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

cake21

in spired2 you've done loads, well done!
Paulgonnabedebtfree :rotfl:at those beans
Rictus Olympic challenge
nykmedia I tried the budgetbrain and it highlighted HOW MUCH :eek: my mortgage payments were compared to the rest of my outgoings. I knew, but seeing it in a pie-chart made it seem even worse somehow
DdraigGoch fantastic ideas about getting the family involved, I live alone but spend a lot of time with my more prolifigate sister's family (sneakily bought them a boiler jacket )
minjara If your OH won't budge on the buildings/contents insurance, maybe they'd go for using a cashback site? How long you have left on the mobile contracts? Maybe worth checking if you could get cashback to cover the fee to break the contract and going to a cheaper deal? 900 minutes is a lot (I talk a lot on the phone too, and cut down using Skype to chat to anyone with a broadband connection ). Phone/Sky/Internet - are you in contract for these? If you're not using the landline for calls, do you need it? I saved £10/month going to cable internet and cancelling my BT landline. Electric seems quite high too, long looong reducing gas & electric thread here with loads of tips to reduce gas & electric usage. Don't want to sound critical, absolutely not the intention, but I know the sinking feeling when the books don't balance.
cw18 that was really nice of you, good samaritan mission with the scooter chap :A
lynzpower echo the others, £1200 is very high for frugalites (it's actually pretty average for the UK I think:rotfl:). Loads of tips on the link above, what's worked really well for me is closing all internal doors, thick curtains, liners, *and* blankets at the windows. Covering the doors helped too.
Savethekipper Some people are using Green Metropolis to sell books, but I haven't used them myself. Would be interested to hear how you get on. What I like about Amazon is that you don't pay any fees if you don't sell the book, and you can check the postage costs before setting the price. Great if you have the space to be patient, not if you want to get rid asap I suppose.
skint_chick brilliant work with the understairs cupboard!

NSD 5 today :j

NualaBuala

lynzpower wrote: »

I would love to get a sewing machine. I remember being taught at school how to use one and OH MY I was totally rubbish. I have very poor hand eye co-ordination and cannot to this day thread a needle! I saw one somewhere recently though ( starter type) for only about 30 quid and I thought it was a good buy and have bene considering it. Whether I get any further than that I dont know but I thought it would be useful to whizz up basic curtains and take up trousers.

Hi Lynz! I've been thinking the same (were we discussing this on another thread a while ago, I'm getting deja vu!). I think I broke the machine in school, I'm rubbish. But I'd love to be able to do useful things so the idea is appealing to me.

Savethekipper wrote: »

Hi all

Wondered if any of you "frugalers" had any advice on the best place to sell books on the internet? Preferably an easy to understand website.

They are mainly hard back books that are pretty large and I am wondering if the cost of posting them out to any buyers may make selling them worthless.

Hi Kipper (if I may call you that), I've been thinking of doing the same thing but don't want the hassle if the P&P eats up the profit. I've never sold anything online, the thought scares me TBH. Some of my books are from my first degree and I was thinking of posting an ad on the relevant Dept. noticeboard if they'll let me. But for the rest I just don't know. Also I have tonnes of CDs and records I don't want and it would be nice to get some money for them.

KazLA

grandma247 wrote: »

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.

Thanks for that, will add the fish to my meal plan for next wk - and perhaps get a couple of bagels out in place of garlic bread next time we have risotto or pasta!

NualaBuala

KazLA, I wonder would the bagels be nice turned into mini-pizzas with tomato puree/passata, grated cheese, bits of ham, mushroom or whatever. The hole in the middle might prove a nuisance though.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Well that was a fairly expensive day. £103.95 on a van battery and 20p tea money in the pot for a club I'm in. Only the 20p was optional - but it would have gone against the spirit of things to not do it.

minjara

cake21 wrote: »

minjara If your OH won't budge on the buildings/contents insurance, maybe they'd go for using a cashback site? How long you have left on the mobile contracts? Maybe worth checking if you could get cashback to cover the fee to break the contract and going to a cheaper deal? 900 minutes is a lot (I talk a lot on the phone too, and cut down using Skype to chat to anyone with a broadband connection ). Phone/Sky/Internet - are you in contract for these? If you're not using the landline for calls, do you need it? I saved £10/month going to cable internet and cancelling my BT landline. Electric seems quite high too, long looong reducing gas & electric thread here with loads of tips to reduce gas & electric usage. Don't want to sound critical, absolutely not the intention, but I know the sinking feeling when the books don't balance.

Hey there. They mobiles were taken in sept and oct. No its 900 mix n match but i can put that down to 500. Electric is the lowest it can go to as no central heating, its only storage heaters that we have. We need a landline for the broadband, and sky aren't offering unlimited downloads in our area. Back to the drawing board!

Ches

Spent £14 on hobby stuff today but nothing on groceries (I should question my priorities I think). OH bought some bread but as it was from his money I am not counting it. Nothing else needed as another meal from freezer and store today. Did shepherds pie with leftover lamb that I froze down in Christmas week. Potatoes from a large bag I bought before Christmas which live on my patio (has a roof over). Still haven't cashed this weeks money as I haven't been near a cashpoint so still working on week 1 money.

grandma247

For all those wanting to use a sewing machine. I too used to mess up the school ones but we had one at the boarding school I went to briefly and it was a very basic old singer machine. We could use it anytime without supervision so I used to get it out and practice with it. I did much better on that as there was not much to go wrong so when I bought my first machine I went for a very basic one. It did not even have zigzag but I wished it had. I made all three of my girls dresses from birth to about 13 or so. I also figured out how to make a jacket and made one for my ds1 when he was about ten. I also made a lot of my own dresses and skirts.
What I am trying to say is practice makes perfect and when you haven't a teacher breathing down your neck you can get into it more. So try and get a machine off freecycle and give it a go. There are lots of sites on the internet with info for beginners with pictures.

larmy16

Grandma that was touching post and brought back memories of my mum who used to sew all our clothes without a pattern and very often designing things which then seemed to be in all the catalogues a year later.

Myself, I am terrified of sewing machines. I recall being at school in a sewing exam and being given all these "facings" - I panicked and did not have a clue what to do with them, so ended up just sewing the whole lot together and telling the teacher I had finished. It gave me the same sense of panic that maths did.

I have a basic sewing machine from Tchibo but it sits in my cupboard unused and unloved. Your post has made me think I must overcome my fear of it.
My niece went to classes and has made such great strides that she is now making covers for her settee!!

thriftylass

One is only away for a day and there's another 8 pages, lol.

Had a really productive day. Went to work, then cleaned the house, updated my spreadsheets, counted my shrapnel and will bring that to the bank on Monday. I also made lemon biskuits from the 50 year old Glasgow cookbook (from my late "MIL") which still gives temperatures in Regulo No and never tells you the time it takes to bake . Atm I'm crocheting a cover for my hot water bottle as the rubber always is uncomfortably hot.

I also finally typed up my family medical history that I had on a worn piece of paper. Never know when you need it.

HELP NEEDED I got an old labtop that I want to recycle/sell. Has anyone advice what to do with it (charity shop, PCW0rld, 3bay or else?, I guess selling it will cost a fortune in postage) and how to erase all data. I downloaded some software that was suppost to do it but didn't. Thanks

My plan for tomorrow is to do some more work for work, redo my list on Am@z0n and declutter my wardrobe and maybe spend some of my xmas vouchers to fill it up again . Well and try to catch up with all the post.

P.S. Just had a little (tiny) skim through the post and noticed people exchanging locations. Anyone near Dundee?