2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

Keren, I blame you for this, but I had to take a quick trip to the Co-op for milk - NOTE: I ONLY went for milk! - HOWEVER, I ended with a bag of (reduced) apples several trays of chicken drumsticks that had been reduced to 55p plus, dare I say it... a ready meal :eek: It cost me 35p. Everything is now in the freezer and I have updated my spending diary, and CORRECTED A MISTAKE!! :eek: I knew I should have had more than £7 left of my grocery budget, thankfully! It was £7.58 worth of non-foodstuffs that I had stupidly counted in!! My signature is now correct and I even have a perfect number, albeit almost 25% of my entire budget has already gone!!

Casey, welcome to our frugal thread, I hope you can offer us some more helpful tips on cutting costs. I know we have touched on the freeganism topic in here and if you are living as a freegan then feel free to share your secrets. I know there are many here who can't or won't push their limits to store-bin raiding, but there must be plenty of other tips you can offer with regards to living within a minimal budget.
With regards to 'Wife Swap', look to the bottom left of each post and you'll see a little 'exclamation' mark/warning sign. Anyone can hit that button if they object to a post or if they feel that it has gone off topic. As part of the DFW forum, the 'Live for a year on £4000' thread is about living within a budget and everything that entails. That, in my opinion, includes simple ways of subsidising any shortfalls, making the most of vouchers and freebies, recycling/renovating/repairing rather than replacing, DIY, homecooking, bargain buys and basically anything else that involves reducing the cost of living to something we are happy with ourselves. I suspect that the original thread you mention was deleted because of it being repeatedly reported for going off topic. I think I speak for all when I say we are open to anything that's relevant to 'the good life' with some cash added for good measure.

Chewits - what can I say You might have chosen eBid, as that's where I offer surplus to requirement items for sale during the charity auctions :rotfl:

Nevadagirl - thanks for the handy link! I'm always looking for gift-making ideas

Janey - Sorry, I just had to laugh at that! I don't buy newspapers either and always have to rescue other peoples' so we can line the bird cage & guinea pig cage. It's a fight for the free paper and junk mail in this household! :rotfl:

Back soon, am away to stick some rolls in the oven ... the dough should be proved by now

Penny2myName

Back from London, completely broke, returned with 44p to an empty fridge and freezer. Have to use credit card to do shopping, as no money now till March. So what I intend doing since its a horrid apr, is go bargin hunting tonight, try for as many items between 50-70% reduced so then my 34% apr doesn't cost me in the long run with my shopping. Have already started
Cabbage 40p from £1.27 (A)
Rosemary Roasting Potatoes 40p from £1.58 (A)
Rosemary Roasting Potatoes 40p from £1.58 (A)
White chocolate fingers, 50p from £1.78 (A)
Colouring pencils 25p from 50p (A)
Cat Cruncies 45p from 85p (T)
Spaghetti 29p from 41p (T)
Chicken & veg pies 99p from 1.99(half price deal T)
Solo's Pizza 99p from 1.99(half price deal T)
Cookies 39p from 78p(half price deal T)(one pack for mum for having son whilst I was away)
Cookies 39p from 78p(half price deal T)
Cookies 39p from 78p(half price deal T)

Going on proper hunt later tonight.

Penny2myName

Forgot to mention, I had forgotten that I had ordered an Anew age-transforming foundation for £15.99:eek: from Avon, to come home and call round mate's today to find it there, will have to pay for it next Thursday. In my defence it came with a free evening bag that will go lovely with the dress I bought my mum other year for Christmas, Anew Clinical Advanced wrinkle corrector, Advance Techniques heat protection styler, Avon Nail experts (nail strengthener I think), Skin So Soft winter soft Hand Cream and last but not least Avon uplifting mascara (no idea what colour it is).
Totally forgot it was foundation I ordered and spent £8.99 (normally £11.99)on some from waitrose whilst in London, as I had non.

