2019 Frugal Living Challenge

Treasurequeen

OLaney wrote: »

Getting out (of) debt
Hi All
Not been a good month so far...
Have had some health issues and have had to take 2 days off work and we do not get sick pay....
Had to have my beloved cat put to sleep so that was a really rubbish weekend emotionally and financially....but he was very poorly bless him and was the right thing to do.

Sorry Olaney sending hugs

Spent this evening sorting out spends so far this year. January and February have all been within budget with money left over going into a savings account. I have enough pet food for my cat to last until end of may, all got through offers and loyalty schemes.

i have done a full inventory of freezer, fridge and cupboards so dont need to get much food this month.

I havent got any tv at moment the communal sky dish is faulty on the roof after the storm and they cant get up there until the wind settles down. So i have been sorting out the budgets and reading books. I have freeview and i players through smart tv which isnt so bad.

Kerry_Woman

OLaney - Sending you hugs.

Dave_Saver

Going out for a birthday meal on Friday night. I plan to do a no spend week from Saturday to bring my budget back in line.

stirchleygirl

OLaney

Sorry to hear about your cat - sending hugs
Hope you're feeling better soon - that a bit rubbish that you don't get any sick pay :-(

Shopaholic_no_more

Thank you Stirchleygirl, Kerry Woman and Treasurequeen.

No unfortunately I do not get sick pay not even if you’ve been there a good few years! ��

stirchleygirl

My PA was back today after having 2 weeks annual leave HURRAY!!!!! (had an agency covering whilst she was off).
She has made 2 x packed lunches for me to take to work tomorrow and Friday containing my usual fruit, yoghurt, fresh home made fruit salad, homemade egg mayo and homemade potato salad (boiled pots, chopped red onions and mayo - yummy) for work lunches plus a large tub of it in the fridge for me to raid when I'm not at work.
She also made up a largish bowl of salad including the crunchy items from last week to use them all up that I'll eat when at home and have the luxury of plenty tine in which to eat it.
Anyway thanks to your kind 'non crunchy and cold' food suggestions she has made me 2 fruit smoothies (in the large containers that go on my blender) for me to take to work tomorrow and Friday. Also I followed the frugal advice on defrosting things in fridge(put a selection of frozen veg in the fridge last night) and not paying for extra fuel for the longer cooking time (when cooking straight from frozen). She made 2 batches of veg soup (as the bag of mixed 'casserole' veg wouldn't all fit in the soup maker in one go and as it was defrosted it needed to be used) one just with the veg water a spoon full of marm1te and some veggie gravy granules and one with the veg some soya milk, turmeric and some curry powder. So I also have soup (that I will eat cold due to my being stuck on overly hot) to take to work (in the small blender container) tomorrow and she will fill it back up tomorrow evening ready for Friday.
She dished me up a hot bowlful (straight from the machine) for lunch today and she dished up a bowl and stored it in the microwave ready for me to 'nuke' this evening (I only have her come for evening calls on the 2 days that I have to go and work 'on-site') for my tea (as previously mentioned I can have hot food when at home as I'm not wearing clothes and don't have heating on which helps lower my body temp).
There was enough left over that she has split it up into 4 single portion containers (2 of each soup type) in the fridge that I can raid when I'm not at work and have it either hot or cold. :-)
We also had to start a new bottle of mouthwash and it was an extra strong one (which I wouldn't buy as it's too tingly - but it came as a substituted item in my supermarket shop delivery) so after recovering from gasping at how super tingling my mouth was I promptly did the MS/OS thing of tipping half of it in the empty bottle that had just been finished and topping both bottles up with water :-)
We also went through the cleaning supplies with her and as we were out of anti-bacterial spray I asked her to get an old empty spray bottle that lives under the kitchen sink and empty the last bit of disinfectant into it and top it up with water and use that for cleaning my food tray and trolley.
When that's finished I'll get her to half fill the spray bottle with some of the anti-bacterial soap (I bought a 5 litre plaster container of it from Amaz0n last year to use in my bathroom and kitchen motion detecting soap dispensers) that I already have and then she can top in up with water. for use on the tray and trolley.
When she has finished off the floor cleaner (uses top mop the bathroom (laminate) tiny hall (lino which was an offcut that my Dad gave me years ago so very MS) and kitchen (original c1930's terracotta tiles that she exposed last year [I knew they were there] when I asked her to pull up the old c1960/70's lino that had now got too many holes in it for me to tape over and had become a trip hazard to me - which a friend of mine is slowly removing all the lino glue and 'red tile' paint from for me) I'm going to buy the much recommended MS/OS Stardr0ps to use on the floors and almost everywhere else.
So I am now feeling extremely smug with putting some ideas that I have been getting off the various threads that I have been reading recently.

sashacat

Delurking, if that’s ok. Been following for years but not posting.
I drive a lot so am in the AA. I have their “gold” cover and I got my renewal letter today. It was for £220 ish.
I rang them and told them I wanted to cancel (as per advice on this site) and meant it. I cannot afford £220.
They said straightaway “we can offer you a reduction of 40%”. That was nearly £90 off.
If they can afford to do that they are clearly overcharging. I was really annoyed because the original price was obviously a rip off.
I cancelled and got nearly identical cover for £38.elsewhere.

sistercas

sashacat wrote: »

Delurking, if that’s ok. Been following for years but not posting.
I drive a lot so am in the AA. I have their “gold” cover and I got my renewal letter today. It was for £220 ish.
I rang them and told them I wanted to cancel (as per advice on this site) and meant it. I cannot afford £220.
They said straightaway “we can offer you a reduction of 40%”. That was nearly £90 off.
If they can afford to do that they are clearly overcharging. I was really annoyed because the original price was obviously a rip off.
I cancelled and got nearly identical cover for £38.elsewhere.

