2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

JAMIEDODGER

so far in my first week i have spent £98 out of a budget of £131.

this includes a direct debit, lunch out with the girls and £20 at the fruit and veg shop.

i havent really needed to buy much food as have loads in. will be making up a large pot of soup today for lunches for the next few days and some for the freezer, using leftover veggies.

sweetpea03

good morning everyone :hello:

& Rafiki your post made me smile! hope you enjoy your meal

I am very interested in the soapnuts too after seeing Lillibet on tv last night but am going to await the trial results before buying Hope that they are good as it will save us all a fortune in washing powder

Jamie, thank you, you have just reminded me that I have some sweet potatoes lurking at the back of the fridge which I could make into soup so I'm going to look for a recipe & make it sometime today, hopefully there will be enough to freeze some too

debrag

I have £6.94 left of my £300 budget this month. Does include the £100 to my mum & £150 bank charges cominging out 21st so I've done will.

Doing a spending diary really does show me were I'm wasting my money.

Rowan9

redglass wrote: »

I'm totally addicted to this thread! And even though I'm not in the challenge I'm so inspired that I'm following lots of the advice and my spending has halved. :T
A few people have mentioned pets and vets. I remember my old dogs cost me a fortune - the drugs they needed for their various ailments were so expensive. It wasn't until both dogs were dead (of old age - I didn't bump them off to save money!) that I read you can ask your vet for a prescription instead of buying the drugs at the surgery - you then take the prescription to the chemist's just like you would take a doctor's prescription and it's often a lot cheaper. The vets won't like it but apparently they have to give you a prescription if you ask for one. Has anybody actually done this?
Keep up the good work!

I'm also a 'reader' of this challenge rather than a 'doer'. Great tips from people. I really admire those doing it and i'm learning a lot from you.

Re prescriptions at vet - I'm such a wuss as I'd like to but feel a bit squirmy. My older dog gets flexadin which costs nearly £50 at vet . I have been reading about the 'human' alternatives on the pets bit of MSE but dogpages site has had a recent debate about them not being compatible for dogs. Anyway, my vet is doing buy 5 get 1 free of flexadin and I've bought 4 so far.
After that I'm going to bite the bullet and ask for the prescription. It'll be my feel the fear and do it anyway thing for the day

Good luck all on this challenge - I',m off to read more of your inspirational posts
W

Burlesque_Babe

£4.34 today for me.

I tried the soapnuts about 18 months ago. I wasn't massively impressed (I really wanted to be!!) and after a few weeks of using, my clothes had a funny 'smell' when they came out of the machine. I used the bag up, but I wouldn't buy them again. They weren't the miracle product they were touted to be and stuff like white towels definitely didn't come out particularly clean. I definitely wouldn't recommend them to people with children (grass marks, food spills etc)

I think there are quite a few people selling them now as they are quite popular.

Carlsberg

Wednedsay was a NSD, wohoo. Had left over lasagne for tea which mum gave me as she wont eat it two days on trot. Was yum. Will make DH bubble and squeak tonight, then soup Friday. On Sat Ive got to clean the car to get it ready to take round to swap, but if I get time, im hoping to try my hand at making bread. Did I see someone say Lidl was really cheap for flour? Is it any good? I suppose flour is flour eh! Have a £25 John Lewis Voucher to spend this dinner, so im going to buy some glasses and whetever else I can afford. WILL not go over £25. Spent £80 last night on a new fireplace. Our friend reclaims alot of stuff and hes got us a victoria cast iron fire (new to us, but old) just need to get some tiles for the sides but hes taking us t his reclainer man on Sat, so we should get a good deal. The fire is prob worth best part of £250 of anyones money, so we are lucky. We have an open fire and the larger grate will make it more economical. Cant wait. The current frontroom fire is going in the bathroom when we get it done.

Sorry, I do go one eh! DH is doing really bad today, with his back. Makes life so hard, hes low, which makes me low, and it makes me want to cheer him up, take him out for a meal etc. We have agreed that we will not have a takeaway this Sat, so im making fajitas and home made wraps and guacamole and salsa mmmmmmm.

Will update on my baking at weekend.

Have a good Thurs.

Carlsberg x

Ellidee

Carlsberg I don't know about Lidl for flour but apparently Aldi is good. Not tried it yet myself but it is recommended on the Panasonic thread from last month - some of us got one for £40 from Amazon. HTH

moanymoany

I use Tesco value powder and it works very well and it's cheap. I am interested in the posts where people don't cook from scratch. It must cost a fortune. The only prepared thing I buy is value frozen oven chips. This is an example of my menus for January.

January 2008 menu plan


9) Mock Goose

10) Frozen Quiche home made a week ago.

11) Frittata

12) Pizza – frozen base made the base

13) Workman’s Goose – breast of lamb

14) Frozen Quiche home made

15) Dhal Curry and bulgar wheat

16) Homity Pie – frozen pastry home made in a batch

17) Frittata

18) Bacon and Pasta Bake

19) Quiche – frozen pastry

20) Toad in the Hole

I did 2 month shopping for basics which was delivered yesterday. It cost £97.35. I will do top up shops for milk, eggs and fruit. This will cost about £50 a month. This is for 2 of us and we eat very well.

slowlyfading

I had a DD for my mobile phone bill this morning, so that's another thing to add to the total spent so far. Am hoping to just buy some milk today and nothing else hope everyone's having a good day!
moanymoany, that meal plan looks delicious!

Frugaldom

Morning all, just got online, postman hasn't arrived yet, made chicken stock in the slow cooker overnight and it's now on for chicken, rice & veg soup. I stick the washing maching on overnight, so have that lot hung up on the airer and I still haven't got around to making anything to sell in my monthly 'catch-up'.

On the bread flour discussion, I have used the Lidl's and Aldi's flour. In fact, I don't usually bother what kind of flour it is, so long as it's the cheapest, and the bread never tastes any different to me - it still gets scoffed!

I've just popped into the Boots online sales and :eek: :eek: :eek: I need to start Christmas shopping RIGHT NOW! Have you SEEN the reductions on the toys? Arg! Trust me to decide to play at being a (credit card) tart this month! I want my 0% intro interest with 5% cash back card NOW!!!!!! Then I can go via greasypalm and get another 1.75% (total 6.75%) back on purchases that already have up to 75% off! :T Must go see when the sale ends and HOPE I get the new card soon. I know they've done the ID and credit checks because I checked using my free 30 day trial credit report :rotfl: