2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

mini_huny_money

hya all

ok time for the weekly update......Ive spent 105.65......

50.65 on food and cleaning stuff,
and 55 on me....

(confession time, as well as the 40 on the hair, 15 on waxing......just the visible bits though, thank goodness its still winter and I dont need to get my legs done, the trusty BIC will do for a wee while yet)

I reckon Ive got 56 pounds left to do me till the 1st Feb to still stay within budget......please anyone step in and let me know if my arithmetic is wrong

The hardest time for me will be Wed wneh my salary goes into the bank........for the first time since 19th December....am gonnae have to keep my hands in my pockets

NSD on Saturday though. and today .....well I'll tell you why I cant meal plan. I took the reduced chick fillets out the freezer last night intending to make fajitas for today and my DS decided he wanted nachos......!!!!

TBH I was quite glad to get rid of the rest of the frozen mince, Id bought a bag from T"s........btw...nyk, those summerfields sound glorious!!!!....anyway I usually buy steak mince and the bag that Id bought was beef, its a great price but you can really tell the difference......I dont eat a lot of meat and sometimes just the smell of it gives me the boak!!!!!
so i try and disguise with as many spices as I can !!!!........

I can see why the chick fillets were 7 quid,.....those were massive breasts!!!!!!!!:rotfl: there was way too much chook for the wee old el paso spice mix, will probly buy another pack mix when I reheat for mondays dinner..... and probly Tuesday's as well!!!!!

Hope everyone has a great week

XXX

hopeless_spendthrift

:hello: Hey all! Have had trouble finding the time to keep up with all your posts, so plz forgive me if i have not replyed to anything you may have directed at me and plz don't think i am ignoring u as i would never dream of it!

Have had a rather eventful w/e which means no NSD's for me, (although i did have one on friday:j )

DD1's b/day last Tuesday, so not only did we get pizza 'n' popcorn (to accompany a dvd from a free trial tho! ) on the day, also took her ice-skating today, with 2 siblings and a friend in tow. Expecting my most expensive week so far - all will be revealed (to me as well!) when I update at the end of the week

A planned NSD yesterday suddenly bit the dust with an impromptu visit to a well known Swedish furniture store! :eek: Do not fear tho, my fellow frugalites, auntie Spendthrift, in classic MSE style, and no longer 'Hopeless';) , did not let u down!

Spent a mere £26.56, which may sound alot but included 3 gifts, 1 umbrella (much needed), 1 bag, a vase and 4 bars of my very favourite soap ( which, it has just occurred to me, could be individually wrapped in some pretty coloured tissue paper (lol i typed toilet tissue b4!!!:rotfl: ) with curly ribbon too if you're feeling really flush - lots in the sales atm - and added to one of those lovely sounding, innovative gift baskets/hampers you guys are always mentioning. I must try one meself ...:beer: .
Impromptu shop also included 9 boxes, of varying shapes, sizes and designs which were my reason for the trip in the first place and all part of the de-cluttering and recycling-in-a-neat-and-tidy-way effort. I normally would've spent over £70 on a trip to that store, and piled it on a CC to be paid whenever, so I am feeling very happy with myself and grateful to you guys for the inspiration :T :happyhear

mini_huny_money

hya spendthrift........now not hopeless......


are you a night hawk too?????? was just loggin off when I seen your post

I must be psychic, I was just thinking tonight about that same swedish store and I need to avoid like the plague!!!!!

know what its like , you walk thru that treasure trove and see all these things that you cant function without!!!!!!!

well done for halving your normal spend

am I the only person thats got a cupboard full of kleeneze and betterware stuff, .....though Ive always managed to resist the bug catcher gadget!!!!!

night night XXX

FunBrum

Well I'm not so much of a night owl as...I can't sleep!
I think I have too much on my mind. Woke up at 3.49am and was unable to get back off again. I was at work until 9.00 last night and I have to be out of the door at 6.30 am, so I know I'm going to be whacked today.:o

I want to move jobs as I've been really unhappy with what I'm doing at the moment, but I need the money, as we all do, I really want to work for myself but am scared as I'm not a spring chicken any more:rolleyes: and whilst I have a huge loan to pay off, I'm worried about not being able to meet my responsabilities.:o

Anyway...I'm rambling now, it must be the lack of sleep!:rotfl:

Didn't spend over the weekend:T And I think the only thing that I have to buy is groceries, but that will be, hopefully, well within my grocery budget!

liuhut

nykmedia wrote: »

Liuhut, how can you be down when you have included a whole load of luxury items in your essential list? :rotfl: This challenge is about living on a budget that covers all your essentials, as in those things that you HAVE to pay in order to survive. I can see loads of things in there that aren't essentials, so maybe that's where you are confused. I've highlighted the luxury items that wouldn't normally be included in a basic budget. For some, it's simply because they cannot afford them, for others, it is a choice to save money. Whichever way you want to look at it, frugal living doesn't include luxuries (highlighted in red). Umm, dare I ask what 'Wacky' is? :eek:

Anyway, that's at least £148.50 of your budget that shouldn't even be counted in as essential to living. There are also things like mobile phones, haircuts, swimming etc that wouldn't be included in a really tight budget, so maybe you just need a little rethink about how to prioritise your spending into the essentials for living and the extras you pay out over & above that each month. I'll bet you'll find you don't need anywhere near your target figure for basic living expenses Keep a separate 'tab' running for the non-essentials so you don't lose control of that budget, though

Thanks NYD, I think that as I had said £6k in my mind I wanted to include EVRYTHING into that. Spoke to OH about cancelling the sky and lottery. The pub we will only go every few months....wacky is the local play centre for the kids, the £18 included drinks while we sat and watched them, in the summer we dont go...its just so they can burn energy off over the weekend.

I will keep a seperate list but am going to keep trying to cut down on the luxeries every month...thanks again.

princess_leia_3

Oh yippee I forget that the challenge doesn't include luxuries, and I had been adding al onto mine (except my birthday treat) so I will maybe go and have a look at my figures and see if that keeps me in budget for the month :j

I think hubby gets paid on fri so that will count as the start of my next month and I feel much more ready as I have my accounts sorted and alphabetised :rotfl:not really but feels like it!!

Burlesque_Babe

Should be a NSD for me today although I'll have to make a judgement call on the petrol when I go out. I should be ok for today, but I don't want it running so low that it starts pulling the rubbish through the tank. I did that with my last car and it ran like a bag of spanners some days.

Also going to pop the breadmaker on later.

NEgirl

princess_leia wrote: »

Oh yippee I forget that the challenge doesn't include luxuries, and I had been adding al onto mine (except my birthday treat) so I will maybe

lol ive included EVERYTHING in mine! That will teach me to read the rules properly!! :rotfl:

debrag

princess_leia wrote: »

Oh yippee I forget that the challenge doesn't include luxuries, and I had been adding al onto mine (except my birthday treat) so I will maybe go and have a look at my figures and see if that keeps me in budget for the month :j

no luxuries great lol I've been including EVERYTHING minus rent & debt but it's even better if I exclude luxuries too :T

I'm at £340 of my £350 Jan budget and I'll easily stick to £200 a month from Feb as my luxuries aren't included. It's not really survive on £4k if it doesn't include everything though lol but I'm not complaining

Janey51

Funbrum don't worry about changing direction. I am hoping to change from being a Health Professional (for nearly 30yrs) to a Homecarer. Moi, worried:eek: Salary dropping by more than a half but I hate my present job and I only have a few more years of my working life left so I want to do something I enjoy. Its why I've started this challenge as OH is semi-retired and can only do a few hours a week for health reasons.

We cannot cancel Sky as we have no TV reception at all in this area via normal aerial. And no Freeview reception. And I do like TV in the winter

spendthrift re a certain Swedish store. Our nearest one is 70 miles away which is excellent because all my MSE training goes out of the window when I sight the building.

I have been saving toilet roll centres to use as containers for seeds I will start off soon. My £1 blueberry (from a certain store selling items all at the same price and starting with P) are looking surprisingly healthy. Normally I would have put them into nice little pots bought to look pretty but I have them in a couple of jugs on the kitchen windowsill. I don't expect them to fruit for a couple of years but I can wait.
We want to build a fruit cage and I suggested to DH we could use some of the piping which is lying in the burnt areas of the house. But he pointed out they are made of copper and would kill my plants

We are very short of firewood at the moment. Would have norma"lly cut our own but the chainsaw went up in smoke and still waiting for the Quote me Happy" lot to live up to their name. I think we will have to buy more Heat Logs which are expensive but I suppose should come out of the Insurance payout when we get it as we lost over 3 tons logs in the fire. We can't get ordinary firewood as we have nowhere to store it as the sheds were all cremated as well

Hope everyone has a good day.