Frugal Living 2010 - the final stretch

Kerry_Woman

natalie - Glad you are alright. Hope you recover from your aches.

For the 2nd quarter in a row, my mainline phone bill has been under £40. Making use of the free evening and weekend minutes. Also have been using the food I have in the freezer. Am pleased with my progress.

grandma247

Cheryl my ds and ddil layer their windows for warmth. They have two sets of curtains and a blind up at the windows. They have done it very artistically with different shades of the same colour and they look very nice.
This is the idea

Erme

cw18 wrote: »

Be prepared for the unexpected......

That's like so true...feeling a bit more positive about the frugal thread today...

though I have bad but major news

I'VE LOST MY JOB

But then with my current welfare benefits I don't desperately need it and I have plenty on right now....so why worry and it was a lot of stress before I started (the welfare rights lady said it wasn't worth the stress)...

They said it was cos I wasn't experienced enough btw? Go figure? What did I do wrong? Even the first lady who was really nice didn't want me back


and


I've been making new year cards all am and feeling like I've had too much coffee so like trip out to the bookshop this afternoon (well it was lunch time) for like stickers (scripture ones) to put on cards and a whoopsie on Ebay for 100 blanks for £12 (inc envelopes...will last me a year or two. Now I know how to make cards on the pc why buy them? )

But I haven't had too much coffee so now just staying in and pottering

so


So that's me....just sitting here waiting for doc to phone...someone said it could be diabetes...now wouldn't that be wonderful (not)...

Blessings

E
PS. Praise God for silver's sock class...tis keeping me sane right now ....E

NualaBuala

Hi everyone :wave:

Landregistrylass, hope your chest infection is on the mend. It's a good thing you were all stocked up!

solongmarianne, I got rid of Sky last year when I started my frugal challenge) and I haven't missed it at all. I'm still able to watch all the free channels and there are more than enough of them!

Erme, so sorry to hear about the job. At least you've still got enough to make ends meet. Haven't forgotten about your PM - have a few to reply to but tend to wait till I have my thinking head on so I make some sort of sense!

Cheryl - hope you've haven't got lost in what must be a labyrinth of store cupboards at your house. Have no idea how you fit so much stuff in!

I'm a bit jittery awaiting our Budget to see how I'm affected by the inevitable cuts. It's due in a couple of weeks and then I'll finalise my 2011 budget. I've already started but it's hard to see how my main categories could take cuts as so many things have gone up in price. In the meantime, I'm just plugging away spending as little as possible. One good thing about the ME is that I don't have the energy to go out spending so most days are NSDs for me! :A

Hope you're all well and staying warm - I heard the UK is set for snow!

Hugs,
Nuala

grandma247

Erme sorry to hear about your job. Hopefully something else will come along.

solongmarianne

. i already pay 145 tv liscence to watch the idiot lantern, when adding up my sky over a year made me seriously cross. lol. iv done my first basics shop. am very pleased. cut my shopping bill in half. have been batch cooking and freezing . and also been cutting right down on my meat buying.and bulking it out with loads of veg, not too keen on pulses but am persevering. im having my hair dyed back to my natural red ( i cant do this myself the last time it went red//orange.yellow)patchy i might add!!!! and too many people laughed. not having my hair done every mnth will save me about £1000 i guess, colour and cut is £90. instead ill have a trim and once my hair is doen i will be able to colour it myself just to keep it looking shiny, say £5 every 2 months, massive savigs!!!

Kerry_Woman

Erme - Am sorry to hear about your job. Hope things goes well for you.

Kiwisaver_2

Just when you think everything is fine, life throws you some hard balls. My car failed its MOT, so it has been an uber expensive week for me for new brake pads and shock absorbers. Shame I didn't have something to absorb the shock when the garage gave me the quote. :eek: Anyway it's done now and nowt I can do about it.

Thankfully I have been juffling the numbers for the umpteenth time this year and realise my 'Unbudgeted Fund', being mostly income (birthday money, credit card rewards, vouchers, sold books, surveys, and an unexpected dividend) that was to pay for Christmas and Birthdays had a huge surplus showing even after having completed all Christmas shopping. I am now a bit short in that 'Fund' by $108 if I take the car repairs out of there and not much chance of filling that gap - except I paid for car repairs on my CC which will boost my points no end, so I should be able to claim another $20 voucher when this shows up on my statement tomorrow. Another surveys / daily clicks scheme I have a claim for $30 being processed but I'm not expecting to see that this side of the New Year.

Anyway, onto nicer things: the garden is starting to offer up small tidbits of produce. We had the second strawberry today, so that now works out to a cost of just $30 per strawberry. :rotfl: We laughed so much as I cut the first one in half and I offered to OH the most expensive strawberry on the planet. There's another two I am watching closely that will probably be ready tomorrow. We've had some pea shoots and a few weeny radishes.

Silly season hits me very early, first of the parties this week, Christmas cards and pressies for sending home all gone in the mail today (last day for posting at cheapest rate) and all other present shopping for UK family has been ordered online and paid for.

Arctic_Sky

Erme,

Sorry to hear about your job; keep positive

Given certain developments at work, I'm seriously considering joining a trade union, which will be another £116 to factor into next year's budget *sigh*. On the plus side, I've found out that there's overtime available next year, which will come in very handy indeed

Have also talked to my housemates about upgrading our broadband, which will actually work out cheaper - currently we're going over the 10gb limit each month, so it's costing us an arm and a leg, whereas we can get 6 times the limit, 60gb, for an extra £1.30 a month each... bit of a no-brainer! currently I've got that budgeted at £12.50 per month, but with this I can reduce it to £6.50 and still have a bit of a cushion.

Also have to factor in a few driving lessons and my driving test which I'm not far off taking (it's amazing how, having had gods know how many lessons when I was 17/18 and being rubbish, I've come back to it at 22 being calm and confident and a good driver!). Won't be buying a car though - walking everywhere is both my transport and exercise, and I can rent / borrow one if and when I need it.

Good job I brought my Budget Book into work today - can figure all of this out at lunchtime

Happy Tuesday (/Wednesday if you're in NZ) one and all!

xAx

Kiwisaver_2

I don't write anything for ages, but had to tell you this. I discovered a nice 'loophole' in my supermarket's Xmas Club. You know the things where you're supposed to remember to top up the card or buy stamps weekly. My one gives you back $5.17 for every $5 you have saved in the last three months, it's quite a bit more if you put the money on earlier in the year, with quarterly cut-off points where the rate declines. So I figured that percentage was way better than having money in a savings account and I don't have to pay any tax on the 'interest'. Last week I whacked in $450 (paid via CC so not actually parted with any money) in two separate chunks, so as not to alarm the checkout ladies too much (they were both surprised and raised comments):rotfl: Being right on the cusp of the end of their year, I have access to spend the funds from 1st December and will have earned $15 in the process. I must remember to do the same again next year. :T

I will definitely explore the possibilities of doing this in a bigger way for next year. I will crunch some numbers to see what would be the best outcome but guess the trick is not to tie the money up for a long period and get it back asap.