Struggling along as best I can

nannygladys

So today, now this is sad I know but as I'm on a smart meter I stayed up to 1am to watch it change over!!!! I wanted to see what the new standing charge on the g&e was (not sure it's called that but it's the daily charge for the meter we all have to pay) and it jumped up to 69p!!! A couple of months ago it was 39p!! But when I got up this morning it had gone down a little to 60p but still too much in my opinion. 
Anyway I thought I would have a very frugal day g&e wise so I will have to see how much I have used when I go to bed. I must admit it hasn't been a normal day as I have been feeling unwell - nothing to shout about but not pleasant so I haven't been cooking etc but I have:
1 Used the microwave to heat water for my coffee - not a big fan of this.
2 I have yesterday's LO' s to eat, which I will heat up in the microwave as well - but probably won't have them today.
3 I used a shorter wash cycle than normal, well it was the shortest one and it seemed to clean ok, smells fine etc so that may be a winner.
 I've been having a look at useage so far and it seems OK but it isn't a 'usual' day. I think I will be using the microwave for veggies, rice and mug cakes (I made a coffee one and it was fine, will try other flavours but it's more pudding like than cake), in fact the microwave seems as if it may be used more. I tried the slow cooker the other day, but I'm still not that keen on the results.
4 I'll carry on cooking for two days at a time when possible and I'm changing my main meal to the middle of the day, as its cheaper for me to cook it and then reheat it the next day for my lunch, I will start having a sandwich or a salad that I don't have to cook for my tea which is fine for the summer.
5 Kindle and phone only recharged in the day  
I think my world will revolve around trying to be very frugal for the next few weeks
6 I may try to fill vacuum flask with boiling water for evening time drinks - still thinking about this one. 

That's just a few I'm doing/thinking about at the moment, I'm hoping I can think up some REALLY ridiculous ones soon  

nannygladys

Today dgd came here   for a few hours so as the car is fine we went to a neighbouring town (not the city) to see if I could get what I wanted on Thursday, any way I didn't manage all off my list, so may go canoeing down that big wide river for them! But the good news was I avoided the shop of hobbies, even though it was so very near so quite proud of myself 

I've decided life is too short to not have a decent cup of coffee so I won't be using the microwave for that, but I will be steaming my veggies in it instead of on top of the stove. 

Today has been a day of forgetting about g&e and enjoying sharing a slice of cake in a certain coffee shop with my eldest, nearly adult, funny dgd! Oh and feeling much better 

joedenise

Agree with you that a decent cup of coffee is a must!  We have a bean to cup machine and that will be the last thing to be cut!  We only have 2-3 small cups a day (equivalent to about a mug) so a bag of beans lasts quite a long time.  I'll cut back anywhere else as necessary!

nannygladys

joedenise - life's too short to give everything up, especially if you really enjoy it and can cut corners elsewhere. I think decent coffee will be one of the very last things on my list

Sun_Addict

Definitely Nanny G, life’s too short. I still work full time and if I can’t have a decent coffee then it’s a bad show. I have a Tassimo machine but only have 2 a day. 

nannygladys

Ok today, not a lot has happened, I haven't been out so no money spent. Made sushi for my lunch which was very filling as it turned out quite rotund!!! But was very nice as I invested in some wasabi paste and used white wine vinegar in the rice, I still haven't bought rice wine vinegar.
That has lasted me all day so I didn't have a cooked tea just some cheese and biscuits. 

The 'not my cat' turned up this afternoon, darted in had a look around upstairs and down and then went out, wonder if he was looking for pup?

I have a giant squash seedling that I got dgd to plant whilst she was here a couple of weeks ago and its massive, if it keeps growing at this rate it'll produce a giant pumpkin in about three weeks, I'm going to repot it and put it outside under cover to slow it down a bit, but I had to buy some more butternut seeds as they're not showing yet and the original seeds were old one's so I'll plant some more next week. We are