Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

taka

I'm still here... its just been a horribly busy week so haven't had much time on here. I'll update properly at the weekend!!

Well done on the bingo win Marru! I seem to be out every Thursday... 3 weeks in a row now! Guess what I'm out next Thurs too :wall: :rotfl: I did win £13.88 on the last of the £1 for free bingo sites at the weekend though :j

mama67

Was on and off the bingo all day yesterday not a sausage won.

Shaz hope you are feeling better today.

GC has gone wayyyyy over budget this month but I have bulk shopped for all flours and got some whoopsied meat all in readiness for future months.
Also both boys were on school hols and decided they had to have treats, as they do.

DS1 decided yesterday as he was off school because of the NUT strike that he would make BAnana Cake, very nice too although he did nearly eat a full 1lb loaf size during the day(hollow legged just turned teenager).

Am waiting on my car insurance renewal to come through the post as I have done searches already and have a good idea which is best deal but just need to see what present company offer as we changed car halfway through year so it makes a difference at renewal.

Well time to go off to school, today starts the Cooking Club which I'm running.

bails

Impressed that your teenager makes banana cake Mama67, must be your good influence! :T Good to see people are still about even if no time to post.

dfw844

I second that Mama67! If you learn the skills when you're young there's no stopping you in the real world. And we all know cooking from scratch is the key to frugal living (and staying healthy). xx

Frugaldom

Hi frugalers, that's me just caught up with the posts - Bails, you had a really productive day yesterday, no wonder you are exhausted!

I had to collect DGD from nursery this morning and had her here until about an hour ago, so that took care of my time. The charity listing starts tonight at 6pm, so I'll be trying to do some of that over the weekend in an effort to bump up my fundraising challenge. Made another couple of 'buy it now' sales on eBid, so my miniscule total on that challenge is also creeping up slowly.

Bails - if you check back to the very first post for this challenge, there's a breakdown of why and how we originally arrived at the figure of £4000. It excludes housing costs primarily because rent & mortgage costs vary so much and people pay different amounts for water & council tax, depending on location and personal circumstances. The cost of living, however, is dependent on lifestyle. I think that living on 4k is a choice of lifestyle (or a way of life) that can be practiced by almost anyone and, despite escalating costs this year, I still see it as a realistic challenge. I hope I'm not alone in believing this! :rotfl:

I guess it's dinner time now - DS will be rumble-tumming around any minute now and will start making up sandwiches if I don't commandeer the kitchen soon, so I'll catch you all later.

Don't forget that Thursday 1st May is a very special celebratory day for us 4k'ers. It's day 122 of 366, which can only happen once every 4 years. That means we will be exactly one third of the way through the challenge! :T :j

01/05/08 - Official one third date.
122 - days so far this year
244 - days left this year
366 - total days this year

dfw44 - CONGRATULATIONS on your 1st April figures in signature! You are doing a fabulous job of shifting that lot, well done! :beer:

System

well, i never won anything on bingo and i didnt even find any poos with money in them on my way home (good job, as im wearing trousers today )

sorry, thats a wee bingo in-joke

i found something scary on the mfw boards.... when you work out how much interest your mortgage costs you per hour....im 33p :eek:

ps 1st may i shoule have spent 1/3rd = £669.33 or £540 woohoo my tiny letter challenge is lookin' good

looby-loo_2

Hi everyone, my new internet lasted 6 days then burnt out. An electrical fault in the plug which luckily didn't cause a fire - just a smell. The help line were really reluctant to send another as they have to send the whole package. Even though the transformer was melted they insisted I go through the whole troubleshooting routine - of course nothing was happening as ther was no power. Today a new one came along with a hugh Jiffy bag for return of al the old package. Perhaps when they see it they will believe the problem.

So only one bingo win that I can see this week, better luck next time.

Banana cake - love it, I'm hoping for cheap bananas on the market tomorrow.

I've found homes for two kittens, one to go. From the look the mum gave me when I put her in the pen for an hour whilst I had the door open, I think she is getting fed up with them all. I don't blame her, they are kittens at their manic best!!

Frugaldom

looby-loo wrote: »

So only one bingo win that I can see this week, better luck next time.

Welcome back looby-loo, make that 2 winners! Mine was just a tiny tenner, but it was better than nothing. Going to start finding out about this matched betting caper now, see if I can get to grips with it and raise another few pounds.

1274

I'm just going to quickly post my April spends (£536.10) and then run away and hide because of the total blow-out of the last 25 days. My update is early this month because I can't bear to think how much it will increase before April finally ends

Frugaldom

Hi 1274, you are doing better than me, so fear not! I have only £2256.78 left for the rest of the year, don't know how I'm going to manage it and reckon everyone will be getting homemade gifts for Christmas. In saying that, my stock of pressies just keeps growing and I'll probably end up selling some of them off because there are too many for the wrong age groups! :rotfl: (Note to self: don't just buy because it's an unmissable bargain, sometimes it's a wiser bargain when it's missed!)

Had another look at matched betting, but think I have run out of sites to use as I have joined most of them at some point over the past few years. Free bets all used up, winnings claimed, cashback claimed where possible and no real incentive to start number-crunching as a wannabe bookie. Patience is something that eludes me - Free bingo Thursdays are the worst. :rolleyes:

I need something challenging, something I can actually invest my time into and risk making a fair bit of money.
I can't help but look to the stockmarkets, it just looks so exciting! All that yelling and gesticulating and buy, buy, buy, sell, sell, sell, yes! I just made 127 squidoodle-illions or oh DRAT! I've just lost the lot. :eek: THAT is exciting!

I saw a lovely house advertised, 2 bed cottage with almost an acre & a half of garden land (thinking veggies & fruit), trees and what looked like a small paddock with outbuildings (for a goat & some hens?). Except it's under offer already! I'm now thinking I need to buy the magic wishmaker back and hoping it works it's charm. (It's a long story.) I wonder how long it would take to turn £1000 into £100,000? :rotfl:

Edited in - just checked the spending diary and I have only had 9 spending days this month! I now know what my problem is; I'm having spending withdrawal symptoms!