Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

slowlyfading

tryingtodobetter wrote: »

:j Slowlyfading hope you have a lovely time .:j

Thanks, I'm so excited!

nykmedia wrote: »

Slowlyfading - Hope you have a fantastic time in London! Don't spend too much from your budget but if you saved specially then GO FOR IT!

Lol I'll try not to, but I've never been before and am SO excited about everything!!! :j

slowlyfading

whitewing wrote: »

*gasp*

*gasp*

*gasp*

*gasp*

*gasp*

*gasp*

exercise bike is killing me

*gasp*

*gasp*

salads are killing me

*gasp*

*gasp*

*gasp*

no energy for any work

*gasp*

*gasp*

*gasp*

but having watched The Apprentice, I now want a proper wedding dress
(not very frugal, and haven't told H2B; may try to surprise him, but I need to lose a lot of weight to look half decent)

*gasp*

*gasp*

*gasp*

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:LOL I hope you're okay!!

Frugaldom

GOOD LUCK Whitewing! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

My exercise (free) cycle just sits looking out the window now, I've long since given up and use gardening as the excuse for not cycling. A friend suggested I take up err... scuba diving :eek: with her, as she loves it (we have a local diving club) but I, somehow, cannot imagine myself in a wetsuit sticking my head underwater for any length of time! I'll watch the recordings on telly or online if I want to see what's under the sea and I already know what's at the bottom of the pool - a tiled floor! :rolleyes:

Now, I think it's time to focus clearly on how, on earth, those of us who have spent half our budgets (or more) are going to manage to survive for another 7.5 months! I have £1985.28 left and that needs to include the commercially driven CHRISTMAS PERIOD, which is supposed to be kept within my allocated £500 budget. I've been thinking about what's left to pay this year and looking at how my actiual figures equate (or don't) to that. I'm off to work it out over lunch and will get back to you with the results soon. Wish me luck and good luck to anyone else who is in the same boat.

Marru

Hi all,

Nyk - thank you head ache gone. I think it is called "reporting deadline approaching and nothing is reconciling" - head ache.

SF - if you read this before you go - have a FANTASTIC time and if I have missed you I hope you truly enjoyed your trip

Whitewing - LOL!! Priceless! You can do it and I am sure you will look fabulous what ever dress size you go for.

Nothing to report from here - munching chocolate and waiting colleague to ring so that we can go through necessary journals - was hoping for a NSD but need to pick up some fruit this evening.

Bye for now!

slowlyfading

Marru wrote: »

SF - if you read this before you go - have a FANTASTIC time and if I have missed you I hope you truly enjoyed your trip

Thanks, I go in 10 minutes! so I'll say bye, and have a good weekend everyone xx

MrDT

slowlyfading wrote: »

Thanks, I go in 10 minutes! so I'll say bye, and have a good weekend everyone xx

Aww, looks like I might have missed you... I came back from London last night, and didn't spend anywhere near as much as I expected

London Dungeons was great, even better knowing it was free (kinda, clubcard paid for it). The big kid in me absolutely loved the London Bridge Experience too, £15 but worth it for me, maybe not so much if you're grown up and don't enjoy being chased by zombies etc

Tube is a fantastic way to travel, so efficient. Fiver a day for zone 1+2 unlimited travel is a bargain.

Other than that, the Natural History Museum was great (and free), big kid time again - DINOSAURS! And the Science Museum was brilliant and also free, and again, big kid time - INTERACTIVE EXHIBITS! If you're a bit more cultured the Tate Modern is also free, we ran out of time though. It's free to go nosey at the Queens Gaff too, so worth a look.

Oh, and another bargain was 'All you can eat' lunch at Chiquitos Leicester Square, £6.50. Imagine Homer Simpson at an all you can eat mexican restaurant, I may not be so rotund but I can have a similar appetite, especially when it's a set price for as much as you like. It was seriously good food too, nomnomnom

Hope you have sensible walking shoes, I'm blistered like you wouldn't believe. Trainers next time, 'proper' shoes a no-no. Though I did walk a bazillion miles, so partly my fault...

Anyway, hope you have a great time

Frugaldom

Well, after hearing nothing but news of price hikes with regards to food, gas, electricity, oil, fuel of any description - someone has even suggested that oil could hit $200 a barrell - I had to sit down with a coffee and really think about this 4k challenge.

