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

SuzeQStan

That is a massive rise for a single year! Is it same model etc?

Years ago we bought one of those actifryers no oil jobbies with the central wand that pushed rotated the cooking food about? This was about 2008 and we paid just under £90 for it and thought that horrendous at the time.

over the years we replaced almost every single part on that actifryer (wand, case, motor, pan) - blumin Trigger’s broom by time we gave up on it about 5 years ago. And found  new ones were now £150 - so did a hard pass. Now they are £180. 

hate the air fryer we bought at C@stc@ 5 years ago but at least it was £45. I’d bin it if OH wasn’t so attached to it. 

Did get a slow cooker for Christmas which is brilliant. 

Id love a breadmaker like what you have but worried I wouldn’t get on with it. 

Elisheba

Yup exact same brand and model @SuzeQStan Maybe it's something to do with the shipping through the Red Sea and the attacks - costs have just risen a lot perhaps? Or maybe they are just taking the Mickey - who knows?

I had one of those actifryer airfryers that my Aunt gave me when she didn't want it anymore, but I didn't really know what an airfryer was back then so made some bolognaise in it and shorted the electrics 😂😂😂. Never got round to doing anything about fixing it, and put it outside in the pandemic and some passerby took it. Hopefully they were able to do something with it 😂. I've got an Instant Pot multicooker now and use the airfryer function quite a lot - cheaper than heating up the oven.

I do like having a bread maker, but I'm not very keen on the model I have. I bought a cheap model and it makes bread the wrong shape for me - tall rather than long, and it annoys me excessively 😂

fionaandphil

Have a look on swap sites @SuzeQStan there are often bread makers on there as people buy them and never use them (I may be guilty of this myself sometimes)

I bought a Ninja last year to replace an old and ageing slow cooker, and I love the Ninja but don't like the slow cooker bit of it so I'm still using my scratty old slow cooker which has bits falling off it, which cost me about £10 over 10 years ago.

Elisheba

Evening, Monday moneymakers,

Thanks for the suggestions regarding parking and discount train tickets. Once I've trialled the journey and know that it'll work for me I'll look into the parking thing more. Time will be a big factor so it would need to be super close to the station, and the fact it's only a Friday, and not necessarily every Friday at that, might be another issue. No harm in looking though. There don't seem to be any discounts for my trainline at present, but I'll keep an eye out.

In very dull news for everyone else, but interesting to me, I got my average kWh of electricity a day down to 4.29 last week, from 5.86 the week before. At current rates with Vat and standing charge that's £1.84 a day, down from £2.31. So here's hoping I can get it down a bit further this week coming. How I laugh to think of those pre Ukrainian war days when I could often come in at under a £1 a day for both gas and electric! Now I'm delighted if it's under £2 just for the leccie!

I only got the towel and bedding wash done today, so I'll need to do the clothes wash tomorrow. I used the eco 60 degree wash rather than the 90 degree wash, so that should save some pennies. Nancy Birtwhistle says to put 2tbsp of washing soda in the drawer, and 2tbsps of liquid soap and 1tsp of green bleach in the drum for a heavily soiled wash, so that's what I did and it has come out lovely. I'll use eco 20 wash and just 1tbsp washing soda, and 1 tbsp liquid soap for the clothes wash tomorrow.

I'm loving this green bleach stuff (sodium percarbonate). I put my dish cloth in the sink basin with boiling water and a tbsp of green bleach and left it half an hour, and it all frothed up and then the water was brown! Nancy says to simmer it for half an hour, but that's not thrifty enough for me 😂. I thought the cloth was fairly clean as well - just goes to show! And the green bleach doesn't bleach colours out, and breaks down in 4 hours so doesn't poison our waterways.

In further dull energy news, the 35 degree mini wash on my dishwasher seems to work fine on the dishes. It's both shorter and colder than the eco wash, so I think it'll be cheaper, but I'm never really sure with eco washes and non ecowashes. I don't have a smart meter to do any proper testing either which is annoying.

Nice walk along the river today that I hadn't done before, so that's another walk to add to the lunchtime rotation. I'm finding it rather difficult to find walks that don't involve either jaw dropping terror, or completely obstructed sections, or both. Joys of living in a mountainous area and being scared of heights, and a nationwide shortfall in public rights of way funding 🙄.

It's a late night for me, so I'm off to sleep. I watched 3 episodes of 22 Kids and Counting (UK one not US) earlier which is my guilty pleasure show. I love that family - they are so down to earth, although I can't believe the parents flew out to Xante to search for her when they hadn't heard from their 21 year old daughter for 3 days 😂. I can't believe their daughter flew out there to follow her bf in the first place either actually. People eh, mad as hatters sometimes!

Sleep tight, folks, and stay warm. It's going to be another bitter one tonight.

Elisheba

Evening, Tuesday tuppence troublers,

Another NSD at Elisheba Cottage. I've been adding things as they occur to me to my annual budget. I read in The Guardian this morning that car insurance has gone up 58% on average this year, so I've increased my insurance allowance by that and had to cut back in lots of other places to cover it 🙄. Although when I popped my details into a comparison site to see for myself the quotes I was offered were nothing like that high - maybe a 10-15% increase. None of them seemed to offer 'at home' breakdown cover though, so maybe that would have been an added extra to hike it up at the till. I guess I'll see come August when its renewal time.

My council are increasing council tax by 7.5% this year. I had thought it was legally capped at 2% without a referendum, with an extra 3% allowance made last year for something or other. Perhaps that doesn't apply in Wales though? Anyway, when I went to add this increase to my budget I wanted to check my figures, so I went to the council website to see the actual annual rates as I need to take 25% off for single person's allowance. What I'm paying currently doesn't match any of the bands although I think it should be band C, and I don't think I've ever seen a bill now I think of it. So I'll need to call them tomorrow to try and sort out what's going on and what band I'm on. I suspect I need to pay more sadly, but best to get it sorted as council tax isn't the sort of thing you can negotiate on.

There is £10 being added to garden waste bins as well taking it up to £50 per annum. I messaged my landlord to ask if I could put a veg plot in the front garden yesterday, and he hasn't responded yet. If I can't, I'm not sure it's worth paying for a garden bin. The back garden is mainly patio, and the front garden grass. Although I do need to keep the leylandii hedge at the back trimmed. It's quite a lot for some grass and hedge clippings I could take to the tip though.

I had ordered an indoor and outdoor compost bin from the council and they were delivered yesterday with 2 rolls of composting bags, all free. That's obviously where my 7.5% increase is going 😂. 

I had a near miss with my hot water bottle earlier on, when it burst and poured all over the kitchen. Thankfully not on me as it was just out the kettle! Will need to consider whether I replace it, as I don't use it often but it is nice when I have cramps, or on a very cold night.

In fab MSE news I don't have to go to the office this Friday, so the great train journey experiment will have to wait until next week and £45 odd I don't have to spend 😁. I'll also be much less tired on Friday night which will be nice.

I didn't get any washing done today. Combination of being a bit tired, and a long afternoon meeting at work. Had a nice (if somewhat late) lunchtime walk, cat litter is changed, and I'll do the washing tomorrow. Dinner was a reheated bowl of a sort of soupy stew, that I'd defrosted last week for work but then didn't go in, so it needed eating. Lunch tomorrow is some soup on the fridge that needs using up with a partially baked baguette, and I think bangers and mash for dinner.

It's that time of year when I've done pretty much everything I can on the budget, so it's just about little daily wins. The woodburner is lit tonight as it's just so much nicer than the heating. Silly dog is twisted upside down and back to front, asleep on the armchair. All is lovely and peaceful, I'm cosy and warm, the cupboards are stocked. We've just got to appreciate these moments when we have them - troubles will find us no doubt, but not today for me thankfully.

SuzeQStan

Eeeek re hot water bottle! That is scary stuff - maybe instead one of those microwave heating pillows you can put some essential oils on them?

Have you tried looking on your councils website - I think you can look up the band of any property 

beanielou

Another vote for a microwave hottie.
CT may be out of sinc as you paid for part of a year?

Makingabobor2

Loving reading all your new adventures and imagining what it looks like where you live. It certainly sounds ideal. 
With regard to the hotwater bottle, have you thought of using one of those wheat  pack things that you heat in the MW?  We have 4 of them, and much prefer them to hot water bottles

Elisheba

Evening, Wednesday budget wranglers,

Thanks for the hot water bottle suggestions, @SuzeQStan, @beanielou and @Makingabobor2. I actually really love the smell of a just filled hot water bottle. It reminds me of my childhood at the Gran's old farmhouse, so if I replace it it will be with rubber again. Just not sure of it's really worth replacing with the new house being so toasty.

Oh bless you @Makingabobor2. Its truly is lovely here. I'm at the bottom of hills, and if I go out of the little dip I'm in I can look out over the Wye Valley to the Black Mountains, or just about see the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park to the south. There is a Victorian church opposite my house built to replace the previous one which was falling down, and I look out onto that from the room I work in. They think this little dip my house and the church is in have been in religious use since the 7th century.

There's a stream at the other side of my house that used to feed the corn mill, which is now just a ruin covered in ivy that I can see from my living room and bedroom windows. There are little birds twittering around everywhere, and in my back garden all I can hear is the sound of running water and the birds (and occasional tractor or car going up the hill).

My house itself is a 1970s former council house in a terrace, so nothing much to look at, but inside all the rooms are set out sensibly and are a good size with big double glazed windows. As I've said before, it's really warm and cosy, and of course there is the multifuel burner in the living room with an oak beam mantlepiece, and massive patio doors looking out onto the the back garden and the ruined mill.

Nothing much to report on the MSE front today. It was another NSD, so that was good. Washing was done on a 20 degree eco wash, with washing soda and liquid soap. Its all hung up to dry, but as I've lit the fire rather than out on the heating tonight I'm not sure how long it will take to dry.

Another dishwasher load done and put away, again on the mini 35 degree cycle. I hope that's saving me money.

Oh and my T£mu order arrived. The socks are lovely, but both bottles of what is advertised as '100% essential oil' barely smell of anything. At best they've had a few drops of actually essential oil added, and are more like massage oils. Oh well, live and learn.

I took advantage of having a new water company to order a few of their free water saving bits. There was an outside water tap covering and lagging for the pipe, which will be very useful as on my first day here the outdoor tap started spewing water everywhere after some bitter cold weather, so I've had to turn it off at the mains. 

Speaking of the water company, I got a text this morning apologising for low or no water pressure. I hasn't noticed an issue, but duly filled up a couple of big flasks - one with boiling water for tea, and one with cold for other things. However, the water has been fine all day, so I needn't have bothered. 

My walk today was just over some fields by my house. There were no sheep in them, and it's so quiet at this time of year that I was able to let silly dog off the lead without fear of him cannonballing into someone and jumping all over them. He had a great time time running up and down the hills, and seems pretty tired tonight.

Totally forgot to call the council tax people, so I'll need to do that tomorrow. I want to get some dusting done as well. I'll need to make bread in the morning to have with soup for lunch, and I'm going to defrost some pizza dough and have calzone for dinner.

Stay warm tonight, folks. It's going to be the coldest night yet. Forecast to hit -6 here, and feel like -8. Honestly, I moved south to get away from freezing weather, but I appear to have brought the Scottish Baltic weather with me 🤣

SuzeQStan

Good to know about t£mu - was getting tempted myself by the adverts xx