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

tryingtodobetter

Good Afternoon Everyone

No work or school for the last 2 days which is great as the DS's and I have been playing in the snow:snow_grin but not so great as I don't get paid :mad:

Apart from playing in the snow I have managed to make a cottage pie and a big batch of mince and onions to put in the freezer, some fairy cakes and I have listed 5 items on ebay

The car is booked in for its MOT tomorrow, hopefully I can get it to the garage as the MOT actually runs out today and I need the car for the weekend.

Hope everyone is keeping warm

TTDB.x.

knithappens

slowlyfading wrote: »

Afternoon everyone.

Fell down on the way to school this morning, down a flight of stairs, so my back is now really painful, and as I whacked my head as well, got a banging headache. These last couple of days have not been good!

The school was open for years 10 to 13 and all staff - I don't teach any of those years so my mentor sent me home at lunchtime, as I was, and still am, in quite a bit of pain

I spent £1.35 on a bus ticket back to the edge of the campus, as the thought of walking back up the steep hill was making me quite nervous, so I thought it was better for me if I got the bus. So, not a NSD for me today, but think I can just about justify it.

bails - lovely to see you x x
thriftylass - take care of yourself, and keep warm. x x

oh no, so sorry tis happened , take care of yourself

jtb2412

slowlyfading take it easy ! xx Maybe a nice soak in the bath will do your back some good? I hope your bang on the head wasn't too bad - keep an eye on it and if you feel woozy then make sure you call the doc !!! Don't worry about bus ticket spend, it was well worth £1.35 by the sounds of it xx

Not much to report here, NSD again despite the kids wanting to stop at the shop for sweets on the way home from a trip to the park :rolleyes:. They thought they could beat there 'ol mum in a snowball fight ........ 2 rolls in the snow each later and they gave up :rotfl:.

Schools are going to be closed again tomorrow :eek:. My boss rang me earlier as there was some 'discussion' over whether we should be paid or not - bit complicated but basically I'm 'attached' to the school and my hours are governed by them. I don't work on teacher training days or school hols so in effect, if the school is closed then I don't have to go in. But they've tried to argue it that I shouldn't be paid. I'm not bothered about it as I'm going soon (I can't be doing with the hassle tbh) but it seems like it's just another excuse for them to be 'awkward' :rolleyes:.

Baked cakes here ready for the return to school next week (hopefully !) and just about to pop in and make a strawberry mousse, I found some evaporated milk and jelly in the back of the cupboard. Still no clootie here as I thought I had suet but I'd run out. I'll have to nip into town tomorrow (walking :eek:) to get some supplies - we're running out of the basics here.

Hope everyone else is ok xx

bails

rozeepozee wrote: »

Not at all, signs of recovery. I used to be a total designer junkie and would think nothing of going out and hitting the shops with a £1000 budget and thoroughly enjoying the buzz of buying. My weekly earnings were the same as the yearly budget I have just set myself (that's not a typo)

:eek::eek: Wow! And the advice you gave was great; it does take time to change so be gentle with yourselves - not everyone can be as hardcore as Nyk straight away :rotfl:

JustKeepSwimming wrote: »

I'm still fannying about

:rotfl: I love this expression and find it amusing it didn't get bleeped out!

rozeepozee wrote: »

The gardener's also due today. I'm going to have to have a tricky conversation with him along the lines of: if he does not do as I ask and keep his fees down to a maximum of £150 per month, we'll be asking him to come fortnightly rather than weekly (should do that anyway, really but with twins on the way, I can't see either of us upping the time we spend in the garden this year :rolleyes:)

:rotfl: I'm sorry RP this had me in stitches, I thought you were joking to start with - I think I must be overtired but I had visions of some 'lady of the manor' talking to her gardener :rotfl:

Still so much to catch up on, and I won't reply to things as I'll just make the thread even longer :rotfl: Itching to start my own budget planning now I'm home but with so many unknowns it's a pretty impossible task right now :rolleyes: Our tenants haven't paid their rent AGAIN (late every month bar one) so I will be paying them a not so friendly visit as soon as I can get to Bath. I'm not having them causing aggro for my parents all the time, they can darn well move out cheeky sods! We can move back in then too.

Sorry to hear about your fall SF, look after yourself hun xx

purple_angel_3

Afternoon all,

My run of NSD's has come to an end. Finally the car has had it's MOT, cost £35.00 and it passed:j:j:j.
So I have also filled the car up with fuel another £30.63 spent and bought two small loafs of bread, cost £1.60.

Hope to get into work tomorrow, took today as a holiday, our street was very icey first thing this morning. Car is now park further down the street not far from the main road,just hope there is not much ice in the morning.

purple-angel

curlygirl1971

cake21 wrote: »

I've signed up for BG's "Energy Smart". It's a bolt-on to your existing tariff, i.e. you still pay the same amount. In theory you get a free energy-monitor (mine hasn't arrived yet) and if you save £110 by reducing consumption over the next 12 months they'll give you another £40. You're not committed to staying for 12m, only that you won't get the £40 cashback if you move away before then.

Hello

Am not one of your Frugalers but lurk around as am interested in your collective progress and any tips I can pick up. I find many of your posts quite inspiring and I've noticed that I am becoming more frugal in some ways!

So...thank-you for this particular one regarding BG Energy Smart. Am going to look into it in more detail as apparantly I will have to move tariff so need to make sure it's still worth my while

Thanks again Cake21.....I enjoy your thread

Ps. very sorry to hear that you've hurt yourself Slowlyfading - sounds awful! If you saw 'stars' at the time of the bump and if you notice any changes to your vision (eg black dots, flashes of light) over the next few weeks then perhaps get your eyes checked out. I had a bad bump to head a few years ago and subsequently had a problem with my eyes that was easily sorted out but could have got worse if not treated. Sorry don't mean to sound alarmist - it's just something to watch out for. I just get paranoid whenever I bump my head........not that its a very regular occurence!

grandma247

Thriftylass and slowlyfading please take care of yourselves.
I have just been out to see to the rabbit and slipped but managed to save myself. Its horrible.
BAILS welcome home. How long are you here for?

Has anyone seen the report online in the telegraph about the gas shortage?

bails

Ooh, what's happened to Thrifty? Hope you're okay?

Hi Grandma, I'm back for almost 2 weeks, fly out again on the 19th. Glad you didn't slip up too.

I read about the gas shortage in the Kathmandu Post, seems crazy!

landregistrylass

Yippee.......a lovely freecycler is going to donate a slow cooker. Only a small one, but that will give me the chance to see if I get on with it. And there are only 2 of us. Question - when I see some of your names with Money saving convert etc below them, how do you get that accolade? is it like the stars Mcdonalds staff get?

Pippilongstocking

You get stars for the amount of hours you sneak on here and post as a reward!

Well done on the slow cooker!

PS keep safe all you folks slipping and hurting yourselvesxxxx