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

Frugaldom

Nessa56 wrote: »

Oh my gawd, time I went I think ha ha.

I just did a mini inventory my self and for some reason I have 4 tins of sweetcorn, and 4 tins of carrots (both of which I hate ?) I live on my own as well so must have got them for guests at some time ???
v
x

Could you swap them for something else from a neighbour? My frugal neighbours have decided on having a vegetarian lifestyle, so we've been busy swapping all sorts of things! It's great fun, I love trading far more than spending. (OK, so I just hate spending, I know, I've heard every 'mean Scot' joke under the sun! :rotfl:)

Frankie, you're right. January does usually seem to be a high spend month for me. It's when I like to stock up on bargains and be really prepared for winter setting in for the long haul. We had frosts from late October through 'til mid May last year, so I like to try and be prepared, even to the extent that I'd normally be buying Christmas presents, cards and wrapping paper in the January sales! No more of that, though, as this year is homemade or recycled all the way. It's one of my most expensive months for fuel, as electricity use peaks between January & March plus I like to fill up the coal bunker and log store at the start of the year.

Nothing wrong here other than snowed under (pardon the pun) trying to keep up with posts, normal work and paperwork whilst trying to polish my budget a little more - I need to find £1500 to fill my ISA, as it's all part of the master plan. DD's wedding in September meant everything extra prior to that was allocated elsewhere but we all had a fab time.

Has anyone else fed their annual budgets into the new freebie MSE tool at www.budgetbrain.com? It could be a real eye-opener but us country bumpkins still need to add in extra bits for stuff like logs and coal. :rolleyes:

DdraigGoch

I'm not the only one with stuff in the pantry which makes me think, "WHY did I get that?!" then?..... phew!

DdraigGoch

Oh, just an idea I posted elsewher and thought might be fun for someone on here re getting little ones into the MSE way of life, unconsciously of course... was that when the children were very young was that I gave each child the position of Fairy/Angel/Brownie/Imp etc - eg "The Electricity Fairy", "The Fire Angel", etc - for various moneysaving jobs around the house. For instance, the Electricity Fairy was resposible for turning out the lights around the house through the day/night and if s/he did it well then the naughty Pixie, who ate up all the electricity and made all Mummy's Treat Jar money go to the Electricty company instead, didn't get any electricity .... :rotfl: and we could go to the park and feed the ducks more often..... The Fire Angel's job was to make sure we always had a clean hearth and lots of suitable sticks, newspaper balls and newspaper spills - that way Jack Frost couldn't get down the chimney and make the house cold.... :j

Now, I realise that adults aren't exactly going to volunteer to be the Electric Light Fairy but I did find that allocating moneysaving jobs to the same grown up people on the same basis worked wonders! I decided out of hand one day that I'd had ENOUGH and vaguely announced over dinner one evening that X would be responsible for turning off the lights, A would be responsible for making sure that the doors were all shut, B would etc etc. I then acted as though they were willing to do the job ..... It took a while for it to sink in, but when I pointed out that if the doors weren't shut then there wasn't enough money left to do x, y or z then the Door Fairy started to jump up and nag about the doors being left open, the Light Fairy ditto, the Socket Monitor was an absolute fiend about unplugging everything of everyone else's :rotfl:

Cause and effect worked for me, with some humour.

Hope that helps someone to have a giggle and get the message through!

Oh, and the Kettle Problem - ie they always fill up the kettle for one cuppa... grrrr ... was mostly solved by me making a cuppa first thing and putting the rest into a Thermos right in the way of the kettle and constantly saying words to the effect of, "It saves so much time if you just use a cupful of the water from the flask, so much nicer than hanging around waiting for it." Sneaky or what?! Teehee.

minjara

Well the latest is that even though my partner is older n gets more money than me we will only get £100.95 pw to live on and we are going to be coming in at a deficit. Our income:

£100.95 x 4 - £403.80
Dave - £70

Expenditure
Gas - £2
Elex - £87
TV - £12.12
Sky - £22.50 (think theres a lower price)
Internet - £21.99
Phone - need to investigate a monthly amount
Mobile - £40 (mine should be able to go down to £30)
Mobile - £40
Paymentshield - £49
Life ins - £10.50
Home contents - £23
JL - £20
HSBC - £30
Scottish water £7.99
Car - £49
Housekeeping £60

So without including the home phone we are at a deficit of £1.30, so with it will prob be about a deficit of £27.

God we are up a certain creek again without a certain paddle.:eek:

Nessa56

not good news Minjara but i am sure looking at your list there are savings to be made,

how about looking at changing your provider for tv, internet and landline? Also look at changing you contents insurance ? seems a bit high to me all of those,

Also if you haven't already, sign up for site like Quidco and shop through them to get cashback, could save you a small fortune and get you cashback to boot.

