2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Paul_Varjak

I have spent £324 this month - that includes everything except Council Tax and NI contributions (self-employed)

£324 even includes all my insurance premiums (house, life and 2 cats), food for me (& two cats), petrol, telephone and internet.

I am not in debt (never have been) and as I am now spending around half of my annual income (at age 56) I want to get some money into a pension as I certainly don't want to get into debt when I retire!

My pension has around £14,000 in it at the moment and I want to get that up to around £100,000 by the time I retire - a tough target!

wendyw1947

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :A done my figures wont list them all as soooo slow typing,Nykmedia u r brill u should have been an accountant !, how did u know my amount works out at .....wait for it ..... 4k a year, so pretty please can I have a number,have joined the mortgage pig so everything i save will go towards that,am sitting with my feet on a heaty wheaty bag and have a crochet blanket round my shoulders as decided i'm too mean to put the fire on .I only have a small fridge/freezer so cant batch cook but theres only the 2 of us and sorry to make anyone out there; jealous but have easy access to Aldi,Lydl,Asda,Tesco,Sainsburys,Waitrose,Morrisons and only few miles from a giant sunday market got sack of spuds today£4,4ib bannas £1,and a big bag of veg carrots,onions,swede,parsnips'and spring cabbage all for a £1.and no i dont live in a big city.By the way i am up to page 35 feel i know you all already its like having an extended family,wish me luck and I LUV U ALL :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

FunBrum

Everything is in order thanks for asking Marky. How are you getting on with the terry nappies? Hope you reap the benefit from them!

Hope all you mums have a lovely day. I've had some very nice pressies but I'm off now to work:o No rest for the wicked!

Penny2myName

Now who was it that bought the bush for their mum, was mentioning it round my mum's when sister came with big bunch of flowers (in vase) and she said she was convinced Mr A had upped their prices for this week, and said, that's a thought, so I now think next year my mum will be getting some form of bush from sister.

Its ended up it was my younger bro that used to eat all the weird cheeses at my mum's so older sister and bro will now be having the soft cheese anyhow.
She liked the cake anyhow.
Was surprised when kids brought me a bought card back from their dad's (nice one too) and a keyring teddy saying best mummy (daughter has clung to £1 which she used for it)

Anyhow I have had a pleasant one with no fighting kids as of yet, so happy.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Aril wrote: »

Hello fellow frugalites!
And how are we all upon this fine and frugal day?
I have had to muster all my frugal willpower [or should that read won'tpower:D] this week as the material girl popped out of her box unexpectedly and ambushed me. There was I innocently nipping to the supermarket to top up on milk for work [so was legitimately near the shops] when I made a fatal tactical error and glanced sideways into the window of Oxfam where I spied the most gorgeous jumper. The material girl can be very persuasive and all I could hear was "you needs that jumper....you wants that jumper...your wardrobe would be complete with that jumper and I'd never bother you again". How many times have I responded to that argument over the years I wonder:D Anyway to cut to the chase I did the sensible thing and thought I'd think about it over night. When I got home and checked in my drawer I found not only one but two jumpers of exactly the same colourway so phew I kept my Venus flytrap purse [with credit card with Snitch like apsirations] deeply buried within my rucksack under various clutter and saved myself £6.99. But oohhh how easy it would have been to add another identical jumper to the collection without checking first:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Quick gnatbottom stake update. Mr Frugal and frugalmite did magnifecently with Mothering Sunday....20 daffs for the price of 10 and a card making kit for half price [plus erm some Turkish Delight that I'd asked for and chocolate] so well spoilt there but all done in a canny costed out sort of way. However, today I am triumphant as have inched ahead....as I type Mr Frugal and frugalmite are off collecting a drill from freecycle that I spotted to replace the trusty one that blew up last weekend after 20 years of trusty service. Phew my head's that big now that we'll have to open the double doors to get it through.:D:D
Happy frugalling!
Aril

Oh your post did make me laugh!! It reminds me of myself....

Frugaldom

First, my official welcome to Wendy, who has been slotted in at number 84 to fill a little gap that had appeared. Hope you have a great time taking part and that you are soon as frugalized as everyone else

Janey - I am so sorry to have laughed at your predicament and I hope you are feeling much better now!

I was pleasantly surprised to receive 2 lovely cards this morning, one each from DD and DS, plus a cuddly giraffe and a box of choccies... munching them whilst I type ... oops! Give me one minute, must frugally retrieve that bit from between letters 'B' and 'N'

