I've lived here, it takes a long time to get that it seems which is such a shame.

Ah but I won't have internet access after today/tomorrow morning so didn't want you to go without wishing you a good trip.:p

andan

Hi guys, just popping in to see how everyone is doing. Challenge is going well and i have £2k to last me till the end of the year, so all in all the challenge is going well. I have found that most of my money actually goes on food shopping for the family, but with four mouths to currently feed, the total is doing well. I have also got some fun things thrown in there and obviously all car costs, so am happy with how it is all going and have not found it a struggle at all. Most of Christmas is already paid for and the only last few presents i have to get, are likely to be purchased with tesco clubcard deals, so am feeling confident about things!