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

NualaBuala

vintage_beanpole wrote: »

Thanks NualaBuala, they really do take it from you over in Ireland, don't they.

Tell me about it!

ceridwen wrote: »

Ummm....<cough> - just one point there though...the comment "oh my god" about it and frown smilie. I think holding back on congratulatory comments is indicated.....

So - my reaction is to say "hope things go okay for you" Natalie (((hugs))). That was a very honest reaction to this....

Ooops! Well-observed Ceridwen. I guess that was my pre-programmed reaction and I shouldn't make assumptions. Natalie, no upset or offence intended - lots of good wishes and I hope you are ok is the message I wanted to get across.:o

rozeepozee

Cheryl hope your procedure goes okay. I appreciate such things can be daunting. I'm dreading my caesarean, ven though I've had one before.

gilligansyle wrote: »

I GOT A JOB!!!
I had to get some new stuff as none of mine fitted. I did look in charity shops, but it was all either out dated or too expensive. I am not prepared to pay £4.99 for a second hand Marksys top if I can go to Mr A and get a new one for £4. So spent £15 on clothes but I can justify as are cash neutral anyway as had a gift card and some quidco money.

Have you thought about car boot sales, gilligan? I buy nearly all mine and son's clothes from there these days - ridiculously cheap. Rarely pay more than 20p-50p an item.

vintage_beanpole wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I've subscribed to this thread since the New Year, although this is my first post. I'm thinking about hopping on board (if that's possible), but would like to know roughly how people are doing? How much money are people aiming to spend no more than each month?
I have no family, but do live in Central London. I've tried to work out everything and don't think I have much more than £65 a week to spend. This is after rent and bills. Which is totally doable, isn't it? (she asks optimistically!)
Anyway, I'd be much obliged to know how people are getting on and if it's really super difficult.
x

Please join us! We're a mixed bag on here as you've probably noticed. With the cost of running our house and the family, we couldn't live on £4000 a year. I've set our budget for £10000 for our family of 3 (DP and DS, aged 3 yrs) which is soon to be 5 (twins due April). I'm doing it out of a desire to be less wasteful, less consumerist and to know where my money's going rather than out of "absolute necessity" - with a goal of replacing the savings that we massively ate into paying for a campervan this year. And with an eye on practicing some elements of self sufficiency as we like the idea of buying a smallholding. We're actually pretty comfortably off and I sometimes worry that my posts might be insensitive to other posters in a less secure financial position to us, or that I might be judged negatively by OPs - but they're my own hang ups and I've certainly not experienced any of that here, just supportive, friendly, like minded people trying to do the best they can.

xnatalie81x wrote: »

I am still going strong to all the regulars - keeping on budget. Sorting out housing problems and other stuff that is going a bit in the wrong direction........ I found out yesterday i am pregnant AGAIN.

O dear...... 4 kids o my god

My goodness, Natalie. That sounds like a bombshell. When I last saw him, my consultant offered to sterilise me whilst he's doing my caesarean. I declined because it seems so final but we did ponder how hard it would be if we had an unplanned pregnancy now. My son's hardly cost me anything since I had him and babies can be raised on the cheap (I've gone down the breastfeeding, batch cooking, cloth nappied route and we're lucky that we can afford for me to be a SAHM so no childcare costs) but I do worry how much they'll potentially cost in later life. From my son being born, I started saving £100 per month long term savings and plan to do the same for the twins but I wonder how meaningful this will be as time progresses (should be £20K each by the time they're 18, perhaps with inflation that'll pay for driving lessons ) and the more kids there are, the less easy it is to put anything away for a rainy day. Thinking about it, I think I've been subconsciously doing what my parents did with me - they weren't wealthy and everything I had as a child was secondhand (it helped that they owned a secondhand shop :rotfl:) but there was always money for my education so dad sent me to private sixth form and then funded me through university so I never had any debt. I call the saved money The University Fund.

Frugaldom

Hi Vintage_Beanpole, I cannot even begin to compare the cost of living in central London with rural living but as far as I'm aware, once the cost of rent has gone, it's much cheaper to live in the city than anywhere else. What has your £65 to cover?

This is day 77 of the 2010 challenge and, after rent and council tax, I have spent the following:

£226.07 on food for 3 of us
£420 on electricity (we have no other options for heat & hot water here)
£46 on coal
£40 on logs
£19.99 on internet (going through changeover, have 3 months free)
£10 on mobile phone
£44.77 on telephone
£3.30 on gloves
£8 on travel
TOTAL = £818.13

On top of this, I have spent about £240 on 'everything else', including life assurance saving, National Trust membership, feeding & bedding for livestock, a new slow cooker, fruit trees, fruit bushes, seed potatoes, postage and a new web cam. I found free software for it, so here's where I'm uploading the photos of recently hatched chicks.

XNatalieX - PREGNANT??? Haven't you just gone self-employed? :eek: I'm not sure what sort of reaction to give, sorry. I hope you and OH are happy and that all goes well.

