Nagme's Diary - getting it under control in 2013

Nagme

Good bits:

1. Got lots and lots of cuddles from 5yr old DS this morning, what a nice way to start the day!
2. Free lunch @ work
3. £200 invoice query sorted, DH's work changed healthcare provider but sent notification letter to wrong address.
4. Free yummy cakes for fayre donated from work rather than me buying ingrediants.
5. Turned boiler temperature down a bit the other day, no-one's noticed; water was so piping hot before.
6. £42 DD was refunded to account

Bad bits:

1. Drove to work, my back was very sore this morning.
2. Payslip was wrong, my missing £120 from previous month is still missing!!

Nagme

Good bits:

1. DH changed his mobile contract from £36/ month to £15.50/ month on a sim only, 12m contract. I can upgrade soon too, but I'm already on £15.50 per month.
2. Printed 2 vouchers for the 50p BP carwash offer
3. Eco washed the whites with a slower spin to finish, and line dried.
4. Just calculated our average monthly fuel usage is £320 this year - not bad!
5. Did free postcode lottery

Bad bits:

1. BP Car wash was out of order.
2. Ate lunch out £12
3. Patio door cill and garage windows so rotten, urgent fix needed, replacements would be £2,000, so looking into wood hardener and filler options.
4. Saw a really nice motorbike which be an excellent birthday present (joking)

Nagme

Dug out an American book on living frugally, I shall be noting what I'm changing here. One suggestion is to enter all outgoings into one of two columns in a notebook - compulsory (eg milk, gas bill) and optional (eg chocolate, sky subscription). Only for the brave!

If anyone fancies a free 2 month subscription to Lovefilm (handy for the summer holiday?) go to lovefilm.com/summer13 and enter code XDAXN7QQR :money:

Good bits:

1. Aluminium foil - will start re-using this, especially DH who uses a foot a day for his sandwiches.
2. Another eco wash with low spin and line drying
3. Redeemed some codes and got 2 free cineworld tickets
4. Listed 3 items for sale on the local facebook page, instead of ebay - they're only low value items and never go for much after someone has to pay postage as well. Less hassle too - I hope they sell!
5. Closed all the blinds, curtains and doors upstairs in the hope that it keeps it a bit cooler. We have an aircon unit but this will be cheaper.
6. Hauled out the vintage sewing machine and repaired the mattress protector that had two rips in it - I reckon its stronger now than a £15 new one would be!
7. Had salad from the garden with my tea.

Bad Bits:
None!

Nagme

Well nothing sold on Facebook, not sure much does in our area.

Got £24.33 back from Argos after querying their interest charge for having a £200 balance 7 days after the interest free period finished. Well it's sort of refunded, it's credited to the card so I shall need to buy something - nothing needed at the moment though.

Nearly bought a cheap gazebo for the garden, then remembered we're still "borrowing" dad's commercial one so that went up last night, it will laugh in the face of any wind, unlike the cheaper ones.

Worked 3 hours yesterday in possibly the hottest kitchen this side of the sahara desert.

Got my missing £120 wages finally sorted and paid.

Got £153 annual cashback from Amex credited to the card - 2 tanks of diesel! :j

Did monthly balances, we have almost £400 more in the bank than 5th of last month but the total on the credit cards has not wavered as Dh bought the bike insurance on Cap1, we're waiting for his expenses to be paid, (oh and I bought a few essential things for myself, DS and 2 garden chairs from Next ). I think I'll go and stick a bit on each to help the downwards curve, £100 on each, which still leaves us £200 up in the offset account.

Today we shall be mainly sitting under the gazebo.

Nagme

Seem to be getting back on track with the debt, thank god. Anti-depressants are up to cope with the back pain, but I'm getting treatment for that and I now understand what's causing the constant pain. If any of the gazzillions of readers out there (LOL) have constant back pain, do get it sorted or at the very least take up pilates.
Had to replace the mattress yesterday, the old one was like a mountain range it was so bumpy. Negotiated a free mattress protector, free 10 year warranty and brought it home in the car, saving us the delivery charge.