Well done that’s a huge saving, could I ask which company you went with?

PipneyJane

OLaney wrote: »

Getting out (of) debt


Hi All


Not been a good month so far...


Have had some health issues and have had to take 2 days off work and we do not get sick pay....
Had to have my beloved cat put to sleep so that was a really rubbish weekend emotionally and financially....but he was very poorly bless him and was the right thing to do.


And it is only the 7th March hey ho looks like I am going to be chasing some extra work hours this month once I am up and running again.


But, my shopping budget has improved drastically since I have been spending cash only and not wasting it on impulse supermarket buys so that gets a thumbs up from me


And my credit card is still lying dormant in my purse!! Yay

Firstly, O'Laney, I'm so sorry to hear about your cat. My condolences. Big hugs to you.

Secondly, congratulations to you for not using your credit card. You've had a crappy month so far and yet you've been strong enough to resist the urge to spend. Well done, you!

earthgirl wrote: »

Coming out of lurkdom here because I have a really alarming situation in my family.

I have a close family member (saver) married to a spender. It's very very unhealthy for the whole family there. The adults are clinically depressed and the teen showing signs of anxiety too. There's nothing I can do to help as if I give money it gets spent on nail treatments etc and if I give advice I'm seen as being condescending (Maybe because I'm TOO frugal and they think I'm a freak). Its really really tough for them as a family.

They normally can't make it through the month without going into overdraft/borrowing from others and have thousands of pounds of debt, bith with good jobs about £75,000 in/year. Its very worrying.

supersaver1000 wrote: »

Frugaldom, sorry I have just realised that this is a thread about Frugal living. Apologies I just felt strongly about Earthgirl's post and wanted to reply. If you want me to delete it or move it please let me know, I don't want to hijack your thread.

Earthgirl that is so caring of you to be concerned about your family member.

I married a spender (I won't go into that here) but my brother in law used to deliberately encourage him to spend in front of me and then smirk when I used to try and rein it in. He obviously enjoyed me squirming because I was clearly too embarrassed to reveal the extent of our debts. In fact he even brought up DH's excessive spending the other day and smirked - nice person!

On reflection it was even worse because BIL is a huge saver and investor and, working in the finance industry, was definitely aware of what he was doing. Its such a shame because if BIL had been like you it would have been an awesome support and maybe DH could possibly have had his LBM much earlier and saved our family some of the distress that being in debt creates.

My problem was that I was in charge of the 'bookkeeping' but didn't have control of the finances and DHs excessive spending kept me busy trying to balance the books. Eventually I had a LBM (one of many) that involved giving DH pocket money of around £300 a month (I know it sounds a lot, but he could put £1000 a month on the credit card without even thinking about it). Once the pocket money was in place I felt I finally had control of the spending.

My initial target was to see the school years through and get us solvent enough for me to be independent - and although I never said that, I think DH somehow sensed it - which I believe prompted his own LBM. DH now regrets wasting so much money - and even likes shopping in our local Aldi! We are still together but I will never get into that situation again and DH needs to work his A$$ off now to make up for it!

I'm so sorry that the teen is having to witness the anxiety about money - I did my best to protect mine, but you can't fully cover it up. In fact I involved mine in the money saving/debt repaying process and wish I had been as financially aware at that age. Unfortunately, with the parents you can't make them have their lightbulb moments. Rather than give money that is spent on frivolous stuff, can you perhaps pay a bill off, or buy some food. Or perhaps put it into the teens account?

I think just by being there when they decide to reach out is all you can do, and believe me that is a lot.

Earthgirl and Supersaver1000, I just wanted to say that I don't believe that you've hijacked the thread. On the contrary - part of becoming frugal is learning to cope with spendthrifts, particularly family members.

Supersaver1000, your BIL sounds like a right piece-of-work. I'm amazed you're still on speaking terms. Congratulations for turning your husband to the Light Side of frugality.

I know it's a hard thing to hear but, Earthgirl, the only thing you can do for your family members is to offer them a cup of tea when they hit rock bottom. Until then, any gifts of money or bills paid for them will just encourage them to see your income as theirs to abuse and you with it.

If you don't think it'd alienate them, encourage both the adults to seek counselling, both individually and as a couple. I'm speculating with limited facts, but it's possible that the spendthrift's behaviour is a form of abuse - their way of hitting back at the saver, perhaps coupled with nastier, verbal abuse when the saver complains, all justified by the Spendthrift in terms of "(S)he was controlling and hurting my ego". It's also possible that they're trying to self-medicate by shopping, getting a temporary "fix" rather than confronting their real problems (worries about debt, low self-esteem driving "keeping-up-with-the-Jones'" behaviour, etc).

If the either of the above is true, then no wonder the Saver is depressed. There are deeper issues here than just money worries and I would not be surprised if that marriage ends in bitter divorce.

- Pip

sashacat

Sister, I finally went with Greenflag.
I looked on their website and opted for the top scheme which came out at £41ish. I thought this can’t be right so I rang them and went through it with them.
I didn’t want and don’t need the European cover because I never take my car to mainland Europe, although I do go the the Republic of Ireland. I also don’t need to be personallyg covered in other cars because the only other car I drive is my partners ( he lives 120 miles away) and he is in the AA.
So the fellow on the phone answered all my questions and said £38 something. And the cover is the same.
What really annoyed me is the AA just saying they can reduce the price by 40%. This shows me that the original quoted price was a rip off.