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

mama67

crystals2632 wrote: »

oooh madwd ya believe it, found out why dads been on diet of puree for last 3 days, hes thin enough as it is and weight dropping off due to not eating any way, little nurse looked at notice above dads bed, which was from the last patient and applied it to my dad, who has been through hell and back, while they put thickners in his water, took away his fruit cordial and thickened his tea and coffee and liqidised his meals. while I am hopping mad, dont want to complain as he is still in their care. hugs to every one. Rictus dont throw yer money on a rust bucket been there done that, you will be quids in when you get rid of it, do it now before mot costs you 100s.

I'd complain pretty sharpish even though he is still in their care as, the wrong information could have made his condition worse.

That is just plain bad housekeeping on their part.

Optimisticpair

I've just squeaked in for Feb under budget.

£413.83 / £416.66 average per month.

I'm thinking of doing an all in version from April instead of the previous standard Live on xKchallenge. I didn't include for either the garden or the car in my original budget and the car especially dragged me way off 'target' in January.

The £150 touch electricity bill was a sizeable chunk of this month's expenses.
Cards & gifts came to £8.35 and I spent £15 in Mr T's tokens on a belated present.
House spend was £20 on a Slow cooker, Garden stuff came to £14 and heating was £35. Most of the rest went on groceries including a stock of toilet roll, kitchen roll, cleaning & toothpaste supplies and wild bird seed.

Rictus - Could you be less harsh on yourself by including a small regular something as a treat for yourself so that you don't feel down in the dumps and want to cheer yourself up by blowing a heap on entertainment?

You are doing ok you know. There's so many lads your age who haven't got their act together enough to even think about budgeting to save any money. It's harder to concentrate on getting out of debt and into the black than blowing every paycheck and having bugg@r all to show for it every month but in a short time you will be congratulating yourself on your achievement and planning your next goal.

Saddle up for March! yeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa:rotfl:

babyboysmommy

Thanks everyone. It didn't smell off or anything so I put it in the slow cooker on high.

loopychriss

babyboysmommy wrote: »

Thanks everyone. It didn't smell off or anything so I put it in the slow cooker on high.

It should be fine, I often take something out in the morning and leave it all day and night to defrost. It's fine in the winter, but I don't think you could do it in the height of summer, with the heat and flies...!

rictus123

Thanks for all the messages last night, needed just to get it all out! Went out and spent less than £35. Not too bad considering how drunk i was....feeling alot better and usual cheerful self again! Im a bit over budget now but hey i thought i deserved it! Thanks everyone, got to dash!

pagangirl

[quote babyboysmommy - The dog had to have 5 teeth removed, He's feeling very sorry for himself. Also found out he has cataracts & is very much losing his sight, very sad.]

Ahhh - hug the woofer from me - our old guy had cataracts, amongst a lot of other ailments, but kept all his teeth !

Has anyone seen the new Sainsbugs magazine - glanced at it the other day - big article on 'frugal' food !

Have updated my spreadsheet (own homemade version) and put a line chart in - much better to see what the high spends are - anyone else tried this?

Gilligansyle - if I was that much under budget, I'd know me adding up was wrong somehwere! Hope you have come in that much under - congrats if you did :T

crystals 2632 - that's awful - I'd be complaining to ward matron asap about that nurse. Hope your dad improves soon hun. :grouphug:

cw18

Finished updating my spreadsheet for this month, so it now looks like this....



The category titles in red are all one-off payments, so those I've already paid are 'in the red'. Overall my budget allows me to have put aside £166, but I've already paid out £189.50 so slightly 'overdrawn' across them all - but I'm not concerned about this as they should balance out over the year.

