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

Elisheba

Shopping is done, 
Gone the sun,
Dum de Dum, Dum de Dum,
All is well,
Safely rest,
God is nigh...

Nothing like a bit of singing Taps to celebrate getting all the shopping home and packed away! Honestly, one of the big things I miss about being married is having help lugging it all in 😂. 36 tin's of cat food, 12 kilos of dog food, 20 kilos of cat litter, 12 cartons of UHT milk, all the shopping. It's a proper workout!

Also I hate having to go out shopping on a weeknight. However it's my own fault for being a lazy n at the weekend. I suppose the delay this week was quite useful as I'm back on here and that always inspires me to plan properly.

Got most things from Lidl, but will need to pop into Tesco's at some point for the bits they didn't have. Shops are looking proper bleak at the moment - no tomatoes at all, almost no salad bits, no eggs, no toilet roll. It's a lot worse than at the start of the pandemic. I hope this isn't how things are going to be from now on.

In other news I'm very much enjoying my new dishwasher. You can't get that much in and it's like doing a jigsaw seeing what I can fit, but for one it's fine and it's so good looking at a clear kitchen! 

I think I'll read for a bit and then head to bed. Need to try to get up at a decent hour so I can start work fairly early. I'm down on flexi time and need to build it back up. Some of the medication I take for my mood means I could literally sleep for 11 or 12 hours though. Since there aren't any other side effects it's something I'm prepared to tolerate, but it is a bit of a nuisance.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their hump day, and the start of meteorological Spring, and St David's Day! I saw some daffs poking through on my dog walk earlier for the first time this year so that was very appropriate 😃.

Cheery_Daff

Urgh yes, lugging all the shopping inside is extremely tedious! At least we have parking outside the house now - sometimes at our old house we had to park in another street 😂 Mind you, outside the house doesn't feel very close sometimes, depending on what you're carrying 😂😂

Ooh, I forgot about the start of spring 😂 We have a couple of crocuses up, but the daffs are still resolutely green here, we're still very much in snowdrop time 😊

Elisheba

Morning all (still morning when i am writing this but might not be by the time I post!),

Ah yes @Cheery_Daff I used to have on-street parking as well.  You mentioning it reminded me of how glad I was to have a driveway when I got this house.  

I have been naughty and bought about £10 worth of Kindle monthly deal books.  Also, when I went to cancel Kindle Unlimited as my 2 months for 99p was coming to an end, they offered me 3 months for £10 so I said yes to that as well  .  Its not that I begrudge buying books - I love them, but I never get round to reading all the ones I buy on Kindle deals.

So I am determined I am going to put some proper time aside this weekend to do some reading.  Some of the books I bought are quite light little murder mysteries, and I'm not in the mood for anything very weighty right now, so I can start them, and have a look through the Green Living Made Easy book by Nancy Birtwhistle, and the cook book I bought. There is also a 1940s domestic manual on Kindle Unlimited that looks fun.  I have a bag of fake coal left, and the weather looks grey this weekend, so at least one afternoon if not both I can spend in front of the fire.

The problem I am having just now regarding reining in my spending is to do with a lack of focus.  Up until recently the plan was fairly simple - get rid of the debt and save up for a house in the country.  However, to move to the south of Scotland which was my plan I need to be able to only go to the office once a month (I'd have to go down the night before and home the day after).  Its too long a commute for once a week.  And that doesn't look like it is going to be an option now.

So If that's not an option, what am I aiming for? Housing is too expensive down here for me to get what I want, and even if I went for a house in a town I would struggle to afford it and it would never be paid off in time for me to retire about 60. There are areas I could buy where a weekly commute would be just about possible, like Wales, but I have no family or friends there so moving to a rural area would probably isolate me too much.  And honestly, I would rather stay where I am if I can't move closer to my family in Scotland.  

So I am at a bit of a loss about what to do.  Another option would be a narrowboat, living where I am.  But its not a very good financial option.  I would need to take out at least some finance to buy one as I can't save £50-60k very quickly, so I would have to pay that back.  Then, for at least for the first year or two I would want to be in a marina rather than continuous cruising, so there is that to pay for, then licence, insurance, maintenance, etc, etc.  There is a lot of dead money involved.  And although the boats don't depreciate quickly in value, they do depreciate so its not an investment.  I do love boating though, so its the only option I can think of right now, and I suppose most holidays would be solved  .

So yes, I'm spending quite freely when I should be saving.  I need to decide by the end of this month whether to put savings in my LISA but it doesn't seem like buying a house is going to happen so it might be better to keep them in my 5% interest account for this year at least.  I guess I'm reacting a bit to my plan falling apart.  Still, books and some house stuff and camping gear aren't the end of the world, and I'm paying for it all outright.  Once I have a plan again I think I will be right back on the frugal wagon.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hi Elishba,

Housing in the current finanical climate is such a nightmare to navigate, so I really do feel your pain. We've just had to re-negotiate with the landlord where I'm living as they wanted to increase by over 30%. We just don't have it esp on top of everything else. So we are in a similar predicament. May have to move out of the area. Family are located 3hrs away from where we are. Kids are settled here with co-parenting in the mix. Good luck, as long as you are saving something you are doing well.

Elisheba

Oh, I feel for you @Queen_of_the_Hive. So far there has been no talk of putting up my rent.  I'm really hoping the house owners own it outright and are happy with a stable tenant who always pays on time. My poor Uncle's rent was getting hiked up just before he died last Autumn and he was having to move, and I can't help thinking the stress must have been a contributor.

Elisheba

Morning all,

I've got a super busy day today. In the office today then rush home to feed and walk dog, then out at a social group thing in the evening.

I'm on the train to work now, and have a flask of coffee and a packed lunch with me so living the frugal dream there 😃. Annoyingly I had to buy my ticket from the station rather than the app, and the station master wouldn't give me the split ticket discount I normally get. He said my pass wasn't valid on the second half but l'm pretty certain it is and he had just got himself confused. 

When I was packing up lunch - which was leftover pasta mish mash, I dropped the packet of crisps I had and my dog ran off with them! Blooming labradors - utterly food obsessed 🙄.

When I checked my calendar yesterday it turned out I was meeting a friend on Saturday, so I messaged to double check and it turns out one of her kids has a vomiting bug so we have had to postpone. It's a 100 mile round journey which I'm not really in the mood for this week, so although it would have been good to see her, so I'm not too bothered.

Hope everyone has a good day, and Happy Friday to all!

SuzeQStan

Hey Elisheba great to see you back - missed your diary 😊 been catching up and can understand where you are coming from re where your roots are being set down. It’s always good to have a motivating goal. But not always easy to decide what you actually want!

Made me laugh about your mischievous lab - those puppy Labrador eyes can melt the sternest heart tho 🐾🍟

Hope you have a fab weekend
SQS xx

Elisheba

Morning, frugal friends!

This is my 2nd attempt at writing this as I somehow managed to delete my last attempt 🤔.

I'm having a very lazy morning. I didn't get up for church, in fact it is almost lunchtime and I'm not dressed yet. I have spoken to my mum though, messaged a couple of friends I've not heard from recently, and read some of Nancy Birtwhistle's Green Living book. 

I'm not sure what my plans for the rest of the day are yet. I need to hoover and clean the bathroom at a minimum. I should also put the bread maker on. I might put it on twice actually, and freeze one. It's good to stay ahead of my daily bread needs, and it slices much thinner and more easily when is a bit older.

I'll need to take the monkey pup out for a walk. I might drive somewhere nice for a walk actually so I feel like I've been 'out' somewhere today.

I've got a Tesco Wicked fake steak pie for dinner. I had one before and wasn't that keen, much prefer Quorn. Still I bought them reduced, and they need eating up. I'll have it with some roasties I have in the freezer, and some frozen veg - carrots and peas probably. Or maybe some frozen Savoy cabbage - that could be lovely fried up with butter and pepper...

Today should, all things being equal, be a no spend day 😁. I cannot wait to get my phone back so I can feel on top of my finances again. I haven't been able to tot up my February spending, and although I know there is plenty of money there for the bills and any shopping, not being able to see it with my own eyes is very frustrating.

It's good to hear from you as well @suzeqstan. It is indeed hard to work towards a motivating goal when you don't know what you want. I'm no further forward. I'm reading a book called The Liveaboard Guide to try and get a feel for the costs with a narrowboat. They are pretty eyewatering - I don't know why people seem to talk about it as a money saving option. Maybe if you are paying rent in central London, or you don't factor in all the saving you need to do for maintenance, or even if you continually cruise rather than pay for a mooring. I'll need to tot it all up. I suppose my current rent is dead money, so compared to that it might be cheaper if I discount any finance I would need. In the long term though, I'm comparing it to the option of buying and paying off a house, where all things being equal you won't lose much money and might actually make some.

I hope everyone has a lovely end to their weekends today. I've got a video call with a couple of close friends tonight so that'll be fun 😁. We are planning a holiday for September so maybe we'll get a bit further forward with that!

Elisheba

Evening all.

I've had a super productive day, I think thanks to get organised on here earlier on. Most of the housework is done - hoovering, bit of dusting, bathroom, cat litter, and the big dishes that don't fit into the baby dishwasher.

I decided to buy some picnic bits and have a picnic in my car after the walk. I went to local nature reserve wood and had a good stomp round. Got completely lost at one point as I don't have the OS app on the phone I'm using until mine is fixed 😂. I ended up right back at the furthest point from my car again!

I remember doing that walk in the pandemic when I was walking about 7 miles a day. I remembered there was a little hill in the middle. Blooming heck, it was huge. I had to stop about 3 times to catch my breath. It's amazing how quickly you can lose your fitness.

When we eventually got back to the car I had bought some rolls (as there were no baguettes) and had a couple with cheese spread on one and red pepper hummus on the other, then a bag of crisps from a multipack and a couple of little fake Snickers, again from a multipack. I've put the roll in the freezer, and can have them with a burger for dinner one night, and with fried eggs for a breakfast one day. The multi packs will do for work packed lunches, and the spreads I can have with soup and sandwiches during the week. So all very economical.

I put the putting on for an hour when I got it, then lit the fire. I'm almost out of newspapers, and there were no free ones at Tesco's and the local one stopped getting delivered. So that looks like it will be the last fire of the year. It's annoying being out of newspapers as I use them to line the cat litter tray as well. I may have to start huy a big Sunday paper again!

I didn't have dinner in the end as the picnic lunch was at about 4pm. I thought I could make toast and eggs if I was hungry later, but I didn't get hungry so didn't bother.

Off the bed now and back to the grind tomorrow, but it is nice knowing the house is vaguely presentable to start the week. With 3 very hairy pets who travel in lots of mud and make lots of mess, it won't stay that way for long mind you 😂.

Makingabobor2

Sounds like a great day. Just a thought, do you have any neighbours who you could ask to save newspapers for you?