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

LilacPixie

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

Don't rely too much on those trip computers. I don't know if they've become more sophisticated over the years but they used to base it on an earlier journey. If that earlier journey was a modest speed journey without much stop-start and your current usage is more fuel thirsty, the computer can mislead you into running out of fuel. This is bad enough but if it's diesel, you sometimes need a mechanic to get it going again.

oopsie she is a diesel all be it a 2008 one. Trip to Mr t's for fuel 1st thing tomorrow. Its only a mile away but the idea of standing in the cold wind filling up is not nice.

aeb_2

Good luck CW18 with your little dog, it is such a responsibility.

I haven't spent anything this year, in fact I haven't been out of the house yet. A neighbour brought be a 4 pint of milk in a swap for onions and carrots. She dug the carrots up herself but it saved her a trip to the big shop too

I gave up my car when my babies were born as tax and insurance were due. As I couldn't fit us all in safely what was the point? I did think of keeping it in case of emergency but figured in a real emergency I'd call 999 or a neighbour as getting all 6 into the car would take too long anyway. I'm luckily to live on the edge of a village which still has pub, school, shop, PO and pharmacy. One of the reasons for moving here. I can walk and there is a bus service which I've not used yet. I shall get a car when I need it. Eldest DD and DS have made a few friends who invited them out - very kind mums. They seem to like to visit us too mainly to run about the garden.

I am dreading weaning. I loved it first, second and third time around but three at once will be messy!!!!!!!!!! At the other end I mean (don't mind wiping hands and faces) because I use traditional square terry nappies with liners and I know there will be more and yucky ones to come soon. I'm already washing 24 to 30 a day but thinking of the environment with every load I do.

One baby tip I learned accidentally with DD1 was when I was beast feeding her she wouldn't take a cup but she sucked so I gave her a straw. She would drink boiled water from a cup, then when old enough her milk. She did this until old enough to have normal cups - never did have a trainer cup or bottles, in fact I have never owned any bottles and all the bits needed for cleaning them so I expect I save quite a bit. Two of the triplets (girls) are already expert straw users, the third (boy) prefers mum!

Time goes too fast - every age is the best age with children

knithappens

aeb wrote: »

Good luck CW18 with your little dog, it is such a responsibility.

I haven't spent anything this year, in fact I haven't been out of the house yet. A neighbour brought be a 4 pint of milk in a swap for onions and carrots. She dug the carrots up herself but it saved her a trip to the big shop too

I gave up my car when my babies were born as tax and insurance were due. As I couldn't fit us all in safely what was the point? I did think of keeping it in case of emergency but figured in a real emergency I'd call 999 or a neighbour as getting all 6 into the car would take too long anyway. I'm luckily to live on the edge of a village which still has pub, school, shop, PO and pharmacy. One of the reasons for moving here. I can walk and there is a bus service which I've not used yet. I shall get a car when I need it. Eldest DD and DS have made a few friends who invited them out - very kind mums. They seem to like to visit us too mainly to run about the garden.

I am dreading weaning. I loved it first, second and third time around but three at once will be messy!!!!!!!!!! At the other end I mean (don't mind wiping hands and faces) because I use traditional square terry nappies with liners and I know there will be more and yucky ones to come soon. I'm already washing 24 to 30 a day but thinking of the environment with every load I do.

One baby tip I learned accidentally with DD1 was when I was beast feeding her she wouldn't take a cup but she sucked so I gave her a straw. She would drink boiled water from a cup, then when old enough her milk. She did this until old enough to have normal cups - never did have a trainer cup or bottles, in fact I have never owned any bottles and all the bits needed for cleaning them so I expect I save quite a bit. Two of the triplets (girls) are already expert straw users, the third (boy) prefers mum!

Time goes too fast - every age is the best age with children

oh wow triplets, I love larger families I am one of nine, I use cloth nappies, well at the moment i have resorted to disposable as they are not drying quick enough in this weather, i dont use a dryer, so I am using a bit of both right now, and yes I am glad sometimes for disposables due to weaning lol.

LO will take from the tommee tippee trainer cup but not much, wont take a bottle at all, but at the moment she is so distractactable during the day, she wont bettle or a bf, so just taking a few solids, but come bed time, she is like a milk monster, so thinking the transdition to being with the childminder wont be so bad, she wont starve lol.

lyndasharp

CW, glad to hear your dog is home with you.