Hope that helps a little

good luck

v
x

[Deleted User]

DdraigGoch wrote: »

Oh, just an idea I posted elsewher and thought might be fun for someone on here re getting little ones into the MSE way of life, unconsciously of course... was that when the children were very young was that I gave each child the position of Fairy/Angel/Brownie/Imp etc - eg "The Electricity Fairy", "The Fire Angel", etc - for various moneysaving jobs around the house. For instance, the Electricity Fairy was resposible for turning out the lights around the house through the day/night and if s/he did it well then the naughty Pixie, who ate up all the electricity and made all Mummy's Treat Jar money go to the Electricty company instead, didn't get any electricity .... :rotfl: and we could go to the park and feed the ducks more often..... The Fire Angel's job was to make sure we always had a clean hearth and lots of suitable sticks, newspaper balls and newspaper spills - that way Jack Frost couldn't get down the chimney and make the house cold.... :j

Now, I realise that adults aren't exactly going to volunteer to be the Electric Light Fairy but I did find that allocating moneysaving jobs to the same grown up people on the same basis worked wonders! I decided out of hand one day that I'd had ENOUGH and vaguely announced over dinner one evening that X would be responsible for turning off the lights, A would be responsible for making sure that the doors were all shut, B would etc etc. I then acted as though they were willing to do the job ..... It took a while for it to sink in, but when I pointed out that if the doors weren't shut then there wasn't enough money left to do x, y or z then the Door Fairy started to jump up and nag about the doors being left open, the Light Fairy ditto, the Socket Monitor was an absolute fiend about unplugging everything of everyone else's :rotfl:

Cause and effect worked for me, with some humour.

Hope that helps someone to have a giggle and get the message through!

Oh, and the Kettle Problem - ie they always fill up the kettle for one cuppa... grrrr ... was mostly solved by me making a cuppa first thing and putting the rest into a Thermos right in the way of the kettle and constantly saying words to the effect of, "It saves so much time if you just use a cupful of the water from the flask, so much nicer than hanging around waiting for it." Sneaky or what?! Teehee.

These are great ideas and a good way to help develop self-responsibility in the family. It's the lack of this skill in our country which got us into recession in the first place:mad:

Thriftkitten

Well started the day today baking fairy cakes for the weeks snacks and attempted some home made bread with some dried yeast... first attempt at homemade bread and it came out like an unrisen scud missile.. Oh well guess I could stock up on them incase St Ives comes under attack!!
Not sure what I did wrong, but think I will try with some free fresh yeast next time! DD 11yrs is now busy making a coffee walnut cake( My frugalling is rubbing off on her) Yea right, guess who will be cleaning up!
slid down to the nearest shop and stocked up on milk, potates,rice etc £18.00 spend off my monthly grocery,No whoopsies though, however due to the ice, no chance of taking the car to Mr T's.sitting in kitchen wearing 2 jumpers and my russian hat(lol) planning tomorrow's dinner before tonights.

[Deleted User]

minjara wrote: »

Well the latest is that even though my partner is older n gets more money than me we will only get £100.95 pw to live on and we are going to be coming in at a deficit. Our income:

£100.95 x 4 - £403.80
Dave - £70

Expenditure
Gas - £2
Elex - £87
TV - £12.12
Sky - £22.50 (think theres a lower price)
Internet - £21.99
Phone - need to investigate a monthly amount
Mobile - £40 (mine should be able to go down to £30)
Mobile - £40
Paymentshield - £49
Life ins - £10.50
Home contents - £23
JL - £20
HSBC - £30
Scottish water £7.99
Car - £49
Housekeeping £60

So without including the home phone we are at a deficit of £1.30, so with it will prob be about a deficit of £27.

God we are up a certain creek again without a certain paddle.:eek:

Oh dear Is there any way you can reduce your mobile phone bills more? They seem high amounts to spend on a regular basis.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
I have had a really lazy day…not even thought about school work..having the day off.

Interesting reading about everyone’s first week. I too have been spending more than usual. Bizarrely getting quality summer clothes from ebay (mostly monso*n so I can resell them when I get fed up). And some new school shoes. Looks like we’ll be spending a bit on Branston beans too (see below)
Nyk-Great to hear about the swaps. Wish I had neighbours like that. Is it SM whose gone veggie?
Ddraig-Used to do the thermos flask by kettle. Must return to that.
Inspired-You have made some fantastic changes to your life. Wow!
Landreg-Have to crown you Whoopsie Queen.
Grandma-Glad DH is doing well with the heaters and you sorted out the pipe. Invaluable advice on this thread.
Rictus-Sorry to hear about the work.
Good to hear your news SM
Lillibet-The GC group are lovely too…I moved here because I wanted a frugal Lifestyle challenge and didn’t want to go off topic on GC thread.
Rachelet-Wow, congrats on the chickens and goats
Hardup-You sound very organised with your meal planning
Batcatz-Wow, so much food from one chicken breast! Is that 3 portions in total?
Ceri-And I could educate all those children.
Paul-LOL at your beans story. But we bought over 100 tins of Br*nston B B last year when there was an offer on and moved house half way through the year (lots of jokes made by family members then). We have just run out so we will be stocking up again when the next offer is on…just checked and Mr T does have 4 for 89p now until 19th so we’ll start stocking up for the year now.
Mushy-Just been to Mr T and it was heaving too. Only bought bread/veggies and LM sausages which are only £1. Got given some stilton by Mr SFT’s parents but it tasted a little strange but won’t be chucking it out so put it will go with some broccoli to make soup. Also going to make spicy vegetable soup as I think I’m addicted-using leeks/potatoes/carrots/swede and onion.
Mumoffour-So glad that your dad is out tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Take care

SFT

minjara

Sadly not. The lowest mine can go is £30 as its on contract still and same with other halfs. The insurance stuff is his. Payment shield can't come down due to it being locked in at the moment. The phone, I think we should be able to go on to the light user scheme due to both being unemployed and going on to housing benefit for the council tax. Sky we should be able to bring down to £18 odd.