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

Frugaldom

Hi guys

I've been spending a FRUGAL FORTUNE today but I think that's all the Christmas shopping done and I stayed within budget! I spent a grand total of £2.49!! :rotfl:£2 on 4 x packs of porridge oats - DS picking them up from C0-0p for me - and 49p on downloading the Peter Kay/Children in Need single. (I went via Martin's new www.tunechecker.com website, thanks Martin.)

I also spotted an unbelievable, once in a lifetime, coincidental Freecycle ad when their updates came through this afternoon. I mean, I was stunned because this is something I had hoped to one day afford to get for a close member of my family but the cost, so far, has been prohibitive. Can't say much about it in case said family member is a lurker here but suffice to say, they're in for a huge surprise at Christmas! But the decluttering Freecycler has got back to me to say yes, I can go collect item. I am OVER THE MOON!:j I'm like the cat that got the cream.

I've updated my signature and have hardly anything left to buy other than top up essential groceries and Christmas dinner. This week's LETS meeting is a mini trade fair and we have someone making beautiful decorative wreaths, so I'm having one for our front door. If I could find a few more free texts (I use the '10 free trexts' available from 02 website) then I wouldn't need to top up mobile until next year. Anything I have left over from budget is going into a Wii fund. I think 3 of us are going to club together 'cos we want Wii Fit!

Blairweech

Nyk - You can send free texts from http://www.sendsmsnow.com/ . You have to sign up, and the text does not come from your phone number but hey, its free and its unlimited! Very pleased for you re:Freecycle find I just got rid of some stuff on there and I love it. Easiest way to declutter ever (it is actually easier than throwing something in the bin cause it is collected from you!)

Shaz - I think that is why uni's are pretty open to mature students, cause they know they work harder! :rotfl:One of the reasons I delayed going to uni is because I knew that at 18, I would not do justice to any university course as I just didn't have the motivation. Would have been a waste of time and money, But now I'm older, I *know* how hard I have to work to get to where I want to be.

Had an accident at work today. Was loading a lorry on one of our little ride on pallet trucks - turned a corner and one of the stabilisers snapped AND it dumped a load of oil at the same time. So, the truck went flying in one direction, I went flying in the other and as a result my left hand side is now blooming into a delightful medley of purple and blue. Was lucky really as could have easily broken ribs or shattered my knee.

Put the chicken carcass in the slow cooker making stock. Have also made meatball pasta bake for dinner tomorrow (sauce in the small slow cooker ). Apart from that, just a regular day

sophiesmum_2

(((Hugs ))) BW, hope you don't wake up in agony tomorrow.

bails

Ouch Blair, hope you feel better soon x

Thanks for the free texts link :T Another Frugem

Great result with Freecycle Nyk; can't wait to find out what it is

Okay, so this is an entirely serious request - would anyone like a free puppy? She is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous and I would love to keep her myself but OH has said no way (we have a 'no more pets rule' if you remember :rolleyes:). I can't find her a home here and cannot BEAR the thought of sending her back to the streets...there are SO many stray dogs here and if she did survive, which is unlikely as she'll probably get torn to pieces by one of the packs, she would then just add to the overpopulation problem I am happy to meet all the costs so please help if you can.

FrankieM

Morning,
blair hope you don't feel too sore this morning.

bailsa puppy...? As much as I love the idea, I think it best if I say no, but I hope you find a good home for it.

Well, shopping/errand day today. I've got a friend coming over at 11am so I'm going to try and pop out early to get things done. I don't have very much that I need grocery wise for this weeks food, which is good cause I don't have much money left!
I think 'challenges' like this and also my personal challenge of not using credit cards makes me realise how much we spend. And probably how much we overspend when using credit cards. I doubt very much whether I would have realised how quickly we are getting through the money otherwise and then just struggled a bit to pay off the credit card on the next pay day. Doing things this way, I can see that I have to tighten up on my food shopping for the rest of the month or I'm going to be in trouble...its all very revealing.

Roast chicken for dinner tonight...yum!

Hope you all have a good day.

lyndasharp

Hi all, I've been reading but not posting as had a busy few days. H2B's sister visited at the last minute and bought her kids too, had a fun time but it's amazing how exhausting one teenager and two nearly teens are!

When I left for work yesterday I let the cat have the run of the house, instead of shutting her downstairs like normal, as she was asleep on our bed and looked too cute to disturb. Got back yesterday to find 4 of the socks that we'd been drying out out in the spare room scattered around the upstairs of the house... I think she has a strange sock fetish, as there was plenty of other washing drying which she'd ignored....

Blair - OW! Glad no serious damage has been done.

Bails - I'd love a puppy but think our cat would eat it, plus H2B is allergic to my Nan's dog. Any photos of the puppy?

bails

Will try and get some photos up soon Lynda. Lol at your cat, the puppy has a sock fetish too, usually when they're on our feet! Thing is, our socks keep going missing in the wash and we didn't bring many so we've now got a serious shortage!

Frugaldom

Blairweech wrote: »

Nyk - You can send free texts from http://www.sendsmsnow.com/ . You have to sign up, and the text does not come from your phone number but hey, its free and its unlimited! Very pleased for you re:Freecycle find I just got rid of some stuff on there and I love it. Easiest way to declutter ever (it is actually easier than throwing something in the bin cause it is collected from you!)

Thanks for this, Blair, I'm still trying to find UK on their drop down menu, though! :rotfl:Hope you are OK after your thrill and spill episode, could have been very nasty!

Bails, won't it cost you a fortune to bring a puppy home, as it'll need all the UK passporting and vaccinations and quarantine? And won't every native in the vicinity start pointing puppies your direction as soon as they find out you're keeping them? :rotfl:Suddenly imagining you arriving home amidst crates and crates of baby animals. Sorry I can't suggest anything constructive., not sure what I'd do with a puppy in your situation. Are there any animal welfare charities in the area?

HS arrived home early hours of this morning, so we'll be back to normal with meals and stuff here. He'll be delighted to know it's back to leftovers and frugalfood after all that time away in a house that dnes almost exclusively on M&S. Could be some culture shock here again soon! :rotfl:Wonder if that also means a fortnight's extra washing going to be draped all over the house?! :eek: Surely not... someone convince me otherwise, please.

Made a pot of soup overnight in slow cooker using the stock I had inadvertently sent round to SM, thinking it was a big tub of frozen margarine! My labelling system is still almost non existent! :rotfl: Lunch is soup, then for dinner/tea, I think it'll be something to do with rice and fish. Also need to get a lift into town to pick up some essentials and collect my Freecycled goodies. DS picked me up some porridge oats yesterday but I think he's been overcharged unless oats have doubled in price over the past month. 97p for a 500g pack? I don't think that can be right when it was only about 47p last time I bought them. :eek:

Edited in - this kind of thing makes me mad - just checked mysupermarket website and can see 1kg bag of A$da porridge oats for 58p! Where is the justice in that? Even if our C0-0p has charged the kilo rate of 97p for the 500g packs by mistake, it's still a massive price difference! :mad: And I'm still mad about the suet prices! LOL Many thanks to SM for bringing me a couple of 77p boxes after I'd been paying £1.21 for exact same thing!

grandma247

The excerpt below was taken from an email I recieved from another group. I thought those of you who keep chickens might be interested.

Giving your chickens warm water will give you a lot more eggs in the winter. My mom taught me this.
The chickens only have so much energy, they can either use it to keep themselves warm OR make eggs. This is why egg production goes down so much when it is winter. Giving our chickens HOT water twice a day in FREEZING Montana DOUBLED our winter egg production. Mom could tell if we even missed one day.
If you only have 6 chickens, get a heated dog water bowl. That should hold enough water for a day for them. I have one for my dog and it holds almost 1 gallon of water. I am thinking it was $20 at Walmart. It does not use a lot of electricity.

shaz_mum_of__2

Nyk you need to click on the left hand side registration button then the uk appears in a different drop down list