2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

NEgirl

congrats on reaching the fortnight nsd keren!! :T :T

I am loving these challenges as its made such a difference in my outlook completely. Today i was going to pop into town to see if the boots sale was on - instead i sorted out everything i still have left over from last years sale (yes i overspent BIG TIME last year!!) and still have enough to see me through all the birthdays etc this year!! :eek: No visit to town for me to buy things i dont need just because they are 'bargains' - i will pop to tesco later but i have a list ready and wont look at anything else because im now on a mission to save not spend! :T :T

sweetpea03

Hello Wow loads of posts yesterday, thanks to you all for the continuing support & motivational words & well done to everyone

Hi to Janey51 :hello:, wishing you the very best of luck & so pleased you've joined us :j

Nyk, just how cute is that lovely donkey :happyhear

And a quick word to Bails, just how gorgeous is your soup!!! We all loved it, its fab & I am making a 2nd pot at the moment Thank you

I am definately having a no spend day today so I think its safe to post my totals for week 2

Bills - £16.00
Presents S/A transferred £10
El/Gas - £23.00
Food - £38.46
Clothes - 50p
Other - 50p (charity shop book)

Making a grand total of £88.46 :j

My new weekly total last week was £94.60, Balance remaining £4736.46, new weekly amount £94.72 :j

I had 5 no spend days & on Saturday spent just 19p + my nectar points
I am very pleased with how this week has gone, we have had hm meals every day & I've been freezing absolutely everything I can including leftover gravy (from the saucepan I must add, not the plates! :rotfl: ) We are still well stocked up with food & I am spending 1/2 the amount I used to

This week I want to do a full inventory of my freezer contents as I'm sure there must be enough for about 3 weeks meals but I have lost track. I also am going to sort through my seed box & remember to do my clicks & check the freebies board regularly. I am also going to keep away from Boots as there is nothing I NEED! I have started to plan my baking day on Wednesday & will be making Thriftys curried chickpeas & Lexxis choc bread & butter pudding, can't wait! I have to pick up a few bits I need for these recipes tomorrow but not much.

So hope you all had a successful week & thank you all for being here, I really love this challenge & this thread, its brilliant!

the_cat

Hi everyone, time for a weekly update I think.

Well, I can't quite believe how much this challenge is making me question my spending! And not just on the items included in the challenge. Really hoping I can stick to this as this year I should be able to pay off the mortgage if I am sensible, and hopefully have a bit in reserve for savings by Dec. That for me is a huge motivation as OH was nearly made redundant a couple of years ago and I have never quite been able to trust the flow of income since...the peace of mind would be incredible!

So Nyk, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease stop all this talk of horses, I've only just managed to cure an obsession with that particularly lovable drain on recources and I'm starting to waver..............!

debrag

Re-worked my budget today. As my bank charges took me over, my new budget for Jan is £350, Dec £300 and the rest as close to £200 as possible (£50 to mum, £50 for food, £55 for skating – term time only) it’s do able as I usually waste loads of money on food & drink.

halia

okay here's where I've got to:

I'm going for £5k as thats a big enough drop for us to cope with!

so thats £416 a month

that has to cover;
food
entertainment
clothes (not OH work clothes)
gen spending

Anything I save from other areas, ie getting insurance cheaper can go into this budget.

So far;
groceries £167
entertainment £40
Gym membership £25
self (cups of tea and a new wallet) £20
belated Xmas presents £25
OH spending £100!!! (ouch)
new gloves/hat for DS £8

total £385
total remaining for jan £31!!!
Hmm, I'd like to ignore the Xmas presents but reaslistically we get birthdays etc most months so I reckon I need to budget at least £25 a month for presents (average, thats £300 a year to cover 9 family bdays).

I'm not sure I can cut down on entertainment spending, alot of it is on trips out with DS. I'll need an alternative way to amuse DS.
lets see, 8 playgroups a month = £8
2 trips to softplay = £10
2 trip to museums a month+cuppa for adults =£5
1 trip swimming a month =£4
1 lunch out a week after shopping =£25

still comes to £40-£45. then we've the DVD rental (instead of a TV licence) at £12/month and one drink out a month for us adults (£10 - free babysitting)

okay, that means I need to cancel my gym membership and inform OH he has to cut down on his spending which is likely to go as well as a !!!! up in a convent. He tends to spend about £200 a month and he's very unlikely to agree to cut that down.

