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

Puddleglum

Hi folks!

I haven't posted for a while but have been keeping up with the reading. Congratulations and hugs to all who need them.:grouphug:

I cut my own hair yesterday having watched a few instructional videos on YouToob! and am really pleased with the results. I have a lot of curly hair and don't know how it would have worked out if I had straight hair so, for probably the first time in my life I am happy to be blessed with a curly top.:dance:
My seedlings are growing well and I am going to sell the surplus at the gate with an honesty box. Looking at them as a cash crop should help to keep them alive as I am one of those gardeners who has black thumbs rather than green fingers!:whistle:
Ebay sales are a bit slow this week but given that I have only been selling on there for a few weeks am amazed at how easy it is, compared to that first weekend when I listed 5 items and nearly had a nervous breakdown in the process.:rotfl:
Hope everyone is having a good day.

Puddleglum.

chika

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a good weekend.

I went to WW yesterday had a £20 spend there for four weeks membership plus a magazine and some bars. I lost 7lbs in my first week so I'm happy

Today is mostly going to involve uni work. I picked up a new vacuum cleaner today from a freecycler. It's an amazing Miele one with lots of attachments. I was going to use it at home but lo and behold I got a phone call of my mum this morning complaining that her's had given up - she bizzarely buys a cheap one every year that invertiably breaks as soon as the guarantee is up. I've donated the fancy one to mum and I'll take it back when I move out of my current place in July.

Puddlegum, that's a nice idea about selling seeds, I'd love it if you could buy more plants round here, I never seem to be able to start things off from seeds but when I buy the plants they do ok.

Thank you for thr P@H tip Jen, my Degus need quite expensive food so I'll go and stock up next week. I can never go in that shop without coming out wanting to start a small animal santuary though - is it just me?

I hope your baby had a good birthday LoopyLou.

grandma247

candygirl wrote: »

I'm dead proud of myself :j:jDid a Tesco online shop yesterday, cos I had a voucher n they always entice me.Got tons of BOGOFS of stuff I didn't really need just to get my total to £50.Anyway woke up today, cancelled my order and went to Morrisons and got just the stuff I actually need,as well as a big sack of dog food for £35:D:DHave decided to stop stockpiling stuff as much cos it's taking up space and costing me a mint in the long run;)
Anyway just off to sort my ebay sales out, still doing quite well.
Have fab days everyone:A:A

Well done candygirl. Stockpiling really only works if you have a plan and you only buy what you need/use.

Dh and I were just saying in mr.T today that stockpiling for us has worked amazingly well. We have started thinking about doing things that were impossible last year thanks to the things I have learned here and on other sites.

I have just been looking at the goodness direct site and some of the prices are pretty good . I was actually searching for molasses and their price is a lot better than in town. I tried a molasses and raisin bread recipe which was very yummy so wanted to make it cheaper as h&b was expensive.

I am so pleased with my car. the insurance is £152 for the year with ds1 on it so they can use it and it is one of the cheaper tax ones too. Very economical to run.
Ds3 and I will be making the most of it in the summer to get about. We need to make a list of places to go like the zoo, museums, the beach and maybe even a bit of camping near to some educational places we want to visit for projects.

candygirl

grandma247 wrote: »

Well done candygirl. Stockpiling really only works if you have a plan and you only buy what you need/use.

That's where I was going wrong, buying all sorts of Krap I don't need:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

annie123

grandma247 wrote: »

I am so pleased with my car. the insurance is £152 for the year with ds1 on it so they can use it and it is one of the cheaper tax ones too. Very economical to run.

You're lucky, mines due for renewel this week and the cheapest I've got is £345 and that's with cashbacks! London living I guess:(

pagangirl

Back to frugalling - thanks for all good wishes folks - had dressing on hand changed on friday, need to go back again tuesday - hopefully will be bandage free ! Was crawling round like a 90 year old on thursday, you don't realise what a jolt you get when tripping up !

Splurged on 6 monthly haircut yesterday, but only £9 for dry cut, I can wash n dry it meself ! Good news this week - last night was 1st night of year with no heat on, won £10 Markxies voucher in draw, and clocks go forward next saturday, so more light nights, less elecy getting used

Congratulation gilligansyle on new job :j

xnatalie81x - errrm, not sure whether to congratulate or commiserate hunny - be good to yourself.

cw - all good wishes for op', only been in hospital for foot op's, would really flip if I had to stay awake for an op. (too squeamish for me own good - bad enuff getting bloods done )

[by BigMummaF - Realised I use the ultimate frugal birth control--no fella I've been very happy not having to pander to a male ego & saved thousands by not having to worry about Feb 14th or washing whiffy Y-fronts & stinky socks] - I don't miss mine either for exactly the same reasons

BigMummaF - I use Mr S basics t bags 28p box and Fair Trade -find them ok.

Hi vintage_beanpole - I subscribed to Frugaldom as a neccesity, am currently living on £23 week after bills - this is for everything- good news is it will go up £26 week from April, as just got new Council Tax bill, which, with discount comes to £26.54 for whole year. Finally, something is going right. Now if only I can find a job........:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

rozeepozee

cha97michelle wrote: »

Rozee - wonder if we were in the same shop at the same time? Shef branch - We were there between about 10:30 and 11:30 this morning. Bit freaky we were there on the same day. I did see a pregnant lady but she didn't look big enough to be having twins, but i guess you never know. MAybe i should start asking all pregnant ladies in costco if they are Rozee from MSE?

We would have been - how funny! If the pregnant lady didn't look big, then it wasn't me. Most people ask "how many are in there?"! You need to look out for 5' 1" VERY pregnant olive skinned woman with long dark curly hair and tall slim 6'4" gingery blond OH, possibly with small boy who will be generally very excited to be in the store (he loves Costco). Although I think my Costco days are numbered now as I find it almost impossible to walk very far these days.

Fishcake_Random

I know you guys like crafty stuff and free things so look at what me made on the 19th.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=110977&id=100000649358672

Will catch up soon
x x x

glendam

Congratulations fishcake what a lovely picture.
Fishfinger is gorgeous is it a girl or a boy difficult to say from picture.

Glenda

Fishcake_Random

Lol sorry.

Baby girl
Anyanka Joan Spurrier
38weeks exactly
6.09pm 19th March

x x x x