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

lynzpower

http://www.vegetable-garden-guide.com/growing-carrots.html

Well it seems quite straightforward here Pixie!

http://www.which.co.uk/advice/grow-carrots-in-pots/best-container-varieties/index.jsp

heres a useful site from which about chooseing varieties of carrot for growing in different depths of containers

Definately will do carrots now Ive seen this!

mooomin

Hi all,

Thought I would do a quick breakdown halfway through Month 1 to see how I'm doing. My annual budget is £8000 so I'm aiming for spends of £666.66 per month...

Bills - £279.60/£416.68
Christmas/Birthdays - £4.50/£25
Entertainment - £25.90/£30
Groceries - £66.58/£150
Toiletries/Cleaning - £26.86/£20
Everything else - £11/£24.99

Not bad really - I'm over budget on toiletries, but the items I bought today will last me for ages, so I will make it back next month. I'm currently sitting at £414.44/£666.66 for the month, and the two biggest bills are out of my account :j

Bed now, night all!

annie123

http://www.allotment.org.uk/container-growing/garden-vegetables-containers.php
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Grow-Your-Own-Veg/Veg-advice/Growing-veg-in-containers

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=183805


Useful sites for growing food in pots
Become a regular on mse gardening forum, it's very helpful and full of good ideas.
But post the pics here;) although they do have a 'show us your garden' thread too, but I think its more personal here:D

cha97michelle

Hi guys.

Frugal news today:

• approved food order arrived. Most disappointed that they didn't have my soya mince, but very happy with the savoury rice, croutons and spice packs. Spent less than £30 and the box was huge (about £80 in RRP)
• kids had a cheap afternoon playing firstly at popping the bubble wrap, and then in the box, and then we made the box into a tunnel to crawl through and send cars through
• i mixed a bag of soda crystals into my box of washing powder and it nearly doubled the powder i have which is great as i seemed to be running low and can't afford a big box even though on offer at the minute.
• My sister came to visit, and brought 2 bags of grapes that she had bought for 9p a bag (she works in Mr A and picked them up at the end of her shift the other day.) She knows i am finding it a bit hard at the minute so much appreciated. My two love grapes but at over £2 a bag, they are not high priority to me
• DH's car has been playing up, but seems to be running ok again today.
• mortgage payment went out - mainly frugal to pay off mortgage early and to be a SAHM to my boys.

Not so good news is that DH has a problem with his tax coding dating back to 2008 and despite our best efforts to sort it, we are having a lot of difficulty and we owe them about £700 i wasn't expecting to have to pay this month, which will have to come from savings. The silver cloud to this is we know the tax code is wrong, and his pay has been short since Sep 08, so when they finally do sort this out we should be owed a refund plus some from each months wage packet that has been short since then.

I really hope it is sorted soon as it could be a nice little sum coming our way that would definitely help me with our financial targets.

Very interested in all you veg garden discussions. We had great success last year in our garden when we converted a huge rockery into a veg patch. Most successful were courgettes and potatoes. We still have cabbage in the freezer and a few potatoes in the cupboard as the later lot were not quite as nice and when you boil them go from hard to mush in one go. We also had strawberries in pots, and got a lot of fruit trees which i am hoping will produce this year. (We got some little oranges and lemons of the more expensive trees but the others were about £10 each and just sticks really.) I am going to get some lettuces planted up in the next week or so i reckon to grow in yoghurt pots inside as they are so easy, and would probably be ok. If not, i have so many seeds left it wouldn't be wasteful. I can't wait for spring to get started properly. My tomatoes were too late last year but we had some success growing them in bags last year once we twigged where to put them, although DS2 thought they were grapes and kept picking them before they were ripe. :rolleyes::rotfl:much to DH's annoyance. This will be my year.

rozeepozee

flying_fresian wrote: »

*admits to working in financial services*

If you have to claim under the DD Guarantee, you see your bank for this (Where you hold your current account) and they will give you the money back immediately. You would have to claim any charges incurred from the credit card folk.

Your bank will then chase the credit card company for the funds.

You just have to tell the bank that you want to do a direct debit indemnity claim - they should be able to give you the money back there and then, for this month and any previous ones where you have been debited twice.

Hope this helps!

Will be back shortly with a breakdown of my spendy spendy day

Thanks FF. A&L have said they will deal with this, but on Monday as it was after 5 on Friday. I'm so annoyed that the CC compnay is so cheeky as to take loads of my money early and then refuse to pay back immediately what is patently an overpayment. Grrr!

bails

Morning everyone! I was woken up by my nephew earlier so I've decided to get up rather than lie there Haven't caught up yet but will do in a bit.

