Frugal Fresian's 2010 Adventures

mooomin

Shameless copy and paste again!

My frugal plans for this morning, as written in the Frugal Tome were:

1. Cook lamb chops in the slow cooker Done!
2. Charge my phone at work Done!
3. Take full advantage of free coffee at work Done! (Possibly overdone!)
4. Start photographing Ebay stuff Not done...the bulb in the living room is on the blink (I think the dimmer is doomed ) Photos would be badly lit. Must resolve to do this in daylight hours...
5. PAD my loose change Done!
6. Compare catfood prices in preparation for shopping tomorrow Done! Looks like it's Pets At Home for me...

Other things I have done...

Made 10p from doing the coffee run (Tea is 95p and they didn't want their change!)
Printed voucher for £5 Carvery - a big group of us go every month so it's nice to save some cash.
Sold two items listed on Amazon last night :j

***

Things I forgot to mention on the Frugal Thread....

I got two tickets to a comedy show in town for £4 thanks to a post on the Newspaper thread.

Since posting that I have also filled a box with books for the charity shop/bootsale and have listed another 5 items on Amazon.

Sleepy now

mooomin

Morning all!

I have woken up with one suspiciously runny nostril and think a full-blown cold is round the corner

Money stuff

Spends = £75
PAD = £40
Entertainment = £45.10 (Still to pay for Sound of Music)
Groceries = £91.89
Purse = £14

There are 13 days until payday. Although it does look as though I have very little money, I have been PADding more - paying £156 into my savings account since last payday and still having enough money to cover all of the post-Christmas sales spending :j The only trouble is that I am going to be overspent in at least one category this month - entertainment. I have the Sound of Music, a comedy show I bought us cheap tickets for and a meal out at the end of the month. I think I am going to be able to do all this for around £35 total though, only £5 over budget, and I can't see me having this much of a social life every month

It's just hard....I've been getting paid on the 23rd of the month for the last seven years, and the budget I'm doing started on the first of the month, making me aware that even after payday I have another week before the month should really start. This will be a challenge!! I'm thinking of transferring all of my wages to my bills account and not transferring the "excess" money for spending, groceries and entertainment back until the 1st. Not sure how that's going to worth to be honest, I'll mull it over.

Today I plan to get dressed (I don't want to!) and get out of bed. I'm in bed at the moment wearing multiple layers and with the heating on - it's been on all night. I'm now at the stage where I'm thinking "Sod the impending gas bill". It's much more important to be warm at this point. I have contingency money in my savings, so I can dig into this if required. I suspect that Scottish Power (Boo....hissssss) will just put up the monthly payment to cover it anyway, although I have a vague memory of us being in credit before the winter. We didn't start using the heating a lot until mid-November anyway. Maybe it will even out?

I'm also going to be meeting a friend who is kind enough to take me to the supermarket when I need heavy things and we're going to hunt around for cat litter. I believe that this can be used instead of grit for your driveway, but will nobody think of the poor sh*tty kitties? They have no other option! (Please don't say outside, when my cats go out all day in the summer, they still come home to poop!)

Right, shower, breakfast, ACTION!!!

macgirl

We're with SP too and they just lowered out monthly payments but will probably put them up as we've had ours on overnight for the last 2 nights too :eek:

Sod it, we need to be warm! Have a good day x

Swinstie73

flying_fresian wrote: »

It's just hard....I've been getting paid on the 23rd of the month for the last seven years, and the budget I'm doing started on the first of the month, making me aware that even after payday I have another week before the month should really start. This will be a challenge!! I'm thinking of transferring all of my wages to my bills account and not transferring the "excess" money for spending, groceries and entertainment back until the 1st. Not sure how that's going to worth to be honest, I'll mull it over.

Morn F_F, why don't you amend your budget to start from payday? I have my super duper spreadsheet split into worksheets and each one starts from payday i.e. last months ran from 18 Dec - 24 Jan (5 flipping weeks) and the next one is 25 Jan - 24 Feb. I tried the 1st of the month thing but didn't work out because of early/late DD's. I'm still always over-budget most months but it helps a bit.

I am wearing layers too, two pairs of jammie bottoms last night!

hypno06

I get paid on 23rd too....and have as many DDs coming out immediately after that as I can - most places are happy to set up payments between 24th and 28th of the month, meaning I don't have to try and keep money aside for too long.

Have a good weekend!

natsplatnat

Hi FF.

Cat litter will kinda melt the snow and absorb the water. But as it has no anti-freeze properties, when it does freeze, it will become very slippery. If you can't get hold of any salt (highly unlikely!) then the next best option is to buy some builders sharp sand. It has a mildish salt content (as it hasn't been washed too much) and will give you some grip due to the grittiness of it. You should be able to pick up a 20/25kg bag for about £2.00. Only thing to bear in mind with this is if you tread it into the house, it may leave an orangish stain so protect your floor near the door.
(ps, I work for a builers merchants and had been selling rock and marine salt until it was restricted to the councils and higways agencies this week. We recommend sharp sand as the next best alternative!)

mooomin

natsplatnat wrote: »

Hi FF.

Cat litter will kinda melt the snow and absorb the water. But as it has no anti-freeze properties, when it does freeze, it will become very slippery. If you can't get hold of any salt (highly unlikely!) then the next best option is to buy some builders sharp sand. It has a mildish salt content (as it hasn't been washed too much) and will give you some grip due to the grittiness of it. You should be able to pick up a 20/25kg bag for about £2.00. Only thing to bear in mind with this is if you tread it into the house, it may leave an orangish stain so protect your floor near the door.
(ps, I work for a builers merchants and had been selling rock and marine salt until it was restricted to the councils and higways agencies this week. We recommend sharp sand as the next best alternative!)

Bad phrasing from me - I need cat litter for my kitties but people are buying it all to grit their driveways. Bampots....:mad:

Got some though, proper update on adventures of the day later, visitors just arrived.

miemie

Hi FF i'm also with Scot power, i enter my meter readings on line so i can see how much we are using and how much i owe/in credit, could you do this so you can keep track.

Lurker1972

Flapjack recipe as requested....
6oz margarine
6oz demerara sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
8oz rolled or porridge oats

Shallow 18 x 27 cm tin

160 degrees

Melt marg sugar & syrup in large pan, do not allow mixture to boil
Take off heat, add oats & stir so well covered
Spoon into tin & put in oven 20-25 minutes until oats are golden brown

Take tin out of oven & after 10 minutes cut into pieces, leave in tin until cold

Enjoy!

The_Golden_Goose

YumTASTIC. Will be pinching that recipe!