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

lynzpower

Had 'a chat' with OH this morning about us, an we splitting up! Was not nice but feel relieved now TBH. Will have to look again at finances after he's gone, but should be ok. Have to tell kids and family now

So sorry to hear this

hugs to you x

rozeepozee

Good luck with the romance Cheryl. When I got together with my DP I'd known him for ten years but both of us had been in long term relationships with others, so unavailable... He'd emigrated to Australia but we were reunited after he returned to the UK for the first time in 6 years on a visit because he's been asked to be godfather to his neice - and I was to be godmother (and both now recently single). We fought over who was going to hold the christening candle and the rest is history....

Had a serendipiditous experience today. I went to a Nearly New baby sale looking for a second moses basket as we currently have nowhere for twin 2 to sleep :eek: I was hoping to pick one up for a fiver or less. They cost about £50 to £100 new but my mum had already got one from a car boot for £5 and i was determined to match this. Anyway, the tatty old moses basket for sale at the Nearly New sale was a tenner, so I went away disappointed to a table top sale in the same village. This was rubbish too and was about to leave when I bumped into a woman I'd met at the nearly new sale. I told her I'd left empty handed because of the too expensive MB and she said she had one with a stand that her grandson used once on a visit and had now grown out of, which I could have for £5.... Quick trip to her house to find it was an immaculate Mamas and Papas one (retail £99 plus stand £30!) and she said, "you might as well have these too for free" and threw in a changing mat (our old one's falling apart but I was determined not to buy aanother) and a mobile for the cot (when we get one...). I was almost embarassed handing over my fiver. She was such a sweet lady. Restores my faith in human nature when I meet people like that.

Plan to stay away from the car boot sales tomorrow. We now have everything we "need" for the babies. the MBs mean we can put off getting a cot for about 6 months so I can hopefully find a second cot bed on freecycle during that time which will last until the twins are 3 or 4 yrs old.

As for the budget, I'm running £450 over which seem to be mainly due to petrol and grocery spending (but we have quite a bit in stock again now) and, what I've identified as my achilles heel, toys for DS and clothes/gifts for DP (£200 unbudgeted for!). The good (?) news is, I spend hardly anything on myself! (Apart from the ginormous amount of food I eat!)

This is my first attempt to live by a frugal budget and I'm hoping that, with the babies due imminently, my spending will be curbed in many directions in the second quarter.

Sorry for the essay. Hope everyone's well and enjoying the spring weather.

chika

Rozeepozee what a lovely story! Glad you got a bargain - the M&P stuff is a fortune. I don;t want to tempt you with anymore stuff but it might help
others - there is a M&P factory shop in Huddersfield - massive baby bargains. Everytime I drive past there I get tempted to stop and buy things for the baby I haven't concieved yet! You've probably said but when are you due?

Also there are some good baby bargains on the Netmum's board. HTH expecting people.

rozeepozee

chika, I'm booked in for an elective caesarean on 20th April (I'll be 37+4 wks) so I'm literally counting down the days. I cannot begin to tell you how uncomfortable I am now, I'm so huge. My mobility is seriously compromised due to my hulk! I want to cook these babies for as long as possible but I suspect that if my consultant gives me the tiniest reason to move my delivery date forward at my review on Monday, I will instantly cave in. I never was very good at long distance, I'm more of a sprinter!

Thanks for the M&P tip, their stuff is gorgeous, but if there's is one ingrained frugal thing in me it's I rarely do new baby or child related stuff. It is soooo expensive new and soooo cheap secondhand and I'm very lucky to live somewhere where there are about 20 car boot sales within the locality and a very active Freecycle network. The saving I made on the MB is not an uncommon one. I reckon, on average, I've bought all my son's stuff for 5-10% of the new price or it's been free from Freecycle or friends and I've been even keener to get a bargain with these babies. I'm sure I've saved thousands of pounds. I've put quite a bit of money aside as a consequence (the "University Fund" and aim to do the same with the babies). I've even got some of my friends trained now so that we don't buy new presents for the kids, we give secondhand items! Reduce, reuse and recycle!!! Whilst they're young and don't know any better I may as well take advantage. They'll be expensive soon enough :rotfl:

NualaBuala

Evening all :wave:

I've just spent a while having a wee catch-up. I love hearing how you're all getting on cos it keeps me motivated (and stopped me ordering a takeaway this evening).

Rozee, what a lovely story. It won't be long till those Moses Baskets are full of bundles of joy!

Cheryl, I hadn't realised your night out was a date/non-date! I'm sure your DS will get used to the idea if it makes you happy. It's great that you both have the same outlook on relationships.

Lynda, you look beautful, what a lovely romantic pic!

Erme, I'm so tempted by the sewing machine. You're right - it's a good price and you had rotten luck with the 2nd hand ones. At least if this broke I could get my money back. But since I owe money I just can't justify it since there's nothing I really need to make at the moment. Although I could do with a proper meditation cushion and they are expensive to buy. I've been looking into making one but I think I could do it by hand. I find the Lid1 and A1di offers come around regularly so maybe next time. I love your photos by the way and I love the idea of the student garden.

Jayne, so sorry to hear about you and your OH, hugs to you and hope you're ok. I broke up with hubby last year and I think things were a lot easier once we'd separated - but making that decision and the run-up to it was awful.

I'm experiencing some gardening envy - you're all doing so well while I haven't sown anything yet! I will have to remedy this over the Easter break.

I didn't go shopping today after all; have €15 left of my March grocery budget and decided I can get by with storecupboard/freezer for a few days so will put the extra towards my loan. Can't wait for March to be over so I can do my totals! I've done a bit of rejigging of the budget for next month but it's all looking good for now.

I kept my lights off for Earth Hour - had a candlelit bath which was lovely but cooking dinner was a little tricky. I did manage it though!

Must remember the clocks go forward tonight - I tend to wake up the morning after a time change feeling confused wondering what the "real" time is!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Kerry_Woman

Jayne - Sorry about your news. Hugs to you.

Erme - The Uni veg patch looks great.

Cheryl - Hope things go the way that you want.

Erme

Nuala you could make that cushion by hand. It would take you forever but a good summer project (and you'd finish it before I finish my log cabin afghan for my sofa LOL). Cushions are not difficult to make. And you wouldn't want to do any embroidery on a machine till you was well used to it (unless it cost you about £500 plus).

All is well hear. Shouldn't be on frugal on Sabbath (because there's limits with everything) and it's my own rule (kirk say I shouldn't even be online on Sabbath or text the planet) so whoops...here I am...

But just wanted to reassure folk I have not spent a fortune on Wikaniko and in fact my upline is encouraging me NOT to spend (because she knows frugal comes before work) but I do anyway (whoops). The initial outlay was £48 which I had in saving the week before (so I paid loan and OD when I got my DLA only I didn't cos I got my sums wrong so it wasn't authorized cos there was no money in the account but they didn't charge me, they just didn't authorize it . So pleased about that. The joys of just having a semi basic bank account for most of your life and a few others for other things like cheques etc. Having said that I find the visa debit card ESSENTIAL some times for proving I'm over 18. Why can't they have a visa card for some accounts that you can't get overdrawn on that also proves your over 18? Anyone know of a bank that does that...TELL ME. Ps. The account needs a cheque facility on it too...otherwise life would just get too complicated.)

Anyhow back to Wikaniko. I also spent this week about £30 on website domains (cos they give you a website but the url is very long so I have something simpler) but that was for 3. Think I got slightly fleeced in my enthusiasm, but hey ho.

Now considering one of Wikaniko's rivals (if you can call it that. Another catalogue firm) currently charges £80 for start up fee including 50 bks but in reality you need about £140 I think I've done ok. Also that particular firm gives you credit. W does not. I DON'T LIKE CREDIT - :eek: So that's what I've spent.

You could potentially make buy own labels for bks (if you were going to do bks - there's 12 diff ways of selling) but I can make my own (and get 65p a sheet and they cost hardly anything). and also my upline (MH) wanted me to have business cards which I found in the bookcase (got them years ago!!!) and again made and M my friend who works in oil says they say what they need to say, they'll be fine. I downloaded the company logo. That was easy and used a PDF to word converter for the image (somepdf or something? Anyone want the link. I can look up). Then played and printed. . Sorted.

The clocks have gone forward :rotfl: Yeppas....Now we just need sun, sand and savings .

I am going to try and restrain myself and spend next to zero on work this week. It's not them that's the prob - it's me LOL.


