Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Marru

rathga wrote: »

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?

Hi,

Check out the lunch log challenge. There you can find hints and tips and support of how to avoid spending for work lunches: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=659253&highlight=lunch+box+challenge

Marru

rathga

I know! It's scary! Sadly one of those things I never thought about until I started adding it up:

£2 breakfast
£2 mid-morning snack
£6 lunch
£2.50 coffee
£2 afternoon snack

Have made great strides recently by getting up earlier and eating breakfast at home - but I'd get strange looks from my co-workers if I started bringing in poorly made sandwiches and avoiding the coffee trips.

rathga

Marru wrote: »

Hi,

Check out the lunch log challenge. There you can find hints and tips and support of how to avoid spending for work lunches: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=659253&highlight=lunch+box+challenge

Marru

lol, fantastic. thanks marru

Uniscots97

rathga wrote: »

I know! It's scary! Sadly one of those things I never thought about until I started adding it up:

£2 breakfast
£2 mid-morning snack
£6 lunch
£2.50 coffee
£2 afternoon snack

Have made great strides recently by getting up earlier and eating breakfast at home - but I'd get strange looks from my co-workers if I started bringing in poorly made sandwiches and avoiding the coffee trips.

but in the end you'll be the one debt-free or the one with money saved up to splurge on something. No reason you can't join them if you have a packed lunch is there for company?

Janey51

Hello rathga. Its funny how our mindset has changed on here about spending money.
Like slowlyfading my immediate reaction was :eek: at the thought of spending £15 a day at work on food. If you decide to join us you too will be infected with frugalitis before long
My job involves me spending a lot of time driving around with erratic breaks so I keep bananas, nuts and bottles of diluted juice (not weak lemon ) in the car so I always have something if I get time to eat.
It is a little different for me as I had weightloss surgery last year so have a small appetite.
But I am having a quick break at home until 2.30 (been out since 7) so have had a toasted teacake (whoopsy in Co-op at 32p for 4) and butter (picked up for 50p a couple of weeks ago in a local shop).
You will find that things that became essential like C***a coffee start to bring you out in a cold sweat when you think how many meals you could make for the cost of one cup.
Then, you start to feel the benefit.
I have saved enough to pay for spending money for me and DH on our hols next week :T

DdraigGoch

Well done, Janey!

slowlyfading

well done janey, hope you have a lovely time!

bails

CA, I'm so sorry you lost your job; Nyk had some great advice which I can't really add to but please let us know how you're getting on. Big hugs.

Shaz, sorry I don't know whether you'd be entitled or not, maybe ring the CAB or your local job centre for advice?

Rathga, I had exactly the same reaction as the others :eek: It's amazing how much you can spend without realising it until you add it up. As Janey said, this challenge has made us look at everything in a completely different light. So what if you're colleagues take the mick, at the end of the day I'd much rather have the extra £3,600 in my pocket (I can't get over how much it is!! :rotfl:) That's a whole ISA allowance for the year, or in my world (where everything gets calculated in travel opportunitues) about 7 months in South America
Marru, thanks for your lovely post yesterday, very true.
Fab news about the higher rate of pay for OH Whitewing, every little helps!
Good and bad news here today - my money came through last night - phew!- but the job is looking unlikely A new Inclusion Manager was appointed yesterday so there are lots of changes happening, which don't seem to include this job. My HoD says she hasn't forgotten about me and that hopefully something will come up but I've been really hanging out for this job as it would be a prefect re-entry to work :rolleyes: Feeling quite despondent about it TBH but will let myself feel pants for a while and will then pick myself back up and make another plan. I just want a job!

whitewing

rathga wrote: »

I know! It's scary! Sadly one of those things I never thought about until I started adding it up:

£2 breakfast
£2 mid-morning snack
£6 lunch
£2.50 coffee
£2 afternoon snack

Have made great strides recently by getting up earlier and eating breakfast at home - but I'd get strange looks from my co-workers if I started bringing in poorly made sandwiches and avoiding the coffee trips.

This is disgraceful spending, but we've all done it. You seriously need to stop making excuses and cut it down. Probably you will find that others will be relieved to join you in your frugalling. Maybe think of something you want to save up for and use that as a mini challenge to pay for it out of work/break money. Then you'll probably find that they'll be supportive.

We have just spent £87 in Lidl and £21 in Tesco (prefer their fresh fruit/veg) on our monthly shop for the 4 of us. (Will have to top up a little with milk and bread later in the month). We laughed going round Tesco at some of the Finest range we used to buy. Mind you, if money was no object, I'd still probably buy them! Saw a cheesecake reduced to £2.59 from £3.49. One upon a time, I'd have bought that bargain!

CharliesAngel

Thank you for all your kind and positive comments... i have no plans other than to keep some sort of income coming into the house... it's lucky that i've just switched electric to a cheaper supplier so no direct debit for that this month... the kittens have had their operations, i tried to post pictures of them but i can't... they look so silly in their little bucket collars...
my parents are being supportive as ever - aren't parents brilliant :T and they know i'll get something - even if it's not what i want to do long term. these things happen and probably for a reason, Nyk my job was with a council lol and they have been completely unreasonable through the whole stressful experience and never faced up to the fact that i was doing more than my job description and the work of two people... but i have registered with agencies today and hope to hear something soon...

mollymop - have you spoken to the carers federation regarding your concerns? they deal with ensuring quality patient care.. something you didn't receive that day..

i've bought a new suit today eek.. but i intend that to be my only spending for the next few weeks..

CA x