2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

LollopyBear

Hi everyone, I lurk a lot around these forums but haven't been posting much. I'd love to get in on this challenge! I'm currently doing a PGCE at the moment so I have a bursary coming in of £1000 a month, but I give £450 a month to my DH as my part of mortgage/bills etc. so I only have £550 a month to cover everything else (travel, food, my cat's expenses, entertainment etc.). This year we are both working on paying off a CC debt of £5000 as well as saving money to do up the house (we need new electrics, central heating, kitchen, the full works. This house was last updated in the 60's and is falling to pieces) so this challenge looks good to keep a close eye on my spending and to keep me on track.

Please let me in!

wornoutmumoftwo

iam going to check my electric and gas from tomo..do i just read them in morning and night? dont think we on any economy7 or anything like that. i use so much electric...i have dryer on most days. Funny thing is to check my electric il have to move tv and cabinet to get ot it hahaha.

You can read it as much or as little as you like but at least once a day on single rate, twice if on dual rate (economy 7/ white meter), if you have storage heaters you'll be on Economy 7.

The key is to read it at the same time each day so you get an accurate daily usage, I read mine at 8am and 11pm.

The tumble dryer will use a lot, so will an electric water heater, not sure about Gas.

mumzyof2

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

You can read it as much or as little as you like but at least once a day on single rate, twice if on dual rate (economy 7/ white meter), if you have storage heaters you'll be on Economy 7.

The key is to read it at the same time each day so you get an accurate daily usage, I read mine at 8am and 11pm.

The tumble dryer will use a lot, so will an electric water heater, not sure about Gas.

Thanks for that. I will start tomorrow :P

DdraigGoch

Well, here I am back again. Feeling hopeful [if ashamed].

The ashamed bit comes from realising that we're on a good income but still on the same £10K challenge. I've literally spent nights and nights awake trying to cut down our costs, but, being rural and no heating apart from one fire and an immersion heater, I'm stuck.

I'm getting new quotes for the insurance - I think we might go with just rebuilding and self-insure for the rest of it. That way when we don't use it at least we have the money still in our accounts, instead of the insurance's!

I'm already on a fairly frugal diet, but from now on it's going to be incredibly so OH is on a beer ration and we're not going out, ever!

Lexxi

Well done everyone! That cake looks lovely sweetpea, I put a choc bread and butter pudding in as my dad went out thinking it would last longer, didn't as me and my mum tucked in as soon as it came out! And as we were running out of ovenware the pudding went in two dishes instead of one which halved the cooking time, I think I'm startin to get the hang of this :T

Not spent anything yet this year but am taking my cousin out tomorrow as its her birthday only heading to the cinema so shouldn't be too expensive...

And someone mentioned something about a carpet brush, woolworths had some JML ones a while back that had rubber bristles which you could use on pretty much any surface, less than £5, not seen them for a while but haven't been looking

shazrobo

hi all, spent £3.84 on ds bought him a drawing set and stickers. off to supermarket tommorrow, hopefully wont be too bad if i take a list:p

sweetpea03

thanks lexxi could you post a recipe for the chocolate bread & bread pudding please as it sounds lovely, thank you

hello lollopybear :hello: & welcome to the challenge, good luck

Protogenia

by Delia Smith
from Delia's Winter Collection
Another brilliant hot pudding from Delia Smith - it's so simple, but so good - and tastes even better prepared two days in advance

• Servings: 6
• Level of difficulty: Easy
• Preparation Time: 15 minutes, plus 2 days standing
• Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 9 slices good white bread, 1 day old, each slice 5mm thick, taken from a large loaf
• 150g dark chocolate, (75% cocoa solids)
• 75g butter
• 425ml whipping cream
• 4 tbsp dark rum
• 110g caster sugar
• 1 pinch Cinnamon
• 3 large Eggs

Method


1. You will need a shallow ovenproof dish 18 x 23cm base x 5cm deep, lightly buttered.

2. Begin by removing the crusts from the slices of bread, which should leave you with 9 pieces about 10cm square. So now cut each slice into 4 triangles.

3. Next, place the chocolate, whipping cream, rum, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water, then wait until the butter and chocolate have melted and the sugar has completely dissolved. Next, remove the bowl from the heat and give it a really good stir to amalgamate all the ingredients.

4. Now in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then pour the chocolate mixture over them and whisk again very thoroughly to blend them together.

5. Then spoon about a 1cm layer of the chocolate mixture into the base of the dish and arrange half the bread triangles over the chocolate in overlapping rows. Now, pour half the remaining chocolate mixture all over the bread as evenly as possible, then arrange the rest of the triangles over that, finishing off with a layer of chocolate. Use a fork to press the bread gently down so that it gets covered very evenly with the liquid as it cools.

6. Cover the dish with clingfilm and allow to stand at room temperature for 2 hours before transferring it to the fridge for a minimum of 24 (but preferably 48) hours before cooking. When you're ready to cook the pudding, pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Remove the clingfilm and bake in the oven on a high shelf for 30-35 minutes, by which time the top will be crunchy and the inside soft and squidgy. Leave it to stand for 10 minutes before serving with well-chilled double cream poured over.

Protogenia

^
That's the recipe I use and it's rather scrummy.

mumzyof2

what is it LOL????