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

Brighton_belle

Gosh mooloo: respect. It is going to be tough but ds is going to have to learn that he pays for food and board 1st and posh bikes 2nd. It's fantastic though that he has been offered an apprecticeship:T:TWell done him. I have no useful advice to offer but am so glad you have many on here who do have the expertise to offer. You have the support of many people here and I for one look forward to seeing you succeed next year in coping with a very very difficult situation.
Is there any chance of asking your landlord to change the switch to a timer one? Good long term tenants are worth there weight in gold and if you can show that doing this will help you manage and stay on the house, then that will save them money having to look for someone else for a long time.

Welcome ches - sounds s great decsion to come and join us. Post as much as ou can, even if you slip off the wagon, we will help you climb back on.
Not much happening here - got wiped out by the swine flu jab for 24 hrs and have decided to take it easy today too. Odd bits of left over chicken in the freezer in slow cooker with HM curry sauce.

Lodger away so having a heating free weekend. Howling winds and tipping rain here today

the_cat

:hello::hello::hello::hello:Hi everyone

Back home from yet more digging at the allotment. It's like weeding the Forth Bridge so far, but I'm hoping that it will be worth it for some lovely fresh produce later in the year

Have managed to get hold of a big diary from poundland as a spending diary and have been fiddling about with my figures for next year. Managed to win £25 on bingo (free play) and £10 on the lottery (OH did, but he gave me the winnings) this week. Will be visiting rellies in Spain next year so have set myself a mini challenge of getting the spending money together through 'extra' cash

Mooloo when I see what you are managing on I can't help but feel slightly ashamed of my much bigger target - you are doing a fab job in very trying circumstances. In one house we used to own, we had a plug in timer which we put on the hot water system. I am sure you have thought of one and it isn't suitable but thought I'd say, just in case. Can't offer any other advice, as you are obviously much much better at this already than I am, so offer a hug instead!

No other news so just a :hello: to everyone else

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone

I want to be part of the challenge again next year... Its harder this year as DH is self employed now, dont know what to set as the challenge figure. Was tempted to do an 'all-in' figure.... but mortgage and council tax figures SO high, maybe abit depressing. Not sure, will have a look and a jiggle about with the figures.

Daisy is getting more fun every day... just learnt how to open the cupboard doors in the lounge, and bang them! Everything has turned into a drum in this house :rolleyes::D frugal entertainment so I mustn't moan I suppose.

Hope everyones ok xx

Skint_Lynne

Good afternoon everyone,

I have had a lazy/productive day. I have taken it easy, but started my decluttering as well. I hoovered my hall and stairs, washed my front door, threw out and washed in 2 kitchen cupboards, I have had an interior shelf made for 1 of the kitchen cupboards, but will need to get other wee shelf holders as the ones I got are too thick, cleaned out and threw rubbish out of my back of house glory hole big cupboard, fixed out all of my work stuff, put this all onto a big shelf I have, moved all of my roasting pans/big dishes etc off of this in preperation for move into new handy kitchen cupboard.

It looks a lot when it is written down, but I've barely scratched the surface. I'll try and do something every day, even if it is just a very small thing, it all helps.

I'm going for a wash, then back to b & q, to get the right wee guys for my shelf. Will check in later. xx

redglass_2

Mooloo, do you have an immersion heater? You might be able to turn down the thermostat so it won't matter so much if you leave it on. Some thermostats live in a thing like a tuna tin on the outside of the immersion tank. Turn off the power first (!) then unscrew the tuna tin from the tank and fiddle with the regulator inside (mine looks like an arrow made of red plastic). Sorry if this is no use to you, but thought it was worth suggesting as I cut my bill right down this way.

