A Year of Living Frugabulously

Karmacat

I giggled quite a lot at the thought of Goblin swimming in a swamp

The payments scheme for DDs lunches sounds barmy, tho, very confusing - its giving a balance of hundreds of pounds, but won't let her spend? Sometimes computers really do make more work but I know Lula will conquer all :T:T

vasseur

Karmacat wrote: »

I giggled quite a lot at the thought of Goblin swimming in a swamp

Yhh loved it...you have a great way with words Lula

Lula-Hula

After about a 10 game drought I finally managed to pull together an 11th hour 80 point score which won me the game :j.

Trivial news indeed, but I am an easily pleased creature & my little cup of winningess is brimming with joy

A fairly calm & busy ish week at work. Goblin got a bit above herself at one point ( I think the swamp water gets to her ) & seems to think that she is top of the class when it comes to English, so when she started talking about a 'wall mural', I did rather feel it was necessary to politely point out that the word 'mural' does in fact indicate a wall is involved .

I've been ignoring all paperwork until today & had just got around to changing the council tax standing order to reflect the nasty £20 a month increase ... when a new letter plopped through the letterbox informing me that the amount due is changing again. !!!!!!, I think a tree died just so they can give me all the workings out of how much I need to pay. Just send me an email, a text or a postcard saying how much I have to pay - simple.

I had to do a waitr:)se shop today as needed to drop off a bag for charitizing. There were bargains galore to be had at 8.30 this morning & I came away with the 4 bags crammed full of delicious & fabulous stuff & £66.28 poorer.

I've done my sums ( as I was scared of being rather too close to my £200 a month budget ) as I'm still religiously noting all my spends, & discovered that I have spent £155 on groceries - including kitty munch - & £29on household & general toiletries. So, a total spend ( so far ) of £184 leaving me with just £16.00 for the next 11 days, if I want stay within my budget.

Squeaky, but perfectly doable if I put my mind to it. and there lies the nub of the matter :rotfl:my mind is frequently off doing something far more interesting than putting itself to my grocery budget.

I think I have a bout a 1 in 20 hit rate on this particular financial matter .

Since becoming debt free I have rather been indulging my preference for fairtrade, organic, seasonal & if at all possible, British food. I spent a long time deliberating over the honey section today & while I do love the jars with bees embossed on them & was once slightly obsessed with Australian eucalyptus honey, I ended up buying the organically produced wildflower honey which is made by happy bees on the Yorkshire moors .

Ok, it was definitely not cheap, but one thing I really do enjoy about being debt free is that I now have choices as to how I spend my money . Some people prefer to spend as little of their money as possible on groceries & more of it on other goods or entertainment & just having the pleasure of choosing is worth all the hard work of debt clearing.

No other big financial news at the moment, it will be great to start May with NOTHING left to clear other than DDs camp payment which is covered anyway :j.

Have a great weekend all
xx

vasseur

This is what I am looking forward to when I'm debt free - having choices. Having said that i think my whole attitude to money has changed, even in the last 6 months and whilst my bank account has taken a fair old battering recently in respect of car repairs and fines, I would be a whole lot worse off if I hadn't had my eye on the ball in the first place.

So you go and enjoy your honey from the happy bees and treat yourself all you like to fabulous things for the house - it's what being debt-free is all about.:D

fedupandskint

Good evening Lula, I can confirm that Yorkshire honey is delish.

I have it as I can get a local one and it is quite expensive but it is worth the money as it tastes lovely on porridge in the morning

That's my priority as I cut back on practically everything else to basic level and get stared at for the orange and white packaging. Don't know why as what I take to work is what tastes good to me and not over salted or sugared

Anyway, apart from that I have big chocolate craving this week and have just devoured the last creme egg after a long run today.

Not much else to report apart from really enjoying my new bike. Next trip out will be on Sunday for a pootle around again getting used to it. Hope you're getting out and about on yours and don't leave it unused (tsk tsk!)

Karmacat

There were Waitrose bargains in the morning? Very nice too, I like that

Word mojo :j:j:j

Debt free still :j:j:j

Organic Yorkshire honey :j:j:j

Okay, I confess on that last one - I use whatever variety of standard 10 manuka type honey is available - Chilean honey seems to have a lot of the antibacterial type stuff. I know the food miles are horrendous and I apologise

Loving the chat with the Goblin about the meaning of the word "mural" :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

taxi73

I so wish we had Waitrose here as love their food.It's great to have the choices when debt free.Glad everything sounds hunky dory with you.

LaFolie

Lula-Hula wrote: »

I did rather feel it was necessary to politely point out that the word 'mural' does in fact indicate a wall is involved .

Oh honey, you're a woman after my own heart!
Just de-lurking to say that I have adored reading your diary, and that you seem to have such a healthy approach to the whole 'debt vs. having a life' thing. And also that I hope to still be doing shots with work colleagues in my 30s / 40s

xLF

Lula-Hula

Hello all & a cheery welcome to LaFolie, lovely to see you here :j.

I'm sorry not to be full of exciting news, it's pretty much the same old working, walking & tasking routine here.

We have a new project at work which I'm running so I'm fairly well occupied with that & oblivious to any nonsense.

I've been for daily walks after work each day other than yesterday. Apart from the fact it was lashing with rain, there was a key related incident that just made going for a walk in the rain a step too far.

In short : phone call from Dad to ask if I was at work ? Yes, I am.

Did I have my keys to his house on me ?

*suspicious as to where this is going* Err, no.

He appears to be locked on the wrong side of the front door ...

It will take me a good hour to drive home, collect keys drive to his house, is there a neighbour he can shelter with ?

Neighbour ( with spare key) is out, hence call to me, but he's in car.

*Irritated* Ah, that stupid concept of keeping house & car keys on separate key rings strikes again.

He drives to my work to collect my house key so he can retrieve my spare set to his house & then returns my house keys to me on his way back to his house. He will return my spare set at the weekend.

All sorted then & no harm done ....


I return to my project & 5 minutes later receive puzzled call from home-job driver who cannot get in to my house ???

Dad has double locked my front door with both keys - I neglected to tell him that we only ever use one, driver only has one, we only use second lock when going away.

I have to collect home-work from drivers house in lashing rain.

I am not amused :mad:.


I have still not been out on the bike, the only time it's not raining is when I am engrossed in doing something else, like now. If I even set one foot towards the shed, the clouds will start leaking again. I tried it yesterday; the sun came out, I got my trainers on, headed down the steps & it started raining again. I went & had a half hour yoga session & a bath instead .

No more grocery spends other than £5.89 on bread & milk, but the car was starting to fly round corners on two wheels so I put some more fuel in to act as ballast. That was a mean £47.88 & it had to go on the Custard Coloured CC so come payday, I'll have to pay that straight back.

Funds topped up as follows :

Xmas fund now = £150
Gift fund now = £110

Jasper the Cat £2 coin fund now = £84

Nothing else gone in the Childcare fund yet as it's not imminent & I've been granted the 2 days holiday in June after the double bank hol so I get a tasty 1 days off work but only use 2 of my allowance :j. So, no need for any childcare until August :cool:.

I've upped my personal pocket money allowance to prevent using other funds when I want to buy something & am paying mine & DDs pocket money direct from home-job wages.

Meter reader was round earlier this week so a bill expected anytime soon :eek:.

Will do another update after payday & all the online funds have been shuffled.

Be good all
xx

Karmacat

Hiya! Had to laugh at the concept of using fuel as ballast And I'm really glad to hear you've got a project of your own at work, thats great. Sorry your dad created all that kerfuffle for you tho