It's sooo cold here today, we've had to give in and put the gas fire on as well as the central heating. Ah well, we saved money on the fuel bills by going to my Dad's for Christmas and New Year, and as I really feel the cold it's one thing I just can't bring myself to economise on.

Spent £1.14 today posting the deposit for our honeymoon, but as I'm doing an 'all in' budget my council tax and morgage went out today too, so it's actually been a fairly expensive day! I'm happy though as my mortgage is now £3k less than it was when I got the house last January (I overpaid by £23.61 to make it a nicer number).

top_drawer_2

chika wrote: »

Good morning all, thanks for the lovely welcome once again. I caught myself grabbing my purse to pop down to to overpriced simply food place down the road. Gave myself a mental telling off and vowed to make today a nsd. I only need bread and some kind of cake and I have all the ingredients to make both here. I kindda wanted a couple of onions to add to my mince creation - possibly keema curry that I will make for tea but I have a couple of old leeks that will work instead - hopefully :cool:

Mumoffour77 - You and your family sound amazing. I hope your dad recovers really quickly and doesn't have to stay in the hospital for too long.

Debtmess - Yes growing stuff in buckets is easily done - theres an mse thread about it http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=338111. I grew a few things in growbags because my house is rented and I can't dig up the garden. Also don't buy buckets!!! If you go to Mr S and possibly any other supermarket they will give you some of the black ones that they use on the flower stand. You will have to pop drainage holes in them but they are sturdy and more importantly free!

hi,

I just had an idea .... what about using the boxes you often get from home delivery from Tesco/ASDA etc - don't want to encourage you to steal but they already have holes in them .........

This is what I am planning on doing anyway!

Jen

debtmess

evening all

my spend has gone up by another £44 gulp and no more nsd's till at least thursday but thats the water amount covered untill next month, dd's are due out tomorrow which will make my spend rise sharply again (sigh)

just about to settle down with a hot choc and hot water bottle for eastenders then bed, had to give in and pop heating on for an hour as house is just too cold roll on warmer weather

food wise were doing ok but must get something from freezer for tomorrow unless we have beans on toast or soup

today kids have weetabix for breakfast, 2 have dinners at schhol ds3 had sandwichs and yoghurt i had 6 rice cakes, tea was a pack of the turkey sausages with beans and mash made with potatos and sweet potatoes

going to try market out wednesday for veggies, never really brought much from there as asda and aldi i find cheaper, havent found out aldis super 6 yet but wish to make a soup on friday for the weekend (unless one can be made with lentils,carrots, onions, potatos and sweet potatoes)

will play proper catchup tomrrow evening

MoneyQueen

I also haven't spent much today - just a packet that I had to send to a friend and £1 for tea bags. Another low spend day.

Also made veg risotto with all the leftover veg in the fridge.

MQ

Pippilongstocking

top_drawer wrote: »

hi,

I just had an idea .... what about using the boxes you often get from home delivery from Tesco/ASDA etc - don't want to encourage you to steal but they already have holes in them .........

This is what I am planning on doing anyway!

Jen

Also good containers, old compost sacks (either fill them with compost or use the newly opened ones - they are lined with black) or grow bags turned up like soldiers on their ends are good as well - or quite heavy bin bags, big tins (olive oil) or old wine boxes (try wine shops) things like that are good too.

Secret gardener sorry! Just my two pennyworth - try and get hold of something like The Thrifty Gardener ISBN 10: 1856267776. She's got lots of ideas! And even a section on growing cupboard foods.

skintjenny

debtmess wrote: »

thank you x my house is also rented hence the pots/buckets idea dont know what ll would think if i turned garden into a veg patch

never thought of asking in asda for the black flower buckets, who would i ask? and do they oftern give them away

I worked in asda and they get all their new flowers delivered in those buckets so just throw the empty ones away. I'd say the best people to ask are the night checkouts staff as they are the ones that refilled the flowers- we used to give away buckets regularly. (or are at my local asda- I don't know if this varies from store to store though) You could try just asking the customer services staff during the day, but they might not know that they 'can' give them away (the workings of the night shift are mysterious and unknown to the day workers!;))

Hope this helps!

jtb2412

Thanks for the lovely comments everyone, I feel a bit like a weight has been lifted (sounds daft I know ).

Talking about weight, I put on 8lb over the xmas break (3 weeks off diet and look what happens :eek:). I'm back on track now though

Today has been my first NSD and I shouldn't need anything for the next couple of days either :T.

Bed time for the kids and hot choc time for me TTFN xx