Put away your purse & become debt-averse

HairyHandofDartmoor

It must give you great peace of mind to have your savings pots Foxgloves. I'm sure everyone is worried about the price rises. The worst ones are the ones people have no choice over like council tax, mortgage, rent, etc. At least with food we can buy cheaper products, although for people on a small income who have already cut it right down it's hard to see what savings can be made other than visiting a food bank. We can try to drive less but people still need to get to work somehow. It's really tough on the poorest people and I see great hardship ahead for many. The government haven't a clue what it's like to be poor.

foxgloves

@HairyHandofDartmoor - You are absolutely right about the government not having the first clue about the realities of so many people's lives. The worst thing is that the levels of inequality in the UK is a political choice. The UK is a wealthy country, yet has shocking child poverty levels, to name just one indicator. Food Bank managers are always saying that a great many of the people they see for food parcels are working, but the country has lost thousands upon thousands of jobs paying a sufficient wage to support a family & replaced them with low paid &/or insecure ones. Yes, the minimum wage increases now & again but nowhere near the current rate of inflation & not enough to provide a true living wage. I feel desperately sad for people who are paying enormous rents to live in sh*tholes. Back when I was renting, there was a rent council which would help in cases where unfair amounts were being charged. I once threatened to take a case to them when my landlord tried to increase my rent by 33% in a single year. He backed down & agreed to introduce it much more gradually (which gave me time to move out!) Of course that council was abolished. A significant % of current government MPs are landlords, so no surprise that so many of them voted against measures to make rented accommodation habitable. Despicable state of affairs. Out of interest, I looked up the rentable value of our own home - a modest 3-bedroomed semi in an area with below UK average house prices. I was stunned to find it came out at around £860 per month, a sum which Mr F & I would not be able to afford if we had been renting it instead of buying it. 
We have been talking about driving shorter distances, esp as we saw petrol on sale near here for £154.9 on Saturday, but as you say, the reality is that people have to get to work. Mr F has a 52-mile round trip to work every day, but we are talking about going to fairly local places for leisure visits & not wasting petrol by going on a long journey when the weather isn't good. If we can't have a decent walk & look round when we get there, we've paid petrol for little more than a long distance coffee shop & gift shop visit.
Ah well, as you say, Hairy, a lot of these costs are out of our hands. We will just have to watch those areas of expenditure where we still do have agency.
F x

foxgloves

Greetings Daffodils,
It's been quite a useful day on the domestic financial front today. Mr F is on leave most of this week & is raring to go with moving various jobs on. We've been to a local glass company today & purchased a pane to replace the storm damaged one in my greenhouse. I had no idea what it would cost & was pleasantly surprised when we were charged £8. Mr F has removed the nasty hanging shard & fitted the new panel so I can safely get on with my jobs in there now. We also picked up our new coffee machine (click & collect, which saves p&p or petrol & parking for a city centre trip). Only about 20% of the cost of it to pay from our Appliances Replacement pot because we were able to use the refund we received on the previous faulty one plus several vouchers from surveys & my 'just for points' credit card. Finally onto the builders' merchants to look at sandstone colours  - emailed our choice to builder & asked if he is able to assign us a start date yet. 
Other small wins - successful rubber chicken duties. It did roast chicken yesterday & I've divvied up the rest for cold chicken, chips & salad tonight, chicken & mushroom supreme tomorrow & also some added to some other leftovers as Mr F is apparently keen to concoct another Epic Man Stew on Wednesday which is jacket potato night. Carcass frozen until I have a 2nd one & then they will both go in the SC for stock.
- Only two loads of laundry this week - both done. I am ramping up my use of the 30 degree programme because most washing powders are supposed to be able to cope even with 20 degrees these days, so it seems like an easy way to cut a little electricity use over the year. Like many people, I default to using only a couple of programmes, but today I've tried the wool/handwash programme because I do wash handknits quite often & I noticed that the cycle is 56 minutes shorter than the ordinary 30 degrees one I'd usually use. That's nearly an hour of electricity to power the washer saved multiplied by probably around 50 times per year, actually more than that when you factor in that I wash big things like blankets over the summer months when I can peg them out. All reasonable energy savings considered atm with these huge price hikes on their way.
- Did my regular Monday morning budget updates. Nothing untoward or difficult, just a case of taking half an hour or so to update groceries, personal spends & do a couple of transfers.
- Started a charity bag of (so far) books which meant I have been able to fit in the loose ones sitting on top of shelves. Not money saving to me, but decluttering is always a good motivator.
-Will finish knitting Mr F's stash use-it-up socks tonight (his third pair) & decide on my next no-spend craft project.
- Entered a competition to win a £100 gift card.
Hoping for a cosy night by the fire. Mr F has a cold. he has finally admitted he has one. He hasn't had a cold for almost 20 years & reckons he has some kind of incredible lergy-zapping immune system. Yesterday morning, he would only admit to having 'some symptoms'. These symptoms were a sore throat, lots of sneezing, a runny nose, muzzy head, cough & tiredness. He had tested negative for Covid. I said 'Yes, they are cold symptoms.....because you have A COLD!!' By bed time, he conceded that he had indeed got a cold & deigned to take some cold & flu caplets & find the throat sweets. This is progress, as my suggestion that he takes a couple of paracetamol for say a headache or a pulled muscle is usually treated as though I have offered him class A narcotics. So far, I have no symptoms of getting this cold myself. I hope it stays that way!
Raining here. Hoping for a better day tomorrow so we can drive out somewhere reasonably local for a walk.
Take care all,
F x

foxgloves

Oh, & another little thing......our coffee machine came with a free gift for cats......a large cardboard box! I've put some catnip in there with their toy mouse & they are loving it!
F x

Sun_Addict

My cats love any type of packaging even carrier bags 😆

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Evening foxgloves
I finally got news of a pay rise in my 2 PT public sector jobs (I work a few hours a week) backdated to April 21 - 1.75%! Well below the rate of inflation of course (although that may have been the rate of inflation nearly a year ago when it was due).  I'm not sure if I'll get the same payrise in my FT job.
I have a similar commute to Mr F - we are supposed to be in the office 3 x a week but i'm seeing if i can get away with twice a week as i often go to evening meetings which counts as a double day in my view.... The cost of my commute does worry me very much.
It feels like we are running to stand still at the moment
love Deni x

Baileys_Babe

foxgloves said:

Re grocery budget, I've been thinking about that too - I expect many people are with the cost of living increasing quite dramatically. If there is an underspend on our monthly grocery budget, either I actively via it to a savings pot or different spending category or it is just added back to the general figure & reallocated on next budget day. I'm wondering whether it would be worth me carrying it forward to the next month as that would mean we'd have a bit more on some months, but without me having actually to budget a bigger amount for groceries. 

I ring fence any grocery money I have underspent and use it to bulk buy, make the most of offers or offset price increases 

Humdinger1

@Baileys_Babe yes I do that too! I have an amount per week for groceries and anything left over goes into an everyday savings account linked to my main current account.   The interest rate is truly appalling (0.01% I think) but no interest rate right now is going to get me to Rio! As far as the corner shop, perhaps?  The main points for me are 1.  To show that we can live well and still put some money aside, to keep the LBM embedded and at some level remind myself and celebrate every week  how far I've come 2.  To have a reasonable amount of money to hand for essential emergency purchases.  I do have a bigger emergency fund elsewhere.  Thanks @foxgloves for the wit and reality check I always find on your diary.  Totally agree with your views on poverty being a political choice.  Love Humdinger xx 

foxgloves

@Deni_debt-free_dreamer - Yes, "Running to stay still" is a very good way of putting it. Commuting does take a lot of fuel. Mr F is considering asking if he can WFH one day a fortnight. He is conscious that in his sector, WFH is almost entirely a management privilege & is aware that this is not an option for members of the team he manages. Worrying times for ordinary household budgets, I agree.

@Baileys_Babe - I think that is what I need to do. If we have any underspend on March's grocery budget, I will use it to stock up or take advantage of particularly good offers.

@Humdinger1 - I have a very similar set-up (the linked bank savings account with p*ss-takingly low interest rates) , but it does come in useful as our 'Savings Pots account' - just a single sum lumped in there which is assigned to 10 pots via a trusty Excel spreadsheet. It works for me & that's all I ask of it.
F x

foxgloves

Evening m'dears,
Cats zonked (peacefully sharing armchair without fisticuffs), Mr F still lergyfied & I'm fresh out of a hot bubble bath as felt a bit dusty from greenhouse session.
Unexciting but pleasant day in which we went for a sunny walk & coffee at a local(ish) gorge, made pancakes (only for me as Mr F doesn't rate them) & progressed garden jobs. Did some seed sowing: 1st batch of tomatoes, 2 types of peppers, 2 types of cosmos, apricot foxgloves & cerinthe (saved seed this time, after realising too late last year I'd paid over £3 for a packet of about 8 seeds!!) Moved chilli babies out of little heated propagator to make space for tomatoes & peppers. Aubergines have germinated but need to be a bit bigger before they come out.
Long tailed tits in the garden today, also 1st bumble bee of the year & 4 frogs busy getting it on in our pond. Hope to get out there tomorrow afternoon for more fresh air & Spring jobs. 
F x