July benefit challenge -here we go

Wonder_Girl

Emmzi,

I am going to be following this thread with interest.

I couldn't manage a fortnight on that!

May I ask why you need a bus pass? if in this senario you are on benifits and not working where do you need to go everyday to need a bus pass? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just get a day pass on the odd day you need to do your shopping or go to go sign on?

WG x

Emmzi

Wonder_Girl wrote:

Emmzi,

I am going to be following this thread with interest.

I couldn't manage a fortnight on that!

May I ask why you need a bus pass? if in this senario you are on benifits and not working where do you need to go everyday to need a bus pass? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just get a day pass on the odd day you need to do your shopping or go to go sign on?

WG x

I'm assuming I'm going to the library every day for newspapers etc to look for work; also where I am, cheaper to get a bus pass if you are going to travel on more than 2 days than get return tickets.

Wonder_Girl

Emmzi wrote:

I'm assuming I'm going to the library every day for newspapers etc to look for work; also where I am, cheaper to get a bus pass if you are going to travel on more than 2 days than get return tickets.

Fair enough

I have my fingers crossed for you, good luck :T

Emmzi

Just ate remainder of last night's 'ice cream' for brekkie Turned out ok, but not so healthy!

Working in office mon/tues, so spend today will have to include lunchbox stuff. Might get some beans and make pate stuff.. have to make more bread then. Or I might give in and get a fat-filled cheapy quiche.

Hotel wed/thursday.. not sure what to do with budget, maybe take £8 off it... ouch!! Although if I can do today, mon,tues on my £4, I'll have £8extra for the weekend... might use it for campsite fees! (£8 a night,b/f can pay other 8!, that's a weekend away.)

Choices, choices...

anyway,today's mission - bean pate, wholewheat pasta and different pasta sauces for 3 days..

report back later!

Emmzi

Heh heh..shopping done. Some good, some bad!

Discvered that 3pm Sunday is the time to go to somerfield! throws out the meal planner, gotta take what's on special..

I got..

huge bag bananas, 24p
pound of strawberries, 42p

I've frozen these, and will buy some value oj next weekend to make them into yummy breakfast smoothies

teacakes, 15p, put into freezer
little trifle,13p,for tonight
spinach and ricotta tortellini, 39p, big enough for 2 meals, in freezer
puff pastry, 51p - have scrap of feta cheese still, and frozen spinach, so this will be a nice tart or lattice or something

then stuff to use with my peppers (last day before they die!) to make a yummy casserole-1 onion,1 large potato, one tin condensed tomato soup

and a slab of mild cheddar-99p. wanted mature, but it cost too much. still, add a bit of pickle,cheese sandwiches for lunch this week.

so, £3.74 spent, easily 3 days tasty food,much smugness.

But right next door was farmfoods, and a little voice said 'doesn't lynzpower get cheap quorn in there? I know you think it's a horrible shop, but let's have a look...'

so I bought...

mature cheddar -a pound!! (going there first next time!)
nando's olive pasta sauce, and sharwoods passanda sauce -a pound!
4 tins cream (this is black saturn's fault actually,not LP- cos I want to try her ice cream recipe and see if its better than the gloop I made last night!)-two pounds!
ben and jerry's vermonty ice cream -2 tubs for £2!!! how can any woman resist???
sugar (due to b/f extreme sugar in tea habit) -72p
and 2 pack quorn sausages for the casserole (all I went in for) -£2!!

so that was another £8.72, leaving me with £106.69

however I also have the basic ingredients for
-a nice curry (will pick up a veg stew pack next weekend)
-nice olivey pasta
- another huge sausage casserole
- huge amounts of ice cream!

I don't want to be down to less than £100 until the end of the first week.. so that has to be it if I want £8 for the campsite!!

PS value shampoo was ok.. bit dry.. but I will give my hair a few days to adjust to it before making a difficult call about how long I'm prepared to try it out for.

PPS casserole in oven.. smells great..can't wait until it's done!!

Emmzi

B/f made dinner last night (pizza and ice cream yum, not really cooking but sweet) and made me sandwiches - so no spend yesterday, and on for a no spend today. Yay!

applied for 2 jobs as well. fingers crossed. *still* waiting for a second interview date for contract!!!

tru

Ggggrrrrrrrrrr................annoyed with hubby :rolleyes:

He spent £18.76 yesterday - £7.54 more than the budget :mad: He bought a fan.

Still on target overall though because there's £9.25 leftover from the previous 2 days.

He had a cheque last week that he took to work with him, said he'd put it in the bank. I told him it had to go in straight away, OK he said. He put it in this morning - after we'd gone overdrawn by £5.06.

If I never post again, it's because the bank have charged us and I've been arrested for murder

Emmzi

Heh heh.. that's hubbies for ya!

Well I am off on works business trip this morning. Back in benefit world it would have been cheese sandwhiches and leftover sausage casserole today, but instead it's hotel stuff.

Sadly what I'm most looking forward to is hotel shampoo. The verdict on Lidl 'Pool' is that it creates straw. So I am open to any alternative cheap things! All their others say they have 'milk protein' which is probably fine but makes me go 'ewww'. Tries Tresseme on sheer size/ cheapness, but it makes my hair all limp, and curvy girls need bouncy hair to make their chins look smaller!!! I think Lynz said Asdas was ok...

B/f has also booked campsite for Fri/Sat night, here's hoping it's sunny. I'll do a supermarket run for camping food when I get back on Thursday, and leave te beer to him. He'll only spend a bleedin' fortune on lobster for the barbie...

Job interview Tuesday. Trying not to think about it.

black-saturn

Sometimes I find these kind of threads quite offensive. Some people have to survive on benefits all the time. Maybe you should take advice from them as to how they make ends meet. Also some people on this board think people on benefit get too much. If thats the case why set challenges to live off the money they get?

Emmzi

Black Saturn,

well, a huge chunkof wantingtodothis was from your menu plnner.. doesn't that count as taking help? And yes, I'dl ove suggestions.

I'm just trying to use this as a discipline to get my outgoings down. I'mnot really sure why that bothers you. I certainly haven't suggested people on benefits get too much - haven't I failed to do this the last 2 months???

If you're really offended, however, I'll stop posting.