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

glendam

Well snow kept me indoors today but OH picked up some bread (so still not a NSD) but I had loads to keep me busy keeping up with this thread.lol

You are all great and I really should join in more but thats me all over, people have a good time while I can only watch from the sidelines. I know you cant see me but my insecurities still hold me back.

Glenda

Kiwisaver_2

Had a good trip to the bank; deposited my Christmas cheque and swapped my old Aussie dollars and whilst I was there I asked if I could have a chat to one of the mortgage advisors. I had sat and thought about it all day whilst at work and crunched some numbers - I decided to swap my standard repayment mortgage for one of these revolving credit ones, so that I can consolidate savings and mortgage and chuck every cent into the pot that I can to pay the mortgage off, rather than having savings which are getting such poor interest rates. With the savings I have planned, I reckon I can clear it in two more years (3 years early).

The girl in the bank was a mouthy, stroppy little mare, young enough to be my daughter and she tells me 'It's soooo not the right thing to be doing, right now. Don't I know that interest rates are going to skyrocket in the coming months and everyone else is trying to to get out of these arrangements and onto fixed rates.' Perhaps they are, but perhaps madam they're not desperately trying to pay they're mortgage off within the next two years.

Anyway she reluctantly agreed to draw up the papers and will call me to go in and sign them, after I have 'consulted' with OH. Annoying woman surely thinks I'm not up to making such a big girly's decision on my own - he'll simply do as he is told.

Somehow managed to spend $5 in the $2 shop (go figure) - a big roll of sellotape and some Klippit type bag seals, as one can never have too many.

Just about to see what concoction I can come up with for dinner, using up my mystery freezer surprise. Will mostly contain: pasta, cream and chicken.

Slowlyfading –((gentle hugs)) hope your back isn’t sore for too long.

Hope you all keep safe in the snow.

FrankieM

Morning,
A cold one here, though no more snow fall. Apparently its going to be very icey.
Children's schools still open..YAY!

I've got a list of jobs to get through today, so will be working my way through that.

Not sure what I'm doing for dinner tonight. Its our wedding anniversary today so DH might decide he wants a takeaway. I'm going to keep quiet about it and see if we can get away with not!

Hope you all have a good day.

cw18

Kiwisaver wrote: »

Anyway she reluctantly agreed to draw up the papers and will call me to go in and sign them, after I have 'consulted' with OH. Annoying woman surely thinks I'm not up to making such a big girly's decision on my own - he'll simply do as he is told.

When we were looking for a mortgage in the latter part of 2001, DH headed out of the door as soon as the Financial Advisor sat down in the living room. FA looked stunned, and said that as it was a joint application he couldn't do the work without DH being there !! I suppose this is fair enough really, as they don't want anyone claiming they've given no/bad advice - leading to claims later.

I explained that DH didn't understand financial products (he wouldn't change his current account to one that paid interest - even with the same bank - as it was too much work and something might get 'lost' along the way). Luckily the FA seemed to be convinced that I would understand it, and would be able to 'translate' the most important bits into a language DH would undertstand - and that (as long as I was happy with the product) he'd get both signatures on the paperwork without any problem...... and as I didn't plan to sign on the night (to give me time to double check some stuff, and confirm some details) it wouldn't delay anything either.


The other times we had this issue were back in 1993 (when buying a brand new car which was to be registered in my name) and 1994 (when buying a 2nd hand car to be registered in his name). DH and I went to the garages together, along with the kids. When the salesmen started spouting finance figures, they directed all the chat to DH - at which point DH would say "It's her you need to speak to, not me", and get up and wander away to keep an eye on the kids :rolleyes2 Used to leave the salesmen open-mouthed and unsure of where to direct their next comment :rotfl:

One builder also lost some work though being chauvenistic..... asked a builder for a quote for some work, after he was recommended to me. I phoned and arranged the appt, and it was me showed him what was wanted and discussed details/timescales. But when the quote arrived it was addressed to "Mr" - not even "Mr and Mrs" :mad: Needless to say I ripped it up (after scanning it quickly) and told out mutual friend to tell him why he wouldn't be hearing back from us......



