Vala's frugal journey to be MF!!

Vala-Mal-Doran

Hello all (or is it just me?)

Unfortunately not a nsd today - went for a swim on my lunch break at our leisure centre today - £4.30!! :eek: since when was it that expensive? I used to go a lot but thats when it was a membership and it was technically 'free'. I have toyed with the idea of going back on membership so I can go to the gym/swim when its too hot in the house to do my circuit training dvds. At £28 even if I just go swimming and and a half(!) times a week im a winner and I used to go 2/3 times. Its something for me to think about anywho.

xx

Vala-Mal-Doran

Evening all,

Had an interesting week this week. Meeting with the mortgage advisor at the bank who was actually lovely and spoke to her about getting a fixed rate etc and how I really want to keep overpaying and she was all for that and we talked about getting a better rate depending how much of your mortgage we had paid off eg-different rate for 90% left than if only 80% left. I turned out to be 88.5% and that meant if i fixed now id be paying more but if I got down to 83% (hinted by the mortgage lady) I could get a lower fixed rate than im currently on. SO I go home happy as larry that we only have to shift 5.5% of the mortgage - then I work out how much 5.5% is!!:eek: So that is our new long term goal to work towards, fingers crossed the rates stay as they are for a good 18 months or so and we might be in with a chance!

Had grumbles with my energy supplier in my earlier posts but this morning I couldnt sleep so got online and managed to switch tarrifs taking us back down to £65 a month (only £1 extra than before) and its fixed until sept 2014!:T Whilst that probably wont be an o/p as we are still technically spending more not less, I am still chuffed I have managed to stop more money leaving our a/c than necessary!
Did mention to OH that without me he'd be paying whatever people asked!

Also bought ourselves one of Mr T's own brand squeegy mops but they overcharged us by £1 so I went back to the CS desk to get it back. OH tells me he wouldnt have bothered - :mad: - he's still got a way to go!

Got a 58p price guarantee voucher to use on this weeks shop so that will be going as an o/p

V xx

Vala-Mal-Doran

Hello all!

Have been food shopping today and I had 2 instinct coffee vouchers for £1 each which i nearly threw away but took them shopping and found the little boxes of 10 sachets for £1 each so grabbed a couple of those - not sure if it was really meant for them but it confused the cashier enough to give them to me so 20 sachets for free for me! Just got to find that third coupon now and head back - watch it not work this time! haha!

I also had one of those price guarantee vouchers for 58p so thats my o/p for today.

I am heading to the lakes for a rather expensive - but hopefully jam packed - hen do in a cottage somewhere. It is from lunchtime today until Monday afternoon. Its also ant and dec themed as we need to do a choreographed dance to 'Lets get ready to rumble....dont laugh..but I have saved a bit by raiding OH's wardrobe for outfits instead of buying new stuff - although his clothes arnt very baggy on me :rotfl: I just cant justify spending on baggy clothes that will be worn for one evening!

xx

Vala-Mal-Doran

Ooh - also I made sure to get one of those body shop hampers from the mse email - thats my sis in law sorted for her birthday! Which should stop OH buying excessively at he last minute which is his usual present tactic!!
x

Vala-Mal-Doran

Evening all,

Made an the regulay op today and a tilly tidy of 54p!

Updated my new mortgage spreadsheet too, I literally couldnt wait to get home to fill it in - it took all of 2 seconds but then spent the next ten minutes putting pretend op's up until christmas. Really should stop doing that just incase I forget to take one out and get my hopes up! :eek:

Dont laugh but I have been lurking on the 'preparing for winter' thread, in this heat it sounds ridiculous but it does make me appreciate the warmer weather - I mean at times like tonight when I cant seem to cool down and am constantly sticking to the sofa!!:rotfl:

Vala-Mal-Doran

Hows everyones weekend going?

I spent a lovely day in the garden yesterday - saving my blueberry tree which apparently needed some ericaceous compost to stop it dying, so a trip to diy store and of course they only had the huge bags for £6 but at least it should save my plant - it was too expensive to let it die and I do love me some blueberries so it was a bit of an investment!

I also potted up my planter with my random herb pots that have been laying around, im hoping some of my salad is going to come up although its a little late in the year to be sowing it.

I have spent the morning tidying out one of my 'stuff' drawers - the one with all of the electronic manuals in - how do we end up with so many? I swear the paper fairies come in when im not looking!

Got my £1.88 Mr A turkey leg in the slow cooker for tonights tea - made the mistake of picking a nice big one...which I then couldnt fit in the slow cooker :eek: So I have spent a good half and hour trying to saw through the bone to get it to fit in, its just ended up a bit mangled and the lid is almost sealed shut - I may just have to plonk something ontop of it to keep it shut It will be nice when its done tho I was so determined not to use the gas oven since seeing just how much more expensive gas is compared to electric!
:eek:

Vala-Mal-Doran

Not much to report as of late, no spending means no tilly tidy pennies to over pay

But listening to the radio this morning the man (some finance guy) seemed positive that rates wernt going to go up for the next 3 years or so - which prompted OH to say "that's good so we can really concentrate on paying the mortgage off" - I was so proud ...although I was also wondering what he thought we have been doing for the past year or so!?!

I have been trying to cut down on our Gas and electric usage recently. I have been charging my phone using our usb point at work and only topping it up at home.
We have no spare plugs at work however the lady next to me is part time and I am tempted to use her plugs to charge my new (new to me) tablet computer as im sure thats going to suck the electric in no end! I will have to sneak it in and try tomoro.
It seems a palava to OH but Im sure every little helps right

Does anyone else do this??

VICSH

Morning that's for your post on my diary, just read yours from the start to now your wedding sounds fabulous it seems so long ago since do and I got married (dec2011) but we did it all ourselves and it was a really frugal affair but everyone commented on how good it was goes to show not about what you spend!

What circuit training are you doing? I was jillian michaels biggest fan until I fell pregnant and now I do a ante natal workout when I get the time!

Also what slow cooker do you have? I definitely want to look at using one of these I have said every year I will get one but still haven't but think it maybe this year to get one!

Vala-Mal-Doran

Hi VICSH

Jillian Michaels all the way- I must have 4 dvds now - admittedly Iv only worked through 2 of them, im too scared to open the others incase she comes out and shouts at me for being a wimp!! haha!

My slow cooker is Mr T's own brand one, i think it was about £15 a few years ago. i was a bit unsure at first but once I learned you could cook meat in it without browning or anything first I was hooked - I try and use it once a week if I can. There are a lot of experiments in it - not all of which work :rotfl: I am trying risotto in it next week!

Its so true about the wedding frugality - so many people commented on how lovely all the personalised things were which we hand made for very few pennies.

For today -

Charging the tablet thingy at work - only to google costs and found that they cost about £1.70 to charge per YEAR - as opposed to pc's which cost 10 times more than that!? So I may as well charge it at home for what its worth - Id rather pay the £1.70 than carry an expensive thing like that around!
I also charged my phone at work but thats normal for me anyway!

Weekly food shop today - we usually average around £35-£40 a week for the two of us for food and cleaning products and toilet rolls etc, does this sound about right? Im looking at cutting down where I can all the time but I wont budge on eating 'real' food and getting our vegetables in where I can. I tried looking at the grocery budget challenge earlier but its hard to work out whats 'normal' without knoing peoples circumstances!

VMD

Vala-Mal-Doran

Lovley day out at Cheshire food festival today, £4 entry and quite a few nibbles to try. I bought a cake and OH bought some olives - I swear we buy the same kind of thing every time we go to anything like this but im a sucker for homemade cakes! They were our only purchases there tho as I talked myself out of buying the chutneys and jams-id feel more guilty at paying £4 a jar than getting pleasure from eating it! :eek:

We also went into the nearby town where I treated myself again on a charity shop travel book and we peered inside a McLaren shop window ......£233,500.00 for a car!?!?! :eek: thats more than double my mortgage, who in their right mind would buy one?? Puts my charity shop splurge into perspective a bit

Have gratefully received some knitting needles from my nan this week and along with some spare wool from my mum and a little help from youtube I have managed to learn to knit a few rows of knit stitch :j I may move onto pearls and all that next weekend. Im hoping to knit enough square(ish) shapes to get a blanket together for winter! Then im hoping to replicate some woolen cushion covers I saw in Mr A earlier this year...small steps first tho :rotfl: