Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

HairyHandofDartmoor

beanielou wrote: »

I want to try to find out if I can claim on a joint PPI policy from an old mortgage. Have no clue.

DH claimed on our old mortgage and our current one. They are both joint ones but he did it with my blessing obviously. There didn't seem to be any information about mortgages, so we thought we'd just go for it on the off chance.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I did my food shop this morning. I spent £70.62p so £10 over budget . I must be turning into a Brexit prepper because I've bought way too many tins of beans and tomatoes :huh: :rotfl:. I need to reign it back a bit next week .

I got a jar of DH's coffee for £5 reduced from £7.49 and a pot of hot chocolate for £2 reduced from £3. We didn't need either of them but I thought they were worth getting to save money in the future. I also got two packs of DS1's cookie crisp cereal. We only need one but they were half price so it seemed worth picking up an extra one.

So there are savings that can be made next week if I'm disciplined. When I think back to the bad old days when I spent around £120 a week, I should be pleased about getting it down to £70 I guess.

This afternoon I want to finish the VAT return and get it submitted. Hopefully the penultimate one I will ever have to do .

DrSpendLittle

OMG HHOD I too had the Brexit prepping chat with DF the other day about bulk buying beans and chopped tomatoes :rotfl: Sort of in jest, but I do reckon people will do this.

I am tempted to have a few extra things in the cupboards if it all goes t*ts up.

We're all going to be be living off lentil curry and baked beans on (from the freezer) toast :rotfl:

HairyHandofDartmoor

DrSpendLittle wrote: »

OMG HHOD I too had the Brexit prepping chat with DF the other day about bulk buying beans and chopped tomatoes :rotfl: Sort of in jest, but I do reckon people will do this.

I am tempted to have a few extra things in the cupboards if it all goes t*ts up.

We're all going to be be living off lentil curry and baked beans on (from the freezer) toast :rotfl:

I didn't even do it on purpose, it was an unconscious action :rotfl:. But maybe it's not a bad idea. Although it's fresh food that could be in short supply. All food prices could go up in theory though I guess.

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

I didn't even do it on purpose, it was an unconscious action :rotfl:. But maybe it's not a bad idea. Although it's fresh food that could be in short supply. All food prices could go up in theory though I guess.

I think you do well with your grocery budget with 3 grown men to feed:T


I think I may have shot myself in the foot with my Spend Nothing on Groceries Month (last day tomorrow:j). One of the main reasons I wanted to do it was to run down stocks of frozen food so I could defrost the main freezer before this year's crops will be ready. Nothing's been planted yet though so it's not as if I'm in a hurry:rotfl:. I was ill last year and didn't give the freezer its annual defrost and the ice build-up (it's an ancient chest freezer with poor insulation now) really needs to be removed. The lid doesn't close well now as all the ice is near the top. I chip bits off whenever I open it but it needs more than that. We've eaten plenty of veg but we do anyway so I still have loads left and the freezer is nowhere near being empty for it's annual scrape. We've eaten a lot batch-cooked meals too and that's made a bit of space but to be honest we're not doing anything much more than usual. I think with this icy weather I could wrap things up well and just put them outside the house until the freezer is defrosted. No danger of anything thawing :rotfl:as I haven't any ice cream or fast-thawing stuff in there.


What I have done is use more of my stored tinned and dried goods which is where I've probably made the mistake as I like to keep a good stock in at this time of year in case of severe weather. The Brexit situation is just adding another variable to the mix. At the end of the week I'm going to have to do a big 'stock up again' shop.;)

HairyHandofDartmoor

We're all going to turn into preppers :rotfl:.

doingitanyway

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

We're all going to turn into preppers :rotfl:.

Now I am panicking. This may be our last month left to prep before Brexit and I have nothing in the budget

HairyHandofDartmoor

doingitanyway wrote: »

Now I am panicking. This may be our last month left to prep before Brexit and I have nothing in the budget

I think there are unlikely to be shortages in reality. Remember what a fuss people made about the millenium bug and people thought all the computers would stop working? :rotfl:.

Its just that reading about it in the press must be giving me the subconscious urge to stock up .

HairyHandofDartmoor

That's the VAT return done and submitted :T. My penultimate one hopefully. Since my mum died DH has been doing them with me as I couldn't face doing them on my own, and I think he's as sick of doing them as I am!

Once we get the tax rebate we can pay what we owe and then we should only have one more to do before we're free from VAT serfdom :T :rotfl:.

I feel like I've swallowed a lot of frogs in the last couple of weeks. So I'm looking forward to going back to my normal routine. I haven't had time to go for a proper walk for ages and we haven't been to a NT place since December. Our NT membership expires tomorrow, but we're planning to renew it once the tax rebate comes .

Tomorrow I have volunteering and in the afternoon I'm looking forward to NOT having to do PPI claims or a VAT return :rotfl:. Instead I can catch up on housework and laundry.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I've been thinking about which of my activites spark joy and the VAT return is definitely not one of them :mad: so I'll be glad to eliminate that from my life.

Being with my family, meeting good friends, working with children, going for walks in lovely scenery, reading a good book, watching a good film with DH, and buying (budgeted for) clothes all spark joy in me.

It would be nice to simplify my life and just do the activities that spark joy. Housework doesn't exactly spark joy :rotfl: but I don't mind doing it because it makes the house a much nicer place to live in for all of us.

You can tell I've been watching Marie Kondo can't you :rotfl: but I'm applying her principles to my activites.