5 months to emerge as a butterfly

badmemory

And of course we all know that the £200 loan will need paying back when the charges are even higher & by people who never even had it.  What a farce/rip off.  They should have taken it from the profits of those energy cos.  Notice how their profits have gone up?

skint_spice

Mine is going up to much the same BB, it was the standing charge that shocked me most. I have to get used to turning the tv off at the wall as apart from that I don’t use much - tumble dry occasionally but that’s really occasionally. DS better start turning off his tv and games console (he only uses it to watch tv through anyway).

benbenandme

I wish we could opt out of the loan, I'd rather not have it. It doesn't actually help overall. 
Anyway, morning - last day of half-term for me, back to work tomorrow I've got up fairly early as otherwise I won't sleep tonight and then I feel rubbish all week. I've made a list of bits and pieces I need to get done today, nothing major but I need to know they're done:

• Steps
• Planks
• End of month banking
• Hoover / Mop through
• Clean Mums house
• Pack bags for work
• Order plants
• Plan tutoring sessions
• Decide on March's goals
• Order cards

Just sat having a coffee before I get going, ds should be off to work soon and then I'll get cracking. The plants are a local thing for Scouts, you can order them online and they deliver with a % going to the local Scout group. Mum wants some and I might get a few for hanging baskets.
Right, the sun is shining although not very warm yet, hopefully I'll make it down the beach for my steps this morning.

benbenandme

Morning all, another weekend is here! A busy but manageable first week back at work, not much planned for this weekend - ds is working all of it so I have the place to myself. I managed a full 8 hours sleep last night so am feeing pretty good this morning. The guy who is doing my windows has just called and he can fit me in this morning as he had a cancellation, so he will be here in under an hour, I'm hoping ds gets out of his pit very soon so I can frantically try and make his room a little presentable first ...
Other than that it will be the usual routine of housework, walking and football. I did manage to do a 2 minute plank this morning though, feeling very proud

benbenandme

Windows all done and paid for, other than that yesterday was quite chilled. This morning I have started tidying up the garden a bit and taken two big blue Ikea bags of dead leaves / twigs etc to the tip. Ds bedding is currently drying nicely on the line, its so nice having the back doors open and washing drying outside again, long may it last!

This afternoon will be a pottering kinda one, with some mooching online while I watch the football. I need to start looking at renewal quotes for the house insurance, then plan my lunches etc for the week so that I stick to my calorie goals. I'm doing 1500 a day in March, with my walking I use about 2500 a day so fingers crossed it will help shift some wobbly bits and kickstart getting ready for the warmer weather. 

benbenandme

Hmm, not sure what happened to last weekends post?!
Anyway, a nice sunny one today - bed has been stripped, washed, dried and remade, 3 other loads of washing have been done, dried and put away. Upstairs has been cleaned and tidied, downstairs is getting there but not finished yet.
Nearly time for my usual afternoon feet up on the sofa kinda Saturday afternoon. 
Nothing much else to report really ... I'll go for a walk along the beach later, tomorrow I want to start getting the garden sorted. 
One of the orange trees I bought for £1 has got a new baby orange appeared on it  
 

the_end_of_the_rainbow

Yay to the baby orange

Blackcats

A baby orange is very exciting news.  

benbenandme

So Monday afternoon I started coughing, ended up having a PCR test (negative thankfully), but have spent the week in bed with flu. I'm still in bed today, feel like rubbish, but am a bit brighter today. So many kids and staff off school currently with colds / flu / covid, we may end up sending a year group home again next week

Yesterday I did manage to get out of bed for a couple of hours and spent it going round unplugging / switching everything off. Our bills (like everyone's) are now just bonkers. I was paying £68 p/m in January, then the fixed deal ran out and they went up to £124 in Feb, this week they want to put them up to £225p/m. It's not happening, I can't pay that. So we are heading for possibly the most frugal living I've ever had to do. I know I can do it, I've been on here long enough to know every little penny-pinching way there is, and I don't live a lavish life to start with, but what gets me is that I can't help but feel we shouldn't have to be living like this. Other than my mortgage I don't have any debts, I don't drink or smoke, I walk miles every day and only use the car when I need to, I have my haircut only twice a year, I don't use a tumble dryer ... I'm incredibly fortunate that my mortgage is relatively small, again thanks to the years of being on here, I really don't know how people are supposed to just find this money ...

Yes the £150 council tax rebate will help, well for one months energy payments at least, yes the NI change in July will help a bit, the 5p fuel thing won't make much difference as I will avoid buying petrol unless utterly necessary, but I don't want to scrimp and save on every tiny thing. At what point will things actually start looking any better??     

I know I'm whinging, and I know it is just yet another of life's challenges to be faced. I have already started little changes - alongside switching everything off I have turned off the spare freezer in the garage. The door on it doesn't shut properly and it was all iced up, probably been using lots of electric trying to keep it going, so its had its time. I went on my energy suppliers website and ordered a new smart meter display (think I'd binned mine at some point), I am going to grow some veg in the garden (tomatoes, lettuce etc), in the summer I will stock up the freezer again with blackberries on my walks; I did this in lockdown and had 1.5 freezer drawers full of them, I use a handful each day in my porridge and they lasted me about 6 months A bag of frozen berries costs me £2.50 at Tesco and lasts about 10 days, so lots to be saved there. At least being stuck in bed all day means I can mooch on here without feeling guilty, I might spend the day looking back over old threads, who knows I might even resurrect my swagbucks account or start doing some bingo again  

benbenandme

Just logged into my Prolific account (haven't been on there for ages) and found £4 credit and completed a few quick surveys worth another £5.65. Prolific was always an easy way to make £20 a month, every little bit and all that ...