Went to the cinema this morning for free, courtesy of some free tickets!

Made DS a flannel wash mitt for the shower out of his old towelling poncho, 2 birthday cards (5 year olds' drawings are great!), exfoliated legs with coffee granules in the shower.

Unfortunately DS has been watching some of my frugal ways and watered down the shower gel and the hand wash so much it had to be recycled into the soapy water bug spray bottle for the plants. Bless him.

Nagme

Well, the holiday was good value for money, DS loved it, but not sure we'll do it again, the caravan was in dire need of a deep clean and the whole place was quite tatty round the edges. We came home a day early so that we could get a good night's sleep.

We gave DS some 2p's for the arcade machines and after a while he twigged that he was losing money and refused to spend any more, instead he started checking the machines for coins - very pleased that lesson worked!

I finished my 2" thick Tightwad Gazette though, what an inspiring book. Living off 54% of an income of $33k with 6 children, very extreme but loads of tips.

Today I need to do a bit of batch cooking, I have a bendy courgette that keeps staring at me every time I open the fridge

Nagme

Olive oil 4 tblsp 0.09
2 medium onions 0.36
carton of passata 0.79
value passata 0.29
one courgette 0.31
4 carrots 0.23
2 vegetable stock cubes 0.50
dried basil 0.02
dried oregano 0.02
teaspoon garlic powder 0.02
balsamic vinegar 0.03
brown sugar 0.03

(DS and DH hate mushrooms)

Total: £2.69
This made 10 portions, therefore it costs approx 27p per portion (not including gas to cook)

So, I would need to find a readymade jar that is 81p or less to be cheaper. Tesco has a value one, 440g for 39p, but it contains 13% of an adults RDA of salt in quarter of a jar's worth. Is that high? Might check out the ingrediants at some point, but I do prefer to feed us the HM version.

If I used 2 cartons of the value passata the cost per portion would have been 22p, so 3x22p=66p per meal.

DS still hasn't started on the 94p a box value weetabix, He's eeking out the expensive branded £2.69 chocolate ones and punching the value box in disgust (he's 5)

Nagme

Took myself back down to the lower does of a-d's as I kept falling asleep and the back pain was the same. If I can get prescriptions for 40mg still though, this would mean I could get more days worth for my money as I can cut the pills in half to get 30mg.

The new mattress (£349 on capital one ) has thankfully resulted in much improved quality of sleep, I don't wake up in pain every time I move in my sleep any more. Must clear that this month.

Nagme

Moved our mobile contracts to Tesco, after we had a fraud problem with Vodafone which they failed to resolve satisfactorily. My tariff is £7.50 a month and I'm having DH's old phone, he's having a new phone and his tariff is £30. Not great, but not too bad, £37.50 per month for the two of us. Plus, the coverage is better in our area with 02 than vodafone.

Having a lovely NSD at home, with a chilli con carne in the slow cooker.

Well. It might be a NSD, if I don't win anything on ebay.

Nagme

Well I did win something - a pair of snowboots for DS for £2.20! Wow I'm so organised sometimes. His winter coat still fits him, and I have all his uniform so it's just school shoes we need.

Today I also bought my first item for the (shhhh, Xmas) present stash, a Yankee candle in Clintons reduced by 50%, mum loves them.

Harvested some tomatoes, so I'll wash them and chuck them in the freezer for now - good for sauce.

Actually, it's not been a good MS weekend as I bought some clothes (sale, all needed but still cost money) and a steam cleaner (reduced, but still paid £59 for it), plus a tank of diesel £61. I think I'll ask for vouchers for my birthday and the I can use them to pay for the clothes. Everyone moans that I'm difficult to buy for anyway!

Sold 1 pair of trousers and 1 pair of trainers, so I now have enough funds to withdraw the money in my PP account for free.

Need to do some refocussing this week.

Oh gawd and I also bought a climbing hydrangea last week, reduced but still £22.50 :doh:It is just what the north facing plain back of the house needs though , although I now need soil and a large planter :doh:.......

I'm so rubbish at all this.