Our local school is closed until at least Monday - which meant no voluntary work yesterday morning..... but I ended up in work from 8:20am instead, as one of the girls was off sick and the bakery was down to one baker and one packer !! Spending this morning doing little bits and pieces around the house, while I wait for heating engineer to arrive. Remembered yesterday morning that I had a dental check-up booked for this morning, so gave them a quick call to ask if I could re-arrange it (just under 24 hours notice, so officially they could charge me for doing so!). When I explained it was because this morning was the earliest I could get someone to come and fix my C/H they were really nice about it though


One of my jobs this morning is to update my s/sheet with grocery spends from the last couple of days - not a lot spent, but need to add it in before I lose the receipts/forget what "staff sale" receipts from the canteen covered... actually 10p for a 'deli' steak pie that had oozed a bit when baked, and 2x5p for k/mill 50/50 loaves that were a day beyond 'sell by' - a senior member of staff (manager of my manager, who isn't based in our store but came in to help out/see how we work) was horrified I was buying the bread as "it's out of date" :rolleyes2

slowlyfading

savingfortravel wrote: »

SF-Felt cross reading your post about moving the car..but happy you didn’t get fined. Glad you’ve got tomorrow off to catch your breath..I hope I don’t have to go in. How’s your back now?

Thanks SFT I have to go in today now - the school is open for years 10 - 13 only! None of which I teach :mad: hoping to get lots of planning done whilst i'm there.

Kiwisaver wrote: »

Slowlyfading –((gentle hugs)) hope your back isn’t sore for too long.

Thanks Back is still pretty sore - getting out of bed this morning was harder than normal :rotfl:

I'm off back to school this morning - I'm not risking the car though so I'm getting ready for the walk there. Hopefully it won't be too icy...! I'm wearing walking boots there though, so that should help.

Have a good day everyone

ceridwen

Aril wrote: »

Link for the snow icecream as requested:D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Ar-Zbn9TI
Arilx

and the MSE phrase that we're going to use instead of "If life gives you lemons make lemonade" could be "If life gives you snow - make icecream with it".:D

mooomin

Morning all!

I need some quick recipe advice! I have taken meatballs from the freezer for dinner (They were a vastly reduced impulse buy) and have no idea what kind of sauce to do them in. I have canned tomatoes, assorted herbs, onions, peppers. No mushrooms in the house sadly or cream. I also have some garlic. How would you best cook these? They will be defrosted by the time I get home from work and I will be knackered, so some kind of quick and easy sauce would be ace. Thanks in advance!

In frugal news, no direct debits came out today and I have no need for anything from the shops, so I'm looking at a NSD if I'm good. Update to come later.

Have a good day, keep warm all.

F_F

Skint_Lynne

FF,

Use all of these ingredients you have, maybe only 2 or 3 cloves of the garlic though! If you have an 0x0 cube, crumble that into the sauce, put a wee bit of water in if it is too thick. Simmer it for 30 mins or so, it should be fine. Leave it chunky or blend as you prefer. HTH. xx

pink_numbers

flying_fresian wrote: »

Morning all!

I need some quick recipe advice! I have taken meatballs from the freezer for dinner (They were a vastly reduced impulse buy) and have no idea what kind of sauce to do them in. I have canned tomatoes, assorted herbs, onions, peppers. No mushrooms in the house sadly or cream. I also have some garlic. How would you best cook these? They will be defrosted by the time I get home from work and I will be knackered, so some kind of quick and easy sauce would be ace. Thanks in advance!

Those ingredients all sound yummy together! bung them all in the pot I'd say maybe add a bit of stock, and lee & perins. Serve with Pasta?

Kiwisaver_2

cw18 wrote: »

I explained that DH didn't understand financial products (he wouldn't change his current account to one that paid interest - even with the same bank - as it was too much work and something might get 'lost' along the way).

We must be married to the same bloke. One of our local banks was offering random sums of money from $10 to $500 if you opened an account online and deposited the minimum of $1. I did it and got $100 - himself would not do it, because there 'must be some catch' and he didn't want to give his e-mail address for fear of getting heaps of spam. They can send me all the spam they like for $100 - it's no skin off my nose.

I told him about my visit to the bank and how 'we' were restructuring the mortgage, he just looked at me blankly, so I didn't quite get to the end bit, whereby I tell him he needs to come with me to sign papers, as he had already walked away. I usually would just shove bits of paper under his nose, offer a pen and tell him to sign here, here and here. One of these days he might get more (or less) than he bargained. :rotfl: