NST April - SPRING INTO ACTION

Fmess

Hi all,

Not sure what's up with me, I'm reading but struggling to motivate myself to post anything. Two more SFDs yesterday and today and ate a frog today and chased up something.

mothernerd

A busy spendy day and reading your posts, I am now feeling guilty because I can't think of anything particularly frugal.

I was out of the house by 9.30 am to get to the doctor's (which was by way of becoming a frog). Think I did the signing off with my counsellor on either the 17th or 24th March and was tired then so it's been about 5 weeks. Did make an effort at the beginning of this month (longer walks etc) but had a bit of a relapse and I seem to be sleeping about 12 hours a day and can still fall asleep at the drop of a hat when I am 'awake'. Also despite my efforts my sleep pattern is getting worse (getting to sleep after 3 am).

Say the nurse (can prescribe if needed). He sent me for a load of blood tests to rule out anything physical but I also scored quite high on the depression/anxiety chart again. Told him a bit about my work situation which may be one of the underlying causes.

In multi tasking news I ate my breakfast sandwich whilst waiting for the bus, replaced one of my boot laces in the waiting room (still using ones from a £ emporium multi pack and ones 'rediscovered' as I have tidied each room in succession) and asked about the history of the hospital and jotted down info from a couple of plaques (question which came up with my local history friend yesterday).

Back on 2 buses to get weighed (+ a chat with an old friend at the bus stop) after all the blood taking - one test takes two hours and need to make a special appointment and fast over night. Sadly I have put a lb back on over the last two weeks. Spent a lot of money on American sweets for DS3 and his beloved (+ guests if they choose to share them). Glad to see the shop is still open.

Should have been 2 more buses to get to mum's but realised I was not wearing my coat and keys to the bungalow were in the pocket. Brief stop at home (left sweets and library book behind) then back to the bus station.

Mum wasn't in (builder still putting in the slabs in the yard so walked back including hauling myself over the dreaded bridge. Soles of my feet were burning by then so had a taxi for the last bit home. This was probably the budget option as if I had forced myself to walk the last few blocks I would have had to walk past the kebab shop which would have been a temptation too far and bad for my budget and my health.

Mum had phoned to say she was back when I got in but I went to bed to catch up on sleep (gone 3 pm by this time), then got up to book my other blood test (the 2 hour one). More sleep then settled down to eat the bag of broccoli and carrots with yoghurt dip which I have been carrying around in my rucksack all day (whilst DS3 and beloved ate their Chinese takeaway). Very happy with my broccoli (also supposed to help with my mood).

Today I am grateful for/ happy about
the nurse practitioner I saw
lovely weather
reasonable waits for buses (did sit and read my book for a bit as I wanted to avoid a lady sitting at the bus stop - she had been in the blood lab earlier)
mum not being in (inconvenient at the time but it was a duty visit and I wasn't feeling particularly resilient so good in hindsight)
broccoli (this week I added sweet potato to the list of veg I like raw).

Will be going to bed soon (does that count as frugal). Edit to add - did glance in one of those shops that sell pretty things that you don't need and never knew about until you saw them but did not go in (why buy things that you will end up giving away in the end - decorative birdcages that wouldn't fit a budgie?).

Bobarella

Morning All

I am now awaiting Monday to be able to pay any more off. However I will be hitting 50% of the £2,700 i started the year on repaid since January when I do. So that is making me feel cheerful.

I am sorry to hear people are feeling down. I'm wondering if the odd weather is to blame? Certainly where I am this week has seen it so warm on one afternoon I had to take my coat off, & then so cold and wet I ended up getting into bed to try to get warm. So that messes you up.

Mothernerd I am surprised to read you saying you haven't done anything frugal. You always come across as highly frugal. I meant to say how impressive your batch cooking session was the other day.

Have a good Saturday all.

Bob

Calling14

Mothernerd you are Mrs Frugal:D

Yesterday frugality

Shower instead of a bath.
Insisted that me and friend had our tea before drinkies at pub(would have stayed in but friend had a horrible week)
Built all my washing up so it's a full load.

Today need to start on frog guzzling.

Off to look at fencing as high differentials making a wee job total nightmare, between myself and house at the back.

Then need new carpet/laminate grips. So going for a wild morning out.

Dizzyblnd and Mothernerd, dress warm and grab some sunshine see if helps cheer you up.x

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all :wave:
Sorry I haven't checked in properly for a couple of days. I am so time poor at the moment that I'm struggling to fit everything in. But I will always make the time after a couple of days to get on here.
I'm still up for running the May challenge - I've got lots of plans in place. I may end up putting the thread up this weekend so I can be properly prepped without squeezing it into the last day of the month. Thrifty, if you're happy to run June then that would be brilliant.

I really need this week's challenge. I've started to think over the past few days that I'm losing grip on frugality a bit. It can be a bit of a challenge for me sometimes because I am very time poor, and I have to balance out the value of my own time with the whole money saving thing. But I've been at the supermarket loads and I've blown the grocery budget, plus I've had to replace both kids school shoes, and I bought myself something that I didn't really need, just really wanted.

Calling14 wrote: »

This weeks challenge
Do at least 3 frugal things a day - feel free to share any ideas eg free days out, drying washing outside, anything extreme to make us laugh.

Aim to devour 3 frogs this week- things you have put off doing for ages.

So I'll start afresh today and aim for some frugalities somewhere. I need to come up with a plan though, which hasn't formed properly in my head just yet.
I have plenty of frogs though. One of which is the massive marking pile that I have to get through this weekend. I'll report back in later, and that's a promise.

Bobarella

Calling I never know whether we'd save anything doing water meter for showers vs baths but I suspect not. We are a household of 2 adults, 1 child and a baby. We are charged £26 a month for consumption. I doubt we'd do better on a meter.
However I was surprised to learn recently that showering is quite bad for electricity usage. And my husband takes a long shower every day. It's his way of waking up in the mornings. I am more of the navy style shower user. In lather up and out. He asks me how I can get clean that quick but I am. Unless I have to wash my hair which is long I simply don't need more than 2 mins to shower.

Cat what you say is very valid. No point saving if you can make more working. I'm really looking forward to your challenge and I was really nerdily excited then about the new challenge being up this weekend. So rest assured your time would be very appreciated doing it.

apple_muncher

Bob we have a reader thingy that says how much leccy we are using. A normal winter evening (lights on, telly on, heating on) reads around 0.6. The microwave takes it up by 1.1; the toaster by about 1 and the microwave by maybe 3. But when the power shower goes on...it rockets by 10. If your shower runs off the hot water tank then it will obviously be much much less. Hope this makes sense!

Fmess

Hi all,I'm another one who needs to increase the frequency of my posts.

Today my frugality measures have included;
- only feeding the cat half a pouch of food at each meal time as he often wastes some and has access to dry food all day anyway
- using half a dishwasher tablet. Read this on a thread last year and honestly haven't noticed the difference.
- washed clothes without fabric softener. Again read this on here last year and now only use softener for towels and sheets.
- clothes are currently drying on the line.
- had a wash instead of a shower as I'm not going anywhere, don't need to wash my hair and I don't think I smell!!
- wrote my to do list on a junk mail envelope.

Think that's it so far.

I've ate another frog by activating a new card that I've been forgetting about for a few weeks.

Done the food shopping and think I'll make it to me to next weekend on the £12 of food I just bought. Payday is Monday but I don't think I'll get much chance to go to the shops this week and I want to accumulate SFDs!

Bobarella

apple_muncher wrote: »

Bob we have a reader thingy that says how much leccy we are using. A normal winter evening (lights on, telly on, heating on) reads around 0.6. The microwave takes it up by 1.1; the toaster by about 1 and the microwave by maybe 3. But when the power shower goes on...it rockets by 10. If your shower runs off the hot water tank then it will obviously be much much less. Hope this makes sense!

How interesting Apple thanks for this info. I asked OH and apparently it does run off the tank. But I'd be geeking out if I had a device like that:T

Bobarella

Well. So far today I have been and upgraded my phone which is a comparable deal to sim only and for the amount of data I use anyway has saved me £20 a month. We did OH too and he has saved £10 a month. Happy with that.

Whilst in Curry's we all tried out the free massage chairs too. I actually do feel amazing now!

Also have put a few more items into the charity bag, bin and recycling bin. Need to get going with this on a daily basis again.