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

thriftylass

Mooloo, you can do it. I hope that mad person leaves you in peace soon and then your motivation and focus should be back in no time.
Nyk, well done on passing your exam.

:TWoohoo new thread, :eek: last quarter of the year already.

This month I was expecting some backpay (half years worth of pay increment) form two years ago that they missed giving me. But I forgot to sent off the acceptance letter, doh. So hopefully will get it next month.

Not done too bad this month, stayed within my £500 limit that I set to make my total budget of 7K. Here are my numbers:

Total £483
leccy £30
Food and HH £130
other £283 (wedding, crafts, dentist going out, clothes etc.) :rolleyes:
mobile and other bills £37

Frugaldom

Good morning frugal friends and welcome to OCTOBER!

Fine day here, so the washing is on and last night's foraging haul is now simmering in the pan to make my final lot of hedgerow jelly for this year. Slim pickings, but we got enough for a couple of large jars, I hope.

Temperature in here is 14 degrees, all the windows are condensated despite the dehumidifier being on and relative humidity is at 78%, so I'm hoping there'll be a breeze outside to help dry the washing.

This is also the first day of my monitoring what I eat against how many hours I spend sitting at a desk! I've joined the diet thread and want to shift the 2 stone I have gained since quitting smoking almost 2 years ago. I do still indulge in the habit at special celebrations and get togethers but I have been very insistent in saving my £1.35 per day since January 1st 2008.



Main aims for final quarter of 2009:

1. Succeed in this challenge
2. Get my passport
3. Lose some weight
4. Go visit family for a few days
5. Get back out running (ankle seems fine after jogging last night)

Mooloo, if frugalising is something that you really want to do then the penny will drop one day, it just takes time to sift through all your needs and wants, get them into the right order and then stick with the budget. However, once things do fall into place, you'll be amazed at how simple life can be and wonder at your own ability to have got into any financial difficulties in the first place. That's how I feel anout it, anyway. Hindsight isn't so useless when it can be used to help others, so take a few more baby steps before getting into the full swing of frugal living. Perhaps your DDs' budgets need sorting out more than yours at the moment, as it seems to be those family-associated costs like the car/travel that are scuppering your own plans. As for the death-threat woman, I hope you reported her to the police. I'm guessing she was a friend with a serious problem, as she had all your mobile numbers in the first place, but I wouldn't let that stop me reporting her.

Re the environmental health food safety Level 2 certificate - I wouldn't really class it as an exam, it was more of a half hour multi-choice that looked almost impossible for anyone to fail. It took a couple of hours in total to read all the notes, do the practice questions, take the test and find out my score. To be hinest, I thought I was still on the practice run and only realised I wasn't when I ticked a wrong box and tried to go back to correct it! :rolleyes: You can even get £5 cashback if you pay for it online. :rotfl: My last employer paid for my Health and Safety certificate, this Food Hygiene one cost me £25 + VAT, which came from my quit smoking savings. SM, I opted for the Manufacturing one rather than the Catering one but I'll bet they are both pretty much the sane despite the option being there to do both.

cw18

Morning all.....

Won't be around much at the weekend, as I'm off to a 24 hour scrap-booking get-together (crop) from Saturday morning..... it's a fund-raiser for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Still need to get ready for it, which starts with doing a food shop today (so DS has a pizza in for Saturday, and I have everything I need until at least Monday. Actually plan to try and get all the frozen stuff I need for the month from Mr T, but will have to spend an hour or so re-jigging my freezers before going to see if I actually have enough space :rolleyes2

I got several £4 off £40 spend with my last Clubc@rd statement - but haven't managed to use any yet (despite them expiring) as I've just not needed/wanted/been able to afford anything. Have made a list for today (which includes £5.90 of stuff for DD), and I'm still only at £29.92 even if I make room for everything - so it looks like I won't manage to use ANY of them as I really can't think of another £11+ of stuff I actually need in the next 6-8 weeks (Other than Novembers frozen stuff that is, which I don't have space for!!)

Frugaldom

CW, you could always join me in a 'don't buy anything except milk and direst essentials' in a bid to use up what's in stock. Yesterday, I made HS and I 'pizza' from thick slices of homemade bread. I mixed some tomato puree with a sachet of spicy tomato and herb sauce (bulk bought from App F00d a while back) then spread it over the bread, added some chicken (defrosted from freezer) and then grated cheese - popped in oven/under grill and it was delicious. I really surprised myself more than anyone and will certainly be making it again. Who needs pizza bases? Have fun this weekend.

lyndasharp

Mooloo, I hope everything gets sorted out soon xx

Having done my finance updates, I should have £3000 for the rest of the year, but I actually have £3600, so doing OK at the moment. Things like heating bills etc will be a bit higher in winter, and my car insurance is due in December, so I'm still going to be keeping a very close watch on the budgeting! I'm just debating whether to get a shed with the surplus money, it looks like I can get a small one for £100 or so....

