A Year of Living Frugabulously

Karmacat

Hope you got to check out the boats *with* DD1. And congratulations to her on the car boot haul

stamp76

2011 was my frugal year. Looks like its gonna be this year too. This website helps loads, though.

Lula-Hula

Good evening to all my regulars & hello & welcome to stamp76 :hello:

Well, we didn't get out for a walk yesterday but I did do some financial deals with DD1. Her total profit from the car boot sale was £125 :j & I was very proud to hear her say that she was paying it all into the bank towards future car costs. I gave her a load of coin bags & we were both a bit miffed to discover that for 50ps & 20ps now it's £10 worth that's needed. She was short of the right amount.

Fortunately for her, I had a stash of 20ps that I'd been saving in case of emergency launderette dryer requirements ... how amazing that when we counted them up I had exactly £6 worth which was what she needed

Even more fortunate was her having 2 x £2 coins & being happy to swap them & 2 x 50ps for my 20ps

Jasper the Sealed Cat now has £66 in him .

*~*~*

Today it was back to work & Gropey was waiting to chat at me, for 4 ear-bleeding hours before Grumpy & the Goblin arrived . No one else came near the office - barstools - they just let me hog all his attention.

Never mind though, it's been a glorious day so I stopped off at the park, changed into my comfy boots & set off for a brisk walk around the ponds. The sky was a brilliant clear blue, the water on the ponds was semi frozen, & it was just lovely. I did a fast 15 minutes & felt I could tackle just about anything as I felt so energised afterwards - simply FABULOUS

I read the meters, submitted the readings & after transferring money from the savings fund I paid both the electricity bill of £78.69 & the gas bill of £173.11. I now have just £70 in the utility fund ( not counting the £100 that I owe from this month).

Next I got on the phone to the ISA provider ... had 2 attempts at remembering my password & failed . Had a bit of panic as if I got it wrong on the next attempt, then my account would be blocked & it would take 5 working days for a letter to be sent out with details of how to reactivate it :eek:.

Wished I had got around to sorting out the passwords collating, but eventually remembered what it was & have now organised a transfer to my current account. I immediately felt a huge sense of relief at being free of debt ( yet again ) & made a personal promise to myself NOT to get back in that situation again.

It has really scared me just how quickly a money situation can escalate beyond my control. As soon as that gift money hits my current account I'll be paying it straight to the CCCCC & stepping back on the path to freedom & savings.

The first step will be to pay the £160 owed to the savings funds & then I need to work out an achievable monthly savings target.

I'm about to lose the 4th game in a row to Grumpy so might just add a dictionary to my reading list for 2012 :rotfl:.

G'night
xx

Karmacat

Its all very yo-yo for you, isn't it, Lula! Maybe thats to do with making do with things that are on their last legs? Its bound to be up and down for a while till you catch yourself up, so to speak.

Glad the day was fabulous, tho! I have some baskets of recycled slate chips ready to go on the patio, and needless to say there's rainwater in them thar baskets - thats frozen hard! The sky looks very beautiful, tho, so the ice is worth it

Cheery_Daff

Tis indeed gorgeous, glad you had a fab day! :T :T Well done on getting rid of the pesky CCCCCCCCC too :T :T Amazing what wonders a 15 min walk can do - I've been getting out for a walk every day while I've been off sick, and have vowed to do it forever now I mean, I always walk *to* places, and while that's good, there's something MUCH better about going FOR a walk :T

vasseur

What a great feeling to get rid of the CCCCC :j

Your walk sounds lovely. It's amazing how achievable everything feels after a good stint of exercise

lotti379

Ooh thank you so much for mentioning the phone app for tracking your spending! I hadn't thought of that! I have a spreadsheet for income, spends, account totals etc etc, but I have two operating systems on my laptop so excel is on the windows side (with the rest of the microsoft office stuff) and all my entertainment stuff (itunes, photos etc) is on the mac os side... makes things very awkward! I used to forget spends all the time... now I have downloaded an app and I have no excuse! :money:

Thank you Lula! :T :T :T

Wobblydeb

Lula-Hula wrote: »

& indignantyness at the ready

Hahahahhaa :rotfl: Word of the week award to you Lula-Hula!!! :rotfl:

Lula-Hula

Hello all

& thank you to Wobblydeb, If the word I want to use doesn't either spring to mind or exist, then I just create my own If only the same principle applied to men :rotfl:

Hi lotti379, glad to have been some help, I actually got the 'office for mac' thingy when I bought my laptop, but am rather ashamed to say that it's in no danger of wearing out any time soon . Not sure if you're aware of this, but there's a fab site where you can buy software very cheaply, if you're a student of course

I do love my phone , & apart from the spending log, I'm also using the brilliant fitness pal app obsessively, which has been somewhat revealing. I've spent the last week just logging my normal calorie intake during the day & frankly, it's no big surprise that rather than losing weight, I'm slowly gaining it :eek:. I start the day well, my lunches are fine but it all goes wrong when I get home, I can easily consume 600 calories just by having my regular cup of tea & afternoon snack. By the time we eat supper I'm about 400 calories over my allowance .

I went for another brisk walk today & did a slightly longer route which took 20 minutes. There seem to be lots of friendly dog walkers there & the setting is just so lovely & again I saw lots of wildlife, interesting trees, breathed in fresh air & got some exercise :j. I felt great again & as long as I wear clothes I can walk quickly in, then I really don't care about wearing my comfy boots.

Inspite of my earlier enthusisam for the new exercise class, I missed the class last week as well as the first week & I'd actually prefer to go out for a free walk in the fresh air than pay to be in a sweaty room with other people . Once I'm a bit fitter & have lost a few pounds, then I may give the sports centre at the school a try, but once the weather improves & the evenings get lighter, then hopefully we'll be getting out on the bikes again .

That is something that I definitely do want to buy this year, I've used DD1 s for the last 6+ years & I'm in danger of crippling myself if I go through another summer on it I only want a cheapy one so will aim to save about £150 for that.

So, the payment has been made to the CC & I do feel lighter of spirit now. I also found another £25 in cash ( birthday gift) along with my M&S gift card - had completely forgotten about that so really need to pay that into my account. I think I'll use the Clothes Challenge account for all my personal savings as well clothes. I could put that £25 towards a new bike; it would be nice to have it for clothes, but I've already set my budget at £100 + £25 gift card & have the £2 coins fund for new boots ...

Hmmmm this needs some thought :think:

Gropey was out of the office all day & although Goblin was very pleased to have him back yesterday & they spent most of the afternoon yakking in the kitchen, I think even she realises how much more pleasant the atmosphere is without him. I'm just hoping that we keep enough work trickling in to sustain all our wages & make sure we all retain our jobs.

I'm off to bed now,
G'night
xx

Cheery_Daff

Night Lula, I've scrambled my brain trying to keep track of your svings pots :rotfl: :rotfl: But YES to a new cheery bike! :T :T :T