Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

miss_empty_piggy

chika wrote: »

Haha spot on, I think of years from September to September!

Oh definitely!!! When it comes to Easter you feel like "Christmas" as you can feel the summer holidays coming (if you see what I mean - not sure that actually makes any sense). As I work in 6th form, half of my students leave in May for exam leave -never to be seen again (well only on exam day!!!) so my timetable is very light at that point which is heaven. :rotfl:

mooomin

cw18 wrote: »

Well, it's a good job I've outgrown the 'spend the overtime money because you know it's coming in' stage..... Management have decided the manpower bill is too high at the store, so are seriously cutting back on overtime - effective immediately.

Bah to that.

I know what you mean about outgrowing spending your overtime money though. I haven't had a regular salary now for over a year - in my previous job I did at least 15-20 hours of overtime a month, then got a secondment where I got paid extra for additional responsibilities I took on.

I'm now in a third job (in a year!!) which has me back at my old salary grade and although there's been overtime available I chose not to do any last month as I was interested to find out what my salary actually is! I know I should be able to figure it out, but as well as tax/NI, I get pension, share schemes and benefits deducted at source and it's very confusing indeed! To add to this, I was one of the unlucky ones who got a letter from HMRC telling me I owed them money (double bah...) so will have additional tax coming off soon.

What I have done for the last year or so is "guesstimate" what my monthly salary should be, and anything over this goes to savings/emergency funds. I will find out when I get paid if this guesstimation is even close to the reality of my wages

I'm glad you're not reliant on overtime when your work treats you like that. I suspect it will last a short period until they realise how much they need people who are willing to do more.

mooomin

I didn't do very well on frugalising yesterday despite my good intentions...

I didn't go to the hospital forum thing as work was busy and I had to stay late. I do get an hours overtime for that but it would be less than the £20 I would have gotten for going to it.

By the time I got home it was after 6.30 (I'm normally home for 5.30) and I was exhausted so ordered pizza for dinner :o:o I did find a 20% off code, so saved £5, but it's still very naughty of me.

I'm going out tonight after work for a drink with a friend, but have told him I'm skint so it will be a maximum of two and then I have to go home. I'm running close to the end of my cash for the month anyway, and don't get paid until Wednesday.

My plans for the weekend aren't very exciting. I'm doing overtime tomorrow (four hours) and have very little planned apart from that. I'm hoping it will be a LSW - low spend weekend

23rdspiral

hi everyone, i'm just noting 3 NSDs so far this week :0) Tues, Wed & Thurs. i'm going to go back and have a read now.

2wildthing2

Hi Everyone hope all is well in frugal land, just a quick update I had a lovely suprise today from the TAX man a nice cheque for £250 for overpaid tax in 2008-2009........never had one of these before!!!!!!!!!!!!

enjoyfinancialchallenges

2wildthing2 wrote: »

Hi Everyone hope all is well in frugal land, just a quick update I had a lovely surprise today from the TAX man a nice cheque for £250 for overpaid tax in 2008-2009........never had one of these before!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo, wildthing what a wonderful surprise. :j

I made another 6lbs marmalade last night and cut up the fruit to cook another batch later on today after its soaked a while and my house smells of marmalade now in fact I probably do also. I will really have to stick with this if I intend selling enough preserves to pay for all the jars, labels etc I've just bought. At least its something I can do now whilst there is no pressure on me because once the car boot season starts everything changes when I start baking. I planted lots of raspberry canes in the Autumn and black and redcurrant's a couple of weeks ago plus I've already planted up a new strawberry garden so even if I only have a small amount of fruit this year it should increase as my plants grow and I will make jam to sell from them also. I just need to see the fruit is protected from the birds though, I had intended buying some cages to go over them but I think I shall be using net curtains from the charity shops now, far more frugal anyway.

Have a good frugal day everyone and lets hope its a surprise free day regarding the big R. XX

cw18

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

cw18 and JayneC the changes you write about seem complicated let's hope you are not going to be to short on payday.

I definitely won't be 'short' as I already have 23 hours overtime clocked up in this pay period - but it does mean I won't have 3 hours worth I'd anticipated from today, and won't have the full 3.5 from next week in the next pay cheque..... remains to be seen whether they'll let me have the 5 hours my manager asked me if I could do on 9th March, but I suspect I'll be lucky to get more than a couple of them now

Next months pay will be still be slightly higher than a 'flat' month though, as I'll have 7 days holiday pay in it - and my hourly rate for that is higher than my basic rate!! They calculate your hourly rate for holiday pay by dividing gross salary received over the previous 12 months (including overtime pay) by the number of contracted hours (which doesn't include overtime hours), so it adds pennies/hour to my rate Feels weird to be paid more to stay at home than to be at work, but I'm not going to complain about it

23rdspiral

to whoever said i was being nice and CALM with HR re the Big R... thanks! but it's not quite true. turns out they were ignoring me re my appeal,:mad: i think to deliberatly delay past the deadline, so i went over and saw them in person!! they weren't happy and pleaded ignorance, but by the time i was back at my desk, the paperwork had magically appeared there! so it seems i've a couple more days before the big R then. i'm just getting tired of it all now.

oops, i had 2 NDS, not 3, how could i forget buying petrol?!

ooh and i had another class of maths yesterday, and this time not even a hint of a wig out or pannic! good thing.:)

cw18 - sorry to hear about your overtime hours chaning so much. i hope they sort it out, in your favour, soon.

lesley gaye - thanks for the recipie. you reminded me that our grocers used to sell 1/2 caulis and even just bits of them too at very low prices... shame they closed down last autumn - i havent had a cauli-curry since!

