2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

sophiesmum_2

I almost bought Duncan's book last week, but managed to resist for now:o
Have to admit that books and kitchen stuff are my weakness.
What do you think of the book - is it worth a read???

Have been hinting for book tokens for mother's day:rolleyes:
Don't use library much as I can never get there at the times they are open and end up paying late fees so defeats the object:o

Janey51

Hello from a small branch of Frugal Land in the frozen North:wave:

Now, listen up you lot We will have no more talk of desertion from this challenge.
If you could see my budget for February (still not updated) you would fear for the safety of my cats...munchity, crunchity as DH keeps threatening :rotfl:
I Love this thread and everyone who posts on it, whether participants or lurkers :T

I have a big, nay, ginormous husband who will track you all down and drag you back to the confession box

catshark88

Hello Everyone,

So sorry to hear that some of you are having such a tough time. I think that any long term, hard project like this gets really hard going after a while, but only for a short while. When the weather improves, you can feel the sun on your face and the birds are chirruping, I am sure that things will feel so much better.

Luckily there is a great team of people on this thread and as long as we don't all feel down on the same day, there will be currently "up" ones to cheer up the "down" ones when they need it ifswim!

One thought that might help... Try remembering what your weekly/ monthly spends would have been prior to this challenge. You are all doing extraordinarily well! :beer:

Janey51

A Day in the Life

In a little house far, far away, lives a Frugalholic, her DH (almost Frugal) and 3 lovely little moggies who are being trained to be Frugal Felines

Frugalholic is full of good intentions every single morning as she leaps from her bed and dashes through her (unheated) house to the bathroom where she showers(using freebies and BOGOFs). She dresses in many layers of Haute Couture from Ebay and Local Charity Outlets as her house is healthily below the recommended temperature for everyday living.
A little makeup (which is a little old and can be viewed on old episodes of Antique Roadshow) and she is ready to face her Public.

Stepping delicately amongst the presents Frugal Felines have kindly deposited on her kitchen floor :eek: she prepares her breakfast.

She switches on her Laptop and wonders fitfully if it is cheaper to leave it working off the battery or keep it plugged in
She worries about whether to leave the kitchen (fluorescent) light on or switch it off
She worries about how many times she has opened the lid of the chest freezer to retrieve items of food thereby causing the freezer to use more electricity to cool down again
She worries about whether she dare use the tumble dryer (B rated) for a few minutes to dry off DH's working clothes or if it will dry in time draped over the Aga or whether she will forget about it and go and do something else resulting in burns, flames and another insurance claim :eek:

Frugalholic is overwhelmed
Switches off lights, goes back upstairs and climbs back into bed.
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Janey51

What a lovely day:j

The sun is now shining through the kitchen window showing up all the dust on my cooker...not to mention the cat pawprints on the sink I hope Stardrops kills all known germs.

I woke up early and remembered the SO for our rent goes out today and I had forgotten to check if there was enough in the bank to cover it. I also heard the central heating click on which I had forgotten to cancel the night before.
Dashed along to the bathroom for a quick splash and then thought "Aha, wages might go in the bank today" So I phoned work and asked someone to check and :T wages paid in so enough to cover SO.
Very good...saved the petrol driving to bank to transfer money over from savings account.

Yesterday, I broke the lid on my slow cooker but DH says he can fix Confess to a little twinge of concern in case glue he uses is fatal to humans so will let him try first dish made when lid is fixed
On a Frugal note, got my Slow Cooker in a box of bric a brac from an auction 5 yrs ago. Its a Tower one, looks to be 1970 vintage by the colour but works great. Managed to get an instruction and recipe book from a charity shop for £1.

Had to spend £2.20 on postage yesterday to send Recorded Delivery letter and buy some stamps.

My new job is fantastic. I have been shadowing more expereienced carers Mon & Tues and again on Thurs. Sat & Sun I am let loose on my own :eek:

Janey51

Just remembered.
Found out that the firm that supplies our oil do a DD scheme. As you will know, oil is so expensive and we can't cut our use any further. A full tank of oil costs nearly £500 but its so hard to budget for as it keeps going up and up.
I phoned the company up and was told the monthly cost for us will be £160.
So, I will wait until the tank is nearly empty (about a third left now) then join the scheme and get a fill. That will mean an interest free loan for a few months til they review it again.
Its the best solution I can think of at the moment.
Since I hav elost a lot of weight I am permanently cold no matter how many layers I have on. Thank God we have lots of hot water so I can keep having a hot soak.

Penny2myName

Have realised, last night/early hours wasn't a release from build up of tension on the earth's plates, but was in fact the combined relaxation from a build up of frugalites who have been worrying over coming in over budget.

One a change of note, we can all now have a cuppa as my typhoo fruit & herb tea bags have finally arrived. Think I will stick the 20p off voucher in with sister's Easter egg.

redglass_2

Hi frugalites
I haven't been able to lurk for just over 2 weeks as I had to supervise a group of students on an educational trip and there was no internet access. I'll never be able to read up on all the posts I've missed so if there's something I really should know, can some kind person please get me up to speed? When I left we were still pondering the tragic fate of the knickerless nun but I bet a lot has happened since then...

Mollymop5

Janey you are fantastic!!!!! just the person to keep us cheery on a cold morning up North:).I myself seem to be managing ok with the budget.i don't have an OH so I think this makes it easier.My kids are also great, don't ask for nothing and although I talked to my ds in January about giving him £5 per week pocket money he has yet to receive it as he says he doesn't need it.I give him 50p on Tuesdays and Thursday nights for tuck at cadets and thats mainly it.I'm sure as he gets older he will want more but for the time being I'm not going to complain lol.
Good luck with the slow cooker lid .Have a lovely day

Janey51

Mollymop5 wrote: »

Janey you are fantastic!!!!! just the person to keep us cheery on a cold morning up North:).I myself seem to be managing ok with the budget.i don't have an OH so I think this makes it easier.My kids are also great, don't ask for nothing and although I talked to my ds in January about giving him £5 per week pocket money he has yet to receive it as he says he doesn't need it.I give him 50p on Tuesdays and Thursday nights for tuck at cadets and thats mainly it.I'm sure as he gets older he will want more but for the time being I'm not going to complain lol.
Good luck with the slow cooker lid .Have a lovely day

Aww. Shucks.