2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

CRANKY40 wrote: »

I've had a quick count up, I reckon I may get by on £5000. Would you put me down for that please?

I've listed your name, target and challenger number in my latest update of post number 1

Dithering_Dad

nykmedia wrote: »

I have one concession - I don't have a chip pan or deep fat fryer but we do eat oven chips sometimes

Actually, so do we, but only when it's my turn to cook

Right, I've found another challenge on MSE where some bloke is daft enough to think he can pay off a £150k mortgage in 3 years, so I'm off to rain on his parade!

ceridwen

Impomdasp wrote: »

Congratulations on setting up a brilliant challenge, Nykmedia:T .

I would so love to take part but know I couldn't do it(not merely because I'm a defeatist and a back-slider:o )

Briefly(hope I don't bore you all to sleep) my situation is like this. There is just DH and I living here in an old and difficult to heat house. He is a total miser and insists we split all running costs 50/50, even though he used to earn a lot more than I did. He has never bought anything for the home(fridges, cookers,washing machines, carpets etc and this has also had to come out of my income). Sorry if I stray from the point:o but it's relevant to my situation challenge-wise. He also has a violent temper and I, being a wimp and terrified of confrontations, have always just bitten the bullet and gone along with it. I know I should have displayed more 'back-bone' but that's the situation.

We've always eaten well (food bought and cooked by me). Nice meals keep him sweet, its a small price to pay in my book. Well, not literally of course:rotfl:.

So to summarise, I pay electricity(no mains gas here but he pays for heating oil,), phone, buy and pay running costs of my car(being very rural here with no public transport this is an absolute necessity) all household shopping etc.

DH knows nothing of my considerable debts(which have just accumulated over many years) and I intend it to stay that way. i truly envy all of you with supportive partners who are in this for the long-haul together. My problem( largely of my own making) is that I have to carry on cutting as much as I can here and there without him being any the wiser. That's a challenge in itself! Sometimes I get so stressed about it but thank my lucky stars that I discovered this website and the wonderfully supportive people on it.

I've worked out that after all my essentials(electricity, phone, car insurance/tax/petrol etc etc) I'll have £28 per week left! This is for food, cleaning materials, household necessities etc. I've cut all bills to the cheapest/best tariffs through the 'switching' sites and cook from scratch using 'own 'brands and 'value' brands whenever I can get away with it. I'm a regular visitor to the OS board for recipes but most of them get the 'thumbs down' from DH as not including enough meat/fish etc:eek:. Lidl has been a godsend. But DH has become used to top-quality roasts and stuff and I can't cut down on some things however hard I try, although I go to Farmer's markets, bulk-buy when offers are on etc.

I could make a stab at doing this challenge if it was for £5000 but £4000 is just impossible.

I know many people manage on a lot less and I truly admire them. But, with things being as they are chez Imp, I just can't do it.

I'll be reading this thread regularly and cheering you all on. Good Luck all:beer:

Sorry to have 'gone on' a bit!
Imp x

Supportive isnt exactly OH's middle name then:rolleyes: No wonder you have large debts - having an OH like that.:eek: Gawd........ wondering why you put up with him:cool: When you mention the "temper" that has left me wondering...

Good luck with your life... whatever you decide to do.

chewits

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

I'll happily watch, just remember - no cheating!! .

I'd really be interested in seeing a 30 day meal plan for a family of 4 (2 parents & 2 teenagers) that consists of 3x meals per day, that are healthy, balanced and nutritious. That contain plenty of fruit, veg & protein (not necessarily meat) and comes in significantly less than £19 per person per week (as you seem to imply £19 per week is a very large amount of money to pay for good quality food).

Note: No chips, no crap cuts of meat (sausages, burgers, I will allow mince provided it's good quality) and all food groups must be represented.

I'll be watching. :cool:

This is what I've been after. I'd placed a previous post in dfw, due to the fact that me and DS are going to be living on £25.00 week for food and other expenses, after billls are paid, due to high fuel bills. I was asking if I was being naive thinking we would manage. This could really help me along with the whole thing!

Jacks_xxx

Hmmm, our household running costs for the year, - not inc mortgage, council tax or water would be £2961 (based on what I'm spending now) leaving £1038.52 for a years worth of food, petrol, haircuts, school trips, house maintenance, car maintenance, car insurance, parking permit, car tax, RAC, clothing, the dentist, pocket money and Birthdays & Christmas.

None of which we have much choice about - with the possible exception of Birthdays & Christmas - and none of which I think we could spend less on than we currently do. (With the possible exception of Birthdays & Christmas.)

How's everyone else planning to manage it?

Apart from this month (when we are doing "luxury entertaining" cos it's Crimbo) I've got the monthly shop down to between £250 and £300 for the four of us plus cat - and come the new year I hope we will continue to reduce this spend but even if I get it below £250 a month that's still going to be another £3000 on top of the £2961 household running costs.

