2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugalmum_2

Good Morning Everyone

Last week ended up with me spending a total of £47.19 (my week runs Saturday to Sunday)

I've had what I'd call a big spend for me this week so far £39.02 and that includes going to a car boot sale yesterday and spending £5.30 buying 'gifts' towards my present box.

I spent £13.50 on fruit & veg at the market but I am doing batch cooking this week, veg soups, veg lasagne and other veg based things. I'm also making apple & orange wine and some pear wine - may not be a necessity to everyone but sure beats spending lots of money in the off licence, I've already got a stock of wine yeast, steriliser, enzymes etc so won't have to spend on those. I've got a gallon of blackberry & elderberry wine and also about 2 gallons of peach that's ready to drink :beer:

I got 5lb of seedless black grapes for £1 - I was really pleased, we love grapes but don't buy them often as they are expensive.

Cat litter, cat food, dog food £9.96 - this should last them two weeks (I've got 4 cats, 2 dogs, 2 guinea pigs, 3 rats, 1 hamster, 2 gerbils and a tropical fish tank) the rodents & fish are sorted for a couple of weeks already.

£10.30 in Lidl - stocking up on flour, butter, eggs, cooking oil etc for the next few weeks.

The rest of the week should be NSD but I may buy some mince from the local butcher as I can't get rid of the craving for shepherds pie, I'll make extra for the freezer if I do anyway so won't feel bad about that.

I need to make some washing powder but already have the ingredients in the cupboard.

I wish you all a great week, keep it up, you're all doing so well :T

Carlsberg

Had a bad weekend, have £60 something to last till end of month (2 weeks) Cant believe how long Jan has been! Feb should be a good month, so can hopefully bring it back inline! Start paying for car next month too! Ahhhh! Anyway, another monday. Im going for a NSD today! Put Lamb stock on last night, but not sure ill use it, and im gonna make cabbage and bacon soup at some point. Oh no, need to go to Tesco for toothpaste and meat for sandwiches! Doh. So forget the NSD as I need to clean my teeth, its a basic essential LOL. Have a good week all.

redglass_2

Hi Janey51
The copper pipes might come in useful to keep slugs and snails off your seedlings. Best of luck with the planting out - you sound amazingly resourceful! :beer:

catshark88

This is an amazing thread! I don't think I could hit £4k but reading your posts is really inspirational to lurkers for preventing spending and getting max use from things.

For those people with a garden, I can really recommend keeping a couple of chickens. Their cost is pretty low (once the house is made/ bought) and nothing tastes as delicious as home produced free range (or run kept if you have foxes about) eggs. I had no idea just how much you can do with an egg!

The best thing is that I persuaded DH to take home made egg rolls to work which keeps him safely out of Boots (or even worse Prets).

JustKeepSwimming_2

Just redone my signiture & think things are going ok'ish - have just discovered a huge patch of damp in my bedroom where water is soaking through the wall :eek: so I'll need to investigate when I can borrow a long ladder & on a less windy day! Have a nasty feeling that it may take me over budget slightly...:mad: but as I'm spending less, I'm happy!

Got my soapnuts today - will be making up a solution when I can find the thread with directions! Also got horribly excited when I realised that the post office hadn't franked the envelope so I can reuse the stamps! How sad & obsessed am I becomming?

Laurabelle

Hi Everyone

Can I join the challenge please? I get paid on the 20th of each month so I am going to count my months from the 20th-20th. I have some debts to pay off and I am also going to austalia in October so this should help me to pay for my flight and save some spending money

Laura x

hopeless_spendthrift

JustKeepSwimming wrote: »

Also got horribly excited when I realised that the post office hadn't franked the envelope so I can reuse the stamps! How sad & obsessed am I becomming?

:rotfl: welcome to the club JKS! :T

hopeless_spendthrift

catshark88 wrote: »

This is an amazing thread! I don't think I could hit £4k but reading your posts is really inspirational to lurkers for preventing spending and getting max use from things.

For those people with a garden, I can really recommend keeping a couple of chickens. Their cost is pretty low (once the house is made/ bought) and nothing tastes as delicious as home produced free range (or run kept if you have foxes about) eggs. I had no idea just how much you can do with an egg!

The best thing is that I persuaded DH to take home made egg rolls to work which keeps him safely out of Boots (or even worse Prets).

:hello: Hiya Catshark. Nice to have u lurking around! :cheesy:

I so want chickens and I know my kids would love to keep some too, but alas, no garden - we live on the second floor :sad: .
Trying to persuade my friend to keep some in her garden for us, but it's not the same is it? Plus don't wanna hassle her as apparently you have to get up really early to tend to them or they become grumpy lol.
We are on the waiting list for an allotment patch - do any of u think i would be allowed to keep chickens on a patch of allotment land?
The eggs would be so very handy bc of the many cakes I make each month and I always buy free range, so i really neeeed these chickens to be properly frugal!

hopeless_spendthrift

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

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!!

:hello: Hi Princess - sounds like the old nesting instinct is kicking in there! Well done for being so organised.
Belated Happy returns for your birthday :bdaycake: and I hope u are now feeling much, much better :hello:

hopeless_spendthrift

Janey(Michelin Man!)51, Lollopybear, Funbrum and Penny2myname - Thank you guys for making me laugh with your hilarious toilet roll and paper-clip hoarding stories!! :rotfl: