Frugal, thrifty, make do, mend! Let this debt come to an end!

Elisheba

Evening, all,

A quick update my weekend list -

🕯️Go over mealplan and shopping list and make sure they are up to date ✅

🕯️Big shop in big town ✅

🕯️Have a proper nosy around big town and it's shops. Possibly visit the cathedral. Decided against this in the end 
🕯️Walk dog ✅
🕯️Take down Xmas decorations ✅
🕯️Empty the last two boxes ✅

🕯️Put things away in the garage❌

🕯️See what I can do with trolley to get it fixed❌

🕯️Empty recycling into correct bins and out all bins out✅

🕯️Hoover house✅

🕯️Change bedding if I get the chance❌ I did get all the bedding moved onto the airing cupboard, from some drawers downstairs, so will change bedding some point this week

🕯️Clean bathroom - partially cleaned. Will do rest during the week. also cleaned washing machine which was off piste but much needed

🕯️Church ✅

🕯️Pick up dog poo in garden✅
🕯️Put up some pictures❌
🕯️Have a look at spare room bed to see if I can reconstruct it.❌
🕯️Finish book Started a different book instead 😳
🕯️Bake some buns for snacks❌

🕯️Bake bread in bread maker to see if out of date breadflour still good✅ Flour still works despite being out of date! Yay!
 

List for upcoming week -

🕯️Finish cleaning bathroom

🕯️Change bedding

🕯️Wash and dry bedding
🕯️Dust

🕯️Finish both books

🕯️Bake some buns for snacks

🕯️Take boxes to garage

 
That's all I can think of for now, but I'll add to it as I remember things.

I had a think about the Chase account and it won't work for me right now. I don't have to pay overdraft charges currently because the Amex comes out on the 28th, and I out any money over and above the OD in an instant access saving account with 5.12% interest and just transfer over anything I spend which isn't on the Amex. So having to transfer over a lump sum at the start of the month to Chase would't work for me. I'll bear it I'm kind for the future though.

Interesting finding with your heating experiment @suzeqstan I've always been pretty certain GCH was the cheaper option (not sure about oil though), so open fires and now my woodburner are more indulgences for me than anything else.

I decided on balance not to worry about the Mr A undercharge. As @beanielou said, it's not a small company so there's no real harm done.

Thats a great idea regarding a cane in the oil tank @fionaandphil. I don't currently have a cane, but shall try to acquire one frugally. Eyeballing the tank it's still very full and I doubt I've used 100 litres so far, so no real rush.

The book I started (re)reading is Nancy Birtwhistle's Clean and Green, and feeling inspired I've ordered more washing soda, green bleach, surgical spirit, vegetable glycerine, and salt (although that's mainly because I just need more salt). I could do with more liquid soap but can't find it at a decent price, so it can wait. I've got loads of bicarb and vinegar left, although do need to bring some bicarb in from the garage for use. I could probably do with some more essential oils to make it all smell nice, but it's not a priority.

What I've decided to do with bulk purchases is decide roughly how long they will last for and divide the total by that many months, and then deduct that from each month's budget for that pot.  That way I won't end up short this month (obviously it's paid upfront, but that money is designated in the long term to other things).

I remembered to rewaterproof my waking boots so they are drying on the mantlepiece. While digging out the waterproofer I found another bottle of waterproofer that is dated 2004 if I'm reading it correctly 😳. I'm not sure if that's right though, as in 2004 I had my old leather Brasher boots that lasted forever and never let in any water, so not sure why I would have bought it then. Anyway, I didn't use it but I didn't throw it away either 😂.

Right, I'm off to bed to read a bit more before I fall asleep. Hope everyone's weekend has been awesome, and you are wrapped up cosy tonight. Temp where I am is due to drop to -1, and feel like -4 😬.

Makingabobor2

I had Nancy's book for Christmas and just about to think about writing a list of the things I can order in bulk like soda crystals etc. I normally buy from local shop, apart from white vinegar which I've always ordered in bulk, but think ordering in bulk works out cheaper in the end. Its just about re-allocating funds from different places...lol  

Elisheba

Just popping on to report a few spends.  Ordered a 100ml bottle of lavender oil and a 100ml bottle of rose oil off T£mu for the cleaning recipes.  Its my first T£mu purchase so will see what its like.  It was a £10 minimum spend, so I added a pack of some warm Nordic socks in a pattern similar to ones I have already, and which have lasted for several years so far.  

Then I went to the Post Office and sent off a Big River return, and posted my ex's half of spotty cats remains.  I ordered them in two separate little caskets as he had asked if we could share them.  That was a weird one to explain to the cashier when she was asking about value    

Elisheba

Afternoon, thrifty friends,

I climbed a hill at lunchtime with silly dog, so feeling very virtuous.  My new walking pole came in VERY handy getting down.  My balance is shocking for various reasons and the pole made me feel much more secure. I can't use two as need to keep silly dog on the lead near people and livestock, so only have one hand free a lot of the time, but one seems to be doing the trick. Really glad getting the pair of them was a useful purchase! I keep one in the car and one in my porch so always one to hand when I go out walking.

In very dull news I made a s/s on Google Sheets to track my energy use and costs as I don't have a smart meter and can't get one fitted for some reason. I was prompted to do this by receiving yet another final bill from OVO, this time with the correct readings so I paid it.  By me reckoning I actually owe them about £1 more than they charged in the end, but its been so complicated to sort out I am not going to argue with them.

Lessons from the s/s are that in the first 2 weeks in the new house I used a fair bit more kwh per day of electricity than I have used since.  That makes sense as I wasn't paying much attention to what I was using when I first moved in.  I'm using 5.38kwh a day on average (1963.7kwh per year), which translates to £2.20 a day with standing charge and VAT, or £803 a year, or £66.92 a month.  I've set my DD up for £70 a month so that should be fine.  I do hope there is a 15% drop in kwh prices come  April, as that'll save me a little bit. My bill says my expected use for the year is 5454.1kwh! That's 3490.4kwh more than I expect to use based on current figures! Goodness knows what the previous tenants were up to! I'm not sure when the heating moved over to oil, possibly only a few years ago, so maybe that explains it.

I'm also going to challenge myself to see if I can get that daily average of 5.38kwh to drop a bit. Little things I've thought of to help include -
Only keeping my laptop on to charge in the mornings (and charging my phone etc. off it then rather than leaving them to charge overnight), then unplugging it from the power in the afternoon so I'm not paying to constantly top it up.  Obvious stuff like turning everything I can off at the wall when I'm not using it.
Leaving pasta, rice etc. to cook in boiled water with a lid on, rather than putting the ring on to keep it at a rolling boil.  Showering less often - although I've struggled with this one in the past as I do like a shower to wake me up in the morning, but I'll try every other day and see how I get on.
I already run my radio from my laptop during the day rather then a separate digital radio
I'm going to try shorter and cooler wash cycles for my clothes when they aren't very dirty, rather than the eco cycle at 40 degrees.  Maybe do my towels and bedding at 60 degrees rather than a boil wash.
I'm going to try my dishwasher's shorter cycle and see how things looks, but not sure if the eco proper cycle is better.

In other news I did a few sums last night regarding diesel and mpg, and have upped my budget to £200 a month. What I need to do is fill in a s/s over a few months to work out average miles I'm doing per month and a proper mpg average per month,  so I have set up a rough one and will see how it comes out. When I get a chance I'll also actually write down the sums I did for work journeys, and then adjust the budget accordingly for those months where I'm travelling to work 5 times a month, or maybe only 3 due to bank holidays or something like that.  A budget is only worth its salt if its as accurate as I can make it in advance.  

I also increased all my bills from April onwards by 5% in the budget, with broadband and mobile increased by 10%, and dog insurance by a guess as who knows how much that will increase by! I know I'll get some type of work pay increase, but probably won't see it until January if previous years are any indication, so the budget is very tight now.  All the money I had hoped to put away for camping holidays is gone, although I have added my friends 40th to my annuals as I need to pay for that one way or another.  Before I was hoping I'd pay less for the car and oil than I've budgeted for, now I really need to if I want to maintain my standard of living. I've had to cut my food and personal budget to £80 each for some months to make ends meet, and I'm not sure how feasible that is.   

However, depressing as that is, at least I know! The costs would be there whether I had budgeted for them or not, but I may well not be in a position to pay them without the budget! I'm adding things to my annual list as I think of them, because I really don't want any surprises this year.  It would be great if I can look back this time next year and totally understand my 2023 spending, and that everything had been covered.  That's the challenge for this year - gat the budget as accurate as possible and stick to it!

I made pizza dough yesterday but wasn't very hungry in the evening so it'll be pizza with onions, olives, mushrooms' and feta tonight, and 3 balls of dough are bagged up in the freezer for when I fancy pizza again. I made carrot and bean soup yesterday - it was a bit bland tbh, but it'll do for another couple of lunches with some HM bread.  The bread is a bit heavy as the flour is out of date but its tastes okay.  Not sure what dinners for the rest of the week will be but I have a list so will just pick some things off that.

Hope everyone is dry and warm.  The forecast promised snow last night but it never appeared which I am sad about.  Now all my Scotland travels are done I am ready for the next '47/8 or '62/3 big freeze!  I may have been watching too many Channel 5 documentaries   

Elisheba

Just a quick addition to say I have done the sums for fuel properly now, and for a 296 mile return journey to work via the motorway, with fuel efficiency of 44.5mpg galleon, and diesel at £1.449 a litre (which I can get at one garage near work) that's £43.77 a journey, and I'm giving my self an extra £25 a month for running around diesel ( although that might end up more if I visit friends who are currently all quite far away).

It is cheaper to do the cross country route which is about 200 miles rather than 296, even thought he fuel efficiency goes down to more like 35mpg.  So when its lighter I'll maybe do the cross country route more often, even if its just in the morning when I'm more awake.  I can also work on improving the fuel efficiency a bit - pretty certain hitting 90mph on the motorways at times isn't very efficient, even if its quicker!

I know I'm environmental and all, but I really do hope fuel prices go down a bit this year.  

beanielou

Certainly not ready for a big Scottish freeze 🥶 

SuzeQStan

£43.77 per journey! Thank goodness it’s only once a week!! Have you tried running bimonthly visits past powers that be? Surely they would rather that than lose you!!?!?

 Hanging on till spring joining you in 🤞🏻 for cheaper energy prices 

Elisheba

Good morning, moneysaving troops,

No, honestly I am not ready for a big freeze either @beanielou! A couple of days of pretty snow I could just about deal with, but that's about all 

I know, @SuzeQStan, Its ridiculous really.  I naively thought it would be about £25 a journey when I moved here, but in reality it is almost double  .  No wiggle room at the moment regaridng how often I go in.  My boss likes the idea of us all getting together once a week, and had a chat with me before I moved about how I needed to be able to manage that in all but extreme circumstances.  Granted last Friday probably was an extreme circumstance but the flooding had gone down where I was, and it being so soon after my move I wanted to show willing.

I've been playing around with my spreadsheets more, and adding things to annuals budget as I remember them.  I think I'll have to reduce my debt repayments slightly to make ends mean over the year which is a bit annoying. I'll only know for sure when i have solid figures on the National Insurance reduction, and April pay award.  Still, at least I kow what's coming and can manage it.

Old fashioned money saving day today by dint of not needing to spend anything. Breakfast was hm muesli/porridge.  Lunch will be hm carrot and bean soup and hm bread, and dinner will be another hm pizza.  I thought I would try cooking the pizza in the Instant Pot multicooker on bake last night, and it worked out really well although it was very small to fit!  So I have the other half of the dough I left out the freezer for tonight, but might supplement it with some garlic bread and maybe a small salad (although I don't have much in the way of fresh veg). I might try it as a calzone in future to be a bit more filling.

House wise I need to clean the bathroom, and maybe a quick run round downstairs with a hoover.  I'll do a local lunchtime walk so won't drive anywhere which will save a few pennies.

Hope everyone is having a decent Wednesday and not pining for Friday evening too much!

Cheery_Daff

Definitely pining for Thursday evening here (I don't work Fridays) 😂😂

SuzeQStan

Have got to say your homemade meals are sounding so good!  Calzone indeed!! 🤗😋

im off this week so am dojng my usual ‘I could get used to this not working lark’ - just think - everyday could be like Friday Eve! 🤣 but if you ask my DPs they are busier than ever especially since becoming octogenarians!!!