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

whitewing

The only thing I would say about the cost of the housewarming party (apart from blimey!) is that it may be a celebration of a culmination of a dream. If this is a house that they have always dreamed about, that they may stay in for many years, that allows them to grow up, grow old and build up family memories, it is much more than a simple house. And over the days, months, years that they live there, it could be a relatively small cost.

I am in a very dreamy mood today. Reading baby quotes and trying to decide how to make my birth announcements so they can be sent out promptly but we don't know what flavour the baby will be (DS laughs and says 'chocolate').

edaniels1983

hi ya, have applied for funeral payment(application book on way)

and i have contacted the bereavement service for advice and they am sending me all available info asap so hopefully i am sorted

---

now to find black clothes

---

charity shops here i come. i refuse to spend loads on a suit for hubby when he never wears suits.

we have arranged flowers but now i have heard silk flower arangements are better this weather----arrrgggghhhh still, u live and learn.

thanks for your help x

shaz_mum_of__2

edaniels1983 wrote: »

hi ya, have applied for funeral payment(application book on way)

and i have contacted the bereavement service for advice and they am sending me all available info asap so hopefully i am sorted

---

now to find black clothes

---

charity shops here i come. i refuse to spend loads on a suit for hubby when he never wears suits.

we have arranged flowers but now i have heard silk flower arangements are better this weather----arrrgggghhhh still, u live and learn.

thanks for your help x

Your welcome

Grandma -it was the kids that didn't like them . I don't like banans anyway so no great loss !

larmy16

This thread is so great........I wish I had time to cut and paste all the posts into a Word Document to read when I go to bed.

It's as good as the Tightwad Gazette which is my current bedtime reading. It has really inspired me to get back on the frugal bandwagon and I can barely wait for Spring to arrive to get on with all these ideas I am having....................Will I do them.?...We shall see.;)

ChinaTea

edaniels1983 wrote: »

hi ya all. had a few bad days, mother in law dies suddenly on friday and with my hubby being an only child it falls upon us to sort out and arrange everything

---

didnt realise how expensive funerals are!! does anyone know about what financial help is available??

Sorry to hear about your MIL. There is help available think it's called funeral benefit and depends if your MIL was on any means tested benefits and you can also claim if you are on means tested benefits or WTC.

Not a good week so far here, energy levels have hit the floor since monday. Was the first time I'd been able to get out since the previous monday, didn't need much just cat food in case the bad weather returns, it's snowing here at the minute hopefully not too much. Although it was nice to get out of the house could not keep awake tuesday. Really need to eat better to help energy levels trouble is I'm a grazer and tend just to pick through the day.

Today getting organised for OU starting 3rd Feb, text books arrived from Amazon yesterday so no excuse now. Also catching up with mail and anything else that doesn't require a lot of effort. This all needs doing anyway so will have achieved something today.

After looking at the Pets board I ordered a sample pack of raw food for the cats. It arrives frozen and I coudn't believe how much there was for a tenner. It would easily keep them going for 10 days or so. Thawed a bag of rabbit and was cutting it up when no3 puss came sniffing and ate the lot I'd cut up bones and all. I had been doubtful about giving them bones but they need them when on a raw diet and he had no problem eating them and sounded as though he was really enjoying it. the other 2 were more wary though and just had a sniff and lick so will mix it with the pouch meat for a few days.

Re the bread flour, I bought in bulk from Lidl in 2008 when they had it on offer at 45p and finished the last bag at the beg of Dec, BB date was 07/09 but couldn't see any difference. The cheapest I can get at the mo is MrT or MrA at 68p. If anyone knows where I can get it cheaper or a sack would be appreciated. I do have a flour mill about 100yds away, they use local grain crops but only sell by the lorry load a tad too much for me I thinks.

kittiej

purple-angel, I had to walk or 'trudge' far enough to be annoyed lol.

Ah well hoping to be back to work tomorrow even if it's for part of the day.

shaz_mum_of__2

This is my basic loaf made in BM from chappatti flour (40p kilo)

Frugaldom

flying_fresian wrote: »

Help required! I have a dimmer switch thing in my lounge. I thought that the bulb needed replacing as it was flickering a lot, so I replaced it but it's still going mad (Think horror-movie style lighting) I'm using side lamps just now, but they're not bright enough. Any idea what could be wrong with the light? I don't want to call someone out if it's something simple!

Thanks, and enjoy the rest of your night!

It's certainly the low energy light bulbs, it should tell you somewhere on the packaging that they aren't suitable for use with dimmer switches.

Karmacat wrote: »

Morning! I'm pleased to find that other people on here do gardening in containers - and it sounds like some for the same reasons, i.e. moving this year. I have a chest of drawers I want to get rid of .

:eek::eek: Nooooooooo.... that's the best part! Just knock the back panel off once you've removed the drawers, turn it on it's side and voila! A cold frame awaiting a polythene (or glass) lid! They work great and don't look too bad either. They're also ideal as mini raised beds, conversion into hutches or cages or cut the wood up for shelving, amongst other things.

Good afternoon everyone, sympathies to edaniels, I hope you are managing with the funeral arangements. Thanks Shaz, for the helpful link, I may add it to handy links section in post 1.

Welcome newbies Karmacat, Sabs10, Zoegirl and Babyboysmommy, glad you've joined our frugal bandwagon.

FayJMcK - LETS = Local Exchange Trading Scheme. It's a cash free bartering system involving an alternative 'currency' for credits. As SM is going to be living next door to me, LETS trading was almost the first thing I introduced her to, after chickens. :rotfl:(Well done on the eggs!)

Today's LETS trades for me were homemade chicken soup and lemon curd that covered cost of exchanging for 4 pheasants. Just need to pluck up the courage to prepare them for cooking now. (pardon the pun. )

Heard there was a half price sale on in the big pound shop in the town about 30 miles from here, so have asked a friend to check it out for me this weekend and bag me some jars of peanut butter and sugar, if available. Has anyone else heard about this or is it just this one particular shop?

Bails - I bought the soy mince from Appr0ved F00d, I didn't think it went out of date as long as it remained sealed. The BBE is Nov 2009

There looks to be a huge band of snow coming across the back field! I suspect our road may block if this is as bad as it looks! As usual, weather forecast got it completely wrong; we were forecase for scattered rain showers. :rolleyes: Glad all my shippong and trading has been done. At worst, I don't need to go back off the farm until next month. :rotfl: Told you it's easier to count spend days than NSDs in frugaldom. Bowl of soup, anyone? :rotfl:

Shaz - is it a Morphy Richards you have? Mine bakes the upright loaves but I've only ever tried the 500g recipes. How much flour did you use in that one? It looks great!

rozeepozee

Think I've achieved a NSD - first one in a while :rolleyes:

Took son swimming to the gym this afternoon armed with packed lunch instead of buying from its in-house Starbucks cafe as I would usually (where even the coffee is over £2!) And I was so popular with son when we got out of the pool and I had immediately to hand grapes, a satsuma, sandwich, a bit of chocolate as a big treat and a hot chocolate in a thermos mug.

Much to the amusement of me and all the other ladies in the changing room, my son sat in one of the lockers (he's only 3 and fits perfectly) and ate his lunch in there which left me able to get dressed and my hair dried in peace!

Meanwhile, when I got home DP had made celery soup from the leftover celery so no making tea tonight either! Think that means I've time for a late siesta!

Ahhh! The simple things...

taka

:hello:Thank goodness thinks have slowed down a bit on here... I've been failing miserably to keep up! ((((hugs)))) congratulations, well done, oh no :eek: etc to everyone that needs them...

edaniels - sorry to hear your news.

f_f - I'm fairly sure you can get dimmable energy saving bulbs! I think they're kinda expensive though and not many places sell them. I'm sure I saw some in H0mebase. Maybe worth a call to check before before you wave a screwdriver in the vicinity of your light switch? :eek:

I can't swear to the fact H0mebase had them as I was rather busy going :eek: at how much it'll cost to replace my hall lights (R50 bulbs) with the equivalent energy saving bulbs (6 bulbs x £5.99 = :eek: :eek:). I think I'll wait till I get my bathroom done up and get the hall light fittings changed at the same time as sorting the bathroom light fittings/switches. I'm going to have to redecorate the hall anyway as part of it'll have to be replastered after removing the tank from my bathroom. That number of lights in such a small space does make stepping into my hall rather like stepping into a massively bright spotlight/searchlight (and shows up the less than perfect walls) so I'll be happy for them to go! :rotfl:

Well I'm being an ok frugalite... a bit of spending but not loads. £358.40 out of £5800 spent so far. The £358.40 includes £142.50 for my yearly TV licence and £44-04 at the dentist... Sadly I have at least another £160 worth of work still to be done at the dentist (root canal _pale_ + replacing another couple of fillings). Note to self... don't leave it so long next time (not a fan of the dentist ). I knew about the estimated costs just in time to change my spreadsheet for the year but its still a lot... :eek: My last 2 appointments have lead to a splurge on (soft) comfort food on dentist days too... :rolleyes:

Hmmmm I also spent £18 on a new purse but feel so guilty about it, it is probably going back. :rolleyes: I need a new one but that was the only one I've seen that I've liked and is small enough not to annoy me! (It needs to fit in my jeans pocket and have a zip bit for coins) Any suggestions where I can find a more reasonably priced one that'll last for several years? I've tried all over the place...