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

Elisheba

astrocytic_kitten said:

I am so curious about this as I used to work with this data and though it's been a while I can't figure out where they got 3.5%! As jokono says, the official RPI figures for October were only released today and the overall year on year RPI for October is 3.4%.
...

If it was me I'd be asking them exactly what measure of RPI they're using to calculate it each year (maybe along with the series ID from the ONS website) so you can be sure you're both on the same page https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/czbh/mm23 

Thanks, @astrocytic_kitten I think that's what I'll do.  In our email chain I mentioned to him the RPI figures for October wouldn't be released until 20th November, but he just ignored me.  I can't find a daily RPI rate, and if you don't think there is one then I will ask him for the exact source they use each year.  I have increased my rent payment to  3.5% so I won't be underpaying what they ask for, but it does seem a bit made up their figure and I would like to know where they got it.

Elisheba

fionaandphil said:

Just FYI for any of you on oil that haven't topped up, it is at a very low price for this time of year, lower than it was in the summer.  My price today was 56ppl but they have said they're expecting it to increase.

Thanks @Elisheba for the note about the yoghurt, I will have a look at my instruction book at the weekend and see if its worth us doing it.

Enjoy this chilly day everyone, the sun is shining here so the temperature has just gone above freezing.

Thanks for this.  I only used a quarter of my tank last year so don't need to fill up, but I hope its this cheap when i go to fill it this time next year!

I do still need to order wood for the year, but have been holding off as its coming out of next year's budget due to some creative accounting on my part to get the credit card paid off in January.  I need to buy a new wheel for my wheelbarrow before I order it as well so I can move it to the log store easily.  I think I'll order a few bags of anthracite as well, as its so good for banking the stove overnight and waking up to a still warm house.  

Elisheba

Moorviews said:

I am the same, keeping cosy in bed but about to get going! I have the heated throw on. 
We are using the fire in the evenings now. It heats the water too as we are also trying to conserve the oil. It’s definitely going to be nice hot porridge for breakfast!

I wish my stove heated the water as well.  It would be more efficient than putting the oil heating on as well if I want a bath! Although not much use in summer I suppose       

Elisheba

Howdy, frugal compatriots and non-compatriots,

Well, its a wet old world at the moment.  The river has burst its banks and all the fields are flooded.  Thankfully its going down now, and no houses were flooded where I am, so small mercies and all that. I am glad I don't need to go traveling anywhere anytime soon though as a lot of roads were closed over the weekend, and some are still shut. 

I have a busy week ahead of me.  As well as normal work, I have Beavers tonight, church thing tomorrow, cinema on Wednesday and another church thing on Friday.  Then I'm supposed to go to a city near where I used to live on Saturday to see friends, do Xmassy things and have a meal.  I find I quite enjoy being busy though, and most of it won't cost anything so it shouldn't break the bank.

No office day this Friday, thankfully.  I was in last Friday, and I have to say all the trains ran completely on time which going by previous experience was a minor miracle!  Sadly that means no delay repay money I can claim though  .

This is the last week of my financial month and I'll be paid on Friday, so will so all my totting up of spending then. Hopefully I haven't gone massively over, although I know I'm definitely over in my food budget.  I think I may have added a few random things onto my personal allowance spending as well, so that might be over too.  I'll know on Friday!

Meal plan this week -
Monday - Pearl barley risotto
Tuesday - Soup with oatcakes and cheese
Wednesday - veggie mince and tatties, with carrots, onions and mushroom, and green beans and kale on the side
Thursday - As Wednesday
Friday - Pasta with hm lentil bolognaise in the freezer
Saturday - out
Sunday - hm pizza 

I am fairly up to date on house hold chores just now.  Did a big washing this morning and it is hung up.  I have Nancy Birtwhistle's book The Green Budget Guide from the library just now, and in it she has a recipe very similar to Rhonda Hetzel's laundry liquid.  As it calls for grated normal soup rather than liquid soap, it will work out much cheaper that her liquid sop in the drum, which 2 tbsp of washing soda in the drawer recipe I use now, so when I have run out of liquid soap I'll use that I think.  In the meantime though I did add a glug of my eco washing up liquid (which Nancy suggests adding to her laundry liquid) to the liquid soap, so that should mean it will take out oily stains at 20 degrees, which the original recipe currently doesn't.  

Dishwasher is emptied.  Cat litter is also changed and emptied,  I have this system now where I use small bin bags to line the tray as well as free Metro newspapers, and it is so much easier to clean than it was before.  I still need to hoover the house and clean the bathroom this week, so will get around to that at some point.  I might also do a hot towel and blanket wash at some point as well.

I had the heating on all day last Thursday it was just so chilly, and on in the evenings on the other days.  It looks like this week will be much milder though so hopefully I won't need it on much.  

I hope everyone is safe and warm and dry after the weekend and blooming Bert, and that you have wonderful weeks.

Slowdown

Lovely to hear how you’re getting on @Elisheba. Your house sounds super cosy with all the talk of fires and winter warming food. 

I think I’m going to start looking up some green home recipes for cleaners and detergents. I’m always thinking about it and we all know which road is paved with good intentions!! 

Hope the floods are still retreating. 😊

Elisheba

Good morning, frugalistas,

I'm feeling very cosy and festive this morning.  I'm listening to The Folk Show on BBC sounds as I write and I think they have uploaded the wrong episode.  Its says its the 15th December and its all Christmas music .  I was reading Nancy Birtwhistle's Green Budget Guide last night and got myself worried about mould from a lack of ventilation, so I am wrapped up in an oodie with a blanket over my knee, and have a couple of windows open to air the upstairs.  

Last night was fun at Beavers.  We were decorating Christmas cakes and sweets and they got covered in chocolate and hyper from all the sugar. I must remember to submit my receipt this week for the bits and pieces I bought to get the money back.

I was playing around on my energy account yesterday and realised I am now eligible for the sea creature reward scheme as I have a smart meter, so I signed up for that.  There is a Gr£ggs in my nearest big town, so I'll be able to collect my free drink from there when I do shopping.  I suspect I'll also end up buying some baked good so not sure how money saving it will be! I can have them in my car though, and its cheaper than going into a cafe which I often do when I am there, so I suppose I can consider it a reasonably priced treat.

The cinema tickets are fairly useless to me, not having a big cinema near me or anyone to go with the get the 2 tickets for £10.  Not sure if the free energy slots will be any use - will just depend when they are as to whether I can make use of them.  Apparently I can also watch a free Xmas film on an app I haven't hear of so will try and make use of that as well. 

Today is going to be so busy.  I started work early as I need to finish at 2pm as I have WI (we are doing craft which should be fun), then I need to do work for a church course I'm doing tonight, and I need to fit in dinner and then get to my course for 7.30pm.  And somehow find the time to walk silly dog, and I don't like walking him in the dark, so will need to do it at lunchtime which means less working hours.  At least dinner is easy - I have some soup in the fridge, and will finish the goats cheese on oatcakes with some onion relish I found in the cupboard.  

I have just realised that I need to leave at 5.20pm for the cinema tomorrow so won't have time to cook mince and tatties, so I'll need to change that for Friday's meal of wholemeal pasta and the lentil bolognaise in the freezer.  At least I have realised today and am not  running around at the last minute trying to sort food out.

I have run out of yogurt, but I can manage without, so don't think I will be spending any money today other than the WI raffle. Hopefully I can get some change there as I think I only have a £20 note in my purse.  

It looking quite bright outside now, and the birds are enjoying all the food I put out the other day.  Think its just about time for another coffee, so I'll leave you with wishes of a cosy, early Christmas sort of type day. 

fionaandphil

Sounds like you have had a super busy day, hope you have enjoyed it.

If you are going to get a free Gr3ggs drink then it might be worth signing up for their app too, we sometimes get free bits to pick up from there.  I've seen quite a few people mentioning things they are doing while the free energy is on so it will be worth you checking it out as you might get all your washing or cooking done while its free!

Much nicer weather today, unfortunately I was at work too.

Elisheba

Good evening, frugal friends,

Well, it looks like it's time to batten down the hatches. It's going to be a stormy few days! I've already had a 10 second power cut, which reminded me I need to buy wood for the stove tomorrow so I'll be able to heat food and water if necessary over the weekend. I do have scampi g stove in the garage as well I could use, but the wood burner is just nicer.

