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

lynzpower

Morning all :wave:

Hope everyones feeling ok.

Yesterdays walk to the castle was really good but I ws slipping all over the place in my walking boots. I think the time has come to get some with more hard-core grips.OH said there is no point in persevering with them if you want to go out for a long walk but the slipping about makes you exhausted from the off. I think he is right, but gosh im tight and dont want to buy more if I can help it. that was only a gentle walk really hardly gruelling terrain. Will have to do some research before buying more. Didnt spend any money yesterday aside form the train fare - leaving the card at home helps

My seedlings survived last night, its not that cold here tbh. Ive planted some yard-long beans, more Spring onions, and will prob do more potatoes in a container in a bit if I cant find enough compost left.

Not sure what we are meant to be doing today, I thought we were meant to go into town and go for pizza express using up that voucher and possibly go to a museum, theres a book I need to get for work and im debating whether to but a replacement camera- from the Argos offer, it will work out 120- I do really want another camera after the last one went AWOL on hols last year. NOt sure though.

However OH is still in his pit and im still in the PJs.

Found a bit of pork at the back of the freezer so it will be a roast tonight. I will get off my bum and make a pudding or something today as have been really lazy on this even though I bought loads of ingredients last month to ensure we had everything in :rolleyes:

Have done the price***miniser glitch and got a lovely JO recipe book and a book on walks.- not bad all in for 2.48 plus 2 CB :j

Right might go and shake his lordship the day is almost half way through .

Love to all

jtb2412

I'm doing well on the whoopsie front ! Popped into Mr S to get a few bits and the gunners were out . Shortcrust pastry x 4 packs, asparagus x 1, organic bananas x 3 packs, broccoli x 3 packs and blackberries x 1. Whoopsie spend was £6.70 worth £21.56 :T.

Broccoli and pastry gone in the freezer, asparagus will be for supper -probably with just some nice bread and butter. Bananas were organic and still green so lots of smoothies for breakfast this week. Blackberries are currently in the oven with apples and raspberries and crumble topping.

I've done a load of cakes for kids packed lunches while dinner was cooking, and will make the rest of the carrot cakes after dinner, hmmmm have I got enough space in the freezer ? :think:

DH is out cutting the grass (first this year), and I keep popping my head out of the back door just so that I can get a sniff - I love the smell of cut grass . It makes me want to sit out there with a glass of wine but it's a bit chilly for that :rotfl:.

I'm hoping we'll escape the cold snap that's coming in, very very down south here so we might be lucky. I'll fleece the greenhouse seedlings though, just in case.

Frugaldom

lynzpower wrote: »

Hey frugaldom ( or anyone else)

I was thinking about making lemon curd from some of these leftover lemons - I do love it especially in sponge snadwich cakes :drool:

Do you think it would be OK to use utterly butterly instead of butter in it or would, that just be rank?

Just catching up, apologies if this has already been answered, but margarine or butter spread works fine in hm lemon curd.

Off to catch up again, back soon.

Frugaldom

Optimisticpair wrote: »

This quarter has flown by!

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

Remember this is only an average, which means one month could be £100 and another £733.32, so it's all relevant. Don't think of the amount as a limit just carry it forward and recalculate your new average for the remaining 9 months.

JayneC wrote: »

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

Hope all goes well and that you're doing what you know if the right thing. It's never easy, that's for sure.

Lynda, I can't believe it's a fortnight since your wedding already! Time really is flying past us. Like you say, time now to get back to reality and get those veggies growing.

Erme, communal garden looks a great place, what an excellent project to be part of and all for free. Enjoy every minutye of it that you can.

CW, I don't think you really need to explain your own actions to anyone, it's your life and your DS1 has already left home, or as good as for as long as he's with the military.

Hope everyone is enjoying the final few days of the first quarter of the challenge. I'll get part 2 up and running on 1st April and try to keep up as best I can.

mama67

cw18 wrote: »

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

Both my Ds's have those Citizen Cards for id. They are also good for provingnhow young they are as DS1 could easily pass as 16 but is still only 14 and gets into certain things at child rates because of this, but obviously needs his id to prove it.

XSpender

Went to Costc0 on Saturday for the first time in years. DH had to have his card and photo redone as it had been so long he was wiped off the computer! Got some great offers on squash, baby wipes and soap powder and stocked up on 5kg bags of granulated and caster sugar which will last me well into next year. Also bought some meat which DH was very impressed with so it looks like we will be getting all his meat from there in future.

We also took advantage of the 15% off at H0mebase this weekend and bought a shower screen, loo seat and pressure washer. This was paid for out of the bonus i received from work which was unexpected and not included in my original calculations so not sure how to account for it really as it may push me over in my 'anything else' category by the end of the year but I wanted to record every penny I spent this year to help understand my spending and budget for next year.

