2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Janey51

I really, really needed chocolate last night as we had my 3 nephews to stay (4,7 & 10) :eek:
Well, technically they are great-nephews as they are my niece's kids.
I had forgotten how many questions they ask at that age and how full of energy they are
Bless them all, they were very good really and didn't want to go home this morning.:rolleyes: They were having a great time with the cats, DH playing games with them and running round our house oblivious to me going on about shutting doors! Eventually gave in and put the heating on while they were here or I would have been hypothermic

Frugal wise...spent a bit more than I had intended at Mr A's yesterday but it was my first big shop for a while (£45).

I did get a bargain today when I bought a pair of waterproof boots reduced from £30 to £11.41. But these are to replace a pair lost in the fire so will come out of insurance money.
Going to have a go at making faggots. I used to love them as a kid until I watched my Granny making them :eek:
Having seen how cheap the ingredients are, I'm going to give it another go. Got a recipe from the BBC Food website and have bought Pig's Liver, Lamb Heart and Belly Pork :shocked: Sounds delightful but I will be brave. After all, if it was good enough for Granny....

I've been reading everyone's monthly breakdowns of their budget and I haven't actually done that but I will try and do it. I have kept a spending diary and its amazing how quickly you forget what has been spent in a few hours.

Frugaldom

That's me caught up with all the posts, I think! :T
I did a 'big' shop today and will only need to top up on fresh produce for the rest of the month, plus I have topped up all the baking basics, so might manage to replenish the depleted freezer contents by batch cooking this week. I've also opened another account so I can try to keep my 'savings' from living expenses separate from everything else. My new ICICI account (opened for mini-stoozing until I can open a new ISA) has already had interest paid out on it!! :j HOWEVER, I spent the remainder of last week mopping up 'spilt' investments - the stoock market is too precarious at the moment :mad: I now need to recoup those losses and will be looking at them as equivalent to debt. Hopefully, things aren't as bad as they first appear :eek: and I've incorporated the new figures into my signature. I am GLAD I stuck with the premium bonds! I know some of you have mentioned terms of up to 41 years and no wins but I'm averaging a £50 win ever 6 months (January 2008 - £50). If only it could be a little bit more... eagerly awaiting Tuesday so I can log on and check. On a monthly basis, I now have 3 things to look forward to - checking the Premium Bonds, checking the tax free interest on savings and checking my challenges to see how much I can transfer to the bank :rotfl:

JANEY51 - Hot chocolate and marshmallows!

Janey51

Nyk how cruel can you be? :rolleyes:
The most I can manage following weight loss surgery is half a dozen Maltesers.
I tried to eat 4 Ferero Rocher at Christmas. Big mistake and excellent Behaviour Modification :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Janey51 wrote: »

Nyk how cruel can you be? :rolleyes:
The most I can manage following weight loss surgery is half a dozen Maltesers.
I tried to eat 4 Ferero Rocher at Christmas. Big mistake and excellent Behaviour Modification :rotfl:

Hot chocolate made with powdered milk so it's low fat and marshmallows 'cos they are as good as fat free - and they melt - and go gooey - and are delicious - and did I mention they aren't fattening? You just need to burn off the excess energy from the sugar rush Now look what you have gone and done! I'll have to make hot chocolate and marshies later, as I still have mallows and chocolate left over from Christmas pressies :j Sorry Janey, but a frugaler's got to do what a frugaler's got to do :rotfl: I'll do 100 extra calorie burn cycles on my exercise bike, how's that?

Prudent

4 Ferero rocher Janey - wonderful I think I could put two 0's on that for my chocolate consumption over Christmas and january Winning a big Lindt hamper didn't help.

I have got off to a reasonable start this month. I have a nice dilemma too. On Friday I ebayed two rugby tix (a comp win) and got £62. On Saturday I bought two hessian eco bags from Tesco (£2) and spent £10 taking dd out for lunch. This leaves £50. Do I have a small treat every week over Feb or one bigger treat? Any suggestions welcome

stefejb

Well I promised to be in for 1st Feb - better late than never - also I didn't want to have to fess up to booking a holiday and having a bit of a spend yesterday - shhhhhh.

I have limited maths skills but have settled on £3600 for what's left of the year. My plan is to use cash only day to day, drawing out £10 per day and putting what's left in my Tin of Shrapnel. When a little SO comes out I will hopefully have enough shrapnel to take out the amount and put it somewhere else - when there is enough I will draw from this instead of the atm. This made sense when I thought of it but I'm not so sure now anyhoo I think it still kind of makes sense to me so we'll see. I'm not including rent or council tax or afterschool club which is £30 per week and in any case subisidised by CTC

but what about the other £7ish pw the more maths-astute among you are wondering - well that and the leftovers from the £10 will hopefully cover fuel bills

spent £7.24 today on mostly stuff for dd11s packed lunch - including the quid she gets for lunch-crap-that-I-don't criticise and lots of alberto balsam shampoo and conditioner which was 3 for £2 in asda

btw it's just me and dd so should be doable as I see that others are joining with bigger familes

FrankieM

Hi again everyone...

I've updated my totals yet again...its looking baaad...!

I will have food shopping again this week and I'm also going to sort out car insurance.
Some friends borrowed one of our cars while we were in Aus, but now have bought a car, so I'm going to get a new policy and take them off it..that should save me some money and get me some cash back, but it will be yet another lump sum of money to come out of my total.
I am also going to rejig my total when the new council tax and water bills come through the post. While my toatl states £4k at the moment, I would add child benefit as well, but I think with the other challenges I'm doing my total will be less than that, so I'm going to put my proper figure in my sig, once I've worked out what it is!

sashacat

well I'm pleased as although I'm overspent for January I will recoup in February as I now have a car full of petrol and plenty of food. I have about £45 a week to spend after all dds so I should be ok. I will work it all out accurately later and repost.

mama67

redglass wrote: »

skintwellie wrote: »

My man is going to buy me a breadmaker from L***l on Monday as they have them on offer next week for £25.00, so will be able to try out all of the lovely bread recipes posted on here.

Hi Skintwellie,
do you happen to know what make the L**l breadmakers are? A*g*s have got one by 'Cookworks' (never heard of them, but it's got very good customer reviews). I was wondering about getting that.

I've got this one, it is a funny shaped loaf as in you have to turn it on its side after cooking to get proper slices but for me that didn't matter as I only use dough setting and then bake in oven.

catshark88

You expert frugalistas probably already know this, but just in case you don't...

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 this evening about the different ways to receive TV progs these days.

Apparently, if you watch LIVE TV progs on any media (TV set, PC, whatever), you need a licence.

However, if you only watch downloaded progs slightly after they are first shown e.g. soaps, films, non live sport, you do not need a licence.

You would need to check this out carefully in case I have got the wrong end of the stick but they seemed pretty clear. Don't watch normal TV, download the progs you want to see from your PC or similar, save the licence fee.

Only one for the really dedicated, but you don't often see as much dedication around as on this site!