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

Kittikins

Hi Ceridwen - as a fellow veggie, I agree, I had to do the same with the Thrifty Cookbook! I started putting tabs on each page I wanted to cheekily copy by whatever means, then realised I had a sea of tabs, so it would be less time consuming to buy the book. It's been a godsend! I tend to use Qu*rn/soya in place of meat in some of the recipes if the combination sounds good.

mama67

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Morning all

been up since 6 due to hubbys snoring...grrr (Nyk and SM you should be pleased we arent next door as he is really loud when he gets going..:rotfl:)

earned my first £20 of cashback yesterday and it has tracked already for arranging MIL's contents insurance

Have to go to shops later for a few bit for packed lunches but i will only buy whats on the list..........

ran out of sugar whilst making jam yesterday so no marmalade done yet! off to a retail park that has a poundstretcher(for t- bags ,10 bags of 69p sugar and jumbo kitchen rolls) and a Nett0 for branston beans and the few other things

Back later with the results
Shaz

Same here Shaz, on a really "good" day can here dh thru a closed door and ceiling and over the tv.

ceridwen

Kittikins wrote: »

Hi Ceridwen - as a fellow veggie, I agree, I had to do the same with the Thrifty Cookbook! I started putting tabs on each page I wanted to cheekily copy by whatever means, then realised I had a sea of tabs, so it would be less time consuming to buy the book. It's been a godsend! I tend to use Qu*rn/soya in place of meat in some of the recipes if the combination sounds good.

Me too! I was mentally substituting "chicken" quorn for chicken in some of the recipes. I didnt even want to start on the tagging (which is something I do too) - by the time I realised it was going to come to a LOT of pages.

mooomin

LilacPixie wrote: »

Freisian also avoiding the Radley bag. Tempting but i really don't need another black bag

I have a thread on DFW and mentioned it on there and everyone went STEP AWAY FROM THE BAG Did the same on Facebook and all my friends from MSE told me to buy it :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I was good though :A I thought to myself that £80 on a bag is 2% of my total debt and that if I really want to be debt-free this year I have to focus on making money and being frugal. I can then buy myself a lovely bag as a reward. That's what I'm telling myself anyway!

I had a lie-in this morning and have made up for that by doing washing before I even had coffee :eek: I plan to go out later and return some things I didn't need to the sales, although there is loads of snow here so I might leave it until tomorrow!

I received my £5 Reward payments into my Halifax account today (I have two of their Reward accounts) and will add them to The Spreadsheet later on as additional income for the challenge. I have sent them to my savings account though so they're going to form part of my Pay Off Debt/Contingency fund. Is that allowed?

cw18

Homemade wrote: »

Hello.....I would like to join in with this challenge this year but am unsure of something...

...if my budget was £4000 and I made an extra £100 a month at carboot sales, does that £100 help me out during the year by adding onto the £4000 or does it go in as savings?

jtb2412 wrote: »

Homemade I think the idea is any extra money made should be used to pay off debts first and foremost. If no debts then you could probably spend it on what you want (please correct me if I'm wrong nyk/folks !) I tend to use extra money made for presents first then filling up my ISA.

As with our budgets, I would say it's personal choice

Obviously, if you have any debts then the best use of additional income is to pay those off - hence reducing the running cost of them and/or clearing them off sooner (which then gives you extra money in the long-term)

But if you've no debts, then I don't see anything wrong with building the income into your budget. Nyk (I think, if I've read right) uses additional income (in her case from free scratchcards and cashback) to make part of her outgoings (such as her garden project and chickens) 'money neutral',

So setting yourself a target of raising the money to cover one area of your outgoings (as jtb suggests, presents being a good one to start with) would be a great idea

cw18

mama67 wrote: »

Same here Shaz, on a really "good" day can here dh thru a closed door and ceiling and over the tv.

Mine was like that too :rotfl:

Lost count of the number of nights we ended up in seperate rooms - and on different levels of the house as it was marginally more muffled through a floor/ceiling than a dividing wall
(and even then I often couldn't sleep because of it :eek: )

debtmess

Morning all x

today should be another nsd 3 in a row which is good for me

have the biggest load of washing top put away after staying up last night to iron it all just the school uniforms to sort out when everything else is put away

not sleeping great at the moment, no real idea why dont drink milky drinks so any other suggestions gratefully recieved

have sorted todays meals breakfast ds1 had porridge ds 2&3 weetabix
lunch is crackers,soft cheese and crisps (rice cakes for me) and dinner tonight is more of yesterdays cottage pie with brocolli carrots peas and sweetcorn, i may also make a apple, pear and plum crumble with custard

will get the breadmaker out later and try to suss which flour is which will bread rise if made with normal self raising flour ?

noticed my bulbs are already sprouting out front have a feeling the frost will get them before springtime.

on growing things, will buckets work ? i can pick them up cheaply from the local cheepy shop here seeds etc can then be picked up when seen, i know compost is also needed but where there be anything else ? i will admit to never growing anything before but this year i really want to give it a go

Vixstar

A bit behind with this challenge still need to figure out my budget as am having to try and factor in a house move. Hmm thinking about it I think I will just work to a monthly budget and then reassess when I move as I like having an all in budget, or maybe just remove all house related expenses...decisions decisions!
Anyway off to catch up with the earlier pages and then to further ponder my budget.

chika

Good morning all, thanks for the lovely welcome once again. I caught myself grabbing my purse to pop down to to overpriced simply food place down the road. Gave myself a mental telling off and vowed to make today a nsd. I only need bread and some kind of cake and I have all the ingredients to make both here. I kindda wanted a couple of onions to add to my mince creation - possibly keema curry that I will make for tea but I have a couple of old leeks that will work instead - hopefully :cool:

Mumoffour77 - You and your family sound amazing. I hope your dad recovers really quickly and doesn't have to stay in the hospital for too long.

Debtmess - Yes growing stuff in buckets is easily done - theres an mse thread about it http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=338111. I grew a few things in growbags because my house is rented and I can't dig up the garden. Also don't buy buckets!!! If you go to Mr S and possibly any other supermarket they will give you some of the black ones that they use on the flower stand. You will have to pop drainage holes in them but they are sturdy and more importantly free!

jtb2412

Wow ! Just got back from Mr T (needed to get some veg for dinner) and there's a 30p per kilo price difference in Carrots :eek: Mr T being more expensive than Mr S :eek:. Mind you, they did undercharge me for my parsnips (charged me for bananas instead) making me 33p up so I still made a profit of 3p :T.

I had kind of resorted back to Mr T for groceries but I think I'm going to be visiting Mr S a lot more as I did before Xmas - I do find them cheaper for a weekly shop, now I know why ! :rolleyes:

mumoffour sending hugs to all of you. xx