2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

princess_leia_3

Hi everyone, I have done better this month but just don't feel it as my catalogue bill has gone up a wopping £75 to £175 :eek: due to some buy now pay laters kicking in :mad:

Also I have being feeling very big and pregnant and kind of lost the resolve to make bread I have been sticking to my meal plan and been making lots of bread pudding with my leftover bread but really need to get some bread made :rolleyes:
Also founs a recipe for Queen of puddings that uses bread crumbs so I might try that for a change but I will need to do a bit of shopping today as we have run out of Jam (what a thing to run out of :rolleyes:) and we need some eggs after DS 'helped' make pancakes and dropped the first batch :rotfl: also made some more batter yesterday but didn't use it so we have pancakes again tonight :j

FrankieM

Hey whitewing...I'm glad someone has spent more than me...
Perhaps you could add all the money you have to spend in your spending total and then you wouldn't have to not count stuff. I guess it depends how much over the £4k that takes you over???
I'm not sure myself. I think if I'm living on £4k then I'm living on £4k, whats the point of making your grocery shopping budget miniscule if you then have a £50 takeaway from the 'luxury' budget.
Thats just my view of course, I would definately find out about the council tax band though...

Burlesque_Babe

£14.75 on my waggy tailed boys insurance. Changed it last month and got lovely cashback from Quidco towards next year's tax bill and saved 25p a month!

Going to do something Chinese tonight with it being Chinese New Year, but not sure what yet!

Had a second batch of pancakes yesterday - oooh, yum!

whitewing

Frankie - luxury budget! What's that, lol! Later I will work out how much I need to live on (gulp) and include everything. I may even share it with you guys if the shock doesn't kill me. I keep working these things out and then reworking them.

OH's mum is coming to stay with us for quite a few weeks as of next Sat so I may need some help later with that. I am planning to incorporate this into our existing budget, ie we're all going to have to starve.

Keren, as it's the Year of the Rat, you could have a sweet 'n' sour rat.. um, maybe not! We have sweet 'n' sour fish fingers when we're being super-lazy-frugal, and it's lovely. (Had it last night, actually, as we're in a rat-free zone!)

FrankieM

OK, perhaps luxury budget isn't the right wording....the 'everything else' budget???
Anyway, you should do yours and perhaps I'll do mine, though it is scarey!!

Burlesque_Babe

whitewing...........blllleuurgghhhhhhhhhh.............sweet and sour rat!!!

Maybe though, come November when I've run out of money on this challenge........!!!

Sweet and sour fish fingers reminds me of one of my favourite school dinners wayyyy back in the early 80s - it was fish fingers with a kind of tomato/sweet and sour sauce on them - it was lovely!

Penny2myName

Bought £15.98 worth of food for £2.24 last night, now I just need to figure out what to make with my bargain buys. I was able to bung into freezer such as the Heinz tomatoe and three bean soups at 10p a carton (2) and the Cottage pie.
That leaves me with
baby onion £1.28 0.30p
Courgettes £1.99 0.50p
strawberry Yoghurt £0.75 0.10 I'm having for lunch
organic natural yoghurt £2.28 0.10
Avocado (2) £1.78 0.20
Pastrami £1.84 0.17 Son is having this in sandwiches today
yoghurt (4) £0.93 0.10 kids had two of these last night
Mini muffins £0.75 0.37 kids had two of these last night with their yoghurt.
Also I still have the 30p pineapple to use use from Sundays bargain shopping.

Any recipe ideas most welcome (and desperately required):o

Penny2myName

Just noticed still have some vine tomatoes i got on sunday in, so think I will do a pasta dish with the Pastrami, courgettes, onions and tomatoes.

bails

Mm, sounds nice Pennytomyname!

I think I need to sit down and have another look at my total budget too, although I am as scared as both of you! Still, far better to know what's really going on than sticking head in the proverbial sand. I will commit to doing mine over the weekend and will then[STRIKE] cry on here[/STRIKE] report back
I popped into Mr S today on the hunt for bargains and came away with more cat food (I now have loads but they do seem to get through it quickly), some coconut milk for a batch of thai green curry I'll be making soon to use up some curry paste, some garlic bread and a fancy pesto and red pepper bread for Valentine's Day (with something else of course ). All reduced so not too bad; think I bought the breads as 'cheer me up food' though.:rolleyes: I do kinda feel that this month hasn't started so well (mainly due to letting OH lose with joint money) - I haven't spent loads but do need to rein it in again I think. Also, I half did the menu plan for the whole month but OH wanted to be involved - this ought to be a good thing but we can't seem to find time to sit down together so it's not getting done and we're eating on the hoof. :rolleyes: Funny how something that's meant to help can actually hinder the process... So that's what I'll be doing this weekend, replanning and getting re-inspired!

Aril

Hello fellow frugalites!
Much moneysaving has been going on in my absence I see [have nipped in and out briefly to keep tabs on you all:D ]. As ever am hugely impressed at the lengths to which you will go to keep your cash carrying receptacles firmly shut:rotfl: My by proxy afflication contines as I can honestly say I don't think I have ever attained the level of NSD I am currently at [that excludes d/d out of the bank account and OH's spending]. Had to break out and spend £2.50 today as had run out of loo paper amongst other things...that's simply one of those dull things you can't wait until next week for isn't it:eek:
OH and I were neck and neck in the gnat bottom stakes. However, I think I may have just inched forwards slightly as I was able to Make A Very Important Phonecall to OH yesterday complete with chest puffed out [technically difficult with an ironing board frontage but I tried] to impart Important Information. I had got my hands on Martin's email first...consequently OH and I spent a highly romantic evening together last night comparing our current ISA rates compared to the new provider for the transferred in ISAs that :money: had highlighted. That will give us an extra £130 on our savings pa:j and I am now incredibly overthrilled by the news. Is that a normal reaction one might ask oneself....in the outside world maybe not but amongst fellow frugalites yes pretty bog standard I would say:D
Carry on the great work chaps!
Aril