Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

lingojingo

CharliesAngel wrote: »

I've lost my job.... now what?!

Oh poor you, I feel so sorry for you, big hugs coming your way ((((()))))

Keep positive, perhaps another, better job is just around the corner. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Frugaldom

I have been racking my brains again, trying to work out an annual grocery budget and I have now come to the conclusion that I could, indeed, attempt to cut my budget to £1000 for the year. Believe it or not, my biggest expense over a full year is DAIRY. The following is how I broke it all down:

Dairy products - £375
Meat & meat products - £250
Fruit & Veg - £200
Bread & Cakes - £75
Jams, pickles, spreads - £75
Tins - £65
Toiletries & cleaning products - £50
Dry goods (pasta, rice, pulses etc) - £50
Flour - £50
Sugar - £50
Eggs - £35
Herbs, spices etc - £10
Misc - £15

My original challenge target was £25 per week (£1300 per year) for groceries and the above is roughly how it would break down. I've cut down a bit on dairy by cooking with powdered milk and have cut down a bit on bread by baking more and buying for the freezer when reduced, hence the reason I cut back to £1200 (£100 per month in grocery challenge) but now I'm intrigued to know how the actual figures compare to the above guesstimates! I may need to do a spreadsheet! :rotfl:

PS: Getting a nanny goat, a couple of chickens and decent fruit, veg & herb gardens going doesn't look so daft when it could shave £500 off the above! :eek:

Marru

Hello all,

It looks like the day has been horrific to everybody. So hugs to all. Hugst to Whitewing as well as that is great news.

About worrying. I was diagnosed just over a year ago with depression and I am still on medication but getting better by the day. My DMP should finish just about the time I am ready for retirement. Despite all this or because of all this I have learned to take a day at the time and be so happy for how far I have come in such a little time. Discovering that it is ok to allow myself to be happy and not let my happiness to be dependable on other people or things that I need to happen "before I can be happy" has been a huge change in my mind set. So I can't be bothered on worrying on how I will fund my retirement. I only know that I will be ok till the end of this year and at the moment that is more than I had two months ago when I lost my job and was crying to my counselor that how ever I will be able to pay my bills.

Bails: I hope you have been able to sort out your trouble with the benefits people. I know you can do it.

Dreams: I saw a dream last night where I moved back to my ex just to do a bit of role reversal and let him taste some of his own medicine. So not me! It did put the whole situation into completely different light and I know that next time he calls me I can deal with it better and won't find a need to get upset over it. (I treat him now like a client you just about tolerate calm, cool, a bit distant, professional, brief)

I shall try the pizza recipes soon and try to make sure that some goes into the freezer as this is perfect lunch for me on days when DD eats at nursery. Should keep me from wondering after more expensive stomach fillers when hungry.

Mollymop: Your story made me cringe (sp?) and I almost fainted and fell off the chair and I wasn't even there. You survived extremely well from situation that was horrendous. I agree with everybody else, she should be disiplined and not allowed to do any more tests until further training.

By the way - what sunshine? It was pouring all day! I went to the shop to get bananas and got soaked and guess what - they didn't have any. I did something remarkable and walked out from the shop without buying anything. :T (I did stare one wine bottle for quite a long time - it was half price - but managed to resist)

CA: I don't know what to say except that I agree with everybody else. You should have some time to look into something new and perhaps this is time to take stock and start doing something that you might have alwasy wanted to do and just haven't had the courage to take the leap. JUMP!

Nyk: £35 in a year for eggs!!!! I wouldn't survive as that seems to be my main food item at the moment. I have been thinking that if I lived on a farm with potato and banana plantations, lots of chicken, a cheese factory next door and by the sea to catch a fish now and again I would be happy as a proverbial Larry and wouldn't need much more to eat.

Ugh - just got some rat wee on my mouse Hang on need to get a tissue.

Hoping for a better day for everybody for tomorrow. I have had major motivation problems today and felt really tired. Have managed to cross over fair amount from my to do list thou. Tomorrow I have my interview with the animal college - talking about animals, now I have rat inside my sweat shirt so I better rescue him as it tickles terribly - ouch, no biting.

