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

grandma247

Just a thought, if you wait till you need an item for the pantry you could be paying full price whereas if it is something you need that is on offer now and it will keep it would be cheaper to buy it now. Something is only a bargain if you need it/will use it.

Blairweech

DDraig - Buy things now if you would be buying them anyway at some point next year and they are cheaper. BEWARE just buying loads of stuff because its cheap though! Also (this has happened to me on a few occasions) if you buy Christmas presents for next year, there is a chance that the recipient will have already bought it for themselves by the time you get it to them. But things like wrapping paper are always good to buy in the sales (get solid colours so you can use it for other occasions as well )....this is how I've ended up with about 10 rolls of the stuff! Might hire my services out as a gift-wrapper next year....

Went into town and looked in the shops which were open, there were not too many people out to be honest. Bought a couple of presents, and treated myself to a lovely notebook @£6 (still expensive I know, but it was originally £12 :eek:)

I am really beginning to get a book addiction now, bought another one today (The Wonderful Weekend Book @£3.99)

Edit: Had 12 items in my basket @ the Lakeland sale...and did not buy any of them :j. As most of them were gifts, I thought I would leave them because I may not be buying for the same people next year to be honest. Plus, I will have a whole summer available to go to the carboots and charity shops

cw18

Been to see DD and GDs (free buffet tea, plus most of a cheesecake came home with me )....... and am now totally convinced that the time spent clearing the drive this morning was time well spent

Her cul-de-sac (and the last road before I get onto it) was an ice-rink, just like our drive was. I managed to get in OK, but getting out was a nightmare!! I have to start off with a 3-point turn in the (wide) end of the cul-de-sac, but by the time I left two other vehicles were parked up - and I had a couple of moments where the car wouldn't move, and a couple where it started sliding sideways :eek: Having turned it around I then crawled to the first clear road, using just the power from 'idle' and my handbrake....... I really wouldn't have wanted to have to negotiate the same on my drive once I got back

It's also rained again - and I can see the water freezing up on top of all the ice..... so the remaining part of the drive is going to be even worse tomorrow. As long as my back's not suffering from today (and it's not actually raining) I'm almost certainly going to spend an hour or two clearing the next section of the drive in the morning.......

[Deleted User]

I've just totalled up the years finances and have spent £6827.39 of my wages on living costs. :j

This year my rent has been £420 - this is inclusive, for a little bedsit on the south coast, which is the cheapest rent around - having to share a bathroom with seven others may account for the cheapness . I have extra to pay for insurance, telephone, mobile, broadband. Groceries and Toiletries have mostly been bought through vouchers (online questionnaires) or selling stuff at table top sale, eb@y, play.com, music magpie etc. or cashback, b!ng0 etc.

Having lost my job in October, I'm hoping I can be as frugal in 2010, but with £7K of savings this year at least the pressure is off. THANK YOU for the challenge - it's been great

Frugaldom

Hi guys! Hello Hiphouse, welcome to the thread and the challenge, I'm assuming you're one of our participating lurkers. Well done with the savings and good luck for 2010.

Ddraig, I'm going to browse the sales but only for stuff that I know we'll definitely need. My stockpiling of larder & pantry has been a Godsend, as it's meant that I haven't needed to risk going out at all during all the icy weather. Stocking up on the longlife milk, baking ingredients and toilet rolls was probably the best thing I could have done. But I now know that I need to keep more in the emergency supplies category, like salt, after using my back-up supply for the footpath. (Makes note for next winter preparations - stock pile salt & grit from anywhere I can.)

Sales-wise, I just need a couple of fitted sheets, some new pillows, winter wooly socks and some thermal t-shirts. If I can get all of that plus replenish my milk, fresh fruit & veg supplies before New Year, then I'll mark 2009 down as a success. My only 'failure' was in spending £2,368.40 on everything else (after moving house and setting up 'Frugaldom') and only recouping £2,082.05 (£286.35 short of being cash neutral). But I am still amazed that I managed to recoup over £2,000 just in winnings, decluttering sales, gifts, cashback and free scratchcards! :j

I have £127.11 left of my 2009 budget. I'll set aside £10 of that for electricity to see me through New Year, save £17.11 for the grocery top ups and £100 is what I have for my mini-Sales busting challenge to spend on absolutely anything I need or, for that matter, want! :T

savingfortravel

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T Congrats Nyk ! :T:T:T:T

:T:T Congrats Hiphouse too! :T:T
Hoping you stop lurking and post more so we can support you in 2010.

SFT

BigMummaF

Has anyone seen a definitive answer to the problem of clearing one's path of snow & ice? I've always thought that if you left it as is--assuming you can of course!--& a caller slipped, then you could NOT be held accountable for their injuries
Now me muvva has gone back home & is with me sis tomorrow, I can spend some proper time on my figures to start next month with. I want to SIZE=1]finally[/SIZE conquer cash back & understand how it works, & begin reading up on gardening for numpties--oooh!that's a point! I thought I didn't want anything in the sales but will have to investigate planters for sure. My wishes/hopes/plans are to save enough between now & April to visit the rellies in deepest, darkest Scotland & then continue to watch the pennies to enable us to live with relative peace of mind

sophiesmum_2

BMF - At work just before the snow we were issued with instructions for our path/snow clearing. Previous years we have just gone out and chucked grit on our footpath/car park without any incidents whatsoever. This year we were forbidden to do this, we now have to get a contractor with £2,000000 insurance to do it :rolleyes:OR leave it untouched but advise residents by a sign or by word of mouth that the area is slippy - after that it is their own choice to use the path or not.:rolleyes:
Apparently if I grit the path and then someone falls they could sue me personally as I would have contributed to the state of the path

As a result of the above and not being able to get a contractor locally who had any grit available our paths/car park have been horrendous this year and we have had several people fall and injure themselves - you have to wonder where some of the health and safety/compensation culture is going to bring us to :mad:


I have £34.24 left of my budget and nothing important pending so I am off to browse seed mechants with a view to ordering some veggie seeds/onion sets etc for 2010 food production plans.

Frugaldom

Hello, just a quick note because I found a really good quote on page 1 of my new notebook that reminds me why I have NOT to spend my money the way I did previously:

"Poverty is another word for owning a horse..."

but then I found an even better one near the back of the notepad that says,

"A penny saved is a penny you can spend on your next horse"

I guess you could substitute any item at the end of that quote, but I happen to like the word, 'horse'. :rotfl:

I can't decide which to use as my 2010 signature motto! I'm thinking it should be the first one, so I remember how much the beasts have cost me in the past, but I could always substitute 'horse' for 'house' if I used the latter.

Edited in - have visited numerous online sales, filled my basket, gone to checkout, emptied my basket... and still haven't parted with a penny! :rotfl: I'm too addicted to frugality!

sophiesmum_2

Lol - think DD could do with one of thse notebooks Nyk :rotfl:

My budget of £34.24 is now spent on seeds for next years veggies along with another £8 of my xmas money. Now I am impatient to get the snow away and be able to start planting early seedlings:o
I still need to transplant all my fruit bushes, rhubarb crowns and strawberry plant to frugaldom once the frosts clear too