Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Frugaldom

bails wrote: »

Hi everyone, had a lovely day with Marru today wandering round her college looking at loads of animals with the monkey who is very cute and beautiful and a little 'determined' when she wants to be Am now exhausted, been lying here searching for land but unless I want to buy in the Orkneys it seems impossible :rolleyes: Anyone ever looked for/bought land and know where to start with it please?
Glad you had a lovely birthday SophiesMum and were spoilt. Hope you all have a lovely evening, see you tomorrow when I'm more awake x

Bails, I use these sites most We went after a 60 acre woodland with outline planning last year - under £100k, hence reason it was sold by time I'd spoken to lawyers, builders and architects

http://www.woodlandowner.org.uk

http://www.uklanddirectory.org.uk

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/

The third one does lakes, meadows and woodlands.

shaz_mum_of__2

redglass wrote: »

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

I would think a low oven about gas 3 would take about 3 hrs (i always put a little liquid in my roasting tin so it part steams/roasts and then use the stock for gravy

Thanks Shaz, that might do it. Like i said to Mumzy, I'm beginning to think I'm just being a silly girl here, making stuff more complex than it needs to be. So what if there isn't crispy skin, my mates will forgive me. :rolleyes:

I see you've got £4k stoozed. Respect! - haven't started yet but stoozing is lined up as a future project.

Thanks onto our second card now £4K credit on each, both got a decent isa so the moneys in there plus the surplus is going to ICICI estimate £350 quid in interest come january not bad going for a bit of paper shuffling in fact its a months groceries ,gonna try for another card later in the year and possibly do a balance transfer instead of paying off in feb


Bit OT sorry
Shaz

Pirategirl

Evenin' all!

Hope everyone is good?!

NYK - please could I join your IB challenge? I've unofficially invited myself (I'm cheeky like that) but would like to be official if its ok with you? I left you a reply on the thread too

I'm proud of myself, just got given 4 trough planters and some compost, so have planted some onions and lettuce ...we shall see if they survive lol. ANYWAY. I'll shush now!

Enjoy your eve's all.
x

Frugaldom

Well, you'll can see by my signature that I have been out and spent some money today again - not much, but it toppled me slightly over the half way mark and there are still 51 days to go until we reach the halfway stage! :eek:

I went for a walk around the market and was very good, spent nothing. But then we decided to go for a walk, which took us to the local nursery (plants, not kids) where I ended up spending £5 on strawberry plants and rhubarb. I was delighted with my purchases and have been out in the garden since about 4pm filling up some of my wooden planters. I have one with a few lettuces and the parsley, one with strawberries, one with the rhubarb and several more awaiting filling as soon as my netting arrives. (I ordered 50m of bird netting to put over/around the veggie plot to try to keep the local cats from using it as a ginat litter tray.) I also made a makeshift plastic lean-to, so the pots are all under cover. I had kept the big polythene bag that was over the freezer when we bought it and have cut this and have it secured to the fence. Whilst doing this, I had another brainwave! I MIGHT be able to make a temporary greenhouse for my tomatoes and pepper plants! I have plenty of offcuts of wood and all I would need for the project would be corrugated plastic or some heavy duty polythene. Wonder if I could find some on freecycle? Friend spotted some plastic drainpipe in a skip outside a pub, so guess who asked them to pop in and speak to the owner about acquiring that? :cool: I think I now have my summer project and if we do need to move house, we'll need a removal van just for pots and plants. :rotfl: Trouble is, I forget to eat when out playng in the garden so I've told HS and DS that we need the BBQ at the ready at all times so they just chuck on a hm kebab when they are hungry. That packet of metal skewers was an omen, and a £1 well spent last grocery shop. :rotfl:

Still lovely here, wonder if I could sneak back out for another half hour without getting eaten alive by midges :cool:

