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

grandma247

Jaynec there is a problem with this tents' design. We bought one similar and in the pictures it seemed to be what we wantd but as soon as we put it up in the garden I knew it was not good. if you look carefully at the pictures there is no room for any kitchen equipment because there are too many doors and no clear spaces. It may not matter to you but it did to me because we never get a full holiday with no rain so I need an area for my kitchen. I have since bought a large square tent thing which we will use for a kitchen/sitting/dining place for when it rains.

tinna89

Thanks for the new thread Frugaldom, and sorry to read about the power cut

rozeepozee

grandma247 wrote: »

Jaynec there is a problem with this tents' design. We bought one similar and in the pictures it seemed to be what we wantd but as soon as we put it up in the garden I knew it was not good. if you look carefully at the pictures there is no room for any kitchen equipment because there are too many doors and no clear spaces. It may not matter to you but it did to me because we never get a full holiday with no rain so I need an area for my kitchen. I have since bought a large square tent thing which we will use for a kitchen/sitting/dining place for when it rains.

You can stand up in the bedrooms in the one we bought from Costco. We use one bedroom for sleeping, the other as a kitchen and the central area as a living/dining space, plus there's a porch with a mosquito/fly net. It's such a grand tent. We call it Burke Manor! It's a little obsolete now we have the campervan and we're gonna have to buy an expensive awning for that (£350!) but it goes up in 5 mins and we want the convenience with a 3 year old and twin babies. We're going Costco this morning. I'll have a look at what they have in stock - are you near a Costco Jayne?

RP

xnatalie81x

MY beutiful tent

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001P80GMS/ref=oss_product

8 mins to put up (with kids 'helping') and although one compartment has a sheet you put up to seperate into double compartment and single compartment. Over £150 in argos. Love it!

grandma247

Rosee I need all the bedrooms so it was no good for me. We had a two bedroom one that had a very generous living area and I miss it. I have seen a wonderful one with loads of room at winfields and hope to be able to get that at some stage.

pagangirl

Hi all :wave: - still lurkin' & frugalling. Just been re-jigging finances, as now receiving ESA, instead of JSA, as still signed off sick by doctor.

Have re-estimated yearly expenditure to maximum of £5500. Well under that so far, so looking good up to now.

Finding I can live better and cheaper now not working, as cooking a lot from scratch, and time to hunt out bogoffs etc. also splitting large packets with neighbour as we are both singletons and don't always want packs of 6 barms etc

Also taken over garden plot of our small block of flats, it was all shrubs/weeds - now few shrubs, nearly weed free and have put quote in to housing for bedding plants. Unfortunately cannot grow veg (sob, sob) but it looks 100% better already, so am getting some fresh air and excerise. (Well not today, coz its been puring with rain, but hey - gardens need it).

Hope all are well - congratulations, commiserations etc. as due.

Hugs all round :grouphug: to those who need 'em

findingmyfeet

evening everyone, havent been posting over the months due to the high numbers of people posting but have been regularly reading all with interest and taking in all the tips/ideas and pointers. thanks to all.
Budget generally going ok but needs tightening up for the summer to enable me to pay for family birthdays xmas etc_ most of my family seem to have been born sept to dec!!!!! Having a camping holiday for one week so will be taking all food stuffs we can and baking etc and also have been recently given a bag of paperback books by some friends so holiday reading sorted too.

This year we have a huge veg patch which is looking real good at present, loads of strawberries waiting to turn red and i think i could supply a small supermarket with rhubarb! pies/crumbles stocking up but does anyone have anymore ideas for the rhubarb????? can u jam it or anything similar?? hoping the lettuces will be large enough to use after next week and have 9 cucumbers appearing on my 2 plants. so looking good.thanks for still including me on the challengers list, much appreciated and will try to join in more often.

on the downside i had to spend my £2000 savings i had made over the lastyear on a new boiler!!!!!!!!!!! nearly had to have the cheque surgically removed from my hands and hubby had to look after me
for a day or so as i was soo upset to have had to spend the money but have now fully recovered and need to get as much as possible to stay in the bank now.
so ready and raring to get cracking again, look forward to continuing to read all the posts.
(nyk- your spread sheet workin real well for me thnks agian)

bye for now
fmf:A

slowlyfading

Evening everyone

Still managing to stay on track money wise. I do need to update my sig though! 6th NSD of June today which is good. I can't believe that it's June already though - this year has gone SO quickly so far. I finish my course 2 weeks on Friday, it's mad! :eek:

Just a bit of advice from the more wise people on here - I've written a diary entry on my own diary about healthy eat ( see here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2396863 ) and I wondered if anyone could post any tips for me? I need it thanks in advance!

Winchelsea

findingmyfeet - bad news about the boiler, but I guess there was at least some good news - your savings meant you were able to pay cash rather than using a CC or other credit.

A similar thing happened to me when my beloved car died of old age (had had it new 17 yrs before). I anguished over the decision, but decided in the end to use my £5000 savings on a fairly new car. I searched on the internet first so I knew what I was looking for, then went to a dealer and asked what I could get for my money. He came up with some options which didn't seem too bad, but once I'd mentioned the C-A-S-H word I suddenly got a much better deal - a 2 1/2 yr old car with only 13000 on the clock. And no finance costs to worry about.

(Of course it helped that this was at the beginning of last year when car sales were struggling.)

Since finding MSE I'm gradually building up the savings again now!

cake21

Blairweech wrote: »

I might give it all to the charity shop. It is a shame that the UK does not do as America does and offer a tax rebate on your donated goods.

De-lurking briefly to respond to this, the UK does offer tax relief on charitable donations hmrc website

Telling HMRC about your gifts to charity If you normally complete a Self Assessment tax return, tell HMRC about your gifts to charity - and claim any tax relief - by completing the appropriate section on your tax return.
If you don’t complete a tax return, you can give the details on form P810 Tax Review - available from your Tax Office.
If you pay tax through PAYE (Pay As You Earn) contact your Tax Office and ask them to make a change to your tax code.

Records of goods sold by a charity on your behalf
If a charity sells goods on your behalf, (for example, clothes) and you donate the sale proceeds to them, you can make the donation using Gift Aid.
The charity will usually write to you to tell you the sale proceeds of your goods.
For example, a charity shop must contact you after selling your goods, to give you the option of keeping all or part of the proceeds. You should keep this paperwork.