With regards Student veg garden. It's in the grounds of the counselling department. Guess anywhere on campus could have it if they had some earth next to it? It's organised and run by the fair trade/eco society and they also have the fair trade society which does like home made soup and a toastie for about £1.50 (don't know...ages since I've been) in the chaplaincy then has a meeting after. We are quite lucky cos they also do organic veg bags for the students (£5 each plus cost of loan of bag once per year) which you can get every week or every fortnight. Loads of the really wealthy students go for those. They are not stupid!!! They know they need to eat well @ Uni.

Then we have 'becycle' which was started by a student and is now a community cycle recycling place. It's in garages owned by Uni but you can take your bike there and they'll help you fix it/do it up for free. They have all the tools. Bikes are on a loan basis and you pay a deposit and get that back. You can keep forever but you have to renew your agreement every year. (but I don't think you have to pay your deposit again. Just renew the paperwork). Considering I'm not exactly in the fens this is also pretty neat. I actually bought my bike (again I got through about 3 in a matter of weeks) last year from some charity. Then got an old student to put a basket on for me for £7 (it's just an old supermarket basket). cos bike stuff is like SOOOO expensive.

So yeah....just proves what's possible at your uni. I write all this not to boast or brag but inspire and encourage.

Well NEED breakkie and time is flying by

E

jtb2412

Love the student veg garden, it's fantastic ! Such a good idea and also 'becycle' too Erme, fantastic that so many people are involved. :T

rozee, lots of rest if you can manage it ! You might just make it to the 20th then . Tis exciting :j

jayne, sending a hug. Hope everything works out for the best for you and it's not too hard telling the children/family xx

cw, hope all goes well with the 'telling' for you too, age shouldn't matter, life is too short ! Go for it and be happy xxxx

Off to see DS last football match of the season today, I hope they win bless them. They're not the best team in the world but they try sooooooooo hard ! We have to vote too for the awards evening in May (most improved player, parents player etc etc) and I'm not looking forward to that as they're only 9 and 10 years old ! :eek:

Will be spending the afternoon here cooking, decorating and general tidying up. I might get a few things listed on £bay if I get time (some clothes I bought from a CS that I've had second thoughs about, one top is wayyyyyyyyy to low :eek::o) I don't mind showing a bit of cleevage but this particular top is ridiculous ! :rotfl:

MS went well last night and I got all that I needed. We were only away for an hour but it was nice to pop out, just me and the hubby, and have a bit of time to chat without the kids constantly interrupting ! So, a free drink and got paid £5 to sit and have a natter :T. I shall be looking for more MS again I think, used to do lots this time last year but I got busy with the allotment/work/Guides and had to give it up. Got a bit of time on my hands now so I might start it up again.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday xx

cw18

NualaBuala wrote: »

Cheryl, I hadn't realised your night out was a date/non-date!

Probably 'cos I wasn't sure whether it was/wasn't either :rotfl:

It was 'booked' as a catch-up/friendly night out, but the last time I saw him he'd made some comments about what the short skirts I wore to work in the last 80's "did to him" - so I guess I knew there was a possibility there could end up being more to it.

When we started to work together he was married (as well as my supervisor), then he left as his marriage broke down, and when he came back I was with DH. The comments made on my leaving do were made as 'statements of fact' and not as a way of making a move on me, which is why I think I was comfortable going on Thursday - as I knew he could be a 'gent'.

I'm sure your DS will get used to the idea if it makes you happy. It's great that you both have the same outlook on relationships.

Well, last night didn't go as badly as I'd expected. DD had suggested I made sure DS1 knew how long I'd known 'my fella' before telling him about the age gap (apparently this is why she's coping with it better than I thought she might), which I did. The initial reaction was still one of utter shock/disbelief, and was followed by commenst about 'only being after the will' and 'if he pops his clogs straight after you get married people will start saying things' - but once I told DS that neither of us was looking for that type of commitment in a relationship he shut up. About 5 mins later he remarked I was being quiet, and when I said I was wondering when he planned to give me a really hard time about things he just shrugged and informed me that it's up to me..... so I think he's accepted it, even if he's not totally happy

cw18

Erme wrote: »

Having said that I find the visa debit card ESSENTIAL some times for proving I'm over 18. Why can't they have a visa card for some accounts that you can't get overdrawn on that also proves your over 18? Anyone know of a bank that does that...TELL ME

I can't thnk of anywhere that would accept a debit card as proof of age (it's certainly not on the list of accepted ID at our supermarket, and they're very strict about sticking to the list - wouldn't even accept DS1's army ID card which had his dob on it!)

DS2 has a nationally recognised ID card - here