Frugal Living 2011 - the preparation stage

kayharcombe

I would like to join again this year, and maybe try and last longer than january!

Budget for the year for 1 adult, 3 children and 2 kittens is around 10k, not including rent or council tax, or debt repayments

debts ahould be cleared by middle of year, and then will divert that money into savings

I have just started my own company doing bookkeeping/payroll while i train 2 days a week as an accountant so need to have a good year to keep budget under control

I have an allotment and will be trying to grow as much as possible

lily288

Hi all,
Well I have worked out that my budget will be 6230 for myself, husband and 4 children.
This amount includes all bills, shopping, xmas,birthdays etc but not things like the mortgage, council tax.
My husband is self employed so he will be paying what is spare off the cc debts and hopefully anymore that is saved from my money will pay my overdraft and try and save a bit my ultimate goal is to pay of the debts then work away at our mortgage so this year is really important and will be as frugal as possible i'm hoping to not need any clothes fo the kids this year as we seem to have a good supply off friends of hand me downs etc it will only be shoes but they alright fo at least a few months for these.
My bills will be going down a little over the year as well as there are a few bills that will be ending so here's hoping fo a good year

mooomin

I think that I'm going to really need this challenge - if the weather is like this for the early part of the year then my power bills will go through the roof

I've been trying to rediscover my frugal skills - I went to the shops today looking for whoopsied bargains but the only thing I managed to get was bread for 45p. I did also buy a ham shank today which is something I have never used before. I'm currently soaking it with a plan to make soup tomorrow and eat any meat for dinner/use it on sandwiches.

I need to rediscover my batch cooking skills as well, as they were really useful when I first joined MSE but I've become lazy of late. This thread is always good for some inspiration though!!

slowlyfading

FF - this is what this challenge is here to help! You'll soon get the hang of it, I'm sure

lily288

Wow slowlyfading
Looking at your signature you look like you have had a brilliantly frugal 2010 well done

slowlyfading

lily - this doesn't include my rent or petrol so it's more if you include that, but thanks! I don't spend much

EDIT - I've just updated it too, so not so great anymore!

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Hi all and yes CW18 I shall be continuing with the 2011 challenge. I've just had another look through my budget and it looks as if I'm spending far more that I'm aware of, I shall have to have a close look at it again before the New Year. I dont post very often because I feel a bit invisible but watch and learn a lot so thanks guys for that.

For all those who worry about putting your budget on the site I dont anyway because I think its up to me to try and live within my means by whatever way seems right for me, yes I know it helps others but mine never seems to get done. Not that I have a problem with publishing it, I do however work from a budget although I've done a lot of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul recently. One thing I really intend doing though is planning my meals, thats been a difficult thing for me to get my head around but I think if I just list my meals over the next month then work it out from there that should be easy enough.

I think this bad weather is going to play havoc with my oil budget as the price has increased dramatically in the last few weeks. I just can't function if I'm cold so I have to pay whatever the cheapest price is, also I get chilblains another reason to keep myself warm. My DSx2 and DD have all said to me Mum dont go cold, if you need help just ask but of course I wont as they all have families to think of themselves, its good they are thinking of me but I usually manage to get a bit in hand with the oil budget as I work out my whole years expenses and divide by 12 and put that amount away into a separate savings account each month. My boiler is getting a bit old and any excess I have accumolated will have to go towards a new one when the time comes. This way it wont hit me so hard. I find the heating allowance very useful, this month I had just paid out over £300.00 for oil so it came at a very convenient time.

I've just seen the time and I think its time I slept. Goodnight and good luck to all for 2011. Have a happy but frugal Christmas.

Kerfuffle

Hi Everybody,

I've finally got my budget together ( I think). I split everything into fixed and non-fixed catagories and my 'published' budget is for the non-fixed catagories only, although I will be keeping tabs of my 'unpublished' fixed catagory for my own benefit.

My budget for the year is 10602.42 GBP. I actually live in Canada and my budget is $17494.00 but I've converted it to GBPounds for information purposes, hence the pennies!

The catagories are as follows( in UK Sterling but I don't have the pound button):

Housekeeping ( including cleaning and toiletries) 3120.00
Electricity 567.27
Mobiles (2) 567.27
Landline and Internet 425.45
Truck Petrol 2269.09
Car Petrol 1134.54
Haircuts 283.64
Gifts 283.64
Clothing/Footwear 283.64
Anything Else 283.64
Post Office 31.52
Bank Charges 283.64
Truck Maintenance 392.72
Car Maintenance 392.72
Dental 283.64

The 'Anything Else' catagory is to cover such things as eating out, CDs, DVDs, books, magazines and over-the-counter medication, and I really want to restrict myself with most of these ( not the OTC medication).

The Post Office has a catagory all of it's own because I do tend to spend quite a bit sending letters to the UK (and especially parcels at Christmas-time).

All our heating is provided by hydro electricity so we don't have any gas or oil bills, and our water is sourced from a well so we don't have any water bills.

We don't have a televison provider any which way:T ( digital, satalite, cable) but we do have a televison set and so watch DVDs when the mood takes us.

There are a couple of areas that I know I haven't accounted for. One is the servicing of our vehicles (although there is a maintenance catagory) and the second is the cost associated with getting my garden up and running to provide us with produce. Both these areas I will keep a record of the expenditure and tweak the budget accordingly.

I'm hoping that by keeping within this budget I will be able to accumulate some savings for 'Emergencies' and 'Contingency', and also be able to make additional payments to my mortgage.

Catagories in the fixed budget are:
Property tax & Strata
Buildings Insurance
Vehicle Insurances
Mortgage
Medical Services Plan
Truck Loan Repayment

Hopefully I've covered everything, but if the eagle-eyed amongst you spot anything that is missing please feel free to let me know.:)

And there you have it. Cheryl can I ask, as this thread is called the Preparation Stage does this mean you'll be starting a new thread in the New Year or will this one just continue on?

Good luck everybody, thanks for reading this far, my apologies if I've sent anybody off to sleep.:o

Toodles

Edited to Add: I didn't realise I'd put so much. Sorry I do tend to waffle.

Kerfuffle

Back again...

I've just realised there may be some costs associated with our water as we may need to replace the UV light bulb that the water passes over which kills the bacteria. We already have a spare one but when and if this has to be utilised I will research the replacement cost and enter it in the budget figures.

We also have 7 goldfish, and I originally left these out of the budget as their food is going to come out of the Housekeeping money, but I've just realised I will have costs associated with the replacement of the charcoal filters in the tank, so once again I'll enter this into the figures.

Anyhow, I guess this is why this is the preparation stage :rotfl:

Toodles

cw18

Kerfuffle wrote: »

Cheryl can I ask, as this thread is called the Preparation Stage does this mean you'll be starting a new thread in the New Year or will this one just continue on?

Yes, there should be a new thread from 1st Jan. But don't worry about missing it, as a link will be posted in this thread