2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

Maypole_2

Hi all

I have been sat admiring how everyone is managing and learning to manage their finances.

I manage my money reasonably well in that the debt that I have is managable, BUT, I now want to pay off my car loan early, so had been using this thread and all the posts as my insperation.

I was managing quite well and patting myself on the back that I have managed on the budget that I had set mysel for the month and had only gone £10 over. Which I felt was not bad for someone who normally has no idea of where their money goes. Actually I still have little idea, just know I did not overspend allocated amount

But today that all went to pot when my friend arrived for coffee and said " what have you done? why did you not tell me you had dented your car?...............................................Well it only turns out that some "lovely individual" has driven into the side of my car and left a very large dent, then just drove off :mad:

To make it worse my car is parked on a drive, so to do this they have had to drive up the kerb and over a small peice of grass.

Anyhow this is how I have come to the realisation that I have very little money for lifes little emergencies :eek:

Oh and when in crisis I respond by going out and buying chocolate muffins, which were not in my budget

So although not offically joining, I hope it is alright I pop in from time to time, whilst I learn how to manage my money better. I am going to start by doing a spending diary for Febuary just to see what I am spending and where. So hopefully in March I can start setting myself some personal finacial goals, then join for the rest of the year.

If you have made it to the end of this epic post, thank you, and I appologise for going on, but today has been a very worrying wake up call

minnie2

Hi everyone!! how are you all? nice new shiny thread!! its been a while!!! had a very tough few months and i have lost all contact with the threads i was following. hope i find everyone well!!!!

SandraScarlett

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I've also posted this in my grocery challenge update so apologies to anyone who also reads that .... but really need as many thoughts as poss so hope you don't all mind:

I'm well into Feb's allocation of the budget (grocery wise) - not an issue in itself as annual budgets always have over/underspends and I have been stockpiling things whilst they're on offer which will last several months & therefore balance out the budget.

However........ there's a good chance I may be made redundant in a couple of months:( (if I do survive it is an almost certainty it will happen within a few months).

This has, naturally, put me into panic mode - esp being single, there's no one else to fall back on.

Looking at it from a worst case point of view, I'm wondering if I should build stocks as much as poss just now - with the hope that if it does happen, I'll have food / household cleaning stuff / toiletries etc to tide me over a few months so I've only the mortgage/other bills to worry about ..... but it'll blow the budget altogether (but would hopefully be recouped later in the year as I won't need to buy stuff then and could life off the stocks I've built up)...... but again, I'd probably still want to hold reasonable stocks for the inevitable early next year.

So .... I'm thinking I should increase the annual budget this year to help with this but ...... mmmmm any thoughts would be most appreciated.:)


EFC - thanks, I'll give the vets a ring on Monday and ask ....:)

I'd agree with all the advice you've been given. The one thing you definitely have to do is eat, whether you're made redundant or employed. If you can stock up on special offers, and pasta, tinned toms, grate some cheese on special offer and freeze it, then you can have meals that haven't cost a fortune, but are filling and tasty.

I know it must be frightening, :eek: but I think your best plan is to be as prepared as you can be, so that if the worst happens, you have plenty of supplies to make yourself meals, and if you still have your job, you'll have a full stock cupboard.

Maypole wrote: »

Hi all

I have been sat admiring how everyone is managing and learning to manage their finances.

I manage my money reasonably well in that the debt that I have is managable, BUT, I now want to pay off my car loan early, so had been using this thread and all the posts as my insperation.

I was managing quite well and patting myself on the back that I have managed on the budget that I had set mysel for the month and had only gone £10 over. Which I felt was not bad for someone who normally has no idea of where their money goes. Actually I still have little idea, just know I did not overspend allocated amount

But today that all went to pot when my friend arrived for coffee and said " what have you done? why did you not tell me you had dented your car?...............................................Well it only turns out that some "lovely individual" has driven into the side of my car and left a very large dent, then just drove off :mad:

To make it worse my car is parked on a drive, so to do this they have had to drive up the kerb and over a small peice of grass.

