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

Elisheba

Evening, frugalettes,

Okay, how did I do with the timetable?

6am - up, washed, dressed, bed made, dirty clothes I'm the laundry bin. ✅ Ran a bit late as forgot I had to feed the animals as well 
6.30am - breakfast and read paper✅ Although paper app wasn't working for some reason. Seems fine now.
7am - house work - dusting I think, and wiping down the kitchen. Hoovering upstairs if time ✅ Dusting got done, but it took soooo long. Especially things like my dressing table which has a million things on it and hasn't been dusted in a very long time.

7.30am - 10 mins meditation ✅ Tried doing it downstairs but silly dog decided he wanted cuddles, so had to restart upstairs 
7.40am - bring in wood and kindling ❌

7.45 - free time ❌
8 - 5 - work ✅

12 - 1 lunchbreak and dog walk✅
5 - 6 pm - make and eat dinner ✅, do dishes❌, fill dishwasher✅ etc

6 - 6.30pm - make sure clothes are out for office tomorrow ✅, lunch is made✅, alarms are set✅, and bag is packed✅

6.30pm - 8pm - free time✅ 
8pm - bed for early start. ✅

So a very productive day overall, although everything overran bit. The main focus of the day was getting up that but earlier and getting more done before work, and with a plan it was easier to motivate myself to get up.

I went a really nice dog walk a lunchtime up a big (for me) hill. Looking at the OS map I climbed about 100 metres, and didn't really lost my puff although I was a bit red in the face by the end, so my fitness levels are increasing.

Moneywise, I found out I can still claim back for the eye test I had in December from work, so I submitted a £25 expense claim for that and will see the money at the end of February. The opticians had emailed me my prescription with my receipt, so I went on to the glasses website from Martin's email last week and ordered 2 new basic pairs for £25 altogether. So I'm looking at these two new pairs as free with the expense claim, and if the opticians can replace my broken ones for nothing all well and good and I'll have some spares. And if they can't I have 2 pairs of glasses with my new prescription.

My headphones arrived safe and well, and were working when I tried them. I'll let you know how they get on @lucielle The are the big kind that go over your head and cover your ears. They have a padded headband which is good as that can often dig in, and also fold up for easy carrying in my bag. I needed Bluetooth ones as my new phone doesn't have a headphone jack, although the headphones did come with a jack wire as well, so I can use them wired if I want to.

Right, early start for the office tomorrow so I'm off to sleep, perchance to dream. Hope you all have fabulous frugal Fridays 😁. I've not looked at the transport board at all ever @weenancyinAmerica so will pop over there at some point to investigate.

SuzeQStan

Sweet dreams Elisheba - looking forward to hearing how you get on with the train journey tomorrow xx

beanielou

Hope your travels go well tomorrow. 

Makingabobor2

Hope the trains are all running on time. We haven't been on a train for years, think it was Sept 2019 when we went to London for a day. I'm still a bit covid wary, but should give it a try again, even if it means wearing a mask. 

Elisheba

Evening, all,

Thanks for all the thoughts for my journey 😁. I'm pretty knackered tonight after a 5am start and commuting to the office and back today. All the trains worked fine and none were more than a couple of minutes delayed, so that was good, although next week none of the ones I need to get are running due to the Aslef industrial action. It was less tiring going by train, and I was more productive during the day so that was good. Journey home was still a slog, but probably less so than driving the whole way. The new headphones were great and I got a good part of an audiobook listened to.

However, I did manage to get a blooming parking fine at the station car park 🤬🤬🤬. I bought a ticket online, but upon close examination. I made a typo on the registration number and got a letter wrong. Thankfully I requested an email confirmation of the ticket, so have appealed and have the evidence to show I did buy a ticket and it was a small typo that was the issue, so hopefully it will be cancelled. Always something with the commute though - if I were the superstitious sort I'd start thinking it was cursed 🙄.

Apart from the planned expenditure on the train ticket and parking which has all been budgeted for, it was a NSD. I had my packed lunch and snacks so wasn't tempted to treat myself to anything. I think I probably had too much strong coffee in the office today as my anxiety levels coming home were much higher than the situation warranted - probably a combination of the caffeine, the early start making me tired, and it being a new journey. I was fine in the morning, so more the first two than the latter I imagine.

Thinking ahead to the weekend now, so need to make a list of what I want to achieve -
❄️ Cut front grass

❄️Weed front borders

❄️Take broken glasses to opticians to see what they can do 
❄️Pop to big supermarket while at big town and get a few messages

❄️Hoover stairs and upstairs
❄️Batch cook 2 or 3 meals for during the week

❄️Dog walks

❄️ Church
❄️Finish 1-2 library books

❄️Start new jigsaw
❄️Put a couple of little bits in the garage

❄️Wash car

❄️Bubble bath 
❄️Basic bathroom clean 
❄️Teams call with 2 friends

If I wake early I'll probably pop to big town first for the opticians and supermarket, and take silly dog a walk while I'm there. Then I can come home and make some lunch and do the gardening and car in the afternoon, and bubble bath in the evening after Teams call. Then Sunday I can do the cleaning bits first thing, then church, lunch, batch cooking, jigsaw and reading. We'll see how it goes - best laid plans and all that!

In crossword news, it's free again today on the app today after going behind a paywall again half way through yesterday. Not sure what going on there 🤣.

Have a good weekend, frugal friends 😁. Hope it's relaxing and productive in equal measure .

Slowdown

There were a couple of tricky ones on the crossword today. Don’t think my mind was in the same place as the setter. But managed it all in the end. Hope you were more on the ball than me. 

Elisheba

Slowdown said:

There were a couple of tricky ones on the crossword today. Don’t think my mind was in the same place as the setter. But managed it all in the end. Hope you were more on the ball than me. 

No I'm afraid I was tired and just cheated on loads of them in the end. Literally no way I would have gotten betray from shop - not where my mind was at all 🤣 

themadvix

Do check out all the info on the Parking fines board Elisheba - they seem to be brilliant over there!

Elisheba

Good evening, Sunday Superstars 😁,

themadvix said:

Do check out all the info on the Parking fines board Elisheba - they seem to be brilliant over there!

Thanks - if I don't get an email saying it's been cancelled, I'll pop on over there and see what can be done.

A lovely weekend had here at Elisheba Cottage. I didn't get everything on my list done, but I did do quite a lot of it.

❄️ Cut front grass ❌

❄️Weed front borders✅

❄️Take broken glasses to opticians to see what they can do ✅ They are replacing the frames, sadly with the same frames which seem to be terribly fragile, but at least it's something 
❄️Pop to big supermarket while at big town and get a few messages ✅

❄️Hoover stairs and upstairs ❌
❄️Batch cook 2 or 3 meals for during the week❌

❄️Dog walks✅

❄️ Church✅
❄️Finish 1-2 library books✅

❄️Start new jigsaw❌
❄️Put a couple of little bits in the garage❌

❄️Wash car❌

❄️Bubble bath ✅
❄️Basic bathroom clean ❌
❄️Teams call with 2 friends✅

Hmm, there are quite a few red crosses there, aren't there? I think I just had too much on the list. When I was in town yesterday I had a good wander around, and with that and the dog walk I was up to 15000 steps and my not actually sciatica was playing up, so I spent most of the rest of the day on the sofa with the fire lit, reading a book. After all the aim is to be organised, not exhausted.

It was lovely to get out in the garden today and do some weeding. Quite a few bulbs coming up - I think a neighbour said they were irises. And a few daffs peeling through in one corner. I can't wait to see it coming alive over the coming months. I've got my box of MSE special offer summer bulbs through, but I can't remember when it said to plant them out do I'll need to look into that.

Sadly, silly dog got far too excited and was trying to hump me while I gardened, steal my fork and kneeling cushion, and dig his way to Australia, so he had to be escorted back into the house to think about his actions. I wouldn't mind so much if his claws didn't hurt so much when he starts his humping nonsense. My legs are covered in bruises.

It's not his fault, poor thing. He was left on his own most of the time before I got him when he was 15 months, and he never learned any other way to deal with excitement. From his vet records he seems to have had the chop at 6 months, and I've heard that's not advised so early these days. They don't reach proper sexual maturity until later, so that could be another reason his behaviour is so silly. He does respond reasonably well to a bit of time out to calm down, and having been exposed to more things now he doesn't get hyper excited so often anymore.

When in big town yesterday I bought a calendar reduced to 10p for my home office, a nice bottle of wine for the neighbour who helped me when my car got stuck, and a pack of thank you cards reduced to £1. Got some food and pet food shopping for the coming month, and went into the library and got some more books out. It's a very nice library in big town, with a museum I'll have to a look around when I have more time. Went for a dog walk along the canal as well, which has been drained - I presume to do some remedial work to the banks. I kept my eye out but didn't see any hidden treasure, just a lot of car wheels and hubs. How on earth did so many get into the canal? Where are the cars they came from? It seems an odd place to flytip only car tyres! The mystery!

Today there was church and the gardening, and then I had a lovely long bubble bath. Read some more of my book and really relaxed. When I got out I gave my hair and fringe a little trim, so the ends will be a bit tidier now. I need to dye it again, and the box of hair dye is sitting there, but not sure when I'll get around to it.

Took my energy readings tonight, and I've used 30kWh this week, which is exactly the same as the week before last and averages less than 5kWh a day which is nice. It's ridiculous how excited I am to take my readings on a Sunday and input them onto my s/s🤣. It's the little things that keep us entertained! I'll take a reading on the 31st as well and then tot up my monthly total use and cost. It'll be a good indicator of whether my DD is about right or not, as I can't see my electricity use varying much over the year as I don't use it for heating.

Black cat vomitted on the carpet again this morning. I dabbed bicarb on the marks and will hoover up tomorrow, but it hasn't been brilliant for previous vomit related incidents so I'll need to have a Google for what else I can use that is eco.

One of my friends recently got engaged and I found out the wedding is going to be this year, and I'll be playing a role in it which will be lovely. It's quite far away though, and I'll need to pay for petrol and kennels and accomodation etc, so I think I'll need to reduce one of my credit card monthly payments to put some money aside for it, as there is nowhere I can trim enough to cover it otherwise. Ah well, it's always something and at least I'm aware of it and preparing accordingly. It shouldn't have any knock on affect as I'll still pay it off before the interest free period ends.

Think that's all my news for today. Hope the weekend has left everyone refreshed and ready to start the week anew tomorrow. All my bills come out tomorrow, and then I'm paid on Wednesday so I'm looking forward to the new financial month. I need to do a little bit of budget work this week, totting up monthly spends for January, but everything is up to date so it shouldn't take long 😁

Highlanddream

I was just looking back at the beginning of this thread, the increase in the cost of living so so noticeable. I didn't realise I was at the beginning and thought ..."how on earth are people getting this & that so cheaply, I must be missing something"