2021 Frugal Living Challenge

YORKSHIRELASS

Sorry to hear things have been so tough Marghirl, school crossing patrol work sounds ideal and you would probably get to chat to people too so it might be quite nice.  A lot of people dont want to do it because of the split hours so fingers crossed x

Funny day here, working from home and quite a few interruptions.  Flask filled, heating on for the bare minimum.  DH was grumpy when he got home because he didnt want what was on the mealplan and there weren't the ingredients to make the other things he wanted.  All sorted out in the end.  Washing dried outside.

Siebre well done, I should cycle to work more but I quite often have to take laptops and files and then getting changed when I get there is a pain.  I am generally using the car less though. 

Marghirl

I have a five rope retractable clothes line in my spare room. It’s great as I can stretch my duvet cover and sheets to dry even when I can’t hang them outside. 

[Deleted User]

As many of you know, I have left my job due to health reasons. 

My final wage was meant to be paid this week, and due to a spectacular HR mess up it hasn't been paid at all. This, coupled with several other very frustrating and difficult situations this week, has caused so much upset. It will be sorted but when you are living on a tiny budget and every penny matters....

Bulb have also messaged me to say they are INCREASING my direct debit by £30PCM, despite me having a healthy credit balance with them! I have tried to argue the point with them, but their stance is that unless you have been referred to the CAB for financial advice it is just tough, you have to tolerate the increase. I wouldn't mind, but our fuel costs are decreasing as we are hardly using any at all because of the cost. 

Rant over. Fire laid ready to light later and we have enough food in for the weekend. And lots of eggs!

joedenise

Deleted_User said:

As many of you know, I have left my job due to health reasons. 

My final wage was meant to be paid this week, and due to a spectacular HR mess up it hasn't been paid at all. This, coupled with several other very frustrating and difficult situations this week, has caused so much upset. It will be sorted but when you are living on a tiny budget and every penny matters....

Bulb have also messaged me to say they are INCREASING my direct debit by £30PCM, despite me having a healthy credit balance with them! I have tried to argue the point with them, but their stance is that unless you have been referred to the CAB for financial advice it is just tough, you have to tolerate the increase. I wouldn't mind, but our fuel costs are decreasing as we are hardly using any at all because of the cost. 

Rant over. Fire laid ready to light later and we have enough food in for the weekend. And lots of eggs!

Have you read Martin's Q&A on this week's email?  Give them a meter reading and ask them to base your DD on your actual usage.  It's still likely to be a hike but hopefully not as much.  Definitely worth giving it a try.

Jazee

ASB, definitely go back to Bulb.  I did and they backed down.

QueenJess

Deleted_User said:

As many of you know, I have left my job due to health reasons. 

My final wage was meant to be paid this week, and due to a spectacular HR mess up it hasn't been paid at all. This, coupled with several other very frustrating and difficult situations this week, has caused so much upset. It will be sorted but when you are living on a tiny budget and every penny matters....

Bulb have also messaged me to say they are INCREASING my direct debit by £30PCM, despite me having a healthy credit balance with them! I have tried to argue the point with them, but their stance is that unless you have been referred to the CAB for financial advice it is just tough, you have to tolerate the increase. I wouldn't mind, but our fuel costs are decreasing as we are hardly using any at all because of the cost. 

Rant over. Fire laid ready to light later and we have enough food in for the weekend. And lots of eggs!

I swapped supplier in March and the old supplier gave the new one an estimate of my yearly usage which is much, much higher than the year before.  It made no sense since nothing would be changed.  They did let me argue it and is why I hate DD's.  I asked them why I have to pay by DD and even though not on their website, they said I didn't and could pay for usage.  So that's what I now do and much prefer.  This wasn't bulb though.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hope you get things sorted out ASB, cant believe they have messed up your wages.

I have just finalised our shopping delivery for tomorrow.  We are doing well with our plans to just buy the food that we actually need and its really make us think about what we buy, but its taking a bit of getting used to.  DS1 has got us free tickets to the races tomorrow where he is taking one of his horses, such a treat.  Its not far away and we will have a big brunch before we go so we dont need to buy expensive food while we are there.

Cold here so heating is on for a bit.  I have to work for a bit on Sunday but I am so ready for the weekend.

Sky_

Marghirl said:

I was on incapacity benefit for almost 20 years and they took it off me. I can’t get universal credit as my savings are healthy, however they won’t always stay like that. I have just seen a few jobs advertised in our local council for school crossing patrol ( or lollipop lady as we used to call them in school) so I am thinking of applying for that. It is only ten hours a week and is split into morning lunch time and end of school so it hopefully won’t be too taxing. It would make the world of difference financially too. I have applied for pip or equivalent many times and got knocked back. I even had benefits advisors fill out the forms and I still got knocked back. 

I'm sorry for your loss, it sounds like a really hard situation, even without the sadness of your dad's death!

On a purely practical level, have you applied for credits-only ESA?  I'm not 100% sure how it works, but as far as I know it is part of UC and though you won't get any money due to your savings, you'd get--if you qualified for LCW or LCWRA--NI credits towards your state pension etc.  There is a long, very informative thread by a poster called Deleted_User in which ESA NI credits are discussed at length.

Alternatively, could you consider becoming self-employed in a very minimal way, so that you can qualify to pay class 2 NI credit (£3.05 a week), again to protect your state pension, if your pension forecast indicates that you need more weeks of NI credits.

2Scratters

Hi Peeps,
Cheapest butter seems to be a FarmF**ds at 1.10 just 2 choices of salted or not Irish. I usually get enough for a while. Sugar good price too.

nannygladys

ASB - I'm sorry to hear about all the difficulties you're having at such a sad time. It's a good job you have some money to fall back on what with incompetent ex employers and a difficult benefit system.

I was at the allotment this afternoon and it was so warm and sunny, it felt really good and uplifting.

Looking after dds pup for a few days tomorrow whilst they're away at a wedding, I'm looking forwards to it as he is a lovely gentle dog and at least he will bring his own food!! 
Nannyg