Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

cw18

twiglet98 wrote: »

I don't know what to do about diesel......

To enter it in the regulars should I just keep a record of the total monthly spend, and forget the dates? I'm not sure how the 'Jan others' page and the Anything Else row are meant to work!

If I make more than one payment for the same 'regular' item in a month I enter the figures using a forumla, basically putting a = before the first amount and + between each one
As for dates, instead of entering 1/2 into the date field (for 1st Feb) I either enter 1, 9, 26 (if those are the dates of the spends), or leave the date column empty and enter them into the unused columns to the right of the spend.

Jan Others - I use this for magazines, clothes, DVDs etc. The total at the top of that page (the cell should be yellow) gets transferred into the 'Anything Else' row on the Totals page.

cw18

twiglet98 wrote: »

Sorry, should have thought this through and put it all on one post!

I'm only going to do this from the receipts so I won't have the original prices of whoopsied items, but I wonder if I can adapt the whoopie sp/real etc columns to reflect the use of coupons that reduced the amount I actually spent? Eg first shop in Jan was a huge one, half of it whoopsied meat, and I had a £6 coupon - how can I record that?

Thanks

The first year I used the spreadsheet I put coupons as a negative spend.

So if I buy 7 different items from Mr T but use a £10 gift voucher towards them I enter 7 lines for the puchases, then add an 8th line for Mr T. 'Cost Each' is -10 and 'Qty' is 1.

twiglet98

Thanks so much, Cheryl, you are an absolute superstar! I had no idea about the "= and +" facility and am fast realising just how little I recall from that half day Excel For Beginners course in 1997!!

It's all working, adding up and transferring as it should, except that in January I've spent MUCH more than expected on food, animals and card repayments. Having read about the Payment A Day idea on DFW, and never having made additional payments beyond the usual direct debit, I pumped all my Christmas money and overtime into extra payments, and though the spend looks depressingly huge, the balances do look a lot better. I use a credit card purely for big emergencies, major appliance or car problems, or vet bills, though I have just taken out insurance through Te$co for the dog and two of the cats, far cheaper than any other quote I could find.

Tomorrow I must clear out the freezer and defrost it, and do an inventory of what's actually lurking in it. The grocery bill HAS to come down.

redglass_2

natnat13 wrote: »

I'm all for libraries but I also like to keep books for reference and read them again etc. Think I get it from my dad, he is a great hoarder of books. Infact on the subject, I am going to a book swap tomorrow, pay 50p and take books you don't want, then take the equivilent number home, a mum at school has organised it, for a cancer charity (her daughter had had it, she's ok now thank goodness).

Sorry, natnat, I didn't mean to imply you should never buy books but I can see it might come over that way. I buy books myself. I just meant to remind people about them, because I'm often surprised at how even frugal people think first about buying books when the books have already been bought, on their behalf and with their tax money.

Aril wrote: »

k..this is the couple behind the Pennypincher book...a much more frugal tome
http://pennypincherpaper.co.uk/
Aril

Thanks for that link, Aril, I didn't know about these people. They look like wise old owls with a lot of experience!

(((23rdSpiral))) - sorry that the big R is looming.

minnie2 wrote: »

have been jigging about with our finances and think if i have worked it out properly that we are now £161 better off a month

That is SO brilliant, Minnie, well done! :T:T:T

JayneC

Hi all,

I'm struggling a bit this month as my plan is not working I divided up all the yearly expenses and one offs into monthly sized pieces and planned to put an amount away each month, however I'm having a lot of 'one offs' already! And I put this months saving towards my cc debt!! Foiled!!!! DD3 has several auditions lined up all over the flippin country so although the audition fees are paid I'm gonna have to pay towards train fares and even accommodation for some of them. Plus have to pay £100 towards DS school trip this month!! ARGH!!!

Sorry just feeling sorry for myself - it'll be ok I'm sure. Going to have to take all my saving out tho I think n start again next month Could order a voucher from one of the survey sites but was saving them up for b'day presents/christmas/hols/etc.... And probably be a month before it comes anyhow!!

Got 3 more mystery shops lined up so that's something. Must look for something to sell this weekend too.

Was really stupid yesterday too thought it was DD2 BF birthday so bought a cake (didn't get round to Making one!! ) so spend £5 in sainsbugs and turns out it's next month DOH!! Wondering if I take it back whether they'll refund??? What d'ya think?

23rdspiral

CW - if code is easier that might be good, as my OH might be able to understand it. he checked the font colour and it wasnt that! i think i might have hurt it when moving a few columns around as i wanted to add more 'spares' before i realised i dont ever clean gutters so could change that to 'optitians' ect...

lilylass - dont think so. i'm in the cultural sector, and we're being deleted all over the place. will have a think about it though.

thanks Everyone for your well wishes. i'm feelign a little stronger now that before, i guess understanding a bit more is making it less scary.

I should be in bed but have nervous energy and cant concentrate on much so at least noodling here for tips is keeping me off the wine! have just found out about Avatars, and 'enabled' them, so am seeing some your little pictures for the first time. very ood. not sure i like it, might change it back!

twiglet98 wrote: »

Oh and another thing, not sure when I might want to do this but at the bottom of the page it says, "You may not post attachments" - why not, and how would I put a photo on if I can't post attachments?

there are other ways using photobucket ect, but basically they need tobe hosted on a website, not just your computer hard drive. i use flickr as it's like a photo album for me and i can join interest groups and share photos with friends ealisy.

How to share your pics from FLIKR:
1) Go to the picture you want to show us click the 'Share This' button on the top left of the picture, this will show you a number of options and the one you need is called 'Grab the HTML/BBCode', Tick the button for BBCode and it'll convert the code to what you need.
2) Copy the text in the box and paste it into a new post on MSE and it should have everything you need to insert the image into your post. You can check this by clicking Preview Message.
copied from here: the lovely Chickywiggle in the Cross Stitch Cafe. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2943532

JayneC wrote: »

Wondering if I take it back whether they'll refund??? What d'ya think?

can't see why not! i returned ice cream once... couldnt believe they took it back!:rotfl: but they did, and only coz my OH bought very much the wrong vareity!

natnat13

No offence taken redglass and no apology necessary, def a good idea to promote libraries x

rising_from_the_ashes

Morning everyone, yay, it's Saturday!

Just wanted to pop in an say a HUGE thanks to Cheryl for sorting out my spreadsheet.

I'm sitting here with all of Jan's receipts and will be splitting them up/sorting out new budgets etc. (Lily's going to be a busy girl)!

Decided not to visit supermarket this week - I've got a pretty good stock of things in and should only need veg so will pop to the farm shop to see how it compares price wise.

Now having 2nd thoughts on that - there's a market near me on a Sunday and there's def a veg stall - may just hang on and try that tomorrow instead. Assuming it will be cheaper?

Have a good day everyone.

natnat13

Just rang BT to get rid of my £5 a month daytime call package as I don't use it. They went through my phone and broadband and I saved £12 a month I know there are probaby cheaper providers but I have never had any probs with BT so am happy to stay with them. Next I need to sort my electric and mortgage out, fixed rates coming to an end on those. DH has just said he will cancel his mag subsricption too.

cw18

lilylass wrote: »

Just wanted to pop in an say a HUGE thanks to Cheryl for sorting out my spreadsheet.

more than happy to help
like I've said before, it's almost impossible to generate a true 'one-size-fits-all' version

I'm sitting here with all of Jan's receipts and will be splitting them up/sorting out new budgets etc. (Lily's going to be a busy girl)!

have fun