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

Elisheba

Thanks @slm6002 Thats absolutely brilliant!  Now to find parks that accept dogs, are open Feb/March, aren't too far away and are the cheapest!

slm6002

You are welcome.  We have to go in the school holidays which limits the dates wee can do, but the ones we did go on were well worth it.  Good luck finding a good holiday

Elisheba

Just got 1/3 off my railcard.  Super chuffed.  I had budgeted to buy one this month as I have a London trip coming up this month and next month, so that's almost £10 saved on a planned purchase. Yay!

Elisheba

slm6002 said:

You are welcome.  We have to go in the school holidays which limits the dates wee can do, but the ones we did go on were well worth it.  Good luck finding a good holiday

Yeah, I am lucky I can avoid the holidays!  Honestly, as long as it is clean and dry and after Christmas I am not fussy at all where I go.  An indoor poor on site would be nice but not essential.  Not many places seen to do the £9.50 rate though and also take dogs.  Still I have found a few potentials so fingers crossed.

Elisheba

Morning, all, 
Have woken reasonably early for the first time this week which is nice. Food plan for today is hm muesli for breakfast, finish the pasta salad for lunch, and I'm out at a charity BBQ I've organised for dinner.

It won't be a NSD as I need to give a donation for the BBQ, but that is budgeted for. Annoyingly my lunch break is going to be picking up the food for the BBQ from the friend who ordered it, so not many quick jobs will be done around the house. Hopefully I can get the dishes done though. 

Looks like the weather will be the low end of the 20s today which I can manage fine. I have quite a lot to be getting on with at work so not sure if I'll get many Prolific surveys done, but will keep an eye out. 

Plans for the weekend include a birthday high tea with some friends on Sunday, which will be nice. My birthday isn't for a few weeks but another friend and I are having a joint tea. Other than that, Friday is always a chill out night. Saturday I have a list of jobs to do as long as my arm.

Also I've scratched and dented my car, trying the park too close to a lamppost - oops! Nothing I can do about the dent, but I seem to recall you can buy touch up sticks for cars. I'll have to have a look online.

Yesterday I bought about 20 free books on K|ndle, most cosy mysteries. Hopefully they won't be too dire. I am also reading a brilliant book by Nancy Birtwhistle called Clean and Green. I recommend it to everyone. She's way more into cleaning and tidying than I am, but she has a natural solution for absolutely every cleaning issue, normally including vinegar and bicarb. It's not silly recipes with 95 fancy ingredients, but proper ones. It's even better than Rhonda Hetzel's Down to Earth book for cleaning recipes, especially as she's in the UK so I recognise all her ingredients.

She uses green bleach a lot, which is called sodium permanganate, and she says is basically a crystal form of sodium peroxide (not to be confused with sodium hydroxide which is caustic soda ) which I've heard a lot of Americans mention. I've never tried it, but might buy some and see how I get on with it.

I caught up with quite a few threads on this board yesterday which is nice. I never manage to stay caught up though! I always find them quite inspiring, which I need. Honestly, was looking at Prime sale yesterday and nearly bought a Stanley food flask and a breadmaker! While they are very nice I have absolutely no need of them, already having a breadmaker and a food flask. Just because these would be better and we're at great prices is no reason to buy something I don't need! And also I'm already overspent this month. Spending more money on unplanned purchases is just silly. So easy to get caught up though, especially when you know its a good price.

Hope everyone has a great day. Its Thursday now - nearly at the weekend! 

foxgloves

Well done for resisting, @Elisheba. Nothing is a bargain or a good deal if you don't need it. 
F

Elisheba

Afternoon all, 

I'd booked Monday and Tuesday off when I saw what the weather was going to be like. Didn't fancy baking in my spare room office. So I'm currently outside in the shade, with ice lollies and icecream cones to hand when needed. As long as I don't move the heat is just about manageable! 

I paid the money to my Mum for the holiday we are all going on in a couple of weeks, so my bank is looking a bit sparse right now. All budgeted for, but even still! 

A few spends over the weekend. Mainly food, although it was off plan. With the weather though I wanted ice cream, ice lollies, hummous etc. Had to buy new sun cream as well, and got some multivitamins as well as I have run out. I'll have to update the grocery challenge when I get round to it. 

Spent £8 off budget for the swimming pool today, and bought some beers over the weekend as well which were off budget. I've written it all down, but having spent a fortune on a night out a couple of weeks ago, and having a London trip coming up my spending money for the month will be well over budget. 

