A Year of Living Frugabulously

Karmacat

The withdrawal from the ISA is only cos work have been numpties tho, thats why your cash flow is bad - you yourself, you're fine! Except for having to go to Tatco, and even the pain of that is lessened by the Branston beans :D:D

prettypaula

subbing with interest...

my eyeliner that i cannot live without is mac liquid last. it lasts for multiple days if need be! haha.

Cherryjack

loved the idea of saving for the bills in advance! gave me inspiration :-)
I have these yearly bills

Council Tax
Car insurance
Car Tax
Water bill etc etc...

Should i save for these each month maybe transfer it once im paid and then lump it together in one utility savings account?
I would feel amazing next year if id paid everything up front in advance :-) look forward to your reply, and good luck x

RosaBernicia

OK yes boots, boots and winter and stuff. Think about these and be calm.

Am all a-flutter, have just discovered someone I fancy madly is finally on Facebook and finally been brave enough to send him a message. Haven't seen him in a couple of years as the mutual friend has been out of the country. So this will either result in being ignored, who are you, or fine thank you now married off, or of course the very best possible result would be nice to hear from you how about coffee. I am pathetically adrenalined over this. Clearly I have been ignoring my social life for far too long!

Have been avoiding Tatco here as Sainsbugs has been upgraded and happens to have some fab cutlery that has been quietly stowing away in my basket every time I have enough Nectar points to reduce the latest pieces to under a fiver.

Don't wear eyeliner but any mascara recommendations would be welcome - picked up a Bouts Falsifeye last time and it's pants.

Rosa xx

fedupandskint

All the talk of eyeliner reminded me I need a new mascara to create wonderful curled thick lashes and I'm off tomorrow to find one alongside a new foundation to use next weekend on an rare night out. I might forgo the new foundation and see if one of my mineral ones will do the job well enough and re discover a marvellous set of eyeshadows to make me look radiant!

I like your money plans - much better plans than what I have on board. I do have a £2 saving pot which is an old cleanse and polish silver tin - it came in handy in the end!

Happy weekend and feel free to stop by sometime. I might have a freshly baked piece of toast ready for you smothered in a little bit of butter and HM marmalade if you fancy it

Lula-Hula

Ladies, let's talk fabby girl stuff :j

Rosa - love the purple boots ... and in brown too . I've turned down my over knee ones & they actually fit better now & I am wearing them loads, has to be one of my best bargains ever - Diesel via TKMaxx for just £20 last year.

How thrilling about the man, I can't wait to hear more ...

As to eyelash wear, my all time favourite is Diorshow but these days I'm more down to earth so I'm currently using No7 Lash Adapt "for buildable volume" ( see below for effectiveness ). It was recently on offer in Boots so I thought I'd try it & so far I'm impressed. I have a £5 voucher so might even go & get another one.


prettypaula - hello & welcome, your eyeliner staying power observations have been duly noted - you are my kinda gal I start off on a monday with quite a discreet set of eyelashes, but by Friday I'm wearing a set of full on vamp style ones - clearly need to improve my cleansing routine.

Cherryjack - hello & welcome to you :wave: Absolutely save up for bills. I've always paid the council tax & water by monthly direct debit - most organisations run it over 10 months, from April to January so you get 2 'free months' a year .

My method is that the first day of every month I sweep a total sum for all my future bills into one single savings account which is linked to my current account - I can only access the money online so don't have a cashcard. That works well for me as I'm never tempted to dip in.

I do however, have a notebook & spreadsheet in which I put all the ins & outs so I know how much is available in each separate fund. It's really rewarding to see it grow & although my car service & MOT in August was way over what I had saved, at least I didn't have to find the full amount. The next service & MOT should be a lot less so I'll just carry over any leftover towards the next year.

I'm a rare creature in that I choose to pay my gas & electricity bills quarterly. I reckon that the money is far better in my account rather than in the energy providers. It doesn't really earn any interest but I build up a surplus in the summer & this usually carries me through the winter bills.

A few years back I had a bad experience with direct debits & energy providers. I built up a lot of credit & rather than send me the surplus they reduced my direct debits to such a small amount that within a few months I was in debt to them. Inspite of various pleading calls they refused point blank to increase the payments until the end of the year. I ended up owing them hundreds, was unable to pay in full & had to have expensive card meters installed :mad:.

Once I'd cleared the debt I requested to go back to normal billing & the thieving barstewards refused unless I paid them a deposit of £250 :eek:. I was incensed as the whole situation was of their making & once my credit status improved I was eventually able to switch providers via a doorstep sales person being keen to gain a new customer, although they wouldn't allow quarterly bills. A couple of years after that, a competitors sales person offered me a lower rate & I agreed to switch to them if I could have quarterly bills. They agreed :T & I've stayed with them since & each time the previous provider calls, I say that I will not go back until they offer me a better rate & allow quarterly bills . Their last pitch was to offer interest on any surplus I had with them if I agreed to monthly direct debit, but I'm not budging for now.

I enter my meter readings each month so they can give me an estimate before the meters are read each quarter by their staff & it's all online + I get a 2.5% discount on the following bill for making a prompt payment.

It took a few years to get to this happy state of affairs & rules have changed now so consumers have more power & choice but I never want to lose control of my money again.

Here endeth today's lecture , sorry, I get a bit carried away. I just really hope that someone out there can learn from & avoid my mistakes so I try to be as honest as I can about my experiences.

Moving on ...

Fedupandskint - I'm drooling again & looking forward to hearing about your night out

it is absolutely typical that having been to Tatco earlier, the postie then delivered my latest clubcard thingy complete with money off vouchers for a lot of the stuff I'd just bought & of course £6.50 in vouchers. I also have £3 unspent in my clubcard account apparently, but am baffled as to what this is ??? also as to how I use / access it ?

Any clues anyone ? I wondered if it might be to do with the shopper thoughts surveys I've done :think:

I did get a '5p off a litre of fuel' voucher so might use that to fill up again before it runs out.


My FRUGAL feat of the day was to park the car in a free car park & do a quick 15 minute walk cross country when doing a hospital visit so £2 saved

Hoping for a quiet weekend to catch up with all the chores, correspondence, laundry & tidying that has been ignored for the last week & having swooned over JD earlier, I'm now off to watch Jools.

G'night
xx

skint_spice

Hi Lula, you can go to the clubcard part of their website and print off any unused vouchers - maybe have a look see if there's one there?

Karmacat

Good grief, what a horror story with the energy companies! No wonder you stay with quarterly bills now ... loving the sprint so you can use a free car park too, attagirl!

Mascara ... I use *so* little mascara so little, in fact, that I shouldn't really be allowed onto your thread. No 7 Lash Adapt? I'm a bit worried to tell you when I last used mascara in case you really do throw me off :rotfl::o:rotfl::o:rotfl::o

Chrisblue1962

Lula-Hula wrote: »

My FRUGAL feat of the day was to park the car in a free car park & do a quick 15 minute walk cross country when doing a hospital visit so £2 saved

xx

Excellent moneysaving!!!

fedupandskint

Off for a mosey in town and to swing by Mr B's to check out mascara and foundation and back for a slice of toast. Hungry, did go for a run this morning so allowed!