Hello to all, I've been away for ages and haven't been as frugal as I should, but I'm still loads better than I used to be. Just thought I'd pop in, as it were. Nice to see all the old names and a few new ones too! My allotment made a good start this year and I'm still eating stuff I preserved/froze from the summer. I never did meet Poundwoman but I live in hope...

savingfortravel

Mooloo-As others have said, we are all here for you. Please don't worry.
Just take things one step at a time. Maybe making small improvements, you mentioned batch cooking, is the way forward.
Ddraig-Congrats on the win.
Ended up making a spicy potato soup* yesterday to eat with left over garlic bread. But have cut and paste other super suggestions for another day. It was sooooo cheap to make and it felt good using things up. Had to pop into Mr T later as we'd run out of potatoes (may not have done if I'd remembered it was non-spend day..ho hum). Dad might beable to pick some more potatoes up from a farm shop..you know the proper, straight from the field in a great big farm bag and last for ages type.

Feel quite chilled out but not looking forward to school as have felt a huge amount of emotional stress there over the last few weeks. No issues directly involve me but I have been a source of support for everyone. Started to feel it on Wed of last week and on Fri I looked shocking as all the stress came out on my face and lips :eek:(sorry to share this but got to tell someone).

Well in my hamlet- the weather has changed from sunshine with strong winds to horrid rain with strong winds to clouds with strong winds. So just went for a quick walk along the lane to blow away those cobwebs.
Working through my to-do list and quite pleased with what I've achieved so far. Just 3 more things until its my time...:T Then I'm going to read a chapter of my book and try and start meal planning for December.

Shame I can't just retire from school and pursue a more agreeable life style now..still by 2013, if things go to plan, I should at least be able to start proceeding along that route.

sorry to ramble

sft

cw18

Mooloo - my first house had an electric immersion heater. There was no heating (other than a single gas fire) when I moved in, so I had storage heaters installed in the bedrooms (which meant Economy 7 meters went in at the same time). I had the same problem as you, in that I'd flick on the immersion and forget to turn it off - so I bought myself a kitchen timer that went up to 60 mins (as best I recall) and set that going whenever I turned on the water heater.

I admit I then sometimes went out before the timer went off, so it didn't always mean it was only on for a 'short' time - but it certainly brought down the cost a lot

The other alternative I had (which I guess isn't as likely to be an option for you in a rental) was to get an electrician in to install a timer into the system. It was hard-wired into the wall (rather than on a plug), so wasn't something I could do myself. In the end I decided against doing that as I'd have had to find the money to pay the electrician in one go, and was on my own with a young child and a hefty (compared to my salary) mortgage as interest rates had just shot up !!! But perhaps you could approach your landlord / letting agency to see if it's something they might be prepared to do as an improvement to the property

looby-loo_2

Just a little thought for Mooloo. The water is colder at this time of year. I fill a big plastic bottle last thing at night. It warms up to room temperature. I use this for my tea so I'm not boiling it from nearly freezing. In the week when I'm working and on Sat and Sun mornings I run one bowl of really hot water and keep using it. I can usually get everything clean with just the one bowl. In the summer when the heating isn't on I boil just one kettle and make it last. This water has usually been preheated in the sunshine in a bottle on the patio.

the_cat

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2096583

A quick heads up from the grabbit board! I won't go over all the details here but suffice to say I have just ordered 2 haircuts for the princley sum of £1.95:D:D Hopefully that should cut my hairdressing budget for next year. Bonus is that one of the participating salons is one I used to go to, but it got too expensive!

There are some other gift experience type things on offer instead (xmas pressies?) and its through a national newspaper so I think it's legit.

Hopefully it will help someone out.

savingfortravel

the_cat wrote: »

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2096583

A quick heads up from the grabbit board! I won't go over all the details here but suffice to say I have just ordered 2 haircuts for the princley sum of £1.95:D:D Hopefully that should cut my hairdressing budget for next year. Bonus is that one of the participating salons is one I used to go to, but it got too expensive!

There are some other gift experience type things on offer instead (xmas pressies?) and its through a national newspaper so I think it's legit.

Hopefully it will help someone out.

Thanks cat
How did you find out which salons are participating?

sft