Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Coincidentally on the News this morning, somebody from one of the electricity companies was suggesting something along v similar lines to address the energy crisis. He was calling for an emergency govt-funded pot which energy companies could access in order to pay the higher wholesale costs BUT that they would then do a low tariff for first [however many agreed] units, then a higher tariff once this threshold is reached. He also made the point about this also being a potentially greener scheme because it actually benefits people to make their allocation of cheap units last for as far into the year as possible. A scheme like this sounds much more progressive to me than cutting random taxes. The problem here isn't taxation, it's a hugely disfunctional energy market which serves shareholders way better than customers.
F

foxgloves

Hello Campers,
Quick post as I want to put screens down for a while - I woke with a muzzy headache which is lingering & I'm sure looking at screens isn't helping.
A useful, rather than exciting day - frugal activity as follows:
*Baked bread rolls

*Did next week's meal plans, focusing strongly on our own freezer stores & garden produce.
*Wrote grocery shopping list.
*Did 2 surveys thus kicking off September's earnings at £3.47 & more payments pending from last week of Aug.
*Unpacked Presents Stash & made a list in my notebook against names of recipients. It was quite encouraging actually as I've been putting away a few things gradually all year & only need to buy v small things e.g a couple of bottles of local ale, bar of nice choc, box of posh crackers, etc, to add to 3 people's bags to have them finished. I'll keep on at it this month as I can probably accommodate some of the little spends from monthly budget buffer zone, which will save the Presents Pot for other things.
*Sorted through voucher stash ready for city centre trip this weekend. Mr F wants an M&S rugby shirt as he tried one (I suggested this as it seemed warmer than his infuriating '2 t-shirt' effort at winter layers ('eyeroll') Anyway, he found it so useful, he'd like a 2nd one. I intend to use our voucher stash for this, but to via the money saved from the ones earned from surveys to the Presents Pot as this will cover our middle nephew's birthday money perfectly.
*Sewed shoulder & side seams on my black cardi & picked up stitches for first (top down) sleeve. Very mindless knitting so can do it while watching TV. 
*Garden pickings: Lettuce. Other stuff needs picking but I've planned it in for tomorrow.
*Not much effort required for tonight's nosebag as I made 2 additional pork & apple burgers last night, which will be served in home baked cobs with salad. It was that lean pork mince offer I got - 2kg for £5. It froze well & has made lots of nice meals 
Right, that's me done with screens for a few hours.
Love F x

Makingabobor2

Can I ask which survey sites you use Foxgloves? I was recommended Ipsos, which started of great, but now I just get screened out of all of them. 

kayannie

foxgloves said:

Evening Wednesday Pence-Wranglers,
Absolutely nothing of any interest to report today. A few small bits of energy saving this morning - two baths from one fill of hot water (haven't noticed any difference from Mr F turning down that dial on the front of the boiler as recommended by energy-saving bods), removed 3 garments from ironing pile as decided they didn't look too wrinkly, & eschewed the hair straighteners in favour of scrunch-drying.
Other money saving efforts very much of the old-style variety:
Did garden pickings (spring onions, mint & blackberries), took jellybag down from on high & jammed contents into a batch of apple & mint jelly. Found some carrots which said 'Hey, we're still here, you know, & we might start getting bendy tomorrow", so prepped & froze them. Did some knitting, did 2 surveys & cashed out P/A for August at £36.01. 
Positive things:
i. Nephew is a lot better. Was only in hospital for 3 days but is still having to go in every day as an out-patient for IV antibiotics.
ii. Tonight's meal included heaps of stuff we've grown ourselves (beans, tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers, garlic, red onions, apple & rosemary- plus our pears in my home made pear chutney) & I felt proud, as well as grateful that I have sufficient space to grow some food.
iii. Finished knitting the first front of my black cardi & when I had folded it & was putting it away in my knitting basket, I found not one finished piece in there, but TWO. I had actually already knitted one of the fronts, so the one I finished today was the 2nd one!! That means I can sew the shoulders & part of the side seams tomorrow then pick up armhole stitches for the first sleeve. What a numpty......glad I found it, it's boring to knit (mostly plain stocking stitch) so imagine how I'd be cussing myself all the names under the sun if I'd gone ahead & knitted a third one! (Oh & @milann, if you're reading, I do sometimes find knitting black yarn is tricky on the eye, but this is ok as big needles - 8mm, Worst to knit is black mohair, which I did a lot of in the 1980s when I knitted jumpers for fellow studes to supplement my student grant)
Negative thing:
Was reading something on my phone this afternoon & the back felt a little rough. I turned it over & discovered it had smashed. It wasn't broken yesterday so must have happened today. An utter mystery though, as I don't recall dropping it, standing on it, crushing it or anything else. It's been sitting on the kitchen dresser minding its own business for most of the day. I am hoping if I can keep it intact (it's impact damage from a central point such as you'd get from hurling brick at a window), that the phone repair shop in town might be able to do something with it. I do need it, as we don't have a landline. So that's an annoying bit of expense I would rather do without, especially as I have not the faintest clue how it happened. Ah well, such is life.
Looking forward to 'Shetland' on TV & an early night.
F x

This reminded me of a friend who was knitting a jumper. It took far more wool than the pattern said. It was only when she sewed the garment up that she realised that she'd made 3 sleeves! 
KA

Humdinger1

I am not a handy type at all @foxgloves...how I wish I were! At school, it took 5 attempts to cut out panels of a fine needlecord skirt with the nap all going the same way....

