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

Elisheba

Oh, I also thought I could use it to track petrol spends as well. Not that you can get a good deal on petrol - it just goes up and up  It would be good for keeping track of the good garages though. 

WinterWarrior

I admit I don’t even look at petrol prices, I just fill to the click and know it will always be more than expected 😬

savingholmes

Good luck with it... Hope it helps

Elisheba

Morning all. I'm squeezing in a morning post before my dog wakes and the morning starts.

I did put the heating on last night for a couple of hours. Nothing seemed to warm my feet to though!

Today is a NSD and I'm out tonight at a meeting. I have soup and bread made for lunch, and it'll be Pesto pasta for dinner. 

I should probably try and get some house things done today at some point. Some dishes need doing definitely. 

If I get any time over and above that I might add a few more things to my price book app.  If I get any time over and above that (which I won't) there is mending to do. 

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thursday. The week seems to have just disappeared! 

savingholmes

How many pairs of socks are you wearing - that's the real MSE question? I bought some fake fur lined slipper socks last year and they made a huge difference over the top of normal socks while WFH...

Elisheba

Normally around the house I have wool socks on, with fleece slipper socks over them and a pair of slippers on over them as well @savingholmes and my feet stay warm. The problem is that once they get cold for whatever reason it seems close to impossible to warm them up 

Elisheba

Happy Sunday everyone! 

I had a spending day yesterday. I went for a walk and had lunch with friends. However, lunch was only £8 and I ordered tap water to drink so it came in under budget for once!

I popped into Lidl and bought some treats on the way home - some cookies and chocolate, a tub of ice cream and a box of 3 pizzas for £3. Despite being able to make my own pizza with the breadmaker, sometimes its nice just to stick something in the oven. I have to say though, I wasn't impressed by the pizza I had last night. When I had an Ald! near me I used I get their budget pizzas for about 80 or 90p and I really liked them, but I found this one too herby and lacking cheese.

All my little food spends seem to be treats this month. I think I need to spend some time doing some baking. I'm sure that would work out much less expensive than even budget sweets and treats. It's not that I can't bake, it's just that it's not something I've ever done regularly do I will need to consciously out time aside to read recipes, buy ingredients and do the actual baking. Maybe it's something I'll enjoy, although I'll admit to not feeling very domestic at the moment. Oh, to have servants, so I could just curl up by the fire reading, getting hot tea and biscuits on demand!

I've had the heating on a few times. I hate to see the smart meter creeping ever upwards, but really it has been cold and one must be reasonably warm. If layers aren't enough then some heating is required. It's a shame, and awful for the environment, but its a necessary expense.

I've been thinking about the fact we are 'bloated with convenience' as someone on HIGNFY described it this week. It's very obviously the case. Heating being a prime example, where we are used to comfort throughout the house at the push of a button and walking around in Tshirts in winter.

Also things like single use plastics where things are doled out to us in single portion sizes; constant home redecoration; overly sanitised homes, where every new gizmo, gadget and potion is needed to keep houses, bodies and clothes cleaner and fresher than they ever need to be; cars of course; cheap synthetic clothing; the list goes on and on. 

My sister, who is less well off than I am, gets annoyed by my money saving and says I'm determined to feel guilty about everything, and giving things up makes no difference and I may as well be in the 18th century. I do see her point - at an individual level nothing we can do will halt climate change. Our modern conveniences are there, and won't be going away so why not enjoy them? 

I've certainly no desire to live in the 18th century. Apart from anything else, I'm very attached to modern medicine, dentistry and women's rights. I also accept that me making changes isn't systemic change, and it's systemic change that is needed. Still, most of the changes I have made either save me money or I can see some other obvious benefit to them. Shampoo bars for example, aren't cheaper than shampoo, but reducing plastic use will clearly work to protect our oceans and our landfill from being filled with this non degradable substance, and less fossil energy will be needed to produce and potentially recycle. And the more people buy shampoo bars, the cheaper they will become. 

The more people care, the more big business will change to meet demands. I'm not convinced the current world set up will allow for the huge changes needed to halt global warning, and people two or three generations down the line are going to be cursing all of us - who knew and didn't do enough because we didn't like the negatives for us.

However, just because I think it may be inevitable, is no reason to give up. Until changes are economical though, they will have no real impact, and making changes affordable will only happen through a groundswell of pressure. So the way I see it, shampoo bars being mass produced and sold at Tesco for £2.50 is excellent. Lovely as Lush bars are, and the small independent companies products as well, at over £5 per item they are a luxury. At £2.50 a lot more difference will be made. 

So I guess what I'm really getting at is that everyone needs to do a stocktake of all of their little conveniences and ask what the real cost of them is, and are they really needed? At least that's what I am doing, and yes, I'm focusing on conveniences that cost me money but I'm also using my spending power to buy environmentally friendly products where possible, and the more people do that the more pressure there is to make more of them and for them to be affordable, and then it will start to snowball. 

Soap box over! It's just on my mind a lot this week with COP26. 

WinterWarrior

Shove over while I squeeze on your soap box …. Room for a little one (coughs while soapbox screams silently ‘weight restrictions people’) 😬 …..I agree shampoo bars are more expensive, but I have found they last a lot longer. The one I use is also conditioning, so one bar replaces 2 bottles. It took my hair a while to get used to it, but now it’s better. MrWW uses a tea tree one and that lasts lots longer too. I have even swapped the dog onto a doggy shampoo bar, it doesn’t foam as well, but does the job. I’m not the best at plastic reduction, but I’m more mindful looking for alternatives and I think a lot of people making little changes will make a bit of a difference.  Our energy use isn’t good, 2 offices running all week and right now we have 2 tv’s on in different rooms (Xbox…need I say more) and heating as it was cold and the cats looked miserable. But I think even being aware and reducing where we can is a big help. Since getting a smart metre MrWW has been a lot more mindful at switching off lights (even the ones I am just heading back to 🙄) where before I’d be wandering around switching off after him. 

I can’t say I’m overly keen on the young COP26 protesters…that’s not the right way to go about it. They forget, or don’t realise, that this level of energy use and plastic is a very recent development and that people who moved us to this point didn’t realise what it was doing to the planet. These weren’t deliberate mistakes, just progress. My grandparents didn’t use plastic bags, central heating, etc. and would have had a much more comfortable life with the things we have now. 

It’s all very thought provoking isn’t it?

badmemory

If no-one thinks they should do anything then nothing will get done & Waterworld here we come.  I do think persuading people is a better route though than making them angry with the protests & trying to force people, that just makes people put their foot down. We have seen what has happened trying to force people to have the Covid jab, it just puts people's back up.  I don't think there are many of us that like being told what to do, rather than being told it would be a good idea to ....

missymoo81

Hey Elisheba, loving all the chat on money saving and climate change on your diary. What you have all said has really resonated with me. I too need to go back and have a rethink and start making small steps. 

Also loving the sound of the app.