FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 2, April - June.

Fishcake_Random

Hello all,
I actually went out today, my friend Cass dragged me to a local country park type place. It was a special day out thing arranged by the local sure start people so entrance to the farm there was only £1 and I borrowed her OH's weekly bus ticket. In return I paid for her and my entry and when we visited the gift shop before we left I picked up a postcard for 35p and 2 packs of farm stickers for £1. I'm going to add them to fishfingers memory book along with a map og the farm and a leaflet about the park I picked up. It has reminded me of when I was little and I had a notebook from my parents. When ever we went somewhere for the day or on holiday I was always allowed a postcard and any freebie maps/leaflets to stick in my book so I could journal the event.
My mum says it stopped lots of arguements in the various gift shops as I would always be desprate to get my postcard which are normally 50p or less. My parents did the same thing with my other siblings.
Its really nice now to look through the various notebooks and see my young adventures lol. I thought it might be an idea for some of the other parents on here.

Off to catch up lol.
x x x x

top_drawer_2

Hello!!!!!! Im so relieved to be allowed back on, for the past few days for now apparent reason I havent been able to post/log in to the website. I emailed Moneysaving towers but got no response ... I was really getting worried as I NEED my fix now.

The fact that I have been away has made me realise that I finally need to remove head from the sand and do a list of my incoming and outgoings, I have been avoiding doing it as I simply couldnt face knowing how much I overspend a week as I would feel pressured even more and I just cant cope with it. I have been doing a spend diary and that has helped me enormously to stop spending silly/made me more aware of prices etc. More good News here too which has helped this dawing realisation is that I have managed to secure a second job!!! working early evenings till late behind a bar in a social club, I started last night and I can see its not going to be stressful at all as they are not louts or drunks etc, in fact the club has a "reputation" for not putting up with that sort of thing apparently!!

So I have a number of stupid questions - first of all what happens with payments which only happen once in a while - like I attend sewing classes which are paid in bulk at the beginning of the term.

So here it is to begin with -

iNCOMINGS -
EMPLOYMENT - £105 + £48 = 153.00

OUTGOINGS -
RENT £75 (ALL INCLUSIVE OF BILLS)
MILK £15/2 = £7.50 (APPROX)
WINDOW CLEANER £5/3 = £1.67
FOOD £10 -15 A WEEK
GP's £6 (REDUCED LATELY)
SEWING CLASSES £17 (A CLASS PAID x8-10) +£5 (TRAVEL, BEVERAGES)
PILATES £49 (FOR 7)
MOBILE (CONTRACT £23 A MONTH + ADDITIONAL CALLS)

I normally include cleaning etc in with shopping, as you can see I dont have a typical budget as I dont have a landline or bills to think about.

Thanks for any advice,

Jen

top_drawer_2

In reply to all the posts I missed........

Thanks everyone for the potatoes idea for making the soup edible and Skint Lynne for the lentils idea, I did it and it worked. I was sooooo pleased, Ive enjoyed the soup for the last few days either for lunch or for tea, its lovely and very filling ( and cheap too:j:j). I have frozen the boiled potatoes for making potato cakes with as soon as I have a free hour or so.

Frugaldom - those chicks are so sweet!

Erme - I sympathize with you on your mother, mine was similar when I lived further away and she would come for a visit. I'm not sure how I managed at the time in a bedsit arrangement on very little sleep (one bed and she gets it). You sound like your handling it so well though.

Fishcake Random - I'm so sorry about your depression returning, its miserable and so difficult to fight. Not sure what induces you but have you got social contact thing in place? Net Mums is supposed to be a good site or maybe something not related to babies/children? I joined bookcrossing too at your recommnedation and am hoping to go to our local library tommorrow to collect a book so I can leave it somewhere after reading. I am going to have a look through my old ones and see if theres anything worthwhile passing on. I used to attend a book group (stopped because pilates coincided but that could change since Im now working that night so will have to change pilates).

