2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

Erme

chika wrote: »

There isn't a target amount - as it says on the first post its about establishing how much you need to live off and make savings where you can. It used to be 4k but hasn't been for a long time. This year I'm going to try and live off 8k but I'm single with no dependents, It may be higher than some but there are certain creature comforts I like and I must have at least one foreign holiday! It may be much higher for someone with children. We are all different hence the freedom to pick and choose what we do.

Now please don't take offence but there is no need to "gripe" about that. If you don't like the idea you don't have to do it. Also this has been done to death but I really think this isn't the place to be filling with negativity about previous experiences you have had. I've said it before and I'll say it again, these threads are some of the nicest and supportive I personally have ever seen on the internet and I think the posters here don't have a nasty bone amongst them.

I hope everyone has a great 2012 and achieves their frugal goals no matter what we have to do to get there.

So cyber bullying is acceptable on MSE and I'm just supposed to get over it? Is that what you're inferring all cos this thread in essence is 'one of the nicest' on the internet...

Nope no therapy. Not over it....Like it or lump it...very wary of frugal living challenge. Not least now it's directly in my eyeshot...

Learnt a lot through the misunderstandings of last year on here but it'll take me more than 1 year to get over the cyber bullying...tis just how I am ...Once bitten, twice shy and all that. Just warning folk as I feel I should ....the person who cyber bullied me was nice as pie for months..then just turned on me. Whilst I can use the ignore button for them. I can't for this thread..

Like I said if you don't want me to gripe - MOVE THE THREAD...Simple..

E

Buffythedebtslayer

Erme wrote: »

So cyber bullying is acceptable on MSE and I'm just supposed to get over it? Is that what you're inferring all cos this thread in essence is 'one of the nicest' on the internet...

Nope no therapy. Not over it....Like it or lump it...very wary of frugal living challenge. Not least now it's directly in my eyeshot...

Learnt a lot through the misunderstandings of last year on here but it'll take me more than 1 year to get over the cyber bullying...tis just how I am ...Once bitten, twice shy and all that. Just warning folk as I feel I should ....the person who cyber bullied me was nice as pie for months..then just turned on me. Whilst I can use the ignore button for them. I can't for this thread..

Like I said if you don't want me to gripe - MOVE THE THREAD...Simple..

E

Isn't that bullying us? I was nothing to do with what happened to you. Why should the thread move because you don't like it being here?

There are threads and people I don't like on this board. I don't read them. I had a good clear out of my subscriptions the other day and now the (in my view) annoying people no longer feature in my MSE world.

suzitiger

hmmmmm yes please lets all be friends and get on nicely. Being Frugal is all about living within your means, so as long as you are doing that and looking at crafty ways to save, all is good. What is in the past is done, I'm looking forward to a Frugal 2012!

Buffythedebtslayer

chika wrote: »

Buffy the spreadsheet is here. I'm going to have a look at it later. Let us know how you get on!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=39711066&postcount=360

As promised, I have downloaded the spreadsheet.

hmmm. pretty much as far as I got! I don't understand Excel very much!

Does anyone know of an online teach you how? I am sure there is one at work.........but I am not at work!

xx

chika

Erme wrote: »

So cyber bullying is acceptable on MSE and I'm just supposed to get over it? Is that what you're inferring all cos this thread in essence is 'one of the nicest' on the internet...

Nope no therapy. Not over it....Like it or lump it...very wary of frugal living challenge. Not least now it's directly in my eyeshot...

Learnt a lot through the misunderstandings of last year on here but it'll take me more than 1 year to get over the cyber bullying...tis just how I am ...Once bitten, twice shy and all that. Just warning folk as I feel I should ....the person who cyber bullied me was nice as pie for months..then just turned on me. Whilst I can use the ignore button for them. I can't for this thread..

Like I said if you don't want me to gripe - MOVE THE THREAD...Simple..

E

Unless there were other incidents I wasn't aware of I think that calling what happened bullying is a bit of an over exaggeration. You were given advice on frigal living which you chose to take offence to. This is a mutually supportive thread and if you post in it you should expect to be given feedback on your post.

This thread is about helping people to become debt free so I think it is in it's rightful place. If you don't want to read it then don't come in it. Simple!

Doom_and_Gloom

We are not in debt but as we (my fiance and I) are saving for our wedding rather than get in debt I think me (us) being a part of this challenge is right yes? Debt prevention is better than getting out of debt yes? I hope I am right in this thinking.

Budget for 2012 looks like this (at the moment, it may change).
What it is - year/month/4week/week (some may be rounded up a penny to make it easier):

• Groceries - £1,320/£110/£101.54/£25.39
• Electricity - £600/£50/£46.16/£11.54
• Contents insurance - £170/£14.17/£13.08/£3.27
• Water - £120/£10/£9.24/£2.31
• Vets - £260/£21.67/£20/£5
• Mobiles - £660/£55/£50.77/£12.70 *
• Yule - £334/£27.84/£25.70/£6.43 (gifts, treat foods, alcohol etc)
• Birthdays - £195/£16.25/£15/£3.75
• TV licence - £145.50/£12.13/£11.20/£2.80
• Internet - £180/£15/£13.85/£3.47
• Public transport (bus/train/taxi) - £1,200/£100/£92.31/£23.08
• Entertainment - £240/£20/£18.47/£4.62
• Dentist - £120/£10/£9.24/£2.31
• Optical - £120/£10/£9.24/£2.31
• Clothing - £240/£20/£18.47/£4.62
• Just incase - £240/£20/£18.47/£4.62

Total for the year - £6,144.50 :eek:. Shall round this up to £6,200.

We won't be including rent or council tax. This is to cover my fiance, me and our 2 chinchillas. All things related to my disability are not on this budget as they should be covered by my DLA (note the word should, lol).

We are trying to spend as little as possible as we want to save for our wedding (looks like it will be in 2013 but we still have quite a lot to save so we shall see). We refuse to get a loan and go into debt to get married so we need to save for it.

Fiance doesn’t have his motorbike anymore but that may change if he gets another one. If he does get another one I will have to change the budget - public transport will go down but bike insurance, petrol, bike maintanance and road tax will be added (possibly MOT if he buys a second hand one). The actual buying of the bike if he does get another one will not be added in this budget though.

I honestly can not believe how much more the 2012 budget is compared to the 2011 one, it is scary.

*this is up from 2011 as my partner got a more expensive contract! I was so angry with him as I got a slightly cheaper package than before to help with budgeting and he goes and gets a more expensive one himself :mad:! Hoping to go down a tariff on my mobile come 2012 but we shall see. I will be [STRIKE]forcing[/STRIKE] asking my fiance to go down a tariff after he has had his contract long enough.

deep_in

i am here for purely self indulgent reasons my plan is to save 10000 by 2013 to take me and dd on a holiday of a lifetime to disneyland for 2 weeks so the aim is to save 7000 this year i know i can do it just need the incentive

mooomin

I've looked over the first few posts from last year's thread and apparently by budget for last year was £10,000. You'll get an idea of how over budget I went when I tell you that the car cost over 80% of that :rotfl::rotfl::o:o:o

I would like to aim for a similar amount, but can't find my old spreadsheet so am going to have to review all the posts and see if I posted last years budget anywhere. Otherwise it's going to be a case of guesstimating the annual spends and adjusting the budget throughout the year as I can.

FrankieM

I'm not sure I'm going to state a certain amount for a budget.

We have changed how we do budgets, in that we now have a 'house' account and then we each have a personal account so everything for the house (food, bills, kinder's allowances, minimum payments on credit cards etc) will be from one budget and everything for me (car, clothes, haircut, Uni books etc) comes from my personal budget.
I'm using this as a fresh start to not spend money on the credit card, so if I haven't got the money.....you know the drill
The plan is to also separate out credit cards so I'm currently paying off the credit card in my name and will then be getting rid of the secondary cardholder. After that then I will work on the balance transfer cards in my husband's name but I'm not sure how his spending will go on his personal card. I don't feel inclined to sub that, I think he needs to sort that out himself.


So, I have an amount that goes into each account and I will be trying to spend less than that so I can tackle credit cards/ save some money.

We also moved house and area in the summer so it will take a little while to see how the utilities will work but I think it's going to be a little tight...

deep_in

ok done my budget for january had to write as laptop is still broke and currently using dds ds lol well i have finally sorted my gas out so my water only heats for two hours a day looking forward to seeing how much i will save if it all goes to plan i will have £1985.41 saved by the end of january but that doesn't include the stuff i want to sell on ebay