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

andromache_2

Yay new thread! Have been really enjoying reading everyone's news

SM - LOVE the pineapple-upside-down cake; my mum always used to make that for us as a treat when we were little... I should persuade her to make it again Yours looks delicious!

Blairweech - how's the personal statement going? I hate writing stuff like that, it's so difficult! Am in the middle of writing statements and things at the moment for applying for postgraduate funding and I'm not very good at selling myself as I end up feeling silly :rolleyes: Hope you get it done OK!

Lynda - the flowers are gorgeous, well done!

OK, I went back to uni today to start the new academic year (the final year of my degree :eek:). That means a new budget! I've decided that this budget is going to run until my last day of uni in June; I don't know as of yet what I'll be doing next summer so it's too difficult to fit that in. I'm going to set it all out here so that there's a public record which should help keep me on the straight and narrow! I'm going to aim for £3000 excluding:

• rent;
• ball tickets (it's my final year so I don't want to feel bad about spending money on going to balls );
• career-type expenditure (e.g. travel costs for going to work experience, fees for master's applications);
• expenditure related to earning money (e.g. travel costs to work, Amazon postage); and
• contributions for going to the worldwide and European competitions of my hobby as I have no idea how much these will be, though contributions for domestic competitions will be within the budget.

And the £3000 is budgetted thus:
Academic materials: £300 (I study law so lots of expensive textbooks...!)
Food: £350 (veggie so cheap, plus my parents sometimes get me a load of non-perishables at the start of term)
Entertainment: £350 (a tenner a week in termtime and £25 for each of the Christmas and Easter holidays)
Clothes, shoes, etc: £150 (I bought way too many clothes last year so this should be more than adequate!)
Make-up and toiletries: £80
Hairdressing: £100 (making a conscious decision to spend more here)
Gifts: £250 (have cunningly bought nearly all of OH's birthday presents already )
Extra-curricular activities: £250
Travel: £500 (OH doesn't live in either my university city or my home town so lots of to-ing and fro-ing :rolleyes:)
Household: £100 (want to get some nice things for my room to make myself feel more at home)
Health: £100
Mobile: £160 (just signed up for a new 12-month deal at £20 a month with £110 cashback! This is 8 months' worth)
Stationery: £150 (printer cartridges make this expensive)
Bits and pieces: £160

I also have a new budgeting plan, whereby I shall continue to keep a spending diary and pretty spreadsheet and try to be disciplined about that, but I'm also going to start using a different current account from my normal one for challenge spends. I've transferred some money across so that at the moment the contents of that account plus the contents of my purse are exactly £1000 so I should hopefully be able to use this system to help keep a better track of the pennies.

Erm, I haven't done a final summary of last year's spends cos I know I overspent but it wasn't at all bad overall.

Am looking forward to getting stuck into the new year and all my new subjects! The next couple of weeks will be mega expensive as I will have loads of sign-up fees to pay, books to buy, socialising to do with people I haven't seen all summer, and things to get for my room, but hopefully I should be able to recoup all that over the course of the year! At the moment I have no idea if I will have funding for my studies next year or not; if I don't, then the savings I make from this challenge will be very useful in helping me pay for it and achieve my dreams :cool: so I'm feeling especially motivated to succeed.

I shall end this mega-long post and finish unpacking my room! Ta-ra for now

Skint_Lynne

I am quite proud of myself tonight.............

I had no frozen yorkshire puds left today and could not be bothered going out to get them, so I attempted my own again, they usually fail.

Today they worked and they are well better than aunt b's, so hopefully that's me cracked it!!

and DH said they were good as well, usually there is a complaint, but none tonight.:T

A small achievement, but one I am pleased about.

Hope everyone is well, the flowers are gorgeous lynda, well done. xx

sophiesmum_2

Well done on sussing out the puds Lynne, :T feels good when you master something that usually doesn't work out right.

Jen_31

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

I am quite proud of myself tonight.............

I had no frozen yorkshire puds left today and could not be bothered going out to get them, so I attempted my own again, they usually fail.

Today they worked and they are well better than aunt b's, so hopefully that's me cracked it!!

and DH said they were good as well, usually there is a complaint, but none tonight.:T

A small achievement, but one I am pleased about.

Hope everyone is well, the flowers are gorgeous lynda, well done. xx

Just searched for Yorkshire bank and i found this instead

My mum always used to cook her own yorkshire puddings, but recently we have been having getting frozen ones, which i like actually

She uses 4 oz of plain flour, puts it in a mixing bowl after sieving (to put air into the flour). cracks one egg into it, a little mixture of milk and water in a cup, you mix the flour and egg till it's coming together, add a little of the milk/water, then beat, and add milk/water till it's a smooth liqud really, there should be no lumps in it,

she heats the pudding tins with lard in, yes i did say lard, and then heats that, and adds the miture, then cooks till they are brown, and they are nice, i think we she stopped cooking them as i always complained about lard, im trying to modernise her, and she still uses lard in her pastry, and cooking, but i'll get her modernised, we do have oil in the cupboard, i just nudge her now and then towards it :A

oh i forgot to say she usually beats the mixture lots to get air in, and they always rise :j

whitewing

If I make yorkshire puddings, I also fill each space of the muffin tin, cook them all and then freeze the excess. Just reheat in the oven (they're flatter but I don't worry).

Love yorkshire pudding with syrup too sometimes.

Skint_Lynne

I got my recipie from the reader's digest cookbook that I've had for years, it's actually similar to jen's mum's, but no lard is used. The mixture has to rest for a while before cooking, maybe that's the secret?

I am getting into making my own stuff in a big way, mostly influenced by sophiesmum and shaz, our own 2 delias.:A (and grandma makes 3!);)

Here's a quick rundown of my new attempts since joining the thread:

potato scones
yorkshire puds
chocolate slabs
meat loaf
fruit loaf
bread loaf
muffins (the flat ones you get from the baker's)
scones (they did not rise):o
home made spag bol sauce (not dolmi0)
butterfly birthday cake

There's probably some I've forgotten and there's loads more I will try no doubt! I have always enjoyed cooking, but sharing ideas gives me more scope to try new things. Keep the good ideas coming everyones.:beer:

sophiesmum_2

I love all the sharing of ideas, skills and moneysaving tips on this thread, its a sort of mix between OS and DFW, I learn new things all the time on here .

Blairweech

SM - You baking looks so good. Wish I was as clever as you in the kitchen

Andromache - Have got 1500 words so far, so need to lengthen it a bit. I have put my facebook status asking all my friends to write one sentence about how awesome I am and how I would be completely suited to agriculture...have had a few comments suggesting I could be 'part of the herd' :rolleyes: :mad: Which uni are you based at again? You posting your budget is really helpful

Went to see Dorian Gray at the flicks with OH today, and it was very good. Went into town for a bit before it and I didn't buy anything! Didn't even go into TK Maxx *pats self on head* Went to Pizza Hut afterwards too, so that was a nice change

Back to work tomorrow for me, my cough is quite improved (definitely worth having the time off I think), so going to grab a shower and get ready

Oh, I finally had my passport photo done today...I look like I've had a stroke Oh well, at least it is done now, just got to do the form for about 5th time and get it sent off

lyndasharp

Thanks for all the nice comments about the flowers :-)

The whole house smells of vinegar, as we were using up the last of the tomatoes last night to make chutney. It took about 3 hours of simmering to thicken the mixture enough, so maybe that wasn't a good recipe... too much vinegar! We have tomatillo chutney to do tonight, then after we've bought more vinegar (and finished off some more things in jars so we've got some empties to reuse) it'll be pickled beetroot...

I wish my yorkshire puddings worked. For some reason they work in my Dad's oven but not in mine?!?! They make quite good frisbees though :-)

Blairweech, I'm glad your cough is getting better.
Andromache, enjoy the new term back at Uni, your budget looks very impressive - it's about what I was living on as a student 10 years ago (yikes, is it really that long since I started uni - now I feel old)!
Vixstar, I'd always promised myself a painting by a former neighbour called Paul. We lived next door to him until I was 8, and I've never forgotten his amazing oil paintings of ships. I think he moved to Norfolk, but as I can't remember his surname it doesn't really help. Maybe my Dad will remember - it might be nice to have a savings target for something like that when the wedding is over. That's assuming his pictures aren't horribly expensive now, they sold for several hundreds of pounds when I was little.

Frugaldom

Blairweech wrote: »

...Went to see Dorian Gray at the flicks with OH today, and it was very good.

Good morning, I had loads to say to everyone and then I saw this and got completely distracted! :rotfl: Ben Chaplin - need I say more! :rotfl:

Now I'll need to read all the posts again but I do remember how lovely Lynda's flowers looked and how yummy SM's baking looked! Looking forward to trying the cream cheese and to whoever asked, yes, SM is referring to same LETS group as me, so I get to trade for her scrummy produce. :D:D

Back still behaving badly but still managing to see to most of the livestock in the mornings - all except Bailey, the pheasant, as I can't manage to access his run. He gets a long lie until HS appears. :rotfl:

Last night after the cooked chicken I made sweet & sour from lot 1, tonight is lot 2 roast dinner, I've saved lot 3 for a meat pie and I made lot 4 into stock overnight that has now been turned into soup, enough for 2 or 3 meals' worth. My cunning plan is that whatever the food costs me, if I can trade enough home produce to cover the cost in LETS currency, then the grocery budget could, theoretically, become cash neutral in the future. When I make soup, half gets traded to some LETS buddies who now refer to me as LETSMeals on Wheels! :rotfl: I've also baked a 'quick bake' loaf, so all the cooking was done before DD arrived after dropping DGD off at school. She is dragging DS the 55 mile round trip to M0rris0n's with her to do a monthly shop! :rotfl:She knows to pick up flour etc if it's cheap. Keepng my fingers crossed for her as she and SIL are awaiting results of survey on house they are hoping to make an offer on this week. Can't believe I have family old enough and responsible enough to buy property - how old am I? :eek:

Postman brought my invite to receive my free flu jab this morning - I had forgotten that poultry workers are entitled to that! Don't think I'll be accepting, though, as I feel that I'm more likely to catch something whilst visiting a doctor's waiting room than from my chickens.