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

tryingtodobetter

Good Evening

Went to Plymouth today which was heaving, while I was being pushed around and coughed over I suddenly remembered why I prefer to shop online :rolleyes:

I have spent £47.15 today this included school trousers for DS1, 2 presents for birthdays that are later in the year, a few bits and bobs for DS1 & DS2 who have birthdays on the 13th and 18th and a bike for DS2 for his birthday. The bike is from ebay, it is ex-display as it is unused but as a few minor scratches. DS2 won't even notice the scratches and it has saved me alot of money (it will get scratched through use anyway)

Had a good clear out yesterday and I now have a whole pile of stuff to list on ebay once the boys are back at school. I must do a food inventory like everyone else on here as well, but I think I will leave this until the boys are back at school as well.

Hope everyone has had a good day

TTDB.x.

cw18

Just finished a detailed inventory of my freezers - taken it slow and steady, but it's taken me all afternoon !!

And all I can say is :eek: Certainly looks like I'm going to have an incredibly healthy stock pile fund for groceries by the latter part of the year

Spreadsheet has some items split over several rows (I normally catalogue how much I have spread around all the drawers -- 9 of them -- on one line, but in an attempt to be able to find what I want when I want it I've catalogued by drawer and freezer), and DS wanted to know how much I've got in them........ he walked in as I was finishing off, and I have over 150 rows

Looks like we're eating a lot of chicken/turkey over the next few months (including risotto to use up the 5 tubs of chicken stock I have in there, and enchilladas to use up the 6 meals worth of tortillas), a couple of mince based dishes a week for at least a couple of months, and 'pie and something' will be on the menu at regular intervals (36 individual pies/pasties of various types), along with DS's favourite of sausagemeat and chips (7 lots of sausagemeat)......

Also need to stop buying bread for me, as I've got 42 slices of multigrain/wholegrain/linseed bread (plus 7 plain white rolls, 3 seeded bagels, and 3 plain pittas) in there :rolleyes2 Eating those up will free substantial space, and make it much easier to defrost them

Sunday meals are also sorted until heaven only knows when, as I've found (based on feeding 2 of us for the majority of the time).......

4 meals worth of pork chops
a large pork joint (cook one day, and re-freeze enough for at least another 4 meals)
5 meals of 'already roasted' beef
6 meals of 'already roasted' chicken breast
6 turkey breast joints (at least one meal, plus a salad or sandwiches, from each)
1 meal of lamb chops
a lamb joint (should do at least 2, but hopefully 3, meals)



Aiming to do the fridge tomorrow morning - and then I need to restart my cupboards..... followed by the boxes I have knocking around with jars, tins, packets !!!

watchthisspace_2

What exactly is a food inventory? Sorry for the silly questions

And does any body have a spreadsheet template they would kindly share, I really think i can do well with this frugal living however I'm a little disorganised when it comes to keeping track of expenditure...

I mean, is it better to withdraw grocery money and pay cash to avoid overspending? And 'left over money would i use this for the following week and withdraw less so increasing savings in the bank or would I put 'left over' money in a pot to save and continue to withdraw the same amount each week for groceries etc?

I'm over thinking.. need to put pen to paper!!! But on the up side i've not spent a penny in 2010 so far!!!!

xnatalie81x

Popped to lottie today and had forgotten i left 6 potato plants in to see what happened to them so dug up 2 and had enough small new potatoes for dinner - also managed to haul 2 leeks, 2 cabbages, 5 carrots and 2 baby turnips - cooked all of that (apart from leeks) and had with some left over brussels, chicken and sausages with bacon (from xmas) it was delish! with some emergency frozen tesco value yorkshires and gravy

Have picked all the yukky bits off the chicken and boiled some tesco value rice for dogs and pups dinner tonight also have chicken breast and leg meat in saucepan for dinner tomorrow.

I decided that 2009 budget was too vague so have a more detailed plan for 2010 and here it is - THE FINAL ONE

Electric 800yr
Gas 440yr
Mobile 420yr
Home phone 150 yr
tv licence 150yr
pet insurance 350yr
car tax 120yr
car insurance 600yr
b'days 200 yr
xmas 200yr
petrol 1000 yr
food 3520yr
toiletries 60yr
cleaning 180yr
washing 480yr
alcohol 100yr (ha ha ha a category of its own lol)
nappies/wipes 300yr (BUT yngest has started using potty so hoping less)
allotment 150 yr
chickens 200yr
haircuts 150yr
dogs 400yr
going out 200yr
kids activities 100yr
other 1380yr
clothes n shoes for 5.5yr old 150
clothes n shoes for 3.5yr old 150
clothes n shoes for 2yr old 150
cl n shoes for me 200
cl n shoes for OH 50
=12410 - aim for live on 12,500 as 2009 ended at almost 14k!!!

So far for 2010 i have paid the pet insurance and tv licence for jan and spent 84.50 on b'day pressies (only MIL left to get, top up pressies for my 3 kids and a few for b'day parties for kids' friends! Should be under budget here as sales were great!) and £13 on xmas pressies for 3 ppl

cw18

watchthisspace wrote: »

What exactly is a food inventory? Sorry for the silly questions

Just a list of what we have in the house

And does any body have a spreadsheet template they would kindly share, I really think i can do well with this frugal living however I'm a little disorganised when it comes to keeping track of expenditure...

PM me with your email address, and I'll send you a copy. If you have Excel 2007 then mention that, as it was original written for that version. But I also have a 'backwards compatible' version that works in Excel 97 thru 2003, and also in Open Office

xnatalie81x

watchthisspace wrote: »

What exactly is a food inventory? Sorry for the silly questions

And does any body have a spreadsheet template they would kindly share, I really think i can do well with this frugal living however I'm a little disorganised when it comes to keeping track of expenditure...

I mean, is it better to withdraw grocery money and pay cash to avoid overspending? And 'left over money would i use this for the following week and withdraw less so increasing savings in the bank or would I put 'left over' money in a pot to save and continue to withdraw the same amount each week for groceries etc?

I'm over thinking.. need to put pen to paper!!! But on the up side i've not spent a penny in 2010 so far!!!!

I think you need to have a play and find what works for you! Lat year was my first yr and i had a sheet of a4 paper (2 actually) with categories along top and months down side - every time i spent, i wrote it on there! Now i am doing the same but with a printed sheet and i will put totals onto spreadsheet at the end of every month!

How you deal with left-overs is also 100% up to you - i personally have a main bank account, a savings account and an ISA all with same bank and use online banking to shuffle money around. Have now applied for another account which is where i will keep all b'day/xmas/lottie/chicken etc money!

debtmess

grandma247 wrote: »

Ring them they should put it to freeview. I think one of my daughters did that. We have sky freeview in the front room. We bought it as freeview and once the free four months package was up we were very firm about just having freeview even though they were offering a £3 a month sweetner.

.

thank you, will ring them tomorrow i wanted to keep just the kids package but will have to pay £15 for that but then thats £7 less than i am currantly paying, i watch very little tv so basic channels wouldnt bother me

damm the oil is fragrance oil so a no no for my scrub, will keep it instead for my reed diffusers and keep a scrub as just oil and salt was planning to make and keep it in a small pot so each pot would last 2-3 times in the shower

my large cottage pie is enough for 6 portions so 2 more sets of meaals, will make space in the freezer for one and the other either tomorrow or monday, tuesday will be a hard one for the boys as after swimming there used to having a meal in the cafe but thats £5.50 out of my budget whereas at home i can pop something together, we get home around 6ish but thats with a quikc trip round asda for any woopsies


Good luck to those trying to give up smokeing im sure its been mentioned but nhs smoking cessation clinics etc give free patches etc to those who really want to give up

Frugaldom

nikki20022008 wrote: »

nyk I have tried about 10 times and I get a right moody person lol but I am going to give it my best shot this time

Have you tried the 'Billy Can' method? :rotfl:
When you feel the urge to buy 20 cigs, take a £5 note, set it alight in your billy can and see how it makes you feel. From that point on, try putting the £5 in a bank each week and watch it grow. Before trying this, go to the 'demotivator' link in 'free tools' on the right hand side of this forum and find out exactly how much money should be in the billy can bonfire over a year. It might allow you the chance to think about what you'd like to do with that amount of cash this time next year. My billy can would have seen £1,059.95 up in smoke since quitting this time 2 years ago, but I used some of those savings towards DD's wedding.

LilacPixie

Is anyone in Tayside/Angus??? I am and we have snow snow and more snow. I am wondering if y tesco order could be indanger tomorrow??

Frugaldom

watchthisspace wrote: »

...
And does any body have a spreadsheet template they would kindly share, I really think i can do well with this frugal living however I'm a little disorganised when it comes to keeping track of expenditure...

To all concerned - Post 1 of this challenge, which explains all about it, has a list of handy links. There's one there for Cheryl's 2010 spreadsheet. All the links are in alphabetical order, have a look about and see how others are doing their budgets.