A Year of Living Frugabulously

Lula-Hula

Hello, hello,

just popping in for a very quick update :

Had to top up with fuel on Saturday - £34.61 so my total fuel costs for the year so far = £247.33. I'm very pleased with that as it averages out at about £12.30 a week which is pretty cheap

Had a lovely weekend; went over to Windsor Park on Saturday & tried to be sneaky with the parking - it was £5 & I thought that by spending in the shop, I'd get free parking ... so I bought a fab bag for DD & some giant marshmallow cookies & it came to about £22 so I paid & asked if I'd get a discount on the parking ...

& was told that you only get free parking if you spend £50 in the shop :eek: I gulped, while DD muttered that it wouldn't be difficult considering the prices :silenced:.

Mental note to just suck up the parking charge next time & completely avoid the shop - it's cheaper :rotfl:

Sunday we went off to meet some friends & had a lovely time chatting, wandering, eating & other grown up activities. Had a pub lunch & was too tired to cook when I got home so snuck off to the co op & spent a mischievous £9.21 meaning that my grocery spends are now at £81.20 or something very similar.

A winning combination of Quidco & CB means that the Holiday Fudn has been boosted back up to £556.00 after having lost £130 to the guide camp fund.

I've been checking the cost of flights to where a rellie lives as I'm suddenly keen to get some guaranteed sun. For the both of us, the cheapest I can find during the summer hols is £492 ... my sister is going at the end of this month & will be paying about £100 - this is the penalty for having chiddlers.

"You may not go on lovely sunny holidays unless you are very good at saving, you are instead condemned to a week in a soggy tent with shared facilities as your 'holiday"

*shudders*

It is entirely possible that my tent may never again see the light of day :rotfl:.

I've only another 2 CB payment before August & even that will only get me to £700 & as we'll need at least £200 spending money + another £49 for renewing DDs passport ... I can't see us having a holiday abroad this year without dipping in to the E.R.F :eek:. And that ain't gonna happen

No, my tent does not speak French & is in fact agoraphobic ( but shh - because it's obviously rather embarassed about it ) so I can't take it across the Manche as a slightly sunnier alternative to a British field.

The Cornish cottage holiday last year was pretty fab, but the rental cost was more than flights so that's not an option either, at the moment. Maybe a last minute all inclusive deal will appear

Hmmmmm I do need to think some more about other options though, preferably ones that don't include using the CC.

Right, gotta go - there's a loaf in the oven - not bought bread for over 2 weeks now & I need a bath.

bye for now
xx

Lula-Hula

Eeeek 10 days is a long time for my little diary to be left to its own devices.

I've had a busy couple of weeks; had a fab day out with DD roaming around Windsor Park & admiring rhododendrons & azaleas.

The next day I met up with some fabby friends & we did a bit of gentle walking, pub lunching & chatting.

Did a full week at work & have also been doing a fair bit of catching up with family. Unsurprisingly this took a toll on the fuel budget; whereas I usually do about 70 miles in a week commuting & puttering about, I did 294 in 10 days :eek:.

I've been very good with money otherwise & am still within my grocery/household/catfood budget, just !

Groceries = £151.55
Household / Toiletries = £38.12

I'm still using cash but always make sure I have my pocket money with me too, in case I go over .

Still spending too much & really wish I could grow everything fruit & veg wise.

The carrots & parsnips were doing great - really flourishing, last night I thought there were some missing, but it was getting dark so thought I was mistaken.

This morning when I went outside I had a really good look & there is not a single parsnip to be seen .

Nor is there a single carrot to be seen - & they were in one of my lovely wicker containers.

I was gutted that they'd succumbed to either over or underwatering & was a bit mystified as I'd been really vigilant.

Then ... in the corner of the container I spotted a very fat, smug looking snail :mad::rotfl:

I swear if snails could lie on their back with their antennae tucked behind their heads in a perfectly relaxed & contented pose, then that's exactly what that one would be doing.

I hurled him over the fence to live with the sheep.

I may well give up trying to grow veg, if they can climb up & into containers, then I have no chance .

Anyway,

the funds are flourishing :

Xmas Fund = £190
Gift Fund = £120
Childcare Fund = £120
£2 coin Fund = £ 94

And that's not all :

*drum roll & fanfare please *

AFTER 3 YEARS, I HAVE FINALLY ACHIEVED ENOUGH POINTS FOR A YOUGOV PAYOUT :j:D:j

£50 is on it's way to my bank account ( quite why it will take up to 4 weeks to do the transfer I don't know) & the minute it's in there, I'll be waving goodbye.

I need another 30 points to reach £10 payout with ipsos & then I'm leaving that one too.

I'm done with surveys, the debts are cleared & while I was ploughing on with that, I was happy to spend my time doing them to earn points to spend on things so all cash could go on debt repayment.

