Living on £4,000 for a Year

Time to Balance the Budget!

 

Once again, I am going to attempt to stick with my frugal living challenge to live on (or should that be off?) £4,000 for the entire year.

On Wednesday 28th November, the car failed its MOT and proved to be an uneconomical repair. On Monday 3rd December, the car got scrapped. We have decided to attempt to do without a car in 2013, but we won't be without wheels.

We live in a rural location, we are not on a bus route and there are no local taxis. The main road is just over a mile from the house, so we can walk there and flag down the occasional bus - I think there are two per day. I've asked friends about lift-sharing and have registered with Royal Mail so I can  pre-pay and print postage labels, then all I need to do is pop the mail into the box or hand it to the postman.

With what was saved on the final month's petrol, scrap money and refund of road tax from the car, it paid for two secondhand bikes. December 2012 was the first time I had cycled in 30 years! My 2013 challenge includes seeing how easy it is to manage without a car, despite living in a rural location, and keep the overall annual household budget below £4,000.00 while having frugal FUN!

 

Having a prepayment electricity meter normally means going and topping up the key at the post office or relevant PayPoint. That's not easy on a miserble, windy, wet day when the post office is a 7 mile round trip, so I bought a Scottish Power 'pod', which cost me £13.99. I can now top up the meter online. After considered paying the £60 to have meter replaced, I decided against it. Why should we need to pay extra when the power companies will soon be installing Smart Meters into every house in the country? We'll ALL be charged for those, both gas (for those who have it) and electricity, once the Government plan is rolled out fully over the next few years.

My new challenge budget has been finalised! It reflects groceries, electricity, heating, telephone, Internet and TV for the household, but gift buying, clothes, mobile phone, postage, travel etc is my own only... housesharing means no joint-accounts, no joint family affairs and, if I want to blow the balance on a horse, the house or a foreign holiday, I'm free to do so. But I promise not to buy a horse!

The Finalised Challenge Budget for 2013

Groceries, Toiletries, Cleaning - £1,000
Electricity - £800
Coal - £200
Logs - £200
Other - £12 (firelighters, matches etc)
Mobile - £5
Telephone & Internet - £360
TV - £145.50
Footwear & Clothing - £50
Gifts - £100
Transport Costs - £75
Postage & Deliveries - £35
Home Insurance - £100
Household Pets - £60
Everything else - £857.50

TOTAL = £4,000.00

In a change of plan, I will not be deducting council tax or buildings insurance from my budget, so I've shared some of the extra money among the gifts, fuel and groceries categories, while leaving the remainder under the category of 'everything else'. Without a car to worry about, I'm feeling positively LOADED for 2013!

 

Frugal living has never looked so good! I've managed to fit in a few miles of cycling to get used to the bike, a set of mud flaps, lights and a back rack have been fitted, so I can stay drier going through puddles, be seen and carry the basic essentials home when visiting the shop. Recent eBay purchases included fleecy leggings (99p per pair) and hi-vizibility vests (99p), so I think we're all set to roll into the new year.

 

The freezer is full, the cupboards are full, there's enough coal to take us through to the next visit by the coal man and I've already started collecting kindling sticks to replenish our dwindling supply. January is always a fairly expensive month for me, so the budget takes more than its fair share of hitsduring the coming month. With luck, winter will be kind to us and there's plenty of work to be done about the place in between keeping up to date with my 'eBidding', making McGonks and writing about life in Frugaldom.

 

Finally, a couple of the bantams have started to lay eggs again and I haven't even used the eggs from the freezer, yet. Pancakes, omlettes, quiche and homemade pasta can now be reintroduced to the frugal menu and who knows, we may even have some lemon curd back on the go soon.

 

All comments and questions are welcome - frugal living is about making affordable living fun while steering clear of debts. If you're looking for a money challenge, feel free to join us online anytime in the Frugaldom Forums and I will do my best to keep the blog ticking over in more diary-like fashion for the benefits of my wonderful subscribers. You'll also find a version of this challenge on the Moneysavingexpert forums, where many people prefer to go, just search for the 2013 Frugal Living Challenge and you'll find us. :)

 

Thank you for showing an interest in frugaldom and all it entails. I hope everyone can have some frugal fun in 2013.