Burlesque_Babe

I take all the blame Nyk

Janey - I've been known to snaffle newspaper magazines from my ex (and he never realises!!) He gets a paper on a Saturday and one a Sunday and never even opens the packet of magazines that come with them, they are just left discarded. I wait until for a few days when they are moved from the table to the waste paper basket.........to my car.........:whistle:

System

BAD - went out for lunch cos it was a collegues last day (£4.95)

GOOD - there was a really lovely floorstanding toilet roll holder sitting next to the bins outside my flat. It is now disinfected and in my bathroom!

Frugaldom

Jumble-Bee wrote: »

BAD - went out for lunch cos it was a collegues last day (£4.95)

GOOD - there was a really lovely floorstanding toilet roll holder sitting next to the bins outside my flat. It is now disinfected and in my bathroom!

Floorstanding toilet roll holders, cheapest available £7, average for chrome, £25!! :eek: WELL DONE! :rotfl: Do I get 2p for Kelkoo'ing it?

System

:rotfl:i was just going to ask you if you looked that up, or if you are just an expert on toilet roll holder trivia....

ps its chrome, oh yeah :j

sashacat

Hi again everyone. I haven't posted for a few days because I've been too busy preparing my allotment for all the seeds etc and I've been too tired at night to log on. Anyway it's nearly all ready now and my bees are doing well so should have lots of honey this year.
I made home made yogurt yesterday for the first time and this should save me quite a bit as I made a litre for little more than the cost of the milk. I got the recipe from the OS board. I have mixed it with blackcurrants (frozen from the allotment last autumn) and honey. I have overspent again this month so I am going to deduct the £72 I have paid for allotment rent and not count that, then I will be in buget....it's the cost of petrol that's killing me. My kids live miles away and my friend, who is having a really bad time and needs a lot of support has moned an hour and a half away, so I'm spending a fortune on petrol.
Did a big shop in Asda yesterday but it's the first supermarket shop since December so I shouldn't complain...but I do . I hate supermarkets and all they stand for and I don't know why I shop there. I also hate parting with my pennies.Good luck to everyone and thanks for all the posts. Ilove reading them

Marru

Hi,

I have been getting ready to start this challenge. I created a spreadsheet today with a forecast cash flow till the end of the year to help with the challenge. At the moment it looks horrid as bank balance looks like it is going red on 1st of March but I have already warned the nursery that they will get their money but not in one go instead weekly instalments (thank goodness for tax credits) and council tax bill (they kindly send me 6 months worth of payments due on 1st of March) can wait a bit longer. Managed to take the last bit of documentation to the council today for the housing benefit and within two weeks that should kick in (fingers crossed) and rescue my cash flow and make it positive. Sent yesterday my budget with offers of token payments to creditors so will be interesting to see what post will bring come next week. Got statements this week from all three credit cards and every single one of them had added interest and one had added late payment fee despite me contacting them and asking not to. I am sure they will find out soon enough that adding any more interest or penalties will be absolutely useless as even if I get the housing benefit it will take me 25 years to pay off my debts as they are (and this is without interest added) unless I can remarkably improve my income which I can't see happening at least not until my LO starts school.

So splashed out today and got bottle of wine (cheapest Chardonnay I could find) to celebrate finally taking action and as a bye bye to my old life. This challenge will be fantastic in keeping me in focus and reading all of your posts are just like a red nose day all day every day for me.

So thank you for making me welcome here! I shall go and open that wine now.

So thank you all.

Marru

whitewing

I am quite disappointed that the freegan debate is coming onto our challenge, especially since it went so awry on its own thread. This thread is a major support to my family and I certainly don't want to run the risk of the thread being blocked.

Personally, while I am appalled that so much stuff gets chucked out, I still think that bin raiding is stealing (either from the supermarkets or from the contractors who remove it to feed to livestock). If anyone was really that bothered about stopping supermarkets from overpricing goods and chucking it out, they would protest properly.

I'll be back when this nonsense is over.