2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

mumzyof2

i will be updating each week and also daily in my sig

barole

Ok here we go.
My situation is ;- currently going through divorce, an absolute nightmare, costing a fortune in money and emotion! I have moved out of our home to a small rented flat where I live with my 2 chidren during their university holidays. I am also a student at the moment living on an NHS grant of 550 GBP a month. No debts at the moment, but going through small rainy day savings speedily!

Budget per month

Items that should be counted

Groceries/toiletries/cleaning products
Heating
Lighting
Telephone
Internet
TV Licence
Home insurance
Gifts for others
House Pets (if you have any)
Basic travel
Essential home maintenance
Essential household goods/furnishings
Essential clothing/footwear
Cigarettes (if you smoke)
Alcohol (if you drink)

Items that should not be counted:

Rent or mortgage
Council Tax
Water Rates
Work related travel expenses/cars
Holidays
Outstanding debts
Luxury items
Entertainment/Socialising
Home Decorating/Interior Design
Hobbies/Sports/Club Memberships

barole

Oops! Havnt quite got the hang of this, sorry!!
will try again! Argh!

barole

Budget per month

Items that should be counted

Groceries/toiletries/cleaning products 100
Heating 30
Lighting
Telephone + mobile + internet 55
Internet
TV Licence 12
Home insurance
Gifts for others 10
House Pets (if you have any) 10
Basic travel 80
Essential home maintenance
Essential household goods/furnishings
Essential clothing/footwear 30
Cigarettes (if you smoke)
Alcohol (if you drink)
307


Items that should not be counted:

Rent or mortgage
Council Tax students don’t pay!!
Water Rates included n rent
Work related travel expenses/cars as must keep car on road should I include MOT tax insurance here? 40
Holidays 25
Outstanding debts
Luxury items
Entertainment/Socialising 30
Home Decorating/Interior Design
Hobbies/Sports/Club Memberships 55
150

457

Any suggestions gratefully received !!

Barole xxx

bails

As someone else mentioned earlier, I keep being drawn back to this challenge so I'm going to bite the bullet as well and give it a go! OH is away at the mo so I'll settle on a figure once we're reworked our budget for the year (on Wednesday) - hope that's okay? In the meantime can I have a number please? :j My criteria will be slightly different too, in that anything which relates to my illness is exempt (despite being essential!). This is not an area I'm prepared to skimp on for obvious reasons, but for everything else I'm game! Now I just have to convince the boyfriend!!

lil_me

Jacks, £26 is one heck of an amount for internet, I'm on one of AOLs top packages, first 6 months is £10 and £15 after that, I'd really suggest you shop around. With the care for your relatives, do you claim carers allowance for them? It might help with the travel. Guessing there isn't a bus pass that would make it cheaper for you? Thinking about it, would it be cheaper to learn how to drive?

Barole, another one which stands out in the phone, mobile and internet section. Maybe see if you can get better deals on those. I did notice aswell that you are managing without house insurance, maybe if you could get cheaper other things you might be able to add that.

Anyway, I've pondered over the challenge a little, I know for my family of 4 plus the animals I couldn't do it on £4k for all of us, I suppose for some it's easier as a family of 2 etc. It's more what 'is' included which has made me decide against it for us as a family. If I was doing the challenge it would include luxuries etc and not things which I have very little choice over paying like house insurance, utilities, tv licence etc. I would hate to think anyone was thinking of going without paying for tv licence, insurance, utilities etc to keep within a £4k budget.

cumbrianmum

hypno06 wrote: »

For me this challenge is just about making healthy and sensible choices - because it is linked to budget quite severely,

I'm with you Hypno06 - I'm constantly popping out to the shops with the car when I could make do it home. For me and hence the OH and DBs it's about being happy with what we've got - together and buying sensibly rather than impulse. Saying that I'm going to have a blast in the pub tonight before we begin :j

Good luck to everyone and hope life smiles on you in 2008:D

KiKi

I'm also including gym membership, holidays, socialising and household decoration etc.

The only things I'm NOT including are essential emergency repairs, mortgage, water rates and council tax.

Otherwise I could easily stick to a small budget - then spend CRAP loads on socialising, holidays, redecorating the house etc, which isn't really the point of trying to live on a smaller budget!!

So my £5300 does include *everything* with the exception of emergency repairs, and any costs associated with my moving to Aus for a few months at the end of next year, although I'm going to try and cover those by other means where possible (like making savings this year).

debrag

sweetpea03 wrote: »

Items that should be counted

Groceries/toiletries/cleaning products
Heating
Lighting
Telephone
Internet
TV Licence
Home insurance
Gifts for others
House Pets (if you have any)
Basic travel
Essential home maintenance
Essential household goods/furnishings
Essential clothing/footwear
Cigarettes (if you smoke)
Alcohol (if you drink)

Items that should not be counted:

Rent or mortgage
Council Tax
Water Rates
Work related travel expenses/cars
Holidays
Outstanding debts
Luxury items
Entertainment/Socialising
Home Decorating/Interior Design
Hobbies/Sports/Club Memberships

good luck to you all & great to have you all in the challenge

oh i should be well under £4k

mum = 100 x3
food = 50 x12
travel = 50 x12 -[sometimes nothing]
Total = 1500 + 331 x12 [this is what isn't set aside for anything so I'm not really spending it, though will prob go on debts at the end of year]

I may include my hobbies around £80 a month once started that way everything else is savings in a way

hypno06

lil_me - I am doing it with modifications.

For me, I am not including what I term as fixed costs, such as council tax, water, electric and gas, tv licence etc, as there really is nothing I can do to reduce these with 5 of us in the house.

So, my £4000 is for food, un-necessary petrol (all other car costs are essential for work, but if we go to a friends at the weekend, we would need extra petrol so this would be included in the challenge), birthday treats and gifts, work lunches, outings eg cinema, school trips and the like.

my child benefit goes into a separate account to go towards the children's sports fees (these on their own are costing £10,000 this year, so cannot be included in the challenge).

The rules are not hard and fast, so if you need to tweak, then tweak away!