2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

debrag

me need to start baking

sweetpea03

thats brilliant Protogenia, thanks very much, this will definately be on the menu soon

sweetpea03

its chocolate bread & butter pudding mumzy

mumzyof2

dunno if id like it lmao

princess_leia_3

Chocolate Bread & Butter pudding! Sounds yummy - thanks I have printed that off to make this week as I have most ingrediants in already

So far this month we have spent £110 on direct debits for TV/insurances etc, £51 food shopping, £30 meal out on NYE. £10 nicotine patches for DH.
Just gotta see if I can really go for 2 weeks on the food shopping (apart from fruit and veg) I have done a food plan so hopefully we can do it :huh:

kayharcombe

I have spent 4.87 today, including tights, some cooking stuff in charity shop, and coffee and sweets reduced in greengrocers, so am quite please with myself. If i stick to grocery challenge of 200 for this month, and take out all appropriate direct debits, will have 130 to carry over for a rainy day.

Am going to take meter readings and work out consumption once a week, and continually through year try and cut down, were not on E7, so dont think daily is worth the effort of crawling down in my pantry!! Am paying some arrears on gas and elec due to previous underestimate, so will only include current months usage in budget, as arrears i will put down as a debt. As my car is going back so dont need to budget for payments, insurance or petrol anymore, think I can clear a capital one credit card (approx £1000, which is 200 over limit at the mo, ouch), which im paying 39% on within 6 weeks, if i really cut back on other things, then i reckon i will pay off other debts with the card one by one, paying balance within 30 days so not incurring charges, il need to check if they charge fee, but dont think so as not official balance transfer, will check small print. I will then use it just as debit card, paying off balance in full every month.

Just shows how much car was costing me every month, and ive also cut gym membership and sky subscription, which saves about 70 a month between them, ill be so skinny as ill be walking everywhere now so wont need gym, and cant get there without a car.

I am feeling very positive that next christmas, will be completly debt free, and saving well, as with others, when i read posts on here, cant believe how much money ive wasted over the years on "stuff", that i dont need or even want really.

Im going for a quiet beer, to contemplate how much im going to enjoy not having to drive people around, with my 3 children trying to kill each other in the back of the car, after a particularly horrendous 2 hour journey tonight

LoadedIWish

Today I've spend £1.85 on lunch and £1.80 on bus fare. Shame really as it could have been avoided if I'd thought about it.

liuhut

Hi guys. sounds like everyone has been cooking. Sweetpea - that cake looks lovely!
We had HM pizza tonight and I made rice cripsy cakes for the kids yesterday which have now all gone!!
Spent £18 today - had to get the kids annual hair cuts - they have long hair which I let dry naturally so they seem to get away with once a year!!!
the £8 was at work in the shop - managed to get my b'day cards for the year and socks and boxers for OH for that ammount, staff discount:T Got to have some perks working where I do!!

Going to check on the gas and lecky in a mo...cannot be too bad as I've not used the WM or tumble and have gone round making sure everythings off.

Rang sky earlier and have got £10 credit so DD will only be £9 this month.

NYK - lovin your tips and think this thread is goin to keep me going on this!!!

Frugaldom

LollopyBear wrote: »

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!

We closed the doors on entry to this extremely, exclusive, completely wacky challenge at New Year. However, you did say, 'please' and you have put a picture in my mind of a lollopy teddy bear that looks fun to have around, so I shall go and squeeze you into the challengers' list on the agreement that you promose to live a frugal life, pay bills before savings and behave like a lunatic in the company of fellow online 4k challengers Welcome to OUR world - where every penny counts, even if you find it on the pavement :rotfl:

Has everyone checked post one to make sure their names and targets are listed?

NYK WACKY HINTS & TIPS - Don't think of what you spent, focus on what there is left and budget it to last a year.
Tick, tock... only time will tell how well you have budgeted :T

1274

I'm sure it's all psychological but...since day 1 of the challenge yesterday I keep thinking of (and eating) the contents of my fridge and cupboards and I'm freezing as well. But I've spent my usual fortnightly £50 on food and haven't changed my central heating settings (20 degrees) so this must all be in the mind. Any suggestions for postive mind control so's I don't need to shop again before the 15th or turn the heating up?