Not any more though .
I'd rather free up that time to hurl snails over the fence, & drink Gordons

I have earned enough by shopping in Sainsbugs to convert to a £20 amazon voucher, so that's what I did - it'll pay for some of the books on my 'waiting to be released' list :T.

I'm in the process of decluttering my clothes, shoes & bags stash & doing mountains of laundry & de-weeding all at the same time.

All the pillows have been washed so they'll be lovely & fresh when I remake the beds tonight .

I love this weather & my general mood & cheeriness has improved 100 %.

Right, best get the next load hung out & then come up with a plan to grow stuff that snails & slugs don't like :rotfl:

fedupandskint

Nice to see you back around again. Happy weekend.

I too have had a very productive day of lots of cleaning, usual grocery shopping and walking and also made it out for a run now I've recovered from the nasty virus that sidelined me for the last 4 weeks. Feel back to normal again at long last and full of sparkling energy for the weekend!

Cheery_Daff

Lula, I made a discovery today which may dismay you. There I was sitting on my little sunny terrace having a cuppa with a friend, watching the blue tits fly in and out of the nest box, when what did I spy?? Yep, that's right, glistening in pretty patterns - SLUG TRAILS - all the way up to the roof of the house!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Lula-Hula

Oh my word :eek:

I cannot believe that Cheery

Ironic really, as I've spent the rest of the day covering over the parsnip patch with cardboard, and creating a very cunning new growing system that I was hoping would deter all things slimy.

The beloved pink bench is past it's best, very rickety & unpredictable for sitting on but ... the two wicker planters fit perfectly side by side on the top. It was a bit of an effort as I had to empty them to lift them on to the table & then refill them, before sowing more carrot & salad seeds.

The actual seat part will probably fit a few pots on so I can put the peppers & any other things that deigns to grow.

Well, that was the plan, but hearing that slimers are also climbers, I might just give up & grow flowers & trees instead. I'm lucky with trees, always having to remove wannabe oaks & chestnuts from borders :rotfl:

RosaBernicia

Just get organic slug pellets for around your seedlings. The little ****ers are only at their worst for a few weeks until things get too dry for them - well assuming we get a summer, that is.

Or you could adopt a hedgehog


Rosa xx

taxi73

crap about the slugs but looks like you had a great 10 days x

Lula-Hula

Good morning,

time for another finance round up & the first thing that strikes me is that the grocery / household spends are creeping up again.

I did a shop yesterday & although the stuff will be used in June, it was actually bought with May money and the total is a whopping £240.82.

April was slightly worse at £255.14 & having checked back over the year so far, it seems we've had a few 5 week months butI still need to cut this down and as June is pretty much a 4 week month, I'm going to try really, really hard to stay about the £200 mark ...

First of the month so the payday shuffle has already occurred and all the funds have been topped up again :

Gas & Electricity = £360
Car Tax = £10 ( just bought a year's worth)
Car Insurance = £200
Car Maintenance = £260

Holiday Fund = £564.43

Xmas = £200
Childcare = £140
Gifts = £120

Jasper the Cat £2 coin pot = £102

I only need another £40 in the childcare pot & that should see me through the summer hols. I've taken the next week off & as DD turns 13 :eek: in October, if I'm still working short hours then I might well feel comfortable enough to leave her at home by then. It's not that costly, but it would be great to be able to put that money aside each week for something else.

So, I have another 9 days off & frankly I need it to get my house & garden in order.

I spent a fair bit of time & money last weekend trying to replace all the damaged veg. The combination of too many trees & roots + slugs, snails & cats has pretty much confirmed that container growing is the way forward for me. The salad leaves are coming through & so far all the pepper plants look great; not sure if any fruit will appear, but they're might healthy looking plants :rotfl:.

I've got tomato plants for the first time in years & also plopped an avocado stone in a pot, just to see if anything happens

I'm hoping to find a contract phone for DD with fabby cashback deals so off to have a nose at what's out there

taxi73

I'm with you on trying to reign in the grocery budget but it's so hard as everything keeps jumping up in price..we can but try though.
Am sure DD will be sensible enough at 13 to be left and it'll at least be worth a try.
Hope you manage to have a lovely time off work and have plenty of fun and get everything done that you want to.xxx

fedupandskint

Morning!

Tell me about it with the price of everything. I try hard to not to overspend on groceries but each time I pay its more than I expected due to the price of everything.

Have a lovely weekend. I'm off to visit mum today and get fabbed up in a long maxi skirt and sandals if I'm brave enough and the weather doesn't change.

What else - exercise is going well now I feel much better, diet a bit up and down and have had a lovely summer shorter haircut. My clothes budget is totally maxxed out due to the weight loss and not many summer clothes fitted anymore. I've been careful to buy things that last and aren't too much of a flash in the pan fashion wise.

Enjoy tht Jubilee and whatever it brings - peace and quiet and relaxation or frensied fun!