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

rachelet

XSpender wrote: »

rozeepozee You must be due around the same time as me, 2nd May, as I am 25 weeks on Sunday and see the midwife for the grant next Tuesday. It's £190 I think and we are using it for half the nursery furniture, cot and mattress, Mum is paying for the other half.

XS

XSpender, I am due on 4th May as well. This will be my fourth child and last, although not the last if my husband says anything about it! He wants another boy to even up the numbers. Currently we have 2 girls and 1 boy and are expecting another girl.

As I live and work (a little) in France, I get the French equivalent of the maternity grant which is this year 889E. Just slightly more than what you would get in England. The thing is I don't really need very much in the way of baby stuff so this extra money will be going towards the house costs and especially things like the logs for the fire. They really encourge you to have more kids here as the child benefit payments are loads more than England if you have 3 or more kids.

Spend day here unfortunately as I had to buy chicken food this morning and tomorrow I need to go to the post office to post some letters. But a couple of the letters are claiming money back so I don't mind posting them!

ceridwen

lyndasharp wrote: »

Good luck sf!

Hope you're OK after your slip Candygirl. We now have fog as well as plenty of snow left on the ground. I'm having a spend day and taking the bus home from work.

I tried signing up for LETS but had no response from my email - I guess our local group doesn't exist any more.

Actually - your local LETS group may well still exist - but it sometimes takes some time before the relevant person checks out the "inbox". LETS groups are run by voluntary labour and sometimes there just arent enough hours in the day for everything....

I'd try phoning them if I were you...

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And extending my best wishes also to those who have suffered losses of those near to them.

sophiesmum_2

Good evening frunchkins

I am curently waiting for an order from approved foods. I have to agree though that a vast majority of the stuff on there is junk food, snacks, crisps and sweets which you really don't need and wouldn't normally buy. However now and again they have some great buys such as the recent cases of pulses,mung beans, dried beans and soup mixes (dried pulses), soya mince, and dried milk etc. It really is a case of waiting until the right offers come up and taking advantage in bulk then to make it worthwhile, sometimes there are catering sized tins and packs of stuff on there that people would wonder what to do with but then other people like myself, shaz and Nyk would look at a 5kg tin of celeriac and be thinking dehydrator for soups, or a 5kg tin of beetroots and be thinking jars of pickles, likewise 5kg apricot puree for crumbles, jams and dehydrating :rotfl:

candygirl

What's with all the early May babies due?:eek::eek:My DD was born on 1st MAY too(nearly 23 years ago);):D
Well done SF:j:j:j
On the frugal front I had a NSD today:D:D

Ches

Pleased with how the 2nd week has gone. I have £36.47p left from the 2 weeks so am going to put that aside for when I need a freezer stock up. I cash week 3 money tomorrow.

I can never make out why its dreadfully uncool to use a shopping trolley to collect what is usually heavy stuff when its perfectly acceptable to have a suitcase on wheels for holiday clothes.

rictus123

NSD today - yay Hopefully i have a quick day at work tomorrow, then get to relax with my gf at night after she cuts my hair

knithappens

JayneC wrote: »

Hi - don't know if you're already sorted - am only up to your post and have to go out in a sec so thought I'd just drop in to say you'll probably find instruction online. Just go to the manufacturer web page and enter details of the model. I've got alsorts of instructions ranging from dishwasher to breadmaker to central heating boiler, lol!! HTH.

May be back later if I get back in time, have to go on a visit 2 hours away and apointment not til 4, prob end around 6, so will be late back!!!

i tried , and emailed them too the only instructions they had were in swedish for a similar cot lol :rotfl:but the lovely man on ebay emailed me with the scanned instructions this morning, :T:T

candygirl

Ches wrote: »

Pleased with how the 2nd week has gone. I have £36.47p left from the 2 weeks so am going to put that aside for when I need a freezer stock up. I cash week 3 money tomorrow.

I can never make out why its dreadfully uncool to use a shopping trolley to collect what is usually heavy stuff when its perfectly acceptable to have a suitcase on wheels for holiday clothes.

I think peeps asscoiate shopping trolleys, with cantankerous old bids, with their tartan ones, that crash into your ankles:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

JustKeepSwimming_2

EDaniels & Meg - so sorry for your loss, & I hope you are managing to cope with it all.

SF - congratulations!

Another NSD here (except for a donation to the DEC for Haiti, which doesn't really count ). There will come a point when I need to go shopping for food, but with all the snow/ice I'm glad I'm a bit of a hoarder. Not looking forward to the gas bill though - 5 days off school & I've used more than I did in the last 2 months :eek: I never have the heating on if I'm home alone, just have so many layers I look like a heffalump!

Shopping trolleys - I LOVE mine! Its black with white squiggles & I got it from the Swedish store a few years ago. A few people have sniggered, but it's been fab. I even use it for the school run if I need to take PE stuff as well as reading folders, lunch boxes & drinks - beats having a sore back!

I have a question - I've had a piece of pouting in my freezer for a while, but noticed today that the film wrap has broken & some of the fish looks different, although it is still frozen & smells fine. Any ideas if it is still OK to eat, & what would be the best way to cook it? Thanks...

Happy frugalling!

Ches

candygirl wrote: »

I think peeps asscoiate shopping trolleys, with cantankerous old bids, with their tartan ones, that crash into your ankles:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

As opposed of course to the black suitcases pulled by 30 somethings (sorry) that trip you up in railway stations.:T