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

mooomin

Morning all!

I think we're going to be tweaking the budget here at Fresian Towers as well - we've been offered a car! It's going to cost us £30 for the car (geriatric Fiesta) and around £400 to tax and insure it for the year which I will be paying up front.

This is offset by the bus pass saving as that is £504 per year, but I need to allow for petrol, repairs, tyres etc so I'm going to crunch some numbers and come back with a new figure. We will certainly save on car hire as we rent a car 2-3 times a year to visit family and last time it was £160 :eek:

Puddleglum

Good Morning!

Congratulations on the births, glad you are all doing fine.:j

Annie123, what a fantastically, serendipitously,lucky find that skip was! Can it only be Londoners who chuck out such useful stuff.:beer:

I too have had to rejig the budget. Both children have decided that they want to go on an activity holiday again this summer. DS have been every summer for the past 5 years and DD for the past 3 years and it does give DH and I 5 days off during the summer hols. The food budget has had £300 removed from it, the gardening budget £100 and 3 other budgets have had £10 each shaved off of them in order to fund this.

DH has decided after 32 years to stop being a dental phobe and is now the equivalent of an ex smoker. (Why didn't I make him go years ago? Well let me think.......:mad:) Any way the dental budget may need some rapid expansion at the expense of something else.

Otherwise everything in the garden, here at Puddleglum Mansions is coming up roses.:coffee:

slowlyfading

Just found out that to pass it's MOT, my car is going to cost me a further £319.95. I think I'm going to have a lot of NSDs this month, as I am not going to be able to afford anything else, ever.

Why can't something just go right for a change? I knew this year was going to be hard, but I can feel myself getting more and more stressed and it's affecting my health and my work.

Kerry_Woman

Congratualtions Twinkles08.

FrankieM

Just wanted to send you a big hug slowlyfading sometimes it can really feel and be that way. I try to remind myself that getting stressed/angry/worried doesn't actually change anything...but it is hard

Frugaldom

Good afternoon frugal friends

Twinkles, congratulations on safe, FAST arrival off DD, well done you - had to laugh at the thoughts of saving chicken leftovers!

SF - don't get stressed, it's only money. Think of it this way - chances are that in 40 years time, about £1,000,000 will have passed through your hands. Why the heck are you allowing a piddling £319.95 to affect your health and happiness?

Just moved the chicks into a larger box and now have my posh new webcam (£5.80 inc P&P bought with eBid sales proceeds) set up to post photos online every 2 minutes. Trouble is that the chicks aren't too good at going within camera shot during the snapshots. :rotfl:

Freezer contents reshuffle needed today, as I'll need to top up on a few things. I have family coming for a few days holidays, so I'll need to meal plan for that to ensure everyone gets fed at proper times. I'm a bit of a scatterbrain for mealtimes and tend to forget to eat until someone says they're hungry. Speaking of which - it's lunchtime. Last night's Scotch eggs using the App F00d veggie sausagemeat were a resounding success, very filling and tasty. One left over, so that's getting used, along with a couple of tomatoes and whatever else I can muster up from the fridge.

Flying_Fresian, good luck with the car, don't forget cashback when insuring it.

CW - Sorry things didn't work out between you and mysteryman, I was one of those eagerly awaiting Sunday walking in park results.

Back later, hope everyone manages to have productive weekends.

grandma247

Twinkles congratulations on the birth of your baby.

Had a call at 11.10pm last night from aussie friend and she is a grannie again. Baby girl born yesterday afternoon their time by cesarian.

SF Hugs to you. Things will get better, it's just a pothole.

thriftylass

Congratulation to all the arrivals of little frugalmites.

FrankieM wrote: »

I'm wanting to get some seeds planted up but I haven't got a greenhouse or a heater in my conservatory so no where warm to get them started. I'm not sure what to do, does anyone have any ideas?
.

I just start mine in the living room which is only about 16C most of the time and the warmest room in the house. Never had any problems.

rictus123

Hey everyone, not been on in a few days! Not like me! Not much to update. Just everydays been a NSD this month, even today. Well so far. Worked half 7 until half 2 so an extra couple of quid in my next pay 13 days to the next one Still looking for a van/car seeing as mines out of mot in a little over 2 weeks better find something soon! Hopefully thats me in a habit of overtime now!

Anyone know what will happen pay wise if i choose to work 2 out of my 3 weeks trades holiday? Will i get the holiday pay + wages on top or just the wages? Just so i know its worthwhile...

Puddleglum

SF, this is just a thought as I don't know if schools will do this in our current age of austerity. When I finished my teacher training back in 1990 we were advised to contact the schools we would be joining in the Sept and see if we could start in the last few weeks of the summer term, for continuity, bedding down etc. If the school was amenable to this then it meant that we would be paid over the summer holiday.

As I say, this may be a long gone practice, but on the other hand it may be worth a try. The worst that could happen is that they say no, the best is a bit of financial security. Good luck and chin up!