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

Florafauna

I love reading about your adventures @elisheba. The jambusters was also made into a TV series, it was really good 

Moorviews

It feels like you have made a fantastic start to the year and we are almost out of winter too so hopefully that oil tank won’t be dropping much at all. Lovely to hear about the social side of life picking up locally too. 

When we moved here I went back to water rates as I panicked that my children would leave taps running etc. and we would end up with enormous bills. Whenever I checked the calculators it didn’t look like we would save much so I continued to play safe. Everyone was still at home, taking long showers, deep baths and washing their cars, when I decided to go for it with the meter. To my amazement the bill dropped enormously, despite no one except me changing their behaviour. I really hate to think now about the thousands of pounds that I spent unnecessarily. I don’t know how much water companies vary but it seemed that ours really stung those of us paying water rates. You might be very pleasantly surprised by how much you can reduce your water bill with this change. We had a leak last year which the water board alerted us to when they read our meter. Obviously, we had to get it fixed but the allowance that was made meant that we didn’t have to pay for all of the excess water while it was being mended. This was something else that I had been worried about. 

Elisheba

Evening, folks,

I have seen the TV series advertised @Florafauna but not watched it yet. I'll have to see if it's still on the catch-up channels somewhere.

Yes, I have high hopes for a bit of money saving with the water meter @Moorviews. Even if they can't fit one I can then go onto an unmetered meter rate, which is half what the current bill is for the level of water use that applies to me.

Well, today was the budget. Conservatively I think I'll be £45 a month better off after April with the NI change, although I don't know how to work it out exactly and it might be more like £60pm. Then there is always a small increase as the pension band goes up and I slip into the lower bracket until my pay award arrives. The difference is always taken out of my pay award later so it doesn't negatively affect my pension contributions - it's just like getting part of the pay award early. So with that as well it could be more like £90 or £100 a month more, but I don't want to get ahead of myself so have just put £45 a month in my budget for now.

I treated myself to a very pretty little 5 year diary yesterday as I thought it would be nice to look back and see what I was doing the years before, so that's come out of my monthly allowance. Also bought some chocolates for my Mum, and got a couple of bits at the Coop today. I found a Mother's Day card in my card stash so didn't have to buy one of those. Must remember to post the card and chocolates tomorrow though.

I am being severely tempted by several purchases as the moment. One of them is a carpet cleaner, which realistically I'll need to buy at some point. Various black cat vomiting occasions have seen to that. It makes sense to buy a cleaner myself, rather than hire one, as it will save money in the long run. I don't suppose there is any rush though, so I might just wait to see if Black Friday throws up any bargains. I have a household pot which I can pay for it out of, but I just don't like spending money on things that aren't fun 😂.

I've made an appointment for silly dog to get his annual vaccinations in a couple of weeks, and there is £85 put away in my annual budget for that. Also ordered a garden bin which came in at the £50 I had budgeted for it. Not sure how much use i'll make of it, but better to have it than not for this year while I'm figuring out things.

I'm still contemplating whether I should reduce silly dog's insurance cover from £10k to £8k. I don't suppose there is any right answer - it's one of those things you either need or you don't. Since I've budgeted enough for the £10k cover I might just leave it as it is. 

Other than that I had a bad headache yesterday, and I can feel it starting up again just now. I'm not particularly prone to headaches so not sure where its coming from. Very annoying.

Dinner tonight is a pasta dish I made the other day and am not particularly bothered about, but it needs eating I suppose. I've bought whole milk to make some more yogurt, so I'll do that tomorrow or Friday. Need to put the breadmaker on tonight or tomorrow to make some wholemeal bread as well. 

Still not had my council tax bill through for the coming year, or my new electricity rates come April. Or my mobile phone increase come to that. I suppose they will arrive at some point though. It's very comforting to know I've budgeted for everything and the money is there for it all. 

Other little money saving things this week -
* Mainly sink washes rather than showers

* Washing out to dry on the line

* Don't need to go to the office on Friday
* No heating needed today as it's been fairly warm
* Been practicing various water conservation techniques in preparation for a water meter

* Stuck to list while at the shop earlier, despite the sweetie aisle calling to me

* 20 degree washing cycle 
* Been keeping an eye on my banking 
* Have noted down all spends on my Notion s/a

* Got 50p off at the Coop early using their voucher app

That's all I can think of for now. Silly dog is currently running around the living room with his ball wanting me to throw it, but refusing to actually give it to me. I think in his doggy brain he's decided that I must really want the ball as I try to get it off him so much, so it's a very high honour indeed if he actually lets me have 😆.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying all the early signs of Spring.

SuzeQStan

Sorry to hear about the headache Elisheba xx I’m usually lined up for an aura warned migraine a couple times a year and find the only thing that truly helps is as much sleep as I can get.

wow on the NI -2pts bonus to your salary!  I’m probably gonna be lucky to get extra £30 a month. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68493947

redofromstart

the vax carpet cleaners turn up fairly often in the German supermarkets.

Yoghurt whey, scones? Which can be frozen etc. 

Elisheba

SuzeQStan said:

Sorry to hear about the headache Elisheba xx I’m usually lined up for an aura warned migraine a couple times a year and find the only thing that truly helps is as much sleep as I can get.

wow on the NI -2pts bonus to your salary!  I’m probably gonna be lucky to get extra £30 a month. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68493947

Hmm, going by that article I am over estimating the money I'll get from the NI cut. Oh well, I guess I'll see when I get my pay slip.

SuzeQStan

Dam sorry Elisheba - I feel bad now - the article
might be wrong you never know!  

Another good marker is to compare it to the amount your wage went up after the last 2 point drop. This will be similar

Elisheba

SuzeQStan said:

Dam sorry Elisheba - I feel bad now - the article
might be wrong you never know!  

Another good marker is to compare it to the amount your wage went up after the last 2 point drop. This will be similar

Yeah, I got my backdated pay award the month before so don't have a baseline to see how much it changed 🙄.

themadvix

Vax often do online sales too - we got our carpet cleaner (also for cat vomit 🙄) for about £60 I think - that was a few years ago though. The sale was in Martin’s email.

Elisheba

themadvix said:

Vax often do online sales too - we got our carpet cleaner (also for cat vomit 🙄) for about £60 I think - that was a few years ago though. The sale was in Martin’s email.

Thanks for that tip. I'll keep my eye out 😁