Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

tumptyteapot

not my best frugal day
Mr L - £28 then £20 in Mr T - doing my shop in 2 places is not a good idea. Last week in Mr T it was £35. I bought things in doubles too much 12 eggs instead of 6 because it was £3 for 12, ditto juice....... in theory it should save money over all but it doesn't feel like it.

£15 petrol which should last a while, I wish it wasn't so dangerous round here and I could walk more, I nearly got mugged last week but a policewoman came towards us.

I'm going to see my folks next weekend so that will be £25 in petrol which will scupper the budget at the start of the month.

Feel a bit bleak

23rdspiral

hello everyone, well i've coped with not moving today better than i thought i would = i finally told mum and she was soo angry on my behalf i had to calm her down with 'it doesnt really matter ect' and ended up believing it! i should be doing OT but i've a bad cold so have been sorting paperwork and being ruthless and filling up the recycle bin is feeling good!

thanks Fresian for the reminder that i really do need to look into how you switch / move services. i've my head in the sand again i guess.

my OH forgot to cancel his insurance though, so we've paid extra for a week, but hopefully can claim it back. when i mentioned to the EA that due to the delay we're paying out insurance for a property we cant live yet, she said i was petty to want the few quid it's costing me. meh.

i've no idea what to do for dinner at all. we have woopsied mushrooms and woospied eggs, so an omlet is sensible... but i dont think i fancy one. takeaway is calling but neither my purse or waistline will allow it!

23rdspiral

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Doom_and_Gloom

I haven't been around for a long time, sorry . We have had a lot going on; a very stressful event, moving, sorting everything out after the move, numerous doctor and hospital appointments all the while my partner having to deal with work as well as looking after me - it has been a very difficult 2 months and we still have some more to come :eek:. So I haven't been able to sort out and work out the totals until now .

So I have gone through all of my notes, the bills etc and find out what we are up to in our budget.
£1,006.92/£5,000 - 20.14%
I believe we are 23% of the way through the year so it does look good untill I realise that a big bill (my partners bike insurance) isn't due for another few months and equals to about 8% of the years budget. So in actual fact we are probably a little bit over budget right now .
I know we are slightly over budget because of all the problems we have had so hopefully as things settle down (and they should soon if things go right *fingers crossed*) we will be able to concentrate more on being frugal and keeping to budget more instead of everything going on around us.

rising_from_the_ashes

Hello everyone, been a really busy week and haven't had much time to log-in ....

Catching up tonight (around 9 pages) but probably will refrain from saying much until tomorrow - feeling slightly sozzled:o - found a lonely can of cider in a cupboard when I was hunting for something for tea so have taken pity on it and drunk it (it's AGES since I had anything to drink so feeling it)......

Now thinking I should've kept it as I've a receipe for a really nice chicken casserole that uses a can of cider (and is probably why I'd bought it)......:(

LolaLemon

my boiler sort of packed in yesterday.. as the sun has been shining lately, my house is 'stuffy' in the mornings so i turned the heating right down 2 nights ago, then yesterday i had no hot water, checked boiler and their was no pressure, tried 'bleeding' it and i heard the stuff move (is it water? steam?) and the pressure didnt move, so i turned it off but a red light stayed on. It was absolutely freezing last night, could almost see my breath. far too cold this morning when we got up. went to uni, got home tonight and decided to try and 'mess' around with it - i turned the main switch off and back on and got a green light, tinkered with the pressure knob, and heard it all kick start.... got down stairs and then heard this awful noise, a bit like a plane taking off, run up to see whats happening and the pressure was sky high.
I foned my freind in a bit of a panic, well i sent a fb post 1st (as im using someone elses fone still and didnt thik i had his number) the post was this 'FONE ME FONE ME FONE ME , MY BOILER IS GONNA BLOW!!! searched my adress book and find a number for him and try it, and it works! call him up, not that he can do much, he's 800 miles away in grimsby... but he reasures me that boilers do not blow, and if pressure gets too high, the valve will release it... now have heating and hot water! yea! and got to spend abt 3 hours on the fone to my best friend, not something we do too much (me with uni or son and him with wife, who is fantastic yep my bf is a male and i like his wife)

just need to be opening the piggy banks to see how much i have to get the boiler fixed.

hope everyone has a great weekend

oh rising from the ashes... i LOVE cider... with some blackcurrent... mmm if only i had some in the house... enjoy:)

SandraScarlett

After reading Cheryl's very detailed calculations and explanations regarding Gas and Electric charges I have come to the conclusion that

1. She is a Genius Extraordinaire, on a par with Carole Voordeman :j

2. She should clone herself, and then shrink, so we could all carry a Cheryl around in our pockets, instead of a calculator :T

3. George Osborne should resign, and Cheryl should take his place!

Thank you so much Cheryl for all your help and support. I notice that when anyone has a query, you always answer them quickly and succinctly, and I know with you at the helm, our ship won't sink! :A :A :A

xx

never_too_old

SandraScarlett wrote: »

After reading Cheryl's very detailed calculations and explanations regarding Gas and Electric charges I have come to the conclusion that

1. She is a Genius Extraordinaire, on a par with Carole Voordeman :j

2. She should clone herself, and then shrink, so we could all carry a Cheryl around in our pockets, instead of a calculator :T

3. George Osborne should resign, and Cheryl should take his place!

Thank you so much Cheryl for all your help and support. I notice that when anyone has a query, you always answer them quickly and succinctly, and I know with you at the helm, our ship won't sink! :A :A :A

xx

here here:T:T:T:T:T:T

cw18

Thankyou very much for the kind words
Though I'm sitting here turning a funny shade of red now

It's merely a case of loving maths (always my strongest subject at school) and logic problems (hate crosswords, as my general knowledge lets me down badly), and enjoying tinkering with spreadsheets (which make doing the maths much quicker and easier than using a calculator).

Add to this the fact that my Dad tried to involve me and my brother in household type things as we went through our teens (not that we were really interested, but I guess it sunk in anyway) and the fact I ran a house on my own (as a single parent and on a tight budget) for 3.5 years before getting together with late DH - and was then left by him to deal with all the household bills, which means I've got 24 years of dealing with utility companies over my own bills having been given some background on them first

inspirespirit

oh gosh Cheryl. Wish I was like you. I had yet another bill from Southern Electric today. This time for 236 pounds from my old property. It says its for the 18th March 2011 to the 18th March 2011. no piggin' idea what that is all about considering I left the property on 21st February 2011 and phoned the readings through same day.
The woman dealing with my account has said she has never seen such a mess. I have spent literally hours this week on the phone.
I'm thinking of going to Ofgem. I'm only saying that cos someone told me to do that. I don't really have any idea what they can do but was told they are the utility ombudsman.
Bought myself some roses yesterday to cheer myself up. Whoopsied from 5.99 to 75p.