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

Hardup_Hester

Evening all
I spent £8:14 today in our local Co-op, mostly on whoopsies, I bought turkey steaks & salmon probably enough for 10 to 12 casserole portions & 2 large fish pies.
I also bought 6 large nan bread & 6 hot cross buns for DD for £1.40.
Hester

Fishcake_Random

NualaBuala - Yay for backpacks!!! :j

Nyk- Thanks, I should have thought to look

Knithappens - Sorry your computer didn't make it. But fantastic that even though you have to return to work your frugal ways meen you can manage on part time. That sounds like a massive sucess to me!

Ceridwen - Thanks for the recipe. I'm going to have a bash at making laundry goop later on. At the moment I'd have concerns about using it on babys clothes. Will you tell me if it suits sensitive skins? I seem to remember you mentioned having it or someone in your household having it?

redglass - I have really thick almost afro hair that is a nightmare, my current way of coping is a mohawk :j and headwraps.

JayneC - Thats a fantastic addition to the pot! :j

Ceridwen - I personally have never been a girly girl, I've never been into hair and make up and nails etc. The only thing I do like is a pamper bath now and again with a facepack and I slather on the moisturiser and sun lotion as needed. I always think that I can do so many more things with my time than pile chemicals on my face. I think if you are comfortable then it makes you happy with shows more than being "made up". I that makes sense.

BBMommy - If I remember correctly a lot of the value biscuits are made by companys such as MCv's. I'm sure there was a thread about it???

FF - Don't worry about needing to buy lunch this one time, these things happen and if you don't try, you don't know. I have had a few occasions where drinks have leaked and ruined a packed lunch or I've not given something quite long enough to defrost and it has that lovely icey crunch on the middle lol.

B Belle - Yay backpacks :T

Phew thats my replys and now I shall add my 2p's worth.
x x x

Fishcake_Random

Well today sucked pretty much!!!
I've been tired and grouchy all day because I was up most the night trying to seperate the still fighting hamsters, the smaller of the two now has a nasty torn ear. Luckily someone offered us a cage on freegle and they have now been seperated and don't seem any worse for it. Poorly ear hamster needs a wheel for her cage as their wasn't one with it but that should only be a few pounds tomorrow.
I was helping out OH in his shop and was tidying up and got a splinter under my thumb nail. I can honestly say I have never ever felt pain like it!!! It was as if someone was trying to chisel my thumb off, no wonder they use it as a torture method!!! Naturally can't find a safety pin/needle so OH runs off to find one leaving me in shop bawling my eyes out and scaring the customers. Managed to get the stupid thing out eventually but its still really sore
And the phone line/internet was down in the shop today so I couldnt even pop in for the gossip today to cheer myself up or let you know my local wilkos has reduced all its xmas stuff fown to 10p!!! I picked up 10 iced jelly lollypops, for £1 and the UBD is Feb 2011 so they will either go on our tree or be added to xmas hampers next xmas!
I'm going to chill with a reduced double choc muffin and a hot choc and then I'm going to go to bed and forget today ever happened!!! So there.
x x x x

Twinkles08

Lilacpixie,I can relate to your frustration as although my hubby appears to be more 'on board' than he has prev been and is trying,from my spreadsheet I can see that it is him that is generally frittering the money away on bits and pieces.That and his !!!!!!! playstation mags!
I'm really bummed as today we went over our total budget for Jan.This is purely down to us spending money on things that we cld do without.Although dd and hubby had a haircut this month,and I brought baby clothes from ebay that were needed.Grr im cross 'cos we spent double what was allowed.I suppose the good news is that everything else was on or under budget so overall it's not too horrendous.Just a bit shocked is all.

Hugs to all that need them x

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Frugal achievements today:

• Free lunch/coffee and tea at school.
• Homemade soup.
• Booked up a short break in Easter. Will be staying at Auntie's for a few days then 2 YHAs in the Peak District. Hoping to do lots of walking and self catering. So a frugal hol.
• Sent a long email to bessie mate in Australia.

Have a good evening all.

sft

rozeepozee

Don't think I've a hope in hell's chance of catching up today as there seems to have been loads of activity om here in the last 24 hours.

Hi Rictus and welcome. There are a few fellas on here - don't be put off, everyone's friendly!

Not exactly a no or low spend day today as I went to Costco and spent £80! Can't even say there was lots of bulk bought stuff that will last as most of it was fresh produce, but it is good quality. So much better than Tesco's. It's funny to look at the family's grocery habits. I'm itemizing everything so I've noticed we eat loads of almonds, a 1.4kg bag every fortnight :rotfl:and two boxes of clementines a fortnight and half a kilo of cherry tomatoes a week. And the milk! So far we've drunk 20 pints+.

It seems Costco is by far the cheapest place to buy milk, 24p per pint compared to Tesco's almost 40p per pint!

Having said that, DP once again snuck a pack of boxers into the trolley (think that's his lot for the year) and a hydration pack for his running. These were about £30 so the grocery shop wasn;t that bad, taking this into account. I'm under budget on groceries by about £100 this month but I think the clear out of the freezer had a big effect on lowering the money we've spent and I doubt I'll be able to replicate that next month.

Reminded again of the benefits of being more aware of my spending: By checking the receipt and itemizing, I noticed that we'd been charged twice for a bag of apples, only £2.25 but I don't see why Costco should have our money for nothing! I'll be claiming a refund next time we go.

Hello everyone else. I'm off to have a quick skim read of all the posts since my last.

rozeepozee

babyboysmommy wrote: »

I've sold 5 books on Amazon this weekend I've made over £45 for books that have just been gathering dust & taking up space so I'm really pleased.

Hi BBM. Have you any advice about what sells on Amazon book wise. I've got loads of books that I'd love to make a bit of cash from but haven't had very worthwhile experiences selling online (ebay) and always seems more trouble than it's worth.

TIA

rozeepozee

grandma247 wrote: »

free slow cooker e-book here

Thanks for that. I've only used my SC twice since I bought it - one disaster and one quite nice curry and need to get into a routine with it.

budgeteer wrote: »

how much do you charge for your eggs if you sell/swop them. I think mine work out to about 10p an egg....... would probs do 6 for £1........ is that good for free range and HAPPY eggs. I haven't bought eggs for ages!

You can get value Free-range eggs marginally cheaper in the supermarket, but I am very happy to have bought 12 eggs from my work colleague for £2. I know he loves his chooks and they are well cared-for[/QUOTE]

My large FR eggs from Costco were £2.79 for 18. Can't understand why I refused my MIL's "HM" eggs at the weekend (she has a few hens on her allotment). Doh! Musta been having a pregnant moment and am now kicking myself!

babyboysmommy wrote: »

I'm starting to realize just how hard it is to have a NSD. Tomorrow we are off to the soft play centre, £1 but that should be the only expense of the day.

Glad it's not just me!

Sorry about the many posts - I keep forgetting to use the multi-quote facility.

rozeepozee

Me again. Think my avatar is a bit out of date :rotfl:Can't remember how to do one - can anyone advise pls?

rictus123

LilacPixie wrote: »

I've been assesing the 'situation' and I am concerned. I am doing a 12k challenge so 1k a month and to pay all debt plus mortgage is another £1500 a month so 2.5k to cover everything including overpayments. Depending on hours worked we have between 2980 and 3340 a month income after taxes. We are also in the position of 12k looking a bit generous for the year (presuming we can keep up with current budgetting) yet here we are with payday on Wednesday and no where near as much left as we should. mostly because OH has been buying carp!!! and not the fish!

Hey you are still doing well! My budget is £6k for absolute everything except debts(which are only £2k compared to a net pay of £1100 first half this year and £1400 2nd half of the year) i should be left with a few grand at least!