Rozeepozee - I am so impressed with the savings you make on things for the babies. We have been lent/given quite a few things for the baby and most of my maternity clothes were given to me too but with decorating and carpeting the nursery and all the other stuff I would say we will spend £1000 by the time he is 3 months old and I thought I was being quite restrained:eek: Luckily savings elsewhere within the budget have meant I can afford this within my £10,500 budget when originaly I was budgeting seperatly for it.

In other news....my full and final settlement offer was accepted by the IVA company last week and I will be debt free by 5th May when I receive my redundancy settlement!:j

Best update my signature or I will get all confused.

Have a great week all and keep safe if the snow arrives.

phoebe03cat

Hi everyone, got totally sidetracked from the frugalising at the end of last week as we have decided to buy a puppy.We are in the process of a total lifestyle change as following my tia's and seizure due to stress am trying to get early medical retirement. Its unbelievable..I have x4 (shortly to be 5) consultants advising me to stop work and still the medical board is dragging its heels...now that's frugal! Consequently I'm getting caught up in the stress scenario again while I chase reports and appeal. Anyway I have been waiting for about 37 years for a puppy as I've said I would never have one while I was working full time. Have taken a chance and booked this doggie, worst case scenario I will have to stay on sickleave while my notice is running. Madness!
Anyways am very,excited cos he's going to be born in two weeks and his parents are to die for. Am now trying to find out how to run the dog in a frugal way cos somehow 'frugal' and 'dog' don't sit easily together. This board is really making me think;but he is our long,long,long term present and will be good for my health:-)!
This month's end will be my first frugalising and I can see the difference in the bank. I'm going to work to build that up over the months and DH is now tweaking and personalising the spreadsheet a bit after this practice month.
Thanks everyone for helping me re-evaluate my priorities;if I start to feel a bit down again I just come on here and read through this thread...it's so positive in such a practical way.

cw18

phoebe03cat wrote: »

......as we have decided to buy a puppy.

Am now trying to find out how to run the dog in a frugal way cos somehow 'frugal' and 'dog' don't sit easily together.

First thing to bear in mind is that worming and flea treatments are much cheaper when bought on-line. I've saved a considerable amount just on these over the last couple of years, and can't bear to think what I could have saved if I'd always bought them this way !!!

And dogs don't need lots of expensive treats either - my 'pup' would have to be on very expensive ones due to dietary requirements/allergies, but is just as happy with raw veg...... only problem being I never have any cauli or brocolli stalks for cooking with or adding to the compost



I've just spent the last hour and a half attempting to get my spreadsheet back up to date, as it's been rather neglected since the middle of last week

I'm hoping not to spend anything today, and won't really have chance to spend anything tomorrow (early start at work, them home, change and out for the night), so it's now hopefully only going to need a very quick finalisation on Wednesday evening before I report my end of quarter status (looking good over-all, but not so healthy on a couple of categories where I've stocked up for the next 'few' months - but it will all balance out in the end )

XSpender - I have a couple of categories ('garden' and 'social life') that I want to keep tabs on, but outside my £8k budget for this year at least. I've just created a couple of pages in the spreadsheet for these that don't feed through to the 'Total' page, which means I still log spends so I can cast an eye over them (and it's all kept in one place) without them having any impact.

earthgirl

Hello All,
I have been reading this thread with interest, I find it really inspiring!

I was hoping to join in on the Challenge officially for the rest of the year if thats possible?

I am 5 months pregnant and needed to spend a little in the first quarter to get the baby and nursery stuff I needed, and baby toiletries for the year (£311). Now I have this (and lots of maternity clothes ) I really want to commit to living frugally, so that I can pay off my mortgage, and possibly work part time.

I have just done a belt tightening budget, and after paying £600 per month on mortgage related things, myself and OH spend another £400 jointly, and I spend £155 mostly on my car.

I hope that by following this thread, and challenging myself to reduce these outgoings even further, I can really make another dent in our mortgage, despite a period of maternity leave approaching!

Today I plan to post my sold ebay items, relist others, and plant some seeds.

jtb2412

cw18 wrote: »

And dogs don't need lots of expensive treats either - my 'pup' would have to be on very expensive ones due to dietary requirements/allergies, but is just as happy with raw veg...... only problem being I never have any cauli or brocolli stalks for cooking with or adding to the compost

Totally agree with CW with the raw veg treats. Our little fella sits while I chop veg and drools bless him. He absolutely loves broccoli stalks, carrots and green beans (we had to fence off our beans last year as he kept pinching them of the plants :rotfl:).

We've been lucky with ours, he's a very healthy dog and has only needed his annual jabs and one extra little treatment (he had an allergy to something and kept scratching lol .... no fleas or mites, but something was making him itch poor thing). Total cost for that was about £30 including the tablets so not too bad.

Try and get a good vet too phoebe, they may not charge a consultation fee for a minor thing and ours even recommends buying the flea/worm treatments from pet stores etc as they're cheaper.

I'm sure you will have many happy hours with your doggie phoebe, don't forget to take a picture for us all so we can coo over it