Jazee's Diary

Jazee

A couple of firsts to report. I have squirrelled away my first £5 to my mortgage deposit fund which has a balance of £6.07 as I've put it in an account not used for a while. It will do for now until I build up a pot and want a better interest rate, ie when I can be bothered.

And I went to an Indian restaurant for the first time ever last night. I've only ever had curry at home, which are very nice, but the restaurant meal was delicious. Money saving night out too as we used our tastecard.

Tonight we are going to the cinema with free tickets although will probably pick up a take away on the way home.

Jazee

Ok, well best laid plans and all that. We're not going out tonight now as DH has too much work on (not that that's a bad thing) so I've cancelled the free tickets. My head was set on having a takeaway, so we still will, chinese methinks.

Also, I asked DS what he wants for his birthday and he asked for his rail fare to be paid for a trip he's going on. So I sorted that today to keep it as cheap as possible, but his birthday present was going to come out of next month's pay, so I may now not be able to do the £5 a day to the mortgage pot.

And I realised that I only do internet banking on weekdays, but if I do keep saving the £5 it could still add up to £100 for each pay day period.

Onwards and upwards!

Jazee

Mmm, well, on the plus side today has been a NSD. The fact that this has only occurred as I was on calls when the window cleaners came round is just coincidental. I'll have to pay them for two months next month. And I squirrelled another £5 to the mortgage fund.

On a negative note, we did get chinese takeaway last night. As soon as I handed over the cash I regretted my laziness to be honest. Also as they only take cash, I had to borrow £5 from my coppers pot, although the takeaway is coming out of my GC budget and I will put it back.

DH home now, so here's to a nice evening and weekend.

ionafan

Sorry I've been MIA for a couple of weeks, jazee. Still thinking of you and willing you to do well - and I think it's working.

Big congratulations on your August results, and on all you've done so far this month. I like your idea of a squirrel fund. Would you like some of the little critters from my garden to add to it? They eat all the birds' food and are already checking the bird table daily to see if I've started feeding my feathered friends yet. We are next to oak woodland and only a couple of hundred yards from open fields, so I don't put bird food out in the summer: the birds disappear for a couple of months once the babies have fledged and return when the weather starts getting colder.

Did you ever get the £10 from the rail ticket booking voucher?

I put a pair of shoes up for sale on eBay last week (my first-ever eBay attempt) but haven't had any bids or even watchers: just 10 people have looked at them. One day to go to the end of the auction and I am not holding my breath! But I will put them on again, and I keep finding lots of things that I can sell. Some of them are quite specialist, and some might have to be "collect only" as they are quite big to post, such as a sack of play balls to use in a child's paddling pool; also some are not particularly good for the autumn/winter season (e.g. the play balls - although my DGD had hers in a big shallow box in the playpen when she was little). One or two china objects might be better sold by a local auctioneer, as I wouldn't want to post them. All proceeds to the next grandchild's "Welcome to the World" fund: he/she is due in March.

Jazee

Ionafan, thankyou for all your support. I really do need it. With regards to the birds, what do you put out for them in the winter? I sometimes buy birdseed from the pet shop and put out bread, but I'm sure there are other things that are more suitable.

No I wasn't one of the lucky ones with the £10 rail voucher but that site is amazing, definitely the cheapest one I've found yet.

Good luck with the eBay sales. And how exciting, another grandchild!

Anyway, where do I begin today? I've been shopping with DH and in addition to food shop we also bought:

New keyboard for computer (essential as the other one was 8 years old and packed up last night)
New printer ink (essential as we have lots of presentation paperwork to print off for DHs new job on Monday and don't want it to run out)
New hose for shower (as detailed in previous posts, at least downstairs will now be dry! Also, money saving in the long run as showers are cheaper than baths)

New freezer: Now this isn't essential and is a fairly big initial expense but I only have a tiny fridge/freezer and I want to be able to buy offers in the shops knowing I've got room to freeze them, and to be able to bulk cook meals and freeze some, so hopefully, in the long run, this will pay for itself.

The long and the short of all this means that I'll have to rein in my grocery spend to £65 next week if I'm to stay within target, but I have repaid the £5 borrowed from the coppers pot and have put the window cleaners money to one side. If I underspend on some of the other budgeted items this month, I may still be able to squirrel money into the mortgage fund.

That's it for now. I need to get some fresh air.

Jazee

Hello diary. Well what to report?

DH very excited about new job, payrise to be confirmed. In the past I would have thought, ooh what can I spend the extra on, but now I think how much to save/clear debts, so that's a turnaround.

I got a very small dividend from some shares so every little helps.

We didn't need to use the printer ink, but at least its there now when the current one does run out.

I have squirrelled away £25 over the last few days to the mortgage fund but am having to put a hold to that for now as rest of budget is a bit tight.

Today I have already marked up as a NSD although I am running of milk. I will manage till tomorrow as I will have toast for breakfast and I have some powdered milk if I do run out.

The new freezer already has some reduced mince in it, and I've started cooking meals for 4 even when there's only 2 of us and freezing the other portions.

