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

xnatalie81x

FrankieM wrote: »

Morning All,

aeb I can remember when I fell pregnant with my 4th i was still brestfeeding my 3rd, he was only 4 mths and I was told to stop. I wish I'd kept on and just seen how it went. If there are supplements you can take or extra food you can eat and you want to keep feeding then give it a go. It's such a short amount a time in the scheme of things.

natalie I think you doing a great job! Is your focus on lunches just about the amount you spend?

Hope you all have a good day.

aeb/frankie m I was breastfeeding my second when she was 6mths i fell pregnant with 3rd. I carried on feeding her till she was 11mths - midwife told me to stop feeding baby blah blah - told her that many people before me had done it and were perfectly healthy. I had a 5mths break and then DS2 was born and fed for 5mths.

FrankieM Yes it is just a focus on cost. I am happy with the amount/balance of food they get. I shovel 3-4 portions of fruit n veg into dinner (usually) and they eat fruit between meals - and they have fruit as a snack at school and DD has milk too at school.

Future focus' include snacks, dinners, nappy and wipe usage, electricity usage, chicken costs etc etc - many weeks' worth there lol but i can only focus on one thing a week as i am a busy girlie :rotfl:

My 3.5 yr old just wrote 1 and 2 - nice to see they do something at nursery lol

grandma247

It amazes me that health visitors are so ignorant about breastfeeding. All the old knowledge seems to have been ditched as though it is no longer relevant.
I had an argument with my health visitor over feeding my ds3 who was my sixth child. She told me to start weaning at four months and did not like it when I said I was waiting until six months because of allergies. He already had the most terrible excema from birth because he had had antibiotics within hours of birth. Within days it was on the news that the "new" recommendations were six months for that very reason. I knew about it years before from a book that was published in the early seventies.
The health visitor also told me not to give oranges to my baby. My 3 daughters and ds2 had sucked on oranges from five months with me holding it till it had no juice. Ds 1 was intolerant of (as opposed to allergic) them, I think it was part of a much bigger problem he had but that's a long story. Babies in countries that grow oranges are fed them so that rule seems silly unless there is a problem.

yummymommy

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

NualaBuala - Thank you, that makes a lot of sense. i use a body shop shampoo as i've tried a lot of other brands and found them to make my hair too greasy or i react badly to them (H&S!!)

NYK - just to say the same as everyone else, Thank you for inspiring me to try to cut back and frugalise my life, and if you need a hand with the thread i am happy to help while i am jobhunting , and even once i get one

treated my friend to coffee today but didn't buy anything else, still have book vouchers to spend so amsorting thro my current ones and seeing what i have and haven't got, i am very much a book geek, i have a deep 3 shelved bookcase and it is about 1.5m wide i can do 2 rows per shelf and stack above as well, it's overflowing! and no i can't get rid as i really do read them all, some more than others but i am voracious in devouring them (last HP in 4-5 hours on the day of release for example)
i'm not sure whether to get some more foodie books or to go for some nice junk fantasy fiction ....... anyone got recommendations?
(i like sci-fi/fantasy/crime/period drama/horror/random chick novels, have all the brontes and most dickens, lots of eddings and R jordan, most anne rice and a lot of anne mccafferey. mixed )

also i made cottage pie with leftover roast pork, haven't got a mincer (yet) so i chopped by hand added veggies and gravy and topped with mash and cheese, nomnomnomnomnom

right off to eat some hm cake

ioiwe

Hi there regarding ideas for books. Have you tried www.lovereading.co.uk ? Its free to sign up. You can enter authors etc that you like and it will recommend alternatives.

candygirl

grandma247 wrote: »

It amazes me that health visitors are so ignorant about breastfeeding. All the old knowledge seems to have been ditched as though it is no longer relevant.
I had an argument with my health visitor over feeding my ds3 who was my sixth child. She told me to start weaning at four months and did not like it when I said I was waiting until six months because of allergies. He already had the most terrible excema from birth because he had had antibiotics within hours of birth. Within days it was on the news that the "new" recommendations were six months for that very reason. I knew about it years before from a book that was published in the early seventies.
The health visitor also told me not to give oranges to my baby. My 3 daughters and ds2 had sucked on oranges from five months with me holding it till it had no juice. Ds 1 was intolerant of (as opposed to allergic) them, I think it was part of a much bigger problem he had but that's a long story. Babies in countries that grow oranges are fed them so that rule seems silly unless there is a problem.

GRANDMA i agree about HVs giving daft advice, and it's amazing how much things have changed since I had DD nearly 22 years ago.The advice given for DGD now 10 months , is so much the opposite it's crazy:eek::eek:Good job we have common sense eh;)
Having a frugal day until tonight when i'm going out for a drinky poo.Don't feel great at the mo and would've normally cancelled, but my friend is raring to go:o

SavvyStudent_2

Hello all!

Another savvy day. Will be a NSD as I'm exhausted after nights so will not be leaving the house! As I'll be withdrawing my weekly budget tomorrow the change from this week (minus £10 given to OH yesterday on his way out to work!) has gone into my money pot - around £7ish (I'm not 'counting up' the money going in the pot as I want it to be a surprise!).

In my absence OH has done a massive shop (£60) it's all fancy and branded and doesn't go together in meals. I normally food shop for us and I had made sure there was plenty of food in for the week but he clearly wasn't bothered cooking it and bought a load of fatty salty convenience c**p. The freezer is full and we now have a fridge full of 'silly' & expensive food going off, wayyy too much for the 2 of us. Will have to try and go through it later and see what I can do. I'm glad I'm doing the challenge on my own TBH - as much as he sounds on board whenever we talk about budgets etc, clearly actions speak louder than words. There was a time when I would have been quite pleased to see the fridge full of garlic breads, supermarket pizza, pasties, 3 huge packets of ham (all with next weeks date on!!), expensive bacon and sausages etc and the cupboards full of crisps, fancy cereal bars etc but I think it's a sign of how far I've come that I'm absolutely GUTTED!

I'm determined to work with this though- we'll just have to have an unhealthy week or two and I'll claw the money back into our pot by cutting back on my own weekly shopping to just milk etc until this stuff is used up.

I've found out theres a chance OH might be laid off by the summer so I'm more determined than ever to save up some money, as theory suggests we *could* live on my wage but it would be very tight. This weekend my plan is getting him fully on board. I've already set the wheels in motion by making him count up his frittering last month... :eek:

Savvy

pink_numbers

cw18 wrote: »

Road Tax panic over....

Called the number in the email (only to be told it's changed, and asked to wait while the call was redirected), but got through to a real person very quickly.

He said it was posted on 18th (good going as I only ordered at 11:50pm on 17th), and they can either post out a replacement or I could pick up a duplicate from our 'local' DVLA office. As it isn't that local, parking in the area is a nightmare, queues are normally horrific, and I'd struggle to fit a visit in around work I opted to have a replacement posted out. Was told it should arrive next Tues/Wed, so I then asked how I'm fixed for using the car in the meantime. As long as I have my reference number with me (or, preferably, a copy of the email confirming my order) I'm fine to use the car as I have paid for it. But having the reference number/proof makes it quicker/easier should I be stopped in the meantime


I knew I'd had a massive overspend on my vets category last year, so I've just been back to check my figures.

The spreadsheet extract below shows my 2009 budgets as I originally set them, and what I actually spent for each. As you can see I overspent on the vets category by £579.30 ( :eek: ), but managed to claw it back from other categories. I actually overspent on 4 areas (those in red) and managed to claw something back from 16 categories (some only amounting to pennies, but it all helped ) - thus ending the year with £58.47 left :T

wow thank you very much for sharing your last year's record with us I know in my head that to be true to the challenge, I must throw all spends in with the total... plus, I know I can claw it back because of my car going. I think I will go back to my budget and tighten my belt

Can I ask why some of your category names were in red? (not the amount, the title).

xnatalie81x

savvystudent - can you freeze it?? or is freezer full too............ if ya even want any help with stretching meals just post your cupboard and fridge/freezer contents and the ppl on here will turn it into a gastro affair - there are some amazing ppl on here!

cw18

pink_numbers wrote: »

Can I ask why some of your category names were in red? (not the amount, the title).

They're "annual" bills, as in one-off payments.

Means I can tell at a glance whether an 'overspend' early in the year needs to be worried about or not..... if they're one-offs (such as Road Tax and Breakdown Cover, which have both been paid for this month), then I know I don't have to panic, as the spends won't go up during the year

xnatalie81x

my OH just gave me £10 to have the heating on all day lol. He is learning

Pippilongstocking

Morning fellow frugaleers

Sorry been a couple of weeks maybe since my last post - I read the daily update via email - but often have no time to reply - but great work one and all! I had a big meeting at work which has meant I've money for the next 11 months and then I finish which is better than finishing now.

I'm over my grocery budget this month - I think food shopping for me is one of my favourite things - although everything's reduced/value or whatever - I'm constantly topping up the freezer - I'm just hoping this is balanced when the kids go to their dads (most of each school holiday) and I don't tend to bother shopping I just live out of the various stashes. (I hope they are normally away for 12 weeks of the year when I have no one but me to feed ) But I guess the idea of the frugal living challenge is to highlight what's working, highlight where spends are higher and constantly review.

CW18 ta for the spreadsheet and great to see last years record of your spends.

NYKmedia - I would also offer a help if you get stuck - I can't always get on during the day due to field work - but am normally around at nights.

I hope you are all OK - I've set up all my individual expenses pots as online savers - its quite an eyeopener when you allocate everything each month!

The spreadsheets are a real eye-opener too. Petrol spends are more than expected - although the campervan has a very full tank of petrol due to the petrol guage suddenly stopping working. I am hoping it will even out.

My frugalleering today has been to feed hens - one's had an accident with a cat, but will see how she is later - I hope she's OK - I've repaired the bit of hen wire which let hte cat in.

I've made sure I have rice cooked and stuff ready for an almost instant 'takeaway' later on - this (I discovered from last years spends) is an area which I need to sort out - I really try hard at shopping - and then sometimes blow a weeks money on a takeaway - its got to stop.

I'm also working on my campervan to put curtain rails up - got them yesterday and have lovely old fabric to make curtains with - I just need some self tapping screws and my brothers help so I can get on with that.

I've a trip south next weekend (£107 flight) not cheap but its out of my travel budget so I do feel OK about going - its my niece's 1st birthday and an opportunity to meet up with OH - who might actually pay for my flight as it saves him coming up here. We're looking at area's we mighit want to buy a house/small holding in Morayshire to see if its where we'd like to settle. Im taking an empty suitcase and hitting the big Tesco's in Inverness for dishwasher tablets, dried bits and bobs, clingfilm and a few bits I've run short of in my stripeysocks shop (garage store which I started last easter with a big six month shop - although some of it has lasted til now - so i need to look at the original list I saved on MYsupermarket and see what's lasted the year - and what's running low.)

Goodluck frugaleers - tonight is a HM takeaway and more Dr Who from a box set we got (reduced) with vouchers.