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

Elisheba

Another chilly day here.  I have all my layers on and am sitting in my sleeping bag, so feeling quite comfortable today.  Its the tricksy weather with its hint of sunshine at the weekend that has thrown me off!

Payday today, and all the things i need to pay manually are done.  One joint credit card with my ex will be paid off next month - yay!  Also as i now have some money sitting around in my personal account to cover annuals costs, it means I won't be going into my overdraft until much later in the month so that saves me a few pounds in charges  . 

I still don't know how much my broadband and mobile phone bills will go up, but they are pretty small, and water, CT and energy have already been fed into the budgets so I basically know where I stand for this month.   Next month with the NI increase, but a COL pay increase I have no idea what why pay will be exactly - and whether any of the budget changes regarding thresholds will affect me at all. I guess I will find out when I find out!  I'm hoping it will all be at least cost neutral, so I don't end up getting paid less in actual money!

foxgloves

@Elisheba, it will be such a blessing when your overdraft has gone. Back when we were starting on our debtbusting, I found our overdrafts (which we'd had from our student days to our early 40s!) were the most annoying debt. I tackled mine first, even before substantially bigger debts, because I just wanted to be in a position where my monthly salary didn't just disappear down a black hole. It felt much easier to budget towards getting rid of all the other debt once those wretched overdrafts had gone.
Like you, I enjoy a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle now.
F x

Elisheba

Thank @foxgloves I can't wait until the OD is gone, and all the card debt as well.  Everytime I do my monthly sums and see how much I'm just chucking away on interest I cringe.

In money saving news I have been absolutely rubbish so far this month, and for the last few weeks really  .  I have had a few nights out where I didn't even bother to put a budget on them and haven't counted up the damage yet.  I also didn't do a food plan, and haven't done a monthly shop so have just been popping to Tescos or Waitrose as the nearest supermarkets and buying loads of unhealthy food and junks food.  So spent way more money than needed on food and haven't been healthy at all.  

I think I just got a bit sick of thinking about money and money saving all the time.  Sitting on my own in a cold house, because I don't want to put the heating on it can be quite easy to lose motivation and just think 'stuff it' and feel a bit sorry for myself.  because I am in the privileged position of having a bit of dosh this month to play with as well (despite the fact I owe it all the the banks, and most of it has been allocated to different pots for things I'll need in the future), it has made me lax, and regarding the nights out - living on my own and after 2 years of the pandemic, I have been jumping at the change to get out and do nice things.  

I need to count up the damage now I think, and move on from it in a more sensible way.  Yes, I still want to go out and things, but I do need to set a budget and amke plan for how to do that within my monthly pocket money allowance.  Regarding food, not making a food plan and doing a monthly shop was just a combination of tiredness/laziness/busy-ness.  I need to do a plan for the week, and then a big shop at the weekend for the rest of the month.

In good news, I won an Easter egg so don't need bu buy one for myself  .  Does anyone know of a way of ordering cheap Easter eggs to get delivered to people?  I looked on Am@zon, but the bundles were all rather expensive.

I am also thinking of a bit of a radical lifestyle change in terms of diet.  I have been reading about the Whole Food Plant Based diet (WFPB) aka Forks over Knives, which has a lot of health benefits.  I am still in the contemplation phase though!  I've looked at it before and it will take a lot of doing to make sure it is frugal, and a lot of organisation on my part to make sure I am prepping and cooking good, healthy meals.  I have posted for ideas in the Old Style forum as a lot of the recipes available are very American based with ingredients that are difficult to get here, and most of the meals seems liberally sprinkled with chillies which I am not keen on!  So I'll do some more reading and thinking for now. 

Going completely vegan is a big step in itself - I have been veggie for over 30 years, but am a big fan of dairy! I am also unsure of why some of the ingredients are used in the WFPB diet- for example, the sweet recipes use maple syrup a lot.  I'm not at all sure that is any better for you than normal sugar, and it is a lot more expensive, so why are they saying maple syrup?  I'll want to work things like out out before I decided to go go down that road I think. Also things like oat milk are more expensive than dairy milk, and it has gone up again recently since I used to drink it.  Used to be £1 for a litre, now £1.15-£1.25 for 1 litre of supermarkets own brands.  I would save money on cheese and eggs though, and butter and oil.  I suppose I would just make a HM hummus to replace butter on savory things like toast which is cheap.  Not sure what mashed potatoes would be like with hummus through them though! Due to the restriction on oil, I couldn't just replace with a vegan butter, although it does say you can use nut butter moderately as long as it basically just whizzed up nuts with nothing added.  

Elisheba

Quick update to say I have just seen on their website that @ldi do 1 litre of unsweetened oat milk for 85p, which is still more than dairy but not bad.

astrocytic_kitten

Paying off debt is very similar to dieting - for most people, restricting too much will inevitably lead to a blow out either on spending or eating (or both). So don’t beat yourself up too much - you did a lot of restricting and this is just your body and mind rebounding back a bit. It’s near impossible to avoid. I basically needed to treat myself like a toddler with little treats built in along the way to keep me on track and not feel so restricted I ended up with a case of the sod it’s (and even then there were a few mini ones along the way). The important thing is to get back onto the wagon and you’ve got plans for that!

I have a major sweet tooth and I’m pretty skeptical about replacing sugar with various syrups (agave syrup is another popular one). As far as your body is concerned, sugar is sugar, and whether it’s from dates or honey or refined white sugar doesn’t make much of a difference as far as it’s concerned. So I’d say you’re right to be skeptical on that front!

sunshine_raincloud

Elisheba said:

Quick update to say I have just seen on their website that @ldi do 1 litre of unsweetened oat milk for 85p, which is still more than dairy but not bad.

Oat milk lasts a lot longer than normal milk as well! Doesn't go off. I used to be vegan. I gave up recently but still use oat milk!

vampirotoothus

Hi, I think animals are like us, they don't like to eat the same food over and over. I used to buy a mix of Butchers (Classic), Lidl own, Whiskas with gravy and serve them a different kind everyday. Never had a problem with them eating any of it. (I did try other brands which didn't go down well, but these worked). Good luck on the rest of your journey x

Four_Seasons

Hi Elisheba hope you are ok x

Elisheba

Hi all.  I'm fine @Four_Seasons, thanks for asking  .  I've managed to rein in the money spending a bit after my last email, but mainly I'm just waiting on the new month to start again!  I went on a spur of the mement trip to see family which was fairly expensive, and have been out a few times (also expensive), but I haven't gone mad wit anything else so will have to see how it looks.  Its hard to tell from, my bank balance as I'v e been paying off the OD so noty quite sure where it would be if I hadn't spent more money than planned. At some point I will have to go through and sort out the figures for this month, but I haven't been keeping a record of everything like I normally do so it will all be fudging things.

With the new month I need to buy a kettle.  I'll need to do some research and find a quick eco one at a reasonable price, that will hopefully last longer than the 4 years my last one did - and that was with me mending a leak with Sugru as well!

To get organised for the new pay month I'll need to make a meal plan and shopping list for the weekend.  Until then its porridge for breakfast, (hm) soup and sandwich for lunch (I looked at tins of soup in the supermarket recently - oh my word, they are expensive!  I can make soup for a few pence in my soup maker, and tastes just as good if not better, and its very convenient!  If anyone has the cash a soupmaker is probably the most used kitchen gadget I have ever had), and new pots with veg and various Quorn things for dinner.  I can always vary it up with pasta if I get bored.  

I cancelled my dog's pet insurance today.  He is only 3 and it was over £60 a month.  They offered a 15% discount but that wasn't enough really.  I've had a look online and seen a couple of policies I think are more reasonable, but its all changed since last I looked.  All of them had co-payments then over a certain age except a couple, but now almost none appear to, but they all talk about excess per condition per year which seems odd to me with a lifetime cover policy.  As he has no preexisting conditions I won't be limited by that, but I would like to find one with no co-payments when he is older so I'll need to read the fine print.  He'll just have to be uninsured for a few days (and then whatever the non insured period is after you sign up) until I get around to it.

Hope everyone is well!  I will try and be on here more- it really motivates me.  I think I just got tired of thinking about how much everything was going up by, and felt very powerless.  Normally I really enjoy being frugal, but wasn't feeling it at all the last couple of months.

Four_Seasons

lovely to see you back x