MrDT

Hello!

Been a long time missing from the challenge thread, but I've still been recording my figures and trying to keep spends down. I've been a bit busy recently and haven't got the time read back over the past 3 months sorry, I'll try to keep up better for this final stretch, try to read a little bit every day!

I'm not counting rent, council tax, water, or car costs in my challenge. So far this year I've spent £3,115.55 on stuff that does count. Having reviewed my budget, £4,000 just won't be enough to cover everything, especially as Christmas is yet to come!

I've made £932.75 so far this year in extra earnings, so that will more than offset the difference between £4,000 and my new budget of £4,400.

I have actually made a fair bit more than £932.75 extra earnings as I get paid a decent milage allowance when travelling by car for work, but I'm not counting this 'profit' here as I think it would be a bit unfair to do so - I don't count car related 'costs' in the challenge, so don't think I should count car related 'bonuses' either. I do hope to cover enough work milage to offset the cost of my car insurance and tax for the year, in addition to the fuel used on these journeys, but that has nothing to do with this challenge really.

Anyway, three months to go, hope you're all doing well and I look forward to stumbling across some familiar faces (well, err, avatars) even if you've all forgotten me

Savvy_sewing

I havent heard any more from the "mad" woman, or the police. I did go to the police, as it was such a bombardment. She had my number because one of the twins had once run out of credit and rang me from her phone.! But she is very devious that when I changed twin1's chip on Monday, she had got the number off of twin2 before I could get amessage across to her not to.
I have bought us all new sim cards, and a new family package, so DS, both twins and I can be intouch for £7 a month. They can call each other or me, as much as they like. Its all in that package. I just need to set up my new phone, as my phone is falling apart., so as mentioned earlier, I had bought a cheap phone.
(before realising that the Child benefit, and the CSA had stopped being paid).
I am feeling a little calmer, as Child benefit are going to sort it out. Lets hope that it is sooner rather then later.
Anyway, I am going to try and enter everything on the Microsoft Money programme that my Dad had loaded onto the laptop when I first got it. 2 years ago or so.
Thanks everyone for the motivational help.
I am going to sit back, have my lunch now, and revamp the menu plan for the next few weeks. Then I will have to go and get DS from College.

shaz_mum_of__2

Hiya all

Nyk i will join you in the buy nothing but essentials challenge as i need to make space in the freezer for the lamb and pork at the end of the month:o

Made a start already had whoopsied quiche last night and today it's liver and sausage in the slowcooker bought whoopsied(well the sausages were) and frozen

might get a cake made too later........... a nice award winning fruit cake;)

Not doing any more Uni reading cos my brain hurts off to knit instead while i cogitate!

cw18

Not sure I can join the 'buy only essentials' thing, as I managed to make the £40 spend this morning...... but only by bulk buying things I'll need both this month and later in the year !!!

Total came to £40.30, so I scraped in to use the voucher. Thought it would be more than that, and on arriving home and keying everything into my spreadsheet have realised the spuds were 9p cheaper than shelf ticket - on offer on their website - and that she managed to miss scanning 2 x 42p packs of cooked ham

After deducting the £4 voucher, my share of the bill was £30.40

I also picked up a loaf of bread and some wholemeal bread rolls from Mr M on the way back (both on half price or less offers). And some dried Cranberries from Q/Save (went there for freezer bags which I also picked up), so I want to try making some Cranberry Muffins next week.......

I still need to pick up some milk later (A1di), and while getting that will check if the cheap Neopolitan ice-cream is in stock (DS finished the last lot a couple of days ago!)


Sorted my freezers before going shopping (took me 2 hours!), so the drawers are now organised such that I have one for veg, 1 for meal portions, 1 for soups and pies, 1 for bread & pastry products, 1 for pasta and pasta sauces, 2 for meat and fish and 2 that are still a bit of a jumble !!! I also have a fast freeze section with ice cream, ice lollies, chicken and stock, and todays freezer purchases (the latter can then move into the correct drawer as soon as I have space). Seriously hoping this makes it easier (and quicker!) to locate things I want out on a daily basis Up until now most drawers have been a jumble of everything, as I've just shoved things in wherever there was space and never sorted it out when I've defrosted/done a stock take :eek:

Frugaldom

Hi MrDT, nice to see you back. Will there be any more winemaking this year? Wondered that when I saw all the elderberries hanging from the trees.


Shaz, thanks for joining me in my food challenge. Not buying anything should help with my portion control weight loss plan, too Lunchtime was just a sandwich, tea time will be spag bol defrosted from freezer. I'm tempted to try out the pasta machine for that but am in the middle of hedgerow jelly making at the moment.

SM - all ok with you? Haven't seen any signs of you today.