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

sophiesmum_2

mama67 wrote: »

Nyk/SM just thought I'd say that those salt croutons we bought from AF I saw today in Mr S at 40p/bag.

Well there are about 3 million bags spread between our two houses currently lol
I'm planning on using them to add a bit of something to lunchtime soups, and add to salads in summer, may also crush some and add to gratins as a bit of crunch.I got some of the garlic and herb ones too:) Not bad for 1p a case.

cha97michelle

Evening.

pagangirl i second what SM said about the sauces. We are finding they actually think they taste better now than last year. Must be our strange taste buds. :rotfl:I have found them to have gone a bit thicker and added in a bit of water at the start of the cooking to even out any lumps and bumps. To each their own taste though.

Meg that seems a bit harsh towards mooloo. She doesn't really have the funds to take in her grandchild but is doing so and looking for funds to help her manage. If you have any tips to how she might achieve this then that would be very helpful. I appreciate what you said about being grateful for your health and having a grandchild, but you don't know her whole situation.


Here, we've had a frugal day. Porridge for breakfast, leftover HM soup with AF croutons for me and the kids, then a fish pie. I had a block of puff pastry needing using, so i used half the block to make the pie top, then the other half was rolled thin, spread with tomato puree and a bit of grated cheese to make some frugal savoury rolls. Very tasty.

DH's car only needed a bulb so an extra £5 to the expected MOT bill this evening.:j

Also, there was a nice surprise from the tax office in our account in the form of a rebate. To say they were hassling us for the £700 we owed, they have paid us £1400 back. DH also says if they sort out his tax code we will be looking at a £3000 pay cheque next month or the month after. My aim is to use some to pay off the mortgage a bit more, and then i want to put as much as possible into savings. More frugalling here. I need to stay with it this year. I might stretch to some wine to take on hols next week now though now i am not as skint as i thought.

ETA - just checked my email and LF have decided to give me a free DVD rental as it is the 'birthday' of me joining them. I'll make sure we use that before we cancel or reduce our package later in the year.

A_fiend_for_life

Digibox blew just over 2 years ago then the TV blew a month or two later (same socket). The digibox was impossible to repair and didn't fancy touching the TV. They now live in the shed until the council reduces the cost of removing electrical items £25 each. A taxi is cheaper.

I haven't missed the TV and sold my video dvd player for £25. Some guests look around as if they have just stepped into the TARDIS - maybe that's a good time to serve bread and pullit.

I've also found something called Ad Block Plus (ABP) for firefox - it blocks all the ads. If you visit the Guardian or other newspapers websites and compare the status bar with ABP turned on and off you'll get an idea how much is blocked. A bit impolite considering the pages are always downloading something and can push some people over their reasonable use limit. Check your third party cookies afterwards. :eek:

Funny enough when it comes to questions on surveys I haven't seen any of the ads.

Back on track £str3tcher still have tins of beans for 9p a tin.

KazLA

cha97michelle - Really inspired by seeing your figures from last January compared to this year!

cha97michelle

KazLA wrote: »

cha97michelle - Really inspired by seeing your figures from last January compared to this year!

Thanks. I was pretty pleased myself. Our income is a bit lower as i was just coming off maternity pay this time last year, whereas now i am a SAHM. So partly necessity.

Some of it though is reprioritising where the budget must go, dropping brands and lowering grocery budget, and really just keeping track of every penny. If i don't i have a broad awareness of where we are but if it comes to a choice where we say shall we just have a snack out or a takeaway, or a shopping splurge, then i know definitely now whether we can afford it. (Now we can, but i still say no to keep the pennies for savings and paying off the mortgage more so i can stay at home longer.

Stick around here and read the DFW and MFW diaries and some people are doing truly amazing things. I read a thread on DFW about how skint people had been and the things they had to do to survive when they had almost nothing, and it inspired me to never let myself get to that point by being sensible now.

aeb_2

BigMummaF wrote: »

You're told to have different passwords so that doesn't help; you're told not to write them down so that doesn't help...but what does?

It does get confusing.

Something everyone should consider perhaps. When my DH pased away I couldn't access any of his accounts and I was a bit stuck for several months. Direct Debits couldn't be paid from his bank account which had been locked but I was able to sort those eventually. Paperless billing meant I had no record of account numbers, etc
It was the more personal things which were difficult, for example, he kept an online address book containing hundreds of numbers and many of my friends numbers too. I couldn't access this which meant I couldn't even tell people about the funeral, although everyone got to know as it was in the paper where we used to live.
He was well known in his field and was writing a book, that is all on there too, along with all the scanned in records. Also many photographs.
I am told there are ways to get to the info, maybe in the future.

So perhaps to save some stress we should write down our password, even in a code that only the OH knows, and store them with our will in a sealed envelope.

aeb_2

meg72 wrote: »

No of course, looking after your own Grandchildi is not care in the community,
why would it be. but if you stop ranting and start looking there is help you can get. Could you share these. Although personally I have looked after two grandchildren for the past six years and not thought this should be a community obligation and Yes also worked all my life. I consider my self lucky, one to have been in good health to have worked and two to have been blessed with the Grandchildren to be looked after.

I think the point she was making was the unfairness of a situation whereby some people get money for looking after their grandchildren and others do not. That is how I read it anyway.

FrankieM

pagangirl wrote: »

Turn the radiator off :eek: - it's flippin freezin here , rain, high wind - errrm - no ! (Got no other heat source)

How on earth did you manage for a week - guess I'm just used to C/H although not on high, just 15-18' keeps me happy (have got layers on first)

Sorry, I assumed when you said all heat was going out the hole that you weren't getting any heat from the radiator, so it made sense to me to just turn it off
Sorry if I misunderstood. I guess I just managed cause I had to...and bundled up with blankets! :rotfl:

Twinkles08

Hello everyone,hope you are all well.Haven't popped on for a few days so I'm well behind with the thread.Hugs to those who need them.
Well January was a steep learning curve!I've never kept a spending diary for a whole month before-it was certainly an eye opener!We have a modest income as hubby works in retail and I am lucky enough to be a sahm.This means we don't have a lot of spare income but definate tweeking is needed with what we do have.Most things came in or under budget,except the 'anything else' which we smashed to pieces :eek:
Our total budget overall meant we overspent by 58.20.However we did manage to squirral some money away into the savings which has never happened before,so I'm trying not to beat myself up.lol
I've borrowed my mums slow cooker and used it to make chick soup from left overs from sunday roast.I also made yorkshire puds with batter I made from the day before and made a stew for tea yest by using leftover cassorole and a tin of tomatoes.I'm getting the hang of it now!

ajp233

hermum wrote: »

Hi, I see that most people have added tv licence to their expenditure. As I assume everyone has internet, check out this link from tv licensing

I've always had a license but probably only watched a couple of hours a week, I'm now watching through the computer & after they're shown "live" so around £145 pa saved.

I also took the decision to get rid of the TV Licence at the beginning of 2010. Received a refund of 6 months TV Licence (£71) yesterday