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

cake21

minjara Sorry to hear your accommodation is up in the air, hope it all works out
Brighton belle We only have water on one side in Swansea...now I'm intrigued as to how many pseudo seaside cities there are :rotfl:
aeb thanks for sharing your story, very moving and absolutely inspirational
mumoffour77 fantastic news about your Dad, such a worry when they're ill
kalojac I do exactly the same as knithappens
Kiwisaver excellent news :j

So far netted £40 from sales of unwatched DVDs on Amazon, and spent £6 on two DVDs, one of which I've watched already :j
Back to work on Monday so I'm hoping the solid start to 2010 thanks to everyone's support on here will continue :T:A

slowlyfading

savingfortravel wrote: »

SF AND BF

Enjoy it sweetie! (confess to having big sisterly feelings towards little SF)

Aww that's lovely! I dont have any brothers or sisters

sophiesmum_2

I have been unable to figure out exactly how I was going to split my budgets for the coming year due to starting the year running two homes and commuting, and ending it with running one home and not travelling much.
I have now decided to not put a figure on my budget for this year at all. I am just going to work on "spending as little as possible whilst still maintaining a good quality of life". When we reduce to one property I will add up spends for the first half the year and then monitor spends for the second half. At the end of 2010 I will have a better idea of what budget to challenge for 2011. Still aiming to come in between £4 - £5,000 overall though, including long distance removal costs.

danielley

nykmedia wrote: »

Sorry to come across as a grump but I am really struggling to keep up with this thread and most of my time is being spent reading questions that have been answered many, many times. Might I suggest anyone wanting to take part reads post 1 and checks out the handy links list.

If anyone wants to take over this 'Frugal Living' challenge thread, please get in touch by PM, which stands for 'Private Message', as it just isn't what my original challenge is about.

Re the supermarket bargains, it is easy to just click the link in post one list of handy links. For those with no time to read it, the link is HERE The page carries a list of supermarkets, times of reductions and percentages. It also now has a link to the Approved Food discount info.

Hi Nyk

What is it that you feel people people are doing incorrect? What was your original aim? I'm sure if you let people know, everyone will get back on track

grandma247

Lilacpixie The laminate probably has been left too long. It must be cut a little short to account for movement over time.Even hot days can affect it. Carpet may well be the cheapest easiest option.
KazLA they would have been gone within the day in our house we love toasted onion bagels and with garlic even better.
Make the fish into bite size pieces and coat in breadcrumbs and fry. Serve with a nice dippy sauce. Even tomato sauce would do here.
mumtoomany what a wonderful way to look at it. Some people should not have kids.

Nyk perhaps if people have questions that are not answered on the first page they could highlight the question and make it stand out so you only need to skim for them ?

slowlyfading

Brighton_belle wrote: »

SF -PGCE's are very very tiring, but you are a third the way through now:T

I know, its going so fast that its a bit scary really!

bails wrote: »

Aah SFT, I feel the same about SF too! Enjoy your weekend with the boyfriend SF. And it's not soppy to remember what a lovely wedding you had with the lovely Mr SFT either

Aww, you two are always so lovely to me chin up though sweetie, I know it can't be easy being back here under the circumstances x x

mumoffour77 - I'm so glad your dad's operation went well
aeb - what an amazing story, you really are an inspiration. You sound so positive as well, in spite of everything


Well, me and the BF are going to pop into town later, and I'll be clinging on for dear life! If anyone else is going out today please please be careful - its still so icy out there.

Have a good day everyone, speak to you later

kittiej

Spent £3.04 on bread, pasties and cookies after being pestered by the children.

It's a good job I get staff discount :rolleyes:

£17.04 out of my £3000 so far.

lillibet_dripping

Afternoon all:j
I have finally finished reading (or skim-reading!) this thread - phew! I am usually found over on the Daily Chat thread but have succumbed to all you lovely peeps on here.
Cheryl - thanks for the spreadsheet. I started filling it in but got bogged down in the annual budget bit. I played around for a bit, then lost the lot! When I try to download another one from the link on the front page, I get a message saying the file is corrupted. I spent this morning doing the new MSE budgetbrain one and discovered that I am spending £717 per year more than I earn :eek: Since I joined MSE last year and overhauled all my expenditure and have tried really hard with budgeting, meal planning, whoopsie-ing, turning down the heating etc. etc. etc. I was gutted to find that, although I have trimmed my costs to the bone, I am still overspending. I moved house two months ago to a smaller property, with a smaller mortgage, but there seem to have been enormous costs in changing power suppliers/water accounts etc. etc. Not to mention the fact that the Council Tax won't have the usual two-month break - hopefully, by the time the spring comes all the estimated bills etc will have evened out and I can control the finances a bit more. I can then start stockpiling and batch cooking - it's all I can do to get through each week right now:o

aeb - I was touched by your story and admire your courage. Not many of us will ever have to deal with even half of what you have been through and to cap it all with triplets - I take my hat off to you,you are an inspiration.

fay - glad to hear of your wedding plans. Will you be wearing stripey socks under that wedding gown:D

I am looking forward to getting to know you all over the coming months and being inspired by your stories.
Lilli

cw18

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

Cheryl - thanks for the spreadsheet. I started filling it in but got bogged down in the annual budget bit. I played around for a bit, then lost the lot! When I try to download another one from the link on the front page, I get a message saying the file is corrupted.

That would probably have been my fault

I discovered a small (display formatting only) 'bug' in them due to a query from someone, so I updated and re-uploaded them.

rictus123

kittiej wrote: »

Spent £3.04 on bread, pasties and cookies after being pestered by the children.

It's a good job I get staff discount :rolleyes:

£17.04 out of my £3000 so far.

Hey can you link me to the olympic countdown thread please?