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

ChinaTea

Happy New Year

Intended having a quiet lazy day today but my neighbours freezer gave up on Christmas eve so we went to the sales. Called in at MrT on the way home and picked up 10 bottles white vinegar for 36p a bottle. Was pleased as everytime I've been to MrA the shelf has been empty. Neighbour gave me petrol money and bought coffee so spent just 3.60 and this should last me the rest of the year with what I already have in. So I was really excited that I could start on my beautiful spreadsheet and see it work for real.

So now have to find somewhere to store it so could end up rearranging cupboards. Shouldn't be anymore spend this week or several weeks for anything other than catfood. Have enough food to feed an army and am going to use this up before buying more.

After I'd done my budget and thought it odd that I would have 3000 left over realised that I have actually lost £15 per week income that I hadn't factored in so this drastically reduces the surplus.

Right off to sort a cupboard or two and must remember to eat ( quite often forget).

lingojingo

How about this for good vibes to get the new year off to a good start - playing farmv*lle on f***book, I have just attained the rank of Frugal Farmer :rotfl: :j :rotfl:

CW thank you so much for the spreadsheet, I've sorted my budget and am going for 8k to include everything except the mortgage. Mind you, just had to rejig it as I hadn't allowed anything for clothes :eek: this could have been really :eek::eek: as I'm planning to lose a lot of weight this year, so hopefully nothing will fit!

weezl74

ceridwen wrote: »

just know that this time last year i had debt (4 figure i think) and now i have a 4 figure amount of savings:d.

:T:T:T:T:j:j:j:j:beer::beer::beer:

Kerfuffle

Hi CW- thank you for the spreadsheet. So speedily too! I will have a play around with it once I've figured 'stuff' out.

Thanks again.

slm6002

me too thanks CW - I am currently working my way through it x

pink_numbers

debtmess wrote: »

have got 4 large notebooks with me ready for the 4 parts of this year, just need to set a realistic amount once kiddies in bed and ive sat down and worked out what im including in my personal challenge

May I be nosey and ask what you are going to write in them?

I'm always curious of how other people keep track!

Thanks

Skint_Lynne

Good afternoon everyone,

I've had a 'fairly' lazy day, got up and prepped the steak and kidney pud (complete with string BB:p), and I put it in the slow. Apparently, this is a good method for steaming, so I was told on OS pages. It should be ready around 6.30 I think/hope:rolleyes:.

I then had to pick up the sisters and brother3 from brother 2's house after their shindig. One of the sisters was not at all well, been there done that!;)

DH is feeling delicate today as well after coming to bed at 5.30, I had been there from just after 1am, I am just not into partying hard anymore. He had better eat this pudding he has moaned about for so long, or there will be trouble afoot!

No spending today, probably DD's have come out of the bank but I have not checked.

I have decided to put £100 in my purse every week, after it is done, that is it, or if I have any left, I will put it into an envelope and save it up for emergencies, so today is the first day I will do this.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and good luck for the year. xx

mooomin

lingojingo wrote: »

How about this for good vibes to get the new year off to a good start - playing farmv*lle on f***book, I have just attained the rank of Frugal Farmer :rotfl: :j :rotfl:

I've been using the day off to plant & harvest crops with short growing times that I normally can't get done when I'm working during the week :rotfl:

I've not just been playing on FB though - I've done washing and dishes and taken the Christmas cards down. I'm going to cut them up for tags etc while watching Dr Who I also plan to inventory the toiletries today and will be aiming not to buy any more until I'm about to run out (Which doesn't mean that I have three tubes of toothpaste etc and have found a good deal!)

trex170104

cw18 wrote: »

It's funny how we read names, 'cos I always read it as a 'different spelling' of "trecks" (as in walking journey) - probably 'cos DH was a keen hill walker

Ha ha I do LOVE walking but it is actually my initial T, and my surname Rex, plus our wedding date 17/01/04!

Frugaldom

stitching_witch wrote: »

Okay, now I'm worried! I've spent the last three hours going over and over the budget...I just don't know how you lot do it!!

The even scarier thing is that if I include rent etc and debt repayments it comes to £16,000 and my projected income is £11,400 :eek:

SW, first things first. Write out your complete list of what you absolutely NEED to pay, top priorities being things like rent, council tax, water, utilities, debt payments, contracts such as mobiles, any costs involved in getting you to and/or allowing you to work. As soon as you know that figure, then whatever is left is what you have for everything else, first priority being food. It's then much easier to prioritise the needs and seperate them from the wants. If there is nothing left, then there's a flaw in the frugal plan and we'll all need to help you come up with a better one.

jtb2412 wrote: »

I've also found out that it looks like we're NOT going to lose the allotment after all - I need to confirm things but apparently the local council voted against the road building, so unless the developers can find about £10m (which is highly unlikely) then we're all set for a good couple of years growing :j.

BRILLIANT NEWS! :j:T

NYK I'm going to try the clootie (sp?) dumpling in a couple of weeks, sounds delicious !

My New Year's one is sitting toasting in front of the fire now as there's no space in oven

Regarding the pressies (my one thing that I'm trying to cut down on), I managed to get 16 at Mr S today for the total price of £38.50 (original price was £115.50 so a massive saving ). Now if I can only do that for the rest of them I'll be laughing ! EXCELLENT!

There's loads more that I've spotted from others who look like you are all going to have great fun on the frugal challenge. (I can highly recommend foraging and making homemade elderflower champagne / perry!)

pink_numbers wrote: »

...I'm always curious of how other people keep track!

I have a very simple spreadsheet, some of us also use 'spendingdiary' (link in post one) or else there's now the wizardry of CW's intricately detailed, yet amazingly simple, budget spreadsheet. If you private message cw18 with a request, I'm sure she'll be delighted to respond with a blank copy.

Just taking a break between courses here, it's a long haul from aperitifs & pate to the dumpling course! :rotfl: Managed to blanche a cauliflower and get it into freezer in between times and have sliced up the slab of pate to freeze some of that, too. Waste not, want not! All the veg peelings, crusts and crumbs have been soaked in the boiling water from the blanching and then cooked down for a warm breakfast to give the hens in the morning. They'll trade me that for some more eggs.