Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

bails

Great photos Sophiesmum, you really pulled out all the stops and your alco-guzzlers will definitely have been snoring by the box this afternoon!
Nyk, glad the party went well. Thankyou for organising this thread, it has brought so much to all our lives I think and I look forward to the second half of the year. Want to say more but too pooped tonight x

FunBrum

Janey...that sounds lovely and I have had to snigger about the hat!:D

sophiesmum....your pics are great, bless them...they look like they are really enjoying themselves. You are a star!:T

Mr. T....what can I say...?!:rotfl:

Mumzy...Yum,Yum...cake!

I've had a great day too. Didn't do my carboot today as I hadn't sorted all of my wares out, but I'm definately doing two next weekend!;)

Spent this afternoon sorting out and transplanting plants that were not doing too well in the front garden into some hanging pots, and hope that they do okay there. They were looking poorly in their original plot.:o I think that the ground needs preparing more. The rest of my plants and veg are looking so cool:cool: I will show some pics when I get my niece to show me how to post them. I'm very tech. !!!!!!!:o :rotfl:

I'm going to the 'frugal' cooking class tomorrow so I will let you guys know how I get on.

Also, OH and I will be waging war on MR. Sainsburys tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled ...we may be on 'News at Ten'!:rotfl:

whitewing

I feel so blessed to be here on this challenge with you all. Your posts often bring tears to my eyes (of laughter mostly, but sometimes of sorrow - love you, Janey xxx). Your chatterings spark off so many memories. Janey's recent post about her M&S buffet for Tom reminded me of Xmas shopping. Whenever I spent a day Xmas shopping, part of the ritual for years has been to pop into M&S foodhall on my way home for a bottle of buck's fizz and some lovely easy food for the evening meal.

Our frugal household started this challenge on Xmas Eve 2007 to coincide with getting paid thro work. At the time of starting, we were doing it to cope with our first joint mortgage as we'd only bought our house 3 months previously.

Since then we have been able to cope with all of the following (mostly unexpected) events:

OH's mum coming to live with us (from another country at the age of 53 and unable to speak English)
Finding OH's mum a job (she had an interview within her first week of arriving in England - OH translated. She's very happy in her job and they are good to her. And she can hold conversations in English too).
Sad and very unexpected death of my oldest friend's husband, and finding this had left her with £30K unsecured debts all in her name)
Another close friend having a masectomy and currently undergoing chemo, and in isolation in hospital at the moment following a stomach bug
My phantom pregnancy and hospital scans
My pregnancy attempts (well, I spared you the gory details, but started trying in Feb and am still trying but not to the extent of the Trying To Conceive thread)
Credit crunch badly affecting my self-employment
Pay issues with my part time employer (ongoing, but am still working there for the time being as we wrangle, but with the comfort of knowing that OH has agreed for me to be a 'stay at home mum' if things get so bad I can't continue)
Tax credit claim being held up for weeks (lump sum did pay for a lot of the wedding so can't complain)
OH getting a new part time job (which I had to force him to do, but he absolutely loves now; fear of the unknown)
and, as Nyk says, our frugal weddingmoon in August. (Our first real holiday for years too)

We've even managed some serious mortgage overpayments.

I can honestly say that we would not have managed all this without you guys. I check my online banking every day and, despite the fixed-rate mortgage payments, we no longer live paycheque to paycheque. We appreciate things, words, sunsets and basically everything so very much more. We have a much better perspective of the world. It has been a big, big struggle at times (with a fair bit of shouting along the way) to change entrenched habits. But we've done it this far. H2B and I have a stronger, more loving future ahead of us. I feel very confident that, like Janey and Tom, we have a 'forever' kind of love. I am accepting that there are things that I have failed at for my family. I can't magic up a big bunch of savings for when DS goes to Uni but I can ensure that he knows how to budget, and I can help him make his own financial plans for when and if he goes. (He's only 11, lol).

I'd like to post a summary of exactly how we've done in our first half-year, but I don't know - gave up counting a long time ago. Oops. It was taking up enough energy not to spend the stuff! May try harder in quarter three.

There is still a big unknown, but more exciting, future out there. Well done everybody. H2B and I have both been working at the weekend, so we're going to go out for a long, long walk and talk about our plans for the next 3 months.I am sure this will involve some serious chilling out, and enjoying the moment (I am about to get lectured on this i always do on our walks).

Take care each and every one of you very special people. xxxx

sophiesmum_2

lovely post whitewing:D
It's true though once you take the unnecessary "stuff" out of your life, us frugalers dont do "stuff" much, then what is left is what is important. Like family, love, friendship,and time to enjoy simple things.This way of life is becoming second nature to me and i appreciate things much more.I also find it more satisfying doing stuff from scratch etc ,and making the most of the money that we do spend. We have money in the bank and a decent income but we live a good life without having to spend much of our income to do it:D
I am looking forward to the next part of the challenge, and waiting to see what it will throw up for everyone. :j

Frugaldom

Hi guys and gals,

First, thanks to Whitewing and SophiesMum for 2 great posts!

