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

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

For out-of-reach blackberries....either an old walking stick or umbrella with a hooked handle or a piece of scrap wooden batten or even a sturdy stick pruned from something in your garden or foraged......into which you have hammered a big sturdy clout nail at one end. That will do the hooking. 
F

Excellent ideas there

Elisheba

Afternoon, all,

I'm celebrating today as I have reached 25% of my weight loss target  . Its not exactly a MSE topic, but as I eat less that costs less money, and better health is always good. Its a long and boring process but it feels good to know that I am indeed making progress.  When I visualise the weight I have lost as bags of cat litter and how heavy they are, I can really see how not carrying that weight will be good for my knees and back.  And hopefully my pancreas as well!

On MSE news, the TV Licence people have refunded me a huge amount more than I expected.  £88.25 altogether in two different payments, and I can't work out why.  I pay monthly so I was only expecting a few pounds for the balance of this month.  I'm not going to chase it up with them, but won't be surprised if they get in contact asking for it back!

I have also made a little chart for my wall so I can highlight every extra £100 I save, so I have a nice visual representation of progress. I won't be able to save very much until I have sold the car, but every little helps, and its good for my motivation.  I have just over £5k now in the LISA, and I think once I have sold the car I can save about £6k every year if I'm frugal, so eventually I will have enough for a deposit and legal fees and removal companies and start to actually view houses in real life, and hopefully by then I'll have more of an ideal of where and I want to move and what's possible.  Just touching a lot of wood that nothing gets in the way before that, but who knows.  Redundancies, house renting, health - so much can change.  

Other little MSE things.  The clothes dye I ordered arrived, and I did everything at the weekend.  The undies I dyed black actually look like a dark navy, and the elastic has gone peach - so they don't look too bad at all really, and much better than they did.  The dress I dyed green look's lovely - the white embroidery didn't take, must be nylon thread, and so it has white embroidered stipes down it which look good.  I was thinking it would be good for my holiday this summer, but then I remembered it might not fit me anymore! I'll try it on when I get a chance, and if it doesn't fit them I will put it in the To be Sold pile.

In an effort to reduce my food budget I am now restricting myself to one cup of coffee a day, and the rest of the time I have tea, so a few pound saved there as I can drink a lot of coffee, and I only drink the real stuff so it adds up.  So far this month I've only spent £10.31 on food as I had loads in, and £12.90 on almond milk which will last me the month.  I still haven't gotten around to making any yogurt, but maybe this weekend.  I'll probably do a shop this weekend at the nearest Ald! and pick up the months pet supplies at the same time.

Dinner tonight will be curry, using up some spinach, mushroom and various other bits, and tomorrow is Friday which is pizza night. Saturday I am out a village social and need to make some sharing food for it - will probably be various veg with riced cauliflower all spiced with ras al hanout.  Next week I need to think of some food with turnip and cabbage as I have 6 turnips in the freezer I bought reduced, and two bags of frozen cabbage.

I think that's all my news for today - hope everyone has had a good week!

Elisheba

In breaking news - I think I have found a car!  I've reserved it for £99 so they can't sell the blooming thing before I view it as well, and I am going to see it on Saturday morning.  Only £3k, 2014 diesel engine, 113k miles on it with a new cam belt 5 years ago, reputable dealer, enough room in back for the car camping.  Only real compromises are that it is Euro 5 not 6, so no good for ULEZ, and it doesn't have bluetooth.  But I can't get everything for the price I want to pay so sacrifices have to be made.  Depending on what I get for my current car it will clear all the credit card balances, the OD, and still have a few pounds extra to save.  Exciting times!

Makingabobor2

Excellent news. 

KajiKita

Oh wow, it sounds like your persistence will finally pay off 😊👏

KK

beanielou

Sounds promising. 

Elisheba

Morning (or it might be afternoon by the time I post this), frugal friends,

I decided to buy the car I viewed at the weekend, so I am mainly sorting out things for that now.  I've paid a deposit, so just need to organise a collection date.  I am just awaiting them telling me how much they will offer for my old car.  Went to We B*y any c*r yesterday and got a quote from them on buying the old car as well, so once I've decided who to sell the car to I'll sort out dates for things.  I should probably pay the remainder for the new car on a credit card to get the protection that offers then pay it back from current car proceeds, but that means I need to find out what the PIN is for one of them as I can't remember for the life of me . 

The insurance is lower and MPG higher than current car, so that will save money.  However as it is older I imagine it'll cost more in repairs at MOT and servicing time, so swings and roundabouts.  Still, with a good wind it should give me another 5-10 years use, and as I'm planning to drive it into the ground I'm not going to be worried about selling it on so I don't need to worry about scratches and things.  I think car tax has gone up recently on older vehicles depending on emissions so it won't be as cheap as I had hoped, but about the same as the current car so no actual loss there.  

I have fired all the figures into budgets and s/s's, and I won't have much left after the credit cards (one of which was the money I put into the LISA in March), insurance, breakdown, tax etc, but that's okay.  I am just looking forward to everything but the loan being gone and having no overdraft so working from base zero in figures. If I was being truly canny with money I would wait to pay off the CC's until the interest free periods are over and earn some interest in the meantime, but honestly I just want it all gone.  I think the motivational aspect of being gone is more important to me at this point.

