Biting the Bullet - Shortie's MFW Diary

joedenise

Shortie wrote: »

- Last of the runner beans picked today (then realised I can't blanch them, whoops)

No need to blanch the beans, just chop them up how you'd usually do them and then freeze. They'll be fine if used within a month or so.

Denise

Goldiegirl

Hello Shortie, I think I remember you from the Frugal Living thread.

I decided that I wasn't very good at true frugal living, but I needed somewhere to record my thoughts, so I started a diary.

I've found it to be very beneficial.

Welcome to MFW

Shortie

TimmySaver wrote: »

The change in Internet settings sounds quite annoying! At least your IT support should be able to allow access for the work-related sites.

Sounds like you're having a really busy few weeks. I hope that the next stage of your planning goes well. Great news on the amount of savings you have

Good job on the Swagbucks. I only recently found out about it, thanks to Martin's email. Quite enjoying it so far. I'm probably going to be cashing out Paypal most of the time, although will keep my Amazon account topped up too - as Amazon vouchers are cheaper per £ than Paypal on the Swagbucks site.

Yep, we can apply to our Tech Desk to get sites lifted on our accounts, I don't think I can give business justification for MSE though :-P And seeing as even for IT forums I would have to get a very senior manager (my boss's boss) to send for the approval, I think I'll use my phone to look thing up


I'm going to cash mine out as Amazon vouchers to use toward gifts (and then transfer the voucher amount into savings) or to buy bits for the house that we need. Good luck with the SwagBucking though - it can be hit am miss as to getting points but persevere - I think it's worth it

Shortie

joedenise wrote: »

No need to blanch the beans, just chop them up how you'd usually do them and then freeze. They'll be fine if used within a month or so.

Denise

Ooooh thanks joedenise. I was otherwise going to ask my Mum if I could gatecrash hers over the weekend to blanch them there, lol

Shortie

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Hello Shortie, I think I remember you from the Frugal Living thread.

I decided that I wasn't very good at true frugal living, but I needed somewhere to record my thoughts, so I started a diary.

I've found it to be very beneficial.

Welcome to MFW

Thanks GoldieGirl - I have always felt a little bit cheeky on that thread as I don't live the true style of under £4k (but a long shot) but I do love the support that has been around on there

Shortie

Hmm... it's been a while since I've updated this. There was a while where there was nothing much to really add as I get paid monthly, but also being unable to log in at lunchtimes at works whilst trying to read my way through Mr Money Mustache's blog from the very beginning (I think it was GallyGirl that mentioned him on her diary?) means I've not been updating my diary whoops!

So, we have been managing to save with a combo of Mr Shortie's work (now stopped, hopefully will restart again) and my recent payday. The cheque for the planning application has been cashed and we now have around £1,680 saved for other planning/architect fees. I think we need another £80 until we have what we need for that. We can then save for the mortgage fees, and then start saving to hopefully overpay the mortgage to bring down out LTV when we apply to remortgage.


The lentil soup is still working out well which is fab and I'm still loving the free books on my Kindle


Oh, and I have a £25 Amazon voucher to use from SB, my first ever cash in - woo hoo!


Currently, we're preparing for our holiday away next week - we're taking the car and dogs (as well as the kids, naturally, lol) so we have menu planned out of the freezer and Mr Shortie is doing a shop at the moment for top up bits we will need for lunches (we will be doing day trips out each days with the dogs), and also menu planned our dinners and breakfasts too


I need to go and check on the oven - I pulled a reduced fruit loaf out of the freezer at the weekend and it's quite dry so I'm having a go at a cheats biscotti, lol...


So to round up, recent achievements are....


- £1680 saved towards remaining planning/architect fees
- Lentil soup is still lovely
- Free Kindle books still going down a treat
- Trying to not waste a dried out fruit loaf
- £25 Amazon voucher from SB

newgirly

Hi shortie, I was just wanted to say a belated welcome I used to love reading the frugal living thread, although never managed to get our costs so low unfortunately! Mr MM is also another favourite, although now I've caught up with the whole blog, he makes you wait ages for new posts which can be frustrating :rotfl:

Anyway best of luck I will keep popping in, the lentil soup looks good I may have to give that a go.

Shortie

Hi all, a long absence for me from the boards - a combo of losing access to MSE at work so I can't nip on at lunchtime, I've been reading on my train journeys, and things have just generally been super busy

All the money has been saved for the building paperwork and we're starting the remortgage process in Jan for the building work so things are moving swiftly along there

My car has been costing me a fortune recently. It's an old car and I nearly scrapped her as she was not economical to repair (timing chain was on it's way out) but I decided to get her repaired rather than scrap her and buy another sub£500 station car that might come with problems. So today I spent over £600 on the timing chain to then be told one of the front suspension springs is broken (~£380 to repair), the front brake pipe is corroding and the headlights need replacing as they are dimming (ie the casing is kld and needs replacing)

To say I'm gutted is an understatement. The last thing I wanted to do was spent good money after bad. The car has cost me £1,200 in repairs to date and I've only had her since June/July!

Oh well, onwards and upwards... no point scrapping her now is there? :-S I'll get a second opinion first though on what I was told today, just to be sure

Shortie

So, my diary isn't something that I'll update lots but I've checked the rest of the month'sbudget and I'm still on track to be in the black in my account though not by much. I've been far too lax last month with spending TONNES on food and toy treats for the boys. I had an expensive hair cut (to get rid of a messy 'growing out' style) and a colouring. So thoughts / plans for this month and going forward a few:

Food
Thanks to Mr S and my Mum we have a nicely stocked freezer. We'll need a bit of fresh and tinned stuff but we need to keep this to a minimum. If we have the building work start in March like we hope, we'll need to run the freezers down anyway

Oil
We'll need to be super frugal with this as we'll need to move the tank as part of the building work and I don't want to run up in the meantime

Hair
I now have a good style that can grow away for a while. If I decide to recolour it I'll buy a cheaper £4 jobbie from Home Bargains and ask Mr S nicely to colour it for me

Car
This still needs work it would seem.. sigh... any more repairs will now have to wait until next pay day

Building work
We've got all the savings for the council fees. Waiting to hear back from the Architext to see if we will owe him any more before we're done and dusted. Anything left in savings will go towards the mortgage fees and/or towards building works/decorating when the build is complete

Shortie

A mini update from me..

We're due to start the remortgage soon, just waiting to hear news on a relaunched product before we decide which product to go for

My car is back in the garage one week after it came out and I broke my phone on Sunday (keep any electrical mechanical goods away from me, lol)

So I replaced my phone for £81 today - am still in a contract until March when I can downgrade to a cheap rolling sim)

Hoping to have more news on starting the mortgage app soon