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

badmemory

1962 definitely was a very bad winter although I believe some wartime ones were very bad too.  But May 63 half term was sizzling, it was the only time I have ever got burnt.  Should be a very interesting read.

WinterWarrior

Elisheba said:

That's interesting @winterWarrior as I've always found Am@zon extortionate for cat food (they are very fussy and won't eat shop's own brands, but seem keen enough on tins of Butcher's Classic, which at least is cheaper than Felix and Whiskas, although is much harder to find than it used to be. It has also gone up about 50% in price in the last 6 years).

Not checked Am@zon for dog food though. I have been feeding him Harringtons biscuits, but have bought Chappie to try next month.

Not heard of Zooplus but I'll have a look. 

Amzn sometimes have offers on as good as it looks and wiskas 7+, but not always. You just have to keep an eye on the prices. Mine will sometimes have a Sheba or two in between, but mostly as good as, double delicious and gourmet tiny pate tins are the main contenders. I get sacks of dog biscuits from Zooplus, but they are royal canin breed specific and not really cheap anywhere…then she needs a small topping of wet food, chicken or people food or she refuses 😬

Elisheba

Honestly, I wrote a long post and somehow it got deleted when my Mum called! How annoying!

So today I made bread, stripped and changed the bedding and put it all in the wash, and hoovered downstairs at least. I would have gone to the tip but it is closed on a Sunday. Also did a food plan and went shopping, though I may well have bought enough to get me most of the way through December as well  . I now have almost 2kg cheese, 4kg porridge oats, 24 pints milk, and at least 1kg of butter  . 

Food shopping came to about £62, including the treats I bought on Friday. I still need to buy bread flour as neither L1dl or T3sco had any. Well Mr T's had more expensive brands, but I wasn't buying that as I need about 4 or 5 bags. I still have one bag left though, so it's not urgent. I should have enough milk for the month in the freezer if I water it down a bit to stretch it. If I need more I won't need much, so fingers crossed I'll keep to my food budget of £70 for the month.

Chatted with a friend earlier and spent some time reading my book. The weather is pretty hideous so I don't think I'll do my Halloween activity tonight. Sadly its already paid for and I won't get a discount. 

My book is great so far @badmemory. I had heard before that the winter of 62 was the worst in living memory, and that it snowed solidly for 10 weeks after Xmas and half our bird population died. So far the book is setting the scene, and I think it will be looking at how that winter was almost like a chrysalis for new ways of thinking and attitudes. So far it has discussed how little power women had at that point, how parliament was literally creating racist legislation and the Caribbean diaspora were living in London slums, and how the police were going out of their way to expose, shame and prosecute gay men. 

Thanks, @winterWarrior I'll keep a closer eye Amazon pet food prices, just in case!

So this week I'm hoping to keep the heating off again, but the forecast is rather chilly so it might not happen. I need to stay on top of the laundry, hoovering and dishes and everything else should fall into place. I should probably try to get to the tip one lunchtime as well.

Other than that the plan is to get enough sleep, eat healthily, get out for my dog walks and to read my book. I hope everyone has a brilliant week and is warm and cosy tonight 

savingholmes

Good luck with making your food stretch. 

1962 sounds tough. Glad to have left that era behind.

Elisheba

Afternoon, all.  Yesterday and today are NSD's which is good.  Hopefully I shouldn't have to spend any money until the weekend.  I have taken the milk out the freezer to defrost, so hopefully some milk will be available soon as I have just finished the old carton.

I tok my dog to the vets today for his 6 monthly check up, and I needed to get him his kennel cough drops as he is going into kennels for a night later in the month.  It was all covered by the Pet Club I pay for.  I'm not sure about the value of the Pet Club to be honest.  While it is cheaper than paying for all these things individually, do I really need him wormed and deflea'd every 3 months?  Wouldn't a yearly vaccination be fine?  I never bothered with Pet Club for the cats - just got them vaccinated yearly, and deflea'd whenever it was needed.  Anyway it runs till March and then I will need to rethink things.

Other than that its a quiet week.  Heating is still off.   I mentioned on FB that keeping the heating as a last resort and wearing layers, blankets etc instead was a good idea for he environment, and although some people agreed some people seemed to be personally affronted.  It seems obvious to me, but apparently not everyone agrees.

I need to put more bread on tonight and make some soup for tomorrow lunch.  It's Spanish Omelette for dinner tonight with what's left of last night's potatoes.  A dog walk, and then do some dishes, and I can relax for the night with a book 

Annoyingly my sack of potatoes which are in a dark cupboard in the utility is a bag that lets air in, have started going a bit soft and sprouting.  I looked up how to store them and think I am doing every thing right, but something is obviously wrong.  I'll just need to make a concerted effort to get them all eaten up!

I opened another instant access savings account today, although at £1.50 interest per £1000 saved pa its not going to win any medals.  It will give me a pot to keep my annuals money in though, without too much hassle.  The other savings account with that bank can be a holding account for overpayments, and my other account with another bank can be my emergency pot.  This is all for after my car service and MOT are paid for.  I do really want to focus on an emergency pot and over paying debt next year, but I am aware that my car probably should get a new CAM belt soon which will be about £400/500.  I'll have to think carefully about that.

