2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

You'll all can do this next year if you stick with the NYK 4k Challenge

The following is a copy of my notes from week one of my 2007 challenge diary, just as an example.

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Total outgoings for one week - £84.40

This is called getting off to a bad start BUT, and this is a VERY BIG BUT, the above included Friday night at the local pub, 40 fags, groceries, a new double duvet, a new double quilt set, a new double fitted sheet with 2 pillow slips AND 2 gifts for impending birthdays! (I blame the overspend entirely on ... Tesco Direct sale, but I did get my Clubcard points.) And I should add that our power supply is via pre-payment meter, so the above amount also included electricity...

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You see? It doesn't always go to plan, even in week one of 2007, but I did finish the year with £1.50 to spare. Needless to say, I haven't carried it forward into this year's budget - I added it to my savings.

princess_leia_3

You are such an inspiration - you seem to do so much for everybody on here and keep upto date with so many MSE things I get lost following just a few

:T:T:T:T:T:TWell done and keep it up :T:T:T:T:T:T

mumzyof2

Total Outgoings for week one so far is £12.77
I did have a budget off £30.00
still have 2days to go
do you think that is good anyone?
nothing planned for tomo

hopeless_spendthrift

nykmedia wrote: »

you can get a REAL pig? how!!!!:o

Thankfully, not a really pig :rotfl: It's a little 'stress pig' called 'Curly' and he arrived in a brown envelope that wouldn't fit through the letterbox. It kind of went about halfway through then got stuck and the envelope burst and out popped the piggy. It didn't help that I had opened the door just as postie was trying to find out if the package would fit! Don't know who felt silliest, him or me, confessing that it was a rubber pig stuck in the letterbox :rotfl:

I think the above adequately demonstrates that 'Curly' couldn't possibly fit through my letterbox whilst wrapped in a big brown envelope LOL If anyone is wondering what, on earth, this has to do with living on £4000 a year, it is classed as free entertainment, a free hobby and a free sport - seeing how ridiculous a place you can photograph your pig! [/quote]
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Thank u for such a ridiculously funny story! Really brightened my day

Frugaldom

Hi Mumzy, well done so far on your grocery challenge!
Don't forget to keep a record of everything you spend - actual total of absolutely everything, not just your groceries. I pay almost everything through my credit cards and bank, so I always have printed records as well as the receipts, but this year I am joining you in withdrawing £30 cash from the bank each Tuesday and paying the groceries as I buy them. This should save me money as I won't be tempted to go and make it up to the £5 minimum for card payments. My weekly spending is never balanced because I have the credit card bills to pay each month so I don't get charged any interest

Tonight I have spent my time reviewing old challenge notes and then checking all my cashback sites. I've sorted out all my accounts and cards, checked my credit report (free) to make sure last year's 0% interest card has been cancelled and have now applied elsewhere so I can have another go at what they call 'stoozing' on here. I also forwarded my piggy-stuck-in-letterbox tale to pigsback to see if they found it funny and I have started to keep a diary of what freebies, prizes and bargains I manage to get in 2008. I count everything obtained using points as freebies, so piggy counts as free

Freebies so far this week/month/year I have received the 2008 BBC Wildlife calendar, my 20% off Bite Card (arrived overnight!), an O2 sim card, my 'Curly' pink piggy and my copy of 'Moneywise' magazine. Going to read that tomorrow.
Winnings - £50 from Jackpotjoy which I won whilst registering and then withdrew instantly plus £50 on the Premium Bonds. The first week of the year has NEVER been like this for me before, so I need to work out how to keep this up.
Bargains - Martin's new book for £3.49 with 1% cashback and free P&P
2 new oil filled radiators for this freezing house - half price in Currys sale plus used a 5% discount voucher code which worked even although the order was under £50, plus 1% cashback
Achievements - Quit smoking on morning of 31/12/07 and haven't missed them in the least. Plus I am saving the £1.28 per day it was costing me.

This is how my 4k challenge works. I NEVER dwell on what I haven't achieved, I try to focus on what I have achieved and then work harder to achieve even more.

mumzyof2

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi Mumzy, well done so far on your grocery challenge!
Don't forget to keep a record of everything you spend - actual total of absolutely everything, not just your groceries. I pay almost everything through my credit cards and bank, so I always have printed records as well as the receipts, but this year I am joining you in withdrawing £30 cash from the bank each Tuesday and paying the groceries as I buy them. This should save me money as I won't be tempted to go and make it up to the £5 minimum for card payments. My weekly spending is never balanced because I have the credit card bills to pay each month so I don't get charged any interest

Tonight I have spent my time reviewing old challenge notes and then checking all my cashback sites. I've sorted out all my accounts and cards, checked my credit report (free) to make sure last year's 0% interest card has been cancelled and have now applied elsewhere so I can have another go at what they call 'stoozing' on here. I also forwarded my piggy-stuck-in-letterbox tale to pigsback to see if they found it funny and I have started to keep a diary of what freebies, prizes and bargains I managed to get in 2008. I count everything obtained using points as freebies, so piggy counts as free

Nyk £12.77 is everything i have spent this week lol I onyl had £30 in my bank lol when i withdrew it last tuesday On thursday i will be paying £400 and odd pound out in debts whilst with paying debts clearing 2 debts also paying £50 odd out for ebay fees,water,gas, elec which sint due till 28th but that will be with my "rent money" which will be last time i ever use the rent money as next two payments will be saved..so that when i do start payign rent i wont have to put anything towards my rent for 2 months..as il have enough for 2 rent payments to go out using the rent money i get. if that makes sense,
but this week thats all i have spent :P

Buffythedebtslayer

I am going to order that pig.

I had to buy to some books for school. ugh. hope they pay me.

take care all xx

Frugaldom

BUFFY - The pig is only 200 points and mine arrived within 3 days

All challengers - Don't forget the Council Tax money. If you opted to pay it monthly over 10 months then you should now be into 2 free months. Your usual Council Tax payments can be channelled elsewhere to clear debts or saved. My belief is that if it's interest free then accept the payments system. If you look at the measly discount offered by the council for paying a lump sum, it saves you very little and loses you more in interest had the lump sum been in a decent bank account. Interest always counts in my book, especially if it's tax free

Mumzy - you are doing great!

hopeless_spendthrift

Good Evening All

Spent £17.12 today... £10.42 on groceries: some veg, spices and £6.49 on a big tin of olive oil (part of my plan to allocate some of my monthly shopping budget to a 'bulk buy' and thus, hopefully, money-saving item!); £6.70 on 6 gifts for others and £1.00 on a calendar for me! Have to have one in the kitchen with space to write in each day to keep a tab on my daily plans, the children's different activities, school events etc, birthday dates plus dates when bills and card payments are due and when DD's are going out, so I can make sure there's enuff in the bank to cover them!
Apart from being only a pound the calendar has a theme...Indian Recipes, with a different recipe + picture for each month! Perfick!

Not a bad spend I feel as it's the first time I have [strike]wandered[/strike] been let loose around the shops since I took on this challenge. It is really working bc I decided not to spend any more than the £20 I had in my purse which encouraged me not to throw everything I fancied into the basket (what I usually do, especially when hungry - which I was!), and then charge it to my debit or credit card if it comes to more at the checkout than I have on me.
So I am a reformed character, if not a little obsessive about it all. I am very happy to be part of this challenge and feel very positive about actively doing sumthing about my finances. I have relatively little coming in and up until now have been 'scraping by' every week without being organised or focused at all. Looking forward to seeing how the year pans out!
Ooh just realised didn't update yesterday's spend which was only £3.00 on staples (not the metal kind Hester :rotfl: ). So that's £20.12 to update and £76.76 altogether thus far. Happy with that. Although I have almost reached my target figure for the week, I think I remember Nyk saying that we shouldn't worry about this happening as figures should kind of average out in the longer term and I am not too worried because I know that I have bought one item in bulk, meaning I won't have to fork out again for at least another 3 or 4 months for something that would have cost me about £1 a week otherwise.
Off to update my sig.

hopeless_spendthrift

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Total Outgoings for week one so far is £12.77
I did have a budget off £30.00
still have 2days to go
do you think that is good anyone?
nothing planned for tomo

I think you are doing great Mumzy! Fantastic even! :T :A