2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Burlesque_Babe

£24.32 for me, including £4.99 for the Spanish cookery book from the Book People. Looking forward to reading it, although, I really do NOT need any more cookery books.

I would really love to grow my own vegetables in some small way but I am so utterly useless at it. I've tried, I really have! I did manage a couple of tomato plants 3 years ago and ended up with about 10 tomatos but other than that my efforts have been............well............fruitless really!

mah_jong

Just keeping updating here to show that whilst I don't post everyday that I am keeping note of all spends.

Nothing much to report as yet, bills have been debited and food spends are minimal, I had to check on the calender/menu planner as they are so small but they are accurate, I was out at friends once (and took wine and biscuits from my cupboard to give).

So for Food spends, month to date 3.76, this was on milk and fruit, not an unhealthy diet by the way, I had veggies along with various food items in the freezer .

Catering for one.

Next week will be much more I think!

Penny2myName

elantan wrote: »

Ok I’ve had a look at this living off of £4,000 a year and I just cant see me doing it even at £80 a week which is £4160 a year I am not gonna make it …I would even struggle on £100 a week or £5200 a year …here’s my breakdown for what I have so far

£100 a month for gas and electricity I have tried to find cheaper but this is the cheapest for our consumption
£50 for t.v/phone/internet we are on the xl package for all of these and use them to the full extent every month, sometimes more for phone bills.
£30 for my mobile I work shifts, long hours and some days the only contact I have with family is by mobile I get 500 any time any network mins and 500 texts per month I also get stop the clock I use the 500 mins every month (sometimes more) I often use my stop the clock twice weekly and my 500 texts per month get used up within 3 weeks
£16 car insurance I just managed to renew my car insurance I got it for less than £200 it was more than £200 but I should get £70 back via quidco taking it to £196 for the year(comes under work related for you)
£10 t.v license I’m not sure exactly how much a t.v licence is I don’t think it is much more than £10 a month however
£4 car tax I’m lucky in that I have a very cheap car to tax (comes under work related for you)
£100 diesel I rarely drive unless it is for work reasons but having two jobs and working shifts I need to think safety and time constraints I travel from one job directly to the other, but basically the diesel consumption is for work.(work related so you dont need to count this in)

This comes to £310 a month working on £80 a week multiplying by 52 and dividing by 12 I come out with £346.66
this would leave me with £36.66 a month to give hubby and I work money (hubby works out side and needs hot food he does take soup but understandably get’s fed up with it sometimes) I pay £3 a month for coffee and milk. (work related not counted)
Also to buy all our food and put money by for birthdays xmas presents and buy alcohol for hubby …without any treats

Now if I do it at £100 a week I am left with £123.33 a month to do all that …I would struggle to even manage to feed the two if us on that a month never mind work/birthdays/xmas etc


And I havnt even budgeted for a holiday (only camping which is really cheap) (Luxury so not counted)
..and I’m pretty sure I have missed something else out as well. I also haven't added in the pension payments I am making (dont think I have seen this on anyone elses either)
or the extra payments I am making to my mortgage I am a member of the mfw 2008 challenge and am trying to make payments to that hence the reason I would like to give this a go the more I can shave off my spending the more I can pay towards my mortgage (any mortgage payments not included)

Now I do plan on growing my own veg etc this year but this is also gonna cost me in start up money buying seeds spending money on the garden etc so I don’t know what is a reallistic goal for me to set …I don’t want it to be impossible but I don’t want it to be easy either.

Sorry for going on but does anyone have any advice?

Well thats my two pennie worth for you towards this challenge.

whitewing

Eerrgghhh..not feeling well today still with this rotten cold. Can't sleep properly either.

DS was given two hot chocolate samples yesterday by his teacher for some reason and kindly gave me one today. He was chuffed to pieces because he got 2x50p vouchers in the sample packs.

Like the Billy idea. I think it'll be especially useful for us in the spring/summer months as we'll be able to have home grown stuff from family and friends hopefully, and that should cut the bills down.

Keep your posts coming folks, they are really inspiring.

whitewing

Hopeless, what's tinned spinach like and what do you do with it? I'm quite anaemic so it's good for me to eat but I only buy fresh and as we only go shopping once a month now I don't have spinach much.

Burlesque_Babe

Whitewing - I've never tried tinned spinach but it would probably work well in a curry or bombay potatoes with spinach (Sag Aloo)

The frozen stuff is good for throwing in curries or, what I do, is buy a bag of the fresh stuff when I see it reduced, put it in the freezer and then when I want to use some, give the bag a squeeze so it crumbles it up, pour some in and then put the bag back in the freezer.

Just remember to ensure it is sealed......I've had squashed up spinach littering my freezer more than once!!!

I do the same for bags of coriander. chuck them in the freezer, then squash the bag in my hands whilst it is frozenand pour it in the pan. Just remember to fish around for the little blue elastic band!!! Good way of storing it if you can grab a load of reduced packets.

I also buy chillies reduced and freeze them. Take them out about 1-2 minutes before I need to add them and then just use scissors to snip them straight into the pan. They are semi hard after a minute or so so they cut really well.

hopeless_spendthrift

Good Morning everybody :hello:

I use tinned spinach as a fast food standby Whitewing. Yes, as Keren suggests, I usually make (a version!) of saag aloo, with potatoes.
Fry some onions, crushed garlic and seeds: cumin, coriander, onion (black), or any others u like in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil (use as much as u like as it's healthy).
Add a couple of teaspoons each of ground cumin (jeera), ground coriander (dhania) a teaspoon of turmeric (haldi) and a teaspoon of chilli powder, a handful of chillies (or how ever much u like) and fry for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring all the time. Next add some cooked, diced potatoes, a can or two of chopped tomatoes, or 3/4 carton of passata (sieved tomatoes), along with a tin or two of spinach and some fresh coriander if you have. Add 1/2 to 1 pint of stock or water and cook for about 15mins. Voila! Best left and heated up and eaten some time later if poss, when the flavours have had time to develop and mingle!
Would probably taste even better with fresh spinach. Have never tried it, bc as I said, it is a quick standby for when i am stuck for an accompaniment to a meal. For instance, we have at least once a week, frozen cod or haddock in batter (4-10 for £5 from Mr A's!). Now the kids like it with plain potatoes and sweetcorn and pasta salad for example, so I would usually make the spinach or/and a rice dish to accompany the fish for me and any other adults in the house who prefer something a little more exciting to tickle their tastebuds as Ainsley would say!

I love your tips for freezing the fresh spinach and coriander Keren thank you! One of the jobs I hate most for some reason is chopping fresh coriander and chillies. So this is an invaluable tip for me :A . Be sure to wash thoroughly before freezing though as the leaves contain a lot of sand/grit and dirt and stuff.

bails

Elantan, I agree with Penny2myname, all your car/work related costs don't need to be included for the purposes of this challenge, so that brings your total down by £120 a month already. The tea/coffee money and your husband's work food could also be counted as luxuries, along with the alcohol (you don't NEED these things to live, they may just help ) so they don't need to be counted. Same with extra mortgage payments/ pension stuff - effectively they are the fruits of your labour on this challenge; the money you save here can help to pay them.
Look again at all your spends and divide them up into essentials/ luxuries e.g. food is essential but takeaways are a luxury. (I know work is essential for you but because not everyone incurs the same costs to work they are excluded). You could also try the Present Money Neutral challenge, where you pay for all your presents with vouchers/ cashback/regifting unwanted presents/ Ebay sales etc. Hope this helps; you can do it!

Charlie'sAngel, please don't be offended and I'm glad that you have posted again. I genuinely think that we are wanting to pick your brain to help us live more frugally. As with texts, it's easy sometimes to misinterpret posts and take them the wrong way. Would you be able to explain a bit more how you manage/any great tips please? What about toiltetries for example? And vet's bills? (these cost me a fortune! ) Would you feel up to posting your whole budget? Thanks, I would love to live on such a small amount!:D

andromache_2

hi all

guess what :j my uni has agreed to give me a £100 hardship grant! yay:T not that much but every little helps! Since it's intended to help pay for an expensive hobby of mine, I've decided to subtract it from my challenge total rather than add it to the travelling pot. I'll do that when it hits my account, which won't be for a few weeks.

I love the Billy can idea: it's very cute! I don't have a defined grocery budget as such, so I was thinking of using it for my general weekly budget... is that OK?? I'm going to blow that budget this week by taking OH out to dinner for his birthday but he's worth it :A and we hardly ever go out nowadays so I think we're due a treat.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Hardup_Hester

Hi
I haven't forgotted I'm part of this challenge, lol but I'm rejigging my budget. My lodger is now due to leave in April instead of July so this will impact on our income, on the upside there will be some savings on food (the list of what she won't eat is endless & this makes her expensive to feed). Hubby has had only about 6 or 7 days work since Christmas & there is no more in the pipeline.
I feel we both need a break from lodgers for a while, as this lodger has been particularly stressful to deal with, if anyone wants more info it's all on my blog & the link is on my profile. But this leaves me with the challenge of making extra money from somewhere & I don't know where, lol.
I am still trying to book stalls at various school fairs etc, I'm fortunate in that I don't make cards, so I am usually offered a stall. I'm also on the cottage industry thread, though it is fairly quiet at the moment.
I'll alter my sig as soon as I've sorted out exactly what I'm going to do.
Hester