Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

...Not got energy for anything other than lying on sofa now

Lying on the sofa is a good plan of attack!:T:T:T

Might just do the same after finishing off the pile of folding & ironing left over from last weekend.:o

(Did I mention that that's the only way I"ll see the sofa again?)

When I win the lottery I'm hiring someone to do the ironing & the cleaning!

Karmacat

rtandon27 wrote: »

When I win the lottery I'm hiring someone to do the ironing & the cleaning!

Oh good grief yes :j

Save

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

And, it appears, £250 I have saved through Uber Frugal January that I would normally have just frittered on takeaways, taxis, cafe trips, not meal planning, food for work etc etc etc :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Needless to say, we will be continuing many of our newly reinstated thrifty ways into February :eek:

I think you have done brilliantly Cheery (and Mr Cheery), as I don't remember you once saying this month, 'oh, life's a drudge not being able to spend/I feel deprived/I can't go on with this experiment'. And I'm sure that all of us - but we're perhaps not brave enough to try - could save alot more money by mindful spending, rather than just - as you've said, 'frittering' money away because we've got used to doing it or it solves an issue in the short-term.

I'm certainly glad that you feel good enough about the exercise to continue with it into february, and maybe beyond.....

Bravo :T

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: you lot with the ironing I solve that problem by just not doing any :rotfl:

Thanks Greying :j It most definitely has NOT been a drudge! I've enjoyed it actually, and I've saved quite a bit of time not popping into the shops on the way to/from work. We've quite taken to meal planning - even Mr Cheery who is not at all inclined towards lists and routines. And even just stuff like today - I was tired and grumpy in work, and could easily have popped down to the cafe for a muffin but I didn't - I had a hot chocolate and a couple of satsumas and did something else.

And I ended up in town at a demo, got a bit peckish, and just came home - when previously I would have just popped into the shop for a chocolate bar.

Neither of those are big, but together they would have added up to £3 or so - and I'd often do that most days So it does add up...

Anyway, I'll do a proper run down tomorrow. I've still been out for tea and cake and stuff so not been remotely deprived!

Just made some chocolate and ginger biscuits - trying desperately to not eat all of them :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Wow - that's some impressive saving there! :T I bet you didn't begin to imagine you could end up with that much extra at the beginning of the month did you!

Cheery_Daff

No And now I'm quite embarrassed at my spendy ways and am trying not to tot up how much extra we could have saved over the past few years :eek: :eek:

But that kind of thinking isn't going to get me anywhere :eek:

Stashed enough biscuits for work, eaten the rest :rotfl: They're more tasty with ginger in them :j

Cheery_Daff

Hmm - just been doing some investigating... Had a payment sitting in YNAB for a Christmas present - it arrived but the money didn't go out of the bank. I was about to email them (it was a small ethical organisation that I don't want to rip off - I'd happily just say nothing to a large evil one )

Just did a bit of bank and email searching first to check... and realised I payed through payp@l - and the day before had a refund for some shoes, so annoyingly it came out of the refunded money, and I swept the rest of that back into the bank.

I must have meant to do some jiggery pokery at some point but never got round to it.

Anyway, the upshot is - I can delete that transaction (as it's already been paid, just not the way I thought) so I have an extra £15.65 in the budget :j

Might carry that forwards to Feb as I suspect Feb savings total isn't going to be *quite* so impressive as January's... especially not as we have the bill for the tradesmen who did the mortaring etc which is about £365 :eek: There's some in the home maintenance pot but not quite that much :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

So... my plan for Uber Frugal January was to save £1000 into the house fund. I usually plan to save £800, and end up saving anything from £300 upwards

So, here goes (gosh this is embarrassing!)

My 'fun' spends
Socialising (just me and my pals, not Mr Cheery)
Spent in December: £44.40
Average monthly spend over last year: £44.80
January spend: £24.95

Clothes (just me)
Spent in December: £0
Average monthly spend over last year £26.76
January spend: £0

Travel (taxis, bus fares, not things that can be claimed back, just me)
Spent in December: £23.14
Average monthly spend over last year: £21.45
January spend: £0

'Other' (that's always a dangerous category!! Just me)
Spent in December: £52.44
Average monthly spend over last year £88.95
January spend: £9.43

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Joint treats budget (covers both of us for takeaways, breakfast at the farm etc)
Spent in December: £71.37
Average monthly spend over last year £76.25
January spend: £24.26

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Food is difficult as we both spend - Mr Cheery normally spends around £120 on the main food shop, and in terms of extras I usually spend around £40-80 ish, if not more :eek:

January we've pretty much ONLY done a main shop (plus milk, and eg getting teabags if main shop didn't have right ones) and we've spent roughly £120 :eek:

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As I said the other day, we've managed to shove £1200 into the house budget this month
£800 'normal' budget (which often gets raided as I've overspent)
£150 water bill
£250 extra uber frugal January savings :j :j

Back in a minute to waffle about how we did it (mainly just stopping being a spendy monster :rotfl: )

Cheery_Daff

So, some things we did differently this month...

1. Meal planning
Made a plan, stuck it on the wall, and stuck to it. Straightforward, no-recipe stuff we'd make anyway - risotto, home made pizza, some kind of pasta bake, stir fry, omelette, curry etc. Didn't specify a day, and occasionally veered off plan to baked potatoes and cheese/dahl.

2. Taking food everywhere
Made a big vat of thick lentil soup every weekend and portioned into freezer bags for work lunches. Same with home made bread, and also some kind of snack (chocolate biscuits, brownies, carrot cake muffins etc). *Need* to have sweet stuff at work, no use thinking I'll get through the day on satsumas and carrot sticks as clearly I'll just end up at the cafe downstairs! Also took flasks of tea on trains, snacks whenever I went anywhere including to visit other work office. Haven't bought a single chocolate bar/snack/drink out while I've been on my own

3. No takeaways
None. Missed them something rotten at first but it's wearing off... Not saying we never will, but won't do it every week, and will be tempted to walk to the Chinese and just buy the tofu and cook the rice ourselves.

4. Limited cafes
I've met people for tea/lunch/food but have mostly just had ONE of those things, rather than all of them :rotfl: So I've just had a cuppa, and not a giant cake, or just cake, and not lunch. Also been to people's houses and taken home made snacks etc. Me and Mr Cheery haven't automatically gone to the farm for brunch at the weekend, although we've missed that and it usually costs about £8 for the two of us, so we'll probably still do that now and then

5. No charity shops
Eeeeeeek! Gosh I love charity shops, but they are eaters of dosh, for me at least. 'Ooh, look at that candle/book/cardi, it's only 50p/£1/£2.99'. It all adds up, and I'm convinced this is where the bulk of my 'other' category goes. I've only been in charity shops a couple of times, looking for specific things, and both times got back out sharpish when I realised how tempting they were. I have managed admirably without buying anything and don't feel remotely deprived. Will aim to limit the 'leisure browsing' side of my charity shop habit!

6. Cycling
I'm cycling to work rather than walking and it means I don't ever stop at the shop on the way there or back, so no picking up a pizza, or a treat or anything. Also means I can get to my other work site quickly (so no bus/taxi) and can get home from town quite quickly too (saving bus fare). And it's helped with the decision to forego the gym membership :j

They're the main things I think :j :j Not saying we'll stick with all of them, but some habits we'll definitely change for good :j

Cheery_Daff

(Will stop waffling in a minute, I promise... :rotfl: :rotfl: )

Other things I've done and decisions I've made this month:

* didn't renew gym membership, saving £160 a year
* cancelled magazine subscription, saving £34 a year
* shopped around for house insurance, saving nothing :rotfl:

I haven't counted other budgets in all this, so we're still spending whatever needs to be spent on the DIY, for example, and we haven't scrimped on diesel (we don't commute, so it's quick trips to see friends, and longer trips to see family of which there have been a few this month). We've still saved towards annual bills, and a bit towards holidays/weekends away, although main savings are now house-related.

In February, we plan to carry on our frugal ways I'm not really sure when I got so UN-frugal I guess frittery spends often go up with increased wages, and I did start working full time again this year, and lost a £200 a month commute, so there has been extra available... And it's all frittery with me - I don't have a designer handbag obsession or anything :rotfl:

Anyway, quite excited about February now - won't aim to save quite as much as we won't have the water bill, and we've got a £360 tradesman bill to pay, but I reckon we could make £1000 if we tried...

The challenge is on