2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

slowlyfading

so much for it being a NSD went upto the library today to get some books out to discover I have a £2.40 fine for having a popular loan book out during the holidays - i had asked if that was okay before i took it and they said yes, and still charged me. -sigh- so then i went for lunch with my friend to cheer myself up. So I've updated my sig again, its creeping up too fast for my liking!
a tired and fed up,
sf x

hopeless_spendthrift

I too have trouble keeping up with all the posts Bails, so pleeeze accept my apologies for adding to the load, but gotta get some things off my chest and need some advice plz guys!

I was soo happy to read a coupla days ago here that one (very posh;) ) doesn't need a tv licence for watching dvd's and video's. I had no idea!!! The children and I stopped watching progs about 6 months ago, but retained the telly for the kids' ps and for dvd and video watching only. And have been paying for tv licence throughout!:rolleyes:

I thought "this is great news!" :j and planned to cancel my tv licence and save a whopping £11.61 a month, then....

....it was dd1's b/day yesterday...

...I won an teeny b&w tv on e-bay b4 xmas which i thought she would like (she's always nagging me for 1 and thought she would get fed up of watching on such a titchy, b&w screen, so not too much damage), but the seller had problems and lost all the things she posted from work so I had given up the ghost when...

Lo and behold, the postie knocks on the door yesterday morning with the ****** tv!

I am miffed bc was looking 4wrd to cancelling the Direct Debit :mad:
Dd was happy with prezzie tho and I will get in touch with tv licence people and downgrade to a b&w licence at least

I am in trouble in the DD department. Added them all up and they come to £220 per month, which is over £2,600 per year! :shocked: , which leaves very little for everything else doesn't it? £27 a week to be exact. Or about £65 per week including CB. I am attempting a grocery budget of £120 per month, which I'm not sure if I've kept to it this month or not. So things will be extremely tight but I guess that's the idea here isn't it :rotfl:

My annual income comes in at just over £10,000 so was really hoping to save a lot more by doing this challenge to pay off my debts. And haven't included children's school journey's etc and other 'luxuries' in the budget total either so will not be left with much to pay off debts or to save.

I bake a lotta cakes for people and noticed that I spent £7.20 on butter alone in my last Supermarket shop :eek: so think I will exclude the ingredients I buy for others' cakes from my own grocery total/budget and include them on the 'gifts for others' list instead!

I got a £3.99 refund from Asda this week btw.:D E-mailed them as some of the eggs were broken in my last delivery from them. So was a plastic honey jar and a bag of sugar had a hole in it! They replied and refunded straight away, so good on them :T

Don't wanna upset bails so will away now to check on the wash-load. Any suggestions on my situation gratefully welcomed. Wishing u all a gr8 afternoon -

Frugaldom

slowlyfading wrote: »

so much for it being a NSD went upto the library today to get some books out to discover I have a £2.40 fine for having a popular loan book out during the holidays - i had asked if that was okay before i took it and they said yes, and still charged me. -sigh- so then i went for lunch with my friend to cheer myself up. So I've updated my sig again, its creeping up too fast for my liking!
a tired and fed up,
sf x

If your signature is correct then you are within budget for the 4k per year. I just worked it out at (using daily average of total spend divided by number of days multiplied by 7 to get weekly average) £63.63 per week and the average for this challenge is £76.50

Besides, if anyone gets to feeling down, CLOCK MY 16 DAY SPEND!! :eek:

Keep up the good fight, if fighting your finances is your main concern then you at least know there's no physical damage done by the punches they may throw :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I call them 'penny' punches and I give them a good 'pounding' in return :cool:

Hopeless_Spendthrift - If you have an income of just over £10,000 per year then deduct the total rent or mortgage plus buildings insurance and then deduct the council tax/water for the year and whatever you have left is your budget to live off for the rest of the year.

slowlyfading

Lol thanks nykmedia! its just been one of those weeks I think - can't wait for the weekend to come! I'm off again now, am trying to write another essay which isn't going partciularly well.
have a good afternoon x

xgingerx

I wish I could live on 4000 a year but unfortuantly I spend more than that in Petrol each year, so its a no go for me

wornoutmumoftwo

I am in trouble in the DD department. Added them all up and they come to £220 per month, which is over £2,600 per year! :shocked: , which leaves very little for everything else doesn't it? £27 a week to be exact. Or about £65 per week including CB. I am attempting a grocery budget of £120 per month, which I'm not sure if I've kept to it this month or not. So things will be extremely tight but I guess that's the idea here isn't it :rotfl:

Is there any way you can negotiate your dd amounts with the companies?

Mollymop5

xgingerx wrote: »

I wish I could live on 4000 a year but unfortuantly I spend more than that in Petrol each year, so its a no go for me

:eek: :eek:

fizzel81

lol hopeless spendthrift

i used to be the very oposite to what i am now, used to spend money quicker than i drunk water, ive cut back since comeing on here and then found this challenge.

im chooseing to do this, more than anything i would like to learn to drive next year, if i can save by doing this challenge well i will be so happy.

its been an eye opener to have much ive 'wasted' over the last good few years, i quite like being tight now, in fact im proud of it will be worth it at the end of they year to be able to do something for me (driveing) without having to get credit, being in debt blah blah. if i want it now i save for it.

me and the kids are eating better too, cut so much junk out over the last year its unreal, i was also one for replaceing what didnt need replaceing

sorry if im rambleing on, im in my own little world lol

wornoutmumoftwo

hopeless spendthrift, could you not ask the people you bake cakes for to chip in for the ingrediants, not that i'm one to talk as i make birthday cakes for kids and don't ask for anything, but just a thought, i know ingrediants can sometimes be expensive, especially butter.

Frugaldom

xgingerx wrote: »

I wish I could live on 4000 a year but unfortuantly I spend more than that in Petrol each year, so its a no go for me

Hi there, thanks for visiting our thread :beer:

If you spend more than £4000 a year on petrol then it must be relating to work. This challenge is for living, not working, so any expenses incurred through keeping your current job are excluded. So, for example, if you were travelling as part of work then you would not have that same job if you didn't have the car and pay the fuel - it isn't part of your living expenses. Think of it as though you own your home outright, you have absolutely no debts whatsoever and you need to earn your living from home, so don't need a car. How little would you need to earn to afford to live? That is another way of working out from where the £4000 originates

(I'm working on a new figure to account for all of those people who need to factor in extra insurances for home-based working. In a way, it's like self-sufficiency but with cash and I can't do that until I complete year 2 of my research )