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

cw18

Well, we're finally half way through the year - so time to report in with how my budget's going again




I’m looking at my budget as having three ‘pots’ of money, plus my contingency fund

The first is for my annual one-offs. This covers Bldgs/Cont Ins, Car Insurance, Breakdown Cover, Road Tax, MOT, and Car Service (category titles in red on spreadsheet). My annual budget for these is £996, and budget to end of June is £498.
So far I’ve spent £189.50, so still have £308.50 in my ‘pot’

The second is for my regular (and pretty much ‘set in stone’) bills. This covers Council Tax, Water, Gas & Electricity, C/H Cover, Phone & B/Band, TV Licence, Mobile Phone, Endowment, and Windows (category titles in blue on spreadsheet). My annual budget for these is £2922, and the budget to end of June is £1461.
So far I’ve spent £1325.50, so still have £135.50 in my ‘pot’ (mainly due to the 2 months without a Council Tax payment)

The third is for my ‘unknowns’ – which are really the only ones I have much control over. This covers Dog Expenses, Vets Bills, Presents, Petrol, Work Related, Groceries, Toiletries/Cleaning, and ‘Anything Else’ (category titles in black on spreadsheet). My annual budget for these is £3154, and the budget to end of June is £1664. (The budget to end of June is more than half, as my grocery budget reduces from mid September when DS moves out).
So far I’ve spent £1606.16, which leaves me with £57.84.
But I’ve also moved £80 into stock-pile funds (£77 for groceries, and £3 for toiletries/cleaning) due to using up stuff I had in on 1st Jan. So my spreadsheet summary (something I've built in to give me my totals for reporting in here) shows an extra £80 spend and a £22.16 deficit for this ‘pot’


Overall, for these three pots I have an annual budget of £7072 -- with a budget to the end of June of £3623 (the remaining £928 of my £8k annual budget being my contingency fund -- which I’ve not only not yet touched, but have actually increased by £429 since the start of the year due to reductions on other budgets).
As a total I’ve spent £3121.16 (excluding the £80 now in my stock-pile funds, as this money is still available to me), which leaves me in credit by £501.84 (just over 13.8% of my budget for the first 6 months)

Compared to my ‘end of June’ position in 2009 : In 2009 I’d spent £3299.50 of my annual £8k budget. In 2010 I’ve spent just 3121.16. So a reduction in spends so far this year of £178.34

If I add in my Contingency Fund budget to the end of June (£464), this means that I’m at the mid-way point with a credit balance from my £8k annual budget (and £4087 to end of June, due to Grocery calculations) of a staggering £965.84 – so just over 23.7% of my 'to end of June' budget is still in hand at the moment, which I find absolutely staggering


I am (however) planning to cripple my 'Anything Else' / dig into my Contingency Fund tomorrow.

I've been right through my clothes mountain, and have found the sum total of 2 pairs of shorter trousers which 'just about suffice' in this hot weather.... and I'm not doing much better for tops either (most of my T-shirts are either big/baggy/thick or only fit to be worn under sweatsirts). So I'm going out for some shorts and vest tops (if I can find some that fit and aren't silly prices).

I also desperately need a pair of footwear that's likely to be the real killer :eek: I started 'running' (a term I'm using very loosely at the moment) about 6 weeks ago, and am really enjoying it. But the cheap (and heavy) trainers I bought for casual wear just don't make the grade - so now I've stuck to the running for a few weeks (and miss it on my 'rest' days) I've decided I need to take the plunge and get a proper pair of trainers/running shoes

Erme

Morning all..Leg is not infected:j but alas I had a mad day chasing a £15 FF on classifieds because my freezer keeps defrosting due to it being on carpet. So need one of those all singing all dancing ones I sa on here but hey ho, who knows when that site will be up again...

Chest bad so will have to bus to work today and like it's raining (not good for chest) and no word on grant. Have to go to bank this am before work to sort out my dodgy ebay purchases (I figure buying off ebay end of month is a good time just before folk get paid )...

Then sort out daily clicks and try and get life back to normal..but yesterday is a blank (another) with all the stress.

Good thing was I made home made houmous out of the croc pot the other day - yum


E

Kiwisaver_2

Hey Fruguys and Frugals, hope you are all doing well as I have not had a chance to catch up with the thread over the past month. I'm back home now after my whirlwind tour around the UK, it was so lovely, the weather was just gorgeous but now I am absolutely worn out, dazed and confused with jetlag.

Despite doing extraordinary amounts of shopping, the really good news is I didn't spend half that I had anticipated :T and we came back fully loaded with chocolate, sweets and goodies to last the next couple of months at least. I have a good lump sum remaining which I immediately paid into the bank against my mortgage yesterday.

I of course tried out all the supermarkets and was in seventh heaven but often bewildered and overwhelmed by the choices and sheer numbers of people. Having been away for five years I noticed a marked change with prices and surprised at how much cheaper some stuff seems now - especially in M&S. Other marked changes seemed to be the proliferation of latte swilling opportunities and much improved customer service in the shops. 'Did you find everything you wanted today?' Although I fully appreciate that this is more a marketing ploy to push the home delivery option if they didn't have your choice of colour or size.

