FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE part 3, July - Dec 2010

youngmummy

can i join you please .... xxxx

candygirl

Hi all:j:j
As you can prob guess I have well and truly fallen off the frugal wagon, and have only myself to blame:o:oHowever I do still read the thread, and admire you all for your tenacity:D:D
I will try again next year:o:o

Blairweech

Hi everyone :wave:

Sorry, I am not 100% up to date atm. Went to Cirencester today to have a look around the town etc...my local supermarkets are Waitrose and M&S Simply Food :eek: Looked at the outside of my house and from what I can gather from the layout there is about 20 people...and one kitchen. Admittedly it is a catering kitchen with 2 cookers, 2 sinks etc but still a LOT of people in a small space. So, I will have to find a one-pan recipe book :rotfl:No parking either, so will have to take my bike - luckily the house does have a 'garage' area where everyone stores their bikes so don't have to lug it up the stairs, and I was going to enquire to the council about getting a permit for one of the long stay car parks. Plus, my house is right next to the laundrette (right in town centre). So, I don't exactly feel that hopeful about the digs atm but am sure I will cope and have to remember sacrifices have to be made for the greater good! Will have to get a job though, as my student loan won't go very far!

Did go in a local charity shop and found some Yankee Candles for 50p Each All the other charity shops were extortionate though (£6 for a knackered Primark T shirt) sigh, will just have to get used to it.

Anyway, hope you are all well and will check back soon!

top_drawer_2

hi Blairweech - you must be so excited!! In student accomodation you normally find everyone keeps different schedules so I wouldnt worry to much about everyone wanting to cook at the same time. The more things you share with others the more chance you have of getting chatting to them and maybe gaining a friend. I found student cookbooks to be a brillant source of short/cheap and easy to do recipes and many of them are online now so dont bother buying one. Have you thought about trying the next town over for charity shops? Its a good day out and if its anything like here then much more affluent!

top_drawer_2

youngmummy wrote: »

can i join you please .... xxxx

hey :wave:

I guess ....... No, of course you can!! Welcome to Frugal Land.

Whats your budget? What are you planning on working on for the rest of 2010?

Jen

Puddleglum

Hello, it's me, Puddleglum. Can I come back please?:o

We've had quite a hectic summer and I fell into my old trap of not wanting to know what had been spent but panicking about it anyway.

I think that we have spent about £5725.63 of the budget set but things were complicated by the rebanding of the house for Council Tax purposes and the consequent refund. That meant that over August DH did not have to draw as much money out of his business and we had a bit extra to draw on. The holiday with the dodgy campervan also confused the issue as we had extra expenses but also had a substantial refund on the hire price.

Back on track now though. I have sort of got up to date with the finances and the spreadsheet and [STRIKE]hope[/STRIKE] WILL keep up from now on!

slowlyfading

welcome back puddleglum! :hello:

Still plodding on and keeping finances to a minimum - we've been looking at figures for the wedding and if we invite everyone we want to, we have a LOT of saving to do! :eek:

Erme

Welcome back puddleglum hugs...

Alas I didn't manage to quit the cigs just yet due to my monthly lethargy which we don't know what's causing it - depot shot or PMT but it makes me very tired and depressed.

Anyhow regardless I recovered and went couchsurfing on friday for my birthday ...admittedly with a chest infection because like I'd not been eating for a few weeks with the depression so not good..so I got sent home yesterday...

dang I forgot about my bank charge for going OD the other month and so I had to go into next week's monies for shopping in St. Andrews though got some nice treats for about £15 and I still have £5 left in my purse for next week and just under £50 for this week so I should be okay (weekly budget is £45 including cigs and like food)..

So quite low in mood but hopefully that should pick up when my chest and eating improve. I'm going back on maybe weezl's recipes? Just for budget...

Tomorrow I NEED to sort out my figures for this year. If I get just under the £5000 mark (excluding stuff like washing machine I had to buy in the summer and like fridge freezer...that sort of thing cos that's why you frugal so you can afford these things :T) I'll be happy then try and improve for next year. I think £4k is good aim for me though because if you're on min wage you'll have a yearly income of £10k and stuff.

Interesting to note that when desperate to get a new CD player for hifi on tuesday they retailed about £75-100 and a dvd player with 2 year guarantee came in @ £28 so I got the latter...helps my mind so much..

Did I say I have to do my figures and stuff tomorrow and tidy?

Hope everyone is well..

Hugs

E

NualaBuala

Yay! Great to see old frugal friends popping back! :j Never mind if the budget has lapsed a bit, I'm sure you'll be in good company! Can you believe wee only have 4 days left till the last quarter of this year's frugal challenge ... great time to climb back on the wagon I reckon or use the last 3 months of the year to figure out a realistic budget for 2011.

One expense I'm not looking forward to is big gas bills as the heating is bound to go on soon. I'm making do with an open fire at the moment which isn't costing me anything so that's good. I do save something every month towards the big winter bills but it's hard to predict just how big they will be. Also, I'm not sure what my Christmas costs will be - last year I went to relatives which cut the cost down a lot but not sure what I'll do this year.

Off now to make leftovers potato cakes for dinner, very frugal and scrummy too.

Hugs,
N

NualaBuala

Belated Happy Birthday Erme!

:bdaycake:

I really hope you'll feel better soon. Big big hugs to you pet.
N x