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

Frugaldom

BigMumma, I have salad leaves growing NOW, you can plant them all year round in an insulated tub as long as it has drainage holes and a cover to protect it from frost. Here's how my latest batch is looking at the moment



I have mine in one of those plastic stacking boxes with holes in the bottom and I have a thick plastic bag over the top. Just point it at the sun and the leaves will grow in winter. Next one due done is garlic.

Brighton_belle

Bigmama -My OH works on 3 days a week doing hard physical labour: it really does affect the food budget doesn't it.
I guess we all are still tweaking our budget needs all the time. Hopefully, you will gradually be moving on the right direction.

A quiet day for me mosaic making. Determined to finish a clock this week. So I can get cracking on making a few xmas pressies.

Off to @sd^'s soon for the main monthly shop, except for meat which we get at the butchers.
Bails - yes it is what you are thinking, though i am doing it to be one step ahead of the game. And 12 days would seem a very long time to me too.

I'm not sure there will be many/any kids out trick or treating tonight, the weather is pretty vile and there isn't the large gang of kids in the street there has been the last few years. Saves my OH preparing the vats of boiling oil...:rotfl:
edaniels - welcome to our lovely thread:T. You are now [STRIKE]incarcerated [/STRIKE]a fully fledged member you know, no backing out now:D. Many of us started with a mini practice run, building up gradually at a pace we could cope with and still learning all the time.

Weather due to be very bad tomorrow so a quiet day in for me, hopefully doing more mosaic work as OH visits his parents and does some conservation work.

Aril - weldone on the frugal halloween treats:T
Nyk - re the 'where this thread should be': I haven't a clue where is is now so makes no difference to me - it comes up as my home page whenever I log on... but your reasoning i sound and I don't get the impression that most members are doing it becasue of debt, but as a lifestyle choice to maximise what we do have to have the life we want and not wanting to be wasteful.

SL - if someone else in the shop said she asked for it, then you were very provoked clearly. Hope you feel more rested today. It is good to know we can shove to the front at the frugathering if anything untoward happens:D
BW - enjoy your much needed break. Is the A&L not an internet banking offer this year? I signed up last year with their £100 offer and havereally benefitted from using them as a separate bills account - they transfered the ddm's as they said they would and it has helped me mamange my money a little better.

sft -your trip sounded lovely: I always enjoy hearing about your expoits with mr sft. And your:T dad is a star.

cheerfulness4

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Cheerfulness - I love your avatar, makes me laugh.

I chose it because it so closely resembles me.

Actually, speaking of avatars, don't know how long I've spent going googly eyed watching that little fish and trying to decide if he's swimming clockwise or anti-clockwise. Blink and he changes direction!

Grandama247 - I have been trying to hold the hook like the videos so maybe you have something there. I'm on with knitting a quick cardi at the moment as its getting nippy but then I'm back to trying again with my crochet attempts. I'm determined to have cracked it by the end of the year!

NYK - do you keep your salad leaves outdoors under plastic or in a greenhouse. I've a cold greenhouse so I could try in there. I'd love to keep my growing season going.


Just been in Tesco this evening where I spotted a little green witch carrying, not a broomstick, but a plastic machine gun. Now I wonder what she planned to do with that? :rolleyes:
Not too menacing as she was screaming the shop down, announcing to anyone that would listen that she needed a wee.

cw18

End of another month, so time to 'freeze' my spreadsheet again



Some categories may still need some final tweaking - the main one being the 'dog expenses'. As I'm now having to add veg to the larger dogs diet, I don't actually have enough left to buy another bag of his specialist food (which will definitely be needed before the end of the year). I should have a better feel for how much the additional veg is costing me by the end of November, so will tweak that one then. (I may also need to get some more in for the little dog, but going to leave any adjustments to allow for that until I actually need - ie. around Christmas!)

Toiletries/Cleaning is 'in debt' for now (hope to balance by year end), but only 'cos I stocked up on toilet cleaner, washing powder, multi-surface cleaner, washing up liquid and cream cleaner in the C00p's closing down sale. With what I already had 'in stock' (mainly washing up liquid and washing powder) I probably have enough in to see me right through to the end of 2010 now

I do have St@rdrops and Soapnuts in the house, but still prefer my 'originals' (which are Ec0ver or store own brand equivalent, and everything I bought is one or the other of those).

I'm slighly 'in credit' with my groceries, but this budget (and my meal plan) could be all change again next week - depending on the outcome of job interviews. I was told on Friday that interviewees would get a phone call on Monday, but DS was told today it'll be either Monday or Tuesday. Given DD will have to have alternative child-care in place by end of school Wednesday if I've been lucky, this could be cutting it terribly fine

Skint_Lynne

Hi everyone,

I've had a much quieter and serene day today, no fighting at all.;) I done some batch cooking instead, so have some chilli and some steak and kidney pie filling. I also cooked 2 chickens and some baked potatoes at the same time, so I'm quite pleased with myself.

I didn't get one child at the door for halloween. I did buy some goodies just in case, but I think times are changing so much that people tend to have parties for the kids nowadays as to be honest, you just do not know who is going to answer the door.

It's so sad, but just a sign of the times. I wouldn't fancy a wee one trialing around in the dark, so you can't blame people really.

I'm just going to strain my chicken stock now and then I suppose I'd better speak to DH for a wee while.:rolleyes: It's difficult to talk to him at the best of times, but more so on a Saturday night.

Will check in later. xx

Blairweech

SL - My parents and I were discussing that at dinner, all the kids had their parents with them -though that could have just been to carry the seemingly bottomless sweet bags they all had!

Nyk - I think that is a good idea putting the thread on Old Style, it will probably get a much wider audience.