Anyway back to reality, work and the mundane; the budget is looking exceptionally good at this half way stage and as anticipated I'm hoping to relax a little on the hard core regime of the first half year. Six months budget of $7,500.00 and I have 'only' spent $6,265.91 (£2506)

I had a tough savings target to meet and on reflection feel that at times over the past year that I have been too hard on myself and unnecessarily deprived myself of some recreation, niceties and quite basic needs. So second half of this year I am going to revisit my priorities and see if I can put some plans in place to be kinder to myself, slack off a tad, inject a few more comforts (such as putting the heating on if I am cold :eek:) and getting out and about a bit more. Starting as I mean to carry on, I treated myself to a bottle of duty free Pimms at the airport, so that's me sorted for Christmas!

Erme

It's July 1st...is frugal going to start a new thread or should I?

Just a thought

E

top_drawer_2

Well the bread pan and kneading blade arrived this morning, got back from sewing earlier thinking about a lovely loaf tonight. Just opened the box and the pan is huge .... it wont fit in the breadmaker, the kneading blade is also a lot larger so I rang buy spares and they have said they cant supply the part. Then I rung Morphy Rich's and they say the machine is obselete and they cant supply me a part either. They did offer me a discount of £100 on another though but having already looked into some of their newer machines they're not supposed to be very good ;(( really throughly p!ssed off today.

I was late for sewing because the bus driver decided not to bother stopping until the next stop (miles down the road) after the one I needed. I needed to buy some stuff from the haberdashery and they didnt have any of the items, and they were particularly unhelpful about it (nothing new from Preston Abarkahans I must add).

I've had bad news from uni about some results - they arent going to allow them and I havent a clue whats going to happen but its not looking like its going to be positive on my degree.

The day has been rubbish and tommorrow isnt looking much better either.

Savvy_sewing

I have fallen off of the wagon bigtime over the last couple of months. But I have got to come back down to land with a bump, as there are somany cash withdrawals that I really am wasting away. Mostly its helping the family. but I have said the Bank of Mum is now closed. (If I hadnt had a back payment at the end of April the bank would have been closed then!). But generosity towards the family is not helping me and DGD. Now I am being assessed to have her permanantly, and so will have to think about the things that she will need, and then a holiday for two etc etc.
The car has cost me £762 on repairs alone.!
I shall keep my eye out for the new thread and hope that the next quarter of the year I can reduce things and get nearer on track. However I think my £4000 will be £7000 now! But I do have DGD now, 8 months on, when it was supposed to have only been 3 weeks!.

cw18

Erme wrote: »

It's July 1st...is frugal going to start a new thread or should I?

Just a thought

E

Frugal will when she gets a moment to come and see how we're doing - I'm guessing she's really busy with the work on the house and everything in her garden at the moment (as well as work)

Frugaldom

PART 3 OF THIS CHALLENGE IS HERE

Please use the new thread for any further posts, thank you.

WELL DONE TO ALL WHO HAVE SUCCEEDED THIS FAR.

grandma247

top_drawer wrote: »

Well the bread pan and kneading blade arrived this morning, got back from sewing earlier thinking about a lovely loaf tonight. Just opened the box and the pan is huge .... it wont fit in the breadmaker, the kneading blade is also a lot larger so I rang buy spares and they have said they cant supply the part. Then I rung Morphy Rich's and they say the machine is obselete and they cant supply me a part either. They did offer me a discount of £100 on another though but having already looked into some of their newer machines they're not supposed to be very good

Td I am so sorry you've had such a horrible day.

When you sent for the pan did you specify the model number etc?
If you did and they sent the wrong one anyway they should refund the money and the postage.

We bought our breadmaker from Lidl and it is really good. £24. Keep an eye out for one if you have that supermarket nearby.

grandma247

Kiwisaver wrote: »

I have a good lump sum remaining which I immediately paid into the bank against my mortgage yesterday.

I of course tried out all the supermarkets and was in seventh heaven but often bewildered and overwhelmed by the choices and sheer numbers of people.

Anyway back to reality, work and the mundane; the budget is looking exceptionally good at this half way stage and as anticipated I'm hoping to relax a little on the hard core regime of the first half year. Six months budget of $7,500.00 and I have 'only' spent $6,265.91 (£2506)

I had a tough savings target to meet and on reflection feel that at times over the past year that I have been too hard on myself and unnecessarily deprived myself of some recreation, niceties and quite basic needs. So second half of this year I am going to revisit my priorities and see if I can put some plans in place to be kinder to myself, slack off a tad, inject a few more comforts (such as putting the heating on if I am cold :eek:) and getting out and about a bit more. Starting as I mean to carry on, I treated myself to a bottle of duty free Pimms at the airport, so that's me sorted for Christmas!

Welcome back kiwisaver.
Well done on paying the extra into the mortgage,thats a bit nearer to finishing it.

My Aussie friend was suprised at the variety of food we have in our supermarkets but they live in WA so the population is smaller than the other side.

relaxing a little on the saving sounds like a good plan. At least you know you can do it again if you need to.