2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

bails

sweetpea03 wrote: »

Items that should be counted

Groceries/toiletries/cleaning products £160
Heating & lighting £20 gas + £30 electric = £50
Telephone & Internet £16.85 + £5 calls + £10 mobile = £31.85
TV Licence £10.95
Home insurance £20
Gifts for others £12.50
House Pets (if you have any) pet food under groceries, vet bills £25
Basic travel £90
Essential home maintenance £16.37
Essential household goods/furnishings £0
Essential clothing/footwear £0
Cigarettes (if you smoke)£0
Alcohol (if you drink)£0

My car isn't work-related as I can't work at mo due to disability (hence much MS required). I've allowed £150 for presents for the year (the rest can come from vouchers, reusing or selling what I have, is that okay?) and the random household maintenance number is to bring my yearly total to 5k! My health is going to have to be counted as a luxury (which if course it isn't) as I simply can't fit it in my budget (quite a big chunk of annual income) - I only spend minimum I can get away with and am not willing to sacrifice any more in that area.

Items that should not be counted:

Rent or mortgage
Council Tax
Water Rates
Work related travel expenses/cars van costs would go here
Holidays holidays + weekends away would go here
Outstanding debts
Luxury items
Entertainment/Socialising £7.99 Lovefilm + £18 cinema
Home Decorating/Interior Design
Hobbies/Sports/Club Memberships gym membership would go here

Hi Bails, I've put your budget into nyks list to see how it would work out (though excuse any mistakes as I'm half asleep this morning) If your car is needed for work I think you'll be ok as it leaves a bit of leeway for gifts, vets, household maintainence & health costs. Hope its ok I think I've done it right & not missed anything off & added it up right!

Thankyou SO much for taking the time to do this sweetpea, it's really helped me! So, unless anyone has anything else I've forgotten to add/spots any howlers, I'll set my target to 5k please Nyk. Okay, now that's finally sorted, BRING IT ON!!

Oh, and this may seem a bit random but it is MS (trying to avoid having to take cat to vet!) - he has an eye infection, caused by a cut on upper lid, which has made whole area around eye swell up and stick together. Might this go away if I keep bathing it or am I in danger of animal cruelty?:D Is there a more relevant thread where I can ask this does anyone know?
In light of above problem (among others!), perhaps joining a skill-sharing scheme might be MS for some of us this year? Sorry, can't think what they're called off the top of my head, you know where you give someone's child extra tuition and someone else fixes your car in return? Anyone got any experience of these schemes? I have a very useful OH so I could volunteer him :rotfl:

sweetpea03

you're very welcome glad it helped & well done for setting your target :j I was actually wondering which section health costs should be in? does anyone know?

Going to aim for a no spend day today Just had a £10 pigsback voucher in the post, £9.37 from Quidco in the bank & some free perfume samples in the post from the freebies board so the day has started well

juliejay

just to let you know tescodirect have reduced all their hampers again £50 reduced to £9!!!

sweetpea03

thank you so very very much for that juliejay :j I have cancelled the no spend day lol & ordered 2 as this is too good to miss, I can use alot of the items for pressies

was it this hamper? This is the ones I have ordered http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.100-1342.aspx

came to £23.59 with delivery, will take it off my target balance now :j :j :j

juliejay

Thats the one!! Well done on getting them. There was a bigger one as well but they've all gone. Its worth it for the wine alone and I dont think it counts in the challenge because mine falls under 'gifts for others' (possibly not all the wine!) which is not included.
Other people on the thread I found it on said they would eat the stuff and use the hampers to refill with gifts eg hair stuff etc so that might be another idea.

whitewing

Lol, I nearly ordered a hamper too, before I decided that I'd spent enough already this month.

I am going to change my signature to include the number of no spend days. This means that I will be able to update my signature for this challenge each day (if I spend, it gets added to my total; if I don't spend, it gets added to NSD's). Updating my signature seems to be the only thing keeping me on track! I found myself quite disappointed this morning that only my mortgage has come out...

In fact, I may even add on the no. of home-made items I have made for presents/cards. I am intending to make my mum a basket of home-made gifts for her bday (not until Nov but I'd better get a move-on!).

Not planning on doing too much today. Back at work tomorrow (with a packed lunch)

wornoutmumoftwo

I don't think I can ever remember having a no spend day, we get our money weekly so I have been tending to buy day to day. Real skint this week but on Thursday next week we have no direct debits coming out so think i'll do a tesco home delivery following a proper meal plan.

Do those of you who shop at tesco have the green clubcard plus? You can get double points on your shopping if you pay with it.

I usually top mine up with £10 at customer service desk as it credits straight away and then pay for my shopping with it, does help with those points.

juliejay

Oh no- just checked the list again and 'gifts for others' has to be included. So could either reclassify it as 'luxuries' or invite friends round to open hampers and help with drinking wine in which case it could be classed as 'socialising/entertaining'

But really I've included £10 pw for wine so they can count as that as long as I only open them one hamper a week and then all the other stuff is just a bonus and should go someway to offest the grocery bill - there tea and biscuits in there too.

I'm really getting in to this!

angchris

thanks juliejay :beer: im not doing this challenge but good luck to all of you that are! i couldnt resist the price of the hampers i got 2, 1 for me and 1 for a present..thanks again angchris xx

Protogenia

I think those hampers are a fantastic bargain...thanks Julie Jay X X You're a star!