The cost of 'normal' living is driving people out of the 'norm' and into new territories in order to avoid abject poverty. There is, of course, an easy way around this - study hard, get a good job, but a house and pay off your mortgage as soon as possible, making sure you have safely tucked away a couple of £million to last you throughout your possible 25 years + of retirement, when the government may no longer afford to support all the pensioners. That's fine if you are still young enough and actually have a mortgage...
But I digress.

Firstly, I'd like to reflect on the personal tax allowances, which are where I originally got the 4k figure. Have a look at this and remember that the allowance is PER PERSON:

2002/3 - £4,615 oil was $25/barrel
2003/4 - £4,615 (increased by 0%)
2004/5 - £4,745 (increased by 2.81%)
2005/6 - £4,895 (increased by 3.16%)
2006/7 - £5,035 (increased by 2.86%)
2007/8 - £5,225 (increased by 3.77%)
2008/9 - £5,435 (increased by 4.01%) oil is $126/barrel (increased by 500%+)

We already know that this year's tax allowance will be changing again, but we won't see the full impact of that for a few months yet. Looking at the above, we see that we've had a lovely increase in allowance of £820 since 2002, which is equivalent to about 17.76% Does anyone suspect that this may reflect the rate of inflation? If so, then the £600 increase we are about to receive makes for a real eye-opener!

If you consider that most prices are, somewhere along the line, driven by the price of oil (power, fuel, transport, manufacturing, distribution etc) then our tax allowance should adjust accordingly so that our actual cost of existing/living isn't subject to income tax. We shouldn't pay any tax on living, should we? Not until we pay for what we buy and absolute essentials are usually zero rated. Except for one thing - household power & heating fuel are NOT zero rated. Does this mean that the government look upon these things as non-essentials?

Electricity prices have completely screwed up my budget for the 2008 challenge. I had originally allowed £1000 for the year. We have no other source for heat, hot water, cooking etc. But I had to reassess the situation after the last price hike when I discovered my fuel bills would average £100 per month. Now that the next set of price increases have been suggested (a further 35% is possible :eek: ) then my electricity bills could soar further, taking me closer to £1500 for the year! Living rural means no mains gas, renting means no right to carry out home improvements, install alternative methods of heating or switch providers etc, so it's all electric or nothing and utilise the BBQ outside and open fires inside wherever possible. My winter useage of electricity averaged 81 units per day, I'm now aiming at keeping under 10 units per day until Autumn and I will HAVE to half my consumption for next winter, otherwise I'll dismally fail my own challenge.

Sorry this is such a long post, but I'm struggling to see how I can remain within budget this year.

There are 8 months worth of telephone bills averaging £20/month (£160) plus 8 months worth of electricity bills averaging, I hope, £100/month (£800) so that's £960 I have to set aside for utilities, which doesn't leave much for keeping my mobile phones activated. Mind you, I have that down to £5 per month between 2 of them!
Gifts and celebrations will need to take another serious cut, although I'm doing well on the homemade stakes at the moment. I've already passed Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Easter and 5 birthday's. Only another 7 birthdays remaining and Christmas to get through.
Groceries - unbelievably, the utilities hike will affect the grocery shopping again! Despite food prices being on the up, I will have to cut back further and follow in the footsteps of Sophiesmum with the bulk buy, last all summer scenario and grow as much as possible in the garden.
With regards to everything else, I haven't a lot left for things like day trips, socialising, prescriptions, dentist, clothes, footwear, holidays etc, although £150 of the spend was on shares that will, hopefully, increase in value. Worst possible scenario would be company closes down and I lose £150.

2008 - the toughest year yet and it would be a complete and utter no-goer if I was still spending nearly £10 per week on cigarettes and I must curb the electricity consumption - it's the only way to succeed in this challenge.

Things for which I am extremely grateful, so far:

1) I met a new bunch of people who accept frugal living as 'normal'. :T
2) I quit smoking and have a new savings account that's increasing by £1.35 per day. :j
3) I have a new savings bond with built-in life assurance paid for from tax free cashback and winnings. :beer:
4) I have filled my third ISA in 3 years, helped by stoozing. :cool:
5) I made a small profit, for the first time ever, with my self-employment. :j
6) I have a garden that's looking like producing fruit, veggies and herbs.
8) I am healthy enough to enjoy the benefits of frugal living. :j
9) I have a miniscule shares portfolio
10) I have not broken into my sealed pot and it (Phil the Pig) now weighs exactly 25 times its original weight! :j

With all of the above in mind, the following is the result of my recalculations. Sorry folks, Christmas may yet get cancelled.