BB - Thanks for the info about the A&L account, did not know it was internet only, but that is a good idea to use it just for bills. The bank I currently bank with have a £50 bonus for switching to them, so I wonder if I switch to A&L and get the £100, then switch back I will get another £50...?

Had a lovely chilled out day today - done loads of washing (I brought all mine up, like a good daughter ), and my Dad and I carved the pumpkin. I made a special box for the sweets, which you could hide your hand in then pop it up to scare the little darlings . Much more genteel than my brother, who used to hide behind the hedge and squirt the poor kids with the hosepipe on the way out! :rotfl:

Don't know if it is just me being an old grump but the kids this year seemed to miss the whole point of Halloween - ask for a trick, they say they haven't got one, ask for a treat and you don't get much better! Not that I know where the tradition came from in the first place, or what it is to do with giving out sweets

Anyway -in a bizarre incident, whenI was on my way out with the pumpkin, I almost stepped on not one but two frogs We don't live near any water, so I have no idea where they came from! Most strange, especially tonight of all nights!

Am going to see my friend tomorrow, until Tuesday - have decided to go on the train to save worrying about the car - £88 for a return ticket!!!! I almost fainted. My £100 'miscellaneous' budget will not go very far this month then :rolleyes: Will be going to the carboot with Mum in the morning.

So, I shall catch up in a couple of days!

Brighton_belle

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

Actually, speaking of avatars, don't know how long I've spent going googly eyed watching that little fish and trying to decide if he's swimming clockwise or anti-clockwise. Blink and he changes direction!

Hahaha - a metaphor for my life cheerfulness

BW - sorry, I may have mislead you - i mearly meant that last year it was only on an internet account so check it is not the same this year if you plan to drop into a branch.

Well done on your figure work cheryl. I'm a bit behind on filling mine in.

OH picked up a bag of apple donuts at @sd^ reduced to 14p

bails

nykmedia wrote: »

please transfer the funds for your free scratchies to somewhere safe.

I always transfer them straight out Nyk but couldn't for some reason this time so will need to look up what the error code means and if I can't resolve it give them a ring.

I'm happy to have the thread wherever too - in OS everyone, those in debt or not, can find us. We definitely fit on OS that's for sure!

Aril, thanks for the link,another thread to tap ideas from :T

Cheryl, I knew I'd forgotten something the other day Great news about the interview going well, hope you hear something positive back soon!

BigMummaF wrote: »

I've now committed herbiside on at least seven occasions

:rotfl: Don't worry BMF, we'll remind you to grow the easy stuff! I need to grow lots next year too so will also appreciate some prodding
Nyk, great news about growing salad leaves all year round! If you'll allow me, I'll be hoping to pick your brains, along with all the other 'growers', for my project soon. Details to follow

Blairweech wrote: »

SL
Am going to see my friend tomorrow, until Tuesday - have decided to go on the train to save worrying about the car - £88 for a return ticket!!!!

Train tickets will be one of the :eek: parts of my budget next year - I'm determined to see more of my friends now I'm better but they live so far away! Will be doing everything I can to keep the costs down - booking early, separate tickets etc - but won't be sacrificing the trips as friends are so important. And one of my best friends will be about to pop when I get back so first stop is seeing her :j

Have a great time with your friend BW and at the car boot - I love car boots! :T

So OH just left I almost cried afterwards but instead sat down and wrote a long list of all the things I can do while he's away - I'm on the 3rd page so far Catching up with you lovely peeps was on there, so *tick*

Have a great first day of the month everyone, hope you save/make some money! I'm going to see how much extra I can make in the 12 days OH is away (it won't be much due to my location but every little helps), anyone care to join me in a mini challenge? And on that note, are double scratchcards still only on Sundays? (that's today peeps!)
and ps, just to let you know, there won't be any frugal babies from this end of Frugonia for a while yet Phew, I want that job!!

Frugaldom

Good morning all

OS thread we'll be for 2010, now that I've got around to accepting the fact that so many people see it as OLD style when it's not old to me. I still prefer to think of housekeeping as 'normal' and use traditional methods of managing it all.

I think today's watchword will be 'floding' as it's still pouring rain here with puddles getting bigger and bigger and then joining up to form even bigger puddles! At least we got a few hours of dry weather yesterday, so the washing got line dried.

1st November and guess what? NO HEATING REQUIRED! OK, so I know I don't actually HAVE central heating but all the fleece hanging, curtain making and bubblewrap fixing means that the log fire is enough to keep us warm whilst weather is so mild. That, in turn, means that the electricity underspend can transfer to the grocery budget if/when that runs out - yeah! We can buy a turkey! Surprisingly, despite where we stay, I have never heard of any turkey suppliers, let alone manage to acquire one via LETS. I seriously considered rearing a couple here but it wasn't to be... nobody would have the heart to 'do the dirty deed' and have them prepared for Christmas.

Egg count is dropping by the day. Roll on winter equinox so our feathered friends begin getting back into production. At this rate we'll be sharing a boiled duck egg among 3 rather than trading in lemon curd & quiche.

End of month figures: I haven't done a full breakdown but I have £1030.14 left from my original £4000, so am ahead of the game overall. However, I've overspent on groceries as a result of starting and adopting the stockpiling method and I've saved a fortune on electricity so far, hopefully by introducing all the new insulation/draught exclusion tricks I picked up from MSE this year. I had budgeted for £100 per month average but have managed to keep this down to £79 per month despite frost lasting until mid May and the first frosts of the year have already touched down mid October. Hopefully, this mild weather will continue and delay the switching on of the storage heaters a while longer.

Hope everyone has a good day

Frugaldom

Sorry, I forgot to say - my salad leaves tub is outside. It grew successfully outside the back door all last winter, with it facing a southerly direction. This year, I'm going to move it into the new greenhouse.