I've zapped my receipts today, but not done any Prolific surveys due to being away from the laptop. Still, I think with my Prolific money, a £5 receipts voucher, and £5 cashback on a card I have about £40. I really should get towels I suppose, but am temped by a heated hoodie for the winter. 

I hope everyone is managing with the heat. I've been super paranoid about my dog, but actually he doesn't seem too bothered. He has cool tiles to lie on, a fan on, he's getting walked in mornings rather than evenings and takes a dip in the river then, and other than being a bit less energetic he seems fine. I'm glad it breaking after today though. We are not adapted to this sort of heat at all in this country. Our houses aren't designed for it, and it takes about 6 weeks to 3 months (I think - not sure I can remember the exact amount of time now) for blood to thin to deal with it better so a week or two just makes us suffer. 

I cleaned the oven yesterday using only bicarb and washing soda following instructions on Nancy Birtwhistle's book Clean and Green. Considering I think it's been 4 years since it was last done , I don't think any proprietry brand of nasty chemicals could have done a better job. It's lovely to be able to see inside again 

I'm out of washing soda so I'll need to buy some in. Annoyingly, I can't see any big big 10 or 15 kg containers online for buying in bulk, just multiple bags, which doesn't reduce packaging. I don't think. I'll need any before I go on holiday though, so will probably wait until I'm back. 

Swimming this morning left me knackered! I think I've only been swimming once since the pandemic started so I'm not surprised. A friend and I are talking about doing 2 mornings a week, although I might do more. I'll see how motivated I am though before I buy a membership. It's £25/month just for swimming, or £38 for swimming, health suite, gym and classes. I very much enjoy the jacuzzi but not sure it's worth that extra £13/month. I'm pretty certain I wouldn't do any of the classes or use the gym. I'm not keen on paying for things like gym membership having wasted a fortune on the past on them, but suppose its for my health so it's an investment. I'll wait to see how often I end up using it PAYG and weight  up whether membership is worth it. With swimming and dog walking I should get fairly fit again, and it might help with the back pain I get. 

Anyway, stay safe, stay cool, stay frugal, and have great weeks! 

Elisheba

Was going to have HM bread and hummous for a late lunch, but the bread had gone all blue mouldy. Think I made it Thursday or Friday, and in this heat with no preservatives in it that makes sense I suppose. Had a couple of crumpets that were in the bread bin instead, and then sprayed the bread in with vinegar to kill off any mould spores.

Dinner was a lovely veggie burger I got free from a BBQ I organised last week where there was food left over. Also got a big ketchup, some chopped frozen onions and a few rolls so was quite pleased with that. Made a potato salad with tomatoes and cucumber as well which was very tasty. I always use salad creme in my potato salad and it tastes lovely. Not much fun cooking the potatoes  or burgers in this weather though!

Currently sitting with my feet in a basin of cold water and the fan on, wondering what to do next. I have a workman coming out at 9am tomorrow to fix a couple of things so want to do a quick clean of the bathroom and hoover of the stairs today, but that can wait till it's cooler about 9pm!

elbree

Hope you're staying cool, sounds like you've coped with it well. Swimming is such great exercise and great for mental health too. I live literally on the beach but still only go in July and August. I cannot make myself go to the pool! It's a good routine if you can manage it though. 

Elisheba

Afternoon all.

I'm sleepy today as it was too hot to sleep well last night.  Mind you I think I managed a bit better than some.  A couple of my friends said they barely slept at all.  I am very glad it has cooled down to more normal levels now. It'll be good to sleep tonight without the drone of a fan (and the cost of running it!).

Had a look at my payslip for next month and the National Insurance changes mean I will be getting an extra £30 a month, which is what I had worked out on Martin's calculator.  That a nice little sort of pay rise.  I've updated the s/s as well so everything is factored in.

I have to keep resisting buying things I don't need, like a £200 hoover.  My current hoover may keep getting blocked, but I paid a huge amount of money for it just before I decided to ditch the debt, and it still works, so I need to stick with it.  While I am still in debt it should be about needs not wants, and things should be able to pay for themselves.  I have to keep reminding myself though. 

While I seem to have convinced my subconscious that any credit on credit cards is untouchable, when I have money left on my overdraft it makes me feel like I can buy things!  This is how I got into debt in the first place!  If my OD was paid off I could put money aside into pots, and then if I felt like buying something for the house or some clothes I would know how much money I had in that pot.  Currently though I'm using my OD to buy anything that's essential, and leaving the excess from each month in there to reduce OD fees.  It makes things a lot less clear for my spendy subconscious.

Hope you are all having a good day.