Does anyone know of any car boots in the Preston area? preferably accessible by bus....:D:D

Speak soon

xx

landregistrylass

Morning all, special welcome to newbies. I am sure you will find, as I did, that the camaraderie on here is one of the things which keeps people coming back. Its good to know that others are like minded, and when things are a little tough its always nice to know others are thinking of you. Working from home today, so still in my jim-jams. How decadent. A few whoopsies at local store last night (just KNEW they couldnt keep up the "We would rather throw it out than reduce it" policy) but have no space in the freezer, so cooking 2 chickens today, making dishes from them and giving to neighbour to build up brownie points for later in the year when her apple tree provides my desserts! Have a good day everyone

Blairweech

Landregistrylass - What a nice thing for you to do for your neighbour

Top_drawer - Try Carboot Junction for carboot listings, or look in your local paper

Fishcake - Nice idea for the memory book, most frugal!

Nuala and Margaret - Put your income into Global Rich List, that will give food for thought. I am in the top 10% of richest people in the world, and I 'only' earnt £14000 last year (and that does not include things like access to clean water, healthcare, good education etc).

SF - I'm so impressed with the amount of NSDs you can have. I am rubbish at this, only managed about 10 this month. Better than none though I suppose

CW - Am sure you have already said but where did you get your water butts from? Found out yesterday we are on a water meter and our bills are astronomical (£600) :eek: :eek:. Appararently because we are a newish estate, the water meters were standard practice and we can't go onto rates!


Am busy staining all the sanded down garden furniture...it looks suitably weathered - not really the look I was aiming for but oh well, at least you can sit down without ripping your clothes on the spilts in the wood now. Going to do some Ebay listings today as well hopefully.

I have applied for a TV show...BBC2 are doing a show over the summer where 10 couples look after a smallholding for 6 weeks and the most successful couple gets to look after it for a year . I only found out about it at 8.00 last night though, and the deadline was 28th April. So, sent that off and if I have not heard by June 1st I haven't been successful.

Hope everyone has a good day :beer::money:

BigMummaF

Land-r-lass said what I was going to, but a lot more bedderra then mee :rotfl:It is the fact of knowing you can find folk here who completely understand the value of using the tops from plastic milk cartons as drainage in your planters & other such handy hints, that keeps us coming back :T

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

....I actually went out today That's good; a struggle I know, but well done you!....before we left I picked up a postcard.... I'm going to add them to fishfingers memory book along with a map og the farm and a leaflet about the park I picked up. It has reminded me of when I was little and I had a notebook from my parents. When ever we went somewhere for the day or on holiday I was always allowed a postcard and any freebie maps/leaflets to stick in my book so I could journal the event....Its really nice now to look through the various notebooks and see my young adventures lol....

I do this too! Think it began one year when we didn't have a camera plus of course, the photos are always so much better than I could ever take Fishfinger will be thrilled with her own personal history book I'm sure.

top_drawer wrote: »

Hello!!!!!! Im so relieved to be allowed back on, for the past few days for now apparent reason I havent been able to post/log in to the website I had that after the forums were closed last week, till I realised I had to physically log on again :doh:....need to remove head from the sand :T and do a list of my incoming and outgoings, I have been avoiding doing it You're not alone Fingers X--I might have just gotten thru to No2 Offspring, as this was mentioned on my way out yesterday & had to find pen & paper. I have been doing a spend diary and that has helped me enormously to stop spending silly/made me more aware of prices etc. Hopefully No2 will begin this next step very soon
So I have a number of stupid questions NO question is stupid, so never be afraid to ask. We've all had to learn somewhen ...

So here it is to begin with -

iNCOMINGS -
EMPLOYMENT - £105 + £48 = 153.00

OUTGOINGS -
RENT £75 (ALL INCLUSIVE OF BILLS)
MILK £15/2 = £7.50 (APPROX)
WINDOW CLEANER £5/3 = £1.67
FOOD £10 -15 A WEEK
GP's £6 (REDUCED LATELY)
SEWING CLASSES £17 (A CLASS PAID x8-10) +£5 (TRAVEL, BEVERAGES)
PILATES £49 (FOR 7)
MOBILE (CONTRACT £23 A MONTH + ADDITIONAL CALLS)

I normally include cleaning etc in with shopping, as you can see I dont have a typical budget as I dont have a landline or bills to think about.

