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

Elisheba

Ho hum. Bit the bullet and bought the leisure centre membership. As long as I use the pool and jacuzzi once a week I will be saving money. Blasted place has a £10 admin fee as well (which I've taken into account in my sums) - not exactly sure what admin they are doing as I joined online and paid in one go🙄.

Dog acquired his vaccinations, and it was only £60 rather than the £70 I had belatedly added to my s/s.

I got a bag of chips from the chippie (£2.90) to go with my nice reduced Higgeldy pie from Waitrose last week, which made a lovely, hearty dinner with peas and gravy. Have enough chips left to reheat and have with eggs and beans tomorrow, and maybe even with something else on Wednesday.

I've requested the new Alexander Macoll Smith 'Isabel Dalhousie' novel from the library. That'll be 90p when it arrives, but saves me I think £11 from buying it on Kindle.

It is so lovely that it's still light at 7.30pm! I can hear birds singing their bedtime songs, and the boys from across the road playing football in the street. It's still quite cold - I had to put the heating on in the morning, but hopefully it'll warm up soon.

I think I'm going to start a list of things to do on my 2 week Easter break, so that I don't just lie about reading rubbish for two weeks. If nothing else I can pretend I'm at a fancy hotel and go for a swim and jacuzzi every morning now I've got my membership 😊. 

SuzeQStan

You are not alone in allergies to the nicotine patches - I had to move onto the gums as a had a bad reaction (why did I think it was a good idea to put it on my bum couldn’t sit comfy for a few days lol).  Thankfully those days are behind me now 😉🤣

Elisheba

Oh I can't stand the taste of the gums @SuzeQStan.

I still haven't felt the tiniest flicker of a craving and my last patch was on Saturday - very strange.
Laughing at your allergic reaction on you bum 😂. I've been trying to put mine where you can't see the marks they leave when I have my swimming costume on, but I haven't always succeeded, so I feel a bit ridiculous with red square marks dotted all over me when I'm at the pool. The allergy got worse over time so the marks from the last week or so have lasted a week and counting, although the earlier marks faded after a day or two. 

Fortune_Smiles

Well done on giving up the nicotine Elisheba.

Fortune x

Elisheba

Evening, chums, 

In utterly non moneysaving news my dog broke into my fridge again, and had an hour to gorge himself before I finished work and came downstairs 😭. I'm left with some old mushrooms, a wrinked green pepper, carrots, onions, cottage cheese, and the tin with the cinnamon rolls (he's eaten the tub of icing sugar that goes with it). I absolutely must buy a child lock for it tomorrow - the duck tape just isn't cutting it.

I really don't want to do a shop until I'm paid, so I'm going to have to improvise on my lunches a bit with all my nice stuff now in the dog. If I make some mushroom soup I can have that with bread and butter the next two days, and baked potato with cottage cheese for my office day on Friday. I have some fruit so that can bulk it out a bit. Honestly, what a monkey! He's definitely in the doghouse, not that it makes the slightest difference to him. He's had all the yummy things 😂.

Swimming this morning for about 50 mins and 15 mins relaxing in the jacuzzi. I was starving for breakfast when I got home! Just over an hour dog walk at lunch time, although I'm still just shy of those 10000 steps. Should hit them before bed though. I'm going to focus on getting the swimming more frequent and the dog walks more consistently long, and keep my portion sizes sensible. Once I'm there I can think about weight loss a bit more. It would probably be useful for my pain issues - I don't know - but healthy habits are the most important thing.

Cheese and fake ham toastie for lunch with a yogurt, and fruit, which was very nice. Sadly not to be repeated as its all in the dog 🙄. Dinner was yesterday's chippie chips reheated in the air frier. I put them on for 7 minutes at full and they were a bit too crispy. Eaten with fried eggs and beans, so not exactly a healthy dinner 😂.

