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

XSpender

I also buy Mr T or Mr S value white rice and own brand brown rice. Never use the branded stuff so couldn't say how it compares taste wise.

Travel cot arrived today which baby will sleep in in our room for the first 6 months or so. The nursery was done as my parents wanted to buy us the nursery furniture before he arrived and the carpet was from the previous owners and our dogs had slept in their so I wanted it all clean and done before he arrived. M)thercare had the travel cot in their catalogue but it was not availalbe to order for some reason on Friday. Went home found the same one £25 cheaper on the internet and it arrived today!!:j

Had BGas round this morning to service the boiler and fire ad I am so relieved that the boiler was not condemned. Our estate is 15 years old so all the boilers are the same make/age and quite a few have had to be replaced.

I have managed 2 NSDS in a row (month starting 26th) which is more than I managed in the whole of last month:o

knithappens

Just got back from Mr T's and their own long grain rice 4kg is redued to £3.00, they have reductions on their basmati too which makes it cheaper then their basic basmati, so will pick some of that up tomorrow

Winchelsea

Have been following this forum for a little while now, and thought it was about time I registered!

Have just been into town with DH, and managed to keep it a NSD! Had a nice breath of fresh air (well, nearly blasted off the planet with strong wind!), then came home again for pot of tea and slice of homemade tea bread.

No bus fares - used granny passes.

earthgirl

Hi All, my frugal activities today have been working (when I didn't have to!) signing myself up to a local business event with free buffet tonight and ringing around childminders and nurseries to compare prices and styles for when I go back to work in a years time. Wish the rain would stop so I could go out and plant some seeds!

I will also go and collect a baby gym on the way to the event later, bought off eby for 99p!

candygirl

Was a bit worried as I am slightly over my 3 monthly target, but then realised i've paid the 6 monthly water rates in Jan, and also made quite a bit on ebay which covers the shortfall so good news after all:j:j:j

knithappens

candygirl wrote: »

Was a bit worried as I am slightly over my 3 monthly target, but then realised i've paid the 6 monthly water rates in Jan, and also made quite a bit on ebay which covers the shortfall so good news after all:j:j:j

same here but i have saved more than i thought and paid my house insurance in full , which I dont usually do, it should all even out by the end of the year

pagangirl

Just playing catch-up

Lyndasharp - great wedding pic, thanks for posting it

JayneC - hugs hunny, sorry about your news

rozee - wasn't that a lovely lady with the baby stuff

Blairweech - none of my business (bit confused) , but if it was yourcar to sell, why is your dad so annoyed at you ?

Still spring cleaning/decluttering, more stuff for charity shop. Got a really frugal bargain at local jumby last saturday - phone/cable both working 50p, should have cost £25.00 Needed new cable anyway so that alone saved me £5.49

Off to sort out monthly/quarterly finances. Hope to be in budget, as have had few NSD's lately.

Hugs to all - this weather making everyone miserable !

candygirl

knithappens wrote: »

same here but i have saved more than i thought and paid my house insurance in full , which I dont usually do, it should all even out by the end of the year

That's what im hoping too hun:o;)Just realised have also had tons of birthdays, best mates, my niece, nephew and Boo's is tomoz (she's 1) and I have spent a bit on those too:eek::eek:All my main family birthdays are in March, April and May, i'm the odd one out in October:(:(

phoebe03cat

Have just sat down with dh and tidied up the spreadsheet for April in readiness;have made a few adjustments after a trial run this month.

CW18 and jtb2412 thanks for the doggie/veggie hints. Have got x4 cats so it will be nice to have somewhere to 'put' the veggie trimmings!

Frugaldom: have calmed down now after doggie excitement and made that 'clooty dumpling'. Family sat down and ate half of it in one go!! Thanks so much for sharing, will certainly be doing that again. Have to admit it split..think I left too much expansion room in the cloth;but had visions of it exploding otherwise! lol. Very,very popular...thank you.

Seeds have arrived but will wait for the rain to stop eroding the soil.

Going to have a go at the lemon curd lots of you make tomorrow. Did surcumb to some very twee little pots in Lakeland to put in in, much to the disgust of dd2 who did try to keep me on the rails. Thankfully not too expensive an indulgence.

annie123

Well, what a fascinating 3 months its been, all down to the CW18 spreadsheet:D
I find it fascinating seeing where my money goes and when....I MUST NOT go anywhere near anywhere I can spend money at that time of the month ..... 12 MrS basic tea cakes later, gone in 1 hour :eek:

This month I am 'missing' £30! its came out of my bank account at some point but my spreadsheet doesn't show it, so I've added unknown £30 in the everything else bit. Probably lent it to DD and forgotten..memorary like a sieve the last few years

Have had unexpected expensies....5 x £10 trips as Guinea pig for DD at college for her exams...final year of beauty therapist training, but college still make a small charge, plus travel costs = £50, and 4 more next month, plus the best I could do on renewing car insurance was £335 with £30 cash back to come, also £77 RAC for hubby and I, loyalty discount said £105 so played them off against the AA new customer offer:D

Have spent £40 of my £50 garden budget but should make it all back with fruit and veg....I have 3500 carrot seeds:eek: that should keep us going for several years!
Grocery bill was lower than expected and so was winter gas bill..I love primark fleece PJ's and thermal undies:D

Discovered visiting my MIL is :eek: in petrol, cant do it by train, she uses my trips for the 'car' heavy shopping, garden centre visits etc.
Can't grumble, it's her car I drive, she gave it to me free 18 months ago, when mine got too expensive to repair but its an automatic and does 25mpg and she lives 40 miles away. She does offer to cover my costs but I can't take money from my 78 year old diabetic MIL!! even if she is very comfortable financially, but I do get a free lunch

Have seed trays all over the place sitting with their tin foil reflectors around them, no leggy ones so seems to be working well.:)
Had great success with germinating peppers this year (my homemade wheat bag heated propagator helped ), (got 10 last year)
I have 46 baby plants all potted on, we had better have a good summer, no room for any indoors.

My cooking skills are improving...but I still can't cook bread in my fan assisted oven :mad: they make great door stops or Frisbees:rotfl:

Belated congratulations to new babies born and newly married, ((((hugs))) to others who need them. I do try to read but with one computer between 3, I struggle to get much time on line. DS has nearly finished building me a 2nd machine, all made out of bits and bobs from old computers he has scrounged for free, "won't pay games mum" but will be fine for browsing the web and here, so should be able to get on line more from the weekend.

Good luck to everyone for the next quarter and welcome to the newbies just joining us.

xx

EDIT: Sorry, just noticed how long my post was....:o