Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Frugaldom

Evening all, and thank you for all the suggestions regarding the party. However, I don't have that much time as it's on the 28th of this month and the numbers have gone up. I am nowhere near Costco or any major supermarkets - it's an 80 mile round trip when I do my Tesco shopping and there's no delivery services. We do have Mr S about 8 miles away, where there's also a tiny pound-type shop, but I'm sure it would be cheaper to order online and pay postage than go into town. The party this month is combined 21st and engagement and it will be a cold buffet surrounded by a [STRIKE]drunken rabble[/STRIKE] partying crowd with children in attendance up until that point. I've already bought a few bits and pieces like the decorations, coloured plastic cutlery (it's a silver & pink theme party) and plastic table roll etc, most are reuseable items, and I am trying to set a realistic budget. The bar is already arranged, so we just need to do the basic fun buffet - stuff on cocktail sticks, sandwiches, pasta salads, a few rice dishes, savoury snacks etc but it all needs to be cold, as we have no way of heating anything at the hall, although it is within walking distance of the house, so sausage rolls could be heated here. The cake is being made by future SIL's mum. I keep reading about all these bargains at Asda, but our nearest is almost 100 mile round trip, so not very frugal with petrol the price it is. I'm making the very most of the cashback sites, vouchers and paid searches, that's for sure

Ploddy - This household consists of 3 adults and my £4000 budget is for everything household related except rent and council tax/water. I don't own a car, houseshare and I work from home and my DS is in at lunchtimes, so it's 3 meals a day for 3 of us most days. Feel free to join in with the discussions if you are considering trying a frugal budget or having a go at semi-self-sufficiency. Most of us cook from scratch, bake our own bread & cakes and are turning into avid gardeners where veggies are concerned. Except I have a confession to make for toonight...

Confession time! The sun was shining, so I ended up back in the garden. The first of the potatoes and standard tomatoes are starting to flower and I picked another lot of lettuce/salad leaves to have with dinner. What was for dinner? Ummm.... my meal planning is hopeless. I peeled some potatoes to boil and chopped some carrots to steam over the potatoes. I had 3 small tomatoes, so that was most of the meal. I ended up going to Co-op and spending £6.45 :eek: I am ashamed to admit that I bought turkey escalopes and just shoved them under the grill when I got home. I needed more salt, as last pack almost gone on making snail barriers around the greenhouse, plus I got nectarines, a reduced apple pie (which we had after dinner with custard), and 3 stir fry sauces for £1. Must check, as I am sure there must be a Co-op dividend pay-out soon! Off to update my signature and spending diary then back to nab a few more free bingo tickets.

MrDT

Ploddy wrote: »

Personally, I would find it beneficial to see how big each of the the challenger's households are.

£4K per year for one person is much easier than..

£4K per year for a family of 5 or 6.

Just me I'm afraid

I am including holidays and stuff though, the only things I'm not counting are rent, council tax, and buses to work. Still, it's shameful that I'm overbudget lol, but 4k a year is a LOT less than it would have been in the past, so I'll forgive myself :rotfl:

mumzyof2

May i ask how old everyone is on this challenge? as i have pictures of you all in my head and some posts people make i relate to them as thinking..oh she is 30 , shes 25 etc.

Penny2myName

I'm 34,
Sometimes I read some peoples posts and think they are in their late 20's early 30's then they go on to say something later on that makes me think they could actually be in their late 40's early 50's but be young at heart.

System

i am 24 next week

thats oooooooooooooooooold!!!! its my last chance to enter the x factor as a 'young person', next year I will be in the old peoples category!!!!

ps mr dt, you should head over to free bingo, nyk is eating a cactus and may be susceptible to some bingo flirting....

:rotfl:

tryingtodobetter

Ploddy wrote: »

Personally, I would find it beneficial to see how big each of the the challenger's households are.

£4K per year for one person is much easier than..

£4K per year for a family of 5 or 6.

My challenge is £5000 for:

2 Adults
2 Children (6 & 7)
2 Children (12 & 10) (eating evening meal 3 times a week)

Mumzy I'm 29

Brassic

Hi Guys,

Have been thinking about this since I first posted, and have also conferred with the lovely Hypno who is in a similar situation as me. I will go for the £4k per year, but with a slight twist due to family size and debt size!

I will not count any essential bills (i.e tv licence, gas, electricity, mortgage, debt repayments etc) but will count food, non work petrol, activities, entertainment, presents, holiday spend etc etc etc. I won't count child care either as that would use my budget up straight away!

I've updated the Spending Diary for this month, but I guess given it's June, it's best I start July and try to do £2000 for the last 6 months?

THis will be a toughy for me as currently I overspend just on Groceries :eek:

Thanks for the help so far!
Brassic

bails

Our household is 2 adults (allegedly), 3 cats, 3 kittens, 2 guinea pigs, 2 strays (oh, and a pregnant cat again!!). We're 1,9, 33, 4 weeks, 24 and 2 - you work out who is how old!

slowlyfading

This is just for me, and I'm 21 but my total includes a new laptop, and two holidays so far... but both were already planned last year!

1274

I don't know whether it's because I've tried really hard to live on 4K and have just now accepted that it will probably be nearer 6K, but I've been on a massive spending spree in the last 3 weeks. A mixture of second hand and new stuff which is totally unecessary but I just felt the need to spend, and one or two items wasn't enough - I have a total of 5 new clothes and 4 other things. Total for this wild spending spree is £110 so I suppose it could've been worse. It could've been a lot better though!