Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

mumzyof2

Thanks, they tend to scare me to death lol i cant sleep either on planes . I forgot its april fools tomo..my mum will ring so now il remember.

mini_huny_money

:rotfl: am I sad or what......was thinkin to myself I know someone else who's going to Cyprus.........and guess what....Kirk from Corrie:rotfl: Now I don't usually get soaps mixed up with real life!!!!!

Mumzy if you see Kirk.......run a mile

System

nykmedia wrote: »

Jumble_bee, glad you had a good time and congratulations on the under budget. I wish you every success with your 2008 for 2008 reducing to 1500, just be careful not to set yourself too many extreme goals. (Unless, of course, you like extreme )

thanks - but no need to worry about me being to extreme! i am a spoilt bratlet with super cheap tastes......setting myself targets is actually pretty pointless as i spend what i fancy regardless... but i like the sound of £1500

i forgot that i had a shameful confession (yes, more shameful than eating lots of snow) i was in lidd-elles today (i think i will start typing it like that, as thats how i pronounce it - my dad pronounces it for some reason, as if it is a chic french shop )
... anyhoo, i was in lidd-elles (buying onions and bagettes ) and when i got my purse out i was so busy checking for free food behind the till that i didnt notice i had dropped a teabag on the floor, until a kind gentleman picked it up and flapped it in my face, forcing me to admit that i have loose teabags rolling about in my bag, ahem,
from a certain sweedish store....

does anyone else here suffer from tea-hand-bag syndrome or is it just me?

mini_huny_money

Jumble-Bee wrote: »

thanks - but no need to worry about me being to extreme! i am a spoilt bratlet with super cheap tastes......setting myself targets is actually pretty pointless as i spend what i fancy regardless... but i like the sound of £1500

i forgot that i had a shameful confession (yes, more shameful than eating lots of snow) i was in lidd-elles today (i think i will start typing it like that, as thats how i pronounce it - my dad pronounces it for some reason, as if it is a chic french shop )
... anyhoo, i was in lidd-elles (buying onions and bagettes ) and when i got my purse out i was so busy checking for free food behind the till that i didnt notice i had dropped a teabag on the floor, until a kind gentleman picked it up and flapped it in my face, forcing me to admit that i have loose teabags rolling about in my bag, ahem,
from a certain sweedish store....

When we lived in Australia we always pronounced TARGET ( discount store )as TARJAAAY......!!! in a Fench accent!!!

and no, never had teabags jump from my bag but I have on many occasions had (hmmmm....how can I say this delicately....).wee cotton mice aka ladies products work their way out of my bag at inopportune moments!!!!!

mumzyof2

mini_huny_money wrote: »

Jumble-Bee wrote: »

thanks - but no need to worry about me being to extreme! i am a spoilt bratlet with super cheap tastes......setting myself targets is actually pretty pointless as i spend what i fancy regardless... but i like the sound of £1500

i forgot that i had a shameful confession (yes, more shameful than eating lots of snow) i was in lidd-elles today (i think i will start typing it like that, as thats how i pronounce it - my dad pronounces it for some reason, as if it is a chic french shop )
... anyhoo, i was in lidd-elles (buying onions and bagettes ) and when i got my purse out i was so busy checking for free food behind the till that i didnt notice i had dropped a teabag on the floor, until a kind gentleman picked it up and flapped it in my face, forcing me to admit that i have loose teabags rolling about in my bag, ahem,
from a certain sweedish store....

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :eek: :eek:

When we lived in Australia we always pronounced TARGET ( discount store )as TARJAAAY......!!! in a Fench accent!!!

and no, never had teabags jump from my bag but I have on many occasions had (hmmmm....how can I say this delicately....).wee cotton mice aka ladies products work their way out of my bag at inopportune moments!!!!!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

OK i put the icons for mini's up there too but it come out wrong lol anyways...

whitewing

Hmmm *ponders whether to share an embarrassing bag-dropping moment and decides not to*

Am up late trying to match up receipts to bank stmt printouts and spending diary. Always guaranteed to put me in a grumpy mood. Throat sore from accusing OH of 'losing' £25 cash over the month, when actually it was spent on the day of the funeral.

Still, we always say we'll update the cash each day, but never do because we think we hardly spend cash. So each month when I sit down to do it we always spend ages trying to remember piddly little things we've bought.

I am terrified of losing my tenuous grip on my finances.

However *big smile* I have managed to put my guilt aside, partly thanks to the attitudes of frugal children on this challenge (by which I mean sons & daughters of challengees, not that you are kids!). And also mumzy has been a big inspiration, being so young and trying so hard.

I have always felt bad that I'm so rubbish with money and can't save up a massive wodge of it for DS going to uni or whatever he will want to do. It has preyed on my mind over the years. But today I decided that I wasn't going to feel guilty about it anymore. I am just going to ensure that he has the strategies in place to earn and budget, and then it's up to him. (He's only 11, bless him!) I have forced him to save every penny he gets given, and react with horror if he ever wants to buy anything. But I'm going to try to chill out a bit. I am going to let him talk to a friend of mine and agree a sensible financial strategy, and then let him make his own mistakes. Not that he's rolling in it anyway. But I'm going to try and get him to think more than just enforcing a spend half/save half mindless thing. I want him to make good financial decisions forever.

Anyway, it's too late for profound thoughts, so I will say goodnight and bless you all!

mumzyof2

I just updated my sig again to count in insurance just before we go into a new month in 3minutes

Does anyone include tv licence??

whitewing

yes mumzy to tv lic.

Frugaldom

mumzyof2 wrote: »

How many items u can buy for a fiver lol

It's a bit like the £10 shopping trips, except with half the amount I was thinking more along the lines of making my 4k more elastic without it breaking or bouncing, so if you had said buy as much as you can for a fiver and turn it into a tenner, that would have been closer to what I was thinking.

It's all very well for these hyper-intelligent, wealthy, moneywise sorts to suggest this, that and t'other for our savings and investments, but once the money is saved or invested it's only generating a maximum of 6.5% interest over the year.

Right now, we are living on £4000 and if that £4000 was in the bank generating interest, the most it would probably make would be £260 after a full year. That is what we are 'losing' by not being able to keep it in a bank. But think about it; from now until the end of the year, that isn't even £1 per day! Seeing that made my mini challenge click into place.

IF we could earn an average of just £1 per day without going outside of the £4000 budget for the rest of the year, we could earn more off our living expenses than if they were lying in an ISA for an entire year. I know the lump sum wouldn't be there but without it being there in the first place there would be no means of earning any interest :rotfl: Living on 4k and making that 4k pay you more interest than the top ISA accounts would really, REALLY appeal to my sense of humour.

So there you have it - my challenge within a challenge - to earn more than the equivalent of bank interest on my 4k cost of living between now and the 31st December.

I have called it the interest beater

mumzyof2

whitewing wrote: »

And also mumzy has been a big inspiration, being so young and trying so hard.

Thankyou so much, i know i dont give much in to this thread but i do try

I have always felt bad that I'm so rubbish with money and can't save up you all

I have always been rubbish with money also, I can't save for the kids as i dont have the moneybut any money they do get for birthdays etc goes into thier child trust funds I like to think by managing, and living cheaply etc im doing right by setting them a god example. (i dont think that makes sense but it did to me :rotfl: )