2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Shortie

Well, productive day so far - all thanks to Mr Shortie - woo hoo!

We sat down together and went through both of our finances (we have seperate current accounts) and drew up a budget for him as he didn't really have one before, it was all just 'ticking along' as it were. So he's now got 2 eSavings accounts to pay for bigger adhoc costs that he has and he's set up a direct debit into each one so that it's automatically now saving for these bigger items. We've also worked out roughly how much he will have spare each month and he's aiming to save £100 a month (or more if poss) to put towards our building works saving pot - woo hoo!!

we've agreed to try and be more sensible with other things too - eg petrol - to work out multiple tasks in one journey and not just hop in the car whenever we think about something that needs doing. If we can save anything on the petrol in any given month, that will go into savings too. Also, I hope he'll be more onboard to help keep the electricity costs down too by turning things off when they're not in use.

Part of me thinks that by us both sitting down yesterday and looking at actual numbers on a spread sheet helped him to realise where I've been coming from the last few months, instead of it sounding like I'm just nagging. Plus, now he knows where we're at and how far we have to go to get the money for the building work, I'm hoping too that he'll kick me a kick up the rear if he thinks I'm needlessly spending too

So, with renewed vigor, Mr Shortie has today
- saved us a nice little pile on our phone bill. We're with BT and out of contract so he called up to see if we could get anything cheaper (we're in a very rurall area so not everyone covers phone and broadband) and they suggested paying the line rental upfront to save money and put us ona cheaper package that gives us the same bits we need, plus a newer faster home hub box. So that's £25 a month now clawed back that we can put into savings
- He contacted the council to see if the council tax can be reduced as DS1 is registered disabled. They're going to send him a form to fill out and see if we will get a reduction
- He checked the price of skip hire as we still have lots of garden clearance to do and while we have the skip we'll sort out our loft and sheds. So we're going to work out when is best to have that as the company leave it for a week. We're thinking mid next week to give us time to sort out the loft and as much as we can of the garden, and then we'll have a weekend to scrabble around to put any other bits in the skip that we didn't see in the run up. Hiring a skip isn't a saving, per say, but the wear and tear on the car, the petrol, it's a 1 hr round trip for us so it's saving time, we're not planning our day around when the tip opens and closes (and over the bank holiday to get there and find the wood bin was completely full so we had to bring the car load back with us and dump it in our front garden as we needed the boot the next day for other things....)

Right, waffle over. off to do a quick search of joint savings accounts and I then have to get back to work!

sparrer

Got up raring to go this morning, mowed the lawn, posted a parcel, made two important phone calls - one which saved me £6 a month - shopped with DD, bought coffee, tea etc for my fellowship meetings for the month in @ldi, £22 as opposed to the usual £40 in morries, bought stamps in Superdrug as their 5% offer is back on, bought 241 rf cheese in @sda and a couple of essentials in the £shop.

Then bang!!! Got home to a letter from my new power company to say the bill they sent me a couple of weeks ago wasn't a mistake - I owe them £48 which is fair as it's been the Winter quarter but they're putting my dd up by £33 a month! Haven't got the energy to argue with them again, I just want to go back to my old provider who never made mistakes. I was quoted a good price via the MSE energy club so went for it, not at all their fault I know but I feel badly let down by the provider . I went to them as they offered a fixed price for 4 years (and there's a £30 cashback incentive if I stay 3 months but they can keep their £30). Fortunately I'm not tied in to a contract so I'm going to change back.

Please make sure you're doing the right thing before you switch, don't be taken in by their offers as they may not always be the best.

Never mind, the sun is trying and I'll have a nice evening with friends. Every cloud and all that...

amber03

Well done on getting Mr Shortie on board, perhaps a monthly meeting may keep him on track. When my friend got married her husband was rubbish with money, overdrawn ,CC's the usual. On the other hand my friend is great with money, over time she got him on board, and now he is fantastic, knows every account and rate going, he loves making money and saving it, spending any very cautiously.