I went to visit the school I had all the interviews for yesterday - I'm still very interested in working there, but the money side of it was a real stumbling block. Anyway, thanks to a good chat with BB and some serious number crunching (you'd be proud of me Cheryl ), I THINK we could just about manage, with paying for the wedding and house deposit, and a move to the cottage, if I took the job :T Not bad considering it's 10 grand less than I would be earning elsewhere...That's in large part down to you guys and being confident that I can shave extra savings off our budget with all our cunning ways, so thankyou :T I'm also planning to use LETS, the garden and my holidays to create some extra breathing space.

So that's me done with the job side of things til we get back now; we'll see what comes up then.

I'm going to spend the weekend enjoying time with my family, friends and animals - it doesn't get much better than that Have a good one everyone xx

jtb2412

Hi everyone,

Plodding along nicely here, nothing exciting to report . Thanks so much for all the replies re: trolley. I think i'm going to get one, just have to convince myself . Kids have stated they will not be seen out with me when I'm using it :rolleyes: ....... so has DH :eek:, and there was me expecting him to pull/push it for me - I did wind him up a bit and said it would be a bright pink one :rotfl:.

BB congratulations for the forthcoming venture :T. I hope it all works out as you want it to xx

I have been reading but only skimming so more or less up to date with all your escapades .

Veg growing - we grew here at home in our garden as well as the allotment last year and were rewarded with a huge amount of produce which cut our food bill down by about half during the summer months :j. We're still eating the runner beans now :eek:. We grew the things at home that needed tending the most e.g. fruit (can keep an eye on the birds :rolleyes:), things that needed watering lots (tomatoes/chillis etc) and the things that we could more or less leave to their own devices, we grew down the allotment. However, it nearly did me in trying to find the time to do it all (as well as work and Guides) so I think this year we'll just be tending to the plot and the garden will be 'just so'.

Our 'transition' for our broadband and telephone service yesterday went so smoothly I didn't even know it had happened :T. It was fab and I'm so glad I did it - I've saved £26 per month too :eek: .

Just hope the gas/elec one goes as smoothly.

cha97michelle I hope you get the tax sorted.

Catch up with you all again soon, sorry for the long post

JAMIEDODGER

morning all,

had claim forms though yesterday morning for laptop insurance so will fill those in today and send them off, hope it gets sorted quite quickly as using ds1 laptop is weird getting used to those huge keys instead of my tny ones on my netbook.

couldnt do an online shop with asda yestreday as they must have stopped them to play catch up because of the recent weather. went to tesco instead armed with my asda shopping list and asda prices didnt do to bad, spent £82. came home and divided up the meat packs nto smaller portions (steak, chops and mince) I think that lot will last me until end of january, not including milk, which is cheaper at my local co op than either tesco or asda. will pick up some this morning.

dd is off to a party this afternoon, bought present on play with cashback from quidco and card in card factory 29p, Already had wrap leftover from ds2 birthday in december.

Went into boots yesterday and spent £22. had a few boots vouchers 150 points over £20 spend, £2.50 off healthcare and double poits coupon, bought paracetamol, e45 cream which we go through loads here, antihistamines, toothbrushes and a few other bits did well for points, mine are being saved for xmas wrap and cards for this coming xmas.

Also picked up some £4 vest tops and £5 long sleeved tee's in new look, spent £28 and got £5.60 in student discount:)

Breakfast out with ladies from school cost £7.26, not bad. we do this once every 6 weeks ish. had budgetted £10. Pretty much my only socialising now, plus no need for a babysiter as kids are all at school! Parking cost me £1.30.

A good day for me I thought:)

bails

Okay, I'm still not completely caught up but had to comment before I forget everything! Fishcake, I love that elephant, it's great! :T I've loved reading the thread this morning, lots of really useful info and links for things that are relevant for my near future so thanks as ever :T I've got lots of pages on the go and save useful tips under each category.

The cottage has a large garden out the back - I say that, it's actually a steep and unkempt woodland (sadly not trees to keep, more jungle) which would make an awesome garden with a lot of work. OH is keen as it would involve using a mini digger :rotfl: and I am daydreaming of orchards It would need a separate challenge to raise the funds to do it though so I'd probably dig up the front garden in the short term. That's IF we move there of course :whistle: :rotfl: Oh, and OH says if we do move there, he'll make a pond and we can have ducks :j:j
*goes off smiling dreamily*

rictus123

Hey guys how is everyone? For my £6k budget for absolute everything, it works out at £500 a month. Half way through January and iv spent £250.26, up another £135 after paying my phone and digs last night. The good news is, i dont have anything else to pay for this month, maybe diesel at the end of the month and maybe a new tool for work, shouldnt go over £300 anyway! So il have £5,700 for 11 months.Will need to keep the spending to an absolute minimum until March and then June as il have mot in March then insurance in June... should work out ok though.