PLUS the £2760 we spend on petrol a year... (I know. I know. Hubby does 600+ miles a week to get to work since his company relocated.)

The "frills" bills such as Sky & t'internet are more or less the cheapest I can get them for without giving them up.

And I've done a price comparison on everything else such as the insurances, and the gas & leccy in the last month or so -so I know I can't do any better.

I guess I'm just not hardcore enough for this one. I'm feeling a bit disappointed in myself.

I think I'd struggle to do this one for £10,000 - let alone for £4000.

Unless I've misunderstood and it's £4000 per person?

Love Jacks xxx

redsquirrel80

chewits wrote: »

This is what I've been after. I'd placed a previous post in dfw, due to the fact that me and DS are going to be living on £25.00 week for food and other expenses, after billls are paid, due to high fuel bills. I was asking if I was being naive thinking we would manage. This could really help me along with the whole thing!

Have you had a look on the Old Style board at the grocery challenge and cheap food ideas? I have a budget of £50-60 on a normal month for myself for food, cleaning products and toiletries, and I think I eat pretty well - I don't eat loads of meat (when I do it tends to be stuff I've picked up reduced and then frozen - I try to get organic/ free range when I can), but I always have at least my five a day fruit & veg - frozen veg is a godsend, and I get my oily fish quota through tinned sardines etc. I don't always have the most exciting meals, especially towards the end of the month, but I do try to pick up a few 'special' bits and pieces such as seasonings and sauces when I've got gift vouchers (a couple of the survey sites do Tesco & Waitrose vouchers) to perk things up. There are a couple of people on the grocery challenge who do it for less per month but I think they are lucky with their local shops!

Good luck to those of you who are doing the challenge - I don't think I spend much more than £4k normally (including holidays etc) but there is only me - for those of you with families I admire you so much for sticking to those budgets! x

Frugaldom

I was just thinking of Imp's situation, too. I think I can understand it, because I know so many people (myself included) who can so easily get caught in the rut of this whole 50:50 situation - modern society suggests we are all equals (ha, ha, ha) and stand on our own 2 feet but nobody explains how it is possible when you take it down to the real basics - men will never have children, nor will they live with a 'non-domesticated' or 'traditional' male stereotype, so how can there be equality? I guess the problem could be the old 'in with the bricks' belief - it's been the same so long that it's easier to accept it and get on with it best you can than to risk traumatic changes, which could end you in a worse situation. Or, as a friend of mine says, 'better the devil you know!" It's amazing how many people, especially in rural areas, live in similar situations. I think it is very brave of Imp to explain her situation on here and I wish her all the very best in achieving whatever goal she may set herself. I'm sure she'll be supported here whichever route she chooses

CRANKY40

Well I'm on my own a lot because of dh's job, which cuts down my grocery bills. He pays the mortgage and council tax but that's not included anyway, I pay gas/electric/tv licence/car insurance/phone etc and I also save every month for presents, so I'm not exactly getting off lightly.

I know I have more clothes than I need, so the plan is not to buy any more for ages. I DO NOT need any. My ds is small and grows quite slowly (neither me or dh is tall) so he is fairly easy to clothe. I only buy him cheap clothes anyway as I believe children should be able to have fun without mum having a fit at the state of their clothes afterwards. I've never actually had to chuck anything out before he grew out of it either.

The other bonus of ds being diddy is all the hand-me-downs we get from his bigger, faster growing friends.

The other thing Jacks, is that unless I've misunderstood, work related essential expenses are not included, so your dh's fuel would not be included, but any you put in for a day out would be say? You don't have to do it for £4k either. If you think you could only do it in £10k, maybe try to do it in £9k? That would still be a challenge for you....

Bluesteel705

Count me in, if I stick to it I can be debt free by next Christmas! :j

FrankieM

Like you , Jacks, I'm wondering how it can be done...we are a family of 6 and our household bills mean I worked out we'd have £76 a month for food, petrol, clothes, car maintence etc...everything except bills, in other words.
I have no idea whether it could be done but I find the idea very interesting...
I don't get back to the UK till the end of Jan, so I would have £4000 for 11 months, which would give me an extra £30...so perhaps...
* If I could get my electricity bill down, tht would help.

* Try not to drive so much, though we live in a village, so that could be interesting.

* I'm already planning on paying for all birthday and Christmas presents with vouchers I get for free

* There must be something somewhere about 'free food'. I've always wanted to give that a go.

* After a month and a half in Oz without a tv, we are planning to get rid of ours when we get back to the UK, so thats a bit of a saving.

I'm starting to sound like I'm talking myself into it...mentioned it to DH, that I was reading the thread and he flipped. Didn't see how it could be done, it wasn't possible, you spend more than that on food per month( little does he know!!)...blah...blah...blah....
Of course, now I feel like giving it a go to prove him wrong!!