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

homegrown_life

grandma247 wrote: »

homegrown life are you using sevilles? I am going to look in mr m tomorrow. I looked last week but they did not have any.
Making a cake is a nice gesture and I am sure it will be appreciated

Yes, I've never made it before and don't eat it normally myself. But hubby likes it and hoping to keep a jar back as a present. Sainsbury's had some sevilles in the other day too (after I'd bought mine), hope you manage to get some. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

xnatalie81x

Went to council today - they are helping us to private rent and giving us points to use after 6mths of living in the new house. We will have enough points to get a property March 2011 and i will wait until something BRILLIANT comes up so when we get into our next house (3bed where currently in 2bed) which is private rent we will probs be there 18mth-2 years before we move again.........and that will be our final place (housing association) while we save for deposit for our own house (as eldest will be 7, middle 5 and youngest 4 so in full time school and my swim school will be amazing by then!!)

Off topic but my swim school is almost fully booked for the hour i hire pool for and from feb 27th i will be expanding to 1.5hrs and possibly a sun too - half term crash course is getting booked too! This is keeping me cheerful in this very very hard time!

Budget good. Have overspent in some categories but under in others (for the month) but as long as the yearly spend averages out - i am happy All debt payments have come out - total £250 off them this month.

Don't think i have posted this yet lol - it is my final one: All amounts yearly for me, OH, son 6 in march, dd 3 and ds2 2yrs old

Electric 800
Gas 440
Mobile 420
Home Phone 150
TV Licence 150
Pet Insurance 350 (17 mth plus any excess/fees)
Car Tax 120
Car Insurance 600
B'days 200
XMAS 200
Petrol 1000
Food 3520
Toiletries 5
Stationary
Cleaning 180
Washing 480
Alcohol 100
Nappies/wipes 300
Allotment 150
Chickens 200
Haircuts 150
Dogs 400 (food and worming and general spoiltness)
Going out 200
Kids activities 100 (football/school trips - i can see this being higher next year with moo going to ft schl sept)
Other 1380 (115 mth for other stuff lol)
clothes g 150
clothes els 150
clothes lu 150
me clothes 200 (includes swim cossies for work! which i get through a lot!)
oh clothes 50

TOTAL 12410


Stuff that does not go into my budget
Rent (will change in april when i move)- council tax (change in april)- debt (3000 yr) - childcare 3861 - water 380 - tax 420 (self employed tax which i take out every month and put elsewhere for when i have to pay tax return next jan!)

Income for year (wages/ct/wtc/childcare element) etc
£29,521 (not including OH wages of around 3700 yr as we have arrangement for this now)
£16,421 essential (rent ct etc)

= 13,100 so if stick to budget of 12,500 i should have 600 left at the end of the year (comfort zone but if it is left i will pay off a debt as i have just over 2100 in savings from last year for emergencies, 600 tied up in swim school and 730 lent to family which WILL be paid back! Awaiting around 70 from various sources lent from last year to sis and friend) and rest in bank.

thriftylass

NualaBuala wrote:

I've a question for container gardeners: what type of compost do you use and do you put stones in the bottom of the pot for drainage? Wonder if I could collect some from a shingle beach - want to keep this venture as frugal as possible!

I use multipupose compst without drainage.

mooomin

Just about to go to bed, as it's been a very long day, but my frugal achievements of the day are:

• Homemade lunch eaten at work
• Used and abused free coffee at work as per usual
• Printed off tickets for comedy show we're seeing at the weekend
• Dinner was a Freezer Special (bolognaise)
• Had lunch with my friends in the canteen, but without spending anything
• Went to the movies tonight using my Cineworld pass (which was a Christmas present from my folks) This normally costs £162 which is £13.50 per month. I have been to two films in a week, which would be £15, so I'm already up on the average monthly price!
• Had NSD #9 for the month
• Sold an Amazon book and dispatched Mr Fresian to the Post Office - I don't count the postage spend as it leaves me in profit anyway

I think that's enough for one night. Hope everyone has a Frugal Friday!

Blairweech

Hello all,

Lovely to hear everyone's frugal news - very inspiring, I have been making notes in my 4k diary

Re: Giving up everything to live 'The Good Life' I am giving up my 'normal' lifestyle to pursue farming. I am under no illusions about how incredibly difficult it will be (especially as I have no farming background), hence I have chosen to go down the route of studying agriculture at university. I believe this will give me a much better grounding and a better chance of success at it than if I were to just go in blind - am doing A LOT of research, plus getting LOTS of practical experience. Many people refer to smallholding as 'hobby farming' but really - there is no such thing, farming is bl00dy hard work with very little monetary reward whichever way you look at it. Even just the thought of it makes me feel alive though which is why I'm so desperate for it all to work out!

Anyway, back on a frugal note, today was a NSD. I ran out of milk, so used the UHT in the cupboard. And Morrisons are doing granulated sugar for 45p/kilo

jtb2412

Morning all, got a cold here so feeling very bleughhhhh and un-energetic

Blairweech did you watch Monty last night - the new farming programme? I can't remember what it was called but it was really good ! He's on for the next 6 weeks helping various farms get underway, definitely worth a peek next time it's on.

natalie glad you've managed to get things organised for you and yours. You always seem so positive, no matter what the problem, something to be admired ! Phrase that comes to mind is 'grabbing the bull by the horns' .

I've been skim reading again as I just can't seem to keep up with everything so hugs for those that need them, thoughts with people/family members who are poorly etc and congrats to everyone who has something to celebrate.

I got my last paycheck today (with a bit deducted (£50) due to term-time only working and recently having xmas break :undecided). I've not counted any of my wages this month so it's not important in the great scheme of things. 2 more days left to work, I don't have to go in on my last day because no one is there :j. I have a free 20 min pamper session from one of the newspaper offers so I might have to book that up and go and celebrate on Thurs .

Ebaying has gone really well, despite my reservations about starting up again. I'm over half way to making my £5 per day in Jan challenge, with a few more things selling and that have bids, I should just make it.

I'll be putting an order in with the local butcher today, he gives me 10% off as I'm a 'regular' :money:. My meat bill is actually cheaper from him rather than the supermarkets and much better quality. 9 chicken breasts (not injected with water !!) for £10 for instance :T. I'm getting close to my grocery challenge amount so need to be very creative this week .

Anyway, I must go and get kids up for school, early mornings the only time I get 5 mins to myself :eek: .

mooomin

Good morning all!

Just a quick one from me as I should really be getting ready for work!

Dinner is already in the slow cooker - I quickly browned some chicken thighs (posh ones from Tesco that I got whoopsied, so they will be tasty) and put them in the slow cooker with lashings of garlic, some tatties, a tin of chopped tomatoes and some chicken stock. I'm hoping that it will be a nice casseroley thing by the time I get home from work! I know that the tatties will take on the flavours nicely, so all I will really have to do is put on some veggies to have on the side.

We've run out of fresh fruit etc so my lunch is going to be cobbled together I think. I don't think I have any tins of soup, so I think that I'm going to go to M&S and spend the last of my gift card on a tasty lunch and some fruit.

I'm going to write a shopping list while I'm at work and go to the supermarket after work. I will then get Mr Fresian to meet me off the bus and carry the heavy things

Other frugal plans for today are to charge my phone at work and keep the supermarket spending low.

Hope you all have a good day!

pencekeeper

OK a little update.

I've created a new spending 2010 spreadsheet, which details my spend under certain categories. Also NSDs are logged which hopefully provides some incentive for forethought before going to the supermarket everyday.

Total so far for Jan is £285.32 for shopping (including £43 for takeaways *slap hand*, £67 for a breadmaker, and a £25 charity donation) and an estimated £100 for electricity/gas/fuel/water.

To meet my target I should have spent £301.37, so £385 is substantially over. But if I cut down on takeaways I should be on target as I don't buy appliances or donate to charity often.

thriftylass

Had a friend round for tea yesterday and BF was supposed to cook. But since he had to pop out I did it as the friend arrived and BF wasn't back. Additionally we had no drinks in the house so had to pop to the corner shop pay for that as I couldn't let our friend sit dry :mad:.
The two friends b'day parties on the weekend won't be cheap either as the plan is now to chip in for a present (bigger than I thought) for each of them and I can't really say no as there is no alternative :eek:
Seems like I won't make my budget unless I cheat and use the money I made on the ipod. D*mn, and it looked so close to staying within .

Fishcake_Random

Hey all,
OH has woken up even sicker so I'm covering for him today in the shop.
I'm so cheesed off though because he has trashed it again!!! Just before xmas I gave it all a massive clean out and organised it all and now it looks as though I didn't even bother!!! At least I can make a good start on it today without him here!!!
He hasnt been putting his rubbish bags out either so the whole place stinks of rotting rubbish, its horrible!!!!
I will be having words with that man when I get home!!!!
x x x x