FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 1. (Living on £4,000 a year)

bails

Catznine, lovely to see you too!

Thriftkitten wrote: »

I honestly do not remember a day like this for many years.
Such satisfaction of knowing I have used everything to my best ability and seen happy satisfied children is priceless;
I hope tomorrow brings as much joy for you as today has for me, How exciting is it to be in control of your finances eh!!!!

Aah, what a lovely post! Now THIS is what life is all about :T

larmy16 wrote: »

My ds works at Waitrose and he just bought me back 4 cartons of UHT semi skim milk. I feel all secure now. It's the little things - it really is.

Indeed it is :T

nykmedia wrote: »

Anyone on Facebook, if you sign up to the Approved Food Discount Group, there's a members' code for 10% off all orders within 48 hours, so I took advantage of that.

Big day tomorrow, hoping to finalise yet another master plan for 2010

Nyk, I couldn't find the Approved Foods group on FB, and couldn't see it on your page either... Intrigued by your new plan, do tell!

Annoyingly, the multiquote button hasn't quoted some again - can it only do a certain number does anyone know?

Wanted to welcome Warney to the gang - another man :T Which reminds me, anyone seen Mr DT on their travels? Welcome to any new members I've missed - there are LOTS of you - I hope 2010 is a great year for you all.

Rozeepozee, I am intrigued by your story now so do fill us in

SFT thankyou for replying to so many people, much appreciated by me x

BB, fear not, I shall be round today :j I laugh in the face of the 50 min walk :rotfl:

I had a lovely chat with my best friend yesterday, the first one since I got engaged all those months ago (feels like forever now) - well it was the first installment anyway, as we have SO much to catch up on :rotfl: I thought I'd share her story with you. She always been terrified of numbers (always considered herself 'dumb' around Maths) and has therefore had her head in the sand for years about money, hence lots of debt. Together we sat down last year and I helped her face the reality of her situation, which was very difficult for her and took a lot of courage. We went through everything and I was by her side for several months, gradually handing over responsibility for her finances to her in manageable chunks. Then of course I went away so she was on her own. In the time since I left, she's been paying off her debts and is no longer scared of opening letters etc. And the best thing? Her and her boyfriend have made the decision to live their dream - moving to Cyprus and setting up a guesthouse - so she is now working hard towards achieving that, with a view to moving out there in 2011 once all the debt's cleared. Hearing her talk she is so focused on her dream and making it happen, and I know that she will - it is so wonderful to see other people turning things around and getting what they REALLY want out of life :j This is what brings me happiness in life. It really is possible to achieve whatever you want peeps, and I hope that all of you can 'live your dream' too xx

bails

Actually, sorry for the double post but I've been thinking about this a lot recently and umming and ahhing about whether to post something - I think I will and hope it helps someone. If you're not a teacher feel free to skip this, although it could be relevant in any situation.

First of all, I was really saddened to read of so many teachers on here who are unhappy with their work. As a teacher myself I can appreciate the stresses and difficulties it throws up (other jobs of course have their own stresses too, it's just that teaching is often mistaken for an 'easy' job), and life is SO not about that.

I guess what I want to say is that it doesn't have to be this way. So often people feel trapped by their situation and that is a very real and genuine feeling. Ultimately though, everything is a choice. I know that's a controversial thing to say, and no doubt some of you are shaking your heads, but I completely believe this. Those of you who know me well and know my story, know that I have struggled too. Yet even within the most difficult of situations there is still a choice. Just knowing this can give you the strength to carry on, and to start to change that seemingly impossible situation. The changes may go unnoticed even by you initially but that shift in mindset triggers real movement.

I know there are situations which we can't control, for example the death of a loved one. But even in that most difficult of situation, where we sadly can't change the event itself, we can still have control over our response to it and in that way we can still choose.

On a practical level, there's something I have used to help me, which I wanted to share. 'Trizing' a problem is an engineering design technique picked up from my OH. I'm not so good at explaining it but as he's fast asleep I'll have a go. Rather than focusing on the problem, you focus on the end result you want to achieve and then come up with a range of options to get there. By doing this, random ideas are thrown up which you hadn't thought of before and often offer a creative solution to the problem. That shift in perspective can really make a difference. It's difficult to explain without using a specific example, but I don't want to offend anyone by using their situation without asking first IYSWIM.

What I'm trying to say, not very well unfortunately, is that rather than suffering in a job you hate or putting up with a scenario for x more months/years, perhaps there is another way. That hope and belief helped me survive and find a path back to the life I loved and lost; I sincerely hope it can do the same for you.

If you don't understand any of my wibble and are still awake/interested enough to know more, I'd be happy to help. I've received some amazing support and insight during my illness and if it can help someone else, that would make me very happy too.

Have a wonderful day everyone xx

bails

LilacPixie wrote: »

Fay - where are you getting married? I did it in 2007 for 4.5k but it was a huge white affair with 200+ guests at a large hotel. Pretty goot going for what we had TBH

:eek: WOW! I'd love some tips on how you managed THAT Lilacpixie, as my wedding is costing a lot more My thread is here

Thriftkitten

Morning all, I stayed up until the wee hours last night trying to figure this all out and came up with these numbers for my budget for 2010,
Scared myself to death!!!!
Family of 1 adult 3 kids, 2 cats, 2 dogs! Annual income 25k.
Groceries inc pets Weekly £62.90
Mobile £8.88
H/phone/Int £7.03
Petrol £5.76
Cartax £3.17
Car Ins £6.29
Breakdown £0.57
Car finance £51.90
Credit Monitoring £1.37
Tv Licence £2.79
Life Ins £4.67
Pet Ins £3.85
Cont ins £3.46
Gas £12.69
Elec £12.69
Water £9.61
Debts inc CC £25.38
Pres inc xmas £8.65
Contingency/xmas £7.69

Total Weekly £239.34 month£996.96 annual £12051.00
I hope this is correct as took me all night! but I also hope it's wrong as can't believe I spend so much.
Mobile contract comes to an end at the end of this month and will downgrade to cheaper contract, looking to downgrade pet ins also.

bails

SFT, can you make some space in your Inbox please x

Thriftkitten, you may well already do this but don't forget to use cashback sites when you switch your pet insurance. Don't beat yourself up about your budget; I've just done my 'ideal' spends for just me and it was HORRENDOUS :rotfl: It did include a house deposit, wedding and honeymoon but still!

Thriftkitten

Hi and thanks,
I did recently switch my breakdown to AA through quidco and it only cost me about £7 after the £21 cash back so will do the same for the pet ins.
Unfortunately I have to walk into work today with all 3 kids as there are 3 cottages waiting to be cleaned, however hoping the lovely visitors have left some goodies grocery and cleaning wise that the didnt want to put in the car and travel home with... very tight I know but you cant imagine how much liquid hand soap, dishes detergent and bog roll I have in my cleaning cupboard.. every little helps and prevents me buying more.

bails wrote: »

SFT, can you make some space in your Inbox please x

Thriftkitten, you may well already do this but don't forget to use cashback sites when you switch your pet insurance. Don't beat yourself up about your budget; I've just done my 'ideal' spends for just me and it was HORRENDOUS :rotfl: It did include a house deposit, wedding and honeymoon but still!

lyndasharp

I've cancelled my 200 mile round trip to Telford area today, just couldn't face the idea of driving that distance in this weather, especially when there's more snow forecast for later... Much as I enjoy my work, I don't think it's worth taking that kind of risk!

I used some Amazon vouchers to order thermal underwear last night :-) It'll probably be warmed up by the time they arrive, as we haven't had much post recently!

Welcome to all the new people!

Thrify, sf, hope you are feeling a bit better today.
Lilacpixie, wow that's a pretty cheap wedding, well done. Ours is going to come in at just under £7k though Dad is paying for £2k of that. Two months to go!!!!

chika

Morning frugalites. Its been a really eventful day here and its not even 9 o'clock! This morning the car was still frozen solid so abandoned the idea of driving (:)) and walked. Got there and my lovely lovely boss had bought me some late Christmas prezzies, including a nice bottle of posh bubble bath (the sort I drool over in s3lfridges), a good book, a shower cap (rather random but its cute and looks like it will last!) and best of all an electric blanket . Like most people's bosses she winds me up at times but I really love the fact that she appreciates me and shows it. I'll never ever say a bad thing about her again!

My young charge is a bit under the weather and not going into school so I decided to walk back home through the park. I was wandering along kicking the snow when I kicked a tin. It was a bit old and battered and felt a bit heavy so nosy me opened it up and found it stuffed with money. I didn't count it all but there were a couple of bags of £1 coins and at least £600 in notes :eek:.

I kind of debated what to do for about ten minutes on the way home but in the end my conciousness won and I went straight to the police station and handed it in. The person that lost it could be in a much worse financial position than me, they might have children etc and I know that if I lost that kind of money I would be up the creek. The policeman did say that if no one claims it it's mine which would be nice but I'll have to wait a while.

Thriftkitten Cleaning my bosses short term rental flats is possibly my fave job. There are always some goodies left over in the fridge which make nice additions to my food stocks. Just the other day I had some rather fancy pasta that one of the tenants left behind. I'm also sat drinking a cup of redbush tea that was left behind too. I hope they have left you some nice things.

Bails – thank you for two really great posts. This is what this frugality is all about for me. The chance to live my dream. Now that dream probably won’t happen for years but by stretching my resources and being crafty now, I know I will be able to make what I want in life a reality.

lyndasharp

bails wrote: »

Don't beat yourself up about your budget; I've just done my 'ideal' spends for just me and it was HORRENDOUS :rotfl: It did include a house deposit, wedding and honeymoon but still!

If I include the wedding spending, that's £4k spent from my budget in the first week of January :eek: Luckily I'm not including it in my proper £12k budget, as otherwise I'd have already spent a third of it, but it is still a scary amount.

My 'included' spends are just over £500 for the month so far, but that's mostly mortgage and council tax. We have most of the groceries we need for the rest of the month already too, just some milk, fresh fruit and veg to buy as extras. That's if the shops haven't run out!

bails

Thanks Chika. Care to share your dream, as I love hearing about other people's?