2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

bails

Oh my goodness Hester!!! :eek::eek: I wanted to have a look at that thread Nyk (bit slow as ever), was it pulled because it turned nasty? I personally find the whole 'sponging off taxpayers' debate very difficult - I have had a job since the age of 11 and certainly do not choose to be off work (and would give my right arm to be back at work). Yet I still fall into the Cameron 'shocking statistic' of being under 35 and on Incapacity Benefit. Blanket comments in the media mean that there is SO much stigma and narrow-mindedness around, even on here (as in MSE, not this thread). I even had abuse when I was trying to find info about how I could go back to work!!:eek: As for meeting the same reaction for choosing to live frugally (which is my plan too) - I need to give that more thought...
Thanks for making me LOL Nyk, I hadn't thought of my reluctant blood flow as a side-effect of Frugalism! No wonder it was such a struggle for them. I was probably stressing too much about having to PAY them to stick needles in me :rotfl:

Just read your post Whitewing, your words have real resonance with me. The attitude that people are coming over here and 'stealing our jobs' is just tosh in my opinion; if people were willing to work, then the jobs wouldn't be available, would they? This attitude does my head in! I wish your MiL luck and hope she gets the job.

Aril

Hello fellow frugalites:D
All this talk of consecutive NSDs makes me proud to announce that the first one to reach 7 or above will be the official winner of the FRUGALTIGHT Cup. [a thing that us lurkers/by proxy members can only aspire to!!] Just to clarify this is absolutely nothing to do with overfrugalling and being stingy...this is for those frugalites who manage to keep their cash carrying receptacles firmly shut whilst using ever increasing means and inventive measures to extend their non spending period of 7 days+. I would post a simillie of a cup if I wasn't such a luddite and knew how to do it:D
Half term here [still at work myself] but in my absence OH and the small person or should that read frugalmite has joined forces in the gnat bottom stakes and are outfrugalling me. Darn! Having gone mad on Sunday and pushed the boat out [but on a rope you understand so I could reel it back in:rotfl: ] I spent a pound :eek: yes a whole 3 figure amount on a packet of seeds with 6 different type of veg in it [actually it has 785 seeds in it....how do they know...do I get a refund if I find one missing:rotfl: ]. The two of them put together a green house [flatpack one OH got last birthday] and plan to plant them this week. The small person has retrieved a plastic tray from my recycling basket and tells me he's going to grow the cress in it. Has he been round yours Nyk I wondered moonlighting...all this talk of meat trays and pepper seeds. He's only 9!! He then went one better and rushed off to reappear with 4 packets of annuals which were in a gardening kit that he got for Chrimbo [which I bought him and had forgotten about]. They're going to be put in the greenhouse aswell. Shall have to become ever more cunning methinks and raise the bar again:D
As regards my by proxy membership I did seriously consider biting the bullet but remembered that I have a trip to Canada coming up in May which a trip of a lifetime. I shall positively be sprinkling my money about [was going to typ e throwing it about but I am a dyed in the wool frugalite]. Sadly my role will always be as a supporter rather than as a participator in this challenge. Although I am fully aware that this challenge absolutely no resemblance in either spirit or motivation my OH was brought up in a family where although a good salary was earnt his Mum was kept on a very tight budget [always money for antique clocks and boats though] and huge rows ensued if she was as much as 10p over budget. My OH would often trawl looking for bargains to make up any shortfall to avoid the shouting. Anything that has anytype of restricted spending makes him very uneasy and he is such a kind and gentle chap. Having said that he's happy to indulge my madcap frugalling so long as they're are practical. Sadly the refusal to spend on perhaps things that matter continues in his family and is making for an increasingly difficult and stressful situation for him and his siblings. I am sure you will all understand.
Aril

mama67

I look at it this way for my family, OH tax & NI weekly is the same as what we get in back Child Tax & Child Benefit, but for the 12 years before I chose to have my children I was paying Tax & NI and not receiving any benefits, OH it was 15 years.(except those that every person in UK gets regardless)

We also do not qualify for any of the free dental care and prescriptions as our income is too high!!

Once the boys are older, agian I will more than likely be earning and paying Tax & NI and we won't be getting Child Tax.

It to me is the people who have children immediately and never work but still take the benefits, and then have more children when they are not paying for the ones they already have who are sponging off the Taxpayer.

Obviously this is not directed at anyone on here but you do hear about people who do just this and get housing etc thrown in just because.

Frugaldom

Thank you Hester, Whitewing and Bails, I'm glad I'm not alone in wondering about this. I am not in receipt of social security benefits, so don't qualify for free dental care, free prescriptions etc anyway, and, personally, I do currently pay Council Tax, income tax and National Insurance. But I also accept all tax rebates that I am due at the end of any financial year. Like so many, I have long thought it would be great to own my own home outright (regardless of what type of home that is) and live debt free and as self sufficient as possible, doing something I really like doing. If our cost of living is below the tax threshold, does that make it wrong? Does that mean we are somehow classed as 'sponging off the taxpayer'? I guess it might be OK so long as there's Council Tax or Rates being paid, but what if I lived on a boat? No Council Tax (according to one of those property programes) and no, I have no intentions of buying the oil tanker either. :rotfl: Are we really perceived as removing ourselves from society if we choose to live the above, or similar, lifestyle?

Bails, you are probably lucky that you missed how the 'Freegan' thread panned out - it was utterly disgraceful. It descended into a torrent of religious bigotry, hypocrisy and 'sponging off the taxpayers' mud slinging, which is certainly not what MSE is about (I don't think?). I quit posting quite early on, as I was totally ashamed of having my username associated with some of what got said in there. To be honest, it made me wonder just what MSE really is about and if I really wanted any part of it? Bearing in mind that every word we write here automatically becomes the alleged 'property' of Martin Lewis, it's easy to see why they would edit out the bits that didn't go with the flow, but I do wonder just how far they will enforce the copyright laws. (Caution to all who post a recipe from a book) My entire 'living on 4k' experiences have already been documented elsewhere in the past, but there would be absolutely NO COMEBACK if MSE published this entire thread and sold it as a book... I'm just a little confused right now, too many conflicting topics on here. It's even been suggested that nobody should be in the DFW in the first place if they don't have debts. I count NOT OWNING A HOUSE as a debt until I can afford to buy one and then it is still a debt if it is mortgaged. From what I can see, that may not count. :eek:

If this long and somewhat boring post annoys anyone, please don't be scared to say - you can even PM me for purposes of anonymity - and I will delete it entirely and hold no bad feelings I just got on my high horse a little and then couldn't dismount until the horse stopped galloping. Off for hm toasted bread and cuppa with reconstituted skimmed milk powder. Wonder if it's subject to VAT? :rolleyes:

bails

Nyk, I feel the same, wondering why some people are on MSE sometimes...If I come across any aggro, I leave the 'room', dejected, as soon as possible. I find it so sad that, when people have differing opinions, they cannot express them without resorting to offensive remarks and abuse. This is about finding a supportive online community to help me reach my goals in a friendly and lighthearted manner, rather than looking for the next slanging match. I feel the repsonses you get from some people only reflect badly on them and their sad/angry lives. That's why I love threads like this one, LW, Simplify and GC (where I spend most of my time) which are full of kindness and solidarity. Thankyou peeps xx

You know things are [STRIKE]bad[/STRIKE] good when you jump up and down with excitement when 5 free teabags pop through the letterbox and you calculate how much money that's saved you :rotfl:

whitewing

Hmmm* thinking hard * Point one: except for my mortgage, I am not in debt and I am remaining firmly in the DFW board because it is the most inspirational place to be.

Point two: I used to earn more (before I knew better), pay more tax than I do now but worked fulltime for a bank that purely sold loans and credit cards. Now I pay less tax etc but work at jobs that I find morally acceptable. What kind of scourge on society am I now? Am I a better scourge or a worse one in 2008?

Can we just be nice buddies again, looking at sunsets and pottering about in Lidls and the kitchen? My head is aching!

slowlyfading

I failed I went to get my results, which weren't as good as I had hoped, so I was really disappointed. Cue trip to Greggs for a pastie and a cake, and £1.36 spent and my NSW down the drain. Oh well, there's always tomorrow, I guess.

whitewing

Slowlyfading,

Big hugs to you. Personally, I love Greggs, so it's currently on my list of 'do not cross the threshold'. If you like, pm me your address and I will post you the £1.36 in which case you can still have your NSW, as it will be a commisseration gift from the frugalites.

slowlyfading

whitewing wrote: »

Slowlyfading,

Big hugs to you. Personally, I love Greggs, so it's currently on my list of 'do not cross the threshold'. If you like, pm me your address and I will post you the £1.36 in which case you can still have your NSW, as it will be a commisseration gift from the frugalites.

Lol thanks. I don't think its the amount, its more the principle, and the fact that I didn't need it. I am, however, learning slowly to walk past the bakery smell without walking in! :rotfl:

Frugaldom

whitewing wrote: »

Can we just be nice buddies again, looking at sunsets and pottering about in Lidls and the kitchen? My head is aching!

I agree - just wish they would hurry up and build a Lidls or Aldis near me and as for what Bails said...

You know things are [STRIKE]bad[/STRIKE] good when you jump up and down with excitement when 5 free teabags pop through the letterbox and you calculate how much money that's saved you :rotfl:

:j for the 5 Typhoo Fruit & Herb Teabags received this afternoon, :T for the 20p off voucher that came with them, for the free sample of Eucerin cream and :beer: for the £5 cheque from Experian for completing their survey. Then I'll add a to those who laugh because I bake biscuits - made another tray this afternoon - and a :cool: for getting enough meat off of £3.50 chicken to make 4 lots of meals for 3 of us and still get a pot of stock for soup.

Agreed! Life is good if you don't let others get to you. Apologies for doubting it and thank you