I've been a bit spendy this last week or so. Diary readers may remember me debating with myself last year what to do about a tree, and deciding to just stick with my £10 small Argos one. This year I had the same debate with myself, and decided I wanted a big tree. A real big tree is too heavy and awkward for me to manage to get in and up myself, so I decided on a fancy fake one. I'm suffering from a bit of buyers remorse though, as despite being expensive it still looks fake to me. Wish I'd just gone with a less expensive fake one now.

I also bought a wicker skirt for it, a couple of pretty fake garlands for the fireplace and stair bannister, and some cheap Xmas themed bedding 😳😳😳. So a little bit overboard on the Xmas stuff - oops.

The garlands are lovely though, and I found a wire string of led lights in a drawer that I have wrapped around the stairs bannister as well, which I can also hang Xmas cards off of with clothes pegs. So that was frugal bearing in mind I had the lights, and rechargable batteries for them, and the clothes pegs already.

Then I was even more spendy - it all started with that cold snap we had a while ago and it occured to me I would like a thermometer for inside the house to see how cold it was when I was working, just for interest's sake. So I bought a set of electronic ones - I think it was 3 for about a tenner, and set them up in my living room, bedroom and office, and noticed they also show the humidity.

Now a little bit of black mould had started growing in one corner of my bedroom. And all the thermometers had the humidity in the house as around 70%, which was too high according the Google. So I bought a dehumidifier in the Black Friday sale as well 😳. That was much more of an impulse purchase. I should probably have done a lot more research, rather than picking one with the biggest discount 🤭.

I'm not regretting that purchase though. I've had it on everyday since it arrived and humidity seems to be down to between 50 - 60% which Google says is much healthier, and hopefully will stop the mould in its tracks. I haven't as yet done a washing to see how much more quickly that's dries with the dehumidifier, but fingers crossed that's better another benefit as well. It is using more electricity but not a huge amount more from what I can see on the smart meter, so hopefully one of those rare wise impulsive buys!

I have done my online shop for the month and it was delivered last night. Managed to get an extra £3 off the pet food with a coupon, and an extra 150 points for buying butter which was already on the list, so that's all useful savings. And I'm only here until the Monday before Xmas and then I am up in Scotland so I didn't need that much, so fingers crossed I will come in under budget for food this month.

I did treat myself to some of the £10 Baileys. I do love it, and it's like a little after dinner dessert 😊. I also got double cream and condensed milk and made some no churn Baileys ice cream last night, which I had after dinner today and oh my goodness, it is so good! 

My food plan for the rest of the month is pretty simple -

Mondays (need to eat early and quickly as am out at Beavers) - soup and Hm bread, or baked potato with cheese and beans

Tuesdays (have an evening course) - hm toast with cheese and beans, or eggs and mushrooms.

Wednesday and Thursdays - make a stew/pasta/curry dish

Fridays - HM pizza

Saturdays - pot luck - any left overs or whatever I have time and the energy to make

Sundays - potatoes, veg, fake things.

Since it's going to be storm this weekend I don't imagine I'll be doing much outdoor stuff. I had a ticket to a gig with friends a couple of hours from me, but I had cancelled it even before I heard about the storm. Didn't really feel like the long drive home late at night, as I'm not the most confident night driver, and didn't really feel like camping in my car with silly dog either as want to be nice and fresh on Sunday.

So indoor pursuits this weekend will include finishing decorating the tree and house for Xmas, and writing out my Xmas cards mainly. Also need to do a top to tail basic clean of the house, and clean the black mould in the bedroom with Nancy Birtwhistle recipes. If all that gets done then I can relax and read a bit, probably about narrowboats as I'm still dreaming of one. Oh and I've still not bought a single Christmas present so I should probably do that as well at some point! And I've just remembered there is a concert of old medieval madrigal style festive music at a local church on Saturday, so I may go to that as well. 

That's all my MSE news for now. I hope everyone is safe and dry and warm these coming days, and doesn't get blown all the way to Oz!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, Baileys ice cream sounds lovely! 

We love our dehumidifier, although worryingly it often says somewhere around 80-90% when we turn it on. I don't have a separate humidity reader though so I hope it's pretty inaccurate (although our house is pretty damp - not helped by having a well in the cellar under the kitchen)

KajiKita

The Christmas decorations will be used for years to come so you will get plenty of use per £ 😊

Also, I was watching a how to heat your house program on c4 last night and apparently it takes less energy to heat drier air, so I think the dehumidifier will offset at least some of its cost this winter. Plus, living in camp is never good for us. 

KK