2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

JAMIEDODGER wrote: »

hi nyk and all

i did join this challenge at the beginning, but have had a distasterous 3 months so gave up. i would like to start again, i will be spending today working out all the figures and will join this challenge again from tomorrow, if thats ok??

Hi Jamie,

Best thing to do is add up everything you have spent (relevant to this challenge) and use that as your 'total so far' then deduct it from £4000 and whatever the balance is, that's your target. Don't worry if it is looking absolutely impossible, it just means that you could end up with a negative number. This makes it really easy to see what's needed for next year and where you can make savings.
:beer: Cheers for coming back and updating us with your progress. Every penny counts and every post is worth reading here, so well done on deciding to continue. :T

Bails - if your foot can reach the door, who needs a lock? You can always use a paper sign on a piece of string with 'vacant' on one side and 'engaged' on the other - that saves guests sitting in the bath with one leg out to hold the door shut. :rotfl:

Whitewing - you're sounding much chirpier today, glad you're feeling inspired.

It looks very spring-like outside and I haven't even any washing ready to hang out! I've a load of stuff ready for the post office (work related) and, once again, I feel disinclined to spend any money. However, DS has just finished the jam, I've only 2 loaves left in the freezer and no yeast to bake more, we've run out of fresh veg and the fruit bowl contains only 3 apples. I feel a £10 shop coming on... wonder if it should be this afternoon?

I think I mentioned my free reading hobby and my recent 'soirees' with Duncan Bannatyne ('s autobiography). Well I finished that before starting reading 'The Epileptic Lurcher' and oh my! What a traumatic past few nights these have been! Forget 'Lassie', this is every bit a tear-jerker! And the only reason I kept turning the pages, despite the appaling language (think Trainspotting), was because the story was set right here in the Galloway region of Scotland. I think I'll need to Ciao and Amazon review this! I'm almost compelled to go to some of the places named in the book just to see if that epileptic doggy does go 'walkies' there!

all_hours

i'd like to join in this challenge if its not too late.

after taking off essential spending i'm left with £86 for bills(elec phone internet mobile) + shopping. i'll use a weekly budget and start next week. to make this a challenge i'll set an £80 budget and save £6.;)

please can you add me to the list with pro rata annual budget of £4160.:D

Frugaldom

all_hours wrote: »

i'd like to join in this challenge if its not too late.

after taking off essential spending i'm left with £86 for bills(elec phone internet mobile) + shopping. i'll use a weekly budget and start next week. to make this a challenge i'll set an £80 budget and save £6.;)

please can you add me to the list with pro rata annual budget of £4160.:D

all_hours: Hello and welcome to the 4k challenge. Not quite sure I understand your figures, are you proposing joining us at £80 per week average, which is £4182 per annum, or do you mean you would like your target set at £4160 for the year, which would give an average of £79.56 per week.
I know it's not much of a difference, but every penny really does count in this challenge.

My trip to the post office resulted in wandering into the Co-op! I spent a total of £7.99 of which, £4.50 was from the grocery budget and £3.49 from the gift budget for their BOGOF giant boxes of Jelly Babies. My 'kids' can have a box of sweets each instead of an egg. Off to update the old signature now after breaking my 10-day run on no spending.

bails

lol at the bathroom ideas Nyk - you'd need GoGoGadget legs to reach our door whilst perched Meant to ask you about your free reading hobby before, as it sounds right up my street?

Welcome all hours! :hello:

I've just been to the charity shops to amuse myself - not sure if that's a tut tut I should be giving myself but being so limited in other ways, I think I'll justify it to myself as a worthwhile activity - and bought my first piece of clothing to Bailsify. Of course I have no idea how to do this just yet but that's what my mum's going to help me with when she gets back from India :j It's currently quite a long red and purple skirt so I'm thinking either a short skirt or maybe a strappy summer dress... I also bought a book that was destined for me :rotfl:I'd seen it before and put it back, and today it fell right on top of me, even though I wasn't touching anything vaguely near it. It still took me about 45 minutes to justify buying it The reason I bought it? The title is The Ultimate Noah's Ark and I want to use to cover to make a Visitors Book for the smallholding which is going to be called...yes, Noah's Ark Well, it's all a bit of fun and keeps me out of trouble, eh? Oh, and I also got a big red pottery bin thing with a lid (I'm so eloquent today) which has a slight chip in the lid so I had it for £2 instead of £6 - it's going to be a bread bin for all our HM bread :T Now, none of this is essential so it didn't ought to come out of the 4k, although I'm keeping a very close eye on this side of the budget too. Could be Clothes Fund, or possibly Hobbies Fund?
Any-hoo, I'm wittering - would've browsed some more but the pottery bin was so heavy I had to go straight back to the car :A Off for a shiatsu now, and that's free :T

andromache_2

I had to wikipedia shiatsu to find out what it was hope it does you some good, bails.

