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

lyndasharp

Thanks to everyone for their best wishes. I can't quite believe the wedding was 2 weeks ago - the day went so fast! It all went perfectly, we had a fab time and a wonderful honeymoon :j (yes, it was near Whitby).

My new husband is currently weaving raised beds from spare bits of tree as now that we're back, it's time to start on lots of vegetables growing. The Dig-In seeds arrived already

Optimisticpair

This quarter has flown by!

On my 5k budget I worked out the average for a month would be £416.66.

I was over budget in Jan and Feb thanks mainly to needing extra coal, doing some food and toiletries stocking up while I had the chance plus buying fertiliser, seed and compost for growing food but got it back on track this month.

The good news is I have £16.12 left of the budget. :j

The bad news is I might need to replace my poor old PC. :eek:

chika

Lynda - what a beautiful place to have a wedding - I love your dress and those flowers are great. I hope you're really happy

SuzyWuzy_2

Hi all,

Hope everyones good and keeping on track.

Well we went for my baby scan yesterday and everythings good and the baby is a wriggler due 6th October, then on we went to Pizza Express for our meal paid for with Tesco clubcard vouchers ! It was lovely and best of all free.

Nothing else to report as yet, budgets good , seeds blooming and lifes fab !

Bigmumma = the children finish next Thursday here for 14 days for the Easter holidays.

Lynda - That's a lovely picture ! Love the dress ! Congrats to you both.

Suzanne

x

NualaBuala

Hi frunchkins :wave:

Haven't had a chance to catch up yet today but just wanted to remind everyone to try to turn off your lights at 8.30pm for Earth Hour - very frugal indeed!

rictus123

Hey guys, just home from work and had a shower Done the same overtime in the last 2 weeks as i did the previous 2 before that so pay will be the same, £110 extra for 2 Saturdays. Had to get a new back number plate, mine dissapeared when i was driving home, now its secured on so hard noone will be able to touch it So £11 for that, filled car up with petrol - £17.52, 3 stickies for my plate - £9, Transfering number plate - £80. So total monthly spends will close at £657.08. £157.08 over what the average month should be.

Total for the year so far is £1769.84. £269.84 more than it should be. I did a little budget on Thursday and iv worked out to the penny iv spent £3,795.94 on this budget,my car,betting losses(only 1 slip up though), loan and card repayments.

Im just going to have 1 big budget for absolute everything of £10,000.
So im £6,204.06 under, an average of £689.34. Much more realistic and achievable.

I work income out as roughly 10 more pays on this wage, a total of £5340,then new wage, 10 pays so an average of £6920 - a total of £12,260 - not including overtime.

A difference of at least £6,055.94 :j With overtime included even going a little over a budget iv stuck to for the first 3 months of the year - in which i bought a car and deposit for insurance, i should manage to save £6k this year no problems :T So happy now iv worked all that out. Iv got a much better realistic budget that if i stick to will really pay off!


Total spends this year is infact £4,276.76, a missing £500 from budget? Anyway £5,723.24 left, £635 a month budget will leave me with the same totals! Means iv got less left to spend = bigger difference in above total, difference is actually £6,500

jtb2412

Brrrr I've had to put the heating back on here. I'm probably feeling the cold a bit as I only got about 4 hours sleep last night. Someone made me cross (not family related) and I got so angry thinking about things that I had an awful night. I'm usually a great sleeper so I know things got on top of me .

Can't do much today as DH is doing some decorating. We're off out for a MS later, first one I've done in a while but since DD offered to babysit tonight we thought a free evening out would be very frugal. :j It's within walking distance too .

Only spends today were kids pocket money and some decorating materials. I'm watching the pennies very closely .

Tomorrows plans will see lots of baking/cooking although I don't have much room in the freezer so I might have to restrain from doing too much. Weather isn't good enough for the allotment so that's on hold for the weekend.

Hope everyone has a good one. :beer:

Kerry_Woman

Lynda - Your wedding photo is lovely. Glad everything went alright.

lyndasharp

NualaBuala wrote: »

Hi frunchkins :wave:

Haven't had a chance to catch up yet today but just wanted to remind everyone to try to turn off your lights at 8.30pm for Earth Hour - very frugal indeed!

Thanks for the reminder!

We went and got some compost for the raised beds - and managed to get enough using survey vouchers, and bought a strimmer too, so a no spend there. I had to spend a bit today though as I also bought return bus tickets to London for the Real Food Festival in May, they were much cheaper than the train fare. Managed to reduce my phone contract from £15 to £10 a month, and get unlimited landline calls included, so that was good too!

I should be under budget this month, becuase the honeymoon was paid for by wedding gifts, though I have yet more car parts to buy, to try and get one of the cars brakes working properly (then it'll be rehomed to my Dad). My Moggy Minor #2 went through her MOT on Thursday, and as it was a retest that was free this time (hooray, working car). Our neighbour very kindly swapped the welding she needed for my 'spares' car, which he's going to restore.

Now just to finish off the unpacking to complete todays jobs - though my cat seems to think I should be feeding her instead.... I guess it is about feeding time for her....

mama67

BigMummaF wrote: »

When do the schools finish for the holidays please, all over the country? My eldest is hoping to get a few quiet days but we are not sure of the actual timing of the little darlings breaks! Not having any children themselves, they are loathe to share their experiences with other peoples at times; oh how that will soon change, when they do started breeding!

BMF, my 2 finish this coming Thurs 1 Apr and go back on Mon 19 Apr.

My frinds boys in peterborough finished last Friday 26 Mar and go back on Tues 20 Apr.