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

Elisheba

Good morning, MSE'ers!

Happy weekend! Today is the 3 month anniversary of when I stopped drinking and smoking. There was a bit of a blip with the smoking over Xmas, but otherwise it has been plain sailing.

So to celebrate that and the weekend, I am making you all a virtual cooked breakfast and putting on a big pot of tea for everyone! Let's raise a cup to ongoing health, wealth and happiness!

In MS news today, I've checked and my rent still hasn't come out. I checked the standing order and it looks fine. It was due out on the 9th. Bizarre. If its not sorted by Monday I'll phone the bank to see what's going on. This is probably perfectly normal - it's not like I've ever been on tenterhooks watching for it to go out before. Anyway, everyday it doesn't go out saves me £0.75, so as long as nothing is wrong, I'm happy with the situation.

So new week, new plans.

This weekend
1. Have one NSD - probably Sunday . Nothing that I can foresee needing to spend my hard earned dosh on then.
2. Do various housework that needs done.
3. Clean car inside and out.
4. Buy cat food - money budgeted
5. Make soup to use up carrots
6. Make bread rolls to go with soup.
7. Arrange delivery of late Xmas presents to family - forgot to budget money, but there is a bit of flex in my pocket money for this.
8. Meal plan for the week

This week
1. Do some mending.
2. Look into selling wedding dress and two pairs of boots on ebay etc.
3. Do more research on some of the make extra money ideas on MSE.
4. Stay on top of the housework. Make a plan to help with this.
5. Fix payments for two more Cc's.
6. Keep going through MSE and writing down more frugal ideas
7. Start knitting cushion cover
8. Look at wardrobe and see what can be altered/repurposed to give an extra lease of life.
9. Finish 2 books for reading challenge.
10. Go through change jar and see what's in there.

Honeysucklelou2

:coffee: Raising a cup of tea to say well done on achieving the 3 month anniversary.

I like your system of setting out a weekend to do list and then next week's aims .

Elisheba

Saturday has flown by! I really didn't get much done. I've been enjoying reading through all the posts and frugal tips on here though, so I'm claiming it as semi productive.

Went out to get cat food, but they only had one of the 24 can set, and it was own brand not Butchers. The Butchers wasn't on special offer so I ignored it. I needed cat food so I bought the own brand at £9.99, reduced to £9.49 with a coupon, but it meant I didn't get full value of the 5% discount coupon I had for all my pet supplies this month. That's a full 80p discount I could have had on everything if it had all been available at once, if blooming P£ts at H*me could sort out their post Xmas stock issues. Grr!

It's amazing how the loss of a potential 80p can irritate me, but I've been throwing away literally £1000's in interest for years and not really worried about it :eek:

I then went to Mr A's as I'd seen in their Super Six they had celery and beetroot. I bought the celery, but the beetroot was cooked so I wasn't sure if I could use it for beetroot brownies so I didn't bother. That saved me buying chocolate for brownies, so saved me more money. So a grand total of 35p for celery which will do for soup all week.

It was mainly an at home day so I had the heating on most of the day. No open fire though. I'm being economical with coal, which basically means I don't need it as I have central heating, so I'm not buying any this month. Its awfully dull and grey without a fire though. I lit the last of the Christmas candles to cheer myself up and brighten the place a bit.

I tried leaving olive oil on my hair in the bath, but can't see it's made much difference. It has made my bath slippy though .

Tomorrow I really need to do more house stuff, and a bit of baking. I should set myself a little structure for the day, as otherwise I'm very prone to just messing strong and the day disappears.

This weekend
1. Have one NSD - probably Sunday . Nothing that I can foresee needing to spend my hard earned dosh on then. On track
2. Do various housework that needs done.
3. Clean car inside and out.
4. Buy cat food - money budgeted Done
5. Make soup to use up carrots Done
6. Make bread rolls to go with soup.
7. Arrange delivery of late Xmas presents to family - forgot to budget money, but there is a bit of flex in my pocket money for this.
8. Meal plan for the week Done

This week
1. Do some mending.
2. Look into selling wedding dress and two pairs of boots on ebay etc.
3. Do more research on some of the make extra money ideas on MSE.
4. Stay on top of the housework. Make a plan to help with this.
5. Fix payments for two more Cc's.
6. Keep going through MSE and writing down more frugal ideas Ongoing
7. Start knitting cushion cover
8. Look at wardrobe and see what can be altered/repurposed to give an extra lease of life.
9. Finish 2 books for reading challenge.
10. Go through change jar and see what's in there.

Elisheba

Good morning, debt free wannabes!

Well it's Sunday. The moneylenders are having a day of rest, so us financial freedom fighters can lay down our arms (as long as we have also laid down our purses) and rest our weary bones before the struggle continues tomorrow.

Today I want to get the rest of my weekend To Do list done, and make a start on the mending, and possibly the knitting. I think I'll have to put the cushion covers on hold as my charity group wants us to all knit stuff for the poor Australian animals.

Being at the beginning of a long journey is hard. The end is so far away it's difficult to imagine, and I know there will be hiccups along the way. That's inevitable. I'm trying to visualise what I'm aiming for and stay focused on that. A house in the country with a big enough garden for hens and growing veg. A garage I can use as a workshop to upcycle furniture. Financial security and mortgage free one day. Enough money put by that things like work on the car don't worry me silly. Early retirement. It's all to play for. I've just got to turn this early enthusiasm and motivation into set in stone habits which will get me through the more bumpy times.

I said yesterday I was going to set up a structure for today to stop me messing around all day so here goes...
9-10: shower, dress breakfast
10 - 12: put on bread dough, do washing, housework
12 - 1: Baking
1 - 1.30: Lunch
1.30 - 2.30: Go for a walk
2.30 - 3.30: Clean car
3.30 - 4: sort out present delivery and have a snack
4 - 6: make dinner and organise kitchen cupboards at same time
6 - 6.30: dinner
6.30 - 7: clean up after dinner
7 - 7.15: make sure everything is sorted for work tomorrow
7:15 - 9: TV, mending, knitting
9 - 10: reading then bed.

Let's see how it goes!

Kittikins

Hi Elisheba, you sound like you're really focussed to batter down your debt, well done! I like how you've set your structure for the day, there's a nice mixture of work and play in there. I'm struggling with doing one for myself today - I'm a teacher, with loads of marking, planning, sorting out bits and pieces to do today, that I can't keep on putting off, as well as housework, hopefully spending some time with my lovely daughter and getting ready for the week ahead!

One thing that has really caught my eye is the knitting things for Australian animals. One of my aims for this year is to have a craft activity, rather than loll around on the internet when I'm not working (or procrastinating !) Are there specific things that you have been asked to knit? Do you have any links to patterns that you could share, please?

Elisheba

Kittikins wrote: »

Hi Elisheba, you sound like you're really focussed to batter down your debt, well done! I like how you've set your structure for the day, there's a nice mixture of work and play in there. I'm struggling with doing one for myself today - I'm a teacher, with loads of marking, planning, sorting out bits and pieces to do today, that I can't keep on putting off, as well as housework, hopefully spending some time with my lovely daughter and getting ready for the week ahead!

One thing that has really caught my eye is the knitting things for Australian animals. One of my aims for this year is to have a craft activity, rather than loll around on the internet when I'm not working (or procrastinating !) Are there specific things that you have been asked to knit? Do you have any links to patterns that you could share, please?

Hi Kittikins,
There is a list of what they need for the animals but I only have a screen shot and can't post photos on here. If you go to FB and join the ARF group, they have loads of patterns. Very simple ones, like Cast on, Knit for a while, Cast off. Sew into bag, sort of simple. Needs to be natural fires though. They need joey pouches so that is actually a pattern!

The structure really worked for me today! Got so much done!

Elisheba

Oh my goodness, I'm tired tonight. That timetable I wrote this morning really worked for me though! I got everything done except cleaning the car, but the house cleaning took longer than expected to I gave myself a pass on that one. It can wait till next weekend, or the weekend after, or forever :rotfl:. It's the car, I honestly don't care that much.

Instead of a country walk, I went round a shopping centre and garden centre. I saw the most gorgeous reduced hat and scarf set in Cotton Traders but I resisted. Then I saw an absolutely beautiful half price diary and resisted that as well. I would have definitely bought at least the diary in the past. Even though I don't use a diary any more, I use Google

In my ongoing frugal escapades:

-I tried a 'Navy shower' (where you only put the water on at the beginning and end). I'm not convinced, but I'll wait till I get a smart meter to see if it does make much difference in terms of heating water and energy saving.

-I also tried using less washing powder and fabric softener and that worked fine.

-I made my own bread rolls, and some fruit buns, for the week which saves me buying anything.

-I also managed to mend a dress, a top, and a bra so that gets them back into use. I really like the dress as well so I'm pleased at that.

This weekend
1. Have one NSD - probably Sunday . Nothing that I can foresee needing to spend my hard earned dosh on then. Done
2. Do various housework that needs done. Done
3. Clean car inside and out. Not Done
4. Buy cat food - money budgeted Done
5. Make soup to use up carrots Done
6. Make bread rolls to go with soup. Done
7. Arrange delivery of late Xmas presents to family - forgot to budget money, but there is a bit of flex in my pocket money for this. Researched it. Should he able to do this week.
8. Meal plan for the week Done

This week
1. Do some mending. Done
2. Look into selling wedding dress and two pairs of boots on ebay etc. Research started
3. Do more research on some of the make extra money ideas on MSE.
4. Stay on top of the housework. Make a plan to help with this.
5. Fix payments for two more Cc's.
6. Keep going through MSE and writing down more frugal ideas Ongoing
7. Start knitting cushion cover
8. Look at wardrobe and see what can be altered/repurposed to give an extra lease of life.
9. Finish 2 books for reading challenge.
10. Go through change jar and see what's in there.

Elisheba

Morning all *yawns*.

Monday, Monday, eh? What do you have in store? I think today should be a NSD as I don't think I need anything.

I'm working in the office today. Since yesterday's timetable worked so well for me I have made up one for today. It can be reused on other office days.

Todays plan:
6.30 - 7 - feed cats, brush teeth, toast and tea in bed
7 - 7.30 - shower 🚿, dress
7.30 -7.45 - cereal and tea
8 - 9.20 - work at home
9.25 -9.35 - go for train
9.35 - 10.30 - work on train
10.40 - 4.30 - work in office
4.44 - 5.50- train home. Work if needed.
6 - 7 - feed cats, make dinner, eat dinner
7.00 - 7.30 - clear up after dinner, do dishes, do house tasks.
7.30 - 9 - TV and knitting for the Aussie animals
9 - 10 - book and bed.

I'll also make up a timetable for work, but won't share it here as just a tad unprofessional

Todays aims:
Sort out parcel delivery
Keep on top of house stuff
Put away washing
Make moves towards selling wedding dress etc
Survive!

Right, I'm already running behind! Onwards and upwards!

Kittikins

Hope you got lots done!

Elisheba

I didn't really get much done on the list today so I won't bother going through it. It is useful though for me to have that written daily structure to refer back to, even if I chose to ignore it

In my ongoing frugalista adventures I remembered a flask of tea for the train today, and a packed lunch. This isn't a particular saving as I normally do remember a packed lunch, and if I didn't have my flask there is only a 1/182 chance I would have bought anything on the train, but better prepared than not.

My savings account got to £300 today :j. If you had asked me even last month I would have said that I was fully extended financially, perhaps even over extended, and that I was on as tight a budget as possible and struggled with that. And this month I've managed to transfer £300 to savings!

To be fair that total has squeaked every penny out of my budget this month (and there is a chance I might have to transfer a few pounds back!). It's been an unusual month as I haven't had to buy petrol, on top of that my travel budget is cut by 1/3, my water bill is already paid, I didn't need as much cat stuff as normal, and I had no day trips to London and less social engagements than usual. However, it does show that is possible :j

When I say savings, it has been put aside to pay extra rent next month so I can change my rent payment date and reduce my bank charges. Just having it there is giving me a tiny bit of flex to improve the old finances though. It's very rewarding.

I can get quite downhearted if I think too long on being in debt and having no investments or assets. I partied away my 20s and wasn't much better for most of my 30s, frittered away my money and have nothing to show for it. When I think of how little money I can actually live on, and if I didn't have the debt or rent (or a mortgage) the freedom I would have, it is so frustrating I didn't sort this out when I was younger.

I am where I am I suppose, and the past is spilt milk. Just got keep moving forwards. Its not like I can complain really. I have a good job with a pension and security, I have found a nice house to rent, I can afford everything I actually need, I have my health. I have good friends. As long as I keep on top of things, everything else will work itself out eventually .