2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

It's the end of my week three and I have just reassessed my annual budget. The following are my updated 2008 targets:

Heat & Light - £1000.00 (paid £419.44 for October-January)
Telephone & mobile - £350.00
Internet - £240.00 (paid £24.99 so far)
TV Licence - £135.50
Insurance - £52.40 (paid in full)
£1777.90 total for above household bills, but I hate odd numbers, so I've rounded up to £1780
£500 for gifts & Christmas
£1440 for groceries (£120 per month)
£280 for everything else.

My updated targets are:

Household bills - £1780 (spent £496.83 so far)
Gifts/Special Occasions - £500 (spent £22.98 so far)
Groceries/Cleaning Products/Toiletries - £1440 (spent £58.69 so far)
Everything else - £280 (spent £103.99 so far)

Total - £4000 (spent so far £682.49)

New weekly average - £67.31
I cannot believe that we are only 10 days away from month 2! :T

FrankieM

liuhut wrote: »

MrsMcawber - that sounds like a fantastic plan. Can I ask, do you have kids?? Just wondered how they deal with the moving. We are planning on going to Oz next year and I'm so worried how the kids are going to settl

Hi,
I realise this wasn't asked of me, but we are just finishing a 3 month period of living in Aus.
We arrived in November, fly out on the 31st of this month.
I have 4 children as they have dual nationality, we put them all in school for the end of the school year over here.
Mine have all loved it. They have all made good friends, they prefer their friends over here in Aus to England. They love the lifestyle, even though its been one of the wettest summers in 25 yrs and has been no where near as hot as we expected.
Of course I'm Australian and we live a more Australian lifestyle in England than an English one, I think....not just the outdoors thing but our attitude is very Australian, if that makes any sense...

I hope your family enjoy it as much as mine have....

Janey51

liloandstitch the problem is that if we don't have SKY we have no TV at all as the area where we live is quite remote and has no ordinary TV reception without satellite unless we pay for one of those huge aerials to put in the garden. Its also why we don't have mobile phones as there is no mobile reception unless we climb to the top of the nearest hill (discovered by my son!!)

Yesterday I nearly had a blue fit when DH announced he had bought me a present. 2 bags of bird food each weighing 12.5kg and costing £17.
I went loopy as I saw a massive hole being blasted in my monthly budget. Then I remembered the original bags had been destroyed in the fire so the money can come out of the insurance payout.

I think my poor husband is getting scared to spend anything :rotfl:

georgiasmum

Nyk, my figures look very similar to yours! That is a relief as I was worried I was doing this challenge wrong! My updated weekly total is £98!! I hope I can do this!!!!

whitewing

Morning everyone,

It's only 8am and this is my second visit to the thread already today!

Feeling happy - finally got my tax credit form in the post. Have had hassle in the past with them cocking up and telling me they've overpaid me and then writing and saying it was their error, and then chasing it up out of the blue et etc. So I doubt I'll actually get anything, and if I do I'll worry that they'll want it back, so I don't really know why I'm bothering. Grr!

Anyway, I am still happy and heartened anyway by all your posts. It would be so much more difficult to keep going on my own.

Have changed the way I am calculating No Spend Days, so that all that counts for a NSD for me is when I actually take cash out of the bank. If I take a £10 out and then spend it on 5 weeks of Sunday papers, it will only count as 1 NSD (or 1 moment of weakness), not 5. Otherwise I lose track as I do my reconciling against budget via online banking. DD's and SO's going out don't count as spends to me as I have less control (ie they are scheduled). Of course it all counts in my budget.

Lots to do today..I'm a happy busy bee, despite the fact that the car is still broken and it now looks like the washing machine is kaput too (so I am informed, I haven't had the courage to check yet). I have workarounds for both so although it's annoying, it is not the end of the world.

Keep up the good work, everyone.

Miss_Pink_3

Well, we were £40 over budget last week. So got to do a little raining in over the next couple of weeks. Spent £4.15 yesterday, so bang on budget. Im loving this challenge. It has really made me realise just how much money we were wasting. Even with the little overspends that we've had, our bank account is still looking much better. Thank you.

the_cat

:hello: Hi everyone

Weekly update time again.....
Haven't done too badly, but spent a lot on food. There is a reason though, honest! Saw several things I regularly buy on special offer, so stocked up on those (a lot!!!!!) Now have about 12 boxes of teabags, 8 lumps of cheese, 7 packs of quality sausages, 5 of bacon ............. you get the picture! So even though I'm a bit over target this month, it should be cheaper over all. I'm lucky enough to do it this way as have spare money in the budget. I really feel for those with a fixed budget, it makes it so much harder to save.

