two frugal years to freedom: a fritterer's tale

lobbyludd

did buy the plants, used up some testers to make chalk paint and painted some plastic pots in the garden to plant them out in, all looks very lovely.

Also blew the last of this month's discretionary spending budget (£30, runs 21st to 21st) on a takeaway and vino with friend last night, but she's going to feed my cats whilst we are away, and we talked through my job thing and I've decided definitely not to apply - I want more time not more money so - it's the wrong direction for me, feel much better for not being in the "weighing up options" stage any more.

most of washing line dried yesterday, rest of food from stores, children made a very elaborate den in the lounge from chairs and blankets - all good frugal fun.
need to meal plan for the week and will try to walk in 3 days out of 5 (starting Tuesday, need the car tomorrow).

lobbyludd

the spreadsheet has been updated to the penny, forecasts are in, totals are totted, trends plotted. 3 weeks 'til payday and not a penny rolling around spare. can't see how I can shave any money off anywhere else for the next 3 weeks. which feels a bit dull tbh, I LIKE shuffling the cash from one place to another and seeing the conditional formatting change on the spreadsheet (very small things please me).

hmm so need some sort of challenge to keep me occupied for the next few weeks, possibly with it's own spreadsheet.

I shall meander through the diaries and challenges to see if something catches my eye. Shan't be a courgette growing challenge - I know that much as I found 3 wee beasties munching on the one remaining seedling this morning.

anyway scores on the doors for the end of June are
17375 owing. all on 0%.
0 savings.

(it's actually a couple of hundred less due to a payment being in the ether between my bank account and the CC, but I'll note the official spreadsheet score for now.

less than 3 weeks to holibobs <light bulb>I should concentrate on planning for that in as frugal a manner as possible.

Bobarella

Good luck! Some months are like that with progress. It's annoying when it's so tight you can't pay off a little extra. But keeping on an even keel is important too.

lobbyludd

thanks for cheering me along bob, I know the even keel is probably the most important skill to learn. but i'm an impatient creature!

and you've reminded me I've got a wombled receipt to add to t3sc0 for the points and fuel savings thank you!

lobbyludd

dd and I went for a picnic at 7pm last night it was too hot to stay in the house so we tarried a while in the park, was a lovely atmosphere there.
NSD today! hurrah! walked to work and back to try and cut down on fuel usage and after dropping kids at their dad's for tea sat using the free wifi in civic centre car park to swagbuck and survey - which saved the petrol home and back. earned the grand total of £1.35!

HM mackerel pate and celery for tea (twas very yummy).
plants watered, raspberries picked from the back garden (sooo much tastier than bought ones)

was very much hot and bothered earlier but am cooler in temperature and temperament now.

lobbyludd

forgot to list hollibobs preps:

1) have located the cheapest petrol stations in each of the three palces we stop at (each for 2 nights).
2) calculated what I needed to spend at T3scos yesterday to get another 2p off petrol to use to fill the tank up before we go.
3) found my clubcard pizza express vouchers and printed off.

starting to plan what food stuffs to take from here and what to buy in situ.

we are self catering for the whole time, but in various settings, with varying degrees of facilities.

The first 3 days we are somewhere where buying food is quite expensive but other than that it should be very cheap so will plan food to take with us for that.

The second place is we are staying is a youth hostel in an "attraction" and the accom and passes are paid for so no extra spend required for activities during the day, but very limited facilities to self cater. will ponder this and search out what is nearby.

last place very near beaches etc so planning lots of family out-doorsyness, and can properly self cater here.

no-one needs any clothes or toiletries (I would like a new pair of trousers as both pairs of summer ones have sprung tears, but in places I should be able to get away with mending, not invisibly, but well) I do need some sunglasses for driving, but not expensive ones so will hunt around amazon for standards compliant but cheap. DS may need some summer shoes/sandals. Will think about that too.

lobbyludd

the good:
walked to work and back
took lunch in
baked brownies, ds has been tucking in
£5.31 in accounts from reward and interest
friday tomorrow

the bad and/or ugly:

stood on chromebook and cracked screen (I can repair it myself but a replacement screen is £30+, however for the moment as long as I position the windows in the right place it is usable )
I actually burnt the brownies quite badly - but ds insists they're edible so I'm going with it!

liltdiddylilt

Hey lady

Just catching up and well done on getting the TSB account up and running. You sounds like you've got it all planned out the same as me. I milk 5 current accounts and earn about £15 a month in interest now which is great from moving £1k through them all in a 5 minute space each month

Yay for brownies. Impossible to burn, they taste yummy even when charcoal I'm making up a giant batch of cookie dough to take to a party on Sunday (which reminds me, I need to get the birthday boy a present!! :eek:)

Sorry about the chromebook that really sucks.I wouldn't be brave enough o repair myself! But you have reminded me to make double sure jellytot stays away from my Macbook!!!!! xxx

lobbyludd

thank you m'lovely - the joy of a chromebook is there is nothing to it, barely a hard-drive and the screen is dead easy to replace (we have a habit of smashing screens......so I've done it before!).

ooohh - how do you get £15 from accounts? I've a Hx one and the T£B and then one that I've had since I was 18 which nothing except the mortgage goes out of, but if I could shuttle the cash through a couple more for pennies that would be grand!

HELLOOOOOOOOOOO weekend. I am so happy you are here. every day worked is a day closer to debt-freedom, but I am so glad for the pitstops along the way.
chicken and leak risotto from the very last bits of the sunday roast tonight I think.

another £5 from sb ordered, have found summer shoes for ds that he likes for £12 (Hurrah) and tackled his 2 cookies a day habit at school (he was spending an extra 1.20 a day, I couldn't work out why his dinner money wasn't lasting - have said we can send in snacks instead!) and there are some sunglasses in the cs for £2 that I'll try on tomorrow.

liltdiddylilt

I've got £2k in TSB which I just shunt another £1k through each month - earns £7ish
£2.5k in Yorkshire bank which paid me £150 to move and has 2% interest on the balance
£5 Halifax reward
I also have a regular saver with FD on top of my current account with them, for £300pm at 6% but the interest is added annually so I don't add that in, but it is healthy
I had a 5% Natwide FlexDirect which you can get cashback on top of when you apply! but thats only for a year sigh! xx

I am very glad to see the weekend this week!! I'm going to be skinny, rich and tanned by the end of it... :rotfl: yeah right!