Thanks for any advice,

Jen

I'm not sure that any of us have exactly the same budgets so don't worry about yours not being typical--it's yours, with your expenses & your priorities so it's important!

If these were my budgets, I would take each bit & see when it gets paid & how many times. I'll use the amounts you've given but make up some details to try & explain what I mean.
For example, I have:-
Ins..one job that pays £105 per week & another that is £48 per fortnight. To get a yearly total from that, 105 x 52 = 5460. 48 x 26 = 1248. 5460 + 1248 = 6708.
To find my calendar monthly average, divide 6708 by 12 = £559.
To find my 4 weekly average, divide 6708 by 13 = £516.
To find my weekly average, divide 6708 by 52 = £129.
Outs..rent is paid every calendar month, so 75 X 12 = 900.
Milk is two-weekly, 15 x 26 = 390.
GP four-weekly, 6 x 13 = 78.
Food, say £12:50 a week, 12.50 x 52 = 650.
Window cleaner, 5 x 18 = 90.
Sewing classes term-time, 17 x 3 = 51.
Travel for sewing 5 x 3 = 15.
Pilates half -term, 49 x 6 = 294.
Mobile calendar monthly, 23 x 12 = 276.
Total outgoings per year = £2744.
Total outgoings per calendar month, 2744 divided by 12 = £228:67.
Total outgoings per four-week; 2744 divided by 13 = £211:08.
Total outgoings per week, 2744 divided by 52 = £52:77.

Judging by that I've got a fair bit of income left over, but we all know that it doesn't always work out like that in practise. Good Luck tho, keep asking those questions & apologies for such a boring reply

landregistrylass

Blairweech - my neighbours are lovely. She is a childminder and its great the hear the laughter of the little ones over the fence tops when my DGS are so far away. They are a young couple and dont have much, but we were all there once, (and some of us are again - well not the young bit unfortunately) so its good to swap things - helps us both. DGS had grown out of some toys which I passed over for her "mindees" and they went down a storm. Little ones always like new things to stimulate them dont they? I get most of the boys' toys from car boot sales so they get re- recycled by doing this. BigMummaF - I havent done an actual budget, but just by being a bit sensible can see my spending has come down. Perhaps I will build up to doing so, but need to make sure my calculator has enough batteries as "maffs" was never my strongest subject at school!

cw18

Blairweech wrote: »

CW - Am sure you have already said but where did you get your water butts from? Found out yesterday we are on a water meter and our bills are astronomical (£600) :eek: :eek:. Appararently because we are a newish estate, the water meters were standard practice and we can't go onto rates!

Any new build in the last ??? years has automatically had a water meter (probably close to 20 now, I know my first house which was built in 1982 didn't) - and it's not possible to come off it either once it's installed.

I'm currently paying about £16/month, which seems to be less than half of most of my local friends who are on meters. There are only two of us now, and strip washes are the order of the day rather than showers - baths are very infrequent. Most of my water is used for cooking/brews, washing machine and toilet flushing (not necessarily in that order). When there were 4 of us here I was paying around £23/month - it's never been more than £25, and back then I was building up credit every month.

I got my butts from a company my water board has a connection with. I went to the water board site, and followed links through to their 'saving water' section. Water butts were listed on that page, with a link through to the other company - and were (supposedly) at a discounted rate due to the link. Not sure what the reduction was, but having checked out several other sites I couldn't find anything cheaper that worked for my garden.

landregistrylass

Blairweech - meant to say have you tried Freecycle for water butts? My local group is very active, and these do come up regularly.

mrsmuggy

Have a tough week this week so instead of the chippy,i'm doing it myself. We don't always have a takeaway but do now and again for a treat.
I've got our budget just right i think form when things were tougher for a while so i'm going to try now and pay off a few debts that we have with the extra thats coming in at the moment.
Also saving for a weeks holiday in august,nothing flash though just a peaceful week away