2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

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.

I'm amazed mine are growing as I just scopped them out the last lot of tomatoes I had. I'm hoping we can stay in the same house long enough to grow some potatoes and build that frugal plastic bottle greenhouse. I have a couple of bags worth of bottles already and if we get back to the shore a few times that's where I'll collect most of what I'll need. Sad but true - our shores are completely littered by plastic bottles when the tide turns.

Marky, well done on creating a successful Mother's Day for the family, it sounds as though everyone enjoyed themselves. How old is your daughter?

Marru

HI,

I had a bit different Mother's Day as my LO gave me a bloody nose first thing in the morning. After keeping me up most of the night running between her room and toilet up till 3 am she came to wake me at half five in the morning and while crawling over my head kicked me on the nose with her knee. Ouch! She has all day been imitating me how I looked when I rushed into the toilet holding hand under my nose to stop blood going everywhere. Bails - if you want to practise please do give me a shout and I borrow my LO gladly anytime. She is brainwashed to like animals so should fit in just fine.

Shopping wise good day and got only necessities (including chocolate, have come into conclusion that this is a necessity to my mental health and overall wellbeing).
Will try to stay away from shops next few days but already noticed that running low on cooking oil and bread (I know bad planning).

But when went to pick up my new steam cooker from Freecyckle the petrol light came on and I had to go and fill up. 106.9 Per litre . I wanted it to last till the mid month but unavoidable trip slurped half the tank week ago. Just need to keep an eye on the grocery budget more carefully.

I hope you all have had a great day.

Marru

skintwellie

Marru wrote: »

redglass wrote: »

Hi Redglass and Skintwellie,

Are they Labradors by any chance?

Marru

Leonberger!

Hope that you all have had a wonderful Mother's Day. I had a lovely day with my Mum whose nearly 90 and daughters. My son was working so he is taking me out for a meal later in the week.

bails

Just posting weekly update before off for some serious chilling time.

Total spends: £62.11, put odd 89p into savings so £3200/302 x 7 = £74.17/week. Only 3 NSDs this week but hopefully more next week as I'm now on Spend Days instead - no spending til Thursday now. Savings this week are £145.88 total - my Personal savings were £10.98 short of £1000 so I've added that in - YAE, my first grand! :j
Have a lovely evening everyone, see you tomorrow (must do those seeds...)

System

nykmedia wrote: »

I'd be far too busy cooking, baking, gardening, chopping firewood, cleaning out the barn, collecting eggs, milking the goat and making homemade presents for everyone. Is this what people aspire to in the 21st Century?:rotfl: Imagine the face of the career's advisor when faced with that scenario in today's schools.

well i am starting the careers advisor pg course this autumn and my face would be :T
but methinks i may be a one-off!


i have had a good weekend was at a wee jumble and they were handing out 2 free energy saving lightbulbs and a personal attck alarm

plus i was temping this weekend so have some extra cash, and when i stepped out of work i found................................................................

:j:j:j:j:jveggie roadkill!!!!:j:j:j:j:j

well, a lovely bag of lovely farmers market looking loose fruit and veg - it was in a carrier bag with snapped handles, and some idiot must have just left it. so i whipped out my bag-for-life and snaffled it. i got -

4 starfruit
1 large sweet potato
5 limes
2 oranges
9 tomatoes on the vine
17 lovely huge red chillies (gonna plant the seeds too)
and 2 things that i dont know what they are.....they are the size of a bulb of garlic and have a stumpy stem, with a reddish root vegetable skin (like a sweet potato or a turnip)??? anyone know??

does anyone else remeber the borrowers? it reminded me of pods advice that you ahould always carry a spare borrowing bag so that you dont miss out on any great finds!

oh and i asked my bf to marry me - he said yes to avoid the £100 and gloves, but then i told him i would need an engagement ring, and that the traditional value is 3 months of his salary.... but he said he would just call off the wedding the next day and owe nothing! curses.... he did say he might buy me gloves to humour me though:D

bails

JumbleBee, laughing at the veggie roadkill!:D Sadly saw a dead baby deer on the lanes near home today

I wanted to ask, how do you find so many jumble sales? I don't hear of any round here... I did see a Swop Shop list of events the other day so must try and remember to go to one of those, fun day out rummaging for free :T Okay, okay, I am going now... Oh Georgiasmum, how was Ofsted? Hope you've had a relaxing weekend letting your hair down x
ps Marru, I had no idea English wasn't your native tongue either - do you mind me asking where you're from? And a dose of Small Person is exactly what I need so bring her round; one bloody nose and those babygrows won't get a second look

slowlyfading

LollopyBear wrote: »

Slowlyfading - that is fantastic! Well done you on your lack of spending so far! :T

Thanks!

System

bails wrote: »

I wanted to ask, how do you find so many jumble sales? I don't hear of any round here... I did see a Swop Shop list of events the other day so must try and remember to go to one of those, fun day out rummaging for free :T

my mum tracks them down mostly - she tours around LOTS of supermarket and church notice boards and other poster 'hotspots', and local papers advertise some...plus we track them in a 'jumble diary' as they tend to be on the same time every year (you can phone places to check!) and you can eavesdrop/chat in the jumble sale que's. Plus there are jumbe 'seasons' - christams fairs, then spring fairs, then easter, summer fetes... its quite cyclical once you break into the 'system'!

dND

While I'm not in the challenge, here's a quick thank you to you all for inspiring me to keep tabs on my spending. :T

This year my spending is sky high, I'm renovating the farmhouse and I'm also buying farm equipment. Budgets are really guesswork and the totaled figures frightening. That said, totals for food and household are coming in a little under budget and seeing what I'm spending is making me think want/need more often.

While France has supposedly opened up it's utilities markets like the UK in practice it doesn't work that way - too many yearly contracts and refusing to take you back if you've moved somewhere else :eek: so will have to take great care if going to swap any suppliers.

I'm doing my version of the sealed pot challenge - the unsealed Vanish container but it's not growing very fast since I don't shop very often so don't get any change. 2€ coins get siphoned off for my wine fund. I'm trying to buy a few bottles of good wine (around 20€ a bottle) to lay down when they have the wine fairs/sales at the supermarkets. I just have to remember to drink them when they are old enough:beer:

Good luck to everyone for March and don't forget, even if you don't hit target, you will probably have spent less than if you weren't keeping tabs and you will know where the money went too. :money:

Marru

bails wrote: »

ps Marru, I had no idea English wasn't your native tongue either - do you mind me asking where you're from? And a dose of Small Person is exactly what I need so bring her round; one bloody nose and those babygrows won't get a second look

Hi Bails,

I am from frozen north, from a country with thousands of lakes and just over 5 million people living there and a language that nobody else can understand (except Estonians). I am sure you have guessed by now.

My LO has passed baby grows I was just thinking yesterday that when should I start calling her DD? She is 3 now.

Marru