2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

Lexxi

I think I'm going to give this a go too, if you'll have me? I'm not in debt as such but I do want to get my mortgage down as quick as possible, aiming to pay it off in 9 and half years when I'm 30 but would love to do it much sooner....
Going to go for 2600, which is about 50 per week, sounds tough but that is really just for the day to day type stuff on which I just seem to fritter my money away on, plus I live with my parents, so only have insurace to pay for my house

Frugaldom

Tracey04 wrote: »

does car loan, tax, petrol, mot etc included in £4000
is money banked reguallary included

and how do I make a paper mache pig !!!
thanks

Your basic budget is for essentials, so counting in the car will depend entirely on why you have a car - is it a must have that's crucial to your work or is it a luxury for convenience? If it is absolutely essential for the purposes of your lifestyle then do not count it into the £4000.

Edited in - forgot to add the link to papier mache world Here it is

Thanks for joining us :T

NEgirl

can i join in too? I think i will have to go with £5000 for the year as theres 2 adults and 4 kids here - will try to aim for £4k but dont want to fail so i will put my official number down as £5k.

Hopefully this is achievable and once a few more things get sorted round here then i will be in more of a state to save more - this year has been a nightmare We moved to a new housing estate which backed onto council and stupidly we didnt look into the village which turns out to be a close relation to HELL!! My dad was diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year and given 3 months max without treatment, thankfully he is still fighting!! Then our business we owned ended in liquidation which means both me and dh out of jobs having just moved into a 4 bed semi from a 2bed council so it looks likely we will be heading down a repo route with the house and back to square one Things are pretty bleak to say the least but we are trying our best to crawl out of this hell hole so we need as much help as poss and this looks like a good place to start

chrissie55

It's a gd start to budget @ £300/month, leaving a little 'fat' for emergencies. Lots of economies r healthy, eg, eating less meat, going for walks/biking for transport or pleasure, growing own veg/windowsill salads or sprouts.

harryhound

Good luck everyone.

For some places in the world 4K GBP is a king's ransom, I think the factory workers, making all that stuff that comes from China get less than 100 GBP a month. Perhaps someone from elsewhere in the global economy could join the club? An American versus a Chinese budget would be interesting.

However there seems to be a feeling about that there are economic troubles ahead and the GBP, like the USD before it, is riding for a fall:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aeW3yD72tDTE&refer=uk

I can remember when the Euro slumped to 59 pence against the pound. It is now worth about 73 pence (and shopping trips to Calais are no longer such a self financing trip as they used to be).

If our money goes down the drain INFLATION could be back with a vengeance and make the 4 K target difficult and the money saved worth less.

If the worse comes to the worst we could get STAGFLATION: recession and inflation, as oil prices start to bite.

(Downturn = Bloke next door loses his job.
Recession = You lose your job.
Depression = Your wife loses her job too).
alternatively:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession

CU in 12 months time,

Harry.

catznine

Just been number crunching and it is going to be very tight :eek: even on our generous £5000, I am full of admiration for those of you on the smaller allowance! don't worry I am not going to wimp out, I needed something to make me focus and pay off some of the mortgage!

I was going to sell my car but now need it to get to my part time job, too far to walk and with cfs cycling is out of the question, so relieved to see it isn't included in the allowance.

Our tv, phone, gas, electric and ins come from a different account to the food, clothing one so will need to adapt a spreadsheet. OH wants to keep skysports but we have got rid of the movies as we have loads of videos and dvds to watch.
Oh uses broadband for his studies for job so at least this will not have to come out of allowance.

Food bill I can concentrate on and like others have joined the Jan grocery challenge for £150 but might be able to save on that.

good luck everyone!

Catz

Prudent

Tracey04 wrote: »

thanks for telling me I have never used those things for the phone bill. do you stay with bt connection and number ?. any links that I can read for more info. Thanks T

I use bt for line rental only. Primus bill me for any calls, although evening and weekend calls are free (and these make up most of my calls). During the day I use 18866 which just charges me a 5p connection charge. Thereafter the call is free. Except calls to mobiles, but they still work out cheaper. Check the telephone board for more details.

redmel1621

Hello everyone

I keep on coming back to this thread and have read quite a lot of the posts, however, I am finding the rules rather baffling....
I can fully understand not including Mortgage/Rent & Council Tax in the budget as these are essential and very Variable. Is what I don't understand is...why is water bills excluded as surely these are a basic utility bill the same as electric and gas... If water is excluded surely these others should be or shouldn't they just all be counted??? don't they all just come under the same category??

Secondly in the OP it says that family allowance/child benefit is more than £4000 a year, you only get Family allowance if you are unemployed, and on it's own child benefit is far from £4000 a year (£1440 ish I get with 2 kids).

Thirdly the other exclusions are treats, ie holidays etc.. yet presents for friends/family is included...surely holidays should be included as the idea of this challenge is to spend little money therefore holidays should be foregone or at least done on a shoestring....Birthday presents at least for family is pretty much essential (even if it is just a box of chocs etc)

Maybe i'm just not understanding this challenge, I was looking at doing a similar thing myself before I even read this thread so I am not trying to debunk it, far from it...... I would love to join in:D But even when I change my car ins, and phone/internet provider next year I am still projecting a spend of £5182, I really can't see how I could cut this down anymore. To be honest we barely have any spare cash anyway so have always lived on a tight budget.
I will keep popping in i think and see how it is going for everyone, i will also be keepin a track of my own spends so may join officially at a later date.
Good luck everyone!!!

Mel x

hypno06

harryhound wrote: »

Good luck everyone.

For some places in the world 4K GBP is a king's ransom, I think the factory workers, making all that stuff that comes from China get less than 100 GBP a month. Perhaps someone from elsewhere in the global economy could join the club? An American versus a Chinese budget would be interesting.

However there seems to be a feeling about that there are economic troubles ahead and the GBP, like the USD before it, is riding for a fall:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aeW3yD72tDTE&refer=uk

I can remember when the Euro slumped to 59 pence against the pound. It is now worth about 73 pence (and shopping trips to Calais are no longer such a self financing trip as they used to be).

If our money goes down the drain INFLATION could be back with a vengeance and make the 4 K target difficult and the money saved worth less.

If the worse comes to the worst we could get STAGFLATION: recession and inflation, as oil prices start to bite.

(Downturn = Bloke next door loses his job.
Recession = You lose your job.
Depression = Your wife loses her job too).
alternatively:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession

CU in 12 months time,

Harry.

nothing like a bit of positivity to keep you motivated, is there!!

liuhut

nothing like a bit of positivity to keep you motivated, is there!!

I was thinking that and If the money saved is paying of debt or enabling people to do something that they want to do, it can only be a good thing surely