2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

jammiejen

Hi guys and gals

I know i'm a bit late starting but I think I should be able to do this, can I please have a number?
Just working out my budgets and if i can spend less than £30 a week on food/petrol/everything else I *should* be ok!
Good luck to everyone!

Edit: Sorry more like £20, can't add up! I'm going to go for the £4000 as well

whitewing

jammiejen, welcome. nyk will be along later to give you a challenge number.

I went to Boots on Mon and picked up a girlie gift set for £7.50 (was £15). Have just pulled out my receipt to see that they have included a £5 off facial skincare voucher valid until 28th Jan. Wow. Just going to check if there's anything worth having. I shall put it in my sister's pamper hamper to make her feel worried about the effects of growing old, lol!

sweetpea03

Hi Carlsberg, the Boots sale starts in the shops next week so if you can get there you might still be able to grab your bargains
There are some hawiian fancy dress costumes (no plastic fruit though!) on the Jokers Masquerade site & if you go through Quidco you can get 10% cashback I had to go to a fancy dress party before xmas & used this company, they were very quick at sending the items
http://www.joke.co.uk/prodpage.asp?type=search&searchwhat=hawiian

whitewing wrote: »

Sweetpea, I think you are an absolute sweetheart for planning such a lovely surprise. OH and DS know about mine, but haven't told anyone else. They all think I'm mad anyway. Sometimes send off for freebies/comps for them too if I don't want it and all sorts of stuff comes thro their door but I forget to warn them! Entered my dad for a comp to win some stair rods - you should have seen his face when I told him! Picturesque!

Thanks whitewing, you're really kind I would love to see your dads face if he actually won the stair rods! :rotfl: I bet your family love you winning prizes for them & wondering whats coming through the letterbox next :cool:
I had the teeniest bag of free jellybeans through the door this morning! from the freebies board, I think I'm going to save them to decorate some iced fairy cakes
I also found 12 cherries (& yes I was sad enough to count them ) in the fridge so chopped them up & put them in some muffins

Hi jammiejen & welcome to the challenge, good luck!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there Penny2myname

You CAN freeze yeast.. i do it all the time -in fact i have just got some today that has gone straight into the freezer
break it into the size chunk you use for a loaf and then wrap in film and freeze -when you take it out of the freezer its best to unwrap and drop into the jug or whatever as sometimes it goes runny as it defrosts -but it still works fine

whitewing

Rafiki wrote: »

(((((whitewing))))) <--- I just felt like it today. I've sure got more than enough of the smiles to go 'round xx

lol, I'll be able to turn the heating down even more if I keep getting hugs off challengees.

Do you know, even if I go over budget this year, at least I am going over budget on things that are important to me. Plans will change thro the year and opportunities that I hadn't ever thought would come my way (she says hopefully) but I will be able to take more advantage of them.

DS kindly said yesteerday that they're running his football training again this term but it's quite okay if we can't afford it. ...

Pause

...But it is only £3.75 for an hour and a half and you really wouldn't get decent childcare at that price,now would you?

(Don't worry, future wife of DS, I will train him up before he leaves home).

That reminds me, he wishes to buy his (on-off) girlfriend a necklace worth £10 for her bday in a couple of weeks. She'll be 11 and is a pretty, slim and sporty girl (I'm thinmking silver). Any tips from anyone?

Rafiki_2

whitewing wrote: »

That reminds me, he wishes to buy his (on-off) girlfriend a necklace worth £10 for her bday in a couple of weeks. She'll be 11 and is a pretty, slim and sporty girl (I'm thinmking silver). Any tips from anyone?

Any friends that make jewelry? ...
(silver chain & clasps can be sourced quite cheaply from a good bead shop - although *hands up* I am not sure of exact prices ...)

bails

Hi all, some lovely posts on here, making me smile despite the rain! Rafiki, I love your take on life, your posts just fill me with energy so thankyou! And congratulations on your job :T It also means you'll have less time to spend, so a double whammy!
Liloandstitch, what a fantastic idea about using the self-checkouts! :T:j I asked in S if I could use vouchers even if I wasn't buying the item and got a very snooty No back, but this might work instead! As soon as I get one I'll give it a go so thankyou!!
Some lovely soups on the go - here's a mushroom one I make which I love:

1lb mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
2oz butter
1pt stock
1pt milk
2oz chopped walnuts
black pepper

Chop mushrooms. Fry onions in butter til soft. Add mushroos and cook for 2 mins. Add milk and stock, walnuts and pepper. Bring to boil then simmer for 30 mins. Liquidise.

You can add cream (or yoghurt) at the end to serve but I never bother. My mum uses mushroom stock cubes (quite hard to find round here) but I'm sure it's lovely with any stock. I made a big batch of this with the reduced Basics mushrooms I got last week and it's yummy and filling!

I bought some yeast today with 20p off so I'm going to have a go at making my own bread over the weekend. Got a breadmaker from Freecycle last year but not used it yet. Will check out the breadmaking thread, any tips for a first-timer? Can you get wholemeal flour in Lidl too? And does anyone make wheat-free bread?
For the fancy dress costume, try Freecycle first - you never know, we have some weird and wonderful requests/offers on ours (I'm a mod).

Have a wonderful day everyone and I hope you save some money! Oh yeah, forgot to say, some cheap vouchers for my gym came through yesterday (I only have day membership so can now go in the evening :T), also cat food vouchers and I picked up a sun lounger (not the best timing ) as a pressie for my OH and I'm getting a colour printer for my mum too (from Freecycle - and no I don't get extra favours being a mod, there's just some great stuff out there!). My car is dead so I have to get a new one but OH has just bought one for £250 to tide us over so I'm hoping to save at least part of what I need by the summer. Also, he's finally becoming a MSE!! :j Car insurance is £145 minus £30 cashback plus £45 Quidco so £70 for the year; he's dead chuffed and so am I! He's also been selling some of his stuff so for the first time in his life he has some savings - over 2k now :jto help him set up his business. My parents are always saying that I sort my blokes out and then they go off with someone else :rolleyes: but I'm holding on to this one! LOL about training your son up for his future wife Whitewing :rotfl:
Sorry about sudden splurge of info, got a little overexcited there! I LOVE THIS CHALLENGE!

Miss_Pink_3

liloandstitch wrote: »

Be careful, not all councils are the same. My months off are March and April!!!!!!!!!! (Swale BC)
Check first

Thanks. Will double check when mine is then.

sweetpea03

Hiya Bails thats such a good idea to ask for fancy dress costumes on freecycle :T I never would of thought of that, I'm kicking myself now!
Your mushroom soup sounds fab, I think I'm going to start to make a note of the post numbers that everyones lovely recipes are on in the back of my spending diary as there are loads I want to try but as the thread gets longer its getting harder to find them!
Our Lidls don't sell wholemeal flour of any kind unfortunately Not sure if this is the case for all their shops? Have never made wheat free bread you could try asking on old style?
It sounds like you are doing brilliantly & your oh too! :T

debrag

bails wrote: »

Hi all, some lovely posts on here, making me smile despite the rain! Rafiki, I love your take on life, your posts just fill me with energy so thankyou! And congratulations on your job :T It also means you'll have less time to spend, so a double whammy!
Liloandstitch, what a fantastic idea about using the self-checkouts! :T:j I asked in S if I could use vouchers even if I wasn't buying the item and got a very snooty No back, but this might work instead! As soon as I get one I'll give it a go so thankyou!!

ah (after reading lioandstich post) so instead of the 1 voucher per item thing u used all on one item so didn't have to spend anything. At first I thought you meant you wanted to use them & not actually get anything :rotfl: