Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

natnat13

Oh no 23rdspiral, I would ring / go in tomorrow and ask to do it on Thursday and explain that you're going to have no job soon and fuel is expensive!!!!! Either that or can you claim the petrol, I went for a job interview once and could claim my travel expenses? Have you seen / applied for any other jobs? (((hugs)))

mooomin

My new laptop battery arrived :j:j:j

I'm off to update the Spreadsheet of Wonder and will be back to confirm my (very bad) January totals.

*flees*

SandraScarlett

l.m.hart wrote: »

sounds a wonderful day,hope you dont mind me asking but did you get the tickets from the box office and how much were they?

Yes, going to the Box Office is always your best deal. They were £20 each, about half a dozen rows from the front of the Dress Circle.

If you fancy the Tango, you can get OAP tickets at the Peacock Theatre, on the day, for a tenner! It's two minutes walk from the Aldwych, turn left along Kingsway, and it's first on the right. It's on in a few weeks, so we'll see what the weather's like on the day, and have a mooch along. I've seen it before, and it is terrific.

xx

Nichelette

dizzy_lizzie wrote: »

Hi Nichelette. We eat a lot of quorn in this house (I don't though) and there are some fabulous recipes on the site here just in case you've not been on it. You can also order the cookery book which I did for DD and it's well worth the money!
Also don't give up on the crochet. Once you've mastered a couple of the stitches you can make loads of stuff. Youtube tutorials is the way to go if you get stuck
Must go and pick DD up now, I'm an hour late already. I'm getting addicted to this thread!!!! Which is no bad thing because it's free...:T:D
Luv dizzy x
♥

Thanks so much for reminding me about the quorn cookbook, I meant to do that ages ago but completely forgot. I've just ordered it now and I'm sure I'll use it a lot .

Yesterday I also bought this book in preparation for the spring http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1845335597/ref=oss_product. The book tells you when you need to do what with veg at what time of year which will really help me because I was so rubbish with it last year I never seemed to get anything planted at the right time. Last year my dad paid for his friend to build a raised bed for my birthday so I could grow my veg out of the dogs way. I've got enough room for a good variety of veg, and I always grow some things in pots too. We also have apples, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries & tayberries in the garden. I wish we had room for a plum tree, that's the dream .

Today I've bought some more potatoes and lentils so I can make more of what I did yesterday, and I'm going to make some of this http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/333614/red-lentil-chickpea-and-chilli-soup to take to work for lunch when I've eaten my way through the salad I've got...

I've been working out my essential spends for the month, I live with my dad still so my outgoings are less in depth than most peoples. I only really HAVE to spend the following:

£200 rent
£80 petrol - to and from work only - don't use the car for much else, would like to cycle but terrified of being run over as main roads are involved...
£20 gym - I could get rid of this but I need an incentive to make me go, and the incentive is that I'm paying for it. I think it's better to do this than sit at home and put on weight as I know I'd never be motivated to do enough at home. I know, naughty...
£15 phone - sim only contract, I'd rather go PAYG as I hate direct debits, but this is the cheapest I've found as most of my friends/family/OH are on o2 and I get unlimited calls to o2 numbers

On top of that I've got £90 for a years car tax in April (MOT & insurance have aleady been paid for in Jan).

rising_from_the_ashes

23rdspiral - please do get in touch with your HR tomorrow and see if you can arrange for a day you're working. They'll probably be fine with this and may not realise you're not in this Friday. Sorry to hear your job's coming to an end and fingers crossed something turns up soon.



Just a quickie (as still need to catch up on around 15 pages!) - do we do a "monthly roundup" of how we're getting on? :question:

I must say that this is brilliant, has really focused my mind on where money actually goes!:)

mooomin

PhotoBucket isn't behaving so I can't upload a screenshot of the Spreadsheet of Wonder, so here's how January has gone...

Under budget

Gas/electric
Home insurance
TV Licence
Virgin Media
Mobiles
Transport
Union
Entertainment
Clothes
Monthly current account fee

Over budget

Christmas £80.65/£30
Council Tax £122/£108.33 (None this month/next though which will balance it)
Crafting £19.25/£16.67
Haircuts £18/£10
Groceries £186.13/£180
Anything else £381.26/£80.92

Total monthly budget £833.33
Total amount spent £1152.43

Budgety thoughts

I'm not hugely concerned with my overspends. Rationale is below!

Christmas - a lot of sales shopping has meant I spent more than intended. This should even out over the year.

Haircuts - the £18 spent was for a Groupon voucher worth over £50 and the appointment isn't till March so this will again even out.

Groceries - £6 over budget isn't bad, and I have a lot of food in the house at the moment.

Anything else - this is the big one. The main culprits are the new iPod (£193) and the cinema pass (£162) which total £355 - although I did use £45 of savings for the iPod. Even assuming that those two total £315, that means I only spent £66 on 'others' which would have been within budget.

All in all I'm quite pleased with that, especially as I'm going to be able to add Quidco etc into the pot as income soon.

Next month - under budget!!

23rdspiral

Hi everyone. again. believe it or not the Speadshet of Wonder has just cheered me up no end. it is indeed wonderous. Thanks CW.:T

so i didnt have a NSD, that scarf called too loudly and i was feeling too low to fight it. still it's only 3.00. Then we needed bread, fruit and veg anyway... and happily all that was reduced at Mr Ms - inc getting 5 packets of cherry toms for 45p! (But it's not as if i'd have ever bought them at the 5.00 they were 'worth' anyway!!!)

Re my 'budget' - it was a lot of guesses and estimates based on vague memories of trying before and based upon some of the stats you peeps here had stated. Well, the Spreadsheet may be Wonderous, but my spending isn't but the fact that i now know i spent 121 pounds on Craft / Clothes and C/Shops. (full price of goods not inc C/S coudla-been-full prices: 184!! and this includes enough fabric to last me the year!). Also i now know quite how much petrol is costing!!! And kept a note of moneies owed to me by OH, mum ect which has helped me call them in. BUT i spent waayy less on gifts that usual - by re-gifting/ making myself /buying in the sales & reusing wrapping paper:o. (6 birthdays in Jan!!).

AND groceries were only 60.52 !:eek:wow!! that's REALLY low!! and there's meat in the freezer AND the Spreadsheet of Wonder tells me that those goods were 'worth' 112.79 (not that i'd have bought quite abit of it full price but i'd have had to have bought something and whoopsies were 'real' meat, not value sausages we'd have otherwise had!)

Sorry i'm rambling... think i need a Kalms, i'm a bit all over the place today. Anyway, thanks to everyone here for all the hints and tips... hopefully i can get the random spends down over the next few months, and keep the groceries low too. though there wont be as many whooopsies as if i've no job then i wont be usign the car for work and passing 3 diff supermarkets. harumph.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

thanks for the ideas re talking to HR... i'm not in on Thurs,, at a conference they might see as a Jolly so dont want to be told i cant go (boss is happy with me going). I'm in tomorow as is the other girl on my job... i'll phone and ask. eek, dont want it sooner.... it might mean i get less money than drawing the process out more, as they'll have finally given me notice, but i guess i need to show willing. THANKS FOR THE PUSH.

ceridwen

[QUOTE=redglass;40761376

Who was it asked for the day of an Oldstyler?

Today some friends were eating oranges and I begged the peel to take home and put into the freezer (when i have enough, I'll make the hormone for cleaning mentioned by Ceridwen). When I asked for the peel, a friend told me that dried orange peel makes good firelighters, so I'll be trying that soon.

I'm not nearly as focused as some of the people on here, but I'm so much better than I used to be.[/QUOTE]

'Twas I that wondered about everyone else's typical Old Style Days.:)

Re the enzyme cleaner - I'm still working through the stash of cleaners I have at present - so not got round to the enzyme one yet....

Howevers...what I DID wonder the other day was whether this cleaner might be multi-purpose in effect? Reason - I was reading an article about some high-end cosmetic with enzymes in for helping to maintain/regain youthful bloom on skin and thought "Hmmm...enzymes eh? wonder if that enzyme cleaner would have the same effect????" Whaddya think? Would it maybe roll back the years on my skin?:D

rubytuesday

A very expensive day for me today! I went to the Homeopathic Hospital for a fasting blood test but I forgot to take my form. Luckily my consultant was there and wrote me another one, she also gave me a copy of a magazine article I was interviewed for regarding the Diet Clinic I attend so that's my claim to fame today!
I then went and had a vegetarian lunch at the Mary Ward Centre - a fantastic college I used to attend, a Nata and a cup of tea.
Natas make me Happy!:)
Then off to John Lewis to purchase a couple of bras as my bosooms have shrunk! Well actually they're the same but my back size has gone down. How they can justify charging so much for these contraptions I do not know! Of course the one that was reduced to half price did nothing for me and I told the assistant I would not even bother to try the one that was fifty pounds on as no way would I may that much for a bra!
I also bought some Valentines chocolate and a birthday card.
I had a little perusal in BHS but I didn't purchase anything. I wanted a cup of tea but it was Tetleys which I don't like and then I had a craving for Coke which I never usually drink (must be you lot!) but they only had Pepsi so I left it.
Absolutely gasping by the time I got home though, one cup of tea does not touch the sides!
Then I had to take to my bed for a few hours.
Now I have to go up again tomorrow as I made an acupuncture appointment and they had a cancellation. Usually you have to wait months. I hate it but it is effective.
Now I'm going to have a nice hot bath watch Silent Witness and catch up with you all later. X

oldestgnome

Love the poem! Really made me smile, I've emailed it to myself at work to print off to read again for those moments when I'm having a bit of wobble! :T:j:T:j

It has focussed my mind - roll on February, new month, clean slate for me. Only a short month so I intend to get some serious saving done!

Keep up the great work