It's bill day today, so most of my bills come out. Still 3 days until payday though. I'm not sure if I've said but I've had notice my rent is going up by £25/month. It's the first rise since I moved here 5 years ago, so I can't really complain. It's just everything else is going up by a fiver here, a fiver there, energy has doubled, plus the £100 extra I'm now spending because I have to go into the office once a week. It all adds up 😣. This coming month I'm back to paying off the credit cards, so no more leeway for spendyness like I've had recently. Budgets are tight and must be stuck to. 

Local government has been offered £1925 across the board again this year, which is about 10% for the bottom grades, and about 5% for me. I thought that was pretty reasonable, but the Union delegates (not members) have rejected it, and are balloting members over whether to strike - in May 🙄. So even if we vote against a strike, and it is agreed as is, the soonest I'm going to see it is August I imagine. But it'll end up being Xmas again. I'm strongly considering whether it's worth being in the Union again. That money could pay for my rent increase!

I got a work project finished today which has felt never ending, so that gives me a few days to wrap other things up before my two week break. I had to put the heating on about 2pm today because it just felt so cold! Spring feels quite far off right now, with it being so cold and grey! I've just made a cocoa to cheer myself up over the misog weather ☺️ although with the heating on I don't notice it.

I'm sure I had more to say but my mind has gone blank. Hope everyone is nice and toasty indoors tonight! 

fionaandphil

I used these locks from IKEA and they kept it firmly shut https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/undvika-multi-latch-white-40339867/ there might be an extra discount if you have a family card? There is always the danger though that you might come out with lots you didn't know you needed 😁

penny_less

De lurking to say, we were offered the same by our local authority.
Luckily, our union approached it differently, asking us to vote to, with either a ‘yes’ to accept,  or a ‘no- but with the expectation to strike’. I’m glad to say 86% of members voted to accept.
I’m sure your union members will vote similarly, it’s just a shame for you that it will take so much longer due to the way your union has approached it.

Love your diary btw!

Elisheba

Thanks @fionaandphil. I don't have an IKEA close to me, but will look for that type online.

@penny_less Glad you are enjoying my random witterings 😊. That's great your Union have already approved the pay deal! I wish mine had been so sensible. 

Elisheba

Evening, thrifty (and currently frozen if you are actually in a tent) campers, 

I got my s/s totally up to date today with March's spending, and April's predictions. It's all ticking over nicely, just got to make sure I start sticking to budgets again!

I've also got my dog insured again. I let it lapse as I was ruminating over what type of cover I wanted. So I've finally decided, and that will be another £42.50 a month to pay. I hate to think what it's going to cost when he's older!no copayment though, which I like. 

Fifty minutes swimming this morning, and an hour and 20 minutes dog walking at lunchtime. Feeling rather tired tonight, so will probably my go to bed early.

I popped into Tesco on my dog walk to get some soup as I never got around to making any. £1.70 a can! I'm pretty sure I could get 3 for £1 ten or fifteen years ago. It was nice to have Baxter's Country Garden soup again though - it used to be a favourite.

They also had a 25% clubcard sale on clothes so I got a skirt which I'm taking back, 3 T-shirts I'm not sure about and will try on again in the morning to decide, and a floaty pale blue blouse which was already reduced so was £7.50 in the end. Not exactly planned purchases but I did desperately need T-shirts last summer.

It's been so grey and dreary these last few days, so I've lit lots of candles this evening to cheer myself up. No heating on today although it was a bit touch and go at times. I had a look at my energy account and I owe them £120 over and above my normal payments.  Not sure whether to pay it now, or wait and see how it's looking when I stop using the heating.

I had half a fancy reduced pizza for dinner, and a tin of soup with bread for lunch. I need to decide whether I want to go swimming again tomorrow morning. I suspect from how tired I am tonight I might be taking a break from it. Lunch will be another ton of soup, provably with a cheese toastie, and dinner might be the second half of pizza - not sure, could also be Spanish Omelette.

Take care, everyone and keep your wellies and mackintoshes to hand. 

Cheery_Daff

Definitely wellies weather here too 🙄