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

looby-loo_2

Good evening
I did an eat up tea and pancakes tonight - sugar and lemon till the pint of batter was all gone. I have been thinking about joining 'Nutra check' (without space) and as today is the last day I joined thinking it could be combined with giving up nibbles for Lent and I hope doing the two together will help me loose a stone by summer. It cost £24.99 for 6 months and if I don't buy nibbles I'll save nearly that - hope so anyway.

Also continued leaf raking and mole hill squashing:mad:

I sympathise with the hungery DS. I have an OH who eats for England and is as thin as a stick. He has a habit of 'just buying a bit of best bacon' on the way back from the school run.

Thriftkitten

:mad: Not a good start to my frugal week, This morning whilst rushing to get the kids to the creche the builders had left their car parked alongside mine only with the backside all squ-iff and in my hastened morning mode I reversed and turned the wheel too soon and...CRUNCH!!! Arrgh I need a new wing and bumper for my Fiat Multipla now...
So had a p*o day at work as I was very stressed.
I left the builder a not so nice note asking him kindly to either park like a man or sling his hook and park somewhere else, Oh and which house on the estate I lived in if he needed to see me...Came home to a group of builders giving me evil looks, but I think my face had the look of satan as the owner of the car didn't come to my house to discuss any damage to his car!! A clapped out fiesta with both wing mirrors pointing south(NOT MY DOING).
So I am feeling very Blaaah tonight, gutted and disheartened, Oh and robbed of hard earned money hahhaha that will have to go on the excess £250, but I know it's going to cost a lot more than that and my no claims are protected, I have been pacing round most of the night feeling like I've dropped a pound and found a penny!!
On a happier note, I got all the neighbour hood kids and mums together and we had a neighbourhood pancake race from one end of the street to the other, it was great fun and the kids loved it and got sweets as well as a good laugh at the mums pancake race, we even managed to rope one of the dads in... He came last bless him, tossed too high and it plopped on the floor hahahah!!!

Queen-Bee_2

Dear Frugaldom - Hmm, men and their appetites eh?

Alas I don't think it gets any better as they get older. A former BF is staying with me for a couple of days whilst down in London on a course.

He knows that I'm not working at the moment and on a strict budget. Well this evening I'd made a fabulous green curry with some fabulous whoopsied steak I found in Sainsburys. There were four big portions. I gave him the equivalent of two, had one myself and put one aside for my lunch tomorrow. He ate the lot and asked for seconds, as he'd seen there was some left in the pot. Sorry, but the next time he visits, I am going to HIDE what is left over!!!!

And my current BF is just as greedy.
QB

grandma247

http://www.eureka.org.uk/Galleries/desertdiscovery

JayJay14

Well frugal porridge eaten and pack up ready, off to work soon.

OH finished the deep beds in the garden yesterday so now have to look at what goes where. He's thinking of planting up some spuds (in old recycling boxes) then if the frost threatens he can put them in the garage overnight. If the weather holds today I'm hoping he will be able to get the area along the fence at the back of the garden sorted for the fruit bushes we got from aldi.

Off to put on the steel toecaps and get off to work.

knithappens

just popping on to ask a quick question really, has anyone got the kenwood food processor , it is 53 pound at the moment on amazon and comes with all the attachments, shredders etc, but it is only 500 watts, will this be any good?? or would i be better off with something more powerful, it is only to make cakes, blend soups chop veggies make baby dinners etc.

right popping off as bubba has uststarted crawling lol, and is heading for the play station wires - a new adventure begins

Frugaldom

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Please can you all keep your fingers crossed for us. It may just be the break we need! x x x x

Mine are crossed for you and congratulations on your OH getting the back room done for you.

cw18 wrote: »

Not a lot to report from here at the moment.....
I have a 'date that isn't a date' in a little under 3 weeks

GOOD LUCK! :j:beer:

JayJay14 wrote: »

...Off to put on the steel toecaps and get off to work.

:rotfl:I knew the trend would catch on soon! My wellies and my boots are steel toecaps, I have the shoes, too, but have never worn them. I'd sell them on eBid if they didn't have 'MOD' stamped on the soles! :rotfl:

On the eating habits & portion sizes, DS works mixed shifts, so he's back on late shift next week, which I HATE. It means he's hovering around the kitchen from about lunchtime until he goes to work at 4pm. He's good in that he does buy all this extra stuff himself but we had to 'have (another) little talk' last night about budgets and savings. He reads far too many stupid survey stats, so when I pointed out that his lunches alone were costing him over £500 a year he said that was good, according to such & such a survey, the average 20-25 year old male will spend closer to £1500 a year on lunches. My reply? 'Have you GOT the extra £1000 you're saving in a bank account to prove that?' :rotfl:

Post just arrived - an invite for a swine flu jab (as a registered poultry worker) and a free sample of Len0r. I guess they both count as freebies.

Last night I made the soup in the new slow cooker and have ended up with closer to 5 litres from the one chicken carcass. It has overcooked a bit, I think, so maybe it needs less time than the other one. More soup for less electricity sounds good to me and it's got leek, celery, carrots, onions & herbs with the rice, so it should be nutritious. I also added the carton of jelly/aspic as I couldn't think what to do with this for now.

Sorry to hear all the bad news (bumped cars etc) but congratulations to all those with good news (great bargains!). Have a good day, everyone, I'll catch up again soon.

landregistrylass

Morning all........ I have my 3 lovely GS with me for half term. I seem to have forgotten that they are eating machines, but the fact that I have a full freezer from all the tips on here is helping to keep the cost of that down. Thanks! Made bread with them yesterday, making spag bol today......they really love cooking. It was football yesterday (EEEK......my days as Rooney are limited) and making planes today at the local Tourist Info Centre. never a dull moment.

ChinaTea

Just catching up with thread after a few days awol. Was a bad week last week, have been exhausted (ME) and having bad muscle spasms which resulted in dropping a full 2ltr bottle og veg oil on the hall carpet and a 4k bag of cat food somehow got poured into a sink full of water instead of the cat bowl ( not they would have 4K at a time), tipped the bag and was hit by a spasm and it just went. Now I know I'm going to have to have new flooring when the adaptions are done as the entrance to the bathroom is being altered and the doorways in the hall widend but not for another few months. Covered the oil stain in flour to soak it up and have put a rug over the worst of it, this will have to do for now. Meant to say I left the flour overnight and hoovered it off first.

Apart from that have been very frugal, haven't been out only for cat food and have to catch up with OU stuff. Did think about pulling out of the course, I have my degree and this is for the honours classification. But then decided at the weekend I will do it so although only 2 weeks into the course I'm playing catch up as the 1st assignment due on the 24th.

Onwards and upwards

Erme

Got groceries yesterday despite the rain and electric cig came today (though the maxi starter pack WUD have been cheaper and better ) so now on old inhalators (BB mar 2010) till the battery charges (should be about 7 or 8 tonight) and I can go onto the electric cig. Strong stuff by looks of it and should be good. Maybe it'll work. I'm not so much (only partially) thinking of giving up smoking but just saving money. Alas it's a lot to fork out initially.

Also got winter jumpers for £1.50 from mr t . They were in small and other sizes (anyone down Mr T this week? WW wraps are still on offer as are Mr T healthy eating ones. I got the WW ones but personally I think the others are better ). So yeah that's me...

Sorry to hear about your son FL.....do you want a wee wifey to give him full blast of her educated and experienced (and only about 10 years older) wrath? It's a free offer LOL. I could suggest other things but better not on here .

Still have HP here...getting him on couchsurfing.org to try and get him away and not muck up my benefits. Hope everyone is well. I have a lump I need to get checked out at GP's tomorrow so pray I 0 use the starbucks card tomorrow prior cos I really don't want to use it. (I put £10 on it the day before I started FL :P) as a challenge for as long as possible.

Anyhow tis all my news. Housework for 12 hours on Monday was so not a good idea...

E