On that though

nn tc sys

Marru

Frugaldom

Quick post before bed - the figures I quoted are based on old prices, when you could buy 15 eggs for 99p. Frugal living is becoming more difficult, that's why many of us are now showing freegan symptoms and often get a dose of the whoopsies (reduced items).

Sunshine was glorious here, really warm and summer-like, until the almighty storm! All back to normal now, though and I'll hope for another dry day tomorrow as I've a ton of towels to get dried if I stick the wm on now.
Bleugh, only one more full day until free bingo! I still haven't opened any of the booze that's been sat here since Christmas but I could be driven to it soon ... g'night to all, hope tomorrow brings you all better luck.

Congrats to Whitewing re news about OH, I also hope MIL is behaving and managing her budget.

Janey51

lingojingo wrote: »

How about Henry viii :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Ho Ho HO.:rotfl:

Janey51

Morning frugal land.
Marru what a thoughtful post you made.
Nyk my sister, who is now living in one of the east european countries, sends me tales of how the local villagers live. Many of them are elderly and are virtually self sufficient. They make or grow nearly everything and still find a little spare to share amongst their friends and relatives. Some of them go to other more wealthy EEC countries to work (as we know)...but these are people in their 60s who exist on a tiny pension.
So maybe we all expect too much?
I know that for me, as I get further into this challenge, spending money is becoming more of a novelty and my bank balance is showing the good effect.
Today will be update day for my budget so we'll see if I have to eat my fine words :eek:

sophiesmum_2

hi Janey
Me and OH are thinking of going to live in Malta for a while in a couple of years. The cost of living there is much lower than here, there is no council tax, no television licence fee, fresh food is much cheaper. We could get a flat there for around £40 a week, we wouldn't need a car and all that expense as public transport is available and very cheap. We could drastically reduce our outgoings and have a better quality of life at the same time. If we added growing some of our own produce into the equation it would lower the cost even further.As it is we could afford to live there without either of us working as OH has a private income, not enough to live on in this country but we could manage nicely there:D and we have lots of maltese friends to show us where to buy the best bargains. Many of them breed rabbits for the pot but I may have to draw the line at that:eek:
We are seriously thinking of going once we get some savings behind us as an emergency fund.It would be a simpler way of life away from a lot of the commercialism here, but like you Janey we are spending less and less lately.

shaz_mum_of__2

Sophies mum sorry to hear about your oldie i too have done cpr training but dread ever having to use it

Nyk Chickens around here can be had for a fiver each not sure how much feed is but the ones at the pub i work at eat scraps(veg peelings not plate scrapings) as well as corn

and

community shops are usually shops in village halls etc run by volunteers bit like a buying group often pop up in places where post office/village shop has closed down


molly mop report her!!! think how bad you would feel if she seriously hurt someone.............our practise will allow you to go to path lab at local hospital instead of the nurse would this be an option if you didn't want to face this woman afterwards

Just had brunch......of hm french bread and pate(from weezl75's old school vs USDA thread it was yum and cost about £1.50 to make over 600g )


Trying to avoid shopping as facing an uncertain future job wise

Does anyone know if you get earnings related jobseekers allowance if you voluntarily give up a job?


Shaz

rathga

Hi all

Good luck to all of you on this! Hope you all get through.

I'd be fascinated to know how some of you are budgeting for this. How much do you spend on food? Cooking? Having fun/going out? Sport/gym?

I'm currently struggling to spend less than £15/day on food/coffee at work alone (which is £3,600/year on its own!). Are you all on packed lunches and weak lemon squash?

slowlyfading

rathga wrote: »

I'm currently struggling to spend less than £15/day on food/coffee at work alone (which is £3,600/year on its own!). Are you all on packed lunches and weak lemon squash?

£15 A DAY on food and coffee at work? :eek: goodness me! That's a lot of wasting money right there! Can't you take sandwiches, or a cold pasta salad, and a flask full of coffee instead of spending that much? seems an awful lot to me.. and look how much it is over the year!