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

looby-loo_2

savingfortravel wrote: »

Thanks Nyk.

Another Quick Question: VAT will rise at the end of Jan? So it would be a good idea to start stockpiling non-perishable non-food items such as washing liquid, toilet roll, toothbrushes and other toiletries?

I suppose it would.

sft

VAT going up 2 1/2 % so as I understand it for every £100 you stockpile you will save £2.50 + any price rises on those goods. Would you get more from the building society? That is what I'm asking myself

Just a reminder whilst out there planting the garlic (sorry if alread mentioned) :-

There is still just time to plant Japanese onions and Aquadulce Broad Beans
Just rake a strip of ground and push the onions into the soil so that just the top of the tip shows. If there are pigeons cover with some netting of fleece until they have roots as they like to peck them out and you have to keep putting them back! They root now and swell up in the late spring providing an early crop of onions in April - June, before the main crop is ready.
Plant the beans 5cm / 2" deep in a row. They will soon sprout and may need protection from mice but I don't find they need much protection from anything. The little plant will grow to about 5cm / 2" high then once the ground is frosty and cold they don't do much until it warms in the spring. They then have a head start on the spring sown varieties so you get a crop in early June. (Remember, it must be Aquadulce to over winter)

cw18

not going up 2.5% in terms of prices.

of each £100 you currently spend on a VATable item, only £86.96 is the cost of the goods and the other £13.04 is VAT. So once it goes back to 17.5%, then goods of £89.96 (pre-vat) will cost £102.18. So a 2.18% increase in price including VAT

cw18

Spreadsheet Alert !!!

I know a few people were interested in getting hold of a 'blank' of my spreadsheet, and I've just finished getting it ready (hopefully bug free, but not 100% guaranteed - though I'm planning to be around all 2010 to provide support for it if needed )

If you want a copy can you please [EMAIL="cw18@live.co.uk"]e-mail me[/EMAIL]. This serves two purposes.....

Firstly, my PM box is a bit full :eek:
Secondly, I'll need your e-mail address to send the spreadsheet to you - so if you e-mail me I'll have it to hand

I've saved it out using backwards compatibility, so it should work in any version of Excel from Excel 97 onwards. It's given me a couple of warnings about possibly 'iffy' formulas and formatting, but the former still look good to me and I can't spot the latter.......

I run Excel 2007, so if you have that (and would prefer a version in that format) please mention it when you email me


I've also included a new 'first page' within the spreadsheet which contains some basic instructions on how to use the rest of the s/sheet in case it's not self-explanatory to anyone


I'm out most of Monday and Wednesday (school in morning, work in the afternoon - but a breather for lunch between) and even more of Tuesday (work), but will aim to respond to e-mail requests as soon as I can

FrankieM

Morning
Home blessing hour today. And it sure needs blessing. Its such a mess on a Monday, after the weekend. I also need to hammerite the campervan floor.
DD2 has the dentist this morning, so will try to get housework done before she goes.

Also need to clean and tidy the fridge and get stuff in the freezer, use up leftovers etc. Apart from that it should be a quiet day.
cw Is your spredsheet one of those that you fill in you go?

cw18

FrankieM wrote: »

cw Is your spredsheet one of those that you fill in you go?

yes. I can fill in details of Diirect Debits whenever I like in the month, but I try and complete other spends such as petrol, dog expenses, present buying, and (especially) groceries on a daily basis (if I've actually spent anything).

It can be updated less frequently if you're good about not losing receipts, but I find it takes me a couple of minutes a time done on a daily basis, or a minimum of half an hour a time if done once a week (due to knowing I've missed something and having to hunt out details) :eek:

FrankieM

cwSorry, I hope you don't mind another question...can you put your spends in categories so you can see what you're spending in each area?

cw18

I have it split so that each month has 4 pages, which all feed into a single 'Totals' page. On the 'Totals' page you see what you've spent for each category on a month-by-month basis as well as a year-to-date total for each category and as a total spend

First is 'regular', which includes Direct Debits and also things like dog expenses, presents and petrol (but I've tweaked it, so that when you change a category heading on the annual totals page it filters through to all the monthly pages - so easy for everyone to set up their own categories)

Second is groceries (broken down as detailed as you like - one line per shop, or one line per item bought)

Third is Toiletries and Cleaning (I don't include these in Groceries, but you could do so and then ignore this page or utilise it for something else)

Fourth is 'Everything Else/Other', which I use for CDs, DVDs, clothes, household bits and pieces - but again you could use for whatever you wanted

xnatalie81x

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/user/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.png[/IMG]

mummy did really well with her pups last night but heating is on againg for them - what do you think is a min temp to keep the rooms at for her to keep pups warm! Had to entice her out to the toilet with some left over ham from party last night - MIL sent us home with party food last night so going to plan some lunches and the like around it lol.

Right off to do school run - see you all soon xx

XSpender

Morning

Just to add my 2 pennys worth to the 'where should the thread be' debate.....I do not think that the 'how much you have saved' forum is appropriate for this challenge. I didn't even know there was such a thing tbh. I would never have found this thread if it had been located there as I only visit DFW and OS.

I have joined this challenge so that I can adopt more OS ways to save money and stick to a budget and change the spending habits that got us up to our eyes in debt in the first place. Any money I save is an added bonus but not the focus of the challenge, nor do I particularly want to share the figure in my savings account with everyone as I do not think this is of any benefit to me or to the rest of the people on the thread as everyone's income and outgoings and therefore surplus will be different and it is not a competion to save the most money.

My first choice would be OS followed by DFW or, as suggested by The Cat,a new challenges thread.


I have started my December trial run and the recording of all spends is going well it is the spending itself that needs to be reigned in.:rolleyes:

I am off work this week so lots of organising, batch cooking and OStyling to be done in preperation for the 1st Jan and the 2010 challenge.

XS x

Frugaldom

Good morning

Monday is meter reading day for me, so that's done and the figures loaded into the imeasure website for comparison on the moneysaving expert carbon club. I help keep the national average up, so others have the chance of getting better scores. Temperature here has dropped considerably and the logs are taking ages to dry out after all the rain we've had. I guess the electricity will take a hammering from now until about next May. The joys of the countryside, eh?

Once again, on the subject of where next year's challenge thread is located, the terms & conditions for using these free forums clearly indicate that any decisions taken by MSE or their representatives are final. Section 9.6 states that, "If you disagree with a decision of a Forum Team member, you should email your appeal to [EMAIL="webmaster@moneysavingexpert.com"]webmaster@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]. You must not use the chat forum to argue any decision of our Forum Team."
So, you see, like it or not, we can't argue the case on here or we run the risk of having the thread stopped completely.

Looking for suggestions/help now. We don't have a 3 piece suite, only a bed settee, but it's of the heavy wooden futon style. It's great for sleeping on but it's useless for sitting on as a couch because it's so uncomfortable. I was thinking that if I could somehow adapt it to make it more user friendly, then we'd have a couch for sitting on whilst veggie out in front of the fire to watch a film. Has anyone any ideas where I could get thick foam for making cushions or any other ideas about how I could upholster a pine fouton without affecting its use as a bed? It doesn't have to look good, as I'll be using a thick throw or duvet over the top. Oh, and it needs to fit in with my budget.