Well done on the deals he got.xx

Shortie

Thanks amber03 xx

Though the budget-teaching backfired on me the other month when I was busting for a kebab one evening and suggested it to Mr Shortie who completely surpised me by pointing out that the money we would spend could pay for some electric sockets or a light fitting in the new kitchen (if we can ever afford the building work, lol). I nearly fell over in shock at his reply (and tried to hide my grumps at not being 'allowed' my take-out :-P)

alja

Hope everyone is having a great day

NSD here for me, which is good! I've just done a few surveys and currently doing a few things on sw*gbucks.

Just got an email from Bo*ts saying I have over £9.00 in adv*ntage points to use. I'm wondering whether to use this on their own brand sun cream range when my holiday comes along. Has anyone tried their range and liked it? Or could recommend another maybe cheaper brand of sun cream I could buy?

DawnW

Evening everyone :j
Not a NSD (I seem to get very few of those atm ) as I had to pay OH's tax disc for his truck AND it had gone up since the renewal form was issued I only did it for 6 months this time, in the hope that he might sell it in the near future.

Apart from that, only the train fare to w*rk but that is unavoidable.

Took lunch and fruit to work with me

Managed to pick up a free paper on the train this morning, to read on the journey home (helps to avoid the temptation of the magazine booth at the station)

The nematodes I ordered to kill slugs and vine weevils in the garden have arrived in the post, and are now safely in the fridge. I will water them on at the weekend hopefully, to protect my plants Oops sorry if that puts anyone off their tea, but it just looks like some powder stuff, well sealed in a plastic tray. Not like years ago when DS used to try to sneak his fishing maggots into the fridge :eek: :rotfl:

The postie also bought a garbled letter from H*lifax, about OH's ISA. I attempted the easy, one would have thought, task, of transferring the not very big balance of one that he has had with them for several years, to another one, still with them, which is more recent and pays more interest. Easy? Apparently not. Anyway, it looks like the kind of saga that will go on for a while, so I will await, not too eagerly, the next instalment, especially as it appears to have already been transferred ok online, so they must have done it anyway. Why are ISAs such a pain?

I also opened a new ISA for me online with Santander, apparently without any hiccups But we will see!

The chickens laid an egg

And we had some of the chilli I made at the weekend just now, which was very nice

DawnW

ALJA wrote: »

Just got an email from Bo*ts saying I have over £9.00 in adv*ntage points to use. I'm wondering whether to use this on their own brand sun cream range when my holiday comes along. Has anyone tried their range and liked it? Or could recommend another maybe cheaper brand of sun cream I could buy?

I have always found their suncream products fine, and cheaper than most

alja

DawnW wrote: »

I have always found their suncream products fine, and cheaper than most

Thank you, I will keep an eye on them for offers and the S*perdrug own brand ones too as they're buav approved (which I like buying where I can) and I could use my loyalty card points in there too. Keep forgetting about my S*perdrug loyalty card!

I think I heard once that a$da's range of suncreams are highly rated too!

cw18

I hadn't thought of using my B00ts points for suncream, and I've loads of points as I get them for glasses and being on their monthly contact lens scheme but rarely shop there as I've enough toiletries to last me for years and find them expensive for almost everything.

The last few years I've used Mr T value, but was considering getting something different this year (mainly due to the fact I'll be outside in Spain for about 12 hours a day for 8 weeks from mid-September). I've already invested in a day cream for my face that has sun protection - and it took some searching to find one that wasn't really thick because of it.

So I guess I need to keep an eye on their website and then find my way to one of their stores if something comes up I fancy trying

(Edit: Just checked on line and my statement shows 5999 points, so I've £59.99 I can spend !!!)

lovefullshelves

A good frugal day
Lots of seeds planted, the 'pods' with strawberry plants in are now hanging on the side of the greenhouse:) thanks to OH and some cuphooks!
NSD as I've been nowhere, joy of working from home:)
HM lasagne for tea, and HM rhubarb pie for supper
Finally talked to OH about money Now he knows my worries and why I'm worrying!
Happy sunshiney day all round!
xx