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

candygirl

Natalie sorry to hear you have to move hun:(:(Hope you find somewhere nice soon x;)
FISHCAKE I love the elephants, are you selling them?

NualaBuala

Fishcake, no way - not annoying at all!!! I love seeing your stuff but I can't believe you are new to knitting. The elephants are so cute. Were the socks hard to make? I would like to try some to make some some time but I am not a very good knitter. I got my poncho wool very cheaply from the clearance section on Kemps online, you might nab yourself a bargain!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Not much time to post but to F-F - I love the pictures of the hair, and I bet it's quite easy to do!!! Thanks.

ceridwen

NualaBuala wrote: »

Cheryl, hope you get enough sleep before you've to get up for work! Does your employer not have to pay for the safety shoes if they're needed for work? If not, perhaps you can claim tax relief on the money spent? Not sure how it works in the UK.

Confess I was sitting here thinking :eek: when you mentioned having spent your own money on a work key - and now some more of your money on work shoes - at a guess = about £17 of your money on work expenses. Also thinking - "well - if its needed for work then surely THEY pay for it?".
Wondering what else they might get you to pay for for them..

Visions of you being told to go on a course for them - and then being handed their bill for it....:eek:

EDIT: Think I recall you mentioning buying work "uniform" type clothing in an earlier post as well....the costs of this job seem to be mounting-up a bit...

mooomin

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

Not much time to post but to F-F - I love the pictures of the hair, and I bet it's quite easy to do!!! Thanks.

No problem - I'll be looking for pictures on FB though

Frugal plans:

1. Print off payslip (Ours are available online a few days before payday) and redo the budget for next month, using the baseline figure and ignoring the overtime in my paypacket. This will be a nice big PAD instead.
2. Cancel my Barclaycard (again.....they didn't do it the first time) and therefore leave less credit available on my credit file. Going to keep my credit card with Halifax though even though that's paid off - Mr Fresian is a second cardholder which might be handy in the future.
3. Call Tesco as I've lost one of my Clubcard vouchers - I might leave this until tomorrow as I'm sure I can find it with a bit of a declutter. I'll have put it somewhere famously safe :rolleyes:
4. Go to the theatre to see the Sound Of Music :j Going thanks to a lovely MSE friend who bought 2for1 tickets for me (I did pay her back!) Entertainment budget will be truly gubbed for the month but it's worth it as the tickets are normally £40 per head :eek:
5. Homemade soup for lunch with snacks from the cupboard. Dinner will be slow-cooked chilli from yesterday

I would like another NSD but I think I might end up going for a drink before or after the theatre, which I don't begrudge at all. I'll see how it goes though - I have to get the bus back from town and don't want to be home anylater than I have to be. Apologies for the mammoth post, I do waffle on

Kiwisaver_2

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Is it annoying to keep posting my projects here?? No!

I was moaning about how much it would cost to make as it needs several balls of wool and he said why not unpick something else big and use that. Well being new to knitting I don't have any big projects to unpick so tomo I'm going to scout a charity shop I know that sells them for £1. If I can find one in a colour I like then I might be onto a winner.
Clever OH's eh?
x x x x

My Nana always did this, she would buy woolies from jumble sales and unravel them. I can remember having to help her wind it into balls. She would wrap it tightly round the back of a dining chair first, to get the crinkles out.

Bon Voyage, Bails!

I spent more money today, there's no stopping me this week. I thought I was being good, eking out the Sunday chicken I ended up with a spare meal today and really fancied having chicken and pasta in a creamy sauce. So I went to the shop and bought cream and mushrooms. So my saving the chicken didn't really save me any money at all and I picked up a couple of other bits that were on my list for Friday. I guess it will save something in the long run as the mince I was going to have today is still in the freezer and I still have an extra portion of chicken and pasta for my lunch tomorrow.

Did half hour scrubbing of the deck as my punishment.

[Deleted User]

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Well seeing as the fishfinger is on a mission to keep mummy awake this evening I've entertained myself by taking some pics.
The elephant mark 2, who is now wrapped and ready for his post office journey as a thank you for a friend.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26183176@N03/4286502874/

And a quick one of the socks I made for OH's friend
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26183176@N03/4285764985/in/photostream/

Is it annoying to keep posting my projects here??

Also OH came up with a stunning idea as my next knitting project is possibly going to be a top/cardigan type thing. I was moaning about how much it would cost to make as it needs several balls of wool and he said why not unpick something else big and use that. Well being new to knitting I don't have any big projects to unpick so tomo I'm going to scout a charity shop I know that sells them for £1. If I can find one in a colour I like then I might be onto a winner.
Clever OH's eh?
x x x x

Gosh, these are so cute.:T

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

kittiej wrote: »

Also a quick message to Malc - eon rep. I received the booklet this morning, thank you.

Hi kittie

Thanks for letting me know. Hope it helps you save a little on your energy usage. :T

I know you have had a look at the interactive house on our website but have you looked at any of the other areas I mentioned? If you have, would be interested in any comments you might have.

Always looking for feedback so we can try and make sure the website gives the info customers really need. :beer:

Good luck with the energy/money saving.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

ceridwen wrote: »

Well...theres other things to take into account as well as the direct price comparisons. I swopped to e-on recently for my fuel - and they (so far) seem to be one of the few firms I have encountered where people know what they are doing/the computer system is set up properly. Its got to be moneysaving to deal with a firm that is actually efficient for once - saving all the phonecalls/letters/emails/etc and sheer loss of temper involved in dealing with many firms because they are just so awful - <cough> lost my temper with Virgin AGAIN this morning....lost count of JUST how many times I've been mucked-around by Virgin.....:mad:

Many thanks for the kind comments ceridwen; they are much appreciated. :T

Hopefully, things continue along similar lines but if you do have any issues going forward, you know where I am. Always happy to help.

Malc

Frugaldom

ChinaTea wrote: »

This might sound like a silly question but... all this talk of the bra**** baked beans got me thinking, do they actually have the pickle in them or are theythe same as ordinary ones? told you it was a silly question

:rotfl:I thought that too! It's made worse by the fact they have now changed the wrappers to LOOK like their pickle jars, but no, there's no pickle, they're just ordinary beans in tomato sauce but branded 'Bran$ton'.

larmy16 wrote: »

...I have been naughty though in that I have broken my promise about buying on Amazon. I bought the book "Feed your Family for £4 a day" (written in the eighties I hasten to add)

Why hasten to add it was written in the 80's? I now feed the family for £3 a day because we're one less than in the 80's I budget £1 per person per day and it works fine for me as long as I remember to allow extras for when visitors come to stay.

bails wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm just logging on to say an official goodbye. We fly out tomorrow and I may get a chance to pop in during the couple of days we're in Nepal, but then we'll be in media blackout in Tibet then China for the best part of a month.

Have a great time, Bails, catch up soon

xnatalie81x wrote: »

Landlady is selling our house so we are homeless from end April! Just what i needed off to council on Thu to find out what to do

This is what I hate most about renting from a private landlord - you NEVER know what they are going to decide to do with their houses and the NEVER tell you in advance, even if they do know!

HOMEGROWN VEG - For anyone interested in a simple and FREE planting planner, here's a .pdf file of the planting veg plannerfrom RHS that you can print and laminate for future use. I'll also add the link into HANDY LINKS on post 1.