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

grandma247

paulgonnabedebtfree
You can mash them,roast them,bake them or cut and boil them (I add these to one pot stews)

knithappens

good morning all, ( i say that as i type here with my son jumpin up and down getting high on coco pops)
So pleased with mysel this morning, home insurance up or renewal ( not had contents or a whiler could not afford it) so using martins tips and tricks managed to get my buildings and contents for the same price as just buildings, £208.48 minus £30 quidco cashback = £178.46, last year it cost me £174.50 just or buildings so really happy with this, and payed a one off payment so no interest added ( irst time i have done this)

going to shop around for car insurance next.

right going to make a brew and read through the forum

lyndasharp

It's snowy enough here that I'm staying at home today, as is my H2B. We've both got work to do from home though!

Knithappens, funnily enough I was looking at home insurance last night - mine is due at the end of the month. Co0p was cheapest for me and will be just under £100 with cashback, for buildings and contents! I haven't had the renewal price through from my current insurer though, so will wait and see what they have to offer before I decide.

Kittikins

Talking about fuel bills going up, I had the meter reader round a couple of days ago, and Briti£h Ga$ have put my gas/leccy up a lot - I know I was paying very minimal amounts for a 3 bed house, £11/gas, £17/electricity and used to have to top up the leccy, but now they're going to £17/gas and £37/leccy which is a big rise in one month.

I'm already pretty good at unplugging things when not in use, and not using lights much, I like sitting on the laptop in the evenings bathed in candlelight anyway, but am now going to get better at it, lol.

Snowed in here and it's falling very thickly, no school, and due to back/leg problems, I'm not going further than my road until it's all gone!

kayharcombe

ive got some potatoes lurking that are starting to sprout, think i might have a go at mashing them and freezing, rather than throw away. I bought a chest freezer when i was a student with 3 kids under 4, with my first student loan payment, has paid for itself many times over with buying meat in bulk, and also things like turkeys dont easily fit in standard upright freezers, so we store other peoples for them at christmas.

Last year i managed to get tescos biggest gammon joints, which are around £25, half price on new years eve, and then they had £8 off when you buy one, which had been the original offer, i paid £4-6 each for them, got 6 and they lasted me well.

wont be out today or tomorrow spending, kids are at home and i wont drive with roads this bad, got loads in anyway, reckon im well under budget for this week, which should help me out later on, but have also got a pear tree, and loads of seeds, not sure if ill get fruit this year, but it more an investment for future years. sowed some seeds new year day on windowsill, herbs, salads etc, and some are peeking out in the propogator

Im now on waiting list for a half allotment, rent and reviews are due this month, so she said maybe next month ill have one, if not at least im on list for next year, got a large veg patch in garden anyway, which is about 1/2 allotment i reckon

hope everyone is keeping safe in this weather

cha97michelle

:rolleyes:1st post of the year from me, so happy new year to all frugallers


I have taken my time and looked at our living expenses for 2010, and come up with a total of £8102.38 so i am going to set my challenge budget at £8000 and see if i can manage it.

The snow here is horrendous helping us not spend that much this week as i can't get out of the house with my two toddlers other than for snowball fighting with the kids on the street.

Luckily we did a bit of a supermarket bargain hunt last weekend, and we are well stocked up so we have lots to get through while we can't get out. Thanks to Nyk, i also have a large stock of powdered milk which the kids are happy to drink in an emergency so i don't feel stressed we are going to run out.


I just found a copy of the post i made at the start of last January, where we spent a whopping £820.42 in the first month, so my first aim is to better this.


Like most people, i want to be using the saved money to good effect. We want to pay as much as we can off the mortgage, and also try to have a bit of savings there. I feel much more ready to tackle this challenge this year, so we will see. The sky is the limit.


Back on page one reading this thread, so i guess i will always be behind in what you are all up to but i will get there eventually. :rolleyes:

Michelle x

rachelet

Well this will be my first NSD of 2010 - enforced due to the snow! The kids don't go to school on a Wednesday anyway so no problems about worrying if their school is open or shut! Was supposed to take DD1 to dance class this morning but not risking that.

On a plus point my egg chickens have started laying again.:T Two out of the six of them are laying at the moment so I should start to get loads of eggs aain to eat!! I think also that one of my chickens that I breed from has started to lay again so she will no doubt go broody within a couple of weeks!!

Hope the school clears up by tomorrow and the kids can go to school. Not sure if I have enough food in to feed them as well!!!

XSpender

It took my DH an hour and a half to drive the 4 miles home from work yesterday, and our estate is just off a main bus route, so this morning he was out of the house at 6.30am and walked to work. It is helping his new year diet too:D There are cars abandoned all over our little cul de sac and our neighbour's daughter got stuck last night and it took her dad ages to get the car moving for her.

I am lucky in that I work from home so that I do not have to venture anywhere. I do have to drive to Birmingham on Monday (4 hours each way) which I am dreading. At least it is allowing us to claw back a bit on the diesel after the trips to collect Mum at Christmas and the drive to the funeral which I pay for this month took us way over.

No DDs out today that are included in the challenge and I cannot see it been anything but a NSD here.

I have plenty of stuff in, although not much fresh fruit left and only 2 pints of milk. If we drink herbal tea and have porridge made with water or toast I am sure we could last until the weekend:rolleyes:

DH has requested some hot soup for when he gets back after work tonight so I will make that at lunchtime. Dinner will be veggie Shepherds Pie, greens and yorkshires with gravy. Will make a big batch and freeze the rest.

Finally finished my stores inventory of the house, just the garage freezer to do brrrrrr!

XS x

cake21

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

I'm wondering about trying a no shopping month (until 6/2). I have quite a bit of porridge, some pasta, frozen bread, frozen veg, and a few kilos of sugar. I also have a little fresh veg and fruit (for two days) and enough potatos to last quite a few weeks. Lots of flavoured tea and a quantity of coffee. If I exclude milk, eggs, nuts and fresh fruit (need some protein as I don't eat meat or fish), I reckon I can do a no shopping month. I'm going to give it a try but reserve the right to make purchases if I become aware of special offers.

I've been thinking along the same lines, no purchases other than fresh fruit and veg should be possible but I keep buying snacks :doh:. Inspired by you, I will aim for Feb 1 with no more grocery shopping :T (already spent most of my Jan groceries budget anyway :eek:)

flippin36

Morning all. -2.5 this morning. Hope everyone is managing ok. Had an awful morning trying to get kids to school, I was very surprised it was still opening. Anyway, I'm just thinking of how much money we are saving what with not being able to get to the shops and not using the car!

I'm quite enjoying watching my cupboard store slowing going down. The snow has meant we are using things up (we will be a good lesson to us for the year). I bought some "value" cereal about 2 months ago which has been suspiciously ignored, but we are now eating it out of desperation . Turns out it tastes OK. Will need to find some milk from somewhere today though.

My Frugal challanges today are to

Set up my sewing machine, and get practicing.(I'm thinking my sewing machine may not only save me money but it could potentially be a money spinner!)

Check bank accounts/ccard accounts to make sure all my sums add up.

Make a large pan of spagbol to freeze (some veggies need using up)