2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Mollymop5

nykmedia wrote: »

Has anyone ever put their foot into a welly and found a frog? :eek:

Yes me :eek: . we check all welies now before putting on when staying at the caravan.My sil has an inner tent in her awning that her and my db sleep in.The woke one morning to find they were sleeping with 3 frogs :rotfl: :rotfl:

Frugaldom

Mollymop5 wrote: »

Yes me :eek: . we check all welies now before putting on when staying at the caravan.My sil has an inner tent in her awning that her and my db sleep in.The woke one morning to find they were sleeping with 3 frogs :rotfl: :rotfl:

Molly, I knew I couldn't possibly be the only person to have had a frog jump into my wellies! :rotfl: :rotfl:

Jay - your wishes are well within the realms of reality, just pour yourself a nice drink, then relax and dweam on Pwincess :rotfl:

Mumzy - You know me soooooooooo well... 'dare' me???? :eek: :rotfl: If it wasn't so easy to get completely banned from MSE I may have thought about it, but seeing as it's so easy to start a virtual riot, umm... I think I'll avoid that particular thread for now.

Skintwellie - I have an 18 y-o who spends every penny on his precious car to the extent that, despite all my motherly teachings, he has emptied his ISA that I [STRIKE]forced[/STRIKE] encouraged him to open as soon as he turned 18! :eek: He's 19 in a few weeks and works fulltime now, but the car gets priority over everything (except digs).

sophiesmum_2

Hi everyone,
Back to work for me today after my little holiday, the sun is shining here although it is quite cold. Will be making tea tonight for my oldies so no need to cook for us tonight:D all helps with the grocery budget.
Definately need to have a no spend day today after buying the dehydrator yesterday:o (but can't wait for it to arrive)
Will make another loaf sometime during the day and turn the leftover bit of last one into breadcrumbs and freeze for using in cooking.

Have a great day everyone:D will check in at lunch time to see what everyone is up to, I love this thread:j

whitewing

skintwellie wrote: »

Hi Guys,
He was offered an overdraft of £1,500!!!!!:eek:

I so sympathise! After MIL got her job offer, I went with her to the bank to open a current account. The woman at the bank said, 'We'll tick her for an overdraft and also for the telephone calls'. Now I was in a dilemma because firstly I couldn't translate this for MIL anyway. MIL is in her 50's and had a managerial role before coming to us, and is an intelligent lady, very capable of making her own decisions. However, she comes from a country where the culture is very much 'spend what you have as you may not have enough to get it next time, or it may not even be available (except of course for the very wealthy)'.

So what do I do? Make a big issue of it and decide for her? Which I wasn't comfortable doing... so I've left it for now and will get it all removed later in consultation with OH and MIL.

I am scared to death that once she is earning, and living elsewhere, she will get into the credit card trap and I have been frantically trying to get OH to educate her. Because I know that we would end up having to sort it out, and also we couldn't see her going without.

A trusted friend suggested that we control her account and just give her spending money, at least until she really gets to grips with our culture and our money doesn't seem like monopoly money. MIL would probably be more than happy with that but I am deeply uncomfortable at my lack of faith in her/OH (because I don't actually know that it is going to be a problem).

We are on such a tight budget - because we have to be - that there is no room to manoeuvre if mistakes are made. And I can't be heartless. But I feel so tense. Hopefully it will be better when the job starts, the money is coming in and we get into a routine.

the_cat

Whitewing.....

Your MIL is very lucky to have such a caring DIL! Try not to worry about it too much though, it might never happen! All you can do is make sure that OH explains it carefully to her so you know she understands and let her decide for herself. Not easy I know!

Frugaldom

Morning all! It's sunny here, AND a SPENDING DAY! (Remember I switched to counting spending days instead of NSD.)

Sophiesmum, I can't wait to hear about dehydrating - what's going to be first?

Whitewing - I agree with Cat about your MIL; if your OH explains it to her in their own language and makes her aware of how easily people here can be tricked into thinking they have more cash than they actually do, then at least she is aware of any potential problem before it could occur. What nationality is she? Perhaps her own background will have her more prepared, rather than less.

Spending diary updates: Today is one of my spending days simply because there's a direct debit coming out, so I was £62.86 down before even starting. However, when I checked the bank, the oilyhand payment of £185.62 had been credited! :j I instantly transferred that to a HI account and all I have had to buy is milk, so £1.99 spent, leaving me just under £23 of my grocery budget to last the month. No problem! (she says, with a shadow of a doubt ).

With regards to the direct debits - is anyone else on here "stoozing"? I'm not sure how this will work out in the long run if I'm deducting it from my budget, but the minimum payments need to be met from somewhere and I'm only a mini-stoozer in order to guarantee the ISA gets filled right from day 1. I'll need to analyse the overall budget as I hadn't counted this in originally. I'll go crunch some numbers now and see how it impacts on the annual amount. It's going to be REALLY tight this year, I suspect! :eek:

elantan

ok i havnt been on here for ages .. i have seen the thread but my spending has spireled (sp) out of control i will have to come out of the £4000 a year but i am still planing on using the skills and ideas that are going on here and if its ok i will still post ...
have had to give a friend some moneyin an emergency situtaion she was about to loose her home and i felt it would be right for me to help her but it totally takes me over the limit

hubby has been off work with his back and other things so i have spent a fortune in medical things for him prescriptions alone were scary but had to buy him other things as well

i have had to spend money on take aways we have had to go to places throughout the day and were too hungry by the time we got home ...

anyway i feel that although i am not back to normal yet i will be soon and will continue with the frugalling i'm just glad that i had a wee bit of money put by so that i could help a friend out etc...
i also passed my reiki course so purchased a few things for that the reason being that i hope at a later date to use these skills as a second job but wasnt sure whether i should count that or not

anyway sorry for not being on here but i will make the effort in future

Frugaldom

Elantan you can post here anytime, we'll always see you as one of the 'frugalers'. Hope your OH feels much better soon and hope all goes well for your friend. They are extremely lucky to have someone like you who cares enough about them to help out when it's needed.
And congratulations on completing your Reiki course successfully :beer:

I think you have achieved a great deal having managed to do all of that and not incurred any debt as a result. You should be extremely proud of yourself and deserve a pat on the back and a round of applause. :T

MarkyMarkD

Elantan If your hubby is taking a lot of prescription tablets, it is well worth getting a prepayment certificate.

People who have to pay for more than 3 prescription items in 3 months, or 14 items in 12 months, could save money by buying a PPC. From 1 April 2007, the charge for a single prescription item is £6.85, whereas a 3-month PPC will cost you £26.85 and a 12-month PPC £98.70. To help spread the cost you can now choose to pay for the 12-month PPC by 10 monthly Direct Debit instalments.

The prices are going up on 1 April, too, so buying now is a money-saving move!

More info here: http://www.ppa.org.uk/ppa/ppc_intro.htm

You can claim retrospectively, for up to 3 months, but you have to have asked for an FP57 receipt when you paid. So this is only helpful advice if you are about to cash in a prescription and haven't yet got the prepayment certificate.

elantan

i was thinking that marky mark but wheni mentioned it to the girl behind the counter she advised me against it ...she is a kinve friend so i took her word for it ...as i live in scotland and we have been told that we will get free prescriptions soon she said she hasnt had anything official but they have been advised recently to talk people out of buying them ...they havnt been told this before