The thriftyish way to debt freedom

Fortune_Smiles

Hello Thrifty - hope all is well with you and yours.

Fortune x

thriftyish

Hello
So sorry to leave mysteriously, we are absolutely fine (except DHs back is playing up) 
Covid cases started to increase in our area, and I stopped yellow sticker hunting - not many ys were about so I was going 3/4 times a week and it felt safer to drop to a weekly shop. Which in turn meant I took my eyes off the budgets a bit and fell off the bandwagon. Prior to October I was checking banking daily and updating my spreadsheets every other day. I've just done the entirety of Octobers spreadsheets in one go! 

Food
Our food total for October was £422. Better than I expected, but the three months prior were £290 £272 & £339 so definitely an increase. It did include a Chinese for myself and DH and our traditional half-term Mcds for the kids. I've been buying things like oven chips for convenience too, whereas I had been using our homegrown potatoes to make chips (and the children prefer homemade) a lot more sweets and treats have been bought too so I need to get back into the routine of baking.

Allotment, Clothes & House
These budgets are where I fell off the rails. 
Clothes - Budget £120 - Actual £227
DD3 desperately wanted school trousers, DH needed work jumpers (and he's an awkward one - he is tall, has broad shoulders & a long body & arms. He needs XL to fit his shoulders but they are still a bit too short in the sleeves and body. I ended up buying him 2 x tall xl jumpers which were over £50 for two, but he did need them - and they are a little on the long side - I can't win!) We bought some Halloween stuff (some second hand) but the biggest expense was extra clothes for the children and new outdoor PE kids. DD3 still needs more clothes, we play hunt the clean trousers every morning. It should be better when she's back in school uniform, which gives me time to search.

Allotment - Budget £50 - Actual £258
Wow. This was much higher than I thought. About £40 of this is new nuts/bolts and sealing tape for the second-hand greenhouse. Most of the frame is built, I just need to work out what glass I need (which should be free, between SIL and DHs work) Another £30 of this was two packs of ranunculus corms in a moment of weakness - I hope they are worth it! Around £30 is compost and some more trays for planting. The rest ~£160  over is mostly seeds, a mulberry tree, 2 viburnum shrubs for the front garden, spring bulbs and some pampas grass. 

All my seed websites still have messages about high demand and I panicked and ordered all my seeds for 2020. Partly because of my news....

I am a volunteer!
I was still on the hunt for a second plot so I emailed the town council and the woman was really nice but responded to say the waiting list was higher than ever and that I had a long wait ahead. Looking around my allotment site you wouldn't think so! I got talking to one of the plotters who was complaining about the abandoned plot next to his and the charity one next to that, which had weeds up to waist height. So I approached the charity and asked if I could have some space in return for providing them with produce/cut flowers to sell. They agreed & I signed up as a volunteer so that I am covered for health and safety reasons. So I have another space to grow next year and I am really excited to get started and see just how much I can grow for the community too. The charity currently provides gardening services to the elderly and disabled but have expanded to work commercially too, they also help young people and people with disabilities to learn skills and work experience through volunteering. They run a cafe at our local park, and have a polytunnel a the cafe - they raise some funds from taking cuttings and reselling plants, they also grow plants to sell from seed and are given plants from local retailers to sell. They have 2 and 1/4 allotment plots the size of mine which two volunteers are trying to run, but they spend most of their time at the polytunnel, they have hardly any crops at the allotment, 90% of their allotment area is overgrown.

One of the other volunteers was telling me that he got into trouble with the charity for asking in the cafe (which they also run) to see if they had any spare food they were going to discard for another volunteer who had no lunch or money- apparently, it isn't the charities job to provide food and volunteers cant expect food. It got me thinking and there isn't a Trussel trust food bank in our area, although the local Methodist church does provide food to people in need. Now I am wondering if there is anything I can do to help, I'm mostly thinking a soup kitchen of sorts with produce grown, but its only an idea at the moment - I am running before I can walk as per usual.

Part of the seed spend has been extra vegetable seeds and some cut flower seeds - It has still been a shock to see the total for this - and I need to go back to updating the budgets daily to stop this kind of spend happening again! 

House - Budget £200 (meant to be saving towards a rewire!) Spend: £260
£40 of this is a blind for the dining room window, we redecorated earlier in the year but didn't replace the blind. Now we are in autumn, the sun is lower and we are all blinded when it's sunny at lunchtime. £130 of this was a Christmas tree. DH loves xmas and wanted an 8ft tree that fits our huge front window, I check in the sales last year but didn't find anything. We haven't actually ever bought a Christmas tree until we bought a £10 real one last year. Our first one was given by a friend when we married in 2008 and we still have it! We were given another one by our SIL but it broke last year. So last year we decided to try a real tree for the first time, it was lovely but it felt so wasteful taking it down and putting it in the green bin afterwards. I am hoping this tree lasts us at least 10 years, hopefully, longer!

£34 was spent on rechargeable batteries which will hopefully save us money in the long run.  I bought a lovely candleabra from the charity shop which DH spraypainted black, for Halloween. I am trying to slowly gather a box of Halloween decorations we can use every year from charity shops/second hand so I am not spending too much money or adding to the awful waste a commercialised Halloween produces. I bought 4 hot water bottles for £6 from a sale at our local Poundstretcher which is closing down, and some books and bits for the kids from the charity shops while shopping for Halloween costumes a few weeks ago.

We also have been decorating the office this week. It's lovely but I haven't accounted for the DIY or paint in the October budget as they are on my credit card - I am so bad! But its mostly paint and a £15 second-hand chair, and will make a massive difference to DH, since he will be working from home for the foreseeable. The plan is to use the November house budget to clear the credit card.

Halloween
Halloween was quite thrifty, most of the costumes were from the cs or what we already owned. I bought the candelabra and some sweets. We played lots of games, racing spiders across the floor blowing with a straw. I set up a huge treasure hunt with clues. We played charades (which was hilarious) and a few other games. DH took the kids for a quick walk (no costumes or trick or treating, just to spot decorations), then we had a spooky Halloween tea in candlelight & played Cluedo into the evening. 

The fallout
What is done is done, some things were needed and some will save us in the long run. And so November will be mostly about accounting for the fallout from October. We overpaid a little in October, but might not manage to overpay in November. I will wait until after the 5th when the council tax goes out to see what the damage is like and plan for the month. The 2nd lockdown shouldn't affect us too much, but my heart goes out to all the people it will affect.

If you got to the end of this, you need a medal! Thanks for all the messages of concern, I was really touched when I checked in last night. Will hopefully catch up soon and not be away too long. You guys help keep me on track, I need to keep reading and writing here!

Thrifty.

f0xh0les

If you need more rechargeable batteries  (or you kept the receipt) Herr Liddle has AA and AAA from tomorrow at £2.99 a pack.  I am gutted as I spent £20 on 4 x 4packs last month as they were much cheaper at Scr3wfix than anywhere else at £5 a pack. Grr, going to go and get some more at that prices as, lets face it, they are rechargeable and I have not bought a single normal battery for about 2 years now. They are great stocking fillers for the kids too. They always have something that needs another 2 AAs.

Glad you are all ok.  Everyone is a bit shaken up when people disappear after one of our 'friends' died.

Congratulations on the volunteer role (allotment-napper!) if you have some sort of bbq/firepit set up at the 'lottie, for the volunteers,  then your hard up chappie could always get at least a cuppa and a chat, or if you did a veg soup type thing.  A drum from a washing machine makes a great firepit  .The shelves from ovens make perfect bbq shelving too.   Kind of a 'weed and feed ' programme.   I volunteer with the TT,  there should be something nearby set up -  sometimes it is the church that has links with the f/bank -  I know the boxes I pack go out to some  smaller 'affiliated' churches. who do not advertise they are TT satellites....  and we provide them with any food they are short of.  It is worth a phone call anyway.   You are lovely.

thriftyish

f0xh0les said:

If you need more rechargeable batteries  (or you kept the receipt) Herr Liddle has AA and AAA from tomorrow at £2.99 a pack.  I am gutted as I spent £20 on 4 x 4packs last month as they were much cheaper at Scr3wfix than anywhere else at £5 a pack. Grr, going to go and get some more at that prices as, lets face it, they are rechargeable and I have not bought a single normal battery for about 2 years now. They are great stocking fillers for the kids too. They always have something that needs another 2 AAs.

Glad you are all ok.  Everyone is a bit shaken up when people disappear after one of our 'friends' died.

Congratulations on the volunteer role (allotment-napper!) if you have some sort of bbq/firepit set up at the 'lottie, for the volunteers,  then your hard up chappie could always get at least a cuppa and a chat, or if you did a veg soup type thing.  A drum from a washing machine makes a great firepit  .The shelves from ovens make perfect bbq shelving too.   Kind of a 'weed and feed ' programme.   I volunteer with the TT,  there should be something nearby set up -  sometimes it is the church that has links with the f/bank -  I know the boxes I pack go out to some  smaller 'affiliated' churches. who do not advertise they are TT satellites....  and we provide them with any food they are short of.  It is worth a phone call anyway.   You are lovely.

Ah fox, I've missed you!

Your batteries from Screwfix were cheaper than my popular rainforest ones! We bought rainforest ones before on a good deal and the last order was a pack of 16 AA and a pack of AAA too. I know rechargeables are expensive, but hopefully will get our monies worth and they are better for the environment, which a huge tick in my book!

I absolutely love your 'weed and feed' idea, I don't think it would be too hard to set up either and would be great for other members of the community. I am sure that we could put the word out to other charities and point people in our direction, even if it's only a day a week initially, its a day a week we can provide a warm meal to someone who might need the meal or even the company to someone lonely. I don't feel like I have the energy to put it into place at the moment, I am very close to burnout - probably c19 related, but hopefully, in the new year it will be something I do, its all very exciting!

Today.
I don't feel like I am being very thrifty at the moment. Probably because of the parcels that keep arriving for xmas, and my usual cs routes are closed it's a little harder than usual.

So I thought I would try and think of all the things MSE things I have achieved today.

- I walked down to the allotment with my two eldest to harvest some sprouts, cabbage and broccoli for dinner today. It was lovely to get some air and we also walked our labrador so the walk ticked a few jobs off my list at once.  I made corned beef pie with homegrown potatoes & homemade pastry (the pastry was in the freezer from last time I made pie which was an amazing time saver) It brings back lots of memories from my childhood as I grew up with my grandma and she made this meal weekly!

- We tried roasted celeriac for the first time too. An allotment friend gave me 6, and I didn't honestly know what to expect because we have never had before, but they were delicious when roasted. I thought they had a similar taste, texture and sweetness to roasted parsnips (DS1 thought they actually were parsnips). I will be investing in some seeds (I'm sure I said I wouldn't buy any more in my last post!) to grow for next year as my friend said they are super easy to grow. I am saving her some strawberry runners in exchange and also some crown prince seeds. I haven't yet raved about crown prince squash, but give me time and I will, it is absolutely delicious!! Celeriac soup is also on my list of things to try, but I've heard that it's also lovely mashed and as celeriac fries.

- The same friend also delivered a bag of apples, which I've just turned into an apple crumble for dessert. She had them in storage but they were starting to get a few brown spots so she didn't think they would save much longer. They were absolutely delicious and I have some more that I need to work through this week.

- The office is more or less finished. DS walked in today and said 'wow it looks so clean and modern, this house is going to look awesome when you have finished' Not a bad compliment from the hormonal pre-teen that flicks between being a model son and the devil. It didn't work out too bad cost-wise, mostly paint, lots & lots of sanding & fillering and a £15 wicker chair from FB. We have just bought the dog a new bed, which was not at all thrifty, but is washable so should last. I also bought dye for the curtains, but it didn't dye over the pattern and looks a bit wrong, so I need to find some cost-effective coverings for our window and patio door. The patio door is the problem because it is so tall, it is about 2.5m high because it has a window above. 

- SIL messaged to say she has more cardboard to cover the ground at the charity plot, saving me time and money.

And the not so thrifty confessions.

 - We are back to buying fabric conditioner 

- Our dog has forever had allergy problems, we are always trying to manage it when it flares up. It's a constant battle since we got him as a puppy and he is just over 2 years old. Last week I was doing some research and decided to try him a raw food diet. We are only a few days in and he is a different dog, he hasn't scratched once, he hasn't taken himself outside to rub his tummy on the floor. He is much happier and calmer, his ears are cooler his sore patches are looking less sore and we are hoping the hair goes back on his ears where he's recently scratched it off during a flareup. He was already on an expensive hypoallergenic dry dog food which was around £30 a month. I bought a half-price trial from a well known raw dog food company called b&d, but it would usually be £84 for 26 days which is well out of our budget (and more than we spend on human food), but for poor Loki's sake I need to find something cheaper that works, maybe from a local butcher.

- I am struggling to y/s shop.  I am struggling to shop fullstop. My MOJO has gone and meals this week have mostly been things I can throw in the oven, and even throwing things in the oven has been exhausting. This needs to change because it's neither cost-effective or healthy. MOJO - where are you??!! Had several good chats with DH, and although MOJO is still AWOL we have some plans in place to make things easier, including;

- sharing lots of xmas conversations (and joint spreadsheets, whooo) so we organise together and I don't stress.
- packing away the decorating tools now, so I can concentrate on xmas, the daily grind and the allotment which is winding down anyway (thankfully)
- swapping my (unused, lonely, unwritten) websites/blogs and hosting here at home to save money, and hopefully give me something positive to do when the weather is awful and I cant search for MOJO outside.
- help with meals, and trying to have a vague meal plan in place.

And the to-do list.

Our mobile provider, Four minus One, are just about to increase mine and DHs phone contracts. DH doesn't actually use his much, because he has a work phone. He wants to keep the number for authentication purposes. I need to negotiate down for both of our contracts.

I need to work out if 'economy 7' is working for us. I need to run the costings (which is a little more complicated as we also have solar panels) but I suspect that it would be better on a standard tariff. Apparently whoever gets the job of swapping the meter won't be happy. The guy who came to (unsuccessfully) fit the smart meter said it would be a big job with not a lot of room for manoeuvre, and some things that also need correcting to make safe since regs have changed)  

I am waiting for Black Friday for some of the gifts for the children for xmas. I also keep updating my gift spreadsheet

I am sure I have more to type but I am abandoning post now, I need to go kiss the littles goodnight, apologies if nothing makes sense! - does it ever? Bye for now

Kakiste

Sounds like you have it all under control. Well done on sorting the office. 
I'm impressed that you're christmas shopping is underway. I tend to launch into it on December 1st!

joedenise

@thriftyish - have you tried the celeriac grated raw with some lemon juice, mustard & mayo in a salad (a bit like the French remoulade)?  It's lovely as part of a salad.

When we kept dogs we used to feed them raw tripe (not the white stuff) which we used to buy frozen and it was a very cheap and nourishing way to feed them raw (we had 2 German Shepherds so both ate quite a lot!).  No idea how much it would be now of course as we haven't had a dog for a good many years now - back then it was around £1 per Kg.  We used to buy it from the local pet shop in 5 Kg bags.  Might be worth a try for your dog if you're trying a raw food diet.

Honeysucklelou2

Hi Thriftyish,

How are you? How is the allotment coming along?

Kakiste

How are the chickens?

Bluegreen143

Hope you’re all well @thriftyish!

thriftyish

It’s been a long while since I posted. I’m really sorry, it’s been a crazy few years. The good news is that we are debt free, and have been overpaying the mortgage. 

The bad news is we have had health scare after health scare.

DH has had two two-week-wait referrals, which have thankfully come back clear. I am on the cancer pathway because I have a teratoma growing inside one of my ovaries, which I have an operation for on the 1st of Nov. They think it’s benign thankfully, but can’t tell until they biopsy. I am also seeing a neurologist as I have had multiple problems since I caught Covid with numbness. 

DS has POTS, DD1 is really struggling to settle into high school due to anxiety, and DD3 has been referred to paediatrics for stomach pain (which I’m pretty sure I have mentioned before, we thought it was allergies but have ruled some out) 

I am back because I really need to get my head in gear financially. Our mortgage is fixed for another 18 months-ish but as rates are currently, will rise about £300 a month. On top of all the other rises, if I don’t have the right mindset we risk not being able to pay the mortgage and loosing the house. I know I need to make tough decisions and I know writing here helps me keep accountable for my actions! My current aim is to reduce the mortgage as much as possible to reduce the impact of interest rate rises incoming, so with that in mind I think the best thing to do is make a new thread over on the mortgage free wannabe forum.