2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

mini_huny_money

am feeling kinda nervous about this ....but excited too, Mortgage and Council tax, but I'll have to include car and petrol for work its a necessity. Id have to get up in the middle of the night, 2 buses and a walk each way. Id be too knackered to work....

Frugaldom

I still think it's a great challenge because nowhere does it discount any competition winnings. Feel free to comp away to your heart's content and use vouchers, points or any other form of payment other than cash from your budget. (Err... keep it legal, though!! LOL)

I've never had any luck with comps, but then I have never taken much time to try them. All I know is that I have everything to pay except rent & council tax and I will be so upset if I fail to meet my budget. The worldwide wheat prices worry me most, at the moment, because it has a domino effect on so many other products. My bread bill has already doubled over the past few months and most of the dairy products will follow suit if farmers use wheat based feedstuffs & straw for livestock. Will it bump up the price of meat & poultry? And what about pasta?

Perhaps I should ask for a case of pasta shells and spaghetti for Christmas LOL

whitewing

Sorry nykmedia, I'm upping my target to £5300 as per the following (very-longwinded so feel free to skip it)

Live on £5300 for 2008

Why are we (whitewing & family) doing this?

• By going without, to be able to appreciate more fully the items we do have/buy
• Having lived with family for a few years until recently, to spend time enjoying our own space
• To hopefully be able to overpay our mortgage

What is not included (but we do pay for)

• Standard monthly mortgage payments as per original challenge post
• Council tax as per original challenge post
• Water as per original challenge post
• School fees paid out of existing savings
• School dinners paid out of existing savings
• Fuel car used for work/school run

What is not included (because we’ve chosen to go without during 2008)

• Sky no time to watch it!
• Engagement/wedding one-off cost needs careful planning
• Charitable donations only giving what costs us nothing/clearouts for charity shops
• Car breakdown cover provided by brother for secretarial work
• Car maintenance/labour costs provided by brother for secretarial work
• Clothes whitewing/OH use existing/part of bday/Xmas presents
• Going out appreciate own space after living with family!
• Holiday more important to overpay mortgage
• Life assurance/mortgage protection personal reasons
• Wrapping paper/decorations over purchased in sales last year
• Health (e.g. dentist, optician) will review my HAS plan at some other point
• OH & whitewing hobbies use what we’ve got for photography/craft
• OH & littlewing tuition use existing savings

Target spend per month

• £5300/ 12 months £441.67

What is included Per month (rounded up)

• Electricity £20
• Gas £20
• Food (+ cleaning/washing stuff) £150
• TV Licence £12
• Buildings insurance £12
• Contents insurance £13 (*unconfirmed)
• Mobile £25
• Broadband/landline £25
• Magazine subscriptions + weekend newspapers £5
• National Trust subscription £7
• Bday presents whitewing . £6.25
• Bday presents OH £6.25
• Bday presents littlewing £6.25
• Bday presents extended family £8.75
• Bdays for schoolfriends + school extras £11.67
• Xmas presents whitewing £6.25
• Xmas presents OH £6.25
• Xmas presents littlewing £6.25
• Xmas presents extended family £8.75
• Clothes for littlewing £10
• Car MOT £5
• Car parts £20
• Car insurance £30
• Car tax £15
• Things I haven’t thought of £6

Obstacles

• Lack of understanding: I still don’t get how to use the mortgage overpayment calculators, or even how to know if it’s the right one for me, so can’t use one of them to keep motivating me.
• Find it hard to budget for littlewing as I like to take advantage of opportunities that come up for him. He’s not spoilt at all but, for various reasons, I am giving him opportunities that I never had.
• OH: generally very supportive but does tend to spring stuff on me wistfully so I feel bad saying no and resentful that I have to be the one driving it all. But I love him dearly and wouldn’t be without him.
• School extras. Less of a problem at private school than it was at state school. How much do you budget for things you know nothing about (mufti days, plays etc)? I just multiplied the number of children in his class by £10 to arrive at that figure and then assumed whoever’s parties he didn’t go to would be eaten up
• Insufficient time at the right times to be able to make home-made foody presents.
• Learning to batch-cook is going to be a slow process.
• Need more ideas on birthday presents for school mates as tend to buy last minute from local giftshop. Don’t know good generic gifts I can have a stock of so don’t waste money.

Comments

• Presents for extended family work out at £15 per person per occasion. Value of presents will be bumped up by tesco/nectar points (though I can’t quite bring myself to womble), BOGOFs, home-made elements, and hopefully, competition prizes. Have listed basket ideas so can start gathering in the sales.
• Gifts to us can be recycled but only if really appropriate
• Presents for me, OH and littlewing set at £75 each per bday and per Xmas. I know this is a lot but we love to have lots of little presents. Mostly will be treats that we have denied ourselves through the year, or nicer-than-we-would-buy-ourselves versions of necessities.
• Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day will be foodie presents incorporated into food budget(!) or Xmas chocolates stashed away for the occasion.
• Special Occasions including birthdays are normally shared with extended family at theirs which cuts down costs.
• Food will be mainly vegetarian. Littlewing will have hot dinner at school as per existing arrangement. Will try to use War Rations book as a basis for home-meals to keep healthy.
• Landline/internet and mobile used for business as well as home; have already dropped cost of each to less than a third of what they were so not a priority to drop further at present. Estimates for their costs somewhat exaggerated to be on the safe side.

