2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

wornoutmumoftwo

Well I've already spent about £30 (Food/Electric), but that's because I included the food and electric I'd bought for January, otherwise it would be zero (shops are shut up here for two days anyway)

I love cooking and I am making an executive effort to cook from scratch this year, already make my steak oue filling overnight in the slow cooker (did cheat on the puff pastry though as bought some ready made).

BUT, as Tesco was sold out of bread yesterday I bought some Bread flour and the doughs rising nicely, so fingers crossed I'll have a nice loaf.

Going to sit down tomorrow and work all my figures out for my budget, most of my money goes on bills anyway, I can generally scrape through a week on £50 for food for the four of us + smelly pensioner of a cat.

Really looking forward to this challange to keep me motivated and I wish you all a good year and the best of luck.

:beer:

slowlyfading

:hello: everyone! I'm not in the challenge, but I wanted to say good luck and I'll be following the thread with interest x x

Aunt_Bessie

Hellooooooo Everyone

Am new on the forums today, but i've been following this thread from the start.
Just dropped in to wish u all the best of luck....... :T

I'm not in the challenge, but I sure will be taking inspiration from it & have already set myself some targets for 2008!

I WILL kill at least one credit card
& I WILL reduce my energy bills by at least 20%

So far, so good...i've stuck a notice on the tumble drier door "I cost a fortune !" & put a clothes airer in front of a radiator instead lol

Happy New Year Everyone...........& stash loadsa cash!

xx

Frugaldom

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!:beer:

debrag wrote: »

The £1500 is what I could live on if not including rent, hobbies, debt payments etc At present I never have any money left at the end of the month so am living on £5k ish so this is going to be a challenge.
My aim is £1500-3000

Is your target £5000 for absolutely everything except rent/council tax/water?

To make it simple - I don't have a car, have quit smoking and I work from home, so my 4k is absolutely everything. (I have 3 adults to feed out of that, but have also joined the grocery challenge to keep better tabs on it.)

Please let me know what your target figure is and what it includes, thank you :beer:

Frugaldom

[quote=Penny2myName;7567099]Quick Question, if we are given bank charges, are these to come out of our £4000 budget?[/quote]

Yes, charges must be met and that eats into any budget, otherwise it would be the rocky road to ruin, which we don't want. I think if you are subject to bank charges then it makes you see how bad they really are! I mean, one bank charge would cost me a full week's groceries :eek:

Good luck!!! Have you tried calling the bank to try to avoid charges?

MICRON - Do your budget on what you spend with complete disregard for what you may or may not have coming in - that way you'll know how much you need to clear before taking your next job Good luck with that :T

kayharcombe

Happy new year everyone!!

Went out on a walk with some folks this morning, but had to put £10 petrol in car and buy some drinks for me and kids, due to being disorganised this morning.

Petrol is last I shall put in for a while, car is going back to dealers this week, so no more petrol, insurance, or car repayments for me!! I shall be having groceries delivered fortnightly, but even delivery charge is less than 2 car journeys to local tescos, never mind all the school runs and popping into tescos 4 times a week rather than considering carefully what ill need for next week or so. Will take a little discipline, but sure life goes on without cars.....

Bought some things in tescos last night, including some large gammon joints, which i thought were half price, to approx £12, but when got to checkout, were further £8 off each, so cost £3-4 each, so promptly went back and collected 4 more, have now 7 massive gammon joints in freezer, and 4 pints double cream which were 9p each. I will be eating well for a while!!! got a few packs of smoked haddock for 60p each reduced to clear, will each make a kedgeree, or fish pie for me and 3 kids.

