2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

bails

nykmedia wrote: »

I cashed mine in when I left nursing many, many moons ago. OOPS! I think I bought a horse with it, but don't tell Bails!

I SAW THAT, I SAW THAT - permission to purchase ponies at last! :rotfl:

I am here guys, just trying to catch up on what I've missed, still in Brighton you see. I was coming on to share my abject horror that my MiL pays 90p for a pint of milk!!! :eek::eek::eek: What ARE they thinking?? And I am being infuriated by everything being left on standby, despite professing to be environmentally-firiendly!!
Janey, you should definitely look into writing, the world needs more fab humour.

Back once I've caught up.... oh, and Mumzy, really well done on the smoking, :TI hope you haven't needed to succumb

redglass_2

Thanks for all the advice - any more ideas gratefully received. I thought I might make a start at Easter and try to sell at least one item.

Great news about the driving test! :beer:

bails

Phew, caught up! Will never remember all the things I wanted to reply to but it's sure nice to be back!
Well done to Janey's DS for passing his driving test! I agree with what you're doing for your mum, although I can understand how much it must hurt your frugal mind; it gives her pleasure and that's the important thing.
Nyk, I can relate to how you're feeling about the house but try not to assume the worst - my dad is a landlord and these questions might come up from time to time without necessarily signalling they'll sell up. How much notice did you tell him you'd need? If he's asking then I say give him a long time frame, see what he says. Or you could ask him directly, rather than feeling (perhaps unnecessarily) unsettled.
My OH's step-uncle is going to give us some breadmaking tips, and some sourdough - hopefully this'll mean that I can eat normal flour without it making me ill, therefore bringing down the cost of each loaf and freeing me up to enjoy sarnies etc :T
I haven't updated my spends for about 3 weeks so that's a job for next week when I get back. I don't think it's too bad but I'm worried I've overlooked some of OH's spends. I've spent about £50 in charity shops this week - scary when I put it like that - but the prices are quite high. The good thing is that this is from money I already saved up last year for this and so doesn't affect my 4k, and the clothes are needed as I have put on quite a bit of weight since I've been ill. I am slowly working on sorting through my old clothes and will sell some of them to help recoup some spends (still have about £100 in clothes fund though).
I am going to do Earth Hour Mumzy, if I can persuade OH's parents - it's an international thing and will be great to raise awareness, especially as it's only for an hour (almost everyone can manage that).
I've met my first MSEr in person this week, and really lovely she is too! :j
Back home tomorrow so I'll be back on here more regularly again. Oh, and I'm really glad SlowlyFading has decided to stay :T

sophiesmum_2

:j :j Congratulations on passing the driving test Janeys DS:j :j

Prudent

Congrats from me too :T

This evening I decided to abandon frugality and have a take away with dd. Went to the chinese. The only vegetarian item was a side order of mushrooms :rolleyes: Went to the Indian. We ordered vegetable korma, rice and nan. Arrived home and tucked into the rice, sauce and nan, leaving the 'vegtables' pieces to enjoy last. Sliced one up and realised it was chicken :eek:
I phoned up to complain (too many years on mse ). They delivered a full extra meal free, when we had only left the left the chicken. Its gone in the fridge for tomorrow.:D I had just expected extra korma. So even my one small attempt at extravagence backfired.:rotfl:

mumzyof2

Congratulations first of all to Janeys DS

Today i have spent:
£0.10 on a lollypop for DD
£3.50 on a day rider plus
£3.58 in Mr M (dont think i need anything else till back from hols)
£1.65 on interchange shop (crisps,sweets etc)
£7.00 approx in Mc Donalds as was late when we got back from visiting a friend and this is first Mc D;s we had this year

Total spend

£15.83 (im not spending anymore, someone make me a deal on me not spending till at least friday PLEASE)

CharliesAngel

for janey's DS - welcome to the world of motoring! lol...

Penny2myName

Total spend for 23 Mar 2008 - 29 Mar 2008: £56.62

TOTAL FOR ANIMALS £1.98
TOTAL FOR FOOD £18.68
TOTAL FOR OTHER £0.50
TOTAL FOR TOILETTRIES £0.76
TOTAL FOR TRAVEL £9.30
TOTAL FOR TREAT £1.40
TOTAL £56.62

This is my last weekly update, will be doing them on last/first day of month from now on, as when I stick my monthly and weekly ones on I get confused. So will do grand total spent/left to spend, on 31st March

Frugaldom

Nice to see you back online, Bails, hope you're having a great time despite any frugal-shocks and no, there has been no permission passed to buy ponies (or donkeys) yet. :rotfl:

I'm going to try to forget about the house situation for now, but the answer to the question is yes, LL will be selling up, we just don't know when and the market about here is really slow, so it could take some time. Time = breathing space for househunting, so I won't me missing an opportunity if the right one comes along this year.

Baking only got as far as making a batch of Twinks Hobnobs and was followed by demolishing a plateful with coffee whilst they were still warm. So much for healthy eating... I did a 'random use-it-up' dinner made up of roast potatoes, veggies and herb & spice sausages and I have chicken and hm curry defrosting for tomorrow. After doing a sweep of the kitchen cupboards I have discovered that I cannot warrant a trip to Mr T's next week, so will pop into Mr S for a top up shop whilst dropping off a few items at the charity shop.

Online auctions - I'm no powerseller, so can't really compare eBay to eBid from that point of view but they work in a similar fashion. The latter has nowhere near the volume of passing traffic and has more of a village feel to it, which is probably why I prefer it. For my charity sales, I find the village offers more support and it costs me nothing to list and/or relist each month. That and the fact that I'm celebrating my 8 years membership there next month and have made loads of virtual buddies who are also doing the money challenges, although not through this thread (if you are, then show yourselves please) plus I save my buddy points and use them to get pressies.

Talking of points, did anyone notice it's triple points at Tesco Direct for the next couple of weeks? I'm trying to work out what pressie shopping I could do before the 5% cashback offer expires on the AMEX card, plus get the Tesco points for deals and the standard cashback from oilyhand or whichever site I use. All that would help with the summer trip to Ireland. :cool:

Prudent

NYKmedia - hopefully you will get a decent amount of time in your house, the market in my part of Scotland is really slowing down. Does the ll have to give you notice?

Penny2myName - I find a monthly total really easy to do. I just go back through my bank account (online) and add up all the spends that month other than the council tax, union and daughter's allowance for her travel. I then subtract the £100 per month from the total for my commute (which is paid for from cash I withdraw for weekly spends). The remaining amount is my total spends.