2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Jacks_xxx

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

Please remember that 2008 is a leap year. £4000 over 366 days = £76.50 per week

Edited in - For those participating in the original challenge, £4000 is for EVERYTHING except rent/mortgage, council tax/water rates. Hopefully, this should avoid confusion. Budget wisely and, if all else fails, learn to play 'catch-up' rather than "rob Peter to pay Paul".

The target figure is for essentials and all regular household bills. It does NOT include rent, mortgage payments, council tax or water rates. However, since announcing the challenge, numerous variations appear throughout this thread to reflect individual circumstances. For some, their target does not include repaying debts, essential work related expenses or 'luxury' items such as holidays - that's what everything over the target figure is for. That and, of course, savings.

Set your targets, I can list them here, then from 01/01/08 you deduct your essential spending throughout the year, not forgetting that the amount includes gifts for friends and family for birthdays, Christmas etc.

The Live on £4,000 a year Challenge starts here - have you got what it takes to succeed? The figure was calculated against minimum wage earnings, feel free to join using your own target figure. If you have a family, then you should be in receipt of Family Allowance/Child Benefit, so your target would be £4000 + Child Benefit

We dont have £4,00 left after paying the mortgage,council tax,water rates,gas and elec so I can,t play.

[/quote]

:hello: Then set your own figure cherub. (I did )

Or post your SOA (income and outgoings) and we'll help you work out a target.

Gas and leccy count as part of the £4000 though - does that help?

Love Jacks xxx

andromache_2

broke_mum_of_three wrote: »

Yes yes yes a NSD for me! Only my 2nd from I started:j :j :j :j :j

Well done! :T I have a cunning scheme to join you in more NSDs... This term, I've 'borrowed' a thermos flask from my parents. Today I brought with me coffee granules (coffee is ESSENTIAL to keep awake for lectures and 4 days a week or so last term I spent 40p on a cup to keep me going... not *that* much but it adds up...) and a couple of sachets of powdered soup (13.5p each) so I don't waste time and money (£1.30ish a day) queueing to buy something for lunch. Feeling VERY smug :rotfl: although I don't know if I'll get up early enough every day to boil the water! Will try my best though Hopefully it'll keep me healthier too cos I was always tempted to buy a chocolate as well since the coffee and chocolate machines are next to each other :rolleyes:

I don't have time to respond to everyone but I'm loving reading all your posts, keep up the positivity guys! :A

Frugaldom

SHELOVESTOBUYSTUFF - If you re-read the post you quoted then you'll see that the challenge does not include rent or mortgage, council tax and water. Look at the total amount you have coming in each month including any benefits then deduct the amount you actually pay in rent/mortgage and council tax. The amount left is what you have to live off each month. Are you saying that you have less than £333.33 to live off each month, as I'm not quite sure how you are working out your figures? The £4000 can be calculated against minimum income within UK. Honestly, there will be a way to help you take part in this challenge, we'll make new rules if we have to :beer:

Hello Ellidee

Andromache, you are doing really well with the lunchtime budget! My downfall is always chocolate and sweets, so next month's diet is always a super-trial, however, I cheat a bit with that too. If you are tempted to sneak in a few sweet treats like chocolate, carry a handful of raisins or sultanas with you (they cost about 60p for a big bag if you're happy to buy savers varieties) and supplement the chocolate cravings with a cup of instant hot chocolate. It usually starts going on offer soon, too. I have a massive tub of it from the last offer, 50% extra free and BOGOF I think it was for the Cadbury's one

Is anyone else having problems staying logged in here long enough to type a post or edit etc? :mad: Been having severe problems past 2 days and have now emailed asking for some advice.