Kids are watching last days sky tv, will call tomorrow to have taken off, leaving it as freeview only, we will still get film4 and a few other channels we watch regularly, kids will have to get used to it, they wont notice in a week or 2. I am very excited about this challenge, along with the grocery challenge. I have given my bank card to my OH, and I have another card with access to child benefit only, and have building society book so if i really need money i can get it, or ask for it back, but cant just pop to cash machine for extra cash. Am hoping when kids go back to open a co-op account with debit card, and transfer weekly allowance into it, so cant overspend, but can shop online. Am also cancelling gym membership, as cant get there without car, and will be exercising by walking to school and nans, shops etc.

Hope everyone has a good start to the year, and can resist the sales!!! (as long as its not something you would buy anyway, in which case, go ahead)

Kay

Penny2myName

nykmedia wrote: »

Yes, charges must be met and that eats into any budget, otherwise it would be the rocky road to ruin, which we don't want. I think if you are subject to bank charges then it makes you see how bad they really are! I mean, one bank charge would cost me a full week's groceries :eek:

Good luck!!! Have you tried calling the bank to try to avoid charges?

It will be a full weeks groceries for me too, and as today is a non working bank day, nothing I can do till tomorrow, apart from calling the catalogue which I did to tell them they OWE me for any charges incurred due to THEIR mess up.:mad: Luckily they have agreed to reimburse me once I send proof of charges (so when the letter arrives that will automatically be issued by their computer)
Also have to wait for them to re-credit to my bank account the extra money which they took out.

Frugaldom

I hate company mess ups and am astounded at how often they occur. I've had several hiccups with Tesco Direct (non-grocery) and Somerfield is so bad that I now HAVE to check every item they scan through before leaving the store to make sure it gets charged at what it says on the shelf! On average, I would say that 3 out of 4 trips to that store results in a complaint about an over-charge so please, everyone, watch your receipts. I only noticed that this was such a problem when I began saving all my receipts and doing the 'shared shops' for BOGOF offers = half price shopping.

Options in my area are very limited but we'll hopefully have a Lidls store in the next few months - right next door to Somerfields!!! :T

I can't remember where I mentioned about the electricity, so here's an update.
Having moved house, I had no idea how much the electricity would cost and it isn't a prepayment meter. First bill round was paid but later realised it was GROSSLY underestimated. So, I may be hit by a £500 catch-up bill in the next few weeks! I have checked the meter each day and night since Christmas eve as I know it's a heavy useage week in anyone's calendar and was HORRIFIED!! My overnight useage, I am told, is average for storage heaters and a house this size, but the day useage was dire. I have spent the last week of 2007 trying to cut this down and have managed to reduce the overnight (it's white meter E7) rate from 65 to 55 and the day useage from 25 to about 11.

Hmm... talk about obsessive? Yes, I do have a power useage chart running :rotfl: and I have been online searching for the best utilities deals.

St8_2

I should have joined in on this challege last year as I knew I would have definately been successful because I only had 6k for the whole year and 2.7k of that was rent. So I only lived on 3.3k. That was for maintaining a car aswell.

Im a student so the same this year but ive also got a job part time now, which is doubling my income to 12k. So I may not manage it but I dont think there will be a prob. Luckily I have no debts so the extra 6k is going into my savings pot :-).

Also last year I didn't struggle and I actually feel like ive got plenty of money to live on and do the things I want. But of course i'm only providing for one person. Im interested in how many people everyones 4k will be providing for? I think people who manage on 4k for 3 or 4 people deserve extra credit!

wornoutmumoftwo

My overnight useage, I am told, is average for storage heaters and a house this size, but the day useage was dire. I have spent the last week of 2007 trying to cut this down and have managed to reduce the overnight (it's white meter E7) rate from 65 to 55 and the day useage from 25 to about 11.

I am all electric in a 2 bed upstairs flat (One up/One down) I made the mistake of leaving on the water heater all day as genuinely didn't know it ate electric, I also do my washing machine at night and the tumble dryer to make use of the cheap night rate.

I use about 12 units in the day and about 15 at night on average, I have two storage heaters which I try and keep on low as the higher they are set the more lecky they'll use.