My updated budget for 2008 is:

Groceries: £1000 - £480.44 = £519.56
Gifts/Special Occasions: £300 - £70.69 = £229.31
Utilities: £2000 - £1013.30 = £986.70
Household Insurance: £52.40
Internet: £240 - £61.89 = £178.11
Everything else: £407.60 - £336 = £71.60
Total: £4000 for year.

Spent: £2014.72 (Includes £150 of 'penny' shares)
Balance: £1985.28

Day 137 of 366, 229 days left until 2009

THE END

bails

Did post this morning but it got lost! :rolleyes: So now I've missed you SlowlyFading but I hope you have a lovely first time in the Big Smoke - are you on a secret date with MrDT?

Spooky, I notice TTDB's savings total too Nyk, v impressive and now even bigger! What a great thing to be saving for :j

No bingo joy here - isn't that an oxymoron? I did sell my car today finally though so am £70 better off. For some reason, several people have come round over the past week wanting it for scrap(good money in scrap at mo) - I refused to sell it to the guy over the road on principle (he's a pycho, child-abusing t***** :mad: - say what you think Bails :rotfl:) and another guy offered me £30 for it! I'm sure I could've got a bit more for it but hey, he was right there with a truck and everything and was a bit of a cheeky chappy - 'Do you come with the car?'...'Not for £70 I don't mate!' - and I squeezed an extra tenner out of him, so just pleased to be rid of it at last. It's going to be turned into a banger racing car :rotfl:

I've made another big decision today as well - I'm going to quit school for a while. It's too frustrating and is sidetracking me from recovery which has to be my priority. I feel much better now I've decided what to do for the best and no longer need to run away travelling Managed a long walk today so v happy with myself :T
Whitewing, ROFLing at the image of you on your bike, I hope it's working? How much would you like to lose if you don't mind me asking? There's always a warm welcome over on the WL thread if you're interested, you'll recognise a few faces from here
Nyk, bet you're chomping at the bit for the greenhouse! I take before and after photos too, lol!
Marru, glad the headache's gone; my mum is trying to persuade my dad to have the torty - didn't even think she really liked cats, I've obviously turned her with all mine! So if she does, you'll have to come visit her there instead.

EDIT: oh darn, Mr DT is back, my matchmaking has failed! And a mahoosif post from Nyk, off to find out the news...

Frugaldom

MrDT - I am WAY impressed by your London trip and glad you had fun - big kid or not! :rotfl:

Sophiesmum - I think I'll be joining you on that mini challenge for not buying anything for months on end! My grocery budget is shrivelling up before my eyes but my garden is growing. I'll still need to buy milk, cheese and fruit/veg until the garden comes on a bit, but I have sheared another £200 off the total annual budget and we have seriously reduced the amount of meat we are eating. Are you starting a new thread for it? Must reread your posts to refresh my memory.

Bails - I am delighted for you! Making such life-affecting decisions can be so traumatic and then suddenly you feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. You go for it! Make your new job be improving your own health whilst living within whatever means you have at the time. Good luck and congratulations on your decision. Who knows where it could lead?

Off to make dinner, catch you all later

bails

Nyk, thankyou for taking the time to research and post your thoughts about all this. It does look very difficult, but then we are a determined bunch of people, not least of all you. Your initial problem is obviously your leccy bill - perhaps you could give your LL a call and ask if he would consider switching to a cheaper provider? You could offer to research the best deal etc. It can't hurt to ask, and it may just be that he has no incentive to do the groundwork (my dad as a LL would probably agree to this). As for the bulk buying, I'm seriously considering this too - space could be a problem but it will give me extra incentive to declutter my stuff to make room.

We CAN do this, especially if we all pull together, and even if, worse case scenario, you go over your projected spends for the year (due to price hikes out of your control) you will still have done a whole lot better than if you weren't proactive about it.

Mr DT, your trip does sound like a lot of fun, you may even have persuaded me that London is not the devil's work. Good timing as I have to go there on Saturday :rotfl: