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

chika

slowlyfading wrote: »

good morning, and happy december everyone! got my official observation today so I'm really nervous! shall update later, have a good day x x

Good luck! I'm sure you will be fantastic

*Crawls back into the thread...* I've been away for ages it seems. I've been on my final trainee teacher placement and haven't had time to sit still for five minutes. Big sigh of relief that it's all over and I can now concentrate on my dissertation and getting my finances back in order.

Hope everyone is well and life is ok. I'm looking forward to catching up on frugalland and re learning some frugal habits cos mine have gone out of the window. Having no time to do paid work has left my finances in havoc plus some massive bills. Thankfully my dear darling boss has offered my more work so I should be ok.

Has anyone got any amazing ideas for frugal Christmas gifts? I'm seriously contemplating cancelling Christmas until January and just getting token gifts for everyone except the youngsters but I know they will think I'm mean. What to do?

thriftylass

xnatalie81x wrote: »

Well as it was my first year i wasn't even sure if i would be able to save any money so i take my debt payments into my essential income. Now that i know i am capable of saving i will use it towards paying off my debts. I have invested some into my business but this will be paid back over next year.

I officially start my swimming lessons in Jan next year and i am just 8 bookings away from running at optimum (pay me, pool, other teachers, loan etc) so am doing extremely well! I do have to be careful tho as i cannot pay extra onto my debts and then if something goes wrong with car i will not be able to work! Or if an emergency happens i will need to call on this (my son got toxic shock last year b4 xmas and we needed extra money for car park etc so am very wary of having NOTHING to draw on) So, it will be a case of saving and then at the end of 2010 using half of total to pay off debts.(maybe in full and finals.....)

It was my first year on here too. Well done, you really seem to be in control of it all and have the right approach. Congratulations on starting your own business. Hope it all goes well and those last missing bookings came in soon too.

FrankieM

Back from town. Spent £32 in Tesco and £5 in Lidls. A bit more than I would have liked but I'll just have to juggle everything around. As long as I'm on an even keel by January for the new challenge, I'll be happy. I've got some bills for DH's campervan due in by the end of the year too. I've money put aside, hopefully it will be enough.

As far as Christmas is concerned. I have a budget of £5 per person and it tends to be smellies etc that I get as they are people that I 'have' to get something for, so I've learnt to just 'suck it up'. I think there is a Christmas thread somewhere that may give good ideas for those that want to put more effort in.
I was looking around at the price of WII's while I was in town. That's our present this year. It's looking close to £300! I'm sure I have the money stashed away somewhere for it!

I think next year I'm going to try to buy presents with vouchers that I get for surveys etc and any cashback I get.

mooloo Sorry to hear things are so tricky. You are doing a great job, though.

natalie I would love to pay my gas/electric per month. do you have a link or something?

xnatalie81x

[/QUOTE]natalie I would love to pay my gas/electric per month. do you have a link or something?[/QUOTE]

I pay monthly by direct debit but i think i am paying too much as i would rather be over than under! Only prob is it is an estimate............

FrankieM

xnatalie81x wrote: »

natalie I would love to pay my gas/electric per month. do you have a link or something?[/QUOTE]

I pay monthly by direct debit but i think i am paying too much as i would rather be over than under! Only prob is it is an estimate............[/QUOTE]

I do the same. I just liked the idea of paying it each month like any other bill.

bay-tree-cottage

I am all set now for next years challenge. Will adjust totals accordingly. I have just had my first coal delivery and my first tesc* delivery. I decided to stockpile all my usual value items as I had a voucher for delivery. I was a little red faced as the guy explained there was 7 items short and I would be refunded the 49p for the items. He then carried in 11 trays from the van bless him for the grand total of £57.40. The only problem now is I need a bigger bed to put it all under as I have no cupboard space left although i did consider using the dolls house for storage.

bails

nykmedia wrote: »

urgent, like umm... fly out to Nepal and visit Bails to help her solve her dilemma! :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::T

Got my thinking cap properly on today and am happier with my options...will explain more soon but got to go meet OH for dinner. Let's hope I get offered the job so I have the choices to make

Hi to everyone, am reading but snowed under with it all currently. Back more properly soon x

Savvy_sewing

Thanks everyone for the advise, thoughts etc. Cant remember who said what now. Sorry.!:o

I shall be searching the web for as much information as possible. The SWorker is going to be at DD's tomorrow. So I will go over with DGD, and see what she is saying.
Then I will ask her for everything disgussed in writing.
Then I will also ask them to explain in writing the reasons they say no to funding.
I need to get my head around a letter to them with the information I have so far, and ask for a signature from them!!!!
Have just put DGD down in the cot for a rest. Told her Granny needs a rest.
Hopefully she is asleep now. Cannot hear anything anyway. I know that it means that she wont sleep so early, or maybe so long. But the rest is a necessity for me!:D
Mr A has done my delivery. Doesnt seem to be that much more then a shop when I used to live with everyone and it was for a week!. Now its got to last the three of us for a month.! May not manage that. Will have the Healthy start vouchers £3.10 a week. Have 3 of them until the 20th December.
They will buy milk, and fresh vegetables.
Now I am going to see ifthe chicken is cooked, and then I will do my menu plan.

Frugaldom

Good afternoon, is anyone else feeling the cold today? I am FREEZING and just can't seem to get the house to warm up any. It's 13 degrees throughout and that's with 3 storage heaters, an oil filled heater and an electric convector heater. I've held off lighting the coal fire because of the wind and had covered up the fireplace but it's looking like it'll NEED to get lit. I am battling off DGD's cold as I just cannot afford to be laid up in bed for any reason, especially with HS away on hols. The electricity is just going to have to take a hammering, it's already cost over £5 since yesterday. Maybe a hot drink and then bed early would help!

Used up some pasta and cheese sauce for lunch plus had a couple slices of the hm ciabbata bread, it's really tasty! Dinner is going to be a hot curry to see if it'll help fight off the cold and then perhaps I'll indulge in a hot bath before bed to watch a film. How decadent can one get? :rotfl:

Edited in - just been out to shut in all the feathered friends for the night and it is absolutely lashing down and the winds are howling in from the north east! A nice, cosy, cheap to run flat is looking better by the day. I got drenched!

taka

Yep its flipping freezing here too... apparently the max temp today here was 2degC. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! :snow_grin My heating isn't really cutting it today either. :rolleyes:

Right I'm off to brave the cold to put out my recycling rubbish... :eek: Its only at the corner of my street but I'm going out in warm coat, hat, scarf and gloves! :rotfl: