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

slowlyfading

Evening everyone.

I'm glad this thread has slowed down a bit - I feel I can keep up a bit better!

Had an okay day at placement today - my year 9 class were okay but my year 7 class last lesson was not that great - they were all bouncing off the wall. Oh well, on to tomorrow.

Another NSD today makes the total up to 7. I'm going to try not to spend until the weekend, if my petrol lasts that long. If not, I'll just put in about £20.

Have a good evening everyone

rozeepozee

Was hoping it was going to be a NSD today but, although I spent money, I did make some savings.

As I looked on the website for directions to my pregnancy yoga class, I noticed that the first lesson was offered free, so I used my free trial. A saving of £5!

Also, complained about the poor customer service I'd received whe trying to order my son's toddler group photos from the photo processing company and asked for a dicount and they offered me £5 off. I then cheekily said - and I suppose you wont be charging me for the postage either.. and she said alright then, so i saved around £7.50 in total - if you don't ask, you don't get

Discovered that my savings attached to my offset mortgage account are attracting a fairly paltry 1.29% and there's a good amount on deposit, so I'm going to open a few savings accounts tomorrow (Best Buys recommended here). The gain will be subtantial and I can't believe I haven't done it sooner as I've had a few New Years Resolutions to get my finances in order in the past. It's amazing how much momentum one can gain from joining a challenge like this - so I think I'm saying thanks for the support guys! :beer: (I also complained to the bank abou thow long it had taken me to find out this information - I was sent all round the houses to various departments and spent about an hour on the phone so I asked for compensation for the cost of these calls. It has to go through a formal complaints procedure - ridiculous, considering we're probably talking £5 or £10 in costs here! - but I don't see why I should pay for the bank's incompetence - I dunno what was the matter with me today - must be the pregnancy hormones grrr!)

loopychriss

I thought today might have been a big spendy day, as I was meeting my quilting group for lunch at a local Chinese buffet, which was in a local shopping outlet. I had a wander around M&S, and resisted a fleece at £2.50.... ! I was quite tempted but the only one that fitted was in cerise, and I've got one that colour. I wanted blue but they only had size 12s..... I could have had beige but I'm not ready to wear beige yet! I also saw a nice watch in a jewellery outlet.... everything in there is half the RRP anyway, plus they take another £5 off the price, so it would have cost £5. I don't really need another watch though, and couldn't think of anyone to buy it for, so again I resisted. In fact, I only spent £1, and that was on a presentation box for a set I'd bought there last year and want to give to my niece for her 21st.

I wandered around all the shops.... Past Times, The Range, The Paper Mill Shop.... Mountain Warehouse... and just couldn't find anything that I wanted enough to part with my money for.

The meal was a nice surprise too: I thought it was going to be £10.95, but that was for the weekend lunchtime menu. The weekday one was £5.95 normally, but there was a New Year offer on, so even better.... £4.95. So, lunch and a bottle of water cost me £7.50.

So today I've spent £8.50 total.... might be a different story tomorrow when I hit Bluewater Shopping Centre and Boots' 75% off sale!:eek:

Pippilongstocking

Evenign chaps - sorry not been about for a goodly few days

Worked like a demon so had a complete No spend weekend

Sorted out online instant access saver accounts for my annual car travel money and also for extra bits saved from frugaleering

I've renamed both savings accounts - one is called Darwin's money - he's the campervan so he gets the travel money

One bank saver is called Humphrey - thats the frugal account - remember the Humphrey ads about the milk in the 70's??? (watch out watch out there's a Humphrey about) so any extra money is being sucked straight into that account

My biggest unexpected news was that Cap1 are paying my PPI's back (albeit with a grudging letter) and its £139 - so that's going straight into our 'travel budget'. ie Darwin account

Works full on and that sucks a bit - find out on Friday if I keep my stipend til Dec 2010 or I get booted off my post grad (long story)

Other frugal news is hens laid 5 eggs since the Friday (2 hens) and we used a couple for special fried rice tonight

Working on an extra report at work to write up from summer field work, which is paid consultancy so trying to finish that to invoice it next week - 2 days work should be about £300 (ish) in Feb

Pal sending money for xmas Wii purchases £67 that will go into Humphrey

Popped next door as the bloke needed some gardening advice - ended up he offered me a service on my mower in exchange for a couple hours gardening work (he needs a 15m hedge dramatically cut back) - when I offered a shot of my shredder - he countered with an offer of a lobster It wont be til April when we swap but its great to have gone around for a favour and have a laugh 'negotiating'

Now that's what I call good swapping - he's delighted as he needs a gardener, I'm delighted cos I get to keep the shreddings for my path and I love lobster!

Total spends this year so far are on lots of reduced stuff at supermarket, postage and one lunch for girls at cello workshop : 65.49 (groceries) leaving our

6,000/5934.51

Hope everyone is well, warm and fun

Sorry for the long frugaleer post

sophiesmum_2

Love the "Humphrey" account lol, my uncle used to work for unigate dairies then and got us loads of sheets of humphrey stickers and stripey straws with milkshake in, which we swapped at school for football cards, and marbles (early LETS trades maybe lol)

larmy16

Hi Grandma :kisses3: - I couldn't see the wavy icon, so you're getting a kiss!

Yes I was worried that I had sounded like a vulture sweeping through the supermarket depriving all and sundry of their supplies.

Well I am still on track for my shopping budget for 2010 which is £200 every four weeks. Nearly £100 on internet shopping but that has put a lot in the freezer and my store cupboard. My problem is that my local is a Waitrose and while I love their food, if you are buying staples you do seem to spend an extra 10-15p on each item.

I do prefer to buy my veg (reduced generally) and fruit from them though.

Incidentally I learned this week that flour does have a use by date - never knew that - I made a brick type loaf so I chucked out my yeast but it was the flour all the time. I learned that by making a second brick!

candygirl

Ive been fabbily frugal today, and given all the shops a wide swerve, so another NSD today:j:j
Have been swimming for the first time since Nov, so showered at the gym(very mse);)
Have enough food in for the week, so wont be tempted to shop just to make myself feel good, as I usually do:o:o:o
ttfn XXXX:A:A

danielley

Good Evening

Been a bit under the weather so I didn't go into work today; I should be back in tomorrow. It has meant another NSD though :T

Last night I made the Lemon Biscuits from the recipe posted by Thriftylass. I didn't have any lemons so I used a couple of the Milk Choc Block sweets from a left over tin of quality street chopped up to try and make them into choc chip cookies!

They were ok for a first attempt, but I will try to make them with lemon next time. The only problem is I have eaten most of them myself..... this is one problem I am finding with frugal living, most of the meals I have prepared cheaply have been quite fattening as I find i am adding butter/cheese for taste.... I need to go through the recipes in the intro to get the healthier ones, I suppose.

Hope you are all well,

x

thriftylass

Just saved another NSD by sending BF to the cinema on his own . Didn't really fancy watching Avatar anyway, but he did since works in graphics.

larmy16

danielley wrote: »

Good Evening


They were ok for a first attempt, but I will try to make them with lemon next time. The only problem is I have eaten most of them myself..... this is one problem I am finding with frugal living, most of the meals I have prepared cheaply have been quite fattening as I find i am adding butter/cheese for taste.... I need to go through the recipes in the intro to get the healthier ones, I suppose.

I feel your pain on this one. It seems I only have to get the breadmaker out of the cupboard to gain 2 lbs!