2014 Frugal Living Challenge

lynnejk

lovefullshelves wrote: »

A good frugal day

Finally talked to OH about money Now he knows my worries and why I'm worrying!
Happy sunshiney day all round!
xx

'Trouble shared = trouble halved' is the saying eh
My problem is that my DH seems to think something will always turn up and doesn't appear to worry about anything :eek: It's great being an optimist BUT does get a bit wearing (sigh) to live with and to try to explain why I'm worrying.


Hope you all have a thrifty Thursday
Lx

Shortie

Morning all. So busy day for Casa de Shortie. I'm in work and have brought in souo and fruit. I've got porridge in my drawer already

Mr Shortie is hopefully finishing off the edging for the trampoline area today so that wecan fill it and build the trampoline (which is being delivered today)

We are also having our boiler replaced from an oil storage to oil combi meaning we can just have hot water and aa much as we want, instantly - how novel! Lol.

Might try and see if we can get any money for the old system on fleabay?

skintygerlinky

Afternoon all!
Im just about to log off at uni library so thought I'd say hi. HM salmon pasta salad just been sneakily eaten and got flask of HM lentil soup for a bit later on - late one tonight, studying and tutorials til 9PM boohoo!

Good job I love my course!

Have a good one everyone, look forward to a proper catch up with this thread tomorrow evening xxxxxxxxxxxx

DawnW

Hello

Quiet on the thread today.

Uneventful day for me today, I didn't spend anything, though I thought I would have to, as OH had eaten the bread and not got any more out of the freezer yesterday so there wasn't any when I went to do my sandwiches this morning Never, fear, I found 4 crackers languishing in a tin in the larder, some cheese, a packet of crisps and an orange. There were cakes in the kitchen at work so I had one of those as well, so that was enough - phew saved from having to spend three quid or more on a boring sandwich in the canteen

OH played golf, so may have spent a few pounds. Won't have been much as he is a member and doesn't have to pay green fees etc, possibly a drink in the bar for him and his friend, or possibly the other way round, depends on whose turn it was .

More chilli for tea, I will have to freeze the rest as we have had it twice now and I would like something different tomorrow.

Friday tomorrow :j
Only 4 more days at work for me :eek:
Still chasing to get information on when my pension will be paid. We shan't starve while they sort it out, but they have had the 3 months notice I had to give :mad:

mama67

Shortie, check to see if there any local Clearance one man bands (licensed though) this is what our business is and we pride ourselves on doing a job for cheaper than the hire of a skip, we also load it all into our van & trailer. This might not be better for you but worth maybe looking at

Shortie wrote: »

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!

lovefullshelves

lynnejk - that was what my OH said. He doesn't worry and just hopes to get some work when he needs it. Trouble is that has led to me having to pay his credit card in the past which I now can't afford to do. When he has money he can be wasteful.
Anyway, nsd for me, planting!! Another milk bottle pod salad leaves this time. Planning a shopping trip to town on sat so making lists as we don't go very often!
xx

Shortie

Thanks mama67, we hadn't thought about that option but will enquire round this way. Thanks! xx

lynnejk

lovefullshelves wrote: »

lynnejk - that was what my OH said. He doesn't worry and just hopes to get some work when he needs it. Trouble is that has led to me having to pay his credit card in the past which I now can't afford to do. When he has money he can be wasteful.
Anyway, nsd for me, planting!! Another milk bottle pod salad leaves this time. Planning a shopping trip to town on sat so making lists as we don't go very often!
xx

Well - hope that it helps to know you're not the only one


On the milk bottle pods - do you have to wrap them to keep out the light. Was thinking of using them for some herbs, especially mint which is sooo invasive, but wonder if light getting to roots would be a bad thing ?


Hope everyone has a frugal Friday
Lx

sparrer

nsd - not npd as had to go to @sda to pick up the bag of shopping I left there yesterday :doh:
Friend came for coffee and gave me four ceramic pots and 2 troughs
Electrician came to do an inspection for the HA, fixed a socket which hasn't worked since I moved here 10 years ago so now my treadmill is plugged in to the socket beside it and no more trailing wires across the sitting room
He also changed the old bathroom light for a fully enclosed one - it's a bit bright in there now! I did ask before he put it in if it's a low wattage one which he confirmed (otherwise I wouldn't have let him install it )
Put new batteries in my doorbell which hasn't worked for ages, still didn't work so took it to bits, cleaned everything and put it back together again, and it works! Surprised myself and saved me having to buy a new one

Sleep tight

[Deleted User]

Payday for me today and a good chunk of my wages heading into savings which is great. I am hoping to build up a good sum over the next 5 - 10 years which will allow early retirement.

Frugal wise - my heating is now off and I am hoping it stays off now until about October.

I was up at a friends on Tues evening and she was talking about the gift she wanted from her OH for her 40th this year. I was flabbergasted when she said it was a new ring costing around £8k. She has also just bought her OH a watch costing £4,500 to make up for 'only' spending £2k a couple of years ago on his 40th. This is someone I regularly talk to about finances and she is currently trying to pay off her mortgage. I kept quiet but was thinking to myself - I would rather put this towards my mortgage. But maybe that's just me!!