Today's frugal trip went exceedingly well. After a nice long lie, we set off around 11am. It was a bit blustery and showery but nothing to worry about. Well! You can imagine my sheer frugal joy when we arrived and, not far from the loch, was a HUGE NEW LOOKING MR T STORE! :j I was imagining a mini-Mr T, but this was the real deal! :T I think we spent a couple of hours just wandering around the store and I had to be dragged from the bakery clearance shelves! (PLURAL!) :eek: The trolley was fully laden with bargains galore, enough to last the entire month, plus I got stacks of extra clubcard points and green points for not using their carrier bags! My total points amounted to 179 for a spend of just £65.07 :T We went and watched the swans at the lochside for a bit, we saw a few donkeys, plenty of ponies, lambs, a field with llamas (or alpacas, not sure which) and we also saw a fox plodding across one of the fields. We drove home via our local MR S! :rotfl: Mr T's chickens were outwith my frugal budget, so I went and got 3 for £6 from Mr S plus ended up picking up 2 packs smoked bacon on BOGOF, 2 tubs Dairy Lea (special offer at 59p per tub) and some half price Rice Crispies, all-in-all coming to £10.17 My only problem was, I arrived home and could hardly fit all the food into the freezer, fridge and cupboards. I have thoroughly enjoyed my day out and will probably do the same again nearer summer. It's a 75 mile round trip, which is much less than I thought, but a bit far to contemplate making it a regular trip. But I didn't even know you could get bags of sugar THAT SIZE! :eek: And plain flour was only 36p! :T
This idea of cutting back on the number of spending days is fantastic! I get to spend LOADS all in one day! I now have £24.76 of my grocery challenge money left to last the month but have totalled up what I'll probably need to about £12, so.... :j :j :j Off to search for a couple of properties we passed en route, fixy-ups, as we took mock bets on what the asking prices might be, then I need to check my eBid listings as they are all ending tonight (charity event).

Catch up with you all soon

OOH! I forgot to say... the tomato seeds that I dried out then planted in my makeshift frugal propogator are now out of their dark corner and on the kitchen windowsill and almost all of them have sprouted! They are about 2cm high and will need to be planted into the hm frugal seedpots this week. Might even get a piccie of them for my journal How is everyone else getting on with theirs? My pepper seeds haven't sprouted yet.

sophiesmum_2

Janey51 wrote: »

I have been given a present from 2 very good friends....a Terramundi :j
Its a beautiful drippy lilac colour...IYKWIM

I think they must have got the hint as the word "frugal" peppers my conversation on a daily basis
I have wanted one for ages but couldn't bring myself to part with the cash.

I am racking my brains to think what special thing I could use it to save for as I have so many savings pots already

I got a terramundi from OH at xmas, mine is cream and brown with gold hearts on and my name. I'm using it for my sealed pot challenge as I already feel quite sad about breaking it when it is full. I was already aiming for £500 over the year but am now also adding £10 a week from this challenge in lieu of electricity payments so hopefully it may have around £1000 in by the end of the year:D . Hopefully OH will buy me another next xmas.;)
Still deciding what to spend it on or may add it to my ISA,

MarkyMarkD

FunBrum We started using the reusable nappies when she was around 6 months old (might have been 3 months - not sure) - so that's about 2 years ago now, and we've done pretty well. We've used "nasty" binnables when we've been away on holiday but we've avoided filling up the wheelie bin with nappies like our neighbour (now on her second child) seems to. I definitely think the moneysaving only really comes home with the second child and s/he is still imaginary at this stage. And we'll both be at least 40 before the imaginary second child is born which is getting a bit scary.

Lunch was eventually served at 4pm after I sorted everything out - seemed to go down OK with my daughter's Mum and Grandma so a pretty successful Mother's Day all in all.

Now they've gone I can get back to serious stuff like posting on MSE.

bails

Hi all and Happy Mothers Day! The closest I get to being a mother so far is to my animals - the kitten is most perturbed that I've stopped stroking his head to start typing

Janey, I hope your stomach is now better but your story was v funny (been there!). Welcome to Wendy, who seems to be getting right into the swing of things, fab! and to any other newbies I may have missed. CA, best wishes to your mum too, I hope she is feeling a lot better soon.

I ventured to Mr Ts today to while I was at mum's - they were selling off 4 pts semi-skimmed for 30p each :T so I got 3, one for mum and 2 for me; I just hope I can make some room for them in the freezer! I spent quite a while looking at reduced baby stuff for best friend but just couldn't decide- will need to find something on Thursday (my next Spend Day) before I head up to see them next weekend. I started looking forward to having a niece or nephew, or even my own, to buy for - is this my first step towards broodiness?! :eek:

Had a lovely lunch with Mum and Dad, couldn't fit pudding in so I saved myself some cash and had free lemon meringue pie at home later Mum loved her bear - ended up getting a card instead of making one which I regret as I couldn't find any nice ones this year so will make one next time (remind me someone ).

OH wanted some board games to play and I knew my parents had loads so I've now inherited all of them; free entertainment. I also got him a little pressie for Christmas and a little stationery set for his new business (stapler with lots of staples, hole punch, sellotape holder) for 50p . And some stirfry for 37p. A good day indeed I do believe :T

Those terramundi look fab Janey, I wouldn't want to break them though...

sophiesmum_2

Nyk sounds like you had a very productive trip today;)

I must have a go at starting off some tomato seeds, I usually buy small plants but it would make more sense to grow my own especially from free seeds;)
That's if I have any greenhouse left by morning as it has taken a battering with the gales this weekend.