Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Frugaldom

bails wrote: »

... 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:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I have been once in my entire life, for a day trip. I felt like Crocodile Dundee in New York! Bit far for me to visit for a day from here, despite the fact that I can get the local bus for the 7 mile trip to town and then get on the Citylink direct to London! Only takes about 10 hours, so not really worth a day trip.

I've found another day trip I want to go! The Balmoral is going to be visiting our area on 1st & 2nd June and is sailing to the Isle of Man. I'm meant to be doing market & carboot on 31st May & 1st June - wonder if I could raise enough to pay the stall and cover cost of the day trip on 2nd?
I need to earn £29.95 for the return ticket to Douglas ASAP as I've never been to the Isle of Man and it'll be fun sailing over there on the paddle steamer! That'll get me my sea legs in preparation for my trip to Ireland on the Seacat (courtesy of Tesco Deals :cool: )

I know, I know - I got sidetracked and haven't made dinner or watered the garden yet, but DS is away for the week so can't grumble about being starving and it's daylight until gone 9pm, so the veggies can wait a bit longer. :rotfl:

andromache_2

Hi all! :hello:

Haven't posted for a while as exam panic has set in :eek: so I've been trying to revise but somehow I still manage to waste loads of time :rolleyes:. Was that your only exam then, sf?? *is very jealous!*

I'm loving all the London talk I love the city to bits! I think it was such a great place to grow up (well, I live in the suburbs, which is close enough ) as there's always so much going on. We used to go to the South Ken museums MrDT was talking about all the time (going on the train to see the dinosaurs was the biggest treat ever ), though I haven't done some of the more traditional tourist things like the London Dungeons which you have to *gasp* pay money for, though I hear they're very good. Living in a small town is nice for a change and everything but there's nothing quite like the city IMO :cool: Hope you had a lovely time, sf ETA and that you survive it this weekend, bails!

Your budget is really putting mine to shame, nyk I reckon my 'cost of living' minus student essentials is about £2000 which to me seems relatively frugal (admittedly about 20% of that is classed as 'entertainment/alcohol'... can that count as a student essential?? ) but that's what you have left after utilities and you seem to make it go 10x as far! Kudos to you This thread is quite eye-opening as to what the real cost of running a household is, though, it's a bit scary... I guess I'm following the 'study hard, get a good job' route you outlined but with things the way they are, will I be able to afford to live in London??? Let's hope your shares treble in value! I hope you manage to go on your Douglas trip as well, that sounds pretty cool

Well done on getting rid of your car, bails, and I hope you are OK, whitewing! :rotfl:

back to revision, I guess :A

Frugaldom

I'm glad I don't have exams any more. I did, briefly, return to studying some years ago but quit through insufficient funds. But then I discovered you could do a degree through the OU and qualify for free tuition if in receipt of working tax credits! I can't decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. It's good that people on low incomes can take the opportunity to study and improve their longterm career outlook/earning potential, it's bad that people could abuse the system and use up valuable study fees and then never put their newly gained knowledge to good use. I'm swayed by the prospect of dramatically increasing my knowledge of number crunching, however, and am sorely tempted to do an accountancy course. It could benefit my self-employment prospects as far as my minimal book-keeping services are concerned.

NOW LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENED! A complete turnaround from being glad I have no more exams to wanting to study business accountancy! DOH! :rotfl: Can you see what a problem I have with my complete lack of decision making skills?

BAILS - We transferred onto Scottish Power's online saver scheme with further discount for prompt payment. I discussed cost of electricity with LL when he was here on Sunday and he was amazed we'd kept it so low!!! Apparently, it was over £800 for same period last year when they lived here and that was before the increases! :eek: I guess I need to adjust to the fact we're now living in [STRIKE]an ancient three storey house with a tower stuck on the back[/STRIKE] a character property.

whitewing

nykmedia wrote: »

But then I discovered you could do a degree through the OU and qualify for free tuition if in receipt of working tax credits!

I didn't know that and must look into it. H2B will be thrilled if it applies to us. He desperately wants to do a degree - and he will use it - but I was worried that it would cripple us when I was just getting back on track after years of being a single parent.

Thanks, Nyk

Frugaldom

Hi Whitewing,

I think this may only be in Scotland, where university and college fees work differently from elsewhere, but here is the link to see if you qualify for any support. I'm seriously considering accountancy or some other form of numbercrunching.

redglass_2

Yippeee....back again! For some reason my computer wouldn't let me onto the thread. I tried and tried and was getting all jittery with incipient withdrawal symptoms. Finally I managed to PM Nyk and she suggested something that worked....thanks, Nyk! :A Will know what to do if it happens again.

Haven't had a frugal day at all. I went shopping in Mr S's (a mistake to start with when I should've gone to Mr L's, but I wanted something particular in there that Mr L doesn't sell). I was tired and hungry and some comforting treats flew into my basket before i could stop them. Will do better next time.

whitewing

nykmedia wrote: »

Hi Whitewing,

I think this may only be in Scotland, where university and college fees work differently from elsewhere, but here is the link to see if you qualify for any support. I'm seriously considering accountancy or some other form of numbercrunching.

Well, how annoying. Were it not so cold up there, we would move in with you!

Frugaldom

Glad to see you back, Redglass!

Whitewing, it isn't that cold up here if you wear a cardie.:rotfl:

I've updated my signature to reflect my recalculated annual grocery challenge target, my new interest beater target and my stooze pot repayments, which are on minimum monthly payments. The thing I don't like about stoozing is having to give all the money back at the end of the interest free period! :rotfl:

Back again, I found Sophiesmum's post about her 6 month, semi-self sufficient challenge and have given that a great deal of thought. Having already done one bulk shop, I could probably do similar for the rest of the non-perishables, that would see me through to the end of the year. This weekend, I'm going to make a list of what's most used and then work it out from there. I'm also going to clear out the garage for use as a winter fuel store and start stocking that now I know we will still be here. The new greenhouse should arrive on Monday - it's going at the bottom of the garden, so I'll need to try to level off the plot and move some old slabs that I want as a path around the outside edge. This should also stop the entire structure from taking off in the high winds! I'll also need a makeshift water butt to save me having to cart water up and down! (Must remember to ask nice farmers to save me a couple of those plastic 50 gallon drums.) Brain's in overdrive now, I'll never sleep!
Hope sophiesmum is enjoying her holiday, I wonder if it's warm in Malta?

Janey51

Hi everyone.
We are back from our holidays and I will need a week off to catch up with all the posts since we went off to sunny Devon.
I managed to keep a pretty good check on our finances while we were away...much to DH's exasperation at times
Nearly had a heart attack when I realised that Travelodge don't provide toiletries and had to go and pay £2.29 for a shower gel at the nearby garage :eek: I had tried to persuade DH that he could manage with the miniscule bar of soap provided but he put his foot down and I had a big sulk :rolleyes:
However, I did re-balance the outlay by removing (on a daily basis) all the tea, coffee, sugar, pens, paper, toiletries and toilet rolls from the bedroom in the hotel we stayed in :rotfl:
Found some great charity shop bargains and a couple of good car boot sales. Managed to pick up a wonderful ornate Gothic candleabra for our nearly re-vamped dining room for 50p:j
Only spent £102 on petrol for nearly 1300 miles driving :j which is a real saving on the train fare which would have been £135 each.
I will be catching up on everyone's news over the weekend.
Nice to be back in my own bed....and in total control of finances as long as I keep DH away from the housekeeping :rolleyes:

Janey51

Working my way through the posts....

OMG slowlyfading how awful for you with the fire :eek: Brought back memories of our fire last year.
Nyk good news about the house. Do you think the fall in house prices has changed your LL's mind? Or he just appreciates having good tenants which are as rare as hen's teeth. I speak from experience having rented to students :eek: