Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

summertea

Greetings All :j

Amazingly the 2010 budget is planned before the beginning of 2010 so here goes

Food 946.00
Bills (Tv, Electricity, Water, Internet, Landline) 1000.00
Toiletries 50.00
Household Products 20.00
Mobile 216.00
Clothing & Accessories 100.00
Gifts 400.00
Travel 128.00
Insurance 30.00
Extras 50.00
Miscellaneous 70.00
Gym 420.00
Entertainment (including sports) 270.00
Holiday 200.00
Charity Donations 100.00
Total 4000.00


Since its just me and two hamsters it should not be too hard to achieve this, i don't think its been much more than this last year anyway. I will be trying to get a better deal on my gym membership and mobile phone contract as well so may even be able to reduce it down some more.

Wish me luck and good luck to all other 2010 frugallers :T

annie123

Still working on my budget:rolleyes:, with and without cigs included:o, but have cut down from 30 to 20 since this thread started, so thats £2.50 a day saved:T

Having trouble getting hubby on board, thinks I'm taking things too far, but I don't so working out 2 budgets, with and without him, (bill wise that is, not married then single, that would be too far:eek:)

As its Xmas eve and everyone in, so no lifts needed, off for a glass of wine now

Merry Christmas everyone :santa2:

cha97michelle

Hi everyone

I know i have been really bad at the frugal living in the latter half of 2009, but i just wanted to pop in to wish you all a fantastic christmas and new year, and to rejoin if i may for the new year. I really need this to keep me focussed. You guys helped me become a stay at home mum, and my latest personal project is to slay the morgage. I need to get up to date with what you are all up to, but wanted to state my intent at this stage.

I look forward to catching up, and hope to do better with it this year.

Michelle x

LINKYPIE2009

And me please............................

LINKYPIE2009

ceridwen

I've been working out my own variant on the theme - as in I've never worked according to a budget. When my income has been too low (ie frequently) I've just bought the cheapest food I could/missed out on socialising I planned on and seen what/if any money was left for actually spending - and if I've HAD to spend money before I had it then ..yep...I've gone into debt to do so.

So - I've been working out what I think I am actually using to live on for the basics these days and it comes to around £4,000pa for everything except Council Tax.

So - on calculating - it seems to be:
phone/broadband - £6.50 per week
gas/electric - £11.54 per week
water - £5.31 per week
insurance - £5.30
yearly gas service - £1.16
mobile top-ups - £0.50

Thats for the bills apart from Council Tax

What I require:
newspapers - £4.80 per week
hairdresser - £2 per week
Xmas/birthdays - £2 per week
dentist - £3 per week
other health care costs - £1 per week
cosmetics/cleaning materials - £1 per week
food/social life (inc. memberships & mag. subscription) - £37 per week

I lump food and social life together - as the two tend to overlap - what with taking food to "meals to share".

TOTAL for everything = £81.11 per week
(all that isnt included in that is Council Tax/any prescriptions I require and any upkeep/replacement costs for house and clothes). This doesnt include any allowance at all for inflation - which, obviously, there will be.

My own take on this is I'm wondering what I'll find I spend in actual fact and whether it will be anywhere near the benefit level that childless people receive - a measly £64.30 per week:eek: and their Council Tax/prescriptions free. Just a sorta little challenge to see if it IS actually possible to live on this - though I strongly suspect that I'll fail that right at the outset in Week 1 - so what I will actually be finding out personally is how short this income falls of what I would actually need to live on (not counting holidays/weekends away - as they would clearly be totally out of the question on that income).

I havent allowed anything at all for any jobhunting costs that anyone would have - as I just assume that it would cost literally nothing (ie all job-hunting being done in person or on t'internet and all job applications emailed in/phonecalls being made on an all-inclusive tariff - which might not be the case for someone actually on benefit, who might be expected to ring 0845 numbers/pay out for a s.a.e. for the employer to reply to them/spend £4 a week of their money going on a "training course" for some weeks). I've also not allowed for the fact that a person on benefit would need more money for fuel - as the heating would need to be on more (say an extra £10-£20 per month?).

So - the estimated shortfall in income each week is £16.81:eek:

Thats with the "hidden advantages" I have of paying less for my insurance because I'm over 50 and the fact I wouldnt require:
- money for tv licence fees (as I dont have a tv anyway)
- I'm very well stocked-up with things (food/cosmetics/cleaning materials/etc)
- I'm very good with money and my social life expenses are very cheap
- I get the odd bit of food passed on and I'm hoping to get going properly this year on growing a bit myself


So - I will see how this pans out personally...:D

Not sure how long I will do my own personal "study" for....but here goes for now anyway..

cw18

Ceridwen - Wanted to say "well done" for being brave enough to try and work out what the spends are for each category :T

I know I found that very hard when setting my budget for 2009 (other than the payments on regular direct debits that don't change every month)...... and the individual category budgets have been constantly changing all year (as I got more of a feel for things, or had to decide which to work on reducing to claw back money needed for emergencies!)

My current (£8k) budget is roughly what I'd get as a single parent (£64.30 for me + £20 CB + £53.40-ish CTC = £137.70/week or £7160/year). The additional I'd need is my Council Tax (£1007 for the 09-10 year), so assuming I'd get it all (possibly not as the "house is bigger than needed") I'd just scrape in.

But how I'm manage without the money for DS is something I dread to think about :eek:

The house would definitely have to be downsized, though that would almost certainly mean higher gas/electric bills (current one seems very energy efficient, especially on heat retention)...... and then, of course, they'd expect me to live off the capital that such a down-shift released (Either that, or I'd have to let DD move back in here, along with my GDs - but, much as I love them, we don't 'co-exist' terribly well )

As of this coming September I won't qualify for money for DS any more, so it's something I need to be very aware of while running my budget for 2010 - and I need to come in as far under my £8k as I possibly can, purely to see what I can manage to live on

Frugaldom

Good morning

Ceridwen, that is a brilliant challenge you have set yourself! When you see the itemised breakdown of how your money will be spent in comparison to what would happen if you were in receipt of single person's income support/benefits it really does make you see how easily and quickly debt could trap the unsuspecting. I thought I'd try a similar amount, so went via the entitledto.org website to see what a couple on income support would receive. To be honest, I was amazed!

Rent would be paid
Council tax would be paid
£100.96 cash would be paid weekly to the couple plus family allowance plus child tax credit :eek: We'd be rich! :rotfl:
If I discount DS, then the amount would reduce to £5,253.91 - We'd still be rich! :rotfl:
If I lived alone, then £3,352 (plus rent & council tax paid) would be more than enough for me, I could even run a car on that! Plus I'd get free dental / healthcare. Perhaps I'll stick with my £4,000 as this is my ACTUAL budget to cover the cost of running a household of 3. :rotfl:

Have fun with your budgets, everyone. We've only 5 days left of 2009 then it's the first big hit for the new challenge. I'm a bit of a spendaholic in January! But I'm forever messing around with my budget to try to get the best value for my money whilst trying to get the best value from my LETS trading.

Kerry_Woman

Can I join this challenge? I still need to work out my budget and what I am going to include.

Kerry Woman

Frugaldom

Welcome back Cha97Michelle and welcome on board Linkypie2009 and Kerry Woman. List of challengees has now been updated.

rozeepozee

Ooh, I like the look of this - please count me in


ROZEEPOZEE

I don't know if it will be possible but I'll give it a real good go - We are a family of 3, soon to be FIVE as we've twins arriving in April. I was already intending to attempt to not buy anything for the new babies apart from a twin buggy off ebay. I've carefully saved loads of my son's stuff (he's now 3). The twins are girls so it means they not going to be dressed in much pink! (though to be fair, I've also been given loads of girls clothes too and I've hoarded them, carefully sorted into age ranges). I'm planning to use freecyle for any nursery items.

I think the weakness is going to be avoiding buying accessories for the campervan we've just bought. Meeting the challenge is with the aim of replacing the savings we used to buy this!

I'm excited now! I'm off to figure out what I need to do next (figure out what our essential outgoings are I suppose)

R x