I saw another little country house for sale on Rightmove today.  This one was an old Forestry cottage at £125k, a 3 bed end of row semi, with a few houses in the row but pretty much nothing else near by.  Big garden and a stream across the road.  Lots of forestry walks around.  Not the area I normally look but it would do. Fairly nicely done up as well, but the bathroom was downstairs which I can't live with again.  I won't be buying for at least 4 years, but its nice to look  I really do think my quality of life will improve without the background noise of traffic, and with beautiful views and much more outdoor space.  My Gran had a place like that when I was younger (although not quite as far from the main road as I am looking at) and I loved it there.  I'll just need to make sure the WiFi is decent for work, and that there is a town within reasonable driving distance for shopping, library and some socialisation as well.  The joy of not being able to do it for 4 years is that by then I will have sorted out the kinks in wfh, and will know whether being 350 miles from me office is feasible or not! 

savingholmes

I do pet club for dog but not cat as it paid for itself in one month as otherwise the costs were £20 for the meds and instead the club is £15 pcm and including nail clipping a few times a year and her vaccinations. 

I am using the heating sporadically. 

I eat potatoes even when soft and just cut off the shoots. 

The whole WFH thing does open up the country for people to work from anywhere - unfortunately it drove up prices just as I was thinking of moving.

Elisheba

Morning all,

The breadmaker is on, and so is the soup maker.  Carrot, potato, celery, butterbean and coriander soup for lunch. i find with hard veg its a good idea to blend it first, then cook it twice.  Not hugely money saving in terms of energy, but still cheaper than shop bought and much healthier.

Still no heating on, but its getting to the point where I think I might have to start start using it.  I'm currently sitting in a sleeping bag, with a blanket over my shoulders, 4 layers and fingerless gloves on and my fingers are still cold.  My phone says its 6 degrees outside and feels like 5. I'm not a starving artist freezing in a garret somewhere and dying of of consumption, and there is nothing romantic about being cold.  As soon as my layer start not being enough the hating going .

Today should be a NSD.  I had training this morning at work, have a doctor due to call later, and am having a zoom with some friends this evening so it will be a pleasantly full day.  

I'm quite sleepy and not sure why.  Would really like a nap but not sure I'll be able to fit that in.  Lots to do workwise.  In a few days all last months payments will ahve gone through and I can see where I am up to with the debt repayment.  

Hope everyone has a wonderful day filled with lovely surprises and joyous events!

Elisheba

I found a pricebook app and which a bit of tweaking it seems like it will be really useful.  I have already posted about it on Old Style, so I'm just basically going to copy my post below.  I may well spend the next few days adding my shopping list to it in any spare time I find!!

Its free and you don't need to subscribe to anything that I have found.  It is called 'Price Reminder'.  I've found it on Google Play but not sure about Apple. 

I have been having a play around with the app.  It has a form for each product and asks for the product name on one line and then the brand on another.  However, there doesn't seem to be anyway you can easily compare if you createa new product for each new brand.  So the solution I have found is to create one product e.g. 'cheese - extra mature' and ignore the brand line, and then when you go into that product add the supermarket and brand on one line eg. 'Tesco/CathedralCity'.  This means under 'Cheese - Extra Mature' you will be able to see all the supermarkets and brands you have entered at once (and it puts the cheapest on top).  Honestly, it makes sense once you are using it!

Also, just a little note, in order to edit or delete an entry, you need to go into history and click it there.  No idea why you can't do it under summary which is the first page that appears, but there you go.

WinterWarrior

The app sounds so useful…I’d be totally on board, but there is only one ‘main’ supermarket in the county here! I do miss the variety. 

Elisheba

I've been entering all the data from this months shop into the price book app. Its really straightforward, and now I have a baseline for at least the basics going forward to check if special offers are worth it, and just to keep track of prices. I know for a fact my pet food has gone up a lot over the last few years, but this way I'll have the data (and it also does a graph for those who like visuals). 

It'll make things like working out if T3sco's Clubcard deal on 12kg of dog biscuits is actually better value than the price I pay for 15kg in a different shop so much simpler. I CAN do the maths, but to be honest when I'm trawling round the 3rd shop that day and I'm knackered it's the last thing I want to do. Couple of clicks on my phone and now I'll know (the app automatically works out price per measurement unit, or piece depending on what you fill in.

I was also thinking I could set up an Eating out category and record how much my lattes or hot chocolates cost at different cafes to compare them. Because they are a treat I don't really think about it, but it's good to have all the data when deciding which cafe to go to.

@winterWarrior I hear you about only having the one supermarket. I was thinking though for you keeping of online shopping prices, or if you like buying brands of certain things in your supermarket you could use it to record special offer prices so you know to stock up when it's a good deal. Or to compare brand products of the same thing eg.cheese, so you know something is at a good price.