Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

Frugaldom

Evening all, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARRU!

I wondered what Bails was talking about with the meeting, too!
I did spot the newsletter mention to a new thread started by an MSE'er and also read all the news articles about the food prices but I am refusing to be defeated. This challenge thread sets trends by the bucketload, so we can only expect the national press to follow what goes on and what gets said here - this IS the frugal speakeasy! :rotfl:

Planting & seeds - someone asked about gralic chive seeds. I planted some a couple of weeks ago, but they haven't sprouted yet. I haven't planted any ordinary garlic but have read about planting the cloves. I'm not going to bother with anything else in this garden, just the potatoes in the veggie plot in case we need to move house. Heaven only knows where I'm going to put everything else if it keeps growing, though. I've asked about large planters for my mixed lettuces, but will need to plant the carrots and onions somewhere. If only my pal still worked in the ice cream industry, it was great getting the empty syrup buckets for free!

Just to confirm another point I raised previously, the reduced parsnips have frozen fine. Tonight, I boiled potatoes and steamed parsnips and carrots at the same time, served it all with chicken pie after polishing off a carton of defrosted chicken soup. Quite a frugal meal tonight

Watching Martin now, catch up later

PS: Just realised that when DS went and put £5 of petrol in his car, HE DIDN'T EVEN GET A GALLON! :eek:

PPS: Ordered my 12 copies of the Radio Times for £1 and have marked my diary to remind me to consider my options after 11 weeks.

sophiesmum_2

Happy Birthday Marru:bdaycake:

Hi everyone,
Just had a late tea after spending some time in garden after work, have to make the most of the sunshine. Got OH to put a few more brackets up for hanging baskets as have enough tumbler tomato plants to fill more than usual number. All my seedlings are doing well in their nice centrally heated storage room and my tomato plants are about 18" high now, just need OH to finish last few bits of repairing greenhouse and they can go out.

Spend day today:o was going past cheap garage on errand for work so filled up for the month £40, also spent £2.97 on 3 more brackets for hanging baskets.Will update sig in a minute.

lingojingo

Happy Birthday Marru!

Bet it was as good as a party having Bails round_party_
It must be lovely to be able to put a face to a name, I often wonder whether any of us have 'met' without knowing it.

Mollymop5

Happy Birthday Marru
:bdaycake:

Hope you've had a lovely day

Marru

Hi All,

Yes had a wonderful day. Thank you all for your good wishes. I had a pre school committee meeting this evening and had to drag DD with me. She behaved extremely well while at the meeting but the tiredness got her on the way back. So poured her to bed after reading a story and finding the two dogs out of her dog pack that at the moment accompany her everywhere so she could cuddle up with them (=toy dogs).

I am doing very important and scientific research of the differences between basic and value line biscuits. Obviously I am doing this for completely unselfish reasons for the benefit of whole human kind. Round one: Chocolate Chip Cookies and the winner is: Mr S wins with a huge margin. Round two is going to be short bread, I shall let you know after jury has made the verdict.

I haven't updated my signature as I haven't managed to reconcile my bank account this week so will get on to it in between getting tickets for free bingo tomorrow. I had to fill my tank and obviously buy chocolate cake and port (that I am enjoying at the moment) so this month yet again is going to be over budget. I truly hope that there will be no "one offs" in May (but that is what I said about April so we shall see).

By the way during our meeting today we thought what a good idea it would be if Sophiesmum would adopt me. I would only come around once a month for a meal and a moan and I will do the washing up afterwards .

Thank you all again. I did have a very good day. Especially as I have been comparing today to the one last year I wouldn't have believed then how much can happen in a year and all for the better.

Night night,

Marru

bails

Ah bless Marru, I'm glad you had a lovely day, you definitely deserve it. I wonder if SophiesMum would consider the adoption?

sophiesmum_2

Frugal adoptions sound fine to me marru:D and you wouldn't even have to wash up after the meal as we a have a dishwasher for that, but you could bring along some shortbread with you just for scientific frugal purposes only;)

Managed to fall asleep in chair after work and a couple of hours digging and now wide awake at almost 2am:rolleyes:

sophiesmum_2

Just checked my online banking and need to add two direct debits to my budget amounts £14.49 for life insurance and £26.28 for car insurance so another £40.77 to add to totals:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Frugaldom

Good morning frugalers

Sophiesmum, hope you managed to get some sleep! You should have popped in for some free bingo tickets. I signed in and won £10 sometime around 1am ish, so that's a good increase for my Interest Beater target by way of tax free savings. I'm in the stables but for some reason can't chat to anyone. Marru, Jumble, I can see you there but don't know why I can't type in the box.

Hoping for some more luck via the laws of averages, good luck to all who participate today and I'll be back with an update later

bails

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's BINGO DAY!!! :T:j:T:j:T:j:T:j

PMA today, especially as I did the advance booking that peeps were talking about and it's sooo much easier and far less tedious than what I was doing! :rolleyes:

Good luck everyone, let the games begin! :T