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

Greying_Pilgrim

Excellent summary Cheery - brilliant results :T

So pleased that you've the impetus to carry on to see what you can achieve in February.

Bravo :T

Greying X

Karmacat

I really like that you've analysed the figures and compared them to averages - knowledge is power! Good on you

Cheery_Daff

Knowledge is indeed power KC, although I confess YNAB tells me those things automatically whether I want to see them or not :eek: Most sobering! I wish I could say I spent hours working it out with a pencil but I didn't :rotfl:

I SO would have done though I've done more long winded things before in the name of moneysaving! :rotfl:

And thank you Greying for putting me on to Frugalwoods in the first place! :j :j

It's at this point I start gettig desperate for payday again so I can play with the figures :rotfl: only 18 days to go!! :rotfl:

Pippilongstocking

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

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

All of this is pretty impressive well done!

Hugely impressed. She says with the dying fragments of pizza from last nights non meal plan frippery lingering in the kitchen.

Although its not my budget that came out of :rotfl:

I really must look at YNAB been meaning to for ages.

Cheery_Daff

Pizza does't count if someone else buys it! :rotfl:

I love Ynab - takes a bit of getting your head round but the videos are ace, and there's a 34 day free trial. Tis not free though - about £33 a year - but it's saved me well more than that. Tis quite revealing when you have to move dosh from eg the holiday budget cos you overspent on cake - makes you realise what your priorities are...

Different work site this afternoon so going to take tea AND hot chocolate a d snacks so I stay out of the cafe :j

Tis easy when you're prepared - and impossibly difficult when you're not :eek: :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Brilliant summary - really good idea to break it down over the previous month, and the average as well - makes you think even if you aimed to just cut those averages down by 50% that would still be a heck of a saving over a year!

Cheery_Daff

Would indeed! :j

NOT impressed with Ovo tonight, which is a shame as I've always been most impressed before.

We've always used their 'flexible direct debit' option - they make a suggestion but you can change the DD within a range whenever you like (there'sa graph so it's dead easy)

We had nearly £400 surplus going into the winter as we used to pay £120 a month, so I reduced it down to £67, well within the range. This month I noticed we'd have used our surplus so I increased to their recommended £97. Won't quite cover the whole for this month but we're getting warmer now anyway.

Then I fixed with them for another year, didn't bother to look around as we're moving, have a smart meter and old boiler and didn't want the hassle.

Just had an email saying, as of now, they're no longer offering flexible direct debits because "people have told us it's too confusing". And "we've noticed your monthly payments haven't been covering your usage" (no - because we had a huge surplus to use up) "so we are increasing your direct debit to £106" - first payment 15th Feb, and applicable for entire contract, which is a whole year :mad:

I notice they didn't mention this was coming before I fixed again - and there's no mention of the fact that as of April that will be over and above what we're using.

They'll be getting a stern email in the morning and there had better be NO issue whatsoever with getting a refund when we move because I may no longer be inclined to stay with them! :mad:

Wouldn't have minded if there had been a bit of notice but a fortnight to be slapped with an increased bill AND the prospect of not being able to lower it all year is NOT impressive - I may have made a different decision about fixing and almost certainly about running down the surplus if I'd known.

I'm lucky and it won't affect us (other than being annoying) but I imagine for some people this will be quite a bad thing! :eek:

EssexHebridean

If it classifies as a new contract, and you signed up online, don't you have a cooling off period under the distance selling regulations? I may be wrong but do seem to recall something along those lines. It certainly sounds like you well and truly have grounds to cancel if you can!

Cheery_Daff

You may be right - although I'm probably not going to cancel as then I'll face the potential old boiler/disconnectig supply/incompatible smart meter issue which I was trying to avoid.

I'm slightly calmer this morning so I might just drop them an email about the wording of their email which was what !!!!ed me off the most :rotfl:

Fiends

Meeting friend for a cuppa in a bit but I think I've got enough money already on my swipe card to pay for tea :j if not it"s only £1 here and it'll be a NSD otherwise :money:

rtandon27

Cheery - you'd have such a laugh - managed to remember going to the hole in the wall for lunch money and then forgot to buy anything to eat until it was too late and by then the cafe was closed! - our cafe is cash only and I've managed to forget to get any all week - can't say my waistline is any better for it but all in all a very MSE week so far! - soooooo hungry now, hope the newly retired OH remembered to make dinner! Over an hour til I'm home and my stomach is growling loudly!