2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

mumzyof2

I have updated my sig
I spent 6.90 in mr m and 1.80 bus fare better than plus £6.73 for 30 cigs eh????

BlueFleur

Nyk, I find your number crunching really interesting. I'd love to be an accountant when I graduate, as I have loved playing with numbers during my economics degree (bit of a nerd :rolleyes: ). For some reason I can understand numbers in a general sense, but never when they apply to my own finances

Managed another NSD today, despite being tempted when taking my mum shopping. I have learnt the joys of window shopping!

Well done on the no smoking mumzy!

grandma247

Nykmedia. I want to be able to can for two reasons, one is in case electricity or gas becomes a problem in the future, which it might because of us getting so much more power from other countries.
Also there is only so much room in a freezer and I like to put by as much food as possible from stuff I buy cheap to stuff I grow or pick from the hedgerows etc.
I am investigating prices at the moment but as soon as I have enough money I will make a decision on which to buy.
We lived through the seventies and early eighties with four young children and everything I preserved foodwise was needed as we were so poor. I keep getting the feeling things could get that bad again.

whitewing

Hip Hip Hooray for the people at the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Kind, helpful and free! I know what to write in my letter to HR now, and hopefully will all be resolved peacefully and happily. Feel much better, anyway.

Even parked for free, near my friend's house, walked ages in the rain for some stress-busting exercise and then back to my friend's for lunch and sympathy.

Spent nearly £7 on prescription but have a plentiful supply of tablets, which should help my iron levels. Not sure if tax credits would've entitled me to free prescriptions but can't wait. Have an HSA plan that I subscribed to in a moment of weakness (free diary and pen), which I have never made a claim on. Must look into the T&C's - think I may be able to reclaim dental costs on that (family trip to the dentist's for the Easter holidays). Wonder if I should cancel it, but know the minute that I do I will conceive and miss out on the lump sum (more than the 9 months x amount I pay, so no point cancelling to save it instead).

OH will be sending off some photos again tonight. Still haven't heard back about the last ones but it does take some weeks according to this manual-book-thingy.

Will be watching The Apprentice at 9pm. I pretend it's to try and pick up some 'business' tips, (I already know how to be nasty!), but it is just pure entertainment. Perhaps next year one of you guys could go on it and impress Sir Alan with your frugality! I wouldn't last 5 minutes on it as I'm too wussy.

Nyk, I liked your post too. Wonder how/if the rent-a-room thing could apply to your 10 adult house.

Jay1_2

Just updated my spreadsheet (and checked my online banking to make sure there's been no sneaky direct debits) and it isn't looking too much worse than it was last time. Although it was a bit scary for a moment until I realised I'd put a decimal point in the wrong place and instead of 95p I'd put £95 :eek: . Such things have destroyed nations!

Still way over £1000 spent, but maybe I'm slowing down. The real culprit for using up my money is making my new flat "into a home", buying furniture etc - that includes £300 on some dining chairs at the beginning of February. If I don't count that (and the £10 towards my 'Guiding' holiday next year) which I put in a separate column. I have only spent £555.70 since the 7th of Jan which is positively saintly :A And goes to show being single is frugaltastic .

Oh and Whitewing I too spent nearly £7 on a pescription the other day but I'm not counting that in the £4000 because (a) if I was on benefits I wouldn't have to pay it and (b) I don't want to be tempted into wondering whether I can do without (coz I would ).

mumzyof2

Evening everyone!!

I wont be having a NSD tomorrow either as i am going with my friends to a childrens indoor playarea, i am sooooo excited, Im having to get on a bus to a villiage i have never been on before i hope to god the bus man knows where the church is that im suppose to get off at LOL.

I should be on and if iam i will post in the morning as i have to check if my quidco payment has reached my bank seen as though child tax have cancelled my award..so im waiting payment from them grrr!!!

11 days untill my holidays im going to have soooo much fun :P
But i will miss mse and god how many posts will i have to catch up on when i return LOL

sophiesmum_2

mumzyof2 wrote: »

Evening everyone!!

I wont be having a NSD tomorrow either as i am going with my friends to a childrens indoor playarea, i am sooooo excited, Im having to get on a bus to a villiage i have never been on before i hope to god the bus man knows where the church is that im suppose to get off at LOL.

I should be on and if iam i will post in the morning as i have to check if my quidco payment has reached my bank seen as though child tax have cancelled my award..so im waiting payment from them grrr!!!

11 days untill my holidays im going to have soooo much fun :P
But i will miss mse and god how many posts will i have to catch up on when i return LOL

:j have a good day tomorrow with the kids mumzy:D , are you going to the one in coppull? used to take the kids there when they were little and they loved it:D

Marru

HI,

Something wrong with my email announcements as I thought you were all quiet just to get here and take ages to read it all through!

Nyk, I am too tired to think. Will have a good look at your numbers tomorrow after good (?) night sleep.

Also been watching Apprentice. It is my absolute favourite.

Today a bit mixed feelings. As already over budget went to the pet shop and spent over 50.- (yet again too tired to add it all up and update spreadsheet/signature have to wait for tomorrow) BUT and that really put my head spinning. I won over 90.- for FREE (that is no deposit needed not even when doing the withdrawal) in a Casino. AND I had been playing Bingo on one of the Bingo sites for free for awhile and done quite well and something told me to put the minimum 5.- deposit in there today and I won the last jack pot of the day and that was 110.- :j :j :j

So good days work one might say. Need to bill my boss tomorrow so can get paid by rent day.

Dropping off now so catch up with you all tomorrow.

Marru

Frugaldom

Tonight is a marathon televisionathon evening, what with IPTW, The Apprentice (one really must watch whilst one sits tapping at one's keyboard, don't you think, ya?) and the new series of Desperate Housewives, portraying the other end of the frugal spectrum. I still reckon 'Frugal Housewives' would make equally rivetting viewing, especially if we get Janey scripting. And you know what? I was still number-crunching throughout the entire evening. I think it's because of all the 'end of financial year' money talk, adverts spitting out interest rates, fixed rates, fixed term bonds, high interest accounts (6.5% according to Martin in tonight's programme), credit card debt versus mortgage rates versus savings rates and I STILL cannot understand why I should or shouldn't have a mortgage and I STILL cannot understand why premium Bonds are such a bad idea when comparing them to the Lottery! I guess I must just be a bit thick! So, here's my personal frugaloony blurb in the wake of Sir Alan Sugar's reappearance to our screens.

ISA = Idiotic Savings Account.
From 6th April 2008 you are ALLOWED to pay £3,600 of your hard-earned cash, on which you have probably already paid income tax and National Insurance, into a special account that will ALLOW you to keep it safe from spending for 12 months. In exchange, you may (or may not) pay the bank an arrangement fee (REALLY stupid) and they will pay you the humungous sum of £234 (6.5% if you are REALLY lucky) over the period of those 12 months. What's more, they will NOT charge you £46.80 income tax. Every penny of that £234 is yours to keep and spend, all 6.5% of it (if you are lucky enough to find a REALLY HIGH interest rate for a year without penalties for withdrawals). :T You can do this EVERY YEAR until the Government decides otherwise or changes the rules or the name of the account or the terms or the conditions or the financial institutions withdraw the product, change the terms, conditions, interest rates, account names etc, etc, etc..... you get my drift.

Now, let's think of this frugal version of The Apprentice that someone suggested...

Scenario: We are team Frugalite, Sir Alan gives us £600 worth of top quality gear to sell, all the very best of stuff, and he pays all the associated costs for 8 of us to go make him some money.

How happy would he be if we returned and handed him an entire profit of £39 and told him not to worry, he doesn't need to pay any income tax on that and that his original £600 is safely recouped?! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Why can't I SPEND my annual allowance on 'something' and then sell it with about 8% of a mark-up, pay the income tax and still increase my £3,600 by £234... then do same several times over within the same 12 months?

G'night frugalites!

PS: Have fun tomorrow Mumzy!

DdraigGoch

I am in awe of your number crunching, Nykmedia

Having received the MSE weekly email, I dropped onto the Beat Jamie Oliver Into A Cocked Hat [not really called that!] thread - sat and wondered and then - tahdah! - came up with a week's menu of 7 main courses and puddings for less than £19.00!!!! It's a bit stodgy and needs more fruit and veg in it, but it's made me realise quite how very wasteful I am generally:o:o so am now inspired to stick to this thread like glue - hard luck!

off to bed, tired but determined.

See you all tomorrow :wave

DG