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

flippin36

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
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

WD40 the night before

cw18

minjara wrote: »

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

Welcome to the challenge Minjara

You need to make sure that you can pay all the essentials without falling into debt - so (assuming you don't have significant savings to fall back on that you can afford to rely on using to cover bills), then your outgoings MUST be no more than your income (JSA)

catznine

nykmedia wrote: »

Catz, my DD got married last year and, between us, we managed to budget for everything she could possibly have wanted. There are also a few people on here who are getting married this year, so I'm sure there'll be a frugal wedding thread as well. I had a quick look through your budget but you don't seem to have included things like electricity, heating, TV, Internet, landline or any insurance payments.

Thanks Nyk! I will go and look at that thread asap! I didn't include the utilities as dh has those sorted and I have no control (other than advise) over them. This is the budget that I control and that I know I can with some effort cut back on, which will help towards wedding costs. Hope it is still ok to be part of the challenge though!:o I am just a housewife, had to give up work when I got cfs but I don't even have benefits to put towards bills (didn't want to go through that sort of stress tbh as stress agrivates cfs) we manage with care on dh's wage. I see my work as saving the pennies, growing our veg (when energy levels allow) and cutting back on waste.

candygirl

bails wrote: »

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

I am kind of brain dead at the moment, and can't even visualise my old dream, but thanks for the offer hun :o

warney27

Morning all!
I thougth today was going to be NSD but i have just checked the bank account and Sky have taken out a direct debit of £68, i thought this is a bit high for my liking, so i had a check. I am still subsribing to ESPN which I have hardly watched, so i have canceled that and I watched 4 box office movies last month aswell. I really must stop that as I have hundreds of dvds here.
Anyway todays plans are;
1. make scrambled egg on toast for lunch, using up the bread from the breadmaker experience yesterday, which turned out very nice indeed
2. maybe make a chocolate chip and hazelnut cookie dough and freeze for future snacks
3. Enter the competitions that have been added since last night
4. Finish reading the "turn £100 into £10000" thread which i got 16 pages into last night
5. Work out a plan for how I turn £100 into £10000
6. Spend some quality time with the family
7. Cook turkey stir fry for tea
8. anything else that comes up

here are some of my other threads if people want to know anymore about us
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2189521&highlight=
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2062597&highlight=
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2150225&highlight=
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2103773&highlight=
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2027083&highlight=

thanks again for the welcome

lyndasharp

bails wrote: »

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?

Partly because of insulation - don't you need really thick walls to keep it fully warm? That could be awkward in terms of size and light... Also for funding, as if we still need a mortgage at that point it might be more difficult on a non standard build... but I could be wrong, and as I've not been in one it might be totally different when we are at the point of looking at it properly!

Yikes, tesc0 home insurance renewal is £100 more than last year! Not a chance of me renewing this given the other quotes I've had.

Pippilongstocking

Morning um afternoon chaps!

Quick hello - not much on the frugal front today - took in my HM brekkie

Lilac Pixie - getting married outdoors (humanist service) in a woodland up the A9

SFT - thanks for the lovely messages! Yup coal more warm than wood - but wood I guess heats you at least 3x - cutting it, moving it and using it!

Hope you're all well today - moved £3.17 from current account to savings as it wasn't needed for DD's
Must do some batch cooking later but have a huge report to finish

Back to the grind!

flippin36

Savingfortravel - I thought I knew meanqueen from her photo. I was trying to think where I'd seen her before and I managed to find a program that I must have watched. I remembered her when she mentioned boys pants in her blog!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-hunt-for-britains-tightest-person/4od#2926877

She's great isn't she. I hope she finds Mr Right one day.

Kittikins

Lynda - Te$co upped my home insurance by about that much, but when I went online and did a quote as a new customer, it was lower. I did other quotes and of course Mr T's were the cheapest (as a new customer), so I was a bit over a barrel. I called them and said I wasn't going to renew but would be a new customer instead, and they matched the online quote. Hope it works for you too....

danielley

Warney 27 : I managed to get 20% off my Sky subs the other day (see below) - worth a try at least

danielley wrote: »

Just posted similar to this on the Digital TV thread, but just got 20% off my Sky subs for 3 months, just for asking if they had any deals on.

Saving £10 a month. Should really be putting it to the base package, but I am holding off until I absolutely have to:o