Frugal Living 2010 -The Cost of Living Challenge, INTRO

rozeepozee

cw18 wrote: »

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 )

Thanks, Cheryl, but can you say that in English please :rotfl:Just joshing, but when people give me instructions about computers I do what I do when I'm given directions - glaze over! I just hope that I can manage your spreadsheet - I've sort of lost my data or the formatting a few times but it all seems to be there now and I can't wait to try it out for real next week.

RP x

PS I may try out your image capture thingummy later

Aril

Hi fellow frugallers!
Being good again you see and have signed in. Must be a record for me:rotfl::rotfl:
Had to go to Mr T for a smallish top up shop but did take full advantage of the offers on pizzas to feed my friend and her girls with for lunch. Managed the whole lunch on under £4 for all 6 of us using up the rest of the custard from Christmas and a hm crumble with free apples that I'd stewed earlier in the Autumn. Got very overthrilled as after many years of "needing" [ok "wanting":D] one of these handle type gadget thingies that you use for pastry/crumble making I finally found one for 75p in the charity shop. I got to christen it today. Woo hoo:j And for much less than the one I'd seen on the Lakeland site. It's taken me 3 years to track one down.
Nowt else spent- am off to peruse the book of simple gifts that I've borrowed from the library - it's got a few ideas that may find their way into hm pressies next year.
Aril

JayJay14

Right - I've got some sort of budget worked out. It does not include the Mortgage or Council Tax (That would really scare me:eek:) and we cannot do anything about either at the moment. The Mortgage is a 5 year fix which does not end until June'10. We have not been able to change this as OH was made redundant nearly 3 years ago and does not have a permenant job. He temps (accountant) so we are not badly off, but are always on the edge of unemployment. His current job finishes next month but there are a few possibilities in the air. However he would not make a good inpression turning up for an interview in a cheap suit, so the clothing budget is pretty high as he may need a new one later in the year. I thought it better to plan for this rather that get depressed later.
Car insurance is high cos OH keeps running into things:rolleyes:
Fuel is also high and could be higher - the job before this one was a 125 mile round trip every day, luckily the one he's just finishing has been 2 miles away.
The anything else section brings the total up to a round £11000.
I am hoping to do something with both the house and car insurances this year but mobiles and home phone are pretty much stuck - in this city there is no real choice of landline/broadband due to there being no BT lines here, but that is expected to change in the future.


Water £252.00
Gas/Electricity £1008.00
Buildings/Contents Insurance £700.00
Phone/Broadband £360.88
TV Licence £145.00
Mobiles £840.00
Dog Insurance £330.00
Vets Bills £163.32
Presents £940.00
Car Insurance £750.00
Breakdown Cover £130.00
Road Tax £225.00
Mot £20.00
Service £250.00
Diesel £2040.00
Decor/Repairs £200.00
Groceries £1560.00
Clothing Shoes £550.00
Anything Else £535.00


So far I have spent £1.17, as I started my Jan Grocery spend on 27th.

Looking good so far:rotfl:

ETA - Presents are high, includes Xmas'10, DS 21 in May and DD1 getting married in Sept.

slscarborough

Thankyou Cheryl for the lovely spreadsheet. It has kept me very busy this afternoon. I am getting very excited about using it. is that sad!!

shaz_mum_of__2

Not sure i have posted a budget but it will be 8K for everything except mortgage as this is the value of hubby's pension should he take it early(as of now, probably be worth a bit more come 2 yrs time when he hopes to actually take it)

This is a trial run to see if we can manage should he retire at 55 (assuming we can pay off the mortgage in the next few years!!) He has a service pension from the porces which comes into play at 60 so 5yrs of possible struggle!

For those that don't know me i am a 40 yo student ,mum of 2 boys aged 18 & 8 and i love cooking preserving and gardening and foraging.


My thanks too to NYK our inspirational leader !

grandma247

rozeepozee wrote: »

Gas ..................................1200.00
Electricity..........................168.00 This seems very low, is it for the whole year?
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!

Please see the note above I would love to have mine that low:D

MushyPeas

Wow, I've just spent over 2 hours reading this fabulous thread!

Nykmedia your place looks lovely, thank you for starting this challenge, can I please join?

MushyPeas

Thanks!

annie123

Cheryl, I'm in love with your spreadsheet

Wish the ones at work were so easy to use, would make my job much quicker:rolleyes:

Goes back to amend budget for the 10,0000 :rolleyes: time before posting final one..................

cw18

Believe me, I've worked with some horrors in the past :eek:

Me - I like a s/sheet to be "user friendly" (though I guess different levels of experience/comfort with a PC and/or Excel means this is different for everyone), and also one I can understand the formulas in..... just in case I can't figure out how it calculates that A+B=D when I expected C And the more it can do automatically with as little inputting on my part the better too :rolleyes2

pink_numbers

nykmedia wrote: »

Hello, I see we have a few more joining our frugal ranks - WELCOME!

I have just done a full analysis of my 'extra free cash' that was accumulated over the year by way of free scratch cards, money gifts, winnings, cash back, sales of surplus eggs and interest paid on savings. In total, it amounted to a whopping great £2,141.64 which is certainly not to be sneezed at! :j:T Over the entire year, I spent £2,260.02 but this included all of the following:

NTS annual family membership
Friendly Society bond (£15 per month tax free savings)
Set up garden at new address
Planted a mini-orchard
Set up small poultry project
Feeding & bedding for above
Greenhouse
Patio & Pergola
Kitchen shelving, trolley & veg/pot racks
A walk-in larder all shelved
Decorated the bathroom
DD's wedding extras
Outfit, shoes & bag for DD's wedding
B&B expenses for 6 for weekend of wedding
Fleeces to insulate all the windows

As you can see, £180 of the above went straight into a tax free savings bond but of that, £118.38 was from my surplus/extra income, meaning that all my extras for 2009 that weren't included in my original £4000 were, in fact, cash neutral! :j:beer::j Not content with that, I haven't counted my £2 coins and I have a balance equivalent to over £100 in my LETS account.

Can we please have a "we're not worthy" bowing emoticon for nkymedia? That is absolutely amazing!! Well done!!!!!