Ramble over.

ionafan

Jazee wrote: »

DH very excited about new job, payrise to be confirmed. In the past I would have thought, ooh what can I spend the extra on, but now I think how much to save/clear debts, so that's a turnaround.

Glad to hear your DH is enjoying his new job. Mine is definitely not enjoying his, and the BD has returned this week despite his medication - he has been very hard to live with...

You certainly have made quite a turnaround: well done, and keep it up. As you say, every little helps.

You asked about bird food. I have become more selective about what I buy: the very cheap mixed bird food tends to contain a lot of dust and broken dog biscuit or similar - those pink bits! - which, as far as I can see, the birds ignore. Instead I buy the square blocks of fat with insects/mealworms: usually from Wilko, but occasionally somewhere else has them cheaper (a couple of weeks ago our posh local garden centre had a special offer which brought a multipack down a long way below Wilko's price), and the woodpeckers and robins love these. Peanuts for the great, blue and coal tits (and the squirrels like them too :mad:) and sunflower seeds - preferably home grown - for the finches. All the birds love mealworms, and the squirrels ignore these - but they are expensive and I keep them for the coldest weather and early spring. The fat balls are appreciated, but I buy squirrel-resistant feeders as they can I tend to use hanging feeders suitable for different birds, rather than a table which the dreaded wood pigeons can land on, and I don't throw food on the ground except for a few mealworms in the flower border for the dunnocks who are solely ground feeders.

I also put out scraps of fat (but not bacon, because it's salty) and any apple or pear cores - the blackbirds seem to like these. You can save your fat in a small bowl and put it out as one bigger lump, if you prefer. Don't put bones out. We have very little food waste in our house: all the veg peelings go in our compost bin and eventually improve the garden soil (heavy clay in places) and I throw almost nothing else away except bones - after boiling them up for stock, of course. Our city council is introducing a new food waste collection service in October - a complete waste of time, as far as I am concerned!

It is not cheap buying the amount of bird food we get through - the woodland population is a large one! - but the birds (and even the squirrel raiders) give us enormous pleasure and can be relied upon to get conversation started at mealtimes even when the BD is at its worst. I get almost everything in bulk and am careful not to over-feed, particularly in wet weather when the seed rots. I also ask for bulk packs of bird food for Christmas presents, as we are at the stage of our lives where we are thinking of downsizing and I don't want more gibble for the house.

As a bonus from the birds, this autumn we have a lovely display of small sunflowers under the wall bracket where the feeder hangs outside the French doors of my study, where they had dropped a few seeds

Here is one of our squirrels with his head in the peanut feeder. He had managed to get the lid off because it's not a tight enough fit.

Jazee

Ionafan, that is one happy squirrel! Added to my shopping list for big shop next month now is bird fat blocks. Sorry to hear about your DH, BD is awful. It's good though that you have the conversation starter, everyone should have a neutral conversation starter. Ours is our dogs.

I have just woken from a quick nap as I excelled myself with five hours constant flying. We went to a wedding yesterday which was a long way away and I think that the travelling and revelry caught up with me too.

Budget wise, we kept to our 'wedding' budget even though we had to cover petrol, drinks and bought a takeaway when we got home really late, so I'm pleased about that. Today's weekly shop came in well under budget too so still on target there.

DH and I did discuss making our mortgage pot fund a wedding saving fund instead after seeing all the beautiful celebrations yesterday, but in the cold light of day today, have decided instead to tell DD and DS that they are banned from getting married or having children, as we really want to buy a house!!

DD told me to expect a text from DS asking for a loan to buy a computer game, I don't think so....he'll have to learn the hard way to wait till pay day or save.

Have had some waste this week, just some grapes that DD asked me to buy but didn't eat and a little bit of celery.

Anyway, this week, I intent to squirrel away a little bit more to the mortgage pot and try to have some NSDs.

Jazee

So today, I squirrelled away another fiver to the mortgage pot and have had a NSD so all good there.

The day generally has been pants. Started with the dog being sick, lots of silly computer problems at the paid stuff, and as it has been tipping it down all day, I've not been able to get out with the dogs which is what keeps me sane.

MSE-wise, I deleted yet another email asking for sponsorship. Really tight I know, but am intending to give my time rather than my money to charitable things from now on.

I must put some time aside to compare pet insurance for my littley dog, but for now I'm going to make a cuppa, do some puzzles and read my kindle before DH gets in from work.

Jazee

I still haven't escaped the house with the dogs because it just keeps on raining and raining. How miserable.

On a positive note, another £5 in the mortgage pot today and another NSD.

I also did pet insurance comparison for littley dog today and will not be renewing with current insurer as I can get better cover a little cheaper elsewhere. So I've signed up for that and should get a meerkat too which I've heard can sell quite easily on eBay.

I also looked at prices for my other
dogs. They are so old I thought I wouldn't be able to get cover elsewhere, so just keep renewing but if I change insurer I can probably save about £30 a month. However, I only renewed in June and pay monthly so I'm not sure if there will be a penalty for cancelling early. Only one way to find out, so I'll make those calls later in the week.