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

Elisheba

Morning, frugal folks,

The calzone last night worked out really well @SuzeQStan.  Will definitely be doing that again.  Two minutes to assemble, and 10 minutes in the airfryer so super quick and easy (as long as you have made the dough in advance - I just use my breadmaker). I too often think how nice it would be not to work, although I suppose I do gain some necessary social interaction from work.  If I was a woman of leisure I think I I might sit of my sofa and read all day  .

Money saving wins from yesterday -

• I finally got my address updated with the dog insurance.  I couldn't find the acknowledgement for the email I sent a month ago so couldn't get it back dated.  But that's £5 a month saved until it renews in March, and then its anyone's guess!

• I cancelled Netflix (£4.99 a month) and National Trust (£5.50 a month).  I'm just not using them much and with this year being tighter after the house move I need the money more than they do.

• Got an email my 3 months free YouTube premium was coming to an end so cancelled that.  I did quite like it as I watch a lot of YouTube and listen to music on it, but £12 is more than I'm prepared to pay for it.

• It wasn't a NSD in the end as I saw the deal for 160 odd summer bulbs on Martin's email for £10, so I bought them.  Should bring some lovely colour to the gardens come summer. That has come out the Household Annual Pot

In other news, the surgical spirit I ordered for cleaning has arrived but because its from a horse supplier they have put castor oil in it to soften skin and help stop cracking.  That may be very good for horses hooves but I suspect it will make my cleaning streaky so I'll need to return it.

Other than that I spent my evening with the fire lit, reading a very interesting book called A Foot in the Bucket by Jenny Green, which I got from the library.   She moved with her family to a remote hill smallholding in Wales back in 1972. Neither of them even had a driving licence when they first moved, and passing the test was just a matter of a few lessons (passing my test in 2007 took me 2 years of lessons and cost me a LOT of money).  When they had to drive to the hospital one night in terrible weather the road they drove on was on a very steep mountainside and had no barrier at the edge! 

It is so interesting seeing how things have changed - a 4 bedroom smallholding with several acres cost them about £8k.  Milk was in bottles to be collected from the village 2 1/2 miles away (they were too far out for delivery), and the tiny village had a shop, post office and pub.  It was only a few years before I was born, and I forget sometimes how different things were when I was growing up, without mobile phones and the internet.  In some ways things now are easier and more convenient, but not necessarily always better.

I have been very lazy I am afraid and done nothing round the house.  I've been feeling quite tired and unmotivated - not the black dog thankfully, just a combination of the busyness of the house move and Xmas, and no downtime as I've used all my annual leave.  Just got to keep plodding along and not put any pressure on myself and I'm sure I'll perk up eventually. Oh I just remembered - I did sort out all my winter woolies at last.  So I have a wicker basket down stairs with the hats, scarves and gloves I'm likely to wear, and two old suitcases in my bedroom with summer scarves and bits, and stuff I rarely wear.  

Today I need to prep for the office tomorrow, which means packing up my laptop, making a packed lunch, looking out everything I'll need in the morning, and heading to bed at 8pm for a 5am start.  I'll finish work at 5pm today rather than 6pm so I can have some downtime.  HM carrot and bean soup again for lunch and the last of the HM bread, and not sure about dinner.  I'll see what I fancy.  

Happy Thursday-ing, folks, and not long till the end of the week - especially for you @Cheery_Daff, you lucky thing, finishing on a Thursday! 

Cheery_Daff

I know - dropping to four days a week is a luxury I don't take for granted, and one I plan to sustain for as much of my working life as possible! 😂 I did it at my old job, then went full time again when I got this one for about 6 years, but managed to drop again a couple of years ago. If I get my new job I will likely go full time again, but will aim to get my Fridays back ASAP! 😂 (I admit full time money would be welcome though... 🙄)

Sounds like you have made good progress on admin and financial things, well done! 😊 Not surprised you're tired though after your move. Hope you get a proper bit of rest soon x

SuzeQStan

Hope the driving not too onerous today Elisheba xx

Glad it’s not the black dog but if you feel yourself heading that way please do speak up. 

Know it’s early days since the move but reaching out to groups like the WI etc and meeting new people in village and surrounding is important to gain a sense of home.  You are too lovely to keep yourself to yourself xx

One thought about the driving - Friday traffic - any chance you could change your working at physical premises day or does that change week to week?

Elisheba

Good evening, Saturday savers,

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I'm in front of the fire with a cup of tea, and vaguely considering reheating some ravioli in a hm sauce I defrosted yesterday.

Hope you get the new job @Cheery_Daff and can finagle it into a 4 day week somehow. Back in 2020 I did a 9 day fortnight, and with judicial use of Flexi and annual leave, managed to get that down to a 4 days week. As it was fulltime hours though, it was very long days, and I wasn't making enough use of the day off so I went back to 5 days again.

Thanks @SuzeQStan Sadly no leeway on working days in the office. My boss is quite old school, and I think if he had his way we'd be in the office 5 days a week 🙄. 

Yesterday's drive to work was aborted, as an hour into it I got stuck on a road that had just been closed due to an a accident. It was a dual carriage way, so no way off or to turn. I was stuck there for two hours with no movement, so when it eventually opened I just drove home again. Figured at least that way I'd get a day's work done, rather than sauntering into the office at lunchtime. So 4 hours in the car to go nowhere in the end, but I wasn't complaining as it meant a much easier day for me!

I have had a vague look at things to join. Definitely interested in the WI, but it's meeting during the day in winter so might wait until it's back to evenings again. I have been going to a local church, and the people there seem very nice. There are drama classes locally but they are on a Thursday night, and as I really do need to go to bed early to get up at 5am on Friday I don't think they'll work out for me.

Today was a lovely day. I drove to a local town and went to a jumble sale. Got 4 fairly large jars for my HM cleaning products, a jigsaw, and a cup of coffee and a pancake. Then drove to another town and took back 3 library books, and took out eleven more ☺️. Most reference, on gardening, crafts and crochet as I'm looking for new year inspiration.

I must say a quick browse through and I'm very glad I didn't buy some of the craft books. The pictures may be very pretty but some of the instructions are dreadful, and it's all buying pre made this and premade that, or using very expensive tools which you wouldn't have lying around. That's not what homemade means to me - I'm my opinion it should be about moving away from blatant consumerism, not encouraging more of it.

Anyway, one of the craft books looks promising with detailed instructions, and there is a book called Eco Thrifty which might be good. Can't really comment on the gardening books as I've not looked at them properly yet, but one is a Nancy Birtwhistle book so that's bound to be good. I finished the book about the woman who moved to a Welsh mountain smallholding with her family this morning, and have started The Marlowe Murder Club as I do like a good mystery.

After the library I took silly dog for a walk in the fields round the town, then looked around the shops and got some lunch. There is an amazing hardware store with pretty much anything you could want. The problem of course is that it's not as cheap as online, but I shall make a point of using it where it's practical. Due to it being a touristy type of town the cafe prices were very steep - more like what I would expect to pay in the University city I work in, so lunch will be an occasional treat.

Off to make some dinner and read some more. I've finally got my living room warm again after silly dog insisted on going outside about 20 times to check his Kong hadn't magically refilled with biscuits, after I put his dinner in it earlier. Daft as a brush and very funny, but it did cause the house to be chilly! Hope everyone's warm and cosy tonight 😊.

SuzeQStan

Funny about the empty kong - sounds like silly dog was dropping heavy hints 🐶🤣

don’t spose there is a town with railway you could drive to on Fridays? Many have free parking but I do completely understand that ticket would be costly however it may take away some significant strain on you & wear and tear on your vehicle? Very frustrating being stuck in traffic xx

Elisheba

Evening, Sunday supersavers,

Yes, @SuzeQStan there is a station about 40 minutes away. I had initially written off the idea of getting the train as being too expensive, but now I've totted up the cost of diesel it actually works out much the same, and that's including a £6.40 parking charge and the diesel to the station and back. Not often the train works out about the same price as the car! So I think I'll try that next Friday. The timings are much the same as well with one change involved, so for at least 4 of the hours of my journey there and back I can be reading a book, or heaven forbid, actually doing a bit of work 😂.

It's been a busy old day here at Elisheba Cottage, although also a NSD. Woke early and had a nice bath, then did churchy things and had tea and biscuits and chat afterwards. Then came home and hoovered the whole house and washed the hoover filter, moved all the boxes that needed moving to the garage, then took silly dog a good two hour walk. Came back and stripped and remade my bed, then played around with all my new green cleaning ingredients, and cleaned the bathroom, given the kitchen a quick wipe down, and have spot cleaned some marks on the upstairs carpets left by black cat's vomiting. I've reorganised the chest freezer as well, so hopefully it will be easier to get to things now.

After all that I'm having a well earned cuppa, and going to watch Antiques Roadshow and Vera I think tonight. Can't believe its Monday again tomorrow - weekends just disappear!

I need to do some dusting during the week, hoover up the bicarb from the carpet spot cleaning - and do some more spot cleaning if it has worked. Tomorrow I'll do a bedding and towel wash, and then a normal clothes wash. Oh, and I should make some bread tomorrow as well.

Think food plan for the week will be Monday - egg, beans and chips, Tuesday - sausage, peas and mash, Wednesday - pasta bake, Thursday and Friday - calzone, Saturday - sausage stew.

I don't think there is anything I need to buy all week, so it could be a no spend week - that would be an achievement!

Right, off to catch up on all the antiques. Stay warm everyone!

fionaandphil

Hi @Elisheba, if you're travelling by train, don't forget to sign up to some apps. You often get discounts or free drinks. I also found some extra cashback on my credit card for LNER and have booked some west coast trains on that as it worked out cheaper than the main operator 

themadvix

If the train works out, might you be able to find a free parking spot nearby? Or pay less to park on someone’s drive? I know there’s a website for that, but can’t remember what it’s called.

 Sounds like you’ve had a busy day!

Slowdown

There’s a site called ‘Your parking space’ and another called ‘Park on my drive’. I thought about renting out mine as I live at the end of a tube line but then we got another car so…

Elisheba

Blooming heck! Just a very quick update to say the big river site just showed me the soupmaker I bought last April - for £107.69, reduced from £129.99. I paid £69.99 full price last April, and thought that was expensive as I'd only paid about £50 for the same model 10 years ago! That's almost a 100% price increase in less than 12 months!