An Optimistic Pair's MFW Journey

gallygirl

Optimisticpair wrote: »

My luxury is having a weekly bath :eek: but I've been good and cut back on the volume per bath and I have used it twice over. Some went on the garden plants, some went for flushing the loo, washing paintbrushes etc, floorcloths, paintwork, tools, cement buckets and the floor.

Op, tell me you had the bath & THEN reused the water rather than the other way round :eek::eek::eek:

StuartGMC

Op
Do you collate real data to your spreadsheets so they reflect the annual position rather than the estimated position? This does help to show trends overall and may assist your quest to see demonstrable returns from your efforts?

Optimisticpair

gallygirl wrote: »

Op, tell me you had the bath & THEN reused the water rather than the other way round :eek::eek::eek:

Hello again gallygirl,

Oooh yes :rotfl:

BTW that was said in the stylee of the Church'ill dog.

I also catch rain water in a plastic bin but I am only a bit DIY able so I haven't worked out an easy, tidy, unobtrusive way to get into the loo cistern

If fuel prices go up though I might have to start fetching a bucketful inside for a cheap eco flush :eek: I hate wasting resources.

Optimisticpair

StuartGMC wrote: »

Op
Do you collate real data to your spreadsheets so they reflect the annual position rather than the estimated position? This does help to show trends overall and may assist your quest to see demonstrable returns from your efforts?

Unfortunately I'm just lacking figures and patience. Yes, I deal with real data but not all real data is available to me to collate. Now that OH actually lives here (in our house) I'm waiting for him to dig out missing figures relating to the outgoings for his house where his mum lives.

Optimisticpair

Nice letter from the water board this morning to tell us

A) charges have been reduced - WOW.

that they will be sending us £145.24 refund in the post by end of this month.
and

C) future DD at this consumption will be £24 a month.

OH promises the data for his other house occupied by his mum as soon as he finds it. Isn't it amazing what can happen when you threaten to cut off conjugal rights

Horrified to discover that my local shop charged OH £1.71 for a 2 litre bottle of coka cola.:eek: Needless to say I'll make a better job of ensuring we don't run out again.

setmefree2

Optimisticpair wrote: »

Nice letter from the water board this morning to tell us

A) charges have been reduced - WOW.

that they will be sending us £145.24 refund in the post by end of this month.
and

C) future DD at this consumption will be £24 a month.

Good News

Optimisticpair

Yup, our bin man deserves a gold star for going beyond the call of duty.

We did a monster size shop last Saturday so busy this week cooking to restock the freezer with tasty home made meals. We are both impressed with the spag bol recipe. The cans went for recycling. I also filled 3 recycling bags with the junk mail and paper from OH's two house moves which had all gone into boxes for sorting later. Dear gods it took ages to sort through and remove all identifying info. Bin man also had to take two black rubbish bags but undaunted he also swung two coal bags full of perennial weed roots on the cart.

No further news on the cheap digger to do the garden with so it still looks like Beirut out there. I finished bagging up the remaining HM compost on a dry day this week.

Had to put a couple of CH rads on one evening this and this morning. Its feeling a bit cool now.

Now have some of the missing data and seen there's a £17.00 a month insurance cover on the 5 yr old CH system in house 2 that needs pruning out.

Hey ho

Optimisticpair

Optimisticpair wrote: »

No further news on the cheap digger to do the garden with so it still looks like Beirut out there.

Grrr:mad: - Still no digger, man and van to do the heavy work to prepare the garden for veg growing next year. The Stove man looked at the open grate but we haven't heard from him since either. Here if you are lucky someone will turn up and quote and if your luck holds they will take on the job and if your luck really is in they actually do turn up and do the job.

In the garden we have done as much as we physically could manage including dismantling a rickety pergola and shifting to the side a huge amount of stone for re-use.

:AWe made 2 types of fruit Chutney for 4 family Christmas presents this year using "Kirstie's Homemade Christmas" medal winner recipe as Version 1. The cost was shy of £25 using saved back jars but it made a substantial amount. The end result, with red fabric jam jar covers, looked like twice the price and there was enough over for a jar for ourselves. Version 1 basic recipe was a pleasing deep orange and Version 2 with my own addition of plums in came out a rich red. That's been delivered.

Brrr been cold here! Since the leaves dropped we can see the snow covered mountains at the front and side of the cottage, it makes a nice change from sheep. MrOP is now used to sheep traffic jams and lambs wandering on the minor roads. The log stack is looking good and is raided every dry day. We are using half a dozen small logs a night but we had an oil delivery mid this month - up to full with 479litres (£190's worth) just to be sure that we will be ok if this freezing weather persists like it did last year.

Having enjoyed the Winter Solstice we are looking forward to battening down hatches for Christmas and doing some fun things.

Seasonal Greetings Everyone :beer:

Optimisticpair

:xmastree: :xmassign: :xmastree:

2010 Live on 4k challenge Budget
Declaring 5k target

Included

Food/ toiletries/ cleaning & laundry - £200 month / £2,400.00 year
TV Licence £145.00
Gifts £300
Landline £120 year
Mobile £20 year
Coal £150.00 year
Logs/Wood & kindling £150.00
Electricity £300.00 year
Oil £700 year
Building and Contents insurance - £86.50 (paid for year 09/10)
Non-work transport costs £360 year

---

Haircuts Dental and prescriptions £50.00
Non-work clothes and shoes £50
Furniture/ Household repairs/maintenance 140.00
Miscellaneous £28.50

[FONT=&quot]= £5,000.00 (£86.50 spent / 5k = £4,913.50)[/FONT]

evab_2

Good luck with your challenge and Happy Christmas to you, hope you're not snowed in - it's lovely but cold up here had snow for about 2 hours the other day!