2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

cw18

Frugaldom wrote: »

CW18, good luck with your new bloke and the marathon - well done on that!

Thanks

I'm guessing any thoughts of heading to (less than) sunny Scotland for your downsizing will be off the cards for now.

Definitely
Early days with chap yet, but things are going really well. Still finding more and more we have in common..... sure there's some thing we don't agree on or both like, but it's uncanny just how much similarity there is. Never thought I'd spend an evening curled up on the couch singing along to Christmas CDs with a fella who was quite at home joining in

Avogirly

Hello, please can you sign me up for this.....

I've been a member here for ages, but never really looked at this before. My apologies. I'm going on holiday on Thursday for a week, so I'll start reading up on the previous threads and start to work out my budgets, so when I return from holibobs I'll be super organised and ready to hit 2012 with severe gusto! Thanks in advance.

youngmummy

i am hoping i will stick to it this year. i have written a budget but find it quiet scary our total for 2012 is 12,000 pound. sorry my pound symbol on my keyboard isn't working .... going to see if i can bring it down any more. but been trying really hard and cant seem too. will let you know how i get on.

prepareathome

Been trying to work out what to aim for, my budget comes to £11,500 a year and we have income of £14k - but that may change downwards drastically, will find out in January, but why oh why do I never have any money left at end of week. So really got to work hard at keeping a record of everything I spend, joined the GC but need to record other spends and stop wasting money. If income does go down it will be £11k if hubby is one of those chosen to be made redundant so have to reign in......Basic bills come to £7k, the ones I must pay, so I want to try and aim for £8.5k. If hubbys job goes and I do not get ESA then we will be on total benefits so then have to redo budget, but will wait and see what happens in Jan.

seriouslyfrugal

I have found a programme on bbc2 @ 9pm tonight about how couples view money - thought it would be worth a watch

findingmyfeet

seriously frugal-thanks will watch that later.

really enjoying watching the amish on a thursday evening too. does anyone else watch it. ?

going through my budget at the moment as quite a bit has change recently so rejigging and juggling and trying to fit everything in and not let the grocery bill grow any further and squeeze some savings out of the budget too!! looks impossible at the moment........bills will be covered fine (unless income changes) but savings are going to be a challenge. on a positive note ive just cashed in my sealed pot and have over £300 saved towards christmas and emergencies and will try to do the same for 2012.

just bought a load of logs for the first time ever, had a wood burner for years and always collected free wood from everywhere possible but not had enough this year to see me through the winter. I was shocked it was £8o a load delivered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! will have to stretch it out well but it was recommended as good slow burning and hot. we will see.

Had several wintery showers here and its freezing cold. have put the spare quilt underneath the bottom bed sheet to keep us toasty at night.
Tonight we are using up the left over lamb casserole from last nite with yorkshire puds...cant wait.

Erme

What channel is the amish programme on and what's it called?

I don't have a tv but it's the sort of thing I'd like to watch the repeats on the pc...

Anyhow still not figured out personal challenges for my part of this thread....:(

Think I can do a budget of

£919.75 -
for the next 3 months..(all I dare plan it for).....excluding savings and debts..

This is divided as

Groceries and whoopsies = 390 (can't get it any lower right now...don't have a garden)
Electric (no gas) = 150
Insurance = 17.40
Which = 24 (might go up - need it to stop buying 101 of the same thing)
Internet and phone = 90
Water = 60
Mobile = 120 (:eek:)


Would be £20 a month lower (ideally) if I hadn't gotten such an expensive mobile contract last year (for 2 years :eek:). Yeah it was a bad day and I'm so mad at myself now :mad:...

This also excludes wee breaks away which are £40 a month extra on the one month I do go away but does include a grocery budget of £30 per week for one person (including whoopsies) and doesn't include any alternative cigarette stuff.

Doesn't include rent and council tax but does include water..

Now I expect someone to come down on me like a tonne of bricks ..but hey ho tis life ...

E

rictus123

You can watch them on bbc iplayer after they have been on. It is the second part of 3 about money, i watched the last one, about whether "just anyone" can get rich. Was good but alot of mugs on it paying to be told to rub there ears and they will become rich.

findingmyfeet

hi erme its called living with the amish its on c4 thursdays around 9pm. they have sent some british teenagers to live out there for a while. find it lovely how the community all help each other , last week they helped built a barn. couldnt see all the families in my village working for free for a day to help anyone! the odd family yes but most around here cant say hello. find it interesting.

seriouslyfrugal

rictus123 wrote: »

You can watch them on bbc iplayer after they have been on. It is the second part of 3 about money, i watched the last one, about whether "just anyone" can get rich. Was good but alot of mugs on it paying to be told to rub there ears and they will become rich.

I watched that & had to laugh :rotfl: one person spent about £4000 to basically leave sticky notes around with positive messages on & chanting that they are rich the only people rich are the people running the courses - still you have to give it to them