Struggling along as best I can

nannygladys

Makingabobor2 - The damage I have is nothing compared to some people for which I'm very grateful and life seems to be back to normal now, but I must admit it was a bit scary wondering what might have disappeared during the worst of it. So frugalling is carrying on 

cbsexec

I lost my plastic greenhouse too ☹️.  But as you say it’s not much compared to what others have lost.   Good luck with the frugalling 

nannygladys

So today is the first day of my month (well 4 weeks) and the budget is in place and this weeks menu plan that I'm happy to follow, I have most of the food in so not much shopping will be done. The pooch was taken for a good walk  and I later picked two dgds up from school and gave them their tea. I also made a huge pot of soup for me and one huge pot of meat and veggies for the poochies dinners for a few days, and had tofu and veg stir fry for my tea after the girls had gone home.  
Tomorrow I'm doing a round robin in my car to make the most of using it. I still have some fuel in so I won't need any just yet, but I need to go the the post office to withdraw my months money (no banks/atm's) and then on to buy a few veggies from the farm shop, a couple of litres of milk from the dairy farm and on to the garden centre for my free coffee and a look around, then home to walk the pooch.
I also need to move money into my money savings pots and update my signature. I'm really forwards to this challenge and I'm hoping it may become the norm most months, and then hopefully this time next year my front room will be finished finally and on that positive note ...
Nannyg

[Deleted User]

Many thanks for updating your signature so we can follow your progress. With your determination and excellent budgeting skills I am sure you will be successful.

Moorviews

We are the same with car use and organise our trips to tackle several errands in one go. Mostly I hold this in my head but recently decided that I need to make a list for each direction we go in. I often forget something! Being rural, we have different towns or shopping centres to choose from which are equidistant and they all have their own advantages. Shopping has become once a week at the most though and without commuting to work our fuel use is very low. 

I have been doing well with using up what I have in but need to follow your lead in getting a menu done for this next week. I can’t believe it is less than two weeks to Christmas now as I am still trying to get organised!
As for the storm, I am sorry your area suffered so much. There were trees down around here but nothing catastrophic as there are lots more left, being a woodland area. I was very affected by that 1987 storm as I was living in the south east corner at the time. 

retiredinfrance

We are very rural here, too, @Moorviews and @nannygladys, and I go out twice a week for groceries and combine other “jobs “ with each journey. So, tomorrow, it’s Dr appointment first , arranged a week In advance to get an early one, then supermarket, then off to a more distant one if first one has no Rice Crispies ( been out of stock for ages and they are DH’s favourite breakfast) , then to a Charity Ship in that town for books- it’s the cheapest- 5 paperbacks for 2euros. Then home The round trip is probably 50 miles . That is one of the snags of rural France- the distances between the small towns are much greater.  I also go to the supermarket on Saturday as fruit and vegetables are on a 10% discount. I also explore cheaper routes to keep petrol use low. I enjoy reading your posts, NannyGladys, always interesting , but I wish you had a bit of an easier time. Glad to hear you got the winter fuel allowance. I like to be frugal, I prefer being prudent but I am fortunate in that I’m not struggling. Bon Courage, as the French say.And look after yourselves.

Makingabobor2

retiredinfrance said:

We are very rural here, too, @Moorviews and @nannygladys, and I go out twice a week for groceries and combine other “jobs “ with each journey. So, tomorrow, it’s Dr appointment first , arranged a week In advance to get an early one, then supermarket, then off to a more distant one if first one has no Rice Crispies ( been out of stock for ages and they are DH’s favourite breakfast) , then to a Charity Ship in that town for books- it’s the cheapest- 5 paperbacks for 2euros. Then home The round trip is probably 50 miles . That is one of the snags of rural France- the distances between the small towns are much greater.  I also go to the supermarket on Saturday as fruit and vegetables are on a 10% discount. I also explore cheaper routes to keep petrol use low. I enjoy reading your posts, NannyGladys, always interesting , but I wish you had a bit of an easier time. Glad to hear you got the winter fuel allowance. I like to be frugal, I prefer being prudent but I am fortunate in that I’m not struggling. Bon Courage, as the French say.And look after yourselves.

We take it for granted here when everything is so close. Never think how hard it is if you live in the country.  The furthest I go for normal everyday shopping, is 11 miles to the zero waste refill shop and its about 12 miles if I ever want to go into our closest city....which I hardly ever do.  Our village centre is walkable, but no decent supermarket there, although they have a great butcher; chemist, "sell everything cheap" shop;  a gift shop and 1 charity shop, among others.  For the big supermarkets, they are all about 4miles away, and same to big garden centre. Decent farm shop is about 6 miles away.   
What do you pay for petrol in France?  Currently paying 135.7 here in Midlands

retiredinfrance

Just checked the exchange rate and it is 1.68 euros which is 139 pence a litre. If I go 20 miles in another direction I can get it about 4 cents cheaper as there are two supermarkets competing. I go to that town about every two months to fill up, visit a “pound shop”, and a Charity shop. Like @Moorviews I have three bigger towns in different directions and again three major cities between 60 and 90 minutes. On the plus side, we have no road tax, our car insurance is reasonable , parking is normally free , especially at hospitals and the big cities near us are about 5-6 pounds a day. So the petrol price is balanced out and I love the free parking in our local towns. As anywhere else, some things cost more and some less.

nannygladys

Lord_Mattenly - I'm full of determination at the moment but I have to keep it going 

nannygladys

Moorviews - My menu plan is holding up and I haven't spent any grocery money yet, I did run out of milk earlier but I opened a carton UHT milk that was lurking at the back of the cupboard.