Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

danielley

Hello All!

Please could i be added Danielley

Just found this challenge and I am looking forward to having a good read through of all the posts however I have pasted them all into Word to read and its at 232 pages!!!!!! Eeeek!

Hope I can find some tips on how to reduce my cat food bill, I swear they cost more than me and my OH to feed!

x

Lady1973

Please could i be added to this challenge?
LADY197
I am already armed with cheryl's amazing spreadsheet and have read all of part four of this challenge and all the intro to 2010 challenge.
I think i'll try for £4,000 +CTC +CB if thats ok?
I'm now off to play with my spreadsheet

Frugaldom

Welcome Danielley & Lady1973

I've just updated the challenger list and we've hit 161 participants!

I do realise that all 161 participants won't be frequent posters but it's great to know that so many people feel this challenge is worthwhile and are willing to get onboard and tackle savings (or debtbusting) in good, old fashioned ways - frugal living, veg growing, thriftiness, make do, mend, reduce, reuse, recycle, bake your own, make your own, swap, barter, trade, the list goes on and on... each and every method, tried and tested, has withstood the test of time and has been proven worthy of passing down the generations. This system works and all you need to do is learn to love the lifestyle:

1) A penny saved is a penny earned
2) The less you spend, the more you can afford
3) Neither a lender nor a borrower be

There are far too many to list but, suffice to say, it all boils down to living within your means, no matter how little your means may first appear to be. It's also fair to remember that there is ALWAYS someone worse off or in a worse situation than you, so we are the lucky ones. We each have at least another 160 like-minded frugalites supporting us in our plight for financial freedom. Thanks fruguys and frugals!

We've just under 55 hours before this challenge officially begins, so get geared up and ready. I've just completed my 2009 budget analysis and finalised my 2010 budget forecast. I WILL be continuing with my cash neutral challenge, but only in my signature, not as a challenge in the forums. Back soon to post the 2009 results/2010 forecast.

Reducing cat food prices: You can buy 12.5kg bags of complete diet or wean kitty onto store's own basic brands.

rozeepozee

I've had a good look at our figures and my previous ones were wildly optimistic as I'd missed off all my child related stuff like nursery & son's activities. A more realistic figure is £8000, although I hope that I've been generous with some of the figures (groceries?) so I can shave something off this sum and get cheaper broadband etc once we're out of contract.

So that figure's for the 3 of us - me, DP and our 3 year old. There may be a little more income to play with once the twins arrive in the form of extra CTC. I am determined not to spend any extra on the new babies and make do with what we have already or Freecycle apart from a (secondhand) double buggy and perhaps a double sling for daddy to wear and give me a little respite!

Sorry about the formatting - can't work out how to transfer excel to here!

Gas ..................................1200.00
Electricity..........................168.00
Pruhealth...........................87.48
Gym..................................96.00
Creche pass......................144.00
TV Licence...........................145.44
Broadband.........................240.00
Mobile phone.......................180.00
Child minder......................780.00
Gardener.........................600.00
Cleaner.........................416.00
Window cleaner.............120.00
Haircuts/Beauty.............164.00
Nursery..........................600.00
Toddler Groups.............100.00
DS's Music Group.............150.00
DS's swimming lesso..........30.00
Chatsworth & NT fees..........73.25
Groceries.......................2600.00

PS Nyk, you're a star!

Frugaldom

Here it is, my latest 'final' frugal budget forecast for 2010. It will be rejigged as the year progresses, depending on my switching to a cheaper Internet package, finding a better source for my firewood, handmaking gifts and whether or not I decide to send off for my passport, which is included in my 'travel' category. I don't own a car, I work from home and when I need to do anything in town I combine it with work related stuff, so it's a deductable expense. My budget is for a household of 3 adults (DS is 20, works fulltime and pays everything else he needs himself.)

Groceries £1,095.00
Toiletries £75.00
Cleaning £15.00
Electricity £1,095.00
Coal £150.00
Logs £160.00
Internet £240.00
Mobiles £30.00
Telephone £145.00
TV Licence £145.00
Clothing & footwear £50.00
Gifts £400.00
Extras £50.00
Travel/Car £120.00
Household Insurance £45.00
Miscellaneous £185.00

TOTAL £4,000

cw18

nykmedia wrote: »

I've just updated the challenger list and we've hit 161 participants!

and coming up to 25% of them have my spreadsheet now looking at the number of emails I've sent out :eek: I really hope it stands up to the pressure of all the different ways people are likely to be using it

I do realise that all 161 participants won't be frequent posters

A couple of people who asked for the s/sheet have mentioned they've not signed up 'officially' - and I get the impression that it's mainly due to them either

1. not being sure quite what to set their budget at, or
2. thinking their budget is sky high compared to those of us who have signed up

so I suspect there may be other lurkers in the same boat


My gut feeling (and I'm sure Nyk will correct me if I'm wrong - and I hope she'll forgive me if I'm "speaking out of turn" here) is that they'd still be MORE than welcome to sign up - we've had a huge variety of budgets during 2009, and I've seen an equally huge variety being declared for 2010. I'm one who constantly tweaked the budgets for my individual categories throughout 2009, but am hoping that now I have 12 months under my belt I've managed to set more accurate/realistic figures for 2010. I did manage (by some small miracle) to keep my bottom line the same, but never felt that I would have been shunned had I had to increase it during the year.......

It's not a competition to see who can live on the least money, as I doubt any two of us have exactly the same income for the same family make-up in the same kind of location. As I understand it, this is all about being aware of where your money goes, so that you can utilise it the best way possible (and hopefully free up money either to clear debts that bit faster, or to save for that special thing you want - be it a house of your own, the holiday of a lifetime, or something else special to you).

cw18

rozeepozee wrote: »

Sorry about the formatting - can't work out how to transfer excel to here!

You need two things....

1. A piece of screen capture software - I can highly recommend King Kong Capture (which is free)
2. An image hosting account (such as Photobucket)

Use the screen capture software to create a file with the part of the spreadsheet you want, and save that to your PC (preferably as a .jpg )
Then upload the saved file to your image hosting account

All you then need to do is put a link to the uploaded image in your post. In photobucket it gives you the code you need (starts with )

Frugaldom

danielley wrote: »

I am looking forward to having a good read through of all the posts however I have pasted them all into Word to read and its at 232 pages!!!!!! Eeeek!

:rotfl:I wonder how many pages there would be if I combined all the threads back to the very start when it was first posted here at the end of 2007? Now I am curious!

EDITED IN: Total number of pages on MSE forums for the frugal living/Live on 4k challenge, as of 6.40pm 29/01/09 is 1,184!

elaine373

I have only just seen this thread and would like to join in. I have to become frugal ,to survive financially and mentally this coming year.For me (like many others) its a must that i watch every penny and stop wasting. I dont drink or smoke and rarely go out. I hope that i can continue to send my girls horse riding once a fortnight.This is our main luxury at the moment but well worth it for the benefits that i have seen .(confidence) I have bought a new diary (from the pound shop of course ) and will work out an approx budget for the year.I will aim to do a weekly income and outgoings as well if thats ok. Really looking forward to reading this daily. All the best to everyone for 2010.

Daisy_Steiner

Thanks very much Cheryl for sending me your spreadsheet, a few hours of number crunching ahead I think!

Daisy