2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Frugaldom

I'm still here... not started the new thread yet as it doesn't, technically, begin until 1st April. No panics, I'll be leaving the link here as soon as I have the intro done (quarter 2 is slightly different to quarter 1 because it involves a new tax year and it's post-budget).

I'm still catching up with (work) accounts and can't believe how much went out via PayPal last year! It's averaging nearly £100 per month!!! :eek:

Mollymop5

bails wrote: »

I'm assuming we're still using this thread or shall I go look for a new one?

I'm not sure if I should be here or new thread either.Please come back and find me if I'm meant to be somewhere else lol

mah_jong

Food for March finished off at 70.39, which is not too bad considering I had guests for a weekend. Whilst I buy more for them there is always things to eat up after their departure.


I am not trying too hard to keep this down, more of a using up stuff, but buying in the fruit and veg. I see some of you post your nsd, I think I have become the reverse of that ....I went to a shop once last week and spent 1.82! But the week before was in the 30's with 2 days of shopping! I use the small corner supermarket, rarely getting to the large warehouse type Tesco!


Anyway my footer totals have changed not sure if I am target ...lets look, totals for year to date ......

Groceries/toiletries/cleaning products 242.14
Heating
Lighting 114
Telephone 37.21
Internet 29.97
TV License 34.97
Home insurance 87.85
Gifts for others 25.
House Pets (if you have any)
Basic travel
Essential home maintenance
Essential household goods/furnishings 24.99
Essential clothing/footwear 8.5
Cigarettes (if you smoke)
Alcohol (if you drink)


According to the calculation thats 604.63. I have pots for bills that I save for ...for example I expect to pay for a tank of oil later this year. It was over 400 the last time ...there is 150 in the kitty meanwhile!
Good luck to you all.


Mah

BlueFleur

Had to add to my sig, the car was crying out for petrol! Had to go get a prescription today and discovered that there will be a price increase tomorrow. I'm tempted to get one of those pre-pay cards, as it seems to work out cheaper (if you have enough regular prescriptions). Still on a hunt for the co-op receipt, so the total will go up again when I have found it.

Having looked through all your end of March posts, I'm going to start keeping a record of where I spend the most. I’ll set it up today and begin from tomorrow, so I’ll have a better idea how to budget for a month. Feeling good about how the budget is going so far, I have resisted most junk spending this month

FrankieM

Afternoon everyone, I've just got back from town. I had to put some money in the bank and then I took DS and DD2 to the library. While I was there I got some books. Of course I've no idea what kind of authors or books I like so its going to be a fun and interesting learning curve for me.
The Baker's Oven in town was giving sausage roll samples, so the children went and got one...I managing not to spend very much, which is great....

taka

BlueFleur wrote: »

Had to add to my sig, the car was crying out for petrol! Had to go get a prescription today and discovered that there will be a price increase tomorrow. I'm tempted to get one of those pre-pay cards, as it seems to work out cheaper (if you have enough regular prescriptions). Still on a hunt for the co-op receipt, so the total will go up again when I have found it.

Having looked through all your end of March posts, I'm going to start keeping a record of where I spend the most. I’ll set it up today and begin from tomorrow, so I’ll have a better idea how to budget for a month. Feeling good about how the budget is going so far, I have resisted most junk spending this month

Thanks for reminding me... I've just checked the prescription price changes in Scotland and as far as I can tell they go down to £5 as of tomorrow here so I'll wait till tomorrow to get mine :T (sorry )

catshark88

bails wrote: »

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

Many moons ago when I was doing my post grad, I seem to remember spending most of my interest free career development loan on a foal! :rotfl:

Frugaldom

catshark88 wrote: »

Many moons ago when I was doing my post grad, I seem to remember spending most of my interest free career development loan on a foal! :rotfl:

:T :T :T That's the type of thing I would go and do! My first ever bank loan was for a horse and they laughed when I handed over the application forms, thought I meant a HOUSE! Of course, that was back in the days before they had invented Internet from home and online banking.

I'm going to find out about how to get this thread locked so I can start the new one on 1st April (I'll stay up til midnight LOL).

Quarter 2 - time for the first real progress reports.

It is easier if you have been keeping a spending diary, as you just need to check off all your totals and work out how much you have left of your £4000 for the rest of the year. For the benefit of new readers, I have counted everything except rent/mortgage, council tax and water, as these things vary from area to area. My reference to 'everything else' means exactly that - EVERYTHING else, from basic travel to clothes, shoes, repairs, furniture, prescriptions etc, etc, etc...

To easier understand where the £4000 originally comes from, here's an easy way to work it out:

1) Add up your entire annual household income including any benefits, child allowance, tax credits, subsidiary earnings, money for clicks, cashback etc

2) Deduct the full year's rent or mortgage.

3) Deduct the full year's council tax and water.

4) Deduct anything that relates to the costs of earning the above income, for example if you need a car (or cars) to get to work then all costs related to the car are work related, any other travel costs, childcare, lunches at work, workwear, extra food costs for quickness and convenience (takeaways, pre-cooked meals, eating out), extra costs incurred paying other people to do what you have no time to do yourself (the ironing or cleaning lady, window cleaner, garden maintenance, car wash etc).

5) Deduct your £4000 (or whatever figure you chose as your target) for the cost of living challenge.

That's it, you should now have a number that represents whatever is left to

A) pay any debts and
'play' with each year for non-essentials to life, such as hobbies, holidays, cigarettes, alcohol, shopping trips, entertainment, socialising etc, etc, etc... it may even be how much you could have saved into a high interest bank account.

At this point, many people are shocked. How shocked were you the first time you worked it all out? I'm off to work mine out now. In the meantime, the following is my recalculated budget as we enter Quarter 2.

My recalculated budget for 2008 is:

Groceries: £1200 - £289.29 = £910.71
Gifts/Special Occasions: £500 - £70.69 = £429.31

Utilities: £1400 - £479.16 = £920.84
Mobiles: £50 - £5 = £45
Internet: £220 - £46.90 = £173.10

Household Insurance: £52.40 - £52.40 = nil
Everything else: £577.60 - £164 = £413.60

Total: £4000 for year. Already spent £1107.44, balance = £2892.56
Target average weekly spend = £76.50 over a year
Actual average weekly spend = £84.26 during first quarter of 2008

1st April - Day 92 of 2008, 274 days remaining with average of £73.89 per week

slowlyfading

Well I've worked out my totals for March, and its so depressing! Have got to be more careful in April, that's for sure.
January: £244.38
February: £148.41
March: £678.94 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: (yes, that is what my face is currently looking like!)
Total: £1071.73. which is £77.98 OVER BUDGET :eek::eek::eek::eek:
Now, £469.01 is for a new laptop since mine has decided to break, but I'm still counting it in this challenge, so its meant that I'm not doing so well anymore. I need to rein in my spending, so that I can make it to the end of April and be under budget again. That's going to be my aim.
So I have £2928.30 for the rest of the year, which equals £10.64 per day.





am still looking like this ---> :eek:

whitewing

SF, only £78 above budget including a new laptop is ruddy marvellous. Well done!