2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

debrag

Next month all I'll be spending is money on food (main shop + a little each month if needed), & travel. I WILL be under my budget lol

catznine

:hello: Hello fellow challengers!

I am seriously doubting that I will succeed with this challenge as we have some large dd's that will hit at the end of the month (gas, elec and mobile) but it is not going to get me down, I will not have failed, far from it as it is making me think about where all the money goes and I am trying to reduce costs so it can only be good - a great big learning curve!

This morning we went to Sainsburys in order to use up a £4 off a £20 shop that runs out today. So a £24.33 food, pet and cleaning materials shop was reduced to £20.33 :j very pleased with that. In our trolley:-

1 free range chicken - I've been watching Hugh and Jamie so I suspect have others as the free range shelves were almost empty! It will become "rubber chicken" and make a roast dinner, stock, soup and a chicken pie if I am lucky. Free range seems to go further than the cheap ones and tastes better.

4 boxes orange juice (1 months supply)

4 pints organic semi skim milk (1/2 for now and 1/2 into freezer for end of week)

1 box soya milk (to combat hot flushes:o )

2 tins chopped tomatoes

2 pkts half price birds eye fish fingers - 24 (comfort food!:drool: )

Frozen peas

2.5kg baking potatoes (this was cheaper than buying the baking potatoes loose!)

2 packets soya mince (will last us 2 months)

1.5 kg porridge oats (living on porridge or hm muesli for breakfasts)

4 large carrots (for beetroot(last weeks veg box)and carrot and orange salad)

kitchen towel

washing detergent (should be the last if the soap nuts work)

conditioner (will eke it out and start to use vinegar instead)

Cat food

3 large chew bones for puppy (will keep her off the furniture for a while:D )


Also bought a tool kit reduced to £7.49 for a present and a doormat and some scissors £4.98 from the esssential household budget.

After £30 comes out for Costco essentials shop (every 4 months) and 3 more veg box orders I will have £21.21 left for milk etc.,

I'm going to introduce jacket potato night once a week using up whatever is leftover (this week is bolognaise, next week will be chilli- don't forget to plan some leftovers) and hm soup night - I make cream of veg soup using about 1lb veg (potato, carrots, onions, parsnips etc) cooked until soft in about 1 1/2 pints stock then blitzed in processor, back into pan with a knob of butter and some milk, heat through, season and serve. Sometimes I add some cooked chicken if I have it in and heat thoroughly with the soup.

Aril - I too use Queenies idea and have a pamper basket full of free samples collected over the year, really does help on those down days.

Instead of hiring dvd's I have a collection of 50p videos to watch gleaned from the library sales and car boot sales. Don't have to worry about getting them back on time either!
Our market sell 3 magazines for £1.50 - only slightly out of date but often have free gifts attached. A couple of months ago they were selling the Midsommer Murder dvds and magazines for £1 each so I have 4 of those as well.

I am so impressed with the way everyone is coping, I am learning and getting loads of ideas :T and intend to re negotiate my contract mobile as soon as possible. Off to check out greasy palm now!

Catz x

Mollymop5

hopeless_spendthrift wrote: »

Good Morning Bails So sorry you're not feeling on top of things this morning. :grouphug: Thanks for the Mushroom Soup recipe - will defo try it next time i have the ingredients in - sounds absolutely deee-lish
Hope you're day turns out like me....much improved with age!
Love Thifty x x x

Thrifty do you mind me asking where you are.It just seems strange to read you saying goodmorning when it's getting dark whereI am lol

Mollymop5

oops better go get ready.I'm going out for a meal in a mo.Going with parents who like to eat early. and it will cost me nothing catch you all later

sweetpea03

thrifty you are an angel :A thank you so much for your post, it has made my day, I am overwhelmed at your kind words & your recipe looks pretty good too! I absolutely love mushrooms so the more mushroom recipes the better! I went through 1/2 the thread last night & saved everyones recipes to a folder so that they're easier to find so I'll add yours to it (If anyone needs a recipe & can't find it just let me know & I will look in my folder for you ) Still have the other 1/2 to go through yet though! :eek: I hope you enjoy the sweet potato soup & you'll be pleased to know it is garnishless (did I just make that word up!?) too

Catz thats a great shopping list, well done on your bargains too & I love your ideas about the videos & magazines, I'm going to check out the local charity shops for similar I think

Bye Mollymop & enjoy your meal :j

hopeless_spendthrift

Janeryan wrote: »

Hi all

Just wanted to say that although I am doing the challenge I am loving this thread and am really appeciating all the hints and tips- you are all doing amazingly well!

Thank you Janeryan
I, too, am soooo grateful to everyone on here for all the invaluable tips and advice - amazing!

Burlesque_Babe

i'm out of washing powder until I go to the supermarket, so I popped the throw off the back seat of my car (complete with very muddy dog paw prints!) in the machine with a squirt of Stardrops - nice and clean now and the dog doesn't care what it was washed in!!!

I have to say though.......only use a really little bit.......my machine got really full of soap suds!!!

hopeless_spendthrift

Have FINALLY trawled through all your enthusiastic, inspiring, tip-filled posts! Thank u all so, so much :beer:

Welcome to Jammiejen, Jay1 and Yoshimi. :T

Congratulations on your new jobs Rafiki and Lexxi :dance:

Catznine - Thanks a zillion for all the very useful tips in your last post! Jacket Potato Nite will become a date in my house as well from now on :A

:rotfl: Lol Mollymop - sorry if i confused you - seem to have lost all sense of time and space! That, and the fact that I was simply replying to folks who had posted greetings in the morning - didn't realise it was so late in the day! Hope u have a fine meal - Bon appetite x x x

hopeless_spendthrift

keren29 wrote: »

i'm out of washing powder until I go to the supermarket, so I popped the throw off the back seat of my car (complete with very muddy dog paw prints!) in the machine with a squirt of Stardrops - nice and clean now and the dog doesn't care what it was washed in!!!

I have to say though.......only use a really little bit.......my machine got really full of soap suds!!!

:rotfl: Good one Keren! And thanks for reminding me to get some of these Stardrops - really wanna try them.
Do u wash the dog in them also?

affordmylife

Hi all!!!

Ill read through all your lovely posts later on tonight when ive done tea etc but just wanted to update my signature whilst i have all the receipts to hand.

Next week i seriously want to have less receipts to be adding up.

I was doing really really well until today and then they let me out of the house/work and i went to some shops - fatal. If i am in a shop i have to spend - its uncontrollable.

Anyway i was excellent in Asda - i spent £58.48 on food for the week plus i am doing a dinner party tomorrow night and i got everything for that too. For me this is a massive saving as i would normally have spend £50 on the dinner party and then our weekly shop of around £80 - £100. I am really pleased with that.

Then I went to the high street and thats were it all went a bit wrong. I did only buy cheap/reduced bits and pieces for birthday presents through the year and a couple of reduced bits to wear for work. Oh and a lovely bread making book for a £5 (reduced from £15). but it all adds up and i spent another £42.07. Again a vast improvement on usual but will do better next week and not go to town on Saturday ( i only went in for a mystery shop £10) but spent over £40. something wrong there i think!!!!!!!

Also i bought a scarf from ebay and my savings came out of account this week so £55. there too. Oh this is dire.
Anyway hope you are all ok and doing well. Now off to do sig and will read up later.