Once it is all sorted out I'll need to make some decisions about money saving.  I currently transfer all my wages that aren't swallowed by the OD into what was the highest interest easy access savings account when I opened it last year, and then just transfer money back when it comes out my current account. Most of my spending is done on Amex (where it is accepted) to get the cash back. 

Ideally I want a C00p current account as want to use an ethical bank, so once I'm not tied by the OD to my current bank I'll probably wait for a C00p cashback deal (one has just closed) and open a new current account there.  I don't think I can be bothered with all the switching accounts some people do, and I'm not sure it would look good on a mortgage application either, so I won't be doing that.

I should probably have another high interest savings account so I can funnel money I don't need that month into that where it is out the way and earning.  I'll need to transfer £4k every March out of that and into the LISA until I buy a house, so it can't be a fixed 1 or 2 year saver at this point, and I'll need one I can access in an emergency as well as in March so need it to be no penalties for at least a few withdrawals.  Its probably going to be another easy access by the sounds of it - Plum is doing a high interest ISA just now so maybe that one.  Will wait and see until the money is actually in my hands.  

Other than that, I am just trying to be as frugal and thrifty as I can be.  I'm not doing very well so far at cutting back coffee unfortunately  , but I have found the stevia sweetener I use online half the price of the supermarket so have ordered some. I don't know if I mentioned but the green stevia I bought tastes a bit like leaves so I don't love it, but I have discovered a little in my yogurt, nuts and berries for my brunch is acceptable, so I can use that up eventually and that'll save money on the nice white stuff.  

The weekend was mainly spent driving here and there sorting out car stuff.  I was supposed to go to a village social on Saturday, but after driving over half of south Wales, then getting caught in torrential rain with silly dog, I was far too tired and grumpy to bother going.  I did get my shopping in for the week in a L!dl while zooming around the country, so that's done.  

This week I am busy tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday evening with Beavers, church and WI stuff, and probably Saturday evening and all of Sunday with Scout stuff.  I am having some serious thoughts about leaving the Beavers.  They have enough leaders now, and I just don't feel like I am getting much out of it, and it takes up a lot of time with all the extras.  Still mulling it over for now.

Right, I had better get on with things.  Lost 2kg in weight last week, and am now aiming for my 30% of target goal. Hoping I'll be over 35% of target by the time I go on holiday in late July, and on current tracking I should be at target within a year or so - aiming for my 46th birthday which is in 14 months.  Hope everyone had a great weekend and Monday is treating you kindly.

foxgloves

Hi @Elisheba,
Good to hear that there has been progress on changing your car. We changed to the ethical bank you mention quite a long time ago & apart from our lovely local branch having closed down since then, we are still happy with them for our daily banking. I don't know what current accounts they do these days, but ours has a parallel savings account which is very useful as I use it for our Savings Pots money. Before the interest rates started dropping again, we were surprised to find that this account paid better interest than our other savings accounts. It's important to me to bank with an ethical institution. Their anti-fraud department was also very good last week when I was scammed - the dodgy activity was spotted & the payment blocked at the same time as I was realising there was a fraud happening.
Good to have a target for your weight loss goal. We are also both back on the healthy eating & I am aiming to lose 30kg. I have done it before (a long time ago) & can therefore do it again. Keep up the good work & let's face it, we can only be positively impacting our health, so it is well worth it.
F x

Elisheba

Thanks @foxgloves. Good to hear good reviews about the bank I'm interested in.  I have seen some of its savings accounts listed on the savings account section on here, so they are obviously fairly competitive.

Good luck with your 30kg! I've lost just over 16kg now and its a dull old process, but very do-able I am finding. I found set point theory very interesting (https://zoe.com/learn/set-point-theory) and going by how easy I have found weight loss this time compared to every other time I tried, I think there may be some truth to the idea that complex carbs override our natural weight homeostasis, although no doubt it will be more complex than that once they have worked it out properly.

foxgloves

Thanks for the link, @Elisheba, which I shall make sure I have a look at. 
Yes, I think there is so much new info being discovered around the whole area of weight loss/gain. I find it very interesting. I lost 8kg last summer (regained) & 9kg the summer before that (regained) but I am very focused atm & Mr F & I are supporting each other with our health goals. I have tried lots of different diet plans in the past (being a teenage girl in the late 1970s/early 80s, I developed all the usual hang-ups about weight & some of the methods were silly ones) but what seems to work well for me (without feeling at all deprived) is TRE with an 'eating window' of 10am to 8pm, in combination with Judith Wills' very sensible 'Traffic Light Diet' plan, which is pretty much just sensible healthy eating with controlled portions. If I stick to a daily allowance of 6 'amber' portions & make sure there are plenty of 'green' foods in stock, I can lose weight - Mr F too, although he can have 7 'amber' portions a day being younger than me & a bloke! This naturally limits carbohydrate portions because I need to ration the foods which require counting & if I have too many carbs, I don't have enough amber portions left for protein servings. Basically, it just provides a framework for controlled, sensible eating. I know I am capable of losing large amounts of weight as I managed a 6 stone loss in my mid-40s. I loathe exercise so am initially just ensuring I don't fall below 5000 steps per day, which is classed as the threshold for 'sedentary' & I do heaps of gardening, which all uses muscles.
Good luck with your goal.
F x