2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

whitewing

Congratulations lilac_lady..what lovely news that you are a granny again.

Took our Easter basket to the family last night. They loved it so it has pride of place on the piano until Sunday.

OH had a lovely birthday. Some new clothes that he wasn't expecting from my family. We also had some alcohol from them too (not bad considering they don't really drink themselves).

He did some photography over the last few days, and some seem good enough to send off to card manufacturers. Haven't heard anything yet from the previous ones he sent, but am trying to keep the momentum up. He was going to enter the Times photographer competition but unfortunately is slightly too old. I know it's not quite the same thing, but because I've had some winnings from comps I've entered from the MSE competitions thread, I think he has begun to realise that normal people do win comps so it will inspire him to give things a go because it might happen.

Off to the supermarket today (was trying to avoid it), but need to get about £40 of food. Am resisting the lazy alternative of spending the whole lot on nice stuff from the local delicatessen. We've got virtually nothing in the house right now. My hamper will now arrive sometome after Easter.

Did manage to finally get hold of a real person from BT yesterday, and I must say that she was absolutely great and understood the issue I had (which was due to BT imposing a canx fee of £200 on Broadband when the incorrectly transferred it to my new house). The annoying thing is that the DD went thro in Dec before I heard back from them. They agreed they needed to refund but didn't. So it has been dragging on (I didn't pay the Feb bill). But I wanted to set up a monthly DD and they wanted me to pay nearly £80 a month as their system couldn't accept that the bill wasn't valid. Hopefully it is all sorted and should have a lower monthly payment. (Yes, I know I can get stuff cheaper than BT, but that's something to be considered in the future)

Frugaldom

Good morning all and CONGRATULATIONS LILAC_LADY!

I'm geading out working away from the house today and tomorrow, so will only have dial up access. Wasn't planning on spending anything today but milk is getting really low and there's no powder left, so there will probably need to be a quick trip to Co-op on way back from work tonight.

Marru - I use ipoints and they are quite good with their points for clicks emails, so make sure you have ticked all the boxes to receive as many as possible. My Hungry Hippos game arrived within days of ordering and I'm now awaiting my year's subscription to Good Housekeeping magazine. :rotfl: I've also just redeemed my first 3000 mutual points, so should have a £20 cheque in the post at the end of this month. :T

Other than shop-sitting for the next 2 days, I'm planning my post-Easter Spring Clean so I can then get my eBid listings up to date. Next weekend is charity fundraising (we do this every month) and I've been lagging way behind in this. My 2008 challenges include raising £500 this year and I'm not even 10% of the way there! MUST get head down and get listing cap on!

Well, must dash, back as soon as the dial-up sorts itself out (It's free dial-up, so no impact on phone bill.)

Toodle-pip pootlers and frugalers

georgiasmum

Am ashamed to say that March is a disaster. My spending plan and journal is a write off so am going to be careful and begin my diligence again in April. Frustrated but nevertheless I can recover from this!

bails

Congratulations LilacLady, what's her name if you don't mind me asking? Just interested in what the popular names seem to be at the mo!

Marru, there was a BM on Freecycle the other day! I can keep an eye out for you if you like and then if you can get one that way, you can spend your points on something else Unless you want a specific one? Send me an email, my PM box is full of stuff I need to save, need to get round to that.

I started doing points but got quickly disillusioned - figured it took me a lot of time and energy that I could use with greater effect elsewhere (eg an hour of supply); maybe I was a bit hasty though? Only do PB at mo but am signed up to quite a few others so may try again; anyone got any views about which are the easiest/quickest please?

Home alone for 3 days so hoping to have a productive weekend - feeling pretty shattered at mo though so we'll see. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend planned.
Don't worry about it Georgiasmum, you've had a lot on your plate. Hope things are improving and good to have you back!

FrankieM

Hi everyone,
I'm hoping to do no spending until April now..
I needed petrol, but I took my friend to the airport this morning and she put £30 in my tank...how generous is that, she also gave me money for the toll rd but said I could choose to use on that or not....so I didn't.
I went to Tesco's on the way home, I needed bread and mushrooms and peppers, so I used the 'toll' money. They had no value peppers and only 2 loaves of value bread. They also had a decorate your own gingerbread man thing for 89p for 5 in the box..thought the kinders might like it.
So I spent £3.27, but it doesn't come off my budget cause it wasn't my money...now just to meal plan up to the end of the month..

Congrats to Lilac Lady..and good frugalling to everyone else...I feel so positive after coming on here..I don't know if I'll manage my budget or not, but after reading this thread I always feel like its possible!!

Penny2myName

I bow down in shame, as not been on for awhile, but have kept all my receipts I think. My last weekly amount was worked out back on 23rd Feb. Spent last night filling in my spending diary, but due to only being able to go back one previous week on the reports bit, I am unable to get a clear picture, so its just going to be estimate till end of the month, then will do a definate figure then.

Penny2myName

Just found this saved so will now be able to work out up to date figures.

Total spend for 24 Feb 2008 - 01 Mar 2008:

TOTAL FOR FOOD £12.72
TOTAL FOR GROCIECES £0.67
TOTAL FOR MOTHER'S DAY £3.07
TOTAL FOR OTHER £20.00
TOTAL FOR SCHOOL UNIFORM £39.95
TOTAL FOR TOILETTRIES £0.84
TOTAL FOR TRAVEL £0.40
TOTAL FOR TREAT £6.46
TOTAL FOR VALENTINES DAY £0.30
TOTAL £84.41

TOTAL FOR ANIMALS £9.25
TOTAL FOR BILLS £179.32
TOTAL FOR CLEANING £0.67
TOTAL FOR CLOTHING £2.75
TOTAL FOR DECORATING £1.24
TOTAL FOR FOOD £42.01
TOTAL FOR HOLIDAY £6.00
TOTAL FOR MOTHER'S DAY £1.59
TOTAL FOR OTHER £8.00
TOTAL FOR PHONE CREDIT £10.00
TOTAL FOR SCHOOL £1.00
TOTAL FOR SOCIALIZING £10.00
TOTAL FOR TOILETTRIES £11.20
TOTAL FOR TRAVEL £22.40
TOTAL FOR TREAT £6.42
TOTAL FOR UNKOWN £0.40
TOTAL £312.25

Initial amount to spend = £4000 over 366 days, average £76.50 per week
New balance = £2820.93 over 286 days, £19.72till Midnight Saturday.

Frugaldom

Georgiasmum and Penny - you'll recover and catch up. I've found that no matter how much I go over nowadays, it's always by less than it would have been pre-frugal life If you think of it that way then it's more of a win/win situation, so long as I don't adopt that as an excuse.

It is blowing an absolute gale here and it is freezing! I'm practically sitting on the heater. Looking out the window, however, it's like watching a summer's day! (Other than things taking off in gusts of wind.) Soon be time for a nice hot mug of coffee. Surprisingly, this thread isn't any slower on dial-up. I was expecting it to have taken ages to get on here with a 44k connection, but everything seems to be working fine. I've even managed to do a few clicks and points gathering! :T

bails

Afternoon Nyk and anyone else about!
Spent an hour digging over the veg patch, and been planning GC for rest of the month and April. Off for a bite of food and then a rest, catch you later. Think those winds are a'coming!
ps the window on my car was broken last night - not sure if by kids or wind?? - good job it's only the one I'm selling for parts anyway! (must get on with that, tut tut)

MarkyMarkD

Sorry to hear about your car window, bails. My car has suffered some vandalism in the past week - not sure which day but probably Sunday or Monday. I think some kids have walked on the bonnet. I first noticed that the bonnet was all scratched, and thought it was a cat or something that had done it, but in the daylight the extra damage became clear - a few dents on the bonnet and a big scratch down one wing.

It looks like quite an expensive repair, so I think I shall have to leave it. My excess is £250 and I don't have protected NCD to save money. It's a shame because the car's only 2 and a half years old and it was in pretty much perfect condition before that.