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

FrankieM

Dreams...well, my dream is kind of in 2 parts.

I originally came over from Aus to travel. Instead I met my DH got pregnant, got married, had more babies. We were both quite young. Had my first at 20 and my 4th at 24. DH is 1 year older than me. I will be 43 when my youngest is 18.
So the plan is to travel from about 45. I'm doing a Foundation course at the moment, then plan to do a degree and then train to be an accountant so I will have few years to work and earn money and save to travel. I'm hoping we can travel for about 10 years.
So at about 55 (gosh thats so old sounding!!) I would like to get a small holding with enough land to grow veg, have some animals and also to have a camping/caravanning business.
I would like to also be in the position to help out charities in regards to Accounting.
I find it helpful to have dreams that don't just involve my wants/needs but also look at what I can do to help others.

lyndasharp

bails wrote: »

Honestly? Not that much really. We didn't want to come back and it's for a sad occasion; I also feel very much in limbo as I can't crack on with things here and yet I'm not travelling either. If I can get to see BB today and my other friends if I can get home to Somerset, that will make it much better

Hope you make it home safely.

bails wrote: »

My OH shares it too (except for the horse part :rotfl:) and he's really up for building a house together, an idea I love. My ideal would be a small stone barn which we can add a cob extension too

When I get back from travelling, I'm going to put my new dreams in my sig to keep me inspired on the frugal path

Not long til the wedding now Lynda :j

Yes, my OH is very keen on an entirely cob house. Much as I love the idea of self build, I think entirely cob may not be practical...

My Nan still has a small amount of land around where she lives, used to be the family farm but it all got sold off over the last 20 years or so. She discovered that owning land counts as assets, which means you don't get any benefits or a decent pension. I confess to looking at an acre (ish) of the land that's left and thinking what a lovely place it would be to live. Unfortunately planning permission is very strict round there and we'd need to get new jobs to move there etc so for now, it's not really practical. Plus of course we'd need enough savings to buy the land from her, and build the house...

flippin36

My dream is to live in the Yorkshire Dales and have a large garden where I can grow vegetables. My OH loves walking as does my son who is autisic. He finds the country and open spaces very theraputic. We are hoping to finish renovating our house, pay off our debts/mortgage and sell up and clear off!

Did anyone watch History of Now -The Story of the noughties, last night (9pm bbc2)?

It really got me thinking about how we have become a nation of shoppers over the past 10 years. When we got married in 1995 we never, ever went overdrawn despite being on a low wage. We didn't even own a credit card. It made me think, at what point did I think it was normal to have an overdraft of £1000+ and have 3 maxed out credit cards in my purse?!

cw18

grandma247 wrote: »

Debtmess have things changed then? I seem to remember a time when your Landlord did not need to know you were claiming housing benefit,it could be an arrangement between you and the council.

Unfortunately they do a check on finances - so they still know you're reliant on this. And I'm told (by a local agent when DD was trying to get a private rental while on the coucil waiting list) a lot of landlords don't have insurance policies that allow then to take people on HB

minjara

Ive been reading this thread over the past 24 hours, and think that I should probably join in. I have not done anything like this before and to be honest I'm not sure where to begin. I'm 24 and live with my fiance, but this is where is now gets a bit difficult.
I was in a temp job till yesterday, where I was ill (3rd day off since September due to having dodgy tummy for 7 weeks) and now i have been told my contract has ended. Oh well didn't like it anyway lol. My fiance hasn't been working since July when he got told to leave his job. Long story short, he has ulcerative colitis and got the job through his disability advisor, so the employer knew about it when he started, and they've taken his absences with that into account and said it was effecting the company. So it is now going through an employment tribunal, and they are going down the route of fighting the case with "Ulcerative Colitis is not covered by DDA" how utterly nonsensical. So here we are up to now. I was going to be moving out from living with him as he is about to go on to income based jsa and when i was working he would get nothing if i was still here (daft system, seeing if you are gay you can still stay together as you arent counted as a couple) but now i'll be on contributions and him on income based, I'm still moving out so he can get more benefits. So I'm moving into my mums on 23rd of this month as being there isn't going to effect them.

I'm just wondering how I'm going to work out a budget?? Will I just do it on the jsa i will get? Any tips will be great.

Minjara

candygirl

BAILS I feel like you can read my mind:eek::eek:.I'm a teacher (of 15 years) who is taking a break at the moment due to illness, and am looking for other avenues to explore in the future, as there's no way I can carry on teaching for another 20+ years:o:oI did have a lot of dreams inc owning a boarding kennels, but at the moment I can't even dream:o
Anyway am still snowed in today, and can't even get my car door open?Any tips gratefully received:rotfl::rotfl:
Am having a frugal NSD as not going to the shops, and am having DGD over tonight, so will prob be an all nighter as she is teething;)
Have fab frugal days everyone x:A

grandma247

Shaz I cant remember what the village was called and deliberately did not save it so I would not keep looking but it was somewhere near Mumby and the surrounding villages.

bails

Ooh great Lynda, we can share 'how to' tips when the time comes :T Just out of interest, why do you think completely cob isn't practical?

Welcome Minjara, Nyk will be along to add you to the list shortly. In your situation the best thing would be to add up your total income and then try to work out a budget for what you have coming in. Good luck and ask any questions along the way.

cw18

Well, I've been to vets with the Yorkie for her check-up.

Vet seems happy with the limited progress (ie. less messes, not sitting in those she does make, and no sign of a fit so far this week), so the meds are being continued.

At this point I pulled out a piece of paper (having checked prices on-line this morning), and asked what they charge per tablet and for a prescription enabling me to buy them on-line.

Ended up at the counter doing some calculations, and while she's still on all 3 it's definitely worth paying for the prescription - but the biggest saving is on the anti-biotics which will probably only appear on it for a month (this one alone saves £10.80 for a months supply).

I'm lucky that they're very understanding about my financial need to do all this checking of things, so have said they can normally write a prescription for up to 3 months worth at a time (though they need to check on the one that can't be on a repeat prescription) - and will put as much on it as they can. It's only one prescription charge (£10) regardless of how many items are on it, how many of each, and how many repeats are allowed.

As the lady I saw said (and the owner-vet backed up as she had to call on him to check the cost of the prescription), the dog is at an age where a lot of people would be weighing up the cost of long term medication against the cost & heartache of saying good-bye - so every bit I can save on the medications goes towards another months worth of tablets, hence giving us more time

Won't actually get the prescription until Tuesday (they ask for a full 48 hours notice, and only count Monday thru Friday), then I have to post it off and wait for the meds to reach me - so I've picked up 2 weeks worth from the vets at a cost of £24.94 (which includes £4.50 of dispensing fees, as that's apparently £1.50 per type of medication regardless of quantity - so balances out the cost of mailing the prescription to the other company and paying £2 for recorded delivery back to me of the meds).

I may end up going back to them for the one that's not available on a repeat prescription though - the on-line saving is only £2.40/month, so if they can only give 3 months at a time that's only a £7.20 saving and it would cost £10 for the prescription (plus postage both ways which would be about double the dispensing fee). So only worth getting on-line when I need a prescription for another medication at the same time.

But if the other long term one saves me £5.70/month (plus dispensing fee less postage). So if it repeats every 3 months for a year, over that year it gives a potential saving of £68 on meds plus £6 dispensing fees less £10 for the prescription less around £1 postage to send it off by recorded and £8 for 4 recorded deliveries back to me, so an overall annual saving of £55 give or take some pennies (which is equivalent to 120 tablets/4 months supply from the vet or 210 tablets/7 months supply from the on-line place - or covers over 8 months of the I will almost certainly be getting direct from the vet for most of the year, even at the price the vet charges).



So I even managed to keep my 'frugal head' attached this morning - whereas 2 years ago I'd have just paid what the vet asked for and not queried it :T

bails

candygirl wrote: »

BAILS I feel like you can read my mind:eek::eek:.I'm a teacher (of 15 years) who is taking a break at the moment due to illness, and am looking for other avenues to explore in the future, as there's no way I can carry on teaching for another 20+ years:o:oI did have a lot of dreams inc owning a boarding kennels, but at the moment I can't even dream:o

Everyone can dream Candygirl Tell us yours in detail and then we can help you closer to your goal (PM if you don't want to mention everything on here) x