Any tips for convincing your partner its a good idea to spend less?

debrag

how do you have a DVD rental instead of a TV licence you still have a TV or do you mean just not in this budget?

bails

Hi everyone and welcome to Week 3! (well for me, I think most peeps start tomorrow).
Yes, it is entirely possible to get addicted to a thread! *looks at self in mirror* But so much better than many things you can be addicted to; this is probably the only one that saves you money!! :T
One thing I absolutely love about this thread is that there are people on here who post so regularly, I didn't even realise they weren't doing the challenge! Now how's that for some serious moral support?! I LOVE IT!
Everyone is doing so fantastically well and I can't help but be motivated when I read the posts. I come away thinking 'right, I'm going to have a NSD today if it kills me!'
Sweetpea, I'm so glad you liked the soup, we love it too! When my mum first made it I thought, this is lovely but must be stuffed full of fat (I'm trying to lose weight) but it's not and still has loads of flavour; how great is that! It's my fave soup at the mo, can't get enough of it! I'm looking forward to trying some other recipes from here too. Which reminds me - my mum brought us round some reduced asparagus yesterday, bless her, and it needs using by today. Does anyone know a great (vegetarian) recipe I could use please, my books don't have anything good? OH loves asparagus so would like to keep it whole but if not an asparagus soup recipe would be great. Thanks.

Aww, can I really not have a donkey yet NYK? *bottom lip out sulking* Oh, okay but he's on my 'one day...' list now I can't really complain as I have the most adorable kitten snuggled up on my lap purring...

Thanks lovely peeps - despite not feeling so great (terrible night's sleep which throws my whole day out) I feel on top of the world!

elantan

hi bails could you pm me the recipe for this lovely soup ?

ladies and gents whilst i am not even attempting this challenge (it really seems too hard for me) i am really loving reading all your positive stories please keep it up

whitewing

I am very happy today. Had a no spend weekend. I was at work and have even cut out the 15p x2 for coffee each day. The amount was never a problem, just that if we took money out we would fritter it away, and it was so hard to see where it’s going.

Spent £42 in lidl today on basics. Got some broth mix, and lentils etc as so inspired by all the recipes, esp the slow cooker stuff.

Still decluttering and we tallied up 9 used printer cartridges from some of last year’s business use. So we took them to a cartridge refill shop. They are refilling them for us and has given us a 10% discount as we have ‘bought’ in bulk. (Word of warning, they only guarantee for 6 months so can’t do too many refills in one go if you don’t use the printer too much). The other advantage of refills is that they put more ink/powder in than you would have if you bought them new, so you get more printing out of each one, so the man says. Don’t know what the difference is in reality.

Now, if I were a super duper clever money saver, I would have searched online and found an even cheaper deal or solution. But it is enough for me at the moment to not be buying new cartridges from Tesco when I run out and have a mountain of printing to do.

Anyway, this doesn’t affect my challenge as it’s business use but it is one of the knock on effects of the challenge and I’m celebrating!

Had an unexpectedly large bill on the business unexpectedly early, which could have upset me (and did a bit on Saturday night). It made me sad as it results from my non-MSE days, (not tax or anything dodgy), and I felt, like a lot of you here, that you take one step forward and three backwards. However, there is sufficient funds in my savings to cover it, so it is really just the pain of writing out a large cheque in one go, it doesn’t affect my priorities (ie my MSE challenges) for this year, except perhaps some of the timings, AND it is more encouragement to make me ensure that I get my finances completely in control. One of my big problems is that I find it excruciatingly embarrassing to talk about money because of the way I was brought up. But it is, I hope, my last painful reminder to not hope that ‘someone’ will come along and sort out my money for me.

We are cutting back and thinking about our spends, and I can honestly say that we have not noticed a detrimental effect. We are enjoying trying new things and working towards a common goal. We are making mistakes (budgeted for my car tax in annual figures, but failed to notice that it needs renewing at the end of Jan), but not such big ones – generally! - and we are overcoming mistakes better than we ever did before. Onwards and upwards. I am going to spend the afternoon getting organised with my banking/budgeting again.

PS Valentine’s Day coming up soonish. I have already made a card for OH and we are going to have a meal at home with a special Valentine Sundae (we don’t normally buy ice cream). Might make some heart decorations to put up too. Not that I am that bothered about it in one respect but I need something to add a bit of colour to February’s grey days. We could have a virtual Valentine party here, if you’re all up for it. Sad, aren't I - can you tell that I was always the one person at school who didn't get a Valentine card; it obviously haunts me!

halia

debrag wrote: »

how do you have a DVD rental instead of a TV licence you still have a TV or do you mean just not in this budget?

We don't have a TV licence! we cut through our aerial cable and cancelled the license. We'd rather spend the money on unlimited rental of DVD's we KNOW we will watch than the C**p thats on TV.

You don't need a licence to watch DVD's or videos.