Fabulously Frugal and Free at 50!

Tonight - so frankly I didn't get everyting done.

Moved all the wood now have two very large stacks. YAY

Picked the blackberries and rasps now in fridge.

Bagged and weighed plums for freezer 5kg in there in 1kg bags - loose enough to take out a bit at a time as I froze them flat with lots room.

Unmangled the cooked plums from the bun trays - and bagged too. All ready for yoghurts etc unsweetened as means I can use for savory or sweet.

Bottled another 2 small kilner jars of chinese plum sauce - I think I'll do one more batch and then call it a day.

Walked mutts, made TRG pizza and HM wedges - did a bit of weeding but nowt much. But I did dig the tatties for his tea. Pizza was a reduced find, seemed to enjoy it.

Not too bad a night and lots not done but some done so all good!

Strained some more plums for juice. Its plumtastic in the kitchen at the mo.

Have a good un. xx Hope any bountiful finds garden or soopermarket are safely snuggled ready for eating.

Must measure up the larder as its getting full before its ever been sorted. Remind me I can't just fill it with plums.

Thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow - full stores and wood piles mean less spends.

YAY.

Hey there welcome to the beetroot club EagerElephant what a lot of good ideas there - I'm suspecting baking the beets rather than boiling MUST keep more flavour in? Awesome thank you and sweet beetroot pickled now I must confess I think this idea is genius as I LOVE all things sweet pickled, just not sharp so I shall try this one thank you so much. We sell b/root for 25p a beet so sounds about right. Thanks for that info.

I REALLY need to get these stores sorted. I'm debating a 'full sized larder freezer' over a 'small under the counter one' for veg and fruit from garden our main freezer is a tad small although its big enough for meat and frozen lunches, its not a store horse. We +had+ one but it didn't move well and the seal went. We do have room for either at a push if I move the hoovers to a wee nook. Ponders Ponders. Only prob is the door to the larder and the door to open the freezer need to be compatible otherwise you have to lock yourse'f in the tiny larder to open the freezer door - a bit too cosy. And largely unpractical. *Could take the larder door off, its always open but I do use it to hang the jackets on.

Could also buy a chest freezer and put out in one of the sheds but - thus far we've not ventured 'out there' with larder spaces, not that might not change as doing a big garden shed/etc rejig next year.

Food for thought pardon the pun.

FINANCIALS *warning may hurt head*
Well here we are and its pay day.We survived and even without the second job lost wages
Hooray.
We had about 300 left in the main account OD and 30 left in the food spends budget. (Underspend £330)
Petrol budget was over by £5 but I@m not fretting about that.

We are guitly of lazy eating out or takeaways due to lack of planning/late/tired/change of scene but we have really reduced that this month due to food being almost just ready to hit the plate. SO I'll keep that strategy up. Worked well, who knew meal planning worked eh? I tihnk for me loose meal planning around ingredients works better than set meals as I kick back less upon it.

I think I'll separate the spends again immediately into their own online accounts that worked well.

So I'll transfer:

£200 to petrol saver - few trips to the city this week so that will get eaten up and a wedding at the end of the month but aside that not too much galavanting planned.

£300 to household - it was 200 but DH reminded me he puts 300 to cover
Cleaner £44 for the month 22/fortnightly
General meals
All toiletries
Pet food
Lunch spends including lunch, juice, snacks and breakfast pack up (All from home)

As I used his 300 to pay CC I'll allocate my 300 to the household, its only fair.

I need to plan a frippery budget - I clearly do 'frip' money away and do have treats like charity shops etc - so I need a budget - I was thinking £100 - although that seems audacious. However even a fish supper is 12 for two so is it enough? ANYONE care to share how much they allow themselves for personal spends.

DD needs £50 a month for bus pass - no other contribution to uni expected at the mo but she is moving to a new flat.

Household improvements - wonder about setting a budget here as there are things to do - eg larder might cost (roughly £100) for shelving and bits. Not sure what to do here. Spoke to DH we'll split this so I need to find a spare 50

I've also 7 months to pay off CC's and two overdrafts - they're not going anywhere if I do prioritise them. If we call it 6 months and one month contingency - 50/each x 2 = 100 a month to paying those off.

CC's are sitting at 0% 2400, 29% 700 with a 0% balance transfer offered on card number 1. 3% transfer fee. Pondering doing that and just having the one card to blast off at 0% total interest.

So in summary for me:

£200 petrol
£300 household/grub
£100 frippery budget
£50 to DD
£100 to both OD's (50 each)

Total £750 allocated right?

OIl is £50
BB is £50
Contact lens - £20
Bank charges are about £25 total monthly as in OD
Pilates £5

There goes another £150

And we're at £900

Car due MOT this month too - yikes.

I need to start to pay DH for holiday 1 at xmas ski (721.50 everything included,SKI passes too, everything) and holiday 2 in April ski (991,50 all included ex passes but 4" hotel, yay) 10 days - total cost for my share of both is about £1713. No one said gadding about for birthdays is cheap. Current plan is to pay Xmas off before we go and Canada before we go IYSWIM. So 4 months for both. They're on 0% cards, for DH - so roughly £180 needed per month before we skoot for holiday no 1.

So £900 spent so far with no MOT - £180 to DH = £1080 allocated thus far.

£450 wages left, + £500 wages unaccounted for thus far as its still out there somewhere.

MOT unlikely to be horrific wee car, tiny engine but you never know. So conservatory may need that £450 for the MOT and any contingencies or unexpected spends. Could also use for a second hand freezer if enough left? Will look on free pages first.

Balance of non-allocated funds thus ZERO.

Well its a start eh.

£330 underspend this last month - £50 into both overdrafts x 2, 50 for shelves for larder, leaving 180 for extra CC payments - best set this aside the higher interest card. All allocated.

Remaining underspend allocated.

Augusts wages allocated - ZERO left depending on MOT.
Wages of old job in ether - currrently who knows where unallocated £500

So we have nothing left - but do have a contingency and we've paid the holiday a chunk, the cards and chunk and put all the allocated funds into their own wee online pots.

Man I was slightly wages rich and now I'm not..

ETA - all transfers done, paid £100 into one overdraft as doesn't matter how they reduce as long as they go - and I may get rid of TSB account long term anyway. I took £10 out yesterday to spend £1 on food oil - so I'll take 90 out and give my 'frippery budget' purse a fill up - I think I'll use it more wisely if I use cash.

Must check oil balance and get tank topped if there is enough to avoid more disasters.

Time to sort kitchen out and do some chores - off today - woop - helping DD later with flat and some gardening/stuff to do.

£128 in oil tank account - +50 this month = 178 on 15th in BJ tank account.

£209 to order 500 litres - might order and add the extra at the end of the month. Hardly any difference in price of 500 ltr and 1000 ltr. Mind on its cheaper than its been for ages.

Will review after 15th or nearer end of month.

PS forgot about mobile phone in budget - DOH! £22 to find somewhere.

In the mean time I'll have to keep building these stashes up - they aint bonnie but they are free.