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

annie123

Aril.........Get your garlic in the ground now, it likes a bit of a frost on it. Garlic can be planted anytime from october onwards.

And you were not the only one not to have had a great 'pepper' year last year, not enough sunny warm days really, mine only did well when I put them back on the kitchen window sill, still got a few chilis on one.

Start pepper seeds off now but don't put outside 'till May and bring in before the first frosts. You will get peppers right through till january then.
They don't have to be treated like an annual, I have one that is 4 years old now, and gives me a good crop each year:)

Frugaldom

annie123 wrote: »

Could you use......
bt weekend call plan £11.54............1.5p per min evening calls weekdays or get all friends to get skype and free calls:D
then add:
o2 broadband £7.50 pm if you have an o2 mobile...plenty of free sims around

just a thought.

Thanks for that, I checked it out, but we aren't within an 02 area, so it would cost £17.50 per month plus minimum £10 per quarter mobile top-up on a free sim that would have no signal here, so impossible to use anyway. Overall, works out at £32.37 per month. Will probably opt for AOL's £17.99 talk package that includes all phone calls and I already have the BT £11.54 package (online billing and direct debit payments). Max speed won't change as 0.5mb is highest speed we can get being this far from a telephone exchange.

Off to catch up with rest of the posts before lights' out.

ceridwen wrote: »

So - where was the start of this back when...ie in 1999 purlease?:)

Errr....well there will be some further suggestions we could follow there methinks (bar the pheasant "beating" obviously for most of us.....yikes...NO THANKS!)

Sorry, Ceridwen, only the 2008 & onwards version of this challenge is permissible here owing to various copyright issues with MSE. It was first published in 1999 as a column in a newspaper.

My garlic plants are now up about 2". The planters have been moved into a more secure location in the garden, hopefully there'll be no more feathered marauders digging them.

grandma247

Hugs to SF and anyone else who needs one.

Nyk I hope you can sort out the broadband. It will not be easy I suppose because of where you live.

jayjay you had a gem of a health visitor. I had a lovely one when my older kids were born. They are in their thirties now.

Erme You could sew them by hand they are not difficult. Also they can be made of dark cloth 100% cotton t shirts from charity shop bargain bins. They are lovely and soft. They do not need to be fancy shapes either. The first ones I made looked a lot like the ordinary disposable ones but a bit longer for more comfort.
I used to use a plastic paint bucket with a lid and tip the lot into the washer and set the rinse cycle. When that was done they can be washed in any washing powder or liquid with the rest of your washing.

I hope everyone else is ok.

chika

Just a heads up for any green fingered frugalites. I was in P0undworld toady and they have multipacks of seeds for £1. Eack pack has a few different types of seed in or different varieties of the same fruit or veg. Might be worth checking out if you're looking for some cheap seeds.

KazLA

Do I need to set a budget to join this challenge (and is it too late to join?)

I feel like a bit of a fraud now, as I've been reading this thread for the last few weeks, and taking hints and tips, made a couple of posts, but am not actually official!

I've started using the monthly spreadsheet, but so far really only recording my spending of my £10 weekly budget for 'anything else'.

I have budgeted for years and record all my spending in excel, allowing £50 a month for fuel, £125 each for grocery shopping (£250) a month, putting £30 away for car expenses, £24 for hols, £5 for birthdays etc, but don't really record how much I actually spend in each category. E.g. I might buy a present for £8 and will use what is in the birthday account towards it and then pay the rest from my 'weekly spending' or extra money from elsewhere. Would like to gradually record all these, but think it will be a 'one step at a time' process...

We normally spend the whole grocery shopping budget for the month, but after following this thread, have managed to save £72.37 in January, which we have been able to put towards new tiles we bought for the bathroom. I'm really impressed with this and know the overall spend is much more than so many people, but we've save 29% of the overall budget for the month, so I'm really happy! :j

xnatalie81x wrote: »

Aims:
1. get OH accounts done and take to council offices
2. Decide on next weeks focus
3. Source cheap computer ink

I had to get some black HP ink this week, cheapest I found was just over £9 ordering through Amazon, but when it arrived, it had a note saying "Next time buy direct at www.cartridgeking.eu and save money. Enter discount code 112 at checkout and get 75p off your first order"

The company is based in Jersey, I ordered earlier in the week and it arrived yesterday.

JayJay14 wrote: »

Just checked out the soft fruit at Aldi - I think I'll have OH go in on Thursday morning and get a few - I've been waiting for their offers to fill the garden with fruit.