I have just seen THE ENTIRE REASON that I have been part of such skrimping challenges for so long!! Bails, you would LOVE IT!! Why, oh why, do we see things we'd love when we aren't quite ready to afford them? It's a property that some of us probably dream about, complete with walled garden, duck pond, 7 acres of land and ... oooooooh.... of only I could win the lottery, but I'm too mean to part with £2 a week to buy tickets (that's £104 a year!!) Going to print off the schedule and stick it in my wishing book :rotfl:

WELL DONE TO THE NSD'ers :T :T :T

shelovestobuystuff

nykmedia wrote: »

SHELOVESTOBUYSTUFF - If you re-read the post you quoted then you'll see that the challenge does not include rent or mortgage, council tax and water. Look at the total amount you have coming in each month including any benefits then deduct the amount you actually pay in rent/mortgage and council tax. The amount left is what you have to live off each month. Are you saying that you have less than £333.33 to live off each month, as I'm not quite sure how you are working out your figures? The £4000 can be calculated against minimum income within UK.

I included gas and electricity which should be included in the £4,000.After gas and elec we have £200 a month for everything else.So if I include the power bills in the total we have £3,700 annually or about £310 a month I think,so yes less than £333.33 amonth to live on.

slowlyfading

:hello: guys and evening to you all! Its been a NSD for me today :j I've had lectures this morning and this afternoon, and am now trying to write another essay so I'm in for the evening. Am surrounded by text books and bits of paper and whatnot, its not a pretty sight :rolleyes: my room was lovely and tidy this morning! BUT....







i've done something naughty.


I've ordered The Simpsons DVD off amazon its just a treat for myself really, but not needed and yes. I'll leave now... but in my justification (oh, here we go! :rolleyes:) I've only spent £14.65 this week so far, so even with that added in, its still under budget. Am I still allowed in the club?
Anyway, better go on with this essay! speak to you all later xx

Frugaldom

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

I included gas and electricity which should be included in the £4,000.After gas and elec we have £200 a month for everything else.So if I include the power bills in the total we have £3,700 annually or about £310 a month I think,so yes less than £333.33 amonth to live on.

Still trying to figure it out, sorry if I appear to be missing something. You have £3700 coming in for a full year after you pay your mortgage and council tax?

Sorry, posted before finishing typing If you have only £3700 a year for everything except mortgage & council tax, then join us at £3700 and share all your frugal tips. If you want to join at £4000 then you can play 'catch-up' every month with a target of £25, which takes you up to the 4k Catch-up can be anything from cashback sites, click for points, eBid or eBay sales, anything you can do at all to help earn that extra £25 per month. I'm hoping that 2008 will come in well below the £4000 budget and you already know that it isn't impossible to do because you are actually doing it already :T

shelovestobuystuff

Yes.Thats right ,mortgage is just over £800 a month,council tax and water rates together is nearly £2,000 for the year.We don,t have £4,000 left after just those bills.We didn,t realise how much we had been living off the credit cards until recently.
Gas and elec is £1,300 a year(used to be more than that,thank god we got the new boiler last year or heaven knows what we would be paying to heat our old house now).

Frugaldom

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

Yes.Thats right ,mortgage is just over £800 a month,council tax and water rates together is nearly £2,000 for the year.Gas and elec is £1,300(used to be more,thank goodness we got the new boiler recently or god only knows how much we would be paying to heat our old house).We don,t have £4,000 left after just those bills.We didn,t realise how much we had been living off the credit cards until recently.

As per my previous post, I would be delighted to add your name to the challenger list with an annual budget of £3,700, so please consider becoming one of us... fun-loving frugalites who don't care what folks think, we have our reasons and we're sticking to them :beer: Come on down, the price is right :eek: Apologies if that's a copyright protected phrase or official trademark or something, I was using it in the context of, err, a comment relevant to err, a television programme, err... yes, we were discussing Martin's TV programmes earlier and that one sprang to mind

Burlesque_Babe

Hi Shelovestobuystuff

I'm doing the challenge on £3,800 as I don't have £4,000 either. I literally have £3,800 for the year after my mortgage, CT and water so it's now a very tight ship here!!

Whatever you have left, set that as your target and then work to that amount.

shelovestobuystuff

Great,I would like to join with a £3,700 budget for the year.