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

Ches

Did some shopping today as needed bread and milk. Loo rolls were better than 1/2 price (?) as were chicken breasts so gave in to temptation. Tea tonight was a makeshift affair of baked potatoes and a tin of M&S chilli with added mushrooms and tomatoes. Made the apple pies with yesterdays cooked eating apples and also a mincemeat tart with the rest of the Christmas mincemeat. Had a piece of apple pie for pudding tonight with some OOD creme fraiche. Delish.

I have £21.55p left of my £80 budget which is less than I had planned and I still have 2 days to go with 1 of those days working in the charity shop. £11.98 was spent on hobby/craft stuff so I will have to watch that sort of expenditure as it wasn't strictly necessary.

top_drawer_2

hey everyone!!

I have had a very productive day and *nearly* a NSD too! I was planning on going into town but then it started to snow and was coming down think, I didnt want to risk it as it wasn't an essential trip. So I have spent the day being productive around the house ....

I have tidied out the asda boxes in prep for making my own little veg patch in them in the near future.
Tidied my fabric batches so that I can see what I have and decided which will be my next project (a dressing gown, which I dont need to buy any further patterns/fabric for, so a little saving there).
Found some fabric suitable to make draft excluders and decided im going to alter some clothes to account for the weight I lost last year - which will mean I have an extra pair of trousers as I wasnt intending to buy any more soon.
I have made foil backboards for three of the four radiators in the house which I have to deal with and now just need to do the hallway one. This is my biggest achievement yes as I have literally spent nothing - I used cardboard as the back which I had saved from online book packages in the hope I would be able to re-use them to sell my own books on, bubble wrap received in packages/ripped from bubble envelopes, foil and sellotape which I already had -bargain!
I also inventoried my list of toiletries and home medicines (why on earth I had 3 packets of Ibruphfen, 2 more of Anadin and a variety of non-branded stuff I will never know!) and tidied under my bed and rediscovered a whole host of items.
I printed off the OS calender and put my bin/recycling collection days on to it.
Cleaned the guinua cage - they are so much happier since separating and giving them a bigger cage!
Charged camera batteries
Found some stuff to ebay/freecycle
Tidied recipe file
Written letter to three to demand to cancel broadband contract since they still cant provide me internet - saving £15 a month.

The reason I didnt manage a NSD was because I won 10 pairs of marigolds for £1.45 + £2.45 p/p = £3.45 so I kind of have saved some money as I cant wash up etc without them as I get dermatitis on my hands.

CW - Your poor daughter!! Is not going into work an option? 4 miles in the cold/slush is a long way...

Jen

loopychriss

savingfortravel wrote: »

Loopychriss-Hope you feel better soon
sft

aww thanks sft.... feel better in the evenings than I do during the day... may have something to do with my afternoon nap...! This has been lingering since Boxing Day now so I'm getting a bit fed up with it...

larmy16

Just had a phone call from the Tesco delivery man that he wont be able to make it - hardly surprising with all the snow. So bang goes my new year's routine of being all organised but it cannot be helped.

Anyone know what will happen to my delivery - will I just be refunded or would they not have taken the money out anyway? I didn't like to question the poor man, he sounded stressed enough!! We are not going to starve anyway. Dreading trying to make it to work tomorrow.

rozeepozee

Homemade wrote: »

Counselling, obviously I dont know what your counselling is for but there are several places where you can receive the same sort of thing free of charge.

Homemade and lizzyshep - in my area, MIND, the mental health charity, offers long term therapy (up to a year) free but there are usually long waiting lists. I have weekly therapy (I am a qualified therapist and believe I need to maintain my own personal development and deal with any issues I have via a number of means, one of which is personal therapy) but I attend a group. This cuts down costs, it's £25/session (the local going rate is £35 to £40/session) (as well as groups therapy being especially effective in my view). My group is term time only too, which again cuts down on costs, so it's worth "shopping around" even for something like a counselling service.

Managed a NSD today and yesterday was cash positive, £80 child benefit came in - makes a nice change!

We're still living on the contents of the freezer. Tonight's meal was home made Aberdeen Angus burgers (which have been in the freezer for I dread to think how long but tasted fine), hash browns and baked beans!

cw18

top_drawer wrote: »

CW - Your poor daughter!! Is not going into work an option? 4 miles in the cold/slush is a long way...

Not really, though she has said she's not setting off in time to get there for her official start time (which is nursery open at 7:30am), but is going to phone the manager a quarter hour before then to find out if they're actually open. Today they had a load of staff missing, but still had 10 turn in - and only 5 children. They ended up contacting parents of those and closing at 2pm instead of 6pm..... so there's a chance they won't open at all tomorrow

She's not so bothered about doing the walk herself (though she doesn't really have suitable footwear) - it's the fact she'll have her two girls with her, and a fair bit of the walk (the first part) is alongside ungritted roads with cars sliding about a bit :eek:

cw18

larmy16 wrote: »

Anyone know what will happen to my delivery - will I just be refunded or would they not have taken the money out anyway?

They take the money as soon as they've picked your order - so if it's got as far as the van your card will have been charged. That's the main problem with these cancellations - as a lot of customers may not have enough in their accounts to buy the essentials elsewhere before the refund goes back in

JayneC

Flying_Fresian - Thanks for the tips, think I might splash out on a diary. I have one for work but it can get a bit messy/confusing if I put my personal stuff in too.

Going to have to go to bed in a mo, falling asleep (and flippin freezin!)

taka

flying_fresian - you should hopefully have a text!

NualaBuala

Hello frugal chums!

Another cold icy day here - we've had a few snow showers but not much. What there is has frozen solid though.

skintjenny wrote: »

... I suffer from depression and if I'm in bed I will just sleep all day and avoid everything else. So today was an attempted NO BED day!

Jenny, I have depression too and can identify with that. And when it's cold that makes me want to sleep even more. I have lots of fleece throws in the sitting room and often conk out on the couch!

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

Not to worry. 40p down the drain isnb't a disaster. Maybe I should recycle it and use it as loo roll to punish myself .

Ah Paul, there are so many uses for newspaper! I don't buy papers but used the free local papers that came through the door to make this papier mache piggy bank - thanks to Nyk's instructions on one of the forums here!


Apart from another DD gone out of my a/c I'm didn't spend anything today. No-spend things I enjoyed today:

• Freecycling - someone collected some stuff for an animal shelter they are setting up. They get stuff they need and I have less clutter. Happy days!
• A jigsaw of The Snowman I was given last Christmas Very appropriate for the weather! I've nearly finished now, very satisfying. I'll freecycle it or give to a charity shop when finished.
• Spaghetti bolognaise for dinner which was bulked out with veggies and lentils. The freezer is chock-full and I thought I would free up space by taking the mince out. But there are lots of leftover portions to take its place!
• Feeding the birds and replenishing their water - they are having a tough time but I saw lots of blue or yellow tits hopping around outside and they seemed ok. I really love watching the birds, they are just beautiful.
• Watching a funny Mel Brooks movie on Film 4. (For free since I've got rid of Sky and don't miss it at all!)
• Scoffing the last of the chocolate biscuits we had from Christmas

Hope you're all staying warm and having a good evening.

ETA: Weird, my photo won't show for some reason.