Anyhow this is how I have come to the realisation that I have very little money for lifes little emergencies :eek:

Oh and when in crisis I respond by going out and buying chocolate muffins, which were not in my budget

So although not offically joining, I hope it is alright I pop in from time to time, whilst I learn how to manage my money better. I am going to start by doing a spending diary for Febuary just to see what I am spending and where. So hopefully in March I can start setting myself some personal finacial goals, then join for the rest of the year.

If you have made it to the end of this epic post, thank you, and I appologise for going on, but today has been a very worrying wake up call

You pop in whenever you like, the kettle's always on the boil, so have a cuppa and a chat. That's a rotten lousy thing to happen to your car, bar-stewards :mad:, and alas, things like this seem to occur at the wrong times. Hopefully you'll be able to start a modest "what if" fund, but it's a rotten blow.

I had such a frightening experience today. I met up with a friend at Liverpool Street, and it started off really well, because as we were walking to Marks at Moorgate, I found a fiver on the ground! :j So we treated ourselves to a Costa, got the bus to Oxford Street, and got caught up in the demonstration. :eek:

I know my way around the back streets of London very well, so we skirted around and went to BHS where we had a very nice BOGOF jacket potato. After throwing caution to the wind, and buying myself a neclace, bracelet and earrrings set (£12 reduced to £1.50!) we made our way back to Oxford Circus.

The pedestrian crossings have a countdown, telling you how many seconds you have to cross, and as it had reached "6", we waited for the next countdown to begin. I then felt someone tap me firmly on the shoulder so I turned round, thinking it was someone telling me to cross. But I found a 30-something woman, wearing a No Cuts! T-shirt, who said, in a confrontational way "Do you know what we're demonstrating about?"

I was flustered, because I didn't know why on earth she'd tapped me on the shoulder, so I said "Yes I know", and turned back to face the road. She then yelled in my ear "This government is robbing crippled people - did you know that?" Well I was so cross and shaken, so I gave as good as I got, and told her to get her facts right, and to stop scaremongering.

Then she shouted "your taxes are paying for wars in foreign countries!", and I'm afraid I then asked her to go forth and multiply, but not in Biblical parlance!:rotfl:My friend reckon she picked on me cos I was wearing my 3 year old M & S faux fur coat, and probably looked rich, but why?

What earthly good would it do for her cause to hector an OAP, with or without the fur coat, who was trying to cross the road? I was so shaken up, my friend steered me to another coffee shop, for sustenance! And when you're there and see the way rent-a-mob try to goad the police (cos that would make great TV, if they responded), I'm just glad nobody in my family is a policeman, or woman.

Sorry if I've offended anyone who was on the demonstration, but that's not the way to win friends!

xx

Kerfuffle

Winchelsea- Heartfelt condolences to you at this sad time.

determined new ms - regarding wandering around the supermarket with oranges and apples and then putting them back, I did a similar thing, I'm trying to cut down on coffee so I'm looking for alternatives and I have some herbal teas but they're a bit icky so I was looking at fruit teas. I spent ages reading all the packets and looking for ones that had actual fruit bits in them rather than flavourings, made my choice and then wandered around the supermarket. Mulled over my potential purchases, decided I couldn't afford them so put them back and figured I'd just have to perserve with the icky herbal teas. I must have spent 15 minutes deliberating which one I thought I would like the best :rotfl:

stitching witch - I'm skint too, I have 21cents (13p) to last me until Friday 3rd :eek:

Sandrascarlett - I'm sorry that you got heckled by a 'rent-a-mob' demonstrator, that's really not the way to make your voice heard. But I wish I'd been there to witness your instructions to go forth and multipy, you're usually such an eloquent lady, I want to learn from the best :rotfl:

SandraScarlett

Kerfuffle wrote: »

Winchelsea- Heartfelt condolences to you at this sad time.

determined new ms - regarding wandering around the supermarket with oranges and apples and then putting them back, I did a similar thing, I'm trying to cut down on coffee so I'm looking for alternatives and I have some herbal teas but they're a bit icky so I was looking at fruit teas. I spent ages reading all the packets and looking for ones that had actual fruit bits in them rather than flavourings, made my choice and then wandered around the supermarket. Mulled over my potential purchases, decided I couldn't afford them so put them back and figured I'd just have to perserve with the icky herbal teas. I must have spent 15 minutes deliberating which one I thought I would like the best :rotfl:

stitching witch - I'm skint too, I have 21cents (13p) to last me until Friday 3rd :eek:

Sandrascarlett - I'm sorry that you got heckled by a 'rent-a-mob' demonstrator, that's really not the way to make your voice heard. But I wish I'd been there to witness your instructions to go forth and multipy, you're usually such an eloquent lady, I want to learn from the best :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

xx

black_cat

I could have been more frugal this month - spent too much on discount books! - but subscribing to this thread has definitely kept my spending down. Thanks for all your inspiring posts. It's going to be Frugal February for me!

rising_from_the_ashes

determined_new_ms wrote: »

fingers crossed for this to work out for you RFTA. Easy for me to say but try not to worry too much, whatever happens you will be ok and life rarely sends us more than we can cope with. I don't know as such but you are a resourceful woman and tougher than most x

dizzy_lizzie wrote: »

Rising I would definately stock up on tinned items too. Things like baked beans, tinned tomatoes, mixed beans which can be thrown into veggie casseroles, and tinned potatoes. Try and think of non perishables that you can make decent meals with and try and get them when they're on offer. Also prepare and freeze as much as you can. That way at least you can always pull a meal out of the freezer. I hope it doesn't happen rising. Times are getting hard as it is.

SandraScarlett wrote: »

I'd agree with all the advice you've been given. The one thing you definitely have to do is eat, whether you're made redundant or employed. If you can stock up on special offers, and pasta, tinned toms, grate some cheese on special offer and freeze it, then you can have meals that haven't cost a fortune, but are filling and tasty.

I know it must be frightening, :eek: but I think your best plan is to be as prepared as you can be, so that if the worst happens, you have plenty of supplies to make yourself meals, and if you still have your job, you'll have a full stock cupboard.

Thanks all ..... as usual, the support on these boards is fantastic and I feel much better than I did earlier - still worried but not feeling as alone:)

It has happened before many years ago (and was a horrible experience) but it was in the days when jobs were plentiful and I also still lived at home which made a big difference.

I'm now kicking myself as Mr T had tinned toms on offer (4 for £1) and I didn't buy any ....:mad: never mind - sure I'll find other ones.

I really need to do a cupboard inventory to see exactly what I've got just now - I don't have huge amounts of money left once the bills are paid / budgeting money set aside but can afford the odd £10 - £20 here and there so I need to work out what I use most / is expensive / can be stored etc.

I will still leave my budget figures in my sig just to keep track (and stop myself going mad!) but not worry too much if I'm showing as overspent for the next couple of months. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen and I can work on balancing the budget later in the year!

Thanks all:T

rising_from_the_ashes

Maypole welcome:D, pop in for a chat / moan / support as often as you can - we're always happy to see new (and familiar of course!) faces and as Sandra said, the kettle's always on.

Pants to the car ......:mad: a chocolate muffin was most definately called for!:)

Minnie2 hi:wave:not seen you for ages - hope everything's going well.

Sandra wow what a mixed day..... the jewelery set was a fantastic find:) but what a frightening experience at the demo. I just can't believe some people these days - even if you're demonstrating about something you feel very passionately about, other people have the right to go about their business without being hindered or accosted (((hugs))).

mooomin

Did you notice when the tomato offer ends Rising?

rising_from_the_ashes

flying_fresian wrote: »

Did you notice when the tomato offer ends Rising?

Sorry no - they were on the back wall (they tend to have offer stuff along there in our store as well as at the aisle ends - not sure if it's the same in other Mr Ts) .... I really just had a quick glance to see if there was anything "unmissable" and they caught my eye but as I was still trying to be "good" then, I didn't get any as I know I've around 12 tins in stocks atm.

Still kicking myself tho'! There is a Mr T in the town where I work so may pop over Mon lunchtime and see if I can get a few tins there.....

I had a quick look on Mr T site but can't find them .... not their own make & think they were similar to these http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=259548525 but weren't chopped & couldn't say if they had herbs or not ..... (I have huge problems finding stuff on Mr T's site - not sure if that's me or not!)


They did have the Purina One Sensitive on offer too .... http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/search/default.aspx?searchBox=One%20sensitive HTH