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

candygirl

awww (((hugs))) Natalie, it must be awful for you x:A

Have been to ALDI today and gone slightly over my grocery budget, but on the other hand a lot of it will do for next month, so i'm not too bothered;):D
Have just done a rough meal plan until the end of the month, and doubt I will need to buy much now:o
Am going to make a batch of veggie baby food for DGD tomoz, as DD is spending a mint on jars of veggie stuff, because she can't be bothered cooking:rolleyes::rolleyes:
LYNZPOWER I will be trying that stuffed mushroom recipe, it sounds lush:p:p
Have decided today to eat up my freezer contents and not buy loads more stuff, cos I want to be able to fit more home made meals in;)
Have a nice eve peeps;)

Skint_Lynne

xnatalie81x wrote: »

PANTS!!!!!!!!!!! I just hope as i am on the list already they just give me points to bid with. I cannot deal with temorary and i have 3 children i don't want to drag around moving every 5minutes. I am so so stressed about all of this - i cannot think about anything else.

Did buy jumper for 50p for DD then DS in few mths (close in age) from charity shop.

Natalie,

I would go and see the local counciller for your area, it's not right for wee ones to be messed around, they might be able to help in some way or offer advice. They usually have surgeries in local halls or schools every week/fortnight, it's worth a try. xx

Just another thought, what about also ringing the charity shelter, they might be able to give advice as well? I hope you don't think I'm nosy, I just feel that bad for you with having the wee ones. xx

JayJay14

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

Natalie,

I would go and see the local counciller for your area, it's not right for wee ones to be messed around, they might be able to help in some way or offer advice. They usually have surgeries in local halls or schools every week/fortnight, it's worth a try. xx

I agree on this one - our councillors are falling over themselves to be seen to be helping worthy cases as there are elections coming up.

aeb_2

natalie - I hope it works out in the end, sooner rather than later
rozeepozee - I can sympathise with the bump. Are you thinking of breastfeeding, the weight will drop off, I eat for England and can't stop loosing. I was size 18 when pregnant and now I'm wearing a belt on my size 10 trousers! I'm just hoping it doesn't pile back on when I stop feeding. Weaning time soon.

All the broard beans that were doing so well have rotted off. This has never happened before - it must be the snow or maybe they should have been covered with fleece, disappointing as I wont get the early crop.
2 eggs today - treated myself to an omlette for the iron boost
Found 1/2 a tub of very icy home made strawbery ice cream in the freezer so I shook it well then tipped the ice crystalls out - not the best felt like a treat.
Getting towards the end of my homegrown spuds. The farm shop have bags for £5 - is that good? 12 1/2 k I think
I used to knit - I wondering if I could try again. I knitted myself a chunky lime green cardigan (70's :rotfl:) with thick kneedles when I was about 10 with help from grandma but have never managed anything complicated on my own. Perhaps I'll stick to a scarf.
An old friend asked me to look at a job description today on line for a mainscale teaching job - it read more like a management position. I told her not to be put off, I hope she goes for it, but it looked like they were after blood. Gald I'm not in that position. All the best to those who are job hunting.

Fishcake_Random

Rozee- If your near an Aldi they are suposed to have seeds for 39p from the 21st as their week special on gardening thingys. Might save you some pennys.
I have a shopping list from my dad for seeds as my parents don't live anywhere near an Aldi. They always give us a few carriers of their surplus later in the year as well.
The "lovely" jumper is now unraveled into many many balls (thanks for the kettle steam tip!!). I shall start in the morning I think as its a bit late now and I fancy watching Family Guy.
x x x xx

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!

Hugs to Natalie xxx




My frugal achievements today have been:

• NSD!
• Free lunch at school
• Home made soup for dinner

Have a good evening and day tomorrow everyone.

sft

JayJay14

Well I have been to get tomorrows lunch ready and OH has snacked on the cheese I put by :eek: He thinks it's funny but I don't. What he had as a snack (baring in mind he has had lasagne, jacket spud, cart d'or and meringue why did he need more - and he's the one who isn't fat:eek:)would have been the main part of a meal for me.

How I'm going to manage when he's at home all day grazing I have no idea.

Oh I hope he finds a job:D

mooomin

Evening all!

I'm back from the Sound of Music and had a lovely time (Apart from the woman with no volume control who was sitting behind us saying things like "Now, she just can't handle the high notes can she?" Yeesh, just sit back and enjoy it for goodness sake...)

Frugal funtimes today:

Emailed Scottish Power to find out what tariff I'm on as my bill says one thing, online billing says another, and neither show on price comparison sites. It's driving me nuts.

Yesterdays chilli for dinner (Fed three of us) and my friend was amazed that I could get enough to feed eight people out of one 500g packet of mince. I imagine most people on here could do better :rotfl:

Homemade soup for lunch with healthy snacks (as long as you look the other way when I eat the chicken crisps)

Printed off payslip and about to do my next month's budget planning before bed. Hopefully it won't take too long!

Night everyone!

liloandstitch

Havent updated for a few days, had mostly NSDs as was stoney broke! Roll on Friday when some pennys start rolling into the coffers!

Had this weeks £70 this week, to be spent -

£10.00 presents budget (in and out - Nephews birthday)
£20.00 Diesel - car nearly on red, but managed to get an extra week out of it so v pleased
10.00 Slush fund for bits and pieces, beavers fees etc (and my once weekly latte fix)
£30.00 to cover food and coal requirements - prob dont need coal this week and fairly well stocked food wise - any left over will be carried over into next week towards coal/logs.

Well, that didnt take long to spend did it! Still the good news is that if I stick to this budget, with only the occasional slip, I will achieve all my yearly finance targets. Ideally DH would like to go parttime in 3 years, which means tidying up our finances asap to be doable. I am definately opting for the simpler life and better quality. I have today found out that my Stepbrother has terminal cancer, we dont know how long he has, but my gut instinct is that he will not see out the year. We are not that close, but my beloved stepfather is absolutely gutted. We lost my mum 3 1/2 years ago suddenly to a brain haemhorrage at only 67, and he is still as bereft as the day she died. It really concentrates the mind to fill your life with the riches that money cant buy, and I would love DH to go parttime, and us to have a far happier life with plenty of time together. So clearly I have found our motivation and mojo to really see this through rather than playing at it. So I will stick to my budget - and thanks to everyone for the inspiration that I receive on here.

This is one of the nicest, most inspirational threads on here, I have followed it for the last year or so and have really enjoyed the journeys that you have all travelled. I hope that at the end of this year, I am able to say that I too have started to make the right steps on my own journey.

Lilo

NualaBuala

Lilo, I'm so sorry about your stepbrother. I'm sending him, you, your stepfather and family all my good thoughts and wishes. I hope you all find the courage and strength to cope and support each other through this.