Also had to buy petrol a bit earlier than expected. OH commutes by train and was turfed off in the middle of nowhere Weds eve. So unexpected 30 mile round trip to get him used the last of this weeks petrol:mad:

Roll on month 2!!!!

Frugaldom

Good morning all,

I am an extremely happy frugalite today! I've just checked my Greasypalm account where I'm saving up all my cashback to pay TV license and guess what?! It's leapt from £112 to £182!!!

I can't believe it! Nat West paid out the £70 cashback even although I only bought contents insurance. What's more, I'm still awaiting the outcome of a missing cashback that COULD get me another £30, although I'm not holding my breath on that one! Still, at least I know the TV license is covered and that means an extra £135 into my savings that would, otherwise, have been spent as part of my budget. It's the first time I have ever seriously played the cashback game, I think I'm going to like it - assuming the site pays out, of course.

Janey51 - Isn't it really annoying having no reception yet still having to fork out for a TV license? That's a similar situation we would be in next year when they switch off the analogue signal as there is no digital signal in our area. It means that if you don't purchase a digital box of some description then no TV! I can't help but wonder what will happen to all these people who cannot afford to upgrade their sets or aerials and make the switch. Perhaps if they hold off long enough then the Government will come up with a free digibox scheme. Apart from that - wild bird food? I am just as guilty - I feed them all year round with scraps, except someone else pays for the 25kg sack of food and the countless bags of peanuts. Last Christmas we actually received a half sack of peanuts as a gift and thought it was brilliant! :T

Georgiasmum you can do this! I have faith in you Bills need paying and they leave strange rippling effects on the overall weekly or monthly averages. You get used to them, just be very aware of complacency, which I almost ran headlong into last year. I've found that the longer you spend analysing your spending, the more aware of every penny in and out you become - some think this is bad and mistake it for meanness, just ignore them . I've now got to the stage that what goes out is far more important than what comes in so long as I budget for all essentials. Most of the other stuff I don't even miss and I'm enjoying life far more now knowing that all this frugalling has paid off all the debts and it's now time to generate some savings.

Whitewing good luck with the TCs. A colleague of mine just got his paperwork in at the weekend after waiting for a decision since the beginning of October, when I made the initial enquiry on his behalf. He didn't know tax credits even existed until then! Anyway, he's a very happy bunny as he's now received payment that includes arrears to October. You'd have thought he'd won the lottery even although it was only a few hundred pounds.
Oh, and about the washing machine. Mine went kaput last year - it just died, made most of the right noises but did nothing. In true frugalite fashion, I got out the screwdriver and proceeded to have a nosy inside. I found a broken belt thingy, looked like a fan belt, but it had the number on it, so I googled it and found a new one on eBay for £3. Was a bit of a laugh if anyone had seen me trying to fit the thing on, but it worked eventually :rotfl:

Miss_Pink I am delighted to hear that your bank balance is looking healthier already. Well done! :T

The_cat: when I stock up on bargain buys I readjust my grocey budget so as not to run out before the end of the year. I budget for £1440 a year, which is £120 per month, so if I have spent £150 in January then my budget would be adjusted to £117.27 per month. (£1440 - £150 = £1290 then divide that by 11 as there are 11 months of the year left) If you want to be more preceise then work it out on a daily basis, but don't worry about it. If all else fails, there's always pasta :rotfl:

Catch up again later, got to go post a pressie before lunchtime

PS: Forgot to say I spent £3 including p&p on eBid charity auctions - got a 'thank you for not smoking' desk sign and a DVD, as it was cheaper than renting a film, plus - I can flog it again when I've watched it :rotfl:

bails

Hi everyone!
Nyk, that pressie was ace, I would've loved that when I was little! Maybe I could open a 'save up for a horse' bank account
I'm feeling really good today as it was great to be back to work! Only 1 hour (I do 3 a week on different days) but it feels so good! :T
Off into town later so I am planning to make today one of my spend days and get the few things I need, so off to make a list. Mulling over how tp count my NSDs at mo, whether just for the 4K or everything... hmm. I know I am in a fortunate position to have (a little) more than the 4K total and I am very conscious of how I spend that extra now too. Ooh, my cat is demanding a cuddle, cant type... have a great day everyone, look forward to hearing about them later

Burlesque_Babe

i'm almost a bit too scared to check my bank balance.................deep breath.......here goes......

ouch.......

£16.65 on a treat takeaway (ahem)
£39.22 at Sainsburys

£55.87...........tut........

at least next month there will be at least a total of £52.00 that won't come out that was in this months money - a catalogue payment and the last payment on some old car insurance.