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

Erme

PS. I sold one book on Amazon on Monday . Need to put more old books (they're just paperbacks so not much postage) soon and I have one thing on Ebay with a few watchers so pray that goes for a good price and we can recoup some of this ££££

hermum

Hi all I joined this thread last week, along with several others & am more of a lurker really. I have had 6 NSD out of 7. Spent 12.11 on Monday, which should hopefully see me through the week.
Erme, I think you posted somewhere to me about checking how much I can earn on benefits while ebaying? I can't find the post now. To start with I'll be selling my own stuff, of which there's lots, I don't think that counts as income does it?
Could someone tell me how to find the recipes for the hm cleaning stuff you all do-use please?
Many thanks
Have a good frugal day all

pencekeeper

Not doing too badly though had a more expensive start of year than I expected. Bought breadmaker and microwave costing about £100.

Anyway, have also started a personal 120 NSDs for 2010 challenge and currently have 11 under my belt. Nice not to be spending so much time in supermarket checkouts.

Hoping over time my £5K for 2010 will even out and start to look achievable.

Mollymop5

I buy stardrops at approx 58p per bottle and use this for all cleaning including floors, toilet ect.You can also use it for washing up though I watch out for deals and stock up when theres an offer on.

knithappens

Sorry not been posting recently, i have been updating my blog though, I have been very busy getting ready to go back to work so been doing alot of cooking and baking to make things easier, plus settling bubba in at the childminders, and getting out and about walking and have dusted off my home exercise DVD's, My frugal way of exercising to loose the 2 stone i need to after having bubba, so have not been home as much.
Update for today ( taken from my blog too tired to re write as bubba is teething and had me up most of the night)


I have been waiting for barclay card to take their minimum payment this month , so just checked and they arenot taking a payment this month, seems i have over paid past my minimum payment. Which is good,so i have payed my minimum, plus a little extra so my PAD today is 150 pounds - and am hoping to pay another 100 by the end of the month.

The annoying thing is they upped my credit limit without asking to 10800, i am trying to get out of debt not increase it, plus i transfered ,my balances on this card so if i spend on it my interest will sky rocket, banks are smart, but I will not be tempted, i just called them and asked them to lower my limit to 7000, that is the lowest i can go, even though i owe less then that. I also asked for a new card as i want to start managing my card online but need the ecurity details so as soon as i have registerd, i will be cutting the card up so i cannot use it. So far this year, from the 1st jan, i have paid 652.44, which i am proud of as i am down to SMP on maternity leave, i think without this challenge i would not have been able to pay so much, or been as focused and inspired by everyone on here.

Other than that there is nothing happening today i am sat here waiting for my new netbook to be delivered ( a dell refurb) used my rebate from Npower to ay for it, so not out of my budget for the year. I hate waiting around, but will be worth it when it arrives. other than that i am just going to tidy up a it around the house and prepare some food in the slowcooker for this evening, chicken i think

pink_numbers

One triple batch of home made neem soap. It weighs about 5kg! For size, those green mugs at the top are grande size starbucks mugs.

Managed to cut 114 bars out of it, so shouldn't need to make any more for the rest of the year! Works out to be about 14p per small bar, which is not cheaper than the supermarkets, but I know what's in them, and this one seem to get on with our skin really well.

ifonlyitwaseasier

pink_numbers wrote: »

One triple batch of home made neem soap. It weighs about 5kg! For size, those green mugs at the top are grande size starbucks mugs.

Managed to cut 114 bars out of it, so shouldn't need to make any more for the rest of the year! Works out to be about 14p per small bar, which is not cheaper than the supermarkets, but I know what's in them, and this one seem to get on with our skin really well.

WOW!! ok questions time, how did you make it?
how long did it take? in fact, can we have a "neem soap how to" please?

ok, so had to be unfrugal as my gloop tub was broken (grumble mutter people no respect mutter) and i ended up buying a handbag as well as a new tub darn MrT's cheap yet enticing goodies!
oh well it'll do well for interviews and for my new job (when i get it!)
not been up to much, just pottering about really, tho i did manage to resist :staradmin$$'s earlier so thats an improvement

ioiwe

Twinkles08

Lol pink numbers,It looks like fudge!It actually made me drool for a sec till I realised it was soap!:rotfl:
Rictus,I read your posts with great interest,you are doing amazingly well and inspire me to try harder.:T
I have finished batch cooking,ready for when baby arrives.Only 2 wks and 4 days to go:cool:I've done soup,stews,pies,yorkshire puds and I have some cheapy basic ready meals in too.My aim is not to resort to takeaways like we did when first dd was born-fingers crossed!Hope you are all well,I've only read the last page.
I've been leaking money this wk and it's really upset me.I was pleased with our savings starting to mount up but it's nearly all gone now.:(We were borrowing a pram from my friend but it hasn't worked out so this wk we brought a second hand buggy off ebay.I had to buy some nursing bras.Plus the car needed valanting (sp?)as we have a mould problem (due to the fact that we don't use the car often enough and it's been v damp/snow etc).We've tried to clean it ourselves but it seems to be outta control,and the car does not smell pleasant at all.Really want it sorted before we bring babs home from hospital IYKWIM.Finally we got a large gas and elec bill,which was higher than I expected.My hubby is horrified as he was mocking me for being stingy and going rd flicking switches off and lights.Turning radiators down or moaning when he wanted to put the heating on again.So although it hasn't affected the budget which is looking gd so far,it has swiped most of the savings we had carefully gathered.Boo.Silver lining I guess is that if we had all this last yr we wouldn't have been able to pay the bills outright.Soz for the long post!x

cake21

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Herm - I've often thought about loosing our TV license as we mainly watch dvds and OH plays on his computer in the evenings. I rarely watch something online unless it catches my fancy. Just wondering how you'd go about proving you don't use your TV for live tv????

Hi there, what happened to me is I sent them a letter explaining I wasn't using my tv for live broadcasts. Cue lots of pseudo-threatening letters saying was I sure I wasn't watching tv and watch out in case they caught me *rolls eyes*....and then two years later (I'll get there in the end sorry :rotfl:) someone from tv licencing came round, asked me what I used my tv for, and looked through the untuned channels on one of my televisions. He seemed more shocked that I actually let him in (you're not obliged to) and didn't want to look at the other televisions despite my best efforts. I think it's impossible to prove a negative anyway, I guess they would go more on how confident you were. In any case I haven't had any more letters HTH

mumtoomany wrote: »

My challenge now is to not spend any money on dog food, toiletries, household stuff or food, for the whole of February. I have two £5 Morrisons vouchers and about £5 nectar points so if I need milk, bread or fruit towards the end of Feb I am hoping to use these. Wish me luck, I will keep you all informed how I go on. So far (other than DD's) 5 no spend days this month.

Good luck! :beer:

Savvy_sewing

hermum wrote: »

Hi all I joined this thread last week, along with several others & am more of a lurker really. I have had 6 NSD out of 7. Spent 12.11 on Monday, which should hopefully see me through the week.
Erme, I think you posted somewhere to me about checking how much I can earn on benefits while ebaying? I can't find the post now. To start with I'll be selling my own stuff, of which there's lots, I don't think that counts as income does it?
Could someone tell me how to find the recipes for the hm cleaning stuff you all do-use please?
Many thanks
Have a good frugal day all

The links to everything you could ever want are at the beginning of the thread. Page 1. Spend some time following all those various links and the Frugal life looks very exciting!.
I dont have a tub as yet so havent made any, but I plan to.:T