A Year of Living Frugabulously

Karmacat

Its tomorrow now ... hope that meeting is okay Lula. And good for you for not taking it personally - when somebody lets go like that, it can be really obvious that its their stuff.

Blimey. With work, tho, good that they realise its your day off and you had the time in lieu yesterday.

Let us know how it goes...

Lula-Hula

It's very, very cold out there, but also very bright & sunny, which is good, because there's a cold wind about to blow through my dreams ...

The meeting was pretty much as I expected & have been preparing for. As of Monday we're all on short time, one of our contractors has been let go & I've just taken a £4,000 pay slash .

It's no surprise & to be honest, I think they could have done this earlier but strongly feel that they had the decency to get christmas & another full month's pay to us before having to get this drastic.

I remain cheerful though, & mainly am so, so, so, glad I just managed to clear the CC by the skin of my teeth.

I've already contacted the relevant people re possibly getting help with rent payments, & informed the tax credit peeps, as it may well have a bearing on my entitlement there.

I've done what I can for now & refuse to worry. The last 4 years of intensive MSE training should be fully entrenched by now & with more time to spend on bargain hunting, growing own food, cooking from scratch & the savings pots a regular ritual, I have every confidence that we can cope.

I have already postponed any thoughts about booking a holiday, but will continue to use CB to be saved towards this as I do have DDs guides holiday to pay for & there may be an opportunity for a cheap holiday at some point.

Hopefully, the business will get more work & we can all increase our hours & pay again, but I'm setting things up as if it doesn't for the forseeable future. Obviously it could get worse & I lose my job entirely, but for now I remain cautious but optimistic

I need to check my bank account & might well stick some cash into the Repayment Fund just as a gesture of optimism.

I can always withdraw it again :rotfl:

Off to do some much needed vacuuming & general cleaning,
Bye for now ...
xx

Karmacat

Oh Lula! I'm so sorry to hear it - but good for you for preparing for it, and responding so quickly to find out the extra help you can get, thats really essential.

Definitely agree about saving for a holiday - I know I've put my thread to bed, but did you see how I costed out a trip to Liverpool and a 3 day stay in Coventry for various gardening/genealogy doings? Travel and hotel have worked out at £70, truly - I know you've got dd, and you might want to upgrade to Premier Inn rather than Travelodge, but you can still do it.

Lots of hugs, and admiration too :kisses3::coffee::grouphug:

Lula-Hula

Thanks KC,

I know from past experience just how essential it is to get the right strategy in place as quickly as possible & as far as HB is concerned, it is awarded from the first Monday after your claim is registered, so just by ringing up today & having my enquiry recorded, I may have saved some money ... had I waited until Monday, I'd have lost a week's entitlement (if due any, of course).

My sense of timing was spot on for once, & I am extremely glad I decided not to pay a whole month's rent up front. I'd been dithering about it for ages & took the plunge just a week ago. Granted, it was actually for the purposes of getting on with the repayment & I had no clue about work, but sometimes we make the right decision for the wrong reasons & it still works out right.

After a whizz round with the hoover I decided to stock up on more essentials as we're due snow this weekend. So, a quick trip to the co op to get fresh milk, a couple of cartons of the long life stuff, some bread & eggs & a naughty 4 pack of snickers ( diet suspended today due to shock :rotfl:- I know, it's a rubbish excuse, but hey ) & another £5.87 gone.

I've been having a mental run through of areas where I can quickly & easily save money, my thoughts so far & what the benefits are, should things get tight, in no particular order :


1 - cancel home phone :-
not really needed & rarely used for outgoing calls.

2 - cancel window cleaner :-
not a huge saving really about £2 a week but if desperate ...

3 - clean car myself :- :eek:
* shudders & determines things will never get that bad * :rotfl:

4 - go back on pledge, principles & ethics & resume shopping for everything, including clothes & shoes at Tatco :- :eek:
I repeat ... * shudders & determines that things will never get that bad* :rotfl:

5 - cut tv package :-
will incur wrath of DD but can offer cut in pocket money as alternative ...

6- start riding bike to work to save on fuel :-
actually, this one could be a win win win, I lose weight, get fit, save money etc ... but I could very possibly die from exhaustion or exhaust fumes or just getting squished errr maybe not then. Although driving half way (up the hilly bit) & parking in free car park could be an option ...

7 - cancel school cafe lunches & put DD back on packed lunches : - this one makes a lot of sense.

8 - Relinquish lovely childminder & just leave DD at home during holidays :-
I think DD would rather relinquish TV package ...

There are loads of ways I can cut costs & there are many ways that I can increase my income, eg requesting more home-job work for a start (ugh ), looking for more part-time work, odd jobs, learning to ebay, doing more surveys etc...

Even during the darkest days of debt repayment, I never really lived that close to the bone so I reckon that with a bit of effort,cunning & by employing some of the ideas outlined above, I could save/gain £100 a month.

More tea & rock cakes now, don't want to wear my brain out on the first day

Cheery_Daff

H Lula, what a shock - and WELL DONE for all that planning and paying off the CC previously :T :T Your positivity is inspirational - and you're right, it will indeed give you extra time, and I'm sure you will use it wisely! Great that you can look at all the little savings you can make :T :T You just never know what might come out of that other day. Chins up my girl! xx

Karmacat

I'm going to make a confession here ... I've never had a window cleaner

Souk08

Tatco...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Please consider Asda delivering or driving 100's of miles to Aldi or Lidl before you do that lady! And well done on your positivity X

Lula-Hula

Don't you worry Souk,

it'll be a cold day in hell before I drag myself through their doors again :rotfl:.

I'm so well stocked up at the moment, that I really don't need much at all in the way of groceries or household products, & I am going to investigate what other shops / markets are within the area.

I know there used to be a fab Indian grocers in nearby town where an old BF used to get herbs, spices etc ( he was a fan of cooking veggie curries & I've always been a fan of eating something that someone else has cooked ) so I'll be investigating that.

I'm not entirely sure, but I reckon my income will be down by about £250 a month so the logical step is to do a searingly honest budget & sift through what's essential & what's not.

I already have my clothes budget for the year, but was just going to wing it with DD ... now think I may need to do a budget for her stuff too & stick to it.

On a lighter note, I've had a text from Highly Annoying inviting me to have a drink with the boys on Monday afternoon. It would be rude to refuse & I've not spent my pocket money, so I've graciously accepted

Lula-Hula

Poxy vodafone have declined my £40 cashback claim for the iphone :mad:

I am really hacked off as I queried this transaction right at the start, I was reassured that they always track at £1, then the remainder gets put on the following month.

It didn't track the following month, so I queried it & was told claim has been put on hold due to being too early .

Now I've had an email to say the claim has been declined, but no reason given.

Grrrrrrr only another 20 months :rotfl: & then I'll be heading off to giffgaff


On a more positive note though:

whilst I'm getting annoyed that my various requests to be unsubscribed from mailing lists don't seem to be working ...

I did get the offer of a a free full size sample of nice shampoo & conditioner from l'oreal

fedupandskint

After reading about unsubscribing from emails it made me think about unsubscribing from quite a few which I've done for the last week, leaving me now with only a couple a day instead of 20. So reduced temptations now

Sorry to hear about your job - however you sound like you have a very sensible attitude towards this and its inspired me to think about spending more sensibly too.

I did succumb to a rather nice top today 60% off in Debs (in a size 10!). £15.80 from £38 and will look nice on a night out with a pencil skirt or trousers and could be worn during the day so I think I justified it with this and the thought of, if I need a top to go with a skirt what will I get for £15? It's a blouson style in a nice shade of stripey teal and black so will balance out nicely with black heels and opaques. This is my last clothing spend for Feb to keep on track with the clothing budget challenge

Anyway, what I really came on to say was I think I might make some marmalade this weekend if I can summon up some motivation to do it!