2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

lingojingo

musical_sock wrote: »

I think 'barmcake' a north west thing.. us tykes call it a teacake

I think it's what we southerners call a bap.
That is the sort of thing that used to confuse me when I first moved up here. To me a teacake was small, sweet and probably covered in chocolate!

Nyk - spot on, brilliant reply. Wonder if you'll hear any more from them?

Whitewing - sending you big hugs (((((((((())))))))))

Janey - sorry to hear of your troubles, but you had me laughing out loud here as I read your posts. You really should publish them.

Jay1_2

After being good last week, I haven't been very good this week. If I haven't spent much it because I haven't been out much. Not been ill but not been well - tired and headachey and feeling-earthquakes-after-hot-showers kinda thing:o . This is a difficult thing for me as I am very lazy and can easily convince myself I need a sit down! But I was actually sent home from work today coz I looked so tired and pale (I don't take that much persuasion and I didn't want to scare the customers )

Mumzy I think you need to look at how you spend. Are you more likely to think Oh I've got that money in my purse so I can spend it, or Oh I haven't got enough to put it on my card so I'll pick up a few more things. There is also the worry that spending on a card doesn't feel like spending, but if you are posting here you must be keeping a close eye on things so that probably isn't relevant. I try to use my credit card for most things - I pay the total amount of every month and it GIVES ME MONEY for using it :T .


Nyk Good point about the cost of rural living. I remember seeing a petrol station owner on TV once, I think they were in the Scottish Highlands and they couldn't buy petrol wholesale for the price it was being sold retail in eg Glasgow! The cost of living is more in London because of house (land) prices and some areas are very expensive just to buy groceries etc but it is a lot easier to get around to find cheaper stuff. I lived there for a while, I worked at Canary Wharf - very expensive - and lived near Lewisham - "normal" prices.

skintwellie

Hi everyone.

Mumzy, I love your posts, you remind me so much of my daughter. Shehas just finished her nursing degree and she is always baking, trying to give up the fags and not spend any money. She doesn't have any kiddies yet as she says she can't meet a decent man 'either married, commitment phobes or permantly stoned!!!' Maybe it will change for her if she takes a job outside London. When visiting her she certainly knows where to buy cheaper groceries - markets and ethnic stores, which we don't have in rural Sussex.
My free bulbs from Parkers turned up today so I should have a good display later in the Summer.:j Have also got loads of seeds from last year which I have planted up, hopefully they will still grow.

Am going to try and figure out how to do my signature for the end of the month.

Marru

Just a reminder. Money programme in BBC 2 now (7pm Fri 14 Mar) talks about green fuels. I probably miss most of it as need to put LO to bed.

Marru

Frugaldom

mumzyof2 wrote: »

WOULD SOME one tell me which is easiest so i dont spend money...

paying for things on my solo card or srawing say £30 out a week? I use to use cash all time but since i got my solo card i think along the lines ..well why draw £10 out a day when i only need £6..

Mumzy, I prefer to use the card. The only downside is that it's no good if your purchases amount to less than £5, when many places refuse to accept card payments. So, the easiest way to avoid that is to keep a notepad and jot down the little things that need replacing until you know fro sure that there's at least £5 worth. The advantage of this is that your money is gathering a few pence interest in the bank and you are less inclined to buy silly things, like a pack of sweets or crisps whilst in the post office.

Off to see the 'green fuel' debate on telly - cars running on veggie oil!

catshark88

Nykmedia, I completely agree with you about cost of living in rural areas.

We used to live in London and yes, housing was very expensive. We now live in the rural South and housing is not vastly cheaper.

We also have to drive everywhere (no shop within 3 miles and no pavements on twisty roads where everyone speeds and they have just closed our local post office and cancelled the one bus we had). It's a 40 mile round trip to Mr T or Wickes or any big shops.

The real difference I have found though is that as we are not on the gas main, we have oil CH and that costs a bomb these days. We bought the house as a renovation project and it has almost no insulation so if I heated it to "taking off coat" level I would be broke in a week and personally responsible for the loss of 3 ice caps. We currently live in about 3 rooms of it and I try to convince DH that the wearing of coats indoors is a style statement. Hopefully we will get the house done this year and we are going to insulate everything and fit 2 wood burners!

The £4k pa approach is becoming a way of life now and we spend far less than we did, inspired by you guys.

1274

I am participating in this challenge from...London. Current spend is £963 out of 4K. Most of the really expensive London things are outside the rules (transport to work, mortgage/rent, council tax). The only things where I think Londoners are hit hard are the luxuries: pub costs, meals out costs, taxis home etc. I count these in my challenge even though they're not in the rules, because I can control these costs (drink and eat out less, take the train home) and I don't count the utilities costs. I think this probably evens out in the end - I've spent around the same money as a lot of other people who are not in London and who are excluding luxuries but including utilities

whitewing

Thank you all for your hugs.

Highly exciting evening - took OH blood doning (I couldn't donate of course). Shouldn't need to borrow your griddle pan just yet Janey as we are at least talking now. (Not about the £200 though).

Teacakes in our family have currents (sp?) and not chocolate.

Agree about cost of living comments - cheaper in city. In Birmingham when we lived there you could get 2 adults and up to 4 children a family bus ticket for total £4 to be used thro'out the city after 9am to midnight. Where I am now it's about £5 for a return for an adult to the nearest town. And buses every 10 minutes in Brum. The house in Brum was one third the cost of similar houses where I am now.

Talking of stoned people, I am rather out of touch with drugs these days. Not that I ever used them anyway, but at least I was aware. Earlier this week, I was watching TV with OH and a young bloke and woman were slumped on the sofa, smoking and drinking beer. One passed the other some drugs. 'What kind of drug is that?' I asked OH.

'Whitewing, that's fudge.'

'Oh, I've never heard of that. What's that like?'

'No whitewing, it's fudge!'

Aril

Hello fellow frugalites!
Have been keeping up with your posts so that I can maintain my by proxy status on the challenge and you all seems to get ever more inventive in your ways of keeping your Venus Flytrap cash receptacles tightly shut:rotfl::rotfl:
Thanks for the pointers re growing strawberries in a hanging basket...we've had a bracket up for said basket for ever but never actually used it. Looks like I may be able to put it into service and save a bit of dosh. The new greenhouse is now standing but we've get to plant any seeds. One small tip is to add shredded sponge to the baskets to retain the moisure.
As with regards to a frugal Easter...does it need to be chocolate or even eggs? I've made Easter nests and lemon biscuits on occasion in lieu of eggs. I bought eggs on offer this year but have bought Mr Frugal a big bar of chocolate because he's quite right that from a gnat bottomed point of view you get far more choc for your money..he has a separate chocolate tummy and is fearing that he'll go short on the chocolate rations if I fob him off with an egg. Don't think that'll work with the small person though..he still wants the egg and all the trimmings:D
Not much progress on the gnat bottom stakes as have been doing my upmost to not spend [with mixed results]. Mr Frugal though was a bit of a smarty knickers and found a copy of The Deathly Hallows in the charity shop for 99p which he snaffled up. However, I am quite convinced that I have once again nosed ahead following my major discovery of a slow cooker recipe book in the library and at no cost. Am now frantically scribbling down recipes in my 2005 A4 diary that I bought for 10p [am too much of a frugaltight to part with more for a notebook] and am going to attempt turkey chocolate chilli this weekend. Shall report back if it's successful...shall keep quiet if it's foul:rotfl::rotfl:
Can't believe you're a 1/5 of the way through. Have a good weekend!
Aril

elantan

pleased things have looke up a bit for you tonight white wing ...i am however shamed that you as a female did not recognise fudge did you miss that lesson in home economics:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: