Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

weezl74

ceridwen wrote: »

newspapers - £4.80 per week

Hi ceridwen

not sure which paper you read but you can get a month's worth of the Guardian or Observer half price by clicking here

the daily telegraph also sell voucher books which make each day's paper 1/3 of the usual price.

xxx

slm6002

Well i have finally had a good look at the figures for next year. I am including everything in my totals and i will therefore be living on £14,500 for the year. It looks a lot compared to the rest of you but its really only mortgage + £9228 which looks a little better.

OH and i will be trying for another baby come the end of march so we may have to adjust things as we will need a few bits if we do get pregnant. Good old freecycle may have to help put there!

Anyway i hope you all had a lovely christmas and are all looking forward to a lovely 2010 x

rozeepozee

cw18 wrote: »

Congratulations :T

And more congratulations :T


At the start of 2009, there were a number of challengers who worked to £4k plus CB and CTC. This would have given me a personal budget of £7800, so the £8k I ended up with (by calculating budgets for each category) came into that way of doing things closely enough for my liking

Many thanks for your warm welcome, cw.

We are downshifters, I suppose - I envy you and your enjoyable job - both DP and I left high flying jobs to spend quality time raising our family, as opposed to making good money but living to work. DP retrained as a teacher and works part time now. Our dream is to be self sufficient somewhere. Maybe we will buy that smallholding by the coast once the twins are a year or two old....

I'll add in CTC and CB (once I work out what that is - not sure I can differentiate CTC from WTC - is it just me who gets really confused by the info they send?)

I've just realised I haven't included a few expenses such as children's shoes, classes/groups that my son goes to and haircuts. I wonder how I'll manage without going out for lunch when it suits me and sneaky coffees (although, I did start taking one of those thermos mugs everywhere with me last year, could start that up again)? Will rework my figures later. I'll probably have to do this again once the twins arrive - I'm assuming a quarterly review will be a good idea.

For those other expectant or hoping soon to be expectant parents out there, I get a great deal of satisfaction trying to make child rearing as inexpensive as possible so that I can continue to justify being a SAHM (well, sort of, I also have my own business but it's very low key). To this end I am intending to recycle as many of my son's old clothes as possible for the new babies (all carefully packed away for the last 3 years). To hell with the fact that they're two girls I'm expecting - I think the pink-blue thing is a great con to get us to buy twice as many clothes for our kids!!!! I'm also hoping I can cope with real nappies most of the time- I have some stowed away from my son's baby days - don't know if it'll be too much with twins... and I'm planning on breastfeeding again - this mayn't be as "free" as it sounds as i eat like a horse when I'm breastfeeding so my food bill might double! Freecycle is my friend when it comes to cots, moses baskets etc and rather than car boot (which I have to say I love, but can lead to unnecessary spending, even if it's only £5 or so a week) for kids clothes and shoes, I'm hoping to do some swaps with other mothers who previously had girls who are now having boys (quite a few of my friends are pregnant second time round again - nice timing girlfriends!)

I'm trying to get into the right mindset and attitude for the New Year. I went to the Boxing Day sales today to test my resolve and despite much browsing and window shopping only spent £1.69 on 4 pints of milk from the Spar (expensive place to shop but all else was closed)!!!

BTW has anyone else here read "Your Money or Your life" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin? I picked it up at a car boot a couple of years back and it really helped me see things differently. I can certainly recommend it.

Looking forward to getting to know you all a bit better and enjoying the support already.

RP X

cengkar

greatttt:A

knithappens

rozeepozee my little girl ( 5 months) is sat in a blue baby grow as i type, she wares anything that fits and is warm right now. I have stopped buying into the blue/pink dress code.
I also swear by the chairty shop, i have picked up brand new items with tags still on, really cheaply, my last find was a sleeping bag for little one tag still on should have been £20 for £1.50, and after i have finished using things i list them on ebay, and make a little cash back.

BigMummaF

nykmedia wrote: »

.... 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.

I made the mistake of having a March wedding, so all my annual bills arrive twix now & Easter _pale_ plus this time the MOT, road tax & car ins comes in there too :wall: I'm hoping to at least move the tax to July but guess there's nowt can be done about the rest. Could you explain the cash-back thing please as I've never quite understood the concept & must see if there's LETS & Freecycle anywhere close enough to make it worthwhile too...

As for the blue/pink thing, I've always said girls can wear trousers but it's difficult putting little dresses on a boy

ilovetea

Can I join in please?
Tried the £4,000 last year but lost the plot towards the end.
Don't think that I'm that extravagant,but cutbacks can and will be made!
Need new flooring as this one is getting a bit nasty in places so funds are required for that.
Lots to put on e-bay and lots in the cupboards to use up.
Look forward to reading your stories and tips and hope I can input something as well.

Ilovetea xx

Dorastar

nykmedia wrote: »

Hello again

Another 5 names added to challenger list and the clock is ticking as the new challenge draws nearer and nearer!

Am I the only sad person who finds this quite exciting?! Also excited by the prospect of filling in my new calendar and filofax (both gifts) this afternoon - nothing like a new year to start things off!

I also don't understand the cash-back thing either - could someone explain it in reallly simple words?

Frugaldom

Dorastar wrote: »

Am I the only sad person who finds this quite exciting?! Also excited by the prospect of filling in my new calendar and filofax (both gifts) this afternoon - nothing like a new year to start things off!

I also don't understand the cash-back thing either - could someone explain it in reallly simple words?

New Year and a new challenge is always exciting! :j

Cashback is where you only buy items where there's cashback available, such as topcashback or quidco, plus you can pay using a cashback credit card that pays you money back every year. Cashback sites pay you incentives or percentages of your cash back, plus using a cashback credit card all the time means you can get a sort of rebate each year. As an example, I have £70.70 showing as cashback for buying my home insurance through C0-0p on topcashback website even although the policy cost me less than this. :T

Here's the MSE list of all the stores and service providers who offer cashback incentives online. I'll also add this to the 'handy links' section on page 1 of this challenge thread.

Fishcake_Random

Hey all,
Nearly there now whoop whoop!!! So exciting.
Me and Lovely OH went for our traditional post xmas supermarket shop and came home with £23.58p worth of shopping for £7.82p Lots of pork chops and sausages and chicken etc to freeze down for bargin meals later. Yummy yummy.
That should be our last food shop really for a while apart from the bread and milk staples or little extras to make up meals like sauces etc.
We were truely spoiled this christmas and have £200 to blow in vouchers at a local shopping centre so we are planning a trip on the 3rd. Hopefully we can get some lovely things for the baby and maybe a few treats for us as there is a lovely M&S outlet store we can go to, and their clothes just last and last.
I've also finished knitting my baby blanket and knitted a headband which turned out really nicely so I've added the patten to my list of things to make when bored lol. I need to do OH a few pairs of socks now as he is getting a tad short on them lol
Good luck everyone
x x x x