2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

affordmylife

just signed up for the grocery challenge to keep me on the straight and narrow

sweetpea03

welcome mah_jong & the very best of luck to you for the challenge. Are you going for the £4000 target? I am full of admiration that you managed to pay everything with an income of £8000! I'm sure your experiences & tips will be invaluable to us

hope to see you on the grocery challenge affordmylife!

affordmylife

you will do sweetpea

mah_jong

sweetpea03 wrote: »

welcome mah_jong & the very best of luck to you for the challenge. Are you going for the £4000 target? I am full of admiration that you managed to pay everything with an income of £8000! I'm sure your experiences & tips will be invaluable to us

hope to see you on the grocery challenge affordmylife!

Thanks for the welcome folk .... and ....where is the grocery challenge????

Penny2myName

Like I have said before, I am on benefits, and IF I was debt free, would have more than enough to live on, and there is only one person who caused things to be tight, and that was MYSELF by getting into debt. If I was single without kids on benefits, then I would be on Income Support £3075.80 a year, but on top of this is FULL housing, Council Tax and HEALTH care, all aspects of healthcare.

Income Support £3075.80
- household bills £2613.96
leaving for everything else £461.84
Weekly £8.83 which for myself alone if i did my shopping monthly in bulk, would be more than enough. (as long as I don't travel anywhere) Have to admit if I wasn't playing catch up with British Gas I would have an extra £480 a year. so in theory ( £941.84 yearly, £18.10 a week)

So no, no-one doing this challenge should feel guilting, as even us on benefits would have more than enough to live on if WE hadn't have ALLOWED ourselves to get into the predicament we did.

sweetpea03

mah_jong wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome folk .... and ....where is the grocery challenge????

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=652959
its on the old style forum mah_jong, heres the link to the january grocery challenge which is just starting

grunnie

Count me in too. Retired for 3 years now and can easily live on £5200 a year.£4000 a year will be quite a challenge but I like a challenge. Just OH and me and a goldfish called Boris. Family all grown up and left and have homes of their own. We grow most of our fruit and veg. I cook everything from scratch. No morgage -paid it off years ago. No debts. No Credit cards always use cash. I cut my own hair so no hairdressing bills. No mobile phone-can't be bothered with one. Bought new car this year so shouldn't have car bills. But we have loads of meals out so this might just might get cut back. Meet up with my pals once a week for coffee and scones in the local hotel but that is only £2.10 including tip so that is staying. Got 4 short breaks booked for January but they were only £50 for 2 nights B&B + dinner on the first night so that will be a Boots meal deal for the second night hehe. So another canny Scot for the list please

Tracey04

getting lost on this site!!!
ive signed up for grocery challenge but cannot find
sealed pot challenge
free christmas
pin money

are these all simuilar ie put cash back site money in, boots/tesco vouchers money you find on the floor ( i wish )

the £4000 sorry been asked 100 times before im sure, is it after mortgage, bills etc so the £4000 is food, petrol, presents, holidays , savings etc( but I budget all this out of my monthly money - then I have nothing left ????)

thanks

ps are ther any other challenges I haven't seen. Ta T

Frugaldom

Hello and welcome to all! I am delighted to see so many willing participants and have, hopefully, allocated you all a number. To keep it fair, I won't be adding any more names after 6pm on the 31st December, so get those budgets done and find out soon if you think you can beat your debt blues or prop up your future savings by cutting it to the bone in this absolutely amazing online money challenge.

Post one has all the challenger numbers and basic rules and they are the same whether you are single, married, divorced, retired, pensioned, employed, self-employed or unemployed. The challenge is £4000 plus Child Benefit, which allows for your junior extras. I will no longer apologise to those people who find it offensive that others are in a 'fortunate' position of having £4000 to live on because I do NOT see anything obsene about having to live on £4000 if it is ALL you have coming in - it is simply living within your means and trying to make the most of your own personal financial circumstances. This is about helping ourselves to help each other to clear debts or generate savings. For those who have chosen this challenge in order to stay out of debt and save - savings can affect any rights to benefits in the future, should you suddenly find yourself in a completely different situation.

Sorry if this post has run into some sort of soapbox scene but I'm rather upset by the fact that a couple of people have taken such offence to this challenge and only wish they would post their full explanations. If you truly believe that it is some sort of luxury to have £4000 on which to live... state how you manange on less in this forum, please.

JAMIEDODGER

nyk - thank for giving me a number:D

i had got rid of my car in december as i couldnt afford to buy another one straight away. i have now decided that i am going to go for a whole year without a car:) this will mean i have no car expenses at all. only the occasional bus/taxi and keeping my pushbike on the road!

i will be carrying on the grocery challenge that i usually do every month to keep my grocery bill down.

the sealed pot challenge is another which i am joining.

i had also decided before i found this challenge to reduce clutter and simplify my life as much as possible so this really fits in with what i want to do.

thanks for a great challenge!!!