Well under budget on
Council Tax - due to no payment in Feb
Water - due to Feb D/Deb not yet being called
Phone & B/band - will possibly tip the other way later in the year
Mobile Phone - due to Feb D/Deb not yet being called
Windows - due to weather meaning they didn't come for the first round of Jan
Presents - not needed anything yet, though I've picked up a few bits for DS1's 21st (next weekend) and Christmas pressies, plus Easter Eggs for my three
Petrol - still a quarter tank left from New Years Eve
Groceries - not only have I used £52 worth from stock, but I'm also almost £31 in credit as well :T

Overdrawn on
Vets Bills - but annual budget adjusted last month, so it should eventually balance out
Toiletries/Cleaning - due to buying a new airer. Based on result of using it over the last 10 days it was well worth the money though - and I don't reckon it'll push me over by the end of the year
'Anything Else' - this is the :eek: one !!! The budget allows for £33/month, and I only spent £18.51 in January - it's the £88.31 I've spent in Feb that's sent it through the roof

£25.96 of this was on tools (determined to build up a decent tool box this year) - with £10 of it being spent today so I could repair the leaking toilet in the cloakroom, having given up on finding a plumber. Repair is holding up reasonably at the moment (but may take another look tomorrow), so I've almost certainly saved more than this as a plumber bill

I've also spent £3.99 on a set of replacement bulbs for the car (something I used to have years ago, and decided it was time to replace when I saw a reasonably priced kit), plus £1.99 on a high-visibility vest to keep in the car.

A further £3.25 went on a magazine (Country Kitchen), and £21.97 on books for my GDs (which I may actually move across to my presents budget at a later date, depending on whether they get read here or not)

The final £31.65 (so almost a whole months 'allowance') went on 3 DVD boxed sets :eek:
(And even more :eek: is that I actually spent a further £12.99 on another boxed set, but this set was paid for with birthday money)

(And this category is going to take another hammering on Tuesday when I get my hair done !!! Looks like it could be just as well I built a 'contingency' fund into my budget this year.......)


Overall my budget to end Feb was £1320.50, but I've spent just £1102.68 - meaning I'm actually still in credit by £217.82 :T



(ETA: Just checked my figures for end of Feb 2009, and this time last year I was in credit by 'just' £141.48 - so I'm really chuffed with my current situation, especially given I've already had the unexpected vets bills, whereas I didn't get any of this until July & Sept last year)

Frugaldom

Well, that's it almost over for month 2, we'll be one sixth of the way through the challenge by tomorrow and due to start thread 2 of this challenge at the end of March. I'm glad so many people are still following the frugal ways and hope you're all reaping some benefits from them.

Telephone bill comes out tomorrow for us, so that'll be best part of £45 right away. I've had 8 household spending days in February, amounting to £262.65 in total. It's meant being able to put £300 into ISA before the end of month 'pay' from invoices arrives. :j As soon as these arrive, the remaining £350 needed to fill my ISA will be transferred. I can't begin to imagine filling the 2010/11 one now that it's increasing to £5,100 as I just don't earn enough to be able to bank almost £100 per week but I'll try my best to keep up with current levels whilst frugalising everything as far as I can. Onwards and upwards - 21st Century self sufficiency is achievable, it has to be! :rotfl:I MUST get some sort of planting started but it's still just too cold!

candygirl

Omg I can't believe it my stuff on ebay has made £75 so far, and it's not all finished yet:eek:A swimming cossie is going for £17 at the mo:eek::eek:I was gonna wazz it in a charity bag too:o:o
Apart from that had a very frugal day as was bought lunch by my Bro, and I managed to get a whoopsied loaf n bread rolls for 50p:j:j
Have got tons of food in now so will not shop this week[STRIKE]much[/STRIKE]:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Boo loved the yogurt and banana mush this morn, and it's much better for her than the jars :D
Have fabbily frugal eves all:A

JayJay14

End of month two and the total spent is £1333.18 out of a total to date of £1833.33.

Not yet taken are car insurances - OH's will be over £600 and due in March (accident prone pain in the *rse) so I'm not as far ahead as it looks. There is also car tax due later in the year.

The main things to consider is that I have spent £293.20 in groceries out of a budget of £260.00 :eek: so that needs clawing back. On the good side the Clothing/shoes budget is still intact. We are also really down on our proposed diesel useage but hopefully that will go up if OH gets a job:D

Forward into March, hoping we get the mortgage insurance sorted out soon as that will at least reduce the stress level in the household.

Baked my best ever choc chip muffins today - now I'll just have to remember how I did it for next time:rotfl: