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

debtmess

cw18 wrote: »

Think DS1 said 5:50pm? Hohne, 32 Eng Rgt

i spent 3 years there when my ex was with 32engr regt, loved every minuite of the time i spent living there, we lived off camp though in bergen

Morning all

no snow fell overnight (bonus) it was forcast but every house up the street has a clear roof.

thanmk you for some ideas for the use of bedding, i am now tempted to pop a cover over the double duvet (its a very thick 13tog) and pile it up by the front door, whatever it looks like it will keep some extra heat in.

Got a bag of chicken portions to cook today, 1 each for roast dinner, will then take any meat of remaining for a 2 more meals (i hope) and then a soup

might venture out this morning, asda opens at 10 there is nothing i desperatly need but a few things are running low

lynzpower

Hiya all

Done a few things this morning ( been up since 5) to make sure we are living frugal

*new Home insurance quote with 55 quid cash back, quite pleased with that as it will actually end up cheaper than last year which I just didnt think possible. With cashback thats just 4.41 a month :beer:

*Ive set up paypal and quidco money to go into a savings account.
*done some toluna surveys
*bought my pru fitbug that should be bringing down my cost of private health care & read jans articles to get prupoints for those
*shuffled some accounts around meaning that I am now out of the danger zone overdraft-wise. ( i was owed some cash from the bills account I forgot about :beer:)
*have found some cash I didn't know I had in my paypal account :T - this will go into savings in due course.
*am now about to do my work expenses, Im owed a fair amount here ( few hundred) so i need to get this claim in asap.

Feeling v moneysaving today, so will definatley go into Oxford st and take this stuff back. We are going to try a new bus route that OH will try to get to work instead of the tube, saving almost 15.00 a week if this works ( seems to be 20 mins quicker too!)

As its so early and he wont be up yet I might go downstairs and make the mexican bean soup, as Ive done most of my online frugaling for the moment.

Hope everyone has a great day

Hardup_Hester

Hi all
Last day off for me, I think I shall be expected at work tomorrow unless we have more snow. Still at least the snow is ensuring plenty of NSD. Hubby fancied some crisps yesterday, so I made him some, while I had the food processor out to cut the potatoes & did extra potatoes & some onion, covered them with half & half milk & water & some boursin (6 weeks past bbd) baked it in the oven 200, covered in foil til potatoes were soft, then uncovered til brown & crispy on top, yummy.
Today I'm going to reorganise my kitchen to try & make a bit more space, I may be some time!
Hugs Hester

shaz_mum_of__2

Finally caught up

Not sure whether to add to the growing thread with individual responses but here goes have restricted it to advice rather than chatter...mostly

AEB - you are a star but i thought yo were in Norfolk for some reason.

Warney - love the garden.........and the outfit:rotfl:

Grandma- are the towels wrapped round the outdoor pipe ? if this is a bad idea the damp towels will freeze and the pipes along with them!!

Aril - pesto is nice on chicken rub under skin before roasting

Thriftkitten- was your yeast fresh dried yeast or sachets of easy yeast?? i ask because the allinsons type needs mixing with water before use and is not good for machines


Lynzi - if leccie is free why not get convector heaters which can be wall mounted instead much cheaper

And finally

Dgraigoch - can i be the chocolate monitoring fairy??:rotfl::rotfl:

Done a very frugal shop today and overpaid just over 5K on our mortgage

Blairweech

Hi all

Have not caught up yet, so I hope everyone is alright. I'm stuck at home, my car is stuck about 3 miles away. My water pipes are frozen and I'm just about to run out of electric. Trying to think of a plan currently...

lynzpower

Oh no blairweech!

What can you do! I hadnt even considered people like you who cant get out to put electric/gas on the meter :eek:

I did used to work for gas cards ( as a temp) and we used to organise a "wind on" Ie you can "borrow" some gas and then there is a debt on the card that has to be paid off. Can this be done on electric keys?

Also in one of the properties I manage they have wrapped old blankets/duvets/towels round the water pipes to unfreeze them.. is this an option?

cw18

((hugs)) Blairweech - hope you manage to sort out your electricity soon. It's in weather like this I'm especially glad not to be on a pre-paid meter!! DD mentioned early in the week she needed to top up, and I advised her that (as long as she had the money) it probably wouldn't be a bad thing to top up a lot more than she normally does at a time. (She's paid from work monthly, but normally tops up her meters when she gets her Tax Credits on a weekly basis).

I took into account the fact the roads on her estate aren't nice for dragging two little ones up to the shop and there's always a danger that (if they get any worse) the shop won't be open anyway !! Add to that she always uses her debit card, and if the phone lines on the estate go down (a couple of have come down in her street) I'd guess that the shop won't be able to take cards and the cash machine outside could well be out of action/out of cash :eek:

Thriftkitten

Hi it was the Allinsons dry little round ball type, I did mix it with enough water and made by hand for the first time not in the breadmaker as I normally do, it was the first time also using the dried yeast, I found it lurking at the back of the cupboard and had a bb date of 2008 D'oh, may of been reason why it didnt work. will try only fresh yeast free from Mr T's next time and stick to breadmaker.

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Finally caught up

Not sure whether to add to the growing thread with individual responses but here goes have restricted it to advice rather than chatter...mostly

AEB - you are a star but i thought yo were in Norfolk for some reason.

Warney - love the garden.........and the outfit:rotfl:

Grandma- are the towels wrapped round the outdoor pipe ? if this is a bad idea the damp towels will freeze and the pipes along with them!!

Aril - pesto is nice on chicken rub under skin before roasting

Thriftkitten- was your yeast fresh dried yeast or sachets of easy yeast?? i ask because the allinsons type needs mixing with water before use and is not good for machines


Lynzi - if leccie is free why not get convector heaters which can be wall mounted instead much cheaper

And finally

Dgraigoch - can i be the chocolate monitoring fairy??:rotfl::rotfl:

Done a very frugal shop today and overpaid just over 5K on our mortgage

purple_angel_3

Started to snow again in Wales.No plans to go out today, need to update spread sheet with yesterday's spends and put the finishing touches to my essay.
Hope everyone has a good day.
purple_angel

Thriftkitten

Hi Blairweech,
I was offered a little home top up thingy that plugs into my laptop and works with your debit card, From british gas, not sure who you are currently with but maybe something to think about, I know its no consolation for now but maybe longer term.

Blairweech wrote: »

Hi all

Have not caught up yet, so I hope everyone is alright. I'm stuck at home, my car is stuck about 3 miles away. My water pipes are frozen and I'm just about to run out of electric. Trying to think of a plan currently...