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

FootyFanDan

Wow you are doing so well. I love how you have broken it down and tracking where you have come in under budget or over budget. The way you go about things is such an inspiration, keep going

Elisheba

Just a quick update. I spent 5p more than budgeted on my curry out tonight, so I'll need to add that to my pocket month spend!

I'll have to rethink some of the proposed budgets I mentioned in my last post, as there are few thing I have forgotten about

I have also been given a free ticket to a charity night during February. I had originally said I wasn't going, but someone had double booked and was anxious to give away their ticket so I felt rather obliged. I'm sure it will be a fun night.

Elisheba

Happy Saturday all,

I couldn't bring myself to post yesterday, or watch the news or do anything really. I feel like my part of identity has been stolen, and I am hideously worried about the economic impact and consequences. One of the darkest days in our history. The only way I can cope is to try to distance myself emotionally, as I'm utterly powerless to change this madness (and God knows I've tried).

In DFW news it adds extra impetus to my resolve to become debt free. Things are going to become very stormy in the next few years and I'd like to be as financial secure as possible to try and weather the storm.

Today I got my monthly shop in. £31 22, and I shouldn't need much else in the coming month so February should come in under £40.

I was out for lunch today with a friend, and she very kindly and unexpectedly paid for lunch so that was very lovely of her.

Netflix, Prime and Spotify have been cancelled :eek:. That really takes me out of my comfort zone with this new way of life. I've had them for years and not having them, no matter how little I use them, feels very basic and spartan. It really is a different way of life because everyone I know has them, and we talk about the shows. I'm stepping away from social norms I'm accustomed to and it is rather unsettling.

I organised my food cupboards after the monthly shop. Things in there included 9 tins of beans, and 6 tins of coconut milk. That seems rather a lot for 1 person :rotfl:

This month my special treat to myself is going to be coal for the fire. I've added £20 to my pocket money for it, which should be enough for 2 or 3 fires in the evening a week. I do absolutely love sitting by the fire when it is merrily blazing away. It's very good for my soul which I need right now.

Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm doing. A long lie and then probably house things that I need to catch up on. I'm going to practice a lot of self care, as I really am deeply traumatised by the bl**dy B word. I can't even bring myself to say it. I will try to make the second batch of Seville marmalade and then have bath in the evening I think. I can do another honey and cinnamon hair mask as I continue to try and lighten my hair without having to dye it, and read by the fire later on.

astrocytic_kitten

Elisheba wrote: »

I organised my food cupboards after the monthly shop. Things in there included 9 tins of beans, and 6 tins of coconut milk. That seems rather a lot for 1 person :rotfl:

Add in some chopped tomatoes and passata and that is exactly what my cupboard looks like!

I love the descriptions you have in your diary, the roaring fire sounds lovely. Take care of yourself today.

Elisheba

AK I also have about 10 cartons of passata, but very few tins of chopped tomatoes weirdly enough!

katsu

Hi Elisheba, another receipt app is snap my eats. Your take photos of food spending, both meals out and grocery shopping. I'm new to it this year but it looks like you can earn £5 a month from it.

Did you find an app that accepts train receipts? I find Shoppix don't. Instead I'm using nectar and earning points their for buying gwr tickets online.

I'm on Shoppix, receipt Hog, snap my eats, zip zero and shopmium. I don't use shopmium as much as it's money off shopping in big stores and I don't go to them often, as I find Aldi and Lidl added so much better value, but I just got a vegan pizza to try for £2 instead of £3.65 so it will make a treat dinner one evening I hope. I also think I get topped up from a friend referral so the pizza will have only cost me £1 in the end - I think!

db2016

subb'ed and good luck!

i'm not a mechanially minded man, but i do have to say having a swiss "champ" this is the best most featured actual swiss army knife, (30 odd tools) comes in handy daily for me! i even have a wallet one, and that gets used a lot too, eg i went out with a lil tag still on new jeans last week, so out comes the small scissors or lil 1.5 inch knife and boom! - one of them or a leatherman are a life investment for sure!

im deffo with you on the consumerism side, its like cooking shows with jamie ramsey, gino lawson, or delia oliver on. "buy the book that accompanies the series" - ermm no, i could just make a list myself.
and upto a point all the books on the subjects that we come on these boards for, i read a lot on DFW that SPEND money on books that this site / boards give you for free..

and words that are new, and seem to be all the rage, but are things people have been doing for years but it just wasn't a trend. such as "self care", aka, spend some time to do your own thing that your enjoy! or "mindfulnesss", aka go to a happy place and be thankful or to destress. "detox", aka put the crisps away linda and eat a bloody apple, it really is NOT rocket science.

Elisheba

A weekly update, and things have gone well this week. A work trip to London on Monday didn't lead to any spending. I just ate my packed lunch and drank from my thermos 

On Wednesday I spent a fiver (including postage) on a present for someone. Other than that I don't think I've spent anything this week other than on budgeted travel costs. 

I had a bit of a fright yesterday when I got an email with a bill for another £65 for gas from my old company, for a period that literally covered about 10 days - this on top of the £330 one I received last month from them. It was all a mix up though - someone had submitted the wrong final readings from the new company to the old one, and I think that is it all sorted out now. I was running around turning everything off though, thinking I must have a gas leak! 

In other MS news:
*  I'm trying to juggle money around a bit to prevent OD charges where I can.
* I got £3 from the B@rclays Blue reward scheme
* Money Magpie have offered me almost £30 for some books I wanted to clear. I just need to find a few cardboard boxes! 
* I tried to put my wedding dress and another item on Gumtree but they wouldn't upload for some reason. Think there must be an issue with the system. 
* I'm still watering down my milk, although I have discovered you can only make it last so long and then it will go off 
* I'm being very parsimonious with the heating, but it is February so I do put it on sometimes. I'm not sure my late Victorian terrace has much in to way of insulation to be honest! It's freezing without heating on. 

In more general news, I'm still enjoying working towards a more simple way of living. I'm currently thinking about whether I want to continue to dye my hair. I've always dyed it, from a young teenager. Naturally it's a sort of light brown colour with a bit of grey. Would growing the dye out make me look plain and old and dowdy? Or is that me buying into not only the commercialism power structures, but also the power structure of the patriarchy? I don't know! I'm debating it in my head! 

I've also been thinking about how I can be more productive both in work and in home. I've been experimenting with changing my sleeping patterns, and going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. It's early days, but so far it works well. I'm hopeless at night, so going to bed at 9pm isn't much of a problem for me, and I'm slowly waking up closer to 5am which is my aim. My brain is much better in the mornings so I can work from 6am to about 1.30pm and then have the afternoons to myself. As long as I'm getting enough sleep, hopefully my circadian rhythms will fall into line. 

Other than that, I don't have much I need to do this weekend. There are things I could do, but nothing is urgent, so I'm just going to try to appreciate the lack of pressure and enjoy my free time. 

Elisheba

After me saying things had gone well this week, I came home to three letters from one of my credit card companies. I have gone over the card limit and been charged a fee. I also got an email from the MSE Credit Club today that my credit score had changed, which I presume was something to do with the whole c*ck up. 

Basically, after speaking to at least 4 people on the phone, what seems to have happened is that me changing my payment date to the end of the month seems to have amalgamated two different interest charges which is what took me over the limit, but doesn't seem to have similarly impacted my fixed or minimum (whichever is greater) payment, which didn't take that into account and thus didn't cover it.

On speaking to them they refunded the £12 charge 'as a gesture of good will', and I payed an extra £53 onto the card as well as the fixed amount of £50 this month. Apparently this will sort it all out. I hope so. I can't make heads nor tails of credit cards and the interest charged, and it's really demoralising going over a limit when I'm finally getting things sorted out. 

The whole sorting the finances out thing has cost me a fortune so far! I'm paying about £340 extra in rent this month so I can change my rent date to the end of the month, I changed energy suppliers and got whacked with a £380 bill, this credit card has gone over it's limit... Honestly! Its enough to put you off.

I am holding on to the fact that now I have started to sort out my finances I have the money to pay all these extra costs, and they will save me money in the long run. Just got to remember that when faced with three letters screaming about credit card limits! 

Blackcats

Hi Elisheba - you are doing really well.  I feel your pain of how, in order to make long term savings, you end up paying more in the short term.  I've just changed energy supplier and had to pay the final bill of the old supplier and the month in advance payment for the new supplier.  It will work out better before too long.