Frugal Living 2010 - the final stretch

solongmarianne

I have decided to join in with next years challenge,My reason being, saving for a house, not an expensive one, just a little 2 bed cottage. I am already well underway, and so 2011 can only boost this

cw18

Glad to hear you're all OK Natalie

Guessing baby was probably safer inside you than in a car seat though !!!

Didn't do any more on the stocktake yesterday - apart from add another 4 M&P pies to the freezer-squeeze game (at 79p instead of £2.80 I decided there had to be room in there somewhere ) Managed to get them in reasonably easily, but not sure I have space for the bag of frozen veg I need anymore

Picked up curtain tracks for my external doors yesterday, and hope to either get curtains (on hold at Arg0s until tonight, but may not be thick enough) or fabric to make some today. If the Arg0s ones are OK then I'll stick with those, as I reckon it'll cost me at least as much for fabric - and then I need to find the time to make them as well......

Also got a new light for above my front door (outside). Haven't been able to get into the current one to change the bulb for a good 3 years (since DH decided to change it and managed to chew up a screw head in the process!), but the new one also has a sensor on it which means it'll come on when I get home from work and give me light to open up the door - whereas fixing/using the current one would mean switching it on when I go out (around 12:45) and having it on until I get home at 5:30 ish.

Erme

I'm still quite hurt by the bullying that went on on here a wee while back so am just lurking (just skimming through the posts...not bookmarked etc etc) and wanted to let you all know how first day 'at work' went...I really enjoyed it though didn't get on with the 2nd client....:( but the first was lovely...

So feel like I have found my niche for now....alas the knees are all fluidy which could be something to stop me from working at this job but had a fab time and I've got to start somewhere...

Frugal living is not going very well but then you guys are always harder on me than you are your friends...I feel well and truly rejected and picked on on this board hence I reported some of the stuff that was said as abuse. I may never know the true reason - though I 'aint stupid and have my ideas - but I know it's not been said in public..

Anyhow enough of my moans...welcome newbies...if I can help you along the way I will..

Och and btw I've done 4 inches of my sock in a week :j - with all the stress of the last week it's been such a blessing

E

solongmarianne

I have decided to get rid of sky from next year, saving me £24 a month and also iv just done a "pretend" online shop for jan 11, totalled £70 for the month for me and a teenger, usually spend 200 plus a month on food!!!!( so even if i budget an extr 20 for fruit ect ect , im still saving loads. going to have to rein in my spending on shoes and clothes, though i do this out of boredom!

i dont smok, i dont really drink, maybe a cheapo bottle now nd thn, and i dont go out much, as lack of babysitters for my child nd my mates . im expecting to be ble to stash awa a good few grand, fingers crosses lol

landregistrylass

Morning all. Feeling sorry for myself........... chest infection. Frugalness unaffected as having to live from freezer - no way am I going to the shops. Its as much as I can do to drag myself out of bed. Then I read Natalie's posts ............. wow, what energy and drive. Can I have some please if you have any going spare???? Erme - glad job went well.Regards to all. Hope I havent passed my germs to you virally (geddit????)

Arctic_Sky

Hei all,

Rather sadly, I spent a couple of hours last night working out exact monthly figures for some categories (dividing annual amount by 365 and multiplying by the number of days in the month) - is it wrong that I'm actually quite excited about the prospect of the next year?!

cw18

Arctic Sky - the only one I work to that level is my grocery budget. Most of the other bills are annual (so I just put away £x each month) or monthly D/Debits (which don't change according to the number of days in the month)

But I don't think it's wrong to be excited about the prospect of doing this challenge in 2011 at all..... I'm keen to be up and running, and it'll be my 3rd year. It'll be my toughest year (in terms of having to balance the books, as income has dropped substantially), but in some respects also my easiest as I now only have to please myself in terms of what food I serve up (and when) and how long the heating etc. is on for

Arctic_Sky

cw18 wrote: »

Arctic Sky - the only one I work to that level is my grocery budget. Most of the other bills are annual (so I just put away £x each month) or monthly D/Debits (which don't change according to the number of days in the month)

Yeah, I'm only doing this for groceries and entertainment - the two 'variables' - the bills I pay in cash (i.e. electricity, broadband, that come out of my housemates' accounts and I pay them my share when they ask for it) and suchlike I'll take out in cash each month and stash away in envelopes - that way what's left in my account at the end of the month is truly money left over, not simply money allocated for an expense that might occur quarterly or bi-monthly, or when absent-minded housemates remember.

Just found out today that my job isn't quite as secure as I originally thought (got to love working for a Local Authority ), so frugality may well be even more necessary. Thankfully (in some ways) my bf is currently unemployed and on minimum JSA, so he's more than happy to have frugal nights in (though tbh, a night out at our regular club cost us [well, ME ] £13.50 for the two of us. Gods bless cheap vodka!

Working my way through the 2010 thread has been very useful in seeing what sorts of things tend to 'crop up' and be overlooked in initial budget. Any words of advice?

cw18

Arctic_Sky wrote: »

Any words of advice?

Be prepared for the unexpected......

In 2009 I was forever juggling budgets when something I hadn't anticipated cropped up - whether than be an increase in an existing bill, or emergency vets fees (which was towards the end of the year, so not a lot of chance left to juggle the remaining cash around!)

For 2010 I've had a totally separate 'contingency' fund as part of my £8k budget, and that's been a godsend. While some other categories have been reduced during the year (meaning a bit extra to play with were it was needed), it gave me something to fall back on without having to worry too much. When my combi oven went kaput a few months back I'd have been (mentally) struggling to find the money if it hadn't been for the contingency fund - meant I had the money to hand, and could then look and see if I could claw it back from elsewhere anyway.

Clothes have also been more of an expense than planned, both as part of my 'work' category and my 'anything else', due to having lost a significant amount of weight

cw18

cw18 wrote: »

Picked up curtain tracks for my external doors yesterday, and hope to either get curtains (on hold at Arg0s until tonight, but may not be thick enough) or fabric to make some today. If the Arg0s ones are OK then I'll stick with those, as I reckon it'll cost me at least as much for fabric - and then I need to find the time to make them as well......

The curtains I'd put on hold weren't anywhere near thick enough

Also viewed a much dearer set which are fully lined, but even with the lining they didn't seem that much thicker, and the colour was even less suitable

Didn't get into city centre to price up fabric, but did check the on-line site for the shop I was planning to hit. Nearly died when I calculated what the fabric alone would cost me (and that was without header tape and thread to sew them together - never mind the possibility of still needing linings and the time/electric to actually make them)

Did see a possible at another store (about the same price as the cheaper Arg0s ones, but these are lined) which were 'OK though not ideal' in terms of colour, but still not as thick as I'd like.

Soooooo...... I was wondering.......

If I got two pairs of (cheapish) thinner curtains and hung them back to back (so you see curtain fronts both from inside the house and from outside through the - lightly patterned - glass in the back door and alongside the front), do folks reckon this would give the same heat retention as one thicker pair would?





But I do now have a functioning external light :T

One of the neighbours pulled on to the drive to find me walking backwards and forwards and waving my arms in the air - much to his amusement :rotfl:

As he got out of his car I told him to ignore me, as I was trying to adjust the settings as it was (just) dark enough for the light to become active Have a feeling it'll pick up the neighbours coming onto the (shared) drive as well, but I've messed with the setting for how long it stays on so it shouldn't be a big deal (it comes on as I pass the front of my car, and stays on long enough for me to dig in my bag for my purse (which my front door key is attached to) and get the door unlocked - but not for much longer than that unless I wiggle my arms up in front of it again

Now I just need to add screw type light bulbs to my shopping list, as the one I've put in was the last one in the house (only fitting that took them was the external one I've taken down, so never kept more than a couple of spares in)