2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

dizzy_lizzie

LolaLemon wrote: »

Lol I know! But I couldn't resist it. I wanted to see if he listened to me when I said I didn't want or need an I pad. Plus, he is now in Cuba, so won't find out :rotfl:
I'm really really happy with it. Just going to see if it has spreadsheets on it as I don't think it will let me download the SoW :-(

Recently found out my sister is pregnant :D very exciting, hoping it will kick start me into my crochet.

Well we won't tell him

Saw the news about your sis on the crochet thread. Ooh can't wait to see any new makes.
x

cw18

Just started off my spreadsheet for next year, and it currently looks as follows



I've lost a couple of categories (dog food and vets bills as I've had the dog rehomed a couple of months ago) and dropped a couple that were zero for 2011 and that I don't plan to use in 2012 (TV licence which was ditched at the end of 2010 and gutter cleaning), but have added on my gym membership and the cost of my Personal Trainer (I've allowed for keeping the PT on all year, but may ditch after I've done my marathon at the end of April which would give me back over £800!!)

I know/hope I've over-estimated some categories, as I've rounded them up to give a round £ figure each month.
Council tax is a definite, as is road tax (although the latter is only over by £5)
Water and gas/electric I've allowed for small increases (probably needed now I'm at home full time)
Central heating cover also has a bit extra on it compared to my current monthly payment, but I suspect it may not be enough extra
Both phones are hopefully over estimated by a few £s over the year, but not by a significant amount
Both insurances I've allowed for increases (just hope I've allowed enough extra)
Car expenses are hopefully well covered (I've lumped service & MOT together this year as they get billed together, but I've also added something on for repairs this year instead of anything like that having to come out of my 'anything else')
Road tax is also over budgetted due to rounding (checked what I should be paying next month on the website)
Petrol is hopefully well over estimated. I don't see myself doing more than 4k miles in the year, but I've allowed for 6k. I've then worked on 9 miles/litre (which seems to be my average figure) but costed at £1.40/litre to allow for any further price increase..... so this figure could be closer to £600 (4k at £1.35/litre) than the budgetted £926, and that would be nice
Groceries I've allowed for at £3.50/day, which is well up on previous years. I'm hoping to keep it well under £3 (including the 'replacement cost' of anything I already have in store, which will be accounted for but put into savings), but need to work on my diet come the New Year given the running training I'm doing for the Manchester Marathon at the end of April - and also want a 'contingency' so that I can cook for someone else once in a while without worrying about the cost tooooo much
Toiletries/Cleaning I've allowed 20p/day, which seems to have been plenty the last couple of years - but again this will include the 'replacement' of stock items by putting the money into savings.

I debated leaving the endowment off as it's going to look skewed all year due to the fact I've only got 2 or 3 more payments to make before it matures (I've budgetted for 3)


Still a bit of work to do on my copy of the s/sheet as I want to work in the calculations for stock replacements/moving to savings, and also need to see if I can realistically split my 'anything else' to give a separate category for my running costs which includes club membership, race entries, new shoes (which alone could wipe over half of that, so I suspect I'm going to have to increase my budget to at least £9.5k!), new running clothing (hopefully shouldn't actually need), and anything else I may need (from what I've read I'm almost certainly going to have to try out and stock up on 'gels' for consuming during long runs in order to maintain energy levels - and they're not cheap)

System

I always keep a spreadsheet of household expenses. Only the basics though, i dont include presents and the like. This is the money that actually comes out of my account.

stitching_witch

LB29 wrote: »

Is anyone else planning on growing there own veg? I'm not very good at gardening but was thinking of having a go. Do you actually save any money or just end up with nicer food?

We've had an allotment for quite a few years and we do save an awful lot of money. For example, we harvested eleven pumpkins for Hallowe'en from one packet of seeds (around £1) and they were selling in the supermarkets for £2.50 each!!

We only garden organically so the food is not only nicer but we know exactly what went into it.

I'd suggest anybody gives it a try even if you only have room for a couple of tomato plants and a few pots of herbs. even a window sill can support a little bit of greenery.

stitchy x

piggybank1980

I would love to join the challenge please, I'm a serial lurker and terrible at spending more than I should, but now is the time to come out of the shadows! I have a second child due in June and really need to ditch the debts so I can live on maternity pay.

Emmala

Please may I join in too? RAE18

We are in the process of reviewing our finances, and hope to remortgage next year (which will mean an increase in payments) which means all round we need to make the money stretch as far is it can. There are five of us and I am really noticing the difference in grocery shopping now! Thankfully, no nappies etc to contend with, but all three kids have a good appetite (they are nearly 9, 7, and 4).

I really liked the lists people were posting about what they are going to do next year to make a difference, it really got me thinking!

I have read through the thread and would like to say a general thanks to everyone, you have inspired me to really commit to keeping our costs down!!

Emmala

Oh, and please can someone tell me how to subscribe to the thread???? Thank you!

cw18

Rachel_G wrote: »

Oh, and please can someone tell me how to subscribe to the thread???? Thank you!

Go to the top of this page

Just above the first post you'll see a green bar, and on the right hand side of that are a few options. Click on the down arrow next to 'Thread Tools' and then click on the option to subscibe. You can decide whether or not to receive email notificatications when people post (I opt out of that)

To find your subscribed posts go to the higher green bar, click on 'Quick Links' and then on 'Subscribed Threads' (3rd from the bottom on mine)

[Deleted User]

Hey Cheryl (cw18), thanks so much for copying your spreadsheet into your post. It has really helped me to realise what I need to be doing.

I am going to have a go at doing my own one later today (or possibly tomorrow, just finished up fom work today and feeling very tired).
Al x

rising_from_the_ashes

After a few draft attempts .... finalised budget



So - quite high at £12,500 but this does drop down a fair bit if the Mortgage is excluded (£9,100) and even further if the Council Tax is knocked off too (£7,900).

I know a lot of people exclude both of these, but I like to keep all my expenditure in one place as I also use the SOW to track all my direct debit payments each month.


Comments

Pets - as some of you know, I lost my beloved dog a few weeks ago. Although I can't imagine someone here in his place, I also can't see myself being without one too long (it's awful:().

So, I've incl a dog amount (which is currently being put into a "pot" off my bank account to rebuild the vets fund) - but should another arrive, this would be split into Insurance/Boosters & part of it added to the "pets - excl Ins & Boosters" amount which currently only has the cats costs in (IYSWIM:o).

Cats .... well, I've reduced their costs (excl insurance & boosters) by £10/month which may be difficult to maintain:eek: - but I do have a fair bit of dry food atm (bulk bought on offer;)) which should last until about April:) (& was bought without overspending this years' budget:j) .... so fingers crossed!

Groceries - would love to get this down a bit but due to various health issues, this is really difficult to keep under control - my milk spend alone adds up to a whopping £350/year:eek:.

Buildings & Contents Insurance (paid annually in May), Broadband, Landline & Council Tax all upped slightly but may need further adjustment.

Gas & Elec recently switched to a fixed rate (Exp Nov '12) so this should be OK if I'm careful with useage.

Car, Boiler & Income Protection Insurance all renewed Nov or Dec so I know what these will be for the year.

Car maintenance have increased on 2011 as my total spend this year has been £11.50 (new wiper) and £119 (service) - I will def need new tyres in 2012 and it's a "big" service (it was £300:eek: - but I've managed to save £85 by booking early!;)). Breakdown cover & Car tax are both due Jan (paid annually) so have lumped together (and will show as overspent all year!)

Phew! Hope you've not fallen asleep:o

Now .... how do I stop myself tweaking it again!:)