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

JAMIEDODGER

Morning all.

Spent a few pounds in the post office yesterday and also just over a tenner in matalan on new slippers, for me, and a hat and scarf set for ds eldest to wear on his paper round. my laptop decided to start working again yesterday but will still have to be sent off as a lot of the keys are not working. some of the number keys.

i have dd and ds three off school today as they have the dentist but am hoping to take them in for this afternoons lessons. back to college tomorrow, i will be spending a little on lunch as i want some thing hot to eat at lunchtime, plus 50p parking. budget is looking good, and i am hoping to stick the challenge to the end. i am having some plumbing work done at the end of the month, which i hvent included in challenge . it will take up most of ths months leftover money but really needs doing.

i am hoping to do a asda food shop at the end of the week as i find it so much cheaper than tesco. this will see me through until the end of the month, although i do still have plenty of food in the cupboards. its will be uite a few freezer bits. Glad the kids are now back at school as they were eating me out of house.

will be putting the first lot of petrol in the car today, but only thirty pounds, will see how far this stretches. but should last me until the end of january. fingers crossed. i am using more petrol now i go to the next town every week for college. but it is worth it.

hope evryone has a good day

mooomin

sabs10 wrote: »

we seem to be embracing the frugal life style well when i actually focus on what's been acheived rather than stressing over lack of funds.

I think that this is going to be key for me and many others who are new to the frugal lifestyle. Thanks for putting it so well.

As soon as you think "Eek, I only have £X left" you panic and spend. I'm hoping to embrace the change, but also to accept that it's my first year on a lower budget and that I may fail but my successes will outweigh my failures.

loopychriss wrote: »

That is why it is flickering then.... we had the same problem with the dimmer switch and a low energy lightbulb and had to change the switch in the end as I didn't want to go back to normal lightbulbs.

Fiddlesticks. Would that be an easy enough job to do yourself (Myself. Not asking you to come round and fix it Unless you want to...!) I'm the least DIY minded person ever.

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I wasn't sure if I could multi-quote over two pages so I'll go back and catch up on the rest!

I have two working nostrils today (Woo!) so it's back to work for me. Hurrah! It's going to be a spend day as I need milk so I'll take a trip to Morrisons after work instead of spending the extra 20p in the local corner shop. It will also give me a chance to look for whoopsies I got some yummy half-fat quiche which are the perfect size for lunches, and will be stalking the chiller until the end of time trying to get more of them. I'm not paying £1.25 though :rotfl:

Only other thing of much excitement today is that we're having Mr Fresian's sister over to discuss her possibly renting our spare room. Mr Fresian has agreed to help me gut the spare room this weekend - a lot of things are going to be on Gumtree/Freecycle soon I think!

Have a good and frugal day all, sorry about the length of the post, I do waffle on

cw18

flying_fresian wrote: »

Fiddlesticks. Would that be an easy enough job to do yourself (Myself. Not asking you to come round and fix it Unless you want to...!) I'm the least DIY minded person ever.

If you can change the plug on an appliance, then it's easy to change a light switch

Even if you haven't tried the former, the latter isn't difficult.

When you take the faceplate off it, there should be a couple of wires attached (so don't pull it away from the wall too hard). What you need to do is note where these go so you can put the right wire to the right place on the replacement.

Long time since I did a standard to dimmer (or vice versa) replacment, but don't think there's any significant difference between the connections on the two

The MOST important thing is to make sure you pull/trip the correct fuse BEFORE attempting it !!!!!

ETA: And you will need a 'much smaller than standard' screwriver for the connections that hold the wires in - the screws are tiny, so the slots in them are too thin for standard screwdrivers.

JayJay14

flying_fresian wrote: »

Fiddlesticks. Would that be an easy enough job to do yourself (Myself. Not asking you to come round and fix it Unless you want to...!) I'm the least DIY minded person ever

I think with electrics I would get someone to help and not do it on your own the first time, the switches are not difficult when you know how (and remember to switch off the power:eek:) but not something to be doing 'blind' IYKWIM

Thriftkitten

Morning all. woke up at 6am to what I thought was my alarm, it turned out to be my boss telling me that they didn't need me at work today Grrrrrr another unpaid day off!!!
It will be a miniscule spend day today as want to nip to lidl to stock up on some bread flour, which will take me over my weekly grocery budget, but oh well, I will make it up by being extra frugal on the food shop next week.
Plan to cook up my batch of mince into shepherd pies for dinner tonight x4 refrain from buying garlic bread and share the parmesan and sundried tomato bread thats left over,
will also get on with baking cupcakes and cookies for rest of the weeks goodies and also want to clean out the fridge.
Have a frugalicious one xx

FrankieM

Morning All,
I've got to go into town today and do a bit of grocery shopping. I've also got some tidying, washing and baking to do.
It shouldn't be too much of a spend day except on essentials.

Will update on my progress later.

Hope you all have a good day.

ZoeGirl_3

Ohhh! I had been looking for this! Really decided to do this for 2010 and went to find the new challenge and was stumped ... can I please join! I just got paid today so my 2010 budget is officially about to start soon!

Must go back and start reading. Am sooo excited. Can't make a year on this without lots of messages to read and feel inspired by!

shaz_mum_of__2

Morning all pleased i checked back about the boots sale.

Spent £3 in the charity shop yesterday got 6 brand new embroidered napkins 2 x DVD storage towers(for all kids new dvds and games ) and a silver(coloured) cake stand quite pleased did notice a lot of decorative plates the large platter type for £1.50 each with pheasants/country scenes on. Wondered if this sort of thing sells well on ebay? if i can ever get my seller account to set up.

Sausage making was hilarious and my technique was rubbish the filling was ok it was the linking that caused problems ...............thanks to whover mention Mr M having pork on offer this is the content of my sausages and thought £2.89kg was cheap!

Need to bake tody and going to make a onion quiche/tart with some leftover pastry whilst oven is on.

Fish and chips (h/m) for tea tonight i think ..yum

Must finish presentation too as have to give it on monday in front of 30 people and its marked too!!

Miss_Bubbles

Morning all!
Daughter off school because of more snow and its still falling,not very thick but enough.
Had an awful day yesterday,the fridge/freezer suddenly packed up.So i spent the day phoning family and friends to see if anyone had room in their freezer (the fridge bits i am keeping in a cool box outside-its cold enough after all). Also been asking round for a 'spare' or 'unwanted and going cheap' fridge/freezer...no such luck! Typical!
Im going to risk my neck later on and head for my friends 2nd hand appliance store-says they have a few at reasonable prices plus the added benefit of friend discount!
Looks like i'll be parting with some cash from the savings account :-(

grandma247

Good morning. Busy day ahead today. Also have two things I have to save for in the coming months.
Ds 2 has been invited to go to America for a few weeks, they are paying his fare but he will need money for food etc. and he will need some new clothes as he hasn't had any for ages. He will not be able to save as much as he needs on his own because there is not enough time.
Also we are going to have to replace the car because what we thought was just the alternator needing replacing is a much bigger more expensive job and it means having the part removed and sent away to be repaired. Hubby has to have a car for work so that is out of the question. We will look for another old car that he can work on himself. It is a shame as he loves this car and it is comfy. Also it was left for us by our Aussie friends.

aeb I was having a think about that question and did a google search. There is a little bit of info out there but only in snippets. Here is what I worked out.
1 The grass is dormant in winter so you could tell him it goes to sleep.
2 The snow acts like a blanket so it protects the grass.
3 some light can get through the snow and it could be demonstrated by shining a torch through a bathroom window.