Edited in: OOPS! Forgot to add in my financial break-down

GROCERIES
Jan 2008£86.09
Feb 2008£103.68
Mar 2008£99.52
Apr 2008£97.05
May 2008£94.10
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES£480.44
GIFTS
Jan 2008£49.23
Feb 2008£16.97
Mar 2008£4.49
Apr 2008
May 2008
TOTAL FOR GIFTS£70.69
EVERYTHING ELSE
Jan 2008£117.92
Feb 2008£7.58
Mar 2008£43.50
Apr 2008£150.00
May 2008£5.00
TOTAL FOR EVERYTHING ELSE£324.00
UTILITIES
Jan 2008£419.44
Feb 2008
Mar 2008£59.72
Apr 2008£534.14
May 2008
TOTAL FOR UTILITIES£1013.30
HOUSEHOLD
Jan 2008£52.40
Feb 2008
Mar 2008
Apr 2008
May 2008
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD£52.40
INTERNET ACCESS
Jan 2008£24.99
Feb 2008£6.92
Mar 2008£14.99
Apr 2008£14.99
May 2008
TOTAL FOR INTERNET ACCESS£61.89
TOTAL£2002.72
Running to hide now... I'll be in the garden somewhere :eek:

wornoutmumoftwo

I've been busy...spending money:eek:, all with money saving in mind though.

I bought a £10 mini greenhouse from Instore to help my tomatoes and other seeds along the way, even more seeds (half price in Lidl/Instore).

Been very busy in the kitchen; made rolls and bread, home made fish fingers, home made soup (really scrummy), twinks hobnobs

Will work out my figures tomorrow and update my sig, I have spent a lot on food but it was a bulk buy and I'm finding if I have to go to Mr T's now it's only for the odd item as opposed to spending almost a tenner a day on nonsense.

tryingtodobetter

Got a question for you all, if you were offered the opportunity to buy a car for less than its value about £1300 less so we could make this amount in profit, would you take the risk e.g. what if we can't sell it qucikly? Off to look at the car tomorrow so not 100% sure yet anyway. Any advice appreciated.

Marru

Hi all,

As Bails said we had a lovely day at the college fete today. I had tenner tucked in my pocket and only spent six and a half so all in all success. One pound lost in ferret racing but it did go for good course . The Dog was snoring at the kennels while we were looking at the animals. DD very excited about the snakes.

Tomorrow is again a freecycle day as got some books and a horse (toy) for DD to go and collect (the books are for DD as well).

Thank you Nyk for the links. I found the middle one when I was Googling land. Their area search works but I didn't get the advanced search to work. I was looking areas like Somerset, Devon, Wales and Cumbria. Wales is winning it for me at the moment.

I have made a decision that in the future weekends are going to be dedicated for rest and time with DD and no stressing about things that "should get done". Can't start tomorrow as I still haven't done my sums and want to get it out of the way before new week. So I won't be showing my face here until that is done and signature updated.

Have a great Sunday everybody.

Marru

(41 nights to go)

sophiesmum_2

Good evening everyone:D

Had a spending day today, went to post office which is inside asda - then picked up some organic baked beans which were reduced to 22p a tin.So bought 24 tins for my bulk buying challenge for £5.28 not bad for organic.:D

Total spends for today £16.28:o

Early start tomorrow as taking DD and friend to compete in a pony show, glad the weather will be lovely again here. Taking two of my more active oldies along to watch and will be taking a picnic and using up all the fresh stuff in the fridge before we go away. Will be leaving show around 3pm though as need to get back to cook the roast for rest of oldies. Then DD's friends mum will bring them back later.
Will be a busy day:D

looby-loo_2

looby-loo wrote: »

I have lettuce growing in pots - one is just big enough for my lunch today.

Moneysaving things I will do today:-
Bread is proving ready for lunch
Called in and bought veg from Lidl on way home from work so no trip to market needed
Made up a hanging basket for my neighbour in return for 3 penstomen plants

Moneyspending things I will do today:
Suggested to DH that he bought a chicken for lunch, note only a chicken - this will not be the case when he returns with a trolley load of extra 'junk'

Well I completed my lovely moneysaving day in the garden, swapped plants with neighbour, baked bread, fruit buns and ate my first lettuce of the season for lunch. However, as predicted, sending DH to the shop for a chicken was a disaster. He came back with a freerange organic one costing £10.70, reduced to £9.70.BARGAIN!!:eek: Then he said he didn't feel like hot tea after the hot day but as it was reduced I had to cook it anyway. Finally ate it a 9.15pm. It really will have to be a very rubbbbbber chicken. He also bought full cream organic milk instead of semi so I have 10 pints to use and a shed load of crisps, mars and twix.

Either he just doesn't get it or he does it to wind me up:mad:

Thanks for the links to the land sites - I can waste a few hours dreaming on those

looby-loo_2

Have you noticed there are some lovely 'food for free' recipies on one of those woodland sites? (I told you would waste some time on those sites)

Might try this one:-

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/wild-food/elder-sambucus-nigra/