Sun_Addict

The energy scheme sounds like a great idea, something has to be done asap. I used to knit years ago and once made myself a black mohair jumper with pink flowers, which was very ambitious for a beginner. The black wool hairs got everywhere even in my mouth. I don’t have the patience these days to make anything but it’s very satisfying to wear something you’ve made yourself. 

ladyholly

I think in my case I would be embarrassed to wear something I have made.

sarah_diamond

ladyholly said:

I think in my case I would be embarrassed to wear something I have made.

Popping out of lurkdom to say, I also thought this but having learnt to crochet in January 2020 and completing a couple of blankets, I’m planning a few jumpers for this winter. I’ve had some good feedback in my knit and natter sessions about how nice my blankets are so I think if the garments look rubbish, I’ll just wear them for home working. 

Going back ages, Foxgloves how is the outside light from the big orange diy store going? I need to get one and meant to ask earlier. 

Sun_Addict

When I used to make and knit my own clothes they definitely wouldn’t have passed any quality control 🤣 If I dropped a stitch I just used to sew up the hole afterwards. 

foxgloves

Hi - thanks for all your comments, which it is always nice to get. It amazes me so many people stick with my ramblings about budgeting & life in general (but mostly pertaining to my simple lifestyle & pence-wrangling).

@QueenJess - It's difficult when the 'main culprit' isn't you. Sweet that your little boy thought he needed to switch his nightlight off....you must be making headway there with energy-saving messages. I've noticed the kitchen lights are slipping back into being on when I can't see that they're necessary, but tbf, Mr F is saving energy on other areas, taking up my suggestions & coming up with some of his own. He's changed a few settings on things recently - the boiler, TV, etc, to lower energy use & has stopped insisting the outside light is switched on after dark 'for security'. I think us being at home is the best thing for security, but we've had to agree to disagree on that in the past. For every 25 times I switch the bloody thing off, he'd turn it on 26 times! I just imagined we'd have it on when opening the door to visitors at night, going out to the bins or on the rare occasion we are out late & need to see to unlock the door on our return. As the budgeter in the relationship, I had a really serious conversation with Mr F about the coming energy rises & said that the truth of the matter is that while changes to other aspects of our budget, & then lifestyle, are inevitable because of the steepness of the increased tariffs, our first line of defence going forward is reducing what we use. He could see how serious I was & has taken it on board. I think he thought we wouldn't be affected for a good while because of our high credit balance but we will burn through that pretty quickly once the heating goes on in October. So you could try scaring your partner with the actual figures......it seems to have worked for me!

@RoseBernecia - Thanks. I was so annoyed about my smashed phone, esp as I have no idea how it happened! I am actually going to get it repaired but have borrowed Mr F's stronger case in the interim few days so that it isn't damaged further. And then I'd better buy a stronger one myself!

@Makingabobor2 - Hi, at the moment I use Ipsos & Prolific Academic. I do reasonably well from both of them. Getting screened out for being the wrong demographic is inevitable with survey sites, but I agree it's annoying. I prefer Prolific because they are academic surveys (as the name suggests!) so I feel I'm helping people with their research & the subject matter is very varied. I cashed out £36 on PA (August earnings) & already have over £9 towards my September total. I usually cash out Ipsos each time I have enough for a voucher. 

@kayannie - Lol, well I nearly matched her with my 3 cardigan fronts, didn't I?!

@Humdinger1 - Oh my days.....yes 'nap'  - that takes me back to school needlework lessons. I made the most hideous bright red maxi-skirt. God knows what happened to that, because I wouldn't wear it as a shroud now. Used to waste most of the double lesson either waiting in the queue for the sewing machines or struggling to thread the bobbin properly. 

@Sun_Addict - Back in the 1980s when we were all knitting mohair, the tip was to put it in a carrier bag & bung it in the freezer. It was supposed to reduce the shedding. I don't know if it actually did work or not, as I didn't fancy all those fibres getting into my food.

@sarah_diamond - Welcome! Defo worth trying some jumpers then. I can only crochet very basic stuff, but I'm a good & confident knitter. I used to splurge way too much money in yarn shops back in the Spendy Era, but am a reformed character these days. 
Re the outside light. The one we had replaced by our front door in 2020 is working well, but as for the solar-powered motion sensor one, which I think is the ones you mean? Well, we still don't actually have one! Coincidentally, I only mentioned this to Mr F very recently, & as he is on leave next week, he says he is planning on going to have a look at some possibilities. I think I might go too, as the Exchequer half of the relationship. He still seems to think he can fit them himself, but having a look at different possibilities before buying will hopefully flag up any potential difficulties. 

F x