Think I could do with some of these for my new allotment! I normally get an email from Aldi, but not seen one for these yet. Will have to save some money up by Thursday!

annie123 wrote: »

Aril.........Get your garlic in the ground now, it likes a bit of a frost on it. Garlic can be planted anytime from october onwards.

And you were not the only one not to have had a great 'pepper' year last year, not enough sunny warm days really, mine only did well when I put them back on the kitchen window sill, still got a few chilis on one.

Start pepper seeds off now but don't put outside 'till May and bring in before the first frosts. You will get peppers right through till january then.
They don't have to be treated like an annual, I have one that is 4 years old now, and gives me a good crop each year:)

I don't normally start anything until the weather warms up, then look at the packet and think 'oh well, I'm sure a month late won't hurt!', but this year I'm trying to be organised and have a pot of peppers on the warmest windowsill. Also planted Alpine white strawberries (a first), tomatoes and lettuce last week.

Fishcake_Random

Candygirl - Thanks for the heads up on the program. I'm going to watch it tonight while I catch up on my knitting.

Twinkles - I love The Good Life to. I know someone has put them all on youtube which quite often keeps me entertained for the afternoon. And my OH is called Tom!!! Shame I'm not a Barbara lol.

Knithappens - Have ordered my freebie, thanks for letting us all know.

Twinkles - What size is your blanket/throw and what type of material? I may have a plan but depends.

Slowly - Sorry to hear about your car. Where abouts in the country are you? Can you travel by train or coach, I recommend the mega bus or mega train. Me and OH went to London and back for £12 with them.

IfOnly - I really want to see Avatar buy theres no way I will last 3 hours in a cinema. I don't think I can last an hour between loo trips at the mo as baby has dropped and I just know the more I try not to, the more I'll need to go.

Erme - Those links have made for a really interesting read. I personally coped during skint patches by using survey vouchers and only using the 15p value ones from mr. T's. I also apply for any free samples I can store.

Fishcake_Random

Evening fellow frugallers.

Well today has been very exciting!! OH finally got his letter from the working tax credit people and we will be getting £25 a week :T And its been back dated three months so we have a nice start to our savings. It meens our weekly income has increased 50%. No more dipping into almost non-exsistant savings.
We also made a rare trip to Mr.A's as we needed to stock up on some store cupboard staples and its also the only place locally I've been able to find baby tights. We spent £35.88 but £15 of that was on baby tights and some baby bargins. Knowing OH's money was in the bank we put it on debit card. But then............... we walked outside to the car and OH found a £10 note in front of the car!
With 2 days left of January we are officially £147.29 under budget! Thanks to the xmas money and our freezer stockpile of whoopsies. I'm super chuffed!!! Our account has nearly 700 in it and I can't rememer the last time I saw that amount!!!!
This weekend I will be helping OH in his shop as Saturdays are our busy day and sunday will be relaxing and watching movies as its our only day together (OH works 6 days a week) Monday however we are going to begin a massive sort out as OH is planning to turn his shops back room into a sort of lounge/day nursery for when bump arrives. Not sure if it will work but its worth a go and meens we can spend more time together and he can spend more time with baby.
x x x x x

rictus123

Hey everyone, spent £15 last night. Wont be any more nights out until April though, just the 1 night for valentines weekend Will have to get my road tax online today so i can run my van this week. Went to work but got sent home when i got there:mad::mad::mad:

gilligansyle

Morning all

Today is a shopping day, but I have a plan and a list so should keep under budget. Going to grocer/butcher and then pick up some bits in Iceland.
Also some free samples arrived including Twinings tea and soapnuts so going to be playing house and being elegant today.

Question - was doing some sad maths and worked out that buying loose tea worked out cheaper than tea bags, but can't remember what to do with used tealeaves. Don't want to throw down sink as have a feeling its a bit like coffee grounds and they will block it up. Can you throw them on soil etc?

kittiej

Good morning everybody :j

Well the electric bill wasn't as bad as I expected, £161.07 I owe on that now, ( already had £32 credit), so seeing as though I've had electric heaters on due to no gch then that's pretty good.

I think I need to contact eon about my direct debit amounts as I think £69 for electric and £79 for gas are just too high.

gillian, the tea will be fine thrown on the soil? compost heap, they are leaves after all

EDIT : Just checked eon online and they've reduced my dd's to £44 for gas and £54 for electric. I need to start turning more appliances off as well