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

Sallygirl

I have been away so have been catching up with your diary. Hope you are having a great holiday. I do think you are doing very well. It is hard to keep going with budgeting without the occasional blip : )

Vacuum - it sounds like mine is the same sort as yours and I made sure I bought one that is an "Animal" version. I have two cats, one of which sheds a lot of fur all the time. I find that a) the vacuum is hard to empty and does not hold very much and b) it blocks almost every time I use it. And I can't clean the whole house before the battery is used up. If you find a solution, I would be very interested to hear it.

Wood  - we have a woodburner. We always have a kettle on it which copes with most cuppas through the day. We put any excess in a flask which fills a hot water bottle at night. My aunt had an open fire and a little stand/trivet thing where she could put a saucepan to simmer which saved on her gas bill. A lot of our wood for the woodburner comes from skips which means that it is free. Usually people are only too glad if I take some wood away because it means there is a little bit more space in the skip to put something else in instead. We put the wood ash in the compost heap and it goes towards growing some veg.

Pet food - Harringtons have a offer on on their website for both dog and cat food at the moment. If you spend £40 then delivery is free. I was delighted because one of my cats has a bit of a "funny" tummy and is better with Harringtons pet food because it is grain free. I thought I would mention it in case it is of interest

Elisheba

Hey @Sallygirl. No solution on the vacuum cleaner afraid, other than doing a home service on it every now and then.

I'd love a Woodburning stove. So much more efficient than an open fire. Sadly, although I have 4 open fireplaces in my small terraced house, 3 of which are usable, they are tiny things so can't see how I'd get a trivet on there.

Thanks for the heads up on the Harringtons. I'll have a look 

Elisheba

Afternoon all, from the insanely sunny Middle West (ish). 

Got back from holiday yesterday. It was a hell of a day. Getting the holiday house cleared and vaguely clean for 10am, getting my family and their stuff to their pickup point with me the only able bodied adult and driver, driving my Mum home then driving back down to England. All in 30 degree heat with no air con. Got home at about 9.30pm and was too tired to unpack. Just taking it slowly today.

Money wise, I stayed in budget. It was so good to know where I was with my finances. Meant I knew I had the money to treat them all a couple of times which was good. 

I was fairly frugal the whole time apart from yesterday. I was too tired and hot to care, so I spent a whack at a service station and really put my foot on the gas, which I don't normally do. Used way more petrol but it meant I got home at a decent hour which was all I cared about at that point! I'm still within budget though, and sometimes you just need to spend a little money to ease the way if you can. 

Although my family are all on restricted budgets (benefits and pensions and the like) I was really taken aback by how much they spent on processed foods. It's obvious how hard it can be to feed 2 fussy kids, but I could really see how a little bit of time with food prep and organisation could save a packet. I mean I wasn't making a huge effort with cooking either, but I wasn't buying takeaways, and overpriced cheese in little packets, or fizzy juice. Or nearly as much booze as they got through And they just don't seem to care about environmental issues at all - I'd taken the homemade laundry detergent but they bought brandname stuff anyway. Didn't make any difference as far as I could see! 

It is interesting to see how other people live. At the end of the day I've decided to destroy the debt and have aims and objectives. Other people are in different places, but it is hard when I know just changing a few things could make their finances so much easier. 

It's unpacking for me today and making a meal plan. This ridiculous weather is making me more and more seriously consider going vegan. I'm not faffed about things like honey or vegan wine, but really want to cut out dairy. I love seeing cow's in fields but we cannot sustain the methane they produce. Anything to try and stop global warming. If floods and fires and baking weather are what we have to look forward to then we just need to get off out bottoms.

I've been veggie for over 30 years, but I'm not much of an inventive cook and really like cheese. When I've tried veganism before I've ended up buying loads of processed foods which was expensive and involved way too much packaging. I think I need to retrain myself to cook in a vegan style. I've got a book called Broke Vegan I bought on a Kindle sale a while back, and will read through that and give it a go. I know there are also some vegan threads on here which I'll take a look at. It would be much healthier and if I'm not eating a lot of processed junk I would lose some weight which would be nice. And you can get nice vegan icecream these days for when I'm not so virtuous! 

I'm looking forward to checking my energy bill to find out how little energy I used when I was away. I remembered to turn off everything including the WiFi, so it should have made a dent! 

Shopping for the next 6 weeks will be close to zero. Not because I'm eating from cupboards but because my mum won a £100 Waitrose voucher and gave me it for £40 as a birthday present. She doesn't have a W@itrose near her and I do so it all works out well. 

Off to unpack and get some things done. Hope you are all well and not suffering too much in the heat. 

Elisheba

Have just checked the student loan info and as I'm Plan 4 my interest will only rise with the base rate plus 1% so no massive hike for me thankfully. Also looks like the Scottish government is raising the threshold next April so that will mean a small cut in payments.

I'm really hoping my area of public sector work gets a 3 or 4 percent pay award this year. Scotland have already offered workers 3% and been rejected, so you never know, although Scotland isn't run by a party that think the public sector should be cut back to the bone.

I have no idea where Unison are in negotiations so I'll have to look into it. It could mean a £60-80 a month payrise, which, back dated, will make a nice little sum. Add to that my student loan reduction and some pay changes due to National Insurance and it might all cover my energy bill increases. 

Nonnadiluca

Like you I'm a long time vegetarian with a dairy habit, though I am trying to cut down. I've found the domestic gothess website brilliant for vegan recipes, well worth a look - her lentil dhal is amazing!

Elisheba

Thanks @Nonnadiluca I'll take a look at that website. 

Elisheba

Good morning, wonderful people. 

Just trying to make a food plan and shopping list for the week so I can pop out and get supplies later. I know I normally plan monthly but just being back from holiday and thinking about moving to vegan food and needing to do more research means one week will do for now. I want to use up some of the food I already have so I'm basing meals around that. 

Breakfasts - HM muesli. Everything already in but could do with some bananas and cinnamon to spice it up.

Lunches - HM soup with frozen veg from the freezer, sandwiches with HM hummus. Bought a loaf on way home, have ingredients for hummus, so need vegan butter, salad for sandwich filling.

Dinners 
Sunday - new pots, frozen veg, quorn escalope. Buy new pots
Monday - wraps with peppers, onions, mushrooms, yogurt and cheese. Buy mushrooms, vegan yogurt and vegan cheese (Applewood is edible iirc)
Tuesday - as Monday
Wednesday - slow cooker stew using up frozen veg and tinned beans
Thursday - as Wednesday 
Friday - tortilla pizza
Saturday - tortilla pizza

Shopping List
Vegan butter
Vegan yogurt
Vegan cheese 
Oat milk
Almond milk
Cucumber
Tomatoes 
New potatoes 
Mushrooms
Celery 
Carrots 
Bananas
Cinnamon
Live Basil, Parsley and coriander plants if they have them

I have some tinned fruit so if I fancy pudding I can have that with the yogurt. I won't buy any biscuits or snacks as I'm trying to be healthy. Next week when I'm a bit more organised and have done more research I might factor in baking some little vegan buns or cakes. Loads on the Domestic Gothess website recommended by @Nonnadiluca

Elisheba

Right, shopping done and receipts scanned. £32 odd for the shopping including 8 cartons of milk at £1 each and a £2 chocolate bar that had been reduced. No cinnamon to be found but everything else was there.

Not sure of the £100 gift card will get me to the end of September but it won't be far off 

Bought £10 of books on Kindle earlier - oops! It'll come out of my allowance as will a £10 vape and cartridges I had to buy as I lost mine on holiday. Had a £5 gift card I realised afterwards I could have used for the vape but it didn't occur to me as you normally can't use vouchers for nicotine products.

Think that's everything for now. It's far too hot to do anything so I'll have some lunch and then read I suppose. I should have taken my dog out early this morning but I didn't so that'll be him stuck indoors for 2 days, poor soul. He can toilet out the back but there is no room for him to run around. Still, it supposed to break tomorrow which will make it much easier for going back to work. 

Elisheba

Morning all,

Back to work I go  .  Still, at least the heat has broken!  

Did my slightly delayed sums this morning.  As I had been counting my holiday fund as having paid off part of my OD I've only reduced by £160 this month.  That's what happens when you fudge figures to make yourself feel better. Still, it won't happen again, and from now on the numbers should reduce by £600 - 700 every month.  Despite having lots of spare credit on the the credit cards none is offering me a balance transfer deal - I suppose because I did one a month or two ago. That seems to have knocked my credit rating down a good few points as well. ah well, I shall can continue to pay interest for a little while yet.

Have decided I will wait until near October to apply for the cashback Amex card.  My credit rating will be up again, and I'll get the most from the 3 months higher rate of cash back coming up to Xmas.  

I'll update my signature to my new debt amount - £10,474.90 in a bit.  All the joint debt with my ex is finished this month, apart from the lump sum I owe him for paying back the OD on the joint account.  He isn't in a rush for that though and has suggested I pay off interest accruing debts first.  

By my rough calculations all my debt should be gone by around July/August next year.  I might slow that down by throwing £1200 into my LISA before next April.  The 25% return this year will be more useful for buying a house than an early debt repayment date.  

Soon, though, so very soon, I should be able to put away about £850 a month into my LISA and open other savings accounts, and save for a house! Its getting closer - I can almost taste it!

Elisheba

Trying to plan for between now and Xmas.  Pretty much all the spare cash is going to be put in to my annuals fund aka pots, as they almost all come up between now and Xmas.  Car MOT and service, birthdays and Xmas presents.  Then Jan or Feb its the car insurance. After Xmas I can put £125 away each month in my PB account for the pots, and use everything extra after paying all the other debts towards my OD.   

Things I need/want coming up - 

New walking boots - this is pretty much a need as the current ones are full of holes and I walk my dog everyday.  I can get a pair of well reviewed ones from Cotton Tr@ders for about £56 after a 10% first order discount. As this is about half of what I paid for my last pair and they haven't lasted 3 years I think that's a good purchase. They never seem to go on sale so I don't think there is much point in waiting around.  I will probably buy them at the start of September.

Heated fleece top - I think this is a need for the winter if I don't want to put the heating on much.  Its about £25 and then I need to buy a rechargable battery pack for it as well.  I'll probably buy this at the start of October.

New bath towels and matching extras - a want getting to a need.  Technically this would be out the household pot, but there is nothing in it. Mine are basically rags, but as its just me and I have a couple of decent ones (albeit in the wrong colour and too small for me) I got given last Xmas I can pull out if people visit, I can probably struggle buy a while longer and wait till my pots are filling up again after Xmas

Instant Pot - definitely a want.  They just sound so much fun though, and cheaper to run.  Maybe out the household pot after Xmas, or perhaps I can do some surveys and save up.

Clothes - I haven't pulled my winter wardrobe out yet, but I don't think I'll need much.  Waterproof coats are fine - I'll just give them a wash in the waterproof stuff. I bought hideous ski pants in a sale earlier in the year to keep me warm wfh, and have suitcases full of hats and scarves.  

Don't think my dog or cats need anything, and I picked up a thick curtain to help stop draughts from the backdoor in a charity shop on holiday.

I also need to decide what I want to do about a holiday pot.  If I put money aside there will be nothing to pay the OD off with. Hmm.  A problem for after Xmas I think.