Welcome all_hours and welcome back JAMIEDODGER! Come join the fun

I've managed to wangle a couple of free meals today through some work I'm doing, woo. I also went punting for the first time :rotfl: and will have to pay for that by buying a couple of drinks at some point but I won't count that till I spend it! Sadly money did leave my purse though as I bought a few nice things to make lunch for my mum when she picks me up tomorrow cos she deserves something nice :A which takes me over £2000, to £2000.11. Damn. Could be worse though...

Hope everyone's having a terrific Tuesday

mumzyof2

Hi everyone, i have gone over budget this month and i still need to add on the huge phone,net,tv bill of £191!!!!! I have told my mum im not ringing her again i was so shocked and thought i had done really well with the phone. Im thinking of putting it to incomeing only as i have my mobile. I also need to add on £11.27 house insurance.
I am not paying phone bill untill after my hols as i have no money till then, its due on the 1st so i will prob get cut off before my hols on the 6th.
So im thinking i count this months fone bill in next month as thats when im paying it so il have 2 phone bills to pay next month..also quartley DD for tv licence is due, iam currentlynot paying elec or gas as im switching over and culdnt afford this month...im also not paying water yet since the change is circumsdtances. hmmmm think i need to get sorted.

FrankieM

Evening everyone,
I've been reading the down to earth blogspot this afternoon. Not finished it all, but its fascinating reading.
I've been reading quite a few things, books etc about simple living and thinking about how that works out for my family is really interesting.
Anyway, I've decided I'm going to give this challenge another go. I feel a little bit more in control now that we've been back for a couple of months and the enormous spending seems to have calmed down a bit...
I've got my budget to be £5367, which includes my child benefit, for the rest of the year, which feels tight, but hey, its a challenge!!
I'm going to sort out my sig again...

BlueFleur

Hello! Managed not to spend anything yesterday or today! I'm on Easter holidays at the moment so I can avoid most temptation. It'll be a different story when uni restarts Also have my evil mobile phone bill to come soon, so I'm going to try and budget around that. Two days down, 288 to go

sophiesmum_2

Evening everyone:D
Welcome back Jamiedodger, Your posts on dfw and os were some of the ones that originally inspired me when I first joined the forum, you did so well paying off your debts, running the house and dealing with your kids, not to mention getting your business up and running:T :T , sure you will be able to jump back on the wagon and make a success of things;)

Well my dehydrator has finally arrived and is plugged in now filled with sliced bananas which were getting ignored in the fruitbowl:rolleyes:, and some surplus mushrooms that mum chucked my way to use up:D will let you know the outcome.

Also had an unexpected pressie today:o . The other day I gave some unused dining chairs (8)to a friends son to use in the eating in area of his chipshop,this was part of my decluttering plan. Today my friend arrived with a carrier bag of fresh cod (12lbs in weight:eek: ) as a thankyou. So now my freezer is stocked with lots of lovely cod fillets,:D and I have an empty loft too:D . Obviously Mr Chipshop gets his cod cheaper than what I normally pay as that lot would have cost a fortune in supermarket:eek: .
Still resisting the top up shopping so far but will have to stock up on flour for breadmaking soon, and doves farm is on offer at asda at moment 60p for 3lb bag:D .

Hope you have all had a good day.

bails

Welcome back Frankie!
Andromache, maybe you could play catch up with the 11p by clicking, just so you have a nice whole round number I didn't know what shiatsu was til I met OH either - he's just about to qualify after 4 years training (alongside his degree/masters).
Well, the South America plan could be shortlived, as when I spoke to my Head of Dept today she said the part-time job might be coming up in May instead of Sept! It also seems that it'll go to interview now, which means I may not get it anyway...Let's see if they even get the funding for it first, should know that in a couple of weeks. Either way, I'll either get a job or take myself off travelling so win-win I guess

Off to make a tagine and some more Twinks hobnobs, yum!