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

XSpender

Morning All

It was minus 4.5 when I got up this morning:eek:. Oh I am so sick of the sight of snow and ice.

First DD of the year came out this morning so I have updated my signature with the total spent so far.

Rozee Pozee - I was hoping to use the £190 maternity grant to pay towards the pram but it might not arrive in time. I was 23 weeks yesterday so will be 27 weeks when I have to settle the balance. If they process it quickly it may hit my account in time if not it will be used for resuable nappies.

CW - so sorry to hear about your little dog. Hope everything works out for the best.

Didn't get any more of my stores inventory done yesterday so will try and get a cupboard done today but I am back slaving over the laptop all day.

DH started his diet this morning so had porridge for brekkie, jackets and beans (him) cheese and salad (me) for lunch and HM quorn curry and rice for dinner. Fruit for us both for snacks and pud as he is watching the weight and I need to eat more fruit. I have barely put on half a stone since becomming pregnant but I am sick of all the rich food and sweet stuff we had over Christmas.

I am planning a second NSD today but will need to buy a stamp tomorrow to post my sister's birthday card.

XS x

gilligansyle

ceridwen wrote: »

Yep - me! Organic and ethical that is - eggs are only ever free-range and a high proportion of other food is organic. Milk always is and other things that usually are:
basic type cheese/butter/dried beans and lentils/flour/pasta/apples/salad veg/tomatoes/potatoes/onions/yogurt

Part of my budget goes on getting a box from local farm co-operative. Not necessarily organic, as they can't all afford to jump through the bureaucratic hoops, but most farm as ethically as they can and I figure I am saving food miles, which isn't the case with supermarket stuff. It's also not necessarily more expensive as not intensively packaged etc. Meat is the same price as local butcher but better quality. Sorry I'll get down off my soap box now.

xnatalie81x

Back to work at last for me - forgot to add that in addition to makro yesterday i also filled the car with the months petrol allowance - £80. Have a pork roast in the oven for dinner tonight (will refrigerate and add some kind of veg and gravy when i get home at 8pm ish!) - working 4.30-7 and kids going to new childminder tonight!

I have dressed all children in their dressing gowns as it is 16 in here and i have put blankets on the kitchen windows to keep kitchen warm while tumble drier hose hangs out of windows (keep pups warm)

I was really shocked in makro yesterday - i do a lot of baking so looked at the 5kg sugar (5.80 odd) and the 1kg bags (89p) so it worked out much cheaper to buy the 1kg bags - GO FIGURE! Also cheaper than tesco by cple pence (1.90 for 2kg bag)

Milk was much cheaper - 3 litres 1.65 (55p litre) and in tesco worked out at 66p litre so buying 3 bottles saved me 99p! plus i water it down so half and half. 2 bottles in freezer.

Do love my coffee maker so bought a large bulk ground coffee but new week diet today so trying to stay away from the coffee (Milk fattening lol) - with my argos voucher i treated myself to a garden trug (reduced to 8.99) as H2B is using the other one! It has now got my potatoes in and lives in the garden thereby freeing up space in my kitchen - loads of space so considering putting some of my bulk buy tinned tomatoes etc in there. What do you think??

Off to sort out work stuff and do some decluttering today - expecially in kids room! daughter broke her bed and their room is tiny so have decided her bed is going and the 2 youngest (2yr ol dboy and 3 yr old girl) can sleep together in bottom bunk - did last night and funnily enough for the first time in months and months - neither of them came into my bed....... my mum used to share bed with her sisters. Might be the way to go in our crowded house!!! - i know some ppl won't agree but i really don't want to hear it!!! THANKS

gilligansyle

Have played around with the spreadsheet, will see how it goes, but can someone answer me a question please. How do you deal with any extra money you make in the year? Do you take that off the budget, or is there a better way? Most of my extra currently goes off debt repayments, but just against the day when it can come off the budget.

shaz_mum_of__2

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

Will need to spend a little today. I'm using whitener in my coffee and have completely run out of fresh veg. I will probably have to pay normal price for milk for the first time in ages as I don't fancy walking to the further (cheaper) supermarket due to icy conditions. I'm spoilt for choice around here. There is an Asda half a mile away, a small Sainsbury's just a bit further in the town centre. In the other direction there is a large Sainsbury's (still less than a mile). All these are in walking distance if necessary. Across town (driving now), there is a large Tesco (2.5 miles) and in the other direction, there is a smallish Morrison's (3 miles). Oh yes, I nearly forgot. A smallish Lidl opened up about a year ago. That's just along the road from the Tesco. It makes spending money too easy but the flip side of that is the competition in prices. This is further helped in that Tesco and large Sainsbury sell diesel. They're usually 1 or 2p cheaper than nearby outlets and sometimes they offer 5p a litre off if you spend £50+ . I don't usually qualify for this though as I live on my own and would find it hard to spend £50. In addition to the above, there is a 2 day a week market nearby and veg can often be obtained very cheaply when they are clearing up on the second day. I got a 25kg bag of good Maris Piper spuds recently for £6. I actually went halves with a friend on this one. I have a dark storage cupboard but it needs to be cooler really to preserve them longer.

sounds like our local town ( we live in a village 2 miles from a bigish town) we also have half a dozen asian supermarkets and eastern european ones too

Viv- well done on the bargains ours are rubbish ,only ever knock a bit off. well done on noticing the discrepancy and getting your refund

Cheryl- good luck today

SF - pleased you got there safely

Rachlet - money spent on chickens and ducks can't be bad in my book

Natalie -thanks for reminding me about Macro i have a card but not been since my business closed (may be out of date :rolleyes:) i do go to booker sometimes but only for big tins of tomatoes and orange juice


Lynne - well done on the NSD's

JTB - good luck later i hate handing notice in too could you use some hols up instead of working it?

Aril - well done OH i love watching the birds on the feeder

JJ we need to repair a shower too but been putting it off as only ds uses it


Chika- there are a few egg and fat free recipes for cakes , coconut, bran flake and weetabix can post recipes/links if needed

KIwi - quiche may be the answer to my dinner dilemma thanks

Saved about £20 Yesterday as i thought i needed a new kettle but after a good descale with citric acid i realised it was the dodgy filter at the spout that was the source of the probs. also recoverd my badly scorched ironing board cover with an old towel and some fabric from my stash quite pleased with the result.

Loads of Direct debits out today but student grant will go in tomorrow and will go straight to mortgage OP :-)

grandma247

Natalie they were probably coming into your bed for the closeness. Other countries much poorer than us have their kids together in beds because it is part of their culture to be together. I don't think it does kids any harm and is probably good for their emotional development. I have always said kids need to be allowed to be dependant before they can become independant. It is now being talked about and we could see a shift in thinking about this.

cw18

My GDs have bunk beds, but still prefer to share just one of the beds They're now 6 (last August) and rising 5 (this coming April), and have shared almost constantly since the younger one moved out of a cot bed (when the bunks were delivered) 12 months ago :rolleyes2

kayharcombe

Well, first post of the year so happy new year everyone. Ive decided to set my budget at 7500 for the year, so for 1 adult and 3 kids is less than 1000 a year over the 4k plus child benefit i aimed for before

I filled up car with diesel on new years eve, and weekly i will top up so i can ese how much im using every week, ive split casbook into weeks, so i can see how im going against target every week, may even go down to half weeks for a while until im used to the budget. Ive had a while where im terrible at budgeting, so need a bit of cold turkey to get me back on track.

got 2 freezers full of meat, so am hoping to have a tight month with groceries, to get myself a bit ahead for the year, pantry is full too, im a bit of a food hoarder, and it was difficult the other day going into sainsburys and not topping up even more. 25 so far this week has been on seeds, potato growing bags, and manure for the garden, but that should save me long term.

Jobs for this week include trying to get an allotment, or at least waiting list, fixing bikes so i can cycle a few places to save petrol, will also help lose weight, register kids for free swimming at local sports centre, and trying to get house back to sort sort of normality after kids being at home for weeks. Have about 15 raspberry canes to put in garden, but ground i too icy, might just put them in a large pot with some compost to keep them going for a few weeks, thats how you buy them in a garden centre, all squished together, so it must be ok to do that

Kay

MushyPeas

homegrown_life wrote: »

I might have a go at making bread today as we have some bread flour in. I really want to get good at making bread, but so far nothing ever works well. Even when I had a BM it was pretty rubbish. Shall stay positive though, I will do it!

Good luck with the bread making today, will be interesting to know how you get on

shaz_mum_of__2

grandma247 wrote: »

Natalie they were probably coming into your bed for the closeness. Other countries much poorer than us have their kids together in beds because it is part of their culture to be together. I don't think it does kids any harm and is probably good for their emotional development. I have always said kids need to be allowed to be dependant before they can become independant. It is now being talked about and we could see a shift in thinking about this.

Here here !! My friend grew up in Puglia and their family of 12 kids had a boys bed and a girls bed!!

Natalie i you have a homebargains or a poundstretcher/instore they sell 1kg bags of sugar for 69p