This is meant to be a work in progress so will expect to be wildly out on some of these estimates, and learning as I go along. I used to spend £100 a week in Tescos until a few months ago so I am pretty impressed to have come this far.

azjh77

This is something I would love to try - for us it is not a case of trying to live on 4k - we actually don't have a lot more than that after debt payments/mortgage, so we wouldn't be saving the extra - I just want to borrow everyones money saving tips!
I would need to 'tweak' the rules slightly as I am paying 400 a month towards debts and couldn't reduce this.

So is this sort of thing alright:?-

Per Month:-


Electric 36.00
Gas 10.00
Housekeeping 85.00
TV licence 12.00
Insurance (House) 39.00
Phone/Internet 45.00
Car insurance 39.00
Car fund (tax/MOT) 77.50
Xmas/B'days 33.33
subs* 6.67

* this is for Brownies and the O/H's game which isn't essential but keeps them happy - they don't ask for much!


This comes to 354.50 a month or 88.63 a week which is actually 4608.76 per year

BUT:
a) there are 6 of us (including 2 in nappies!)
b) these are our actual outgoings (not including our 365 mortgage/400 debt repayments/150 council tax and water rates) and we HAVE to stick to this budget.

We don't normally include things like Xmas/B'days on a budget because we use any money we get for these occasions to buy things for the kids. I'm hoping being part of a group will motivate me and keep me on target (if you let me join as I am a bit over the 4000!)
And good luck to everyone trying this....

hypno06

Morning fellow challengees and Dithering Dad DD, you are welcome to come and visit to see how this family of 4 manages! I have to say, though, that the challenge for us is not through choice as such, but out of necessity in order that we can maintain our minimum payments and not get into any additional debt.

I suppose for some of us, therefore, it is a case of Needs Must! I can confirm though, that eating well for the family to include non processed foods, and getting a balanced diet (essential with the amount of sport my two do) is manageable on a low budget.........just takes a little thought, and a bit of help from the OS board

I am hoping for a NSD today, although I do need one present for my lodger to take home to Norway. Hopefully I can find something suitable in the present cupboard, otherwise I will go to Waitrose and use a pigsback voucher to get something "English foodie" like chocolates

Prudent

nykmedia wrote: »

I still think it's a great challenge because nowhere does it discount any competition winnings. I've never had any luck with comps, but then I have never taken much time to try them. Comping success is mainly about persistance and to comping can be time consuming. For me its realxation from a stresful job and single parenthood. The worldwide wheat prices worry me most. I agree, this plus energy prices was my worry.
Perhaps I should ask for a case of pasta shells and spaghetti for Christmas LOL

Soooo looking forward to this challenge :D I have a very busy week at work this week and then am going away for Christmas. I will post as I can just now and thn in more detail after Christmas. Many thanks to everyone who is doing this :T

FunBrum

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi Funbrum and welcome to the MSE forums.
If you look to the top of this page there should be a row of words beginning Main Site, Forum, User CP etc. You just click on the User CP and then look down the left hand side to see where it says Edit Signature. Click that and it will open a box that lets you type in your details. Save it as soon as you finish typing it and then it automatically adds in underneath your posts.

I have also added your name to the list of those attempting this challenge in 2008. Well done for finding your way here and getting into the spirit of frugality :T

Cheers nyk....thanks for helping me out.:beer: I'll do that now. This is soooo exciting.:j We are going to have such a good time on this challenge!

Prudent

Dithering Dad I think it is do-able . I became a single parent 5 and a half years ago. Desperate to keep a roof over our heads I took on a flexible mortgage on insecure work (no doubt today it would be called sub-prime and a risk). For two years I lived well below the benefit level whilst securing a permenent teaching job. I paid off all but £100 of a £28.5K mortgage (redemption penalty stopped me paying off the rest). Between comping and extra work I have now saved £90,000. I earn £31,000 (plus eventually csa have got me money from ex), so you can see see that I have had to spend very little to achieve this amount. I have relied heavily on coupons, car boot slaes, charity shops and the wealth of good advice on this site.

I didn't want my lovely dd to loose out so I began to look for ways of living well for little outlay. Only recently have I let the monthly spend creep up to £850. Now I have a savings target for another house. I have a long commute to new job and love this one too much to sell, so want to rent it out. I am therefore pulling in my belt again to put down as much as I can on house two. I have also developed a love of simplicity, so perhaps my own focus has changed since the early days too.

FunBrum

87p wrote: »

I havn't posted before, but after mortgage/CT and other essentials I have £400/month for food/clothes/mobile phone/outings and other fun stuff. If I make it £400/month for 10 months instead of 12 I can put another £800 towards my mortgage and credit card debt and live off £4000. I'm also going to join the pay off £20K challenge. So if you'll still have me.. I'm in!

87

Welcome 87p:T

We must be twins....87p is all I usually have to my name!!:rotfl:

FunBrum

nyk_media wrote: »

I have added my comments in RED



Oh ye of little faith, watch this space

I happen to like dead hedgehog!:rotfl:

Please don't rain on our parade. I have been living on less than this for years, with a growing teenager in tow. You would be surprised what you have to do just to stay afloat. Not everyone has the luxury to be on a fab wage.

I work for Social Services, with vulnerable adults. Money is pants but the satisfaction is priceless.:A

Thanks for your in-put DD, but stay cool:cool: