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

taka

Congratulations Lynda - I hope it went well! :beer:

butterfly72

Hi everyone! I don't really post too much on here, although I do try and read the posts.

I've just come to the end of a 2 week 'staycation' and its cost me a small fortune!! Heres a run down of my outgoings for the past 2 weeks:

Dentist: check up £55, Hygeiniest £50 and filing £95:eek:
Car service and MOT: £350
Car Tax £125
Horse riding: £80
Lunch out with friends: £30
Birthdays (gifts and eating out): £100
Seeds and gardening equipment for the allotment: £50

I've also decided to start regular weekly riding lessons at £40 a time. I know its a lot of money, but I feel I'm not living for the moment and have saved hard and gone without many luxuries for the past 8 years. Riding is my passion as I used to have horses and ponies when I was growing up. I'm going to start a 'Horse' fund and hopefully get my own one day.

On the frugal side, I've used my Ramoska loads this week, made a Mothers day card and Birthday card, made a soup with asparagus ends that I normally throw away, sold a book on amazon, got £60 Amex cashback credited to my card, Quidco finally paid up for insurance cashback from October: £70, Cashed in £77.50 Tesco clubcard vouchers for £310 to spend at Goldsmith Jewellers (planning to get a nice watch). Have also sorted the allotment ready for spring planting! I've also printed an ad for my never used jumbo Outwell tent that I'm selling (god knows why, we bought a massive 4 berth with a carpeted sitting room because theres only 2 of us! It didn't look that big next to the 8 berths in the display field)

Well, its back to work Monday Am dreading it as I've really enjoyed my staycation!! If I was loaded i could easily be a lady of leisure!!

rozeepozee

Congratulations, Lynda - it's been a lovely day for a wedding!

Lynz sorry you're feeling so crappy. Your feelings are remeniscent of my own when I was a "youngster" (in my twenties, not my forties) and i was starting out on my career and trying to survive in London on a meagre wage. I found it such a harsh environment, everything seemed like a struggle, which is why I left. It has so much to offer but it takes a lot of money to enjoy it in my experience. I hope things improve soon (this too will pass, as my granddad used to say) *hugs*

Not been spending much recently and did a huge slow cooker meal from whoopsied lamb today. I keep trying to batch cook and freeze stuff for when the babies come and we're too knackered but my DP seems to have some political objection to this and keeps eating whatever I make, however big a meal it is... It'll be a challenge if he does it with this one (at least 1kg of minced lamb plus all the other ingredients!) Hoping we'll have at least two "ready meals" to put away.

My seedlings are coming along well. Have about 6 or 7 trays on the go and herbs and lettuce in a bath in the conservatory. They're smaller than baby leaves at the mo but hoping they'll give us an early start and motivate us to do plenty of sequential sowings. We're a good month ahead of ourselves compared to last year with a seasons worth of experience under our belt. Just got to work out how not to kill basil (I've been keeping it too wet again)

R x

lynzpower

Lynz sorry you're feeling so crappy. Your feelings are remeniscent of my own when I was a "youngster" (in my twenties, not my forties) and i was starting out on my career and trying to survive in London on a meagre wage. I found it such a harsh environment, everything seemed like a struggle, which is why I left. It has so much to offer but it takes a lot of money to enjoy it in my experience. I hope things improve soon (this too will pass, as my granddad used to say) *hugs*

Aww thanks Rozee. sadly im approaching 33 this year ( clock is ticking big time:o)

Puts me in mind of a fabulous and much under-played burt bacarach song "kniowing when to leave means never having to approach the point of no return"

very wise, and an issue we are grappling with- tis very emotional at the mo :eek: So Ive retreated downstairs to do some baking :A I've knocked up some potato cakes using old mash from in the week, Im boiling the salt beef joint and the BM is on for pizza this evening.

Now thinking about doing some granola ( new one for me, but I think its a doable, now wish Id bought a kilner jar at the jumble last week) and some sort of nice bake or something for puds. Baking and a nice cup of tea seems to make it all ok i think

Ive cleaned the kitchen and going to do a meal plan for the week and hopefully will feel a bit brighter after a bath and pamper

Xx

pagangirl

Nyk - thanks for the reply - will post in bold next time !

Passed my maths exam, and got a £10 voucher from college ! - was really pleased with that, need to investigate where I can spend love2shop voucher now

Annie123 - thanks for the digin info - have just ordered seeds for a friend.

batcatz - someone tried it with my bank account last year, bank phoned me and said they noticed odd amount on a transaction only coppers, - had I made a purchase ? When I said no, they reckoned someone was trying to see if they could get away with it, and next time it would be larger amount. They put an immediate stop on account and issued new card for me. Good job they noticed, since then I check all bank statements.

Lynzpower - hugs to you for bad week. Go pamper yourself, you deserve it !

Congratulations lyndasharp :T:T:T:T Hope all goes well for your big day.
Boggle Hole - is that Whitby way???

Thanks for the slow cooker recipe links BigMummaF - good bargain with the chicken !

Landregistrylass - congrats to OH on new job :T - still nothing going round here, out of work for 3 months now, - living on £23 a week ain't no fun

Frugaldom

Hope all went well for Lynda's wedding day, the sun certainly shone here at the right time.

Lynz, chin up, bad days only survive until a good day obliterates them.

My garlic is sprouting well and it's all from shop stuff, none from garden stores.

Had a mini LETS meet this afternoon and traded out all my lemon curd plus hen and duck eggs. I've also requested vermin control after the resident weasle from garden managed to get into the quail run and kill one of my birds. Would it be frugal to save for an airgun, do you think?

Borrowed SM's dehydrator and now have a tub of dried mushrooms for future stews. With so little space in the freezer, this seemed like a good idea. They look ok even if I did chop them rather small.

Credit card cashback arrived in my account along with a few pounds from T0pCa$hBack, so I'm extremely happy with the current state of affairs with regards to my cash neutral budget. (Also known as my 'EEK' - Everything Else Kitty'.) I'm well in credit with that and am still owed the £70+ from insurance etc in November. That should be due for cashing by next month, as I see someone else has been credited for an October one. :j

Applied for my BBC Digin seeds, hope they arrive soon as I'd like to get started planting before the end of this month. I can't believe it's only 3 weeks until Easter! That means it's only a couple of weeks until we move onto the next challenge thread! :eek: It also means I have only another couple of weeks to fill this year's ISA. Fingers crossed I can make it in time.

Hope everyone is having dry weather and making the most of any sunshine. Hens and ducks are enjoying it here and I do believe there is a slight green tinge to what used to be my lawn - maybe the grass is starting to grow again. Here's hoping spring is on the way soon.

grandma247

Lynda I hope your day was wonderful.
Lynz I hope you feel better soon and anyone else feeling down.
ButterflyI don't think we are supposed to mention the H word. Frugaldom loves them too.

frugaldom You could try turning some into mushroom powder too. it is lovely added to all sorts of things.

rozeepozee

Frugaldom wrote: »

Would it be frugal to save for an airgun, do you think?

DP bought one last year for the invading squirrels who were no longer running away from the bird table when we shouted at them - strangely, they seem to know the difference between a shout and a gun because whenever DP goes outside after them and aims, they disappear very quickly - wiley animals...:rotfl:

Kerry_Woman

Hope the wedding went well Lynda. Congratulations.

patentgirl

Morning all
Happy Mothers day was out yesterday and cant believe how it seems to be renamed rip off mothering Sunday the amount of people walking round with great big bouquets more paper and bows than anything else! I told my 3 not to bother but if they really want to some daffodils at 99p for bunch much nicer
Hope everything went well and to plan Lynda and enjoy your honeymoon
Doing quite well this month thanks for the reminders about ISAs ned to get myself sorted before cut off date
Just about to do some baking got 4 bananas gone past their best going to make a banana loaf and muffins
Frugaldom just put a load of washing out of line definatley getting bit spring like so nice not to have washing drying all over house.

Have a good day everyone