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

ifonlyitwaseasier

evening all,

CW - glad yorkie's home

spent a grand total of £12 in M&S (not counting the voucher!) and £3.59 in lidl's

that's OH with warm clothes(thermals!!) and a few bananas and noodles

siggy is updated and i'm caught up a bit

tc

ioiwe

candygirl

TWINKLE I just luuuuuuurv anything purple so go for it hun, and good luck with the baby:A

JayneC

Can't believe how fast this thread is moving. Have been having sneaky catch ups at work and every time I looked it seemed to have moved on at least a couple of pages!!

Made some notes (am such a geek!) so I could reply!

Natalie I think it's great that kids sleep together - mine did at various times. I had 2 bed house and 4 kids at the time (5 now) at one point I had matresses on the floor and they all just piled in together - also helps to keep them warm lol! Which brings me to Chika and having the heating on all night! In said house we had one gas fire and no other heating - was blooming freezing! We used to sleep in hats and gloves and several layers, we used to actually get ice on the inside of the windows from the condensation! But we survived!
and finally ...CW it seems reasonably good news about your litt;le dog - hope the meds do the trick!

Today had lefover pasta for my lunch, which was nicer than last night actually!! Made fishcakes for tea which were lovely and went down well - have one leftover so that's lunch later in the week.

Am rethinking the spreadsheet - may have to PM you after all CW as I think I'm getting lost already (my mind doesn't work too well, I call it mum brain!) , spending diary is useful but not sure it completely does the trick!

Had a spend today, bought card and chocs for DS1's girlfriend's birthday ( £5.19) and got a few grocery bits, big pk of mince (£4.48) that should do at least 4 meals (for 6), some lovely butchers sausages £3.91 (only one meal sadly!) tin corned beef for corned beef hash £1.55 (that's more like it!) and reduced hovis loaf 70p. Not too bad but came home to find fridge empty (DS1 is home from uni and spends all day eating! He's going back on Sat and whilst I'll miss him - honest - at least will have some food for everyone else!)

Twinkles08

Candy girl,purple is my fave colour-love it!Cw that is a valid point,didnt think of using a towel.We have lino which is cold but more practical than carpet which we had at our last place.
The lamp shade I adore but it is 8 pounds and I'm thinking I cld find one a lot cheaper-just not that one:p

Frugaldom

Twinkles08 wrote: »

Hello everyone,could I have some opinions plse?I'm wondering if buying a purple bath mat set,lampshade and mantle clock from wilkos is a bit silly?I have just moved house and we are expecting baby at the end of nxt month.
On the one hand I'm thinking it won't hurt as we have had an awful lot of help getting second hand furniture off friends and family and have made a huge saving there....

Twinkles, if it's £30 that you don't really NEED to spend then that £30 could probably be put to better use reducing your debt. Think of this time next year - another little person means another reason to be tempted into spending even more at Christmas time, I'm sure you'll feel much better if you can get from now to then with the debt reducing or, with luck, completely gone by then. Good luck with your decision.

edaniels1983

Twinkles08 wrote: »

Candy girl,purple is my fave colour-love it!Cw that is a valid point,didnt think of using a towel.We have lino which is cold but more practical than carpet which we had at our last place.
The lamp shade I adore but it is 8 pounds and I'm thinking I cld find one a lot cheaper-just not that one:p

we are frugal so we can afford little luxuries xx being frugal means being at home more than going out(in my case anyway)!! so you have to make home likeable and a place you wanna spend time xxxxx

its not as if u wanna spend hundreds on a new laptop of an ipod is it!!!

go on, spoil yourself!!

JayJay14

I have lived in this house for nearly 11 years and still have a bare light bulb in the bathroom:rotfl:

And OH painted my once yellow bathroom blue last Thursday - all my mats and blind are yellow, so I will have to look as replacments....

ooh ......

Twinkles08

lol,seems I have different responses!Nyk this is what is in the back of my mind and is part of the reason I joined the thread.Our income is quite low as I am a sahm so these little purchases really add up.On the other hand I do spend most of my time at home and I admit sometimes I think it's not fair when friends and family are socialising and have hd tvs etc.My mum and dad just got a bigger hd tv and gave the other one to my little sis to put in her bedroom!I'm a bit green about that one-lol.I did read somewhere though that you will never gain financial success if you do not learn how to save!

cw18

Well, I'm being frugal with the gas tonight (and 'til heaven only knows when)

Temperature in the house has been steadily dropping for the last couple of hours, and the heating system isn't responding to even a high crank on the thermostat (not even any signs of life through the vent from the boiler). So either the system has broken down (in which case I'm glad I've kept my breakdown cover running on it) or the pilot light on the boiler has simply gone out. But as the boiler is at the back of the garage - behind a mountain of bikes, gardening tools and boxes - I can't even attempt to get to it tonight...... and I've never had to light this one in the almost 8 years in the house, so don't want to struggle to figure it out in the dark :eek:

It would chose tonight though, as I'm out for work just before 6:30am tomorrow..... which means DS and the dogs will be without heating until I get home about 4:30pm, as I won't have time to tackle it in my lunch break either

Kittikins

Hi Twinkle, I'm with NYK and CW18 re: the bath mats, I think you should maybe think about it for a week or two, think of what you could do with that money.....I have 2 bath mats for different bits of the bathroom and use towels when they're in the wash, but I find they dry really quickly, so it's not much of a problem for me.

Took DD and her friend to a play place this afternoon, flipping expensive (£10 - bring on the good weather when we can just go to the village park for free) and bl00dy cold as it wasn't heated. Okay for running around children, but horrible for me, sitting there guarding the coats and snacks I'd brought (forgot water so bought a small bottle) and reading the paper I've bought for the holiday coupon.
*sigh* Once I've got the 5 coupons necessary, I can then start having NSDs again....