2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

Trying to catch up with the posts again...

Beautiful here, didn't win the Premium Bonds, oilyhand emailed to say they have issued a payment and I'm just going for late lunch now, so will catch up this afternoon

Bails - SNAP on a lot of what you said about the late 80s during the 20th Century! That was the first time we lost everything. Second time was 21st Century and I've just caught up with that!

Must dash, see you all soon

lilac_lady

I'm using this thread to keep me motivated with my weekly budget. I have £13.84 left from last week!!!! How did I manage that? By reading all your posts, that's why. Keep them coming please.

Frugaldom

That's it! I have caught up for today and have just dropped off the last of today's post at the post office; that means I can have a skive on my own time and see what's been happening on here, whilst drinking my nice hot cup of Mr T's own brand instant coffee

My meal plan is going rubbish for its first month because I forgot to take anything out the freezer last night My keep fit regime went really badly wrong last month and I haven't dared to measure for any further inch loss since having had the cold and feeding it too much home baked bread, rolls and cake. My quitting smoking has been a bit of a dawdle, to be honest, and what I save now has its own little bank account set aside for my garden and livestock fund of the future. Nothing gets to touch that money, not before I have my own place. (The list of 'wants' on my house challenge, however, grows by the day, whilst the pictures being included in the 'wishing book' are beginning to resemble a menagerie collage :rotfl: ). Sadly, my ambition to start a cottage style industry and earn an extra £3000 per year hasn't happened... YET! But I have bags and bags of surplus 'rubbish' awaiting recycling into sellable products.

Has everyone had their oilyhand emails? I still can't believe how easy it was to accumulate an extra £185! :eek: What's more, I have another £30+ already accrued for next month's pay out! :j This is one of the bonus points of being on this challenge; once you have got into the swing of budgeting over an entire year, seeing how each expense affects the overall annual budget, you are left with the dilemma of which bills to kill off first. In good MSE style, it will always be the highest interest ones first, knocking them off one by one until you are left looking at the one final debt that needs clearing. I always found it easier picking them off one at a time, rounding all the numbers as I went (on account of my financial OCD) If you can keep to your budget and continually chip away at your debts machete fashion, then they'll soon disappear. Once they have all gone, the biggest dilemma is working out how best to SAVE the extra you will then have. :beer: My question is - which is simpler? Saving like mad to buy a house outright or having a mortgage and saving like mad to pay it off completely?
Is anyone here doing this challenge to pay off their mortgage?

Marru

nykmedia wrote: »

Has everyone had their oilyhand emails? I still can't believe how easy it was to accumulate an extra £185! :eek: What's more, I have another £30+ already accrued for next month's pay out! :j

Oilyhand? Can you please tell me more? Thanks!

Marru

grandma247

Nykmedia
I am not officially doing the challenge but we are going to give it a go paying off our mortgage completely as i explained in an earlier post today.
My husband retires in 10 years and the mortgage is supposed to finish then but we would like to be able to save for his retirement.
We have a very small private pension but with our council taxes keep going up we will be lucky if it just pays that. So we need an emergency fund for repairs to house etc.

Frugaldom

Marru wrote: »

Oilyhand? Can you please tell me more? Thanks!

Marru

Oilyhand refers to the greasypalm.co.uk cashback website. There are several similar sites, including freefivers, quidco, topcashback etc, where you get cash back on all your shopping. There are a few threads on MSE about it. Here's a link to the relevant section of the site about cheap shopping and cashback sites.

Grandma, you are most welcome to join us here anytime as a lurker, a member by proxy or a fullblown frugaloholic I'm also doing a house challenge, as per signature, which is listed in the mortgage free wannabe section. I'm no highflyer but would like to have a house bought and paid for in about 5 years but if it takes 10 then so be it. So long as I end up with a secure, permanent address with space to grow some fruit & veg and keep a couple of hens, then I don't mind. I know I can live within my means and I know that the harder I try, the less I spend. This lifestyle is utterly addictive and, with the help of my (financial) OCD, it makes it so much easier to save. I hope you enjoy your visits to our thread and wish you every success with your own personal version of the challenge

Marru

nykmedia wrote: »

Oilyhand refers to the greasypalm.co.uk cashback website. There are several similar sites, including freefivers, quidco, topcashback etc, where you get cash back on all your shopping. There are a few threads on MSE about it. Here's a link to the relevant section of the site about cheap shopping and cashback sites.

Brill, thank you for that. Have signed up for Quidco and will look at this one in the evening. I was so cross when I found out that I could've had £50 from Quidco for opening an account that I opened in January! Had I known about Quidco then. Never mind.

Marru

sophiesmum_2

Just having a peek what everyone has been up to today.
Managed to get three days hols from work have spent all afternoon finishing my assignment for the OU, which has now electronically winged its way to the OU:D .
Tomorrow I intend to work on another due soon and get that out of the way too, after that I may have a trip out somewhere very frugal.

Nyk, love the idea of your wish book. Only thing i aspire to is some chickens:rolleyes: but can't have them where we live now so that will have to be for the future sometime, I have already done all the things I "can" do here - veggie garden, greenhouse, etc without too much impact but think they may notice the chickens:rotfl:

mumzyof2

Sophiemums how did you manage £112.46 in your pigsback account??? I have just ordered £20 worth of vouchers.

System

my 'march march' ended ubruptly yesterday - i went on a bit of a charity shop spree

To make up for it a bit I am going to have a frugaltastic veggie roadkill for dinner tonight though (with jerusalem artichokes )

NYK - crikey no, I'm not getting married (shudders at the thought of the expense - i rekon you couldnt bring in a wedding for less than £100 + license type fees, no? ) sooooo aiming for that when the time comes though - I have some friends whose parents remortgaged their house to pay for a lavish wedding including a £1000 dress - just the thought of that makes me break out in a sweat!

my 'proposal' was an attempt to get my mitts on the leap-year £100 and gloves that you are supposed to get if they reject your proposal