2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Eveninggggggggggggggg alllllllllllllllll

Evening Mumzy! evening all.... Nice to see everyone's catching up and celebrating or freaking out all at the same time :rotfl: :rotfl:

Today has, without doubt, been a NSD! Checked BT.com and the phone bill isn't due for another month. Checked Scottish Power (again, after all the mix-up) and the next bill isn't due until April, checked Greasypalm, as that's where I'm aiming to raise the TV license fee, and it's showing £111 validated!! :j Missed the February pay-out, mind you, but TV license not due for a while yet. Still off the cigs and did you know that if you are a smoker and cut down by just 5 cigarettes per day, you will have saved between £1.12 and £1.37 PER DAY, which is £409.92 a year on cheap cigs or £501.42 on an expensive brand. MY FULL CHRISTMAS & GIFT BUDGET IS £500! My ciggy brand was costing me £1.28 per day, so the daily savings are mounting up nicely and will more than cover the cost of Christmas if I get some vouchers and freebies along the way

Anyone else come up with any startling figures to reveal hidden savings?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS!
:bdaycake:

liuhut

OK here I come to spoil the party, have spent about....£30 at the pub tonight...to be fair I had two diet cokes out of this....the rest went on beer for OH and food for the DD's....I came home and warmed my HM lasagne (SWEETPEA that recipe is lovely - thank you very much).
OH has done a lot of overtime this week 20 hours plus but we want to be saving this money not spending it thinking 'oh well he's done overtime' IYKWIM. Also spent some last night so I need to do a tot up reckon its about the fifty quid mark......on the plus side - always have to try to think of one!! on a 'normal' fri and sat 2007 we would have spent £80 approx....not every week but def when we went out.
Tomorrow will have to be a NSD.....

skintwellie

Hi again guys.
Just how many hours a day does one have to spend on the computer 'clicking' to get ten quid???????????

Frugaldom

liuhut wrote: »

OK here I come to spoil the party, have spent about....£30 at the pub tonight...on the plus side ... on a 'normal' fri and sat 2007 we would have spent £80 approx....not every week but def when we went out.

If you went out only once per month during 2007 that would have cost you £960 over the year... if you go out once a month this year and spend only £30 then you will have SAVED £600 on pub expenses alone :T :T :T That is mighty impressive in my book. :beer:

JustKeepSwimming_2

Hi All

I haven't been posting regularly but have been reading all the posts most days & its fun to catch up! I have been obsessively checking my electricity & gas meters - scary how much electricity I use but I do have 3 large fish tanks!

So far I've spent £666.70 (sorry Nyk - I know the odd pence will worry you but I don't want to round it up as I may need that 30p later in the year, & I don't want to round it down as 666 will play on my mind!) :rotfl:

That amount is more than I was hoping for, but does include a fantastic amount of presents from the Boots sale (who didn't spend lots?), my £38 holiday from the Sun (off to Haven Doniford in May :j ) & a £10 deposit for a holiday at Pontins in their club class chalet. We normally slum it in the standard chalets & have found them fine so far - maybe my standards aren't too high! Of course I only found out about these 2 holiday bargains from different threads on MSE!

Groceries are coming in well under budget -just shows how much stuff I've been hoarding. I've also been trying more economy brands - I'm sure there is a thread on whats good & what isn't somewhere on MSE - maybe someone more whizzy with a 'puter can find it!
Dreading next month - buildings & contents insurance due...:eek: but will go through TopCashBack or similar so it won't be too horrendous. Have been clicking like mad on Pigsback & have just ordered my first Boots voucher to help with the cost of my contact lens solutions.

Thanks to all who post - it is encouraging & has given me a well needed kick up the wotsit!!

Frugaldom

Hi Justkeepswimming,

Why not break down your spending into the compartments you first set up for your budget? At beginning of the year you'll have budgeted for utilities, groceries, household things, gifts spending etc... just add up each and deduct it from your original totals to see how you are comparing.

The actual amount spent at any one time never means a pass or a fail, it just reflects the bigger things that have to be paid at that time. If you are over budget in one department, you'll need to either cut back somewhere else or play catch-up by earning some extra to pay for the overspends. I'd try to make back the holiday money so it made it completely free. :cool:

Apart from that, if your signature is up to date, look at how well you are doing on the grocery challenge!! :T

wornoutmumoftwo

Just how many hours a day does one have to spend on the computer 'clicking' to get ten quid???????????

I belong to quite a few cash back sites and have to say there isn't enough in daily clicks for £10 a day. The £10 a day challenge actually includes money you make from Ebay/surveys/mystery shopping....anything at all to earn extra money.

On the cash back sites I tend to go for the non-purchase cashback offers (you should see how many sim cards I've accumulated that I'll be selling on ebay soon). Also I did well with home and contents insurance £110 in cashback. That sort of thing really.

I'm happy if I can get £2 a day as it still adds up at the end of the year. I've only been paid by greasypalm so can't speak for the others yet.

fallen_angel_shelley

NYK- you are so good at keeping people motivated, keep up the good work.:T

Frugaldom

Thanks, Fallen angel - I've had plenty of practice at budgeting both for myself and for friends. I just think that no matter how skint we ever feel, there's absolutely no point getting wound up or miserable about it because dealing with money is just something that everyone has to do. May as well make it fun at the same time Besides, I'd rather face some debts than jump out a plane or yell bungeeeeeeeeee during a very fast decent from a very high place :rotfl:

sophiesmum_2

JustKeepSwimming wrote: »

Hi All

I haven't been posting regularly but have been reading all the posts most days & its fun to catch up! I have been obsessively checking my electricity & gas meters - scary how much electricity I use but I do have 3 large fish tanks!

So far I've spent £666.70 (sorry Nyk - I know the odd pence will worry you but I don't want to round it up as I may need that 30p later in the year, & I don't want to round it down as 666 will play on my mind!) :rotfl:

That amount is more than I was hoping for, but does include a fantastic amount of presents from the Boots sale (who didn't spend lots?), my £38 holiday from the Sun (off to Haven Doniford in May :j ) & a £10 deposit for a holiday at Pontins in their club class chalet. We normally slum it in the standard chalets & have found them fine so far - maybe my standards aren't too high! Of course I only found out about these 2 holiday bargains from different threads on MSE!

Groceries are coming in well under budget -just shows how much stuff I've been hoarding. I've also been trying more economy brands - I'm sure there is a thread on whats good & what isn't somewhere on MSE - maybe someone more whizzy with a 'puter can find it!
Dreading next month - buildings & contents insurance due...:eek: but will go through TopCashBack or similar so it won't be too horrendous. Have been clicking like mad on Pigsback & have just ordered my first Boots voucher to help with the cost of my contact lens solutions.

Think this is the link you are thinking of jks.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=405198&highlight=value+brands