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

lynzpower

I have had some more thoughts on the challenge and budget setting. I aim to save 12,000 this year absolute minimum. I have recently started on a bonus scheme at work and this should help ( heres hoping) I will play around with the figures again today, and see what I can come up with.

Hope everyone has a great frugal day. Im going to buy lunch today as im out all day, but I know a great chippy and will just have chips ( take away and have own drinks & snacks in the car)

Savvy_sewing

Well as it has been snowing here again over night. I will be having my 6th NSD in a row. I wont be going anywhere until I can get help to dig the car out.
Luckily there is plenty food in the cupboards and freezers. I have taken a chicken out to defrost last night, was £3.00 so I need to make it last into at least 8 servings, if I am going to keep my budget down to around 50p a portion.
So I am off to think about what to do with it. Maybe dig out the slow cooker, if I can lift it, (Usually ask my son to get it out for me, but he is not here).
Take care everyone. Mooloo

larmy16

Well I am off to work - think I may have forgotten how to drive! I would walk but the paths are a bit lethal around here. Will post later.

cha97michelle

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

How long has the battery been in the car. If you've had five winters out of it that's reasonable. The one I just changed was nearly seven years old and was in its sixth winter (vehicle first used in March 03).
If you've had 5 years out of it probably time to change it.

I'm not sure Paul. It is a 51 plate Skoda Fabia. We bought it in 2007 when i was pregnant and couldn't get my DS1 into his car seat with my 3 door car. It has less than 17000 miles on the clock so it is probably the original battery. To be honest, i've had a flat battery the past 3 years over christmas when we are away and it is most likely lack of use.

It started ok this morning (touch wood) so we may manage another winter out of it yet. :rolleyes: I probably need to budget for it during this year though.



The slow cooker is on already with a brisket joint. Think that will be on all day, but i am hoping it will be nice as i have never cooked one before.

thriftylass

Good morning,

had another two NSDs over the weekend (this is going better than expected) although I spent about £80 but all in christmas vouchers on clothes in various shops and toiletries in B00ts.

lingojingo

Snowing again here, school closed, so will probably be another no spend day.
Go carefully everyone who is driving to work etc. Take care SF

cw18

cha97michelle wrote: »

I'm not sure Paul. It is a 51 plate Skoda Fabia. We bought it in 2007 when i was pregnant and couldn't get my DS1 into his car seat with my 3 door car. It has less than 17000 miles on the clock so it is probably the original battery. To be honest, i've had a flat battery the past 3 years over christmas when we are away and it is most likely lack of use.

Have to say it's done well if it's the original.....

I have a low mileage 52 reg Punto, which I bought July/Aug 2006. In Feb 2007 I had to replace the battery, as the original gave up the ghost. And last month I had to replace it again !!! I'm doing around 3-4k miles a year, with it almost all as short start/stop trips - and this hammers a battery more than high mileage use on a multitude of long runs........

Have been told by several sources that 3 years was good given my mileage/style of useage, and I only kept it going that long as I spent the last 14 months jump-starting it every time the weather was cold (or very wet for more than 12 hours) - so, effectively, the local garages/mechanics are all telling me I should expect to have to replace it every couple of years :eek:


Yet another expense that could become to regular for me to justify keeping the car if I'm 100% honest

mooomin

Morning all,

Well, I'm full of the cold and feeling rotten so no work for me. I should be fine for another NSD as we have enough milk/bread to keep us going and we have some posh loo roll I can use if I run out of tissues

No real frugality to report this morning, although the heating isn't on as I have a massive padded shirt stolen from Mr Fresian to wear. I have also responded to two "Wanted" ads on Freecycle - one for a telly and one for an electric heater. We have both items sitting unloved in the spare room so I have been able to do some decluttering without getting out of bed.

I may well photograph some Ebay items quickly this morning then get back into bed and start doing descriptions on TurboLister to wait patiently for another EBay free listing day.

Off to make breakfast now and see what's in the freezer that will count as dinner with the smallest amount of actual cooking...

FrankieM

Morning All,
The thread is currently moving a bit fast for me to read indepth...so I hope you are all doing well.

We had our 'pigs face' for dinner on saturday. We found it very fatty so I don't think i'll be doing that again!
I've got some pork bones in the slow cooker that i need to strip then i think I'm going to make lentil soup with the stock.
Went to Aldi yesterday and bought a load of brussels, cabbage, onions and parsnips on their 'Super 6' offer. Will prep and freeze those today.

my DH has been looking online and stumbled across a smallholding in Wales. Of course, I love it so I'm busy trying to figure out how we can afford it!
The thing is, i've never wanted to live in Wales, often got the impression they don't like 'incomers'.....any Welsh out there, please don't shoot me down..persuade me gently . Will the fact that I'm Australian make a difference???

grannynise

Thank you to all you inspiring frugallers!

Last night I made a sauce for a pasta bake using all the scraps of vegetables and a little bit of meat left over from the previous two days evening meals, plus some frozen home grown tomatoes and some slightly past its best low fat soft cheese. Previously the leftovers would have gone in the bin, and the out of date cheese . Not only was it lovely, there is plenty for Mr Granny and me for lunch today.

An unexpected benefit of frugalling is that I have less guilt about gettiing back into bed this morning, with my breakfast and the laptop, as I can justify it not as sloth but as keeping the heating turned down. Re-sult!