Gilligansyle - Congratulations on the new job!

slowlyfading

Natalie, not sure what to say to be honest, as your post comes across as more in shock than anything happy. I hope you're okay, remember to take some time for yourself to take this all in. x x

cw18

gilligansyle wrote: »

I GOT A JOB!!!

vintage_beanpole wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I've subscribed to this thread since the New Year, although this is my first post. I'm thinking about hopping on board (if that's possible), but would like to know roughly how people are doing? How much money are people aiming to spend no more than each month?
I have no family, but do live in Central London. I've tried to work out everything and don't think I have much more than £65 a week to spend. This is after rent and bills. Which is totally doable, isn't it? (she asks optimistically!)
Anyway, I'd be much obliged to know how people are getting on and if it's really super difficult.
x

Welcome on board

After I deduct all household type bills, that leaves car expenses, dog expenses, food, toiletries/cleaning, presents, mobile phone, work related (for me this is really only shoes and trousers as the rest of my uniform is provided), and my 'anything else' (which is books, cds, dvds, clothes, magazines, bus fares, parking fees, hairdresser etc).

My annual budget in total for these is £4254, which works out at £81.58/week - but of that total £816 is dog expenses, so removing that reduces the figures to £3438/year or £65.93/week. That's feeding myself and my 18 year-old son, plus allows for my feeding my elder son for 9 weeks in the year (when home on leave).

A further £1020/year is for my car (mot, insurance, road tax, servicing, breakdown cover and petrol), so if I got rid of that - which I may have to by the summer of next year - it brings my figures down further to £2418/year or £46.37/week

NualaBuala wrote: »

In the interests of long term frugality I've decided to try cutting my own hair. I got a good quality scissors on Ebay for €9 (and had a little paypal credit already from surveys). It's only for trimming - I don't like going to the hairdressers anyway and usually wear my hair tied back so should be ok *crosses fingers*.

I've been trimming my own for years (and don't use special scissors on mine - I have a large and a small pair that are meant for craft work, but they're great for this too!). I wouldn't try it if it weren't long enough to tie back though (meaning slightly wonky finishes aren't noticeable )

cw18

NualaBuala wrote: »

Right - I am now convinced this is the most fertile thread on the forum! :rotfl:

Pleeeeeease don't say things like that!!! It's still not too late for me to 'expand' my family (would have liked a fourth, but finances and house space meant hubby and I agreed not to have another), but far too many health risks to be taken into account these days - plus it would mean having to let a bloke into my life !!!

chika

WELL DONE on the new job Gilligansyle. Welcome Vintage Beanpole London is more expensive but there are loads of things that are free and I reckon with careful planning you will be fine.

Top Drawer have you tried growing Spinach beet, I think its also called chard or perpetual spinach. It grows really quicky and it's cheap - otherwise if you have a S0merfield/Co0p near you they salad leaves and cabbages always get reduced to about 75% off around 5pm. It may be cheaper than growing your own.

Hugs to Natalie - I hope you are ok.

rictus123

£27.50 to fill up my car....after doing more than 150 miles....anyone care to tell me if thats good? Thats a fair bit of driving at 60 and 70 mph though. Whatevers the limit of course. Now between now and the end of May heres my quick, rough budget

Out -
£150 on fuel
£210 on insurance
£300 on digs
£105 on phone bill
£100 on entertainment(the very most i will allow)
£68.75 on 6 months road tax
£100 on loan repayments
£100 on credit card repayment

Total - £1,133.75

In -

6 pays = £600 (2 weeks pay with a little overtime, this will be the minimum amount of overtime il be doing so min pay il get) times by 6 pays between now and end of may = £3,600

Difference = £2,466.25 + whatever extra overtime i get on top of 1 Saturday a fortnight.

Written down on here it looks so easy! Going to give it a shot, il quote up this post mid April and then again end of May, hopefully with good news to say yep im managing. Even £1500 saved more than iv got now is still good in 2 and a half months :T

Now just wonder how much il be getting paid tomorrow, that will be how much il get most paydays.

Anyway away to bed i think. Night ladies x

cw18

rictus123 wrote: »

£27.50 to fill up my car....after doing more than 150 miles....anyone care to tell me if thats good?

I filled my car yesterday - £47 of standard unleaded having done about 340 miles. On that basis £27 of fuel would give me around 195 miles. But that's also assuming we paid the same for a litre of fuel, which I doubt.

My driving's mostly stop/start in a 30mph limit, and I can only think of one short trip on a m/way (about 3 miles each way) where I've been on a road where the limit is over 50 as part of this last tank use.

But there's more to it that just speed when moving. You also need to look at how fast you pull away and how suddenly you break (both shoudl be done gently), how heavily laden the vehicle is (the heavier it is the more fuel you use, and mine rarely has much in it), and also things like correct tyre pressure (which reminds me, I really should check mine this weekend..... almost certainly overdue, and I have 2 long journeys - by my standards - in the next 9 days)

edaniels1983

i get 50 miles out of a fiver, roughly 10p a mile. mine is a 1.8 escort diesal.