Janyne - best wishes for the work situation. i'm in local govt and its horrible right now.

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

As Barros has just said about her problems its all about being out of control and thats exactly what I think it is for me but this is where I really start to fight for survival. Back to the marmalade now. XX

bless you! a well reasoned rant, then back to the marmalade. there's something in that that i love. but i dont think i can put it in words.

Erme

NualaBuala wrote: »

Lesley, thank you so much! :T That recipe couldn't have come at a better time for me - I have a forlorn-looking cauliflower that I got cheap just before the market closed last week. I couldn't think what to do with it and now I know!


I'm trying declutter (and make a little money if possible) by ruthlessly clearing out the house. If I don't post for a while, I've probably decluttered myself along with all the rubbish! I've got several things listed on Gumtree. I have never tried Ebay, am a bit nervous of it to be honest and at least Gumtree is free and no hassle posting things. It's slow going but I am getting several enquiries ... a few even seem genuine lol! I wish we had sites like musicmagpie in Ireland, last time I checked they were all for UK residents only. I have tonnes of books and CDs to get rid of but I might just give them to charity - I can't afford to donate much money these days so this would make up for it.

Hope everyone is doing ok - and hugs to those of you who are having a bad time at the mo. xxx

Nuala just make sure what you put on ebay is light...otherwise postage goes through the roof but over here it's free listing for 99p or less. So may well be worth a go hun because like Gumtree you can be waiting MONTHS for things to sell...or else go on TCB and do the vivastreet thing - that's another possibility...

slowlyfading wrote: »

Oh my gosh, I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to having a lie in on Saturday!

I've just had a two hour nap :rotfl: Guess it's the upped meds. Was so down though when I woke up...It looks horrid out there. But will get a wee walk to the library this pm and possibly the train station for my ticket to Inverness I've pre booked (Dr. C BETTER let me go - Dr. C or Dr. C's wife if you are reading this and you know you're other name that I call you is 'Mr Frugal' despite the posh car so I wouldn't put it past you to be spying on me on MSE. Nope I don't call you what the nurses call you and am not posting that on here - that's too colloquial and disrespectful for a chap of your advanced years with so much experience) and then get my cheap Mr S coffee - though last time I had it a week ago it made me so wired I had to take prn meds and then was spaced out all pm LOL

chika wrote: »

Haha spot on, I think of years from September to September!

I still do and I'm not at Uni anymore - just have lots of social contact with folk. In fact I think of years from October till about June/July when the societies finish.....Is this a good thing? Or are we going down with something? Will we still be at Uni in our seventies with our hand knitting socks chanting 'one more essay.....one more essay'....

So yesterday's walk was in fact 5 miles (conservative estimate - yet to check on Map My RUn).....legs ache like mad though it was a lovely afternoon for a walk. Only turned sour after coming out of Mr L which I went into for Balsamic and a few bits and bobs (all £3.50 or so). It's worth noting Mr L have lowered the price of their Which Best Buy Olive Oil and Balsamic and what not (a few other things that I don't eat)...Olive oil is now a nice £2.25 a litre and their balsamic is 99p - think that's even cheaper than Mr A?

So yeah...go Mr L :j - wonder if Mr Al will do the same soon...

Anyhow loads of MSE to catch up on so best go and it's already gone 12.30. Board is deffo settling down...how many of the newbies who signed up end of last year are still with us..

Only whoopsie spend today so far has been an app for phone called 'catch the bus' to save me waiting 30 mins at the wrong bus stop....But technically I have about £1 left till giro day and that is going to last - all together now - I WILL BE A GOOD FRUGALISTA - I WILL I WILL (along the lines of I must improve my bust)

E

redglass_2

Barros wrote: »

just hate the feeling of having no control and something (this) unexpected happening grrrr

(((Barros))) Commiserations....it can really knock you sideways when you've planned for everything and then, suddenly all hell breaks loose, usually from the least expected direction...

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

, I had intended buying some cages to go over them but I think I shall be using net curtains from the charity shops now far more frugal anyway.

That's a brilliant idea :j:jand you can make cages by draping the nets over canes (pop old soft drink bottles over the ends of the canes for safety and to stop them tearing the nets). I only have one query: would net curtains allow enough light to the fruit?

Erme wrote: »

..Olive oil is now a nice £2.25 a litre

If they are trying to sell it fast, just check the BBE date as olive oil goes nasty-tasting after a while. I remember a poor lady on this thread or another thread who had stocked up with about 3 years' worth of reduced-price olive oil but would never get through it fast enough to use it all....

Have finally received a refund for some garage work I had done last year. It's my own fault I didn't get it before as i lost the paperwork to make the claim :eek::o and only found it again recently. And it's nearly £100, so am very glad I bothered. That'll teach me to keep up with the decluttering. :rotfl:

Cheryl, am about to PM you.