2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Janey51

sophiesmum lucky DD :T I think you have both done really well and after all, enjoying life is all about planning ahead so that you can afford what you want and not just buying things (especially gorgeous ponies) on a whim and then suffering the consequences.
I speak from experience

Mollymop5

just done my number crunching and totalled for this month so here it is

£150 on food( I did go over but I'm counting it in Aprils sh)
£178.08 on other things(a little overspend here too )
£138.40 on essential bills ( direct debits helped me keep this the same )

total spend for month £466.48 which leaves me £4171.87 left in my budget (if I've done sums right)

I'm now working on a new monthly budget of £461.31.I don't break this down weekly as I like the size of the monthly amounts


My child benefit ect is going up this month too which could mean I have more money to play with.I've decided the exta money won't be counted and wil go into a pot.I'm sticking with the numbers I started with.

1274

At last, my spends are going in the right direction - downwards! I spent £497.61 in Jan, £437.89 in Feb and only £342.68 in March. This means I've got £2929 for the rest of the year or, to put it another way, I'm £71 over my quarterly target. The two areas where I managed to reduce my spending were groceries (£9 under budget) and going out for drinks, lunches etc. (£21 under budget) So, Nyk's right - an overspend in the first couple of months isn't a disaster. Hopefully I can recover my overspent £71 in the next quarter.

Jay1_2

A frugal pony to go with the frugal babies and frugal in-laws :j . Whats his name Sophiesmum?

I feel as though I've wasted loads of money . I've just spent £27.80 on a train ticket to see my parents. I was going to drive which would probably have cost less than a tenner, but this way I get to spend an extra night there because I wouldn't have driven on the Friday evening. And its less worry for me (I don't like driving) and less guilt (I'm not so worried about 'carbon footprints' but I hate that there are so many cars on the road, and as there would be me on my own in the car...). And really, under £30 for a 5 night holiday isn't bad!

georgiasmum

As previously posted March has been disasterous however April will be better. I am full of renewed vim and vigour....

looby-loo_2

Hi Everyone
You lot are just so inspiring and I wonder how you keep your budget so low.
I almost kept under £200 this month for food. It was put up with three teenagers home from uni so I was quite pleased. April will be off to a bad start because they will all take a 'goodie box' back with them, but it's nice to treat them and have them all back.
Jan food £265
Feb food £140
March £207

I have completely separated my challenge from DH. This I can cope with as it does not mess up my targets. His spends are up to him! He pops out to see this pal or that one nearly every evening. I record it as £6 (two pints) on my spreadsheet just for a record (up my sleeve;) ) I showed my spreadsheet to my eldest children, and they pointed out the DH had spent £10 more at the pub than I had spent to feed us in March so far (£216), only three evening without going out! Then at dinner last night he said he 'didn't go out much now a days'. Apparently 'early evenings' don't count:rolleyes:
Well there was deathly silence then DD1 almost chocked on her pastry. No one let the cat out of the bag about my spreadsheet and DH honestly believed what he had just said.

He will be retiring next summer and the trouble is he really believes he will only need £20 spending money. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: and 'retiring wont make much difference'.

My 'luxury' is my rescue cat - she is eating me out of house and home - but then she is feeding her kittens. She has 4-5 pouches plus one tin of food a day plus any other food left in dishes by the other cats if I don't see it first!
She's looking healthy and has still kept her weight on so that's good.

Good luck everyone for April.:j

Frugaldom

Good afternoon my fellow frugalites. I have read all the small print and I really can't disagree with any of it. Having spent most of my life (and money) on poultry, game, pets and ponies in the past, I could (and easily would) do it all again, barring the fact I'm now in private rent on a street with a 'no livestock' clause. Sophiesmum, it's great news about DDs new pony, I hope she's really happy with him/her. Maybe I should be househunting to find a farm cottage with space for a pony. I mean, DGD is 3 now, she's old enough to be a great reason for my acquiring a teeny, weeny, tiny, cute pony...

I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of the first quarter of our challenge! Despite February seeming to drag in on account of trying to rid ourselves of the post-festive bills blues, the first three months have flown, if you know what I mean. :rotfl: The clocks have changed, it's officially British Summer Time, the sun is shining, it's been pouring rain and it could snow this week. One quarter the way through 2008 and I haven't bought any cigarettes, I haven't bought any washing powder or liquid and my monthly grocery spend has been cut by about £20 per month.

It's the end of the financial year in a few days and, for the first time ever, I have savings ready to transfer into a new ISA.:T I realise this may sound silly to some, but I can assure you that I'm not being a show-off, I am genuinely amazed that spending 2007 'frugalling on four grand' has paid off extremely well. I may not be worth a fortune and I still need to work to earn a living, but life looks so much simpler from this angle. For anyone with any doubts, stick with us and come back here this time next year to share your news.

I'm off to list a few more items on eBid now and might stick a couple of things on eBay as well, so I can attempt to register my first sales of the new tax year Next week will be accounts all the way as I'm 99% sure that I overpaid tax this year. A rebate would be brilliant, even if it's only a few pounds towards the house fund!

(Sun's shining again, can't decide if I should risk hanging out the washing!)

slowlyfading

nykmedia wrote: »

(Sun's shining again, can't decide if I should risk hanging out the washing!)

Ours is out, go for it! lol and well done on savings, that's just brilliant. x

slowlyfading

oh god oh god oh god. Just checked my internet banking, and the money for my laptop has gone out - £469.01 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: so it's taken my balance over the £1000 mark, which is actually quite depressing - I was only on £500 and some before! Oh well, will just have to be careful from now on. Am going to London for the weekend in May, and my grandparents have very kindly paid my train fare, but my hotel and all that has to be paid for as well, so that'll bump it up yet again. Oh well, even if I fail in the end, it's been an amazing journey so far.
sf :heartpuls

Janey51

slowlyfading wrote: »

oh god oh god oh god. Just checked my internet banking, and the money for my laptop has gone out - £469.01 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Sorry SF. Just made me grin