Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

LilacPixie

Right here is the earth shattering breakdown:

Council Tax - £1070 (hoping that we get no raises)
TV Licence - £144
Sky (including phone and BB) - £480
Food (including toiletries and perscriptions) £3600
Fuel (petrol and diesel) £1800
Car Insurance £1080
Electricity £840
Gas £204
Home insurance £252
Car running costs (tax MOT and repairs) £700
Life insurance £204
Factoring charges £100
Mobiles £720
personal care (dentists, haircuts clothes) £673
Total £11867:eek::eek::eek:

Scary biscuits. We are family of 2 adults 2 kids have 2 large cars with no prospect of downsizing either of them. I think I could make huge savings on food, utilities and car insurance. I had no idea OH was spending so much on his.

LilacPixie

skintjenny wrote: »

does anyone know if there is a thread about living on £1 a day? I'd really like to know if more people have done it and if its as easy as the woman that wrote the book made out... well not EASY but a lot less hard than you would think!

weezl74 had a thread on feeding for less than 50p a day.

ceridwen

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Hi ceridwen

do you use the liners for fruit leathers?

I have ordered a westfalia one (pressie from mil) and was hoping to make DS some leathers as he cannot eat sweets .

The liners you mentioned i read somewhere you can make your own but i forget what from......doh....(medication leaving big gaps in memory.........not good when studying for a degree...lol)

Grandma what do you dry?

Shaz

Still early days experimenting with my dehydrator - I actually bought it quite some years ago now and its only recently that its "seen the light of day":o. Experiments to date have included a couple of fruit leathers - dont think I've quite got the hang of it yet - but - yep - I did use my liners I have. Those liners are a bit of a faff - as they are makeshift ones from some other purpose - as I've not been able to find custom-made ones for this brand of dehydrator. Had a go recently with greaseproof paper that I cut to size - and it stuck rather. Thinks...maybe I could have another go with that - but brushed lightly with oil first and maybe that wouldnt happen? hmmm...

If you do recall at any point about how to make your own - it would be good if you could share please.:D

mooomin

Hello all,

I'm nervously joining this challenge.... flying_fresian reporting for duty

I have done some maths, factoring in increases in costs of about 5% of the amounts I'm paying at the moment. We're two adults and two old cats and live in a two-bedroom flat.

Here are the annual breakdowns, I have removed debt and mortgage repayments:

Council Tax £1280
Scottish Power £1212
Virgin Media £432 (Evening/weekend calls, freeview and 10MB Broadband)
Mobiles Phones (Myself and Mr Fresian) £408
TV Licence £144.12
Bus Pass £504
Pet Insurance £276
Home Insurance £216
Union payments £96 (Would like to continue paying this)
Holiday 2012 £120 To (hopefully) attend the Olympics in 2012
Christmas/Birthday gifts £300
Groceries £2040 which I know is a lot.....to be reduced!! (Aimed to spend £250 per month this year so am reducing this to £170 per month for this year)
Entertainment £360
Boiler Cover £312 (included cover for plumbing)

I have savings of almost £1000 which I hope to grow and I will use this as my emergency/contingency fund. The groceries budget will cover all food, toiletries and cleaning gubbins as well as all the food/treats for the cats.

The above comes to £7,700.12 so I'm going to aim for £8,000 for the year, as this will cover anything unexpected...I hope! If you can see any room for improvement please let me know!

andrinaperry

ok budget worked out ont he hosue we live in now although we are hoping to move to a smaller place next year

Gas and Electric 2600
Cars 2000
food 5200
Hubby 2600
Phone intenet
mobiles 1200
insurance 700

total 14300

This will be reviewed when we move

Mollymop5

Mollymop5
Please count me in again.
It's that time of year when I start rejigging my budget.I'm not totally sure on what it will be next year yet.
I haven't always posted but have tried to keep reading.Unfortunately I didn't manage totally to keep on budget this year but have managed to not go into debt for xmas.everything has been bought upfront
I've had many tips from this thread and hope for many more.Thanks Nyk.
Hope everyone has a lovely christmas.
I'm off to catch up with this thread from the beginning.i may be a while

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Still regularly posting on the other thread but thought I'd introduce myself to everyone joining for 2010.
I am an exspendiholic*. I was lucky that I didn't get myself into debt due to the fact that it was tens of thousands of pounds of compensation I squandered. However my heart broke when I saw my dad cry for the first time when he found out. We'd grown up with no extra spare money yet I was blissfully unaware as we were a family of doers not havers...my parents were just geniuses at finding cheap/free events, making packed lunches, saving those pennies and mostly going without themselves. * Although my money was spent on experiences rather than things I made a pledge that day to never squander money again. Years later I married a man who only told me about his horrendous debts weeks before the wedding. I made the mistake of paying off his debts/saving for our trips (couldn't give up the travel bug but its my only expensive vice) but that combined with his aggression and poor me attitude was too much. SO I LEFT.
I am lucky that I am head of the infant dept in our school. So once I was on my own I was alot better off financially. Then I met Mr SFT (another travelaholic) and he was as wise with money as me. :T.

Joining MSE forums has been fantastic for us. Firstly we saved for a months travel in Central America by taking part in the 2008 Grocery Challenge but I found that forum a little restrictive. Then I found Bails over here and the rest has been history.
The 4k challenge-I used it as inspiration to not panic when Mr SFT was made redundant. Instead we realised life was too short so used his redundancy and a little inheritance to down-size to a beautiful (tiny) cottage in a semi-rural position. Horses in a paddock-our view from the front/fields at the back-we have a little bit of land to grow veggies/maybe keep chickens/a beautiful summer house and privacy. We also got married for £3k this year-(immediate family meant it was still luxury).
We'd already paid off a fair bit of our mortgage too.
However this summer we found out our cottage needed a new roof..we'd run all our finances down..and if it hadn't been for parents we'd never have afforded the 13k.

So its been lots of ups and few downs since we've joined but the people on this thread are like close friends and have offered so much support during bad times and congratulations during good times.

Sign up..you won't regret it.

Sorry for the long post

Oh 40 2 go is the number of months before I can give up work..and follow a more self sufficent life...once there my budget (for us 2) will be halved.

See you again in January!

sft

eco

Thanks for adding me to the challenge, my budget for the year is £10,500, this is for everything mortgage, bills, food, petrol and small treats. My hope is I can chip away a bit more at my mortgage, I already over pay but will have 14 years still to go. I feel I've learnt a lot from the various threads but want to cut cost a bit more so will be hangign around OS more.

Good luck to everyone, I know we haven't really started yet but feel quite confident I an do it.

DdraigGoch

I'd like to join in this year - hopefully I'll be a bit more organised *rolls eyes*

DDRAIG GOCH

findingmyfeet

findingmyfeet- joining


hi nyk just found you over here, can you add me to the challenge for 2010 please. Try try try again!!! I will improve year on year, but am not GOING to give up trying.

good luck to all and see you all shortly