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

WinterWarrior

I tinker with mine too…it’s the grown up equivalent of counting coppers from your piggy bank 😁

Elisheba

Thanks @elbree and @WinterWarrior Playing around with spreadsheets and budgets really is very satisfying, isn't it?

badmemory

Life without spreadsheets - unthinkable.  But then I had spreadsheets before computers.

Elisheba

So I haven't had the most frugal few days, although I haven't gone mad.  I was out from dinner on Friday night and had grand ideas about not drinking anything but water but that didn't happen so I went over what I'd planned spend.  Then I put the heating on all weekend and Monday night because I was cold and tired, and then on Monday  I had such a craving for junk food that I had to go out and buy some.  So all in all lots of pennies spent that really needn't have been.  Still, I'm basically within budget for the month, as I was really under budget before so I'm not too stressed about it.

I popped into Lidl today on the way back from a dentist appointment and managed to get one of there big 'To good to go' boxes for £1.50. UI've never had one before and was very excited to see it!  About 6 big potatoes, a punnet of tomatoes, 2 nice lettuces, a punnet of sliced mushrooms, a few multicoloured peppers, green and red apples, a couple of oranges, 4 bananas, a few strawberries and a couple of nectarines and 2 or 3 onions.  So that'll do for apple crumble all week after the veggie mince stew I am making today in the slow cooker, mushroom soup and egg salads with the lettuce, peppers and tomatoes for lunch all week, and the rest I can just nibble on or add to meals as they come up.  There was one chilli which I don't eat, but might ask a few local friends to see if they would like it so it does't go to waste.

I think the main reason I haven't been very frugal the last few days is to do with tiredness. When am tired everything is always harder and I don't have much motivation.  I really do need a lot of sleep so if I stay up late then it does have a huge knock on effects, and to be honest the last few days I have been up late for me i.e. 11 - 11.30pm, not for any particular reason, just reading mainly. 

I can never seem to catch it up in the mornings.  So as part of this simple living, frugal lifestyle I am so keen on, I really need to be much more strict about bedtimes for myself.  Really, ideally I need to be in bed for 9, and asleep for 9.30, and then I can get up fairly early and get things done, start work early, and have time to relax after dog walks in the evening.  That's a lot harder to do in the summer with the light nights, but shouldn't be hard just now with the dark nights and miserable weather.  I just need to be stricter with myself about it.

Lunch today is the remains of the junk food I bought - so nachos, with melted cheese and a sour cream and onion dip, some broccoli soup leftover in the fridge and probably a nectarine and a banana for some healthiness afterwards.  I am making a HUGE slowcooker pot of veggie mince today with so many carrots and peas its more like a stew, which I'll have with a baked potato tonight, and apple crumble with a dollop of greek yogurt over it if I get a chance to make it today.  I imagine the veggie mince will do all week, but I'll break it up by having a pizza on Friday.  Only have normal flour but apparently thats okay if I make the base with yogurt, and I bought a huge tub of greek yogurt at Lidl today.  

Has anyone else found that getting the cheap white breadflour at Lidl/Aldi is really hard just now?  I've been looking for weeks but both of them only have wholemeal.  Its not really worth my while budget wise buying the slightly more expensive budget stuff in Tesco, although last time I looked they didn't have there cheap stuff either, just the really nice bags.  Must be something to do with supply issues.  

badmemory

My local Aldis has had the breadflour.  I've pretty much given up on Tescos.  But if anybody has seen prune juice anywhere that isn't £3.80 a litre I would be grateful for the heads up.  But there are obviously no empty shelves/shortages anywhere & the things I haven't been able to buy are just a figment of my imagination.  I haven't seen foil sheets for 2 years!  I know not very eco but I reckon that I use less using them than otherwise.  I do not like being told that the empty shelves I see are a figment of my imagination, I don't have any (imagination that is)

Sunshine_girl2

Bad memory , bacofoil sheets I got some from Dunelm. Prune juice I get for my dad from Sainsburys . £1 a litre. 

badmemory

Thanks so much for the info.

Elisheba

Morning all,
I got loads of sleep last night so feel great today.  9,30pm - 8am.  10 1/2 hours - crazy I need that much sleep, but its not helped by one of the medications I take, and I suppose if I need it, I need it.  Got to do what my body wants! 

I tried showering this morning with the water on only when I needed to get wet and rinse, as mentioned on one of the frugal threads.  Not a huge amount of fun in a cold bathroom!  I think I tried it a couple of years ago after seeing it suggested as a Navy shower on another one of the frugal threads, and I wasn't hugely impressed then either! I think I'll just try and make my showers quick, and only every other day, rather than them being unpleasant.

I have been quite proactive this morning.  Spoke to my energy company and requested a new in house device smart meter thing as mine is broken.  The screen is cracked, and I'm pretty sure the numbers it is showing are completely cockeyed.  Last week none of my energy use looks to have been over 70p a day, but the total weekly charge is £12 something which doesn't add up at all. To be fair I had the heating on for 2 days, so 70p a day doesn't seem very realistic for those days either! I don't know if that's the broken screen or not, but I can't do anything to progress the matter if there is a problem until I get a new screen and see if that solves it.

I also phoned up and Shell BB will send me a prepaid envelope to return my old router.  Had to speak to 3 different teams to et that sorted!

Also took advantage of some of the deals I've seen on this site and ordered a Grumm shampoo bar at £3.95.  I normally pay £4.50 for the bars I use so that's a little saving.  I have also ordered 2 months of dog food on the Tails 90% off order .  I would never pay their full price, but at 90% off, its half what I might normally pay in a month, so a little saving there and some nice food for my little monkey. Just need to remember to cancel it asap.

I am all organised with food for today.  Boiled some eggs in my egg boiler this morning, so have enough for 3 days and I'll make salad up fresh each day.  Also made some mushroom soup in the soup maker.  And I have veggie mince stew to reheat tonight with a baked potato. I haven't made apple crumble - I'll wait till I have some other stuff to put in the oven - probably Saturday if the apples will last that long.

Hope everyone had a great day!

foxgloves

I think you make a good & valid point @Elisheba, about various aspects of a frugal lifestyle causing tiredness. Often it's for good reasons....for instance having a lovely long free walk at a park or historical site, or digging over vegetable beds, planting flower borders with freebies, etc, & it is the fresh air as well as the exercise which knocks us out in the evenings. I used to be able to sit & read or watch TV into the early hours......in fact back when I bought my first little house, I worked full time (including a late shift & regular weekend working), had a 40 mile a day commute, then I would cook my evening meal, sit for a bit, then at around 9pm I'd suddenly find a spurt of energy & go & paint a door, cut out a skirt or sand something down. Now I seem to be settling more into my parents' time frame - earlier into bed (though not as early as them (yet!) & awake at 5.30 ish & up between 6 & 6.30 am. Before I took VR, I found that morning was my most productive time at work & that is now the case for everything else. On a fine day I am often working out in the garden by 8.30 & really feel I've earned my mid-morning coffee on those days. I am often making gifts (am a knitter), mending stuff, or doing other activities in the evenings, as am not very good at sitting watching TV as an activity in its own right.......unless it's a programme with a lot of subtitles, of course!
F

Elisheba

I agree @foxgloves. I think it can be a very healthy lifestyle - I go out for walks with my dog as one of my hobbies really.  From now on watching all the flowers come up gets really interesting.  And then if I am at home I will try to keep busy (when I can - if I am working no choice but to sit for hours) as I always thing 'this will keep me warm and save me putting the heating on, and its something useful as well'.  It can lead to you feeling much tireder than a more sedentary life though, and fresh air can be very tiring! 

It's all part of the 'simple life' I am trying to cultivate as well.  Yes, I have debts to pay off and goals I want to achieve, but I also want to move away from a commercial based life and into a lifestyle where I might be working a bit harder at some things,but I am being kinder to the planet, wasting less, and am less reliant on money and things fullstop.  

I am also much more of a morning owl and get most done then.  I have always needed a lot of sleep though - the difference is that when I was younger I ignored that and then would spend days tired and grumpy!