Second, I posted a message somewhere on the forums and now can't find it, so I'm going to post a condensed version here, as I suspect a major scam 'going down' somewhere.

You may recall that in May, my business details were used by some unscrupulous crook to set up direct debits and I suddenly became the proud owner (supposedly) of a nice little Ford Ka and a house, possibly in Ireland. Well, the police have traced the car and it has no current registered owner, so this started looking more orchestrated than a simple banking admin error.
Today, the exact same thing has happened to someone else here, again via a business account, but a completely different bank. This time, 3 different direct debits have neen set up on their account to 3 financial institutions - Halifax, Zurich and Cornhill/PetPlan. So... I am now into detective mode and I have a theory that needs a second opinion from my supersleuthing frugal friends.

Question: WHY would anyone go to the bother of setting up direct debits in someone else's name?

Answer: There has to be a perceived financial gain (in my opinion).

Question: How could they possibly benefit from such an act?

Answer: Affiliate cashback! (in my opinion)

Question: Where could they source the relevant information?

Answer: ?????????

We are now comparing notes on where we have each registered our relevant details and, so far, all we have in common here are PayPal and we have both recently submitted end of year accounts to the Inland Revenue. If anyone reading this fits into this scenario, can you check your bank accounts for any new direct debits or standing orders? We've been told that these are being set up by outside agencies, they are NOT being set up via online banking, so all that's needed is name, address, postcode, bank account number and sort code. Neither HBOS nor Nat West researched authenticity, they just paid the requests! Another 'clue' is that whoever it is may be following an alphabetical list and, if so, it would mean they have already completed A to L and are now starting on M.

I'm out working and am researching possible connections. Good luck to all and please, please contact me or post any information that could be remotely connected to this potential scam. If you suspect anything, alert your bank to stop & return any direct debits immediately, make sure you cancel them but get all the relevant info you can, including the company to which the payment was sent or is due, plus note down any reference numbers. This is all helpful and should save the police some time. Think how much money we could save people if we were able to stop a major scam in its tracks.

Marru

nykmedia wrote: »

Another 'clue' is that whoever it is may be following an alphabetical list and, if so, it would mean they have already completed A to L and are now starting on M.

:eek:

Thanks Nyk for the warning. I am getting awful lot of scam from eBay. The mistake they are doing is that they use email address that I don't use in eBay anymore so it flags up immediately. I do have a PayPal but it is on a trading name that I don't use elsewhere. Fingers crossed that who ever it is gets caught.

I also would like to thank Sophiesmum and Whitewing for the posts. And I fully agree when it comes to the award of the funniest post of the year so far. I was in hysterics.

I have updated my signature but decided not to post my monthly totals. In the end of July I will be half way so I will then declare my half way figures. Only thing I will say is that in the end of May I was cumulatively over budget by £340 and now I am only £125 so some serious catching up has been done AND I don't think I will be needing a big shop in July like I did in June.

My ISA challenge is going really well but all the money is still tied up in BF so not accumulating interest but helping to earn more from MB. I can't believe I am saying this but I didn't want the Euro2008 to end!!! But I did have a good final as netted yesterday eighty pounds.

I managed to strech that tin of chilli beans into third meal when I cooked some noodles and mixed the last bit with them (and some left over veggie sausages). I have to say that it was a bit more spicy than I expected so in the future with this particular dish I shall use one of the other beans (except if I have a terrible cold and need some aid with blocked nose - I can guarantee that it works!).

Feeling better today. I have managed to tackle some of the jobs that need doing. I have promised myself that if I can finish all my paper work today and tomorrow I will give myself rest of the week off. Friday will be off day anyway as Bails has promised to dog sit for me so that I can go to F1 practice day with DD. We got the T-shirts on Saturday and just need to be there early to get the promised breakfast and picnic (sp?) lunch.

Have a great rest of the day all Frunchkins!

Marru

bails

Thankyou Whitewing and Sophiesmum for two wonderful posts. This is what it's all about xx

lingojingo

whitewing wrote: »

I can't magic up a big bunch of savings for when DS goes to Uni but I can ensure that he knows how to budget, and I can help him make his own financial plans for when and if he goes. (He's only 11, lol).

Whitewing, teaching DS how to budget will be worth far more than any pot of money you could give him, so he won't actually need your savings. Use them to enjoy yourselves instead

Thanks for brilliant posts Whitewing and Sophie's Mum, you really sum up why we are all here on this challenge:T

MrDT

This 'doing stuff in the kitchen business' is rather good.

Had a major need for chocolate, but didn't have any in. A dollop of marge, load of cocoa, some sugar, milk, rice crispies and a load of syrup later and I have some very dodgy choccy rice crispie cakes

Hurrah for using up the last dregs of what you got in the cupboards!

JAMIEDODGER

really looking forward to joining in from tomorrow:) i have 3 food shops planned this week to take advantage of yesterdays notw vouchers:T hopefully this will reduce the overall grocery spends for july:D

have done a meal planner for the whole month and have taken into account the surplus i have in the fridge/freezer/cupboard to use this up:j

i am hoping july will be a low month and keep within my £577.95 for the month!!!:D


see you all on the new thread:beer: