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

Elisheba

Evening all 😁,

That is my brother gone and the funeral past, and I have a bit of time to gather my thoughts. The funeral was lovely and very moving, but I feel like I want to start moving on from it now.

It's not been a cheap week, but I have totted down everything I've spent and tomorrow I'll add it up and see what the damage is. I've got a rough idea but I'll need to put real figures in my spread sheet. The main contributors were petrol, general entertaining costs, and laziness on my part as I wasn't feeling much like cooking.

Oh, I also put the heating on for a few days as I couldn't really expect my brother the freeze. I just checked my energy app and it was £5 for gas this Saturday past! It wasn't even on all day! My heated hoodie is back on again now! 

I also lit the fire one night with a bag of the smokeless coal from Lidl. £6.99 a bag and it is rubbish. Almost no heat from it at all. I do miss real coal, even though I know its bad for the environment. It made a lovely roaring open fire and gave out loads of heat.

Other than that I'm considering whether to buy an Instant Pot Duo in the BF sale. The 6 litre one is down to almost the cheapest I've seen it. Not sure I shouldn't go for the bigger one though. I think I've talked myself out of the Ninja Foodie though - it does get better reviews but is about 150% more expensive. As a veggie I don't need to air fry a whole chicken. Just be able airfry potatoes and quorn, pressure cook beans and casseroles, and I'd like to try dehydrating fruit as well.

I made vegetable soup today, so I'll have that for lunch tomorrow with some bread I made today as well. I have a massive sack of potatoes, so I think I'll make some mince and maybe dumplings to go with some potatoes for dinner the next couple of days. If I remember I can make the quorn mince in the slow cooker. It's always much nicer if it has been cooked slowly.

I hope you are all well, and nice and cosy now the weather has turned a bit nastier. I'm very cosy here, with my heated hoodie on me but not turned on, a blanket with a cat on it over my lap, and my long fleecy socks and boot slippers. Have I said how brilliant I think boot slippers are? They never slide off, are easy to wash, and jeep your whole foot warm - not just half of it. Absolutely brilliant. I got mine from Tesco last winter for about a tenner and they are still going strong.

Anyway, goodnight all. Think I'll head to bed and try and get my sleeping pattern back to work mode. 

SuzeQStan

Hi Elisheba so glad you have posted again was thinking about you just yesterday and good to hear that funeral & brother visit went as smooth as possible.

instant pot duo sounds good - much like you we decided to go with a cheaper air fryer (+ CS slow cooker) as we don’t really do fancy stuff with ours. Is it on a good offer?

feel your pain re heating costs - we put ours on for 2 hrs per day and water heating 1.5hrs per day and it costs us £3.85 per day

Re smokeless coal - haven’t tried Lidl’s offering as we stick to logs mainly in our multi burner but I was reading on Uk.gov other day and it is legal to buy traditional coal as long as it is in amount of 1 x builders ton bag or more.  Not sure if you have any outside space/storage space available to store such a large amount but we have found it most economical to purchase our wood in ton bags (by product of our local tree surgeon also legal
to buy in ton bag or more) which we then season anything from 6 months to 1.5 years depending on the moisture content which we check religiously. Buying in bulk always gonna be cheaper but only if you have the space.

thanks for the slow cooker quorn mince tip - picked up a big bag from Lidl on Sunday and it’s going into spaghetti bol & lasagna this week. Also U have inspired me to get back into my soups - I have pulses coming out my ears and need to get back in habit of making use of them!

keep toasty Elisheba - heated hoodie, slipper boots & kittiy on lap sounds lovely and warm

xx SQS

. 

Cheery_Daff

Glad you're home and cosy 😊 i confess I know nowt about instant pots. We have a slow cooker but being veggie it doesn't get much use (Mr Cheery thinks it turns everything to mush and makes the house smell like cabbage - but that might just be my cooking 🙄😂). Hay box is the way forwards in our house (but it's not exactly instant!) 

I do like boot slippers, although the soles on my last pair are so thin they're not really any better than socks, and you certainly can't wear them on their own. I tend to be in and out of the house a lot - far more than in our old house - so I usually go for wooly socks and fake crocs, which are regularly and easily swapped for rigger boots. 

Elisheba

Evening, all. 

I'm feeling pretty tired this evening! Think I'll be off to bed soon. 

Interesting you say that about a ton of coal @SuzeQStan. I thought that but my coal merchant seems to have stopped normal coal completely. Maybe I should have a Google for another one that will sell me real coal. I have a container I bought that will hold about a ton. Its not a proper coal bunker so a bit flimsy, and in the absence of real coal its been holding some camping stuff, but that could be moved. It would be so nice to have a decent fire again.

I popped into Waitrose at lunch time to see if there were any decent yellow stickered things, but there weren't. The stuff that was stickered was more expensive than I would pay full price. That place never seems to do good discounts. 

I also have a slow cooker @Cheery_Daff. If I was more organised I'd use it more, as its good for stews and fake mince and bolognaise. I'm mainly interested in a multi cooker to save on oven costs and be a bit healthier. You can make chips, roast potatoes, roasted veg, even small pizzas with the air fryer or bake functions, and stews, casseroles, risottos, etc with the pressure or slow cooker. 

I did make a haybox type thing a few months ago when we were all talking about them. I only used it once but might be an idea to give it another go. Its basically a slow cooker isn't it, only using even less energy. 

This evening I did my December budget. Most things I've been able to allocate a number to (except coal if I do manage to get some) , but I'm not sure what to spend on presents. I'm thinking of getting adults in my family supermarket vouchers as they are on benefits/pensions and could do with a hand, what with the cost of living being what it is. I can get a few percent discount through work on some supermarket e-vouchers, and I'm still getting 5% back on my Amex so I could be a little more generous. I don't want to come across as throwing money at people though. I suppose I could ask them if they would like vouchers, but I hate ruining a surprise. 

I've also 'bought' loads of free cosy mysteries on Kindle, so I guess I should start reading them soon! If I can get some real coal, there is nothing nicer than a Sunday afternoon by the fire with a good book. 

Sleep well, everyone. Hope you are all lovely and warm and snuggly 😊😴

Elisheba

Oh, I meant to say @Cheery_Daff I have tried fake crocs and wooly socks, but my feet end up like blocks of ice. The only solution I've found to cold feet are normal socks, then the long fleecy socks my brother bought me one Xmas, then my slipper boots.

I hear what you are saying about outdoors though - although my slipper boots do have a proper sole I could wear them outside in the rain or damp. 

Cheery_Daff

Your solution does sound very cosy! I usually have normal socks, plus hand knitted slightly woolly socks, then crocs. And my trips outside often involve the chicken run - not a place I'd want to be in slippers!! 😂😂😂

Are you in a clean air zone? That might be why they don't want to sell coal, if people can't burn it? But I confess it's not something I know much about!

Vouchers sound like a good option if people are happy with that. I've been contemplating presents today too, although not come to any conclusions! One year I did hampers from the local (at the time) Asian shop - some really interesting things in there and appreciated by people who live miles away from any such thing! But that didn't work out particularly cheap in the end, so... Not sure what I'll do this year...

Elisheba

Evening, all. 

It's wet and wild outside my house. None of it has been forecast which is a bit strange. I'm feeling very glad I have my little terrace cottage and am warm and dry and well fed tonight. Sleeping rough must be horrendous on days like today.

I hear you about the hens @Cheery_Daff. I used to keep some and had wellies by the door just to go out to them. I did think about getting one of those full length waterproof coats as well, but considering it was only the length of a garden I needed to walk I thought that might be a bit excessive.

I'm a bit annoyed today. My boss has decided for reasons beyond my ken that we should all go back into the office once a week. That's going to cost me £80-100 a month so will basically cancel out my pay rise, and is just really irritating. It also throws in the air all my plans to run away to the country. There is nothing I can do so I'm just going to see how it goes.

The newly announced train strikes are also going to interfere with my work Xmas do. Not sure whether to still go. I can drive and pay for parking I suppose, but it's a bit of a pain as it's a 100 mile round journey. I've paid the £10 deposit and it's non refundable, so I suppose I may as well. 

Other than that it has been a quiet day. I managed to save my brother £23 a month by telling him he could get a social tariff for his broadband so that's a result. Its been a NSD for me. I took my dog a walk at lunch time and just about missed the rain so that was good. I finished my hm veggie soup with hm bread for lunch, and had marmite pasta for dinner. 

I'm still thinking about whether to get a multi cooker in the sales. Umming a and ahhing about what exactly I need and whether I'm compromising on what I want due to a sale. I'll need to watch some more You Tube reviews! 

Hope everyone has a had a good day, and is having a pleasant evening 😊

SuzeQStan

Hiya Elisheba - that is a shame work is meddling with your escape to the country plans. My OH works 2 days a week from home as he is expected at his desk in grid square the other 3 days a week. I wish I had an office to go to mainly because I miss seeing real people and also am fed up of paying to heat my home office. We lost our office premises during pandemic and it’s all cloud based working for the foreseeable for me. 

Christmas do sounds nice tbh - sometimes it’s worth the extra effort & expense - often find that you have the best time when you aren’t expecting it / not looking forward to
it so much. 

Nice one on the BB savings for your bro - you will have him converted to the ways of the MSE 😊

jcriyadh

Hi Elisheba, I’m really enjoying your diary, so thought that I would say hello and add that I bought my Instapot Duo from FB marketplace for £25, now that everyone has gone air fryer crazy.  Might be worth a look?  Loving your journey so far.  

Makingabobor2

Shame about the bad weather. We had rain this morning but the sun was out by lunchtime. 
Could you not have a word with your boss and explain the reasons why you don't really want to have to travel to the office?  Some bosses can be quite understanding.  I must admit I'm quite glad I don't work anymore.