Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

Keeley_p_2

Hi, can you add me in please?

Keeley_P

I'm going to have to go hide and do maths to figure out the budget...

Frugaldom

mardatha wrote: »

I dont like the DFW forums and I'm never there. I only found you because you came down to OS . But as long as I can follow you now I don't really care where I am LOL !

Hi Madartha I'm afraid there is nowhere else we can go that will keep all of the people happy all of the time. DFW means those without debts don't like to contribute and OS is a no go area as decreed by MSE. We got moved onto the DFW diaries last year, so we'll await further developments and hope everything is resolved before new year.

mardatha

Well just walk slow then, so I can keep up !

Frugaldom

mardatha wrote: »

Well just walk slow then, so I can keep up !

:rotfl::rotfl: It'll need to be slow, I'm having difficulties keeping up myself. If you've subscribed to the thread then it sould show up in your User CP section regardless of where it gets located. Just adding Keeley_P to page 1 and that should be us up to date again. Welcome and thanks for joining us.

Keeley_p_2

Thanks for adding me!

All subscribed, so hopefully I'll be able to keep track :rolleyes:

skintbint_2

Hi Can you add me, wont be able to start eating away at debts and keeping things under control to any extent until after christmas but am thinking twice just now before parting with any cash, havent used my credit card at all this christmas which is a first for many years, not looking forward to doing a budget think will do month by month but must get OH on board (mmmm!!)- am i the only one who will struggle with this - am fed up being the one to sort things out, deal with the bills, remember this, remember that - sorry this is turning into a moan will stop now honest and will not moan again until 1/1/2011 when i've had a succesful year (positive positive positive!!!!)

Prudent

I would like to join in again please. I really enjoyed the challenge in 2008, but had a lot of other things going on in 2009, so didn't get involved
.

Hardup_Hester

Hi
I've subscribed too, so hopefully won't lose you again.
I'll be brief in my intro as I don't want to bore those who already know my story.
I got divorced in my 50's, ex got the bulk of the money, I have a partner who finds it difficult to work as he's partially sighted. He was taken on for 3 days in Oct 08 to sweep the leaves up at the school where I work, by Sept 09 he was locking & unlocking the school & doing all the tasks associated with being caretaker, when the restructuring of the caretaking team was completed he wasn't given a job & so we are now back to living on my salary.

Here is my budget

Money in, my takehome pay £9996.
Hubbys DLA £1788
Total £11748

Money out
Mortgage £5004
CT £1776
Gas £432
Elec £456
Water £576
Phone & BB £388
TV Lic £142.50
Fees £108
Insurance £684
Car tax £190

Total £9756.5

This leaves £1601.5 p.a.

Or £133.40 per month to cover food, toiletries,clothes, travel costs, gifts etc.
We have a small amount of savings from the time hubby was working. I do lunch duties at work but this is only during term time & do various other things to earn a bit extra. We can't get a reduction on our CT or claim any benefits, I have checked all of that out. The only large supermaket in walking distace is Waitrose which I avoid as it is so expensive. I shop online at Tesco or Asda & try to do this 4 or 5 times a year, I buy all my meat & veg from the local butcher. I have a car at the moment, my son who is a mechanic keeps it on the road for me, as without it I couldn't get to the local shops, library or Dr's.
I batch cook, & stretch all our food as far as possible. I often post my weekly food costings on my blog & for the last few weeks have spent under £10 a week, partly because I'm using up all the food in my cupboards & freezer.
Hester

pammyj74

Can I join please

Pammyj74
am going to try and join a few money saving, frugal, challenges I can to try and get through 2010 even better than 2009.

I am going to try and do as many surveys and competitions that I can and ebay what I can and grab as many glitches as I can too

good luck everyone

Penelope_Penguin

nykmedia wrote: »

Onward and upward, we were asked to leave the OS forums and got relegated to the 'how much money have you saved' thread. There are so many people disagreeing with this choice, which, I might add, was made on our behalf by the powers that be on MSE, that I am going to request we be moved back over to the DFW threads.

Hang on a minute!

This thread was originally posted on Old Style, and I think the vast majority of people will agree that this challenge, while being Money Saving, isn't Old Style (which is about Domestic crafts - cooking, cleaning and handicrafts in the main ).

Out of courtesy to the OP, I PMed nykmedia and asked them if they were in agreement to the thread being moved from Old Style, and where they'd like it moving to. The response was that nykmedia was in agreement with a move, and it was up to me to choose the most appropriate board.

MSE Andrea has asked us, in the past, to move Diary threads such as this to the How Much Have You Saved? board, which is what I did.

Hope this clarifies things