2021 Frugal Living Challenge

roblou27

ancientmum said:

I'm using a spare calendar to track my spends. As state pension is paid 4 weekly I've been able to put the 13th payment straight into savings.  Like you  roblou27, I have an account specially for annual bills divided by 12.  I've got 3 current accounts  so I know what money is going where.  All these used to pay interest on part of the balance but sadly no longer. Thinking of stashing the cash under the mattress.

I find it works for me ancientmum. I do have quite a lot on direct debit, it for me It works me that way knowing how much I need to allocate. Every thing I can think of is budgeted for and that is put away first. I know how much each month that is needed to cover everything other than the unexpected and so if there is anything left from the previous pay it is moved to the emergency fund, paid off the credit card or split. Then I start afresh. Two of the accounts are savings but have literally zero interest so I use them as current accounts.

roblou27

Mummy2cheekymonkeys said:

We managed to make an overpayment on the mortgage this morning. Being frugal has really paid off. Last year we managed to pay off our 10% overpayment allowance and aiming to do the same this year. We have been saving up for when the new allowance kicked in on the 1st of january and we have just paid off £5000 saving just over £1000 in interest alone. Balance is down to £67,000 remaining.

That’s amazing mummy2cheekymonkeys. 👏👏

Blackcats

Roblou - I used a Jack Monroe recipe for a mincemeat pudding.  I added in apples from my stash and it was delicious.  It used lots of stale bread too.  It turned out like a bread pudding and was scrummy.  Even my elderly relative who is a bread pudding officianado said it was excellent.  

zafiro1984

MOT for my 16yr old car today, It passed. They commented on the mileage being less than 50k, but I know it is correct as I've owned it since new. I think last year it did under 1000miles.  The lorry was driven more than the car and that goes in for plating this Thursday - fingers crossed - it's younger than the car !!!

Still not done any grocery shopping this year, just trying to cut back and live on what we have until we get vaccinated. Just one trip planned for the lorry plating and one planned trip to pick up my tablets, the rest of the time will be spent at home. Plenty to do here so exercise is not a problem, we tend to be outside for most of the day, we came in about an hour ago, DH is already snoozing and waiting for his tea. I think I may suggest a role reversal whereby I snooze and he makes tea - some hope!!!

On the plus side I've saved quite a lot this Jan by not leading my usual life 

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Blackcats said:

Roblou - I used a Jack Monroe recipe for a mincemeat pudding.  I added in apples from my stash and it was delicious.  It used lots of stale bread too.  It turned out like a bread pudding and was scrummy.  Even my elderly relative who is a bread pudding officianado said it was excellent.  

That sounds tasty. I will check that out as i have lots of mincemeat and stale bread that needs using. 

roblou27

Blackcats said:

Roblou - I used a Jack Monroe recipe for a mincemeat pudding.  I added in apples from my stash and it was delicious.  It used lots of stale bread too.  It turned out like a bread pudding and was scrummy.  Even my elderly relative who is a bread pudding officianado said it was excellent.  

Oooo thank you Blackcats that sounds lovely will have to investigate.

sashacat

Very little spent this year. Just DGS’s birthday present which is in the budget.
grocery shopping so far this year £1.20 on bread because I missed it on olio. 
Will need more bread next week. 
Yesterday made gooseberry crumble with home grown gooseberries 
two apple and elderberry pies (home grown apples and foraged elderberries)
20 oatcakes from my friend’s Scottish recipe with oatmeal 
2 dozen scones.
so that will keep me from buying treats.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Nine hours at the paid stuff today, but it kept me away from spending.  Everyone seems very anxious about Covid even though we are in an area with a relatively low rate of infection.  DS made a huge roast dinner last night so there was enough leftovers for tonight's meal.  I made a nut roast for my Christmas dinner so I sliced the leftovers and froze it in small batches which I am so pleased with.  It went down lovely with DSs braised red cabbage, mash and green beans.

I have just had a quick work out of my finances and I seem to have too much money left, a nice problem to have, but I think I have double counted something.  Tired now, will check it again tomorrow.

Pixiehouse55

I've not had chance to get on here yet this year. Payday for us tomorrow so let the fun begin.  £449.67  left in the bank from last month's pay, that will go on paying extra on our mortgage this month. I need to sit down and do the spreadsheet for wages coming in and what's going out for this year. Hubby retires in July. Selling our house (fingers crossed) buying our narrowboat and living on the canals. That is our plan. Hope it all goes to plan, knowing our luck there will be a crash in the market and we won't get the price we want. Happy Days are on the way. Keep safe everyone X 

cw18

I was back at work today after a week off - only to discover there are changes afoot.

There's been talk for a while of increasing the hours on a lot of the part time contracts, mostly to reduce the number of different work schedules we have in our office.   It has been ridiculous really - I think we have 7 different contracts covering 26 or 27 staff, and a lot of them are regularly starting early as we're not fully staffed !!

Manager wants to bring it in next week.  It increases the size of all our postal duties as one round is being absorbed into all the others (the extra hours are in part being covered by not replacing a member of staff who's left), and we're actually having to do the extra this week on our current contracts.  It would take my contract up from 27.5 hours to 31 hours - but takes my working weeks up from 33 hours to 37 hours 12 minutes!!    (We work 6 days a week for 5 weeks then get a full week off, so we have to work 6 weeks hours over 5 weeks.)   Finish times are staying the same, so I'll have to start 50 minutes earlier 4 days a week, 40 minutes earlier one day, and 12 minutes (yes, a silly number really!) on the day which is currently our earliest start.  That puts all the start times into an 11 minute window, whereas it's currently 39 minutes between earliest and all the others (5 are the same now).    I'm not keen on having to get up that much earlier every morning (I'm a night owl) and I don't need the money, but I realise an extra £100+/month take home isn't to be sneezed at.  However it removes any chance I may have had of making it to the gym for a swim before work once they reopen - and the hours they were operating in the evenings didn't work for me at all

When I took the job it was on a 25 hour contract, and that had to cover commute costs of £30/week.   I'd calculated I'd just about balance the books.   Contract was lifted to 27.5 hours on my second day as it suited the office I was recruited for better (25 would have been an extra contract for them).   That meant I could definitely balance the books    Since I got an office transfer in July 2019 I no longer have commute costs, so that effectively gave me a pay rise of £30/week which was very nice.    I need to check exactly what the score is if I say no, but when I first indicated I might not want it I was told that would mean me having to look for a transfer to an office that can accomodate a 27.5 hour contract - which will mean I have commuting costs again, and am back on a work schedule with 2 days off a week (Sunday plus one random) rather than one week in 6 (which is becoming vitally important to me because of my parents health - gives me more scope to help them with something that's important to them).     So I suspect I'll have to suck it up and sign on the dotted line

I never thought I'd find myself wanting to turn down a guaranteed increase in pay