2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

JAMIEDODGER

hi all. have gone slightly over budget this week, but have been under the first 2 weeks and should be next week too, so i should still keep under for january.

savings pot is growing as i am spending less.

Frugaldom

ATTENTION NEWCOMERS

I am delighted to see we are still picking up a few more challengers and have just added a couple of new names to post 1. Please PM me if you are joining us on 1st February so I can add your name and challenge amount.

The official challenge amount is £3661 for 11 months

This is worked out as £4000 divided by 366 days = £10.92 per day
31 days in January = £338.52 deducted from £4000 = £3661.48 but we round down to the nearest whole pound, so, £3661. This allows for the spare pennies we drop into banks :rotfl:

Please note that this amount is for the entire duration of the challenge, so you are not to panic if you set weekly or monthly targets and then fail to meet them. They aren't really targets, they are averages spread out over a year.

Janey51

funkyfunkymonkey wrote: »

I had one of these sent to me a couple of years ago, I hope things have improved but the one I got was awful - I used it to make a rabbit costume for DD for school :rotfl:

Hope yours is much much nicer.

FFM

:rotfl: :rotfl: My Mum used to get awful ones from Damart. Made good cat beds.

Paul_Varjak

nykmedia wrote: »

When cutting down on the sweets (February is my lose weight month) I tend to make up little tubs of carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, raisins, sultanas, mixed nuts, sunflower seeds etc. As a treat, I can have jelly or marshmallows (no fat) or a cup of instant hot chocolate

Fruit yoghurt is a favourite of mine but that is more expensive that plain yoghurt and also contains sugar! I now buy plain yoghurt at LIDL and add my own fruit pieces (without sugar). Much cheaper, healthier and less calories. I have not tried making my own yoghurt yet but given the price of milk these days it won't be much cheaper than LIDL plain yoghurt.

LollopyBear

Went to Mr Ts to get some cat biscuits and spent £9. Grrr. £2 was on the lottery for tonight (triple rollover - £18m), then our toothpaste which is quite pricey normally was a BOGOF so I stocked up there and then some other bits and pieces.

I'm going to be spending £2.30 on the train in about an hour (not so bad out of peak times) as I'm off to polo practice. I'm going to be cycling from the station to the stables (30mins) rather than take a taxi so I predict I'm going to be very cold and tired when I get home!

I hope everyone's having a good Saturday. Welcome to the new people! Paul, it sounds like you are already a full-blown frugalite! Wow!

Janey51

:j New Word:j New Word:j

Frugalicious: Word used to describe extremely tasty dish made for minimal or no cost.

Frugaldom

Back again - I just thought of another TWO side effects of prolonged exposure to Frugality and the resulting chronic Frugalitis! :eek:

Sorry, there are just so many of them, though!

1. Balance checking
2. Receipt analysis

I know I've mentioned the receipt analysis before, because I distinctly remember doing the 'refund dash' up the street (between posts) after spotting an over-charge on my BOGOF crisps. But I don't think I have mentioned the balance checking. It actually occurs before the 'rounding off' syndrome (result of this is FOCD - Financial Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Balance checking, surprisingly, gets worse once debts are cleared, because then you need to watch your savings like a hawk. ALWAYS opt for monthly interest (or even more regularly if you can find it - and let me know please ).

This is a very exciting time for me! It's nearing the end of the month, which means it's nearing interest pay-in date! And then we are into a new month and only a couple of days to wait until the Premium Bonds results are released!! I KNOW these aren't the best things for frugalites but we need some potential for explosive growth in our finances. Besides, after clearing debts, it is nice to have something to remind ourselves of when we did it. With the first £100 saved, I bought Premium Bonds - the certificates are dated and if I ever get really skint, I can cash them in. My original £100 certificate has already won £50 and I'd never have earned that from interest in the bank.

FRUGALICIOUS - another very good word to be added to the Frugalers' dictionary! Excellent! I had frugalicious fish pie last night made with the batched mash potatoes, white fish fillets from freezer, cooked in a little milk, seasoned, thickened with a little flour and then cheese toasted over the top. Truly frugalicious!

liuhut

nykmedia wrote: »

:eek:

Sorry, there are just so many of them, though!

1. Balance checking]

I have always done this...I used to work for a bank and once rang my OH to ask why he had took £30 from his account about 10 mins after he had done it...his friends really took the P out of him.
It did come in handy when he had his card cloned though, I realised the next day so they had only got away with £160. When we rang the police she commented how quickly I had noticed and thought that it was wrong that I could check the balance at work....oh right \i though that it was good that they hadn't got away with more :rolleyes:

bails

Thanks so much for that Nyk, really helpful. As for interest, Barclays ISA is calculated daily :T
Speaking of ISAs, I just tried to pay into another one and thought, I know I'll round it up, therefore paying in an extra £20 something, but it wouldn't let me do it - minimum deposit is £250 :mad: Will be looking more closely at this next time... Anyway, I too get v excited on ISA Interest Day :rotfl:

Just looked at my spending diary and what we spent in the supermarket yesterday is actually our only '4K' spend of the week :T So if we can avoid splurging tomorrow (but of course we can! ) then our weekly total will go back up again this week, WOO HOO! :j What I've noticed over the past 4 weeks is how much less is written down on each day; it's really clear visually that we are spending less, and I LOVE IT!!

Also Nyk, he has been a student for the year 2006/07 so how will they work out his entitlement for this coming year?

Janey51

Good afternoon. I regret to say that I have an extremeely virulent strain of Frugalitis which is rapidly progressing as I am still less than 2 weeks from onset of symptoms.

Today is my day for doing my Mum's housework/shopping/cleaning etc as she is in sheltered housing.
Now, Mum has very little washing to do as I do bits and pieces through the week. The housing scheme has a central washing area with a huge industrial sized washer and drier.The use of the machines is covered in the rent which is quite high but Mum gets HB.
You can see where this is going can't you?
I changed our bed last night and took my washing down and put it through with hers.:D
Purely in the interest of protecting the environment you understand.
Then I went to do her shopping at the local Co-op. She wanted 2 Muller yoghurts. They are "Buy 2, get 2 Free" at the moment. I knew she wouldn't eat 4 so I took 2 for myself :j
She also wanted a joint of pork (huge and half price). When I took it back to her, she said I could have half :j So I'm cooking it in my oven (with one I bought for us) and I'll slice it and freeze it in portions.

Total spend for today £10.39 so should make it to the end of the month.
I actually got paid on Friday but have left it untouched :T

Best of all...God bless my Mum. We were talking about me taking a lower paid job and she said "I think you should have the Attendance Allowance I get" :eek:
So, I am going to be £180 a month better off than I thought :j
I got this month's out of the bank and paid £80 into my Post Office Instant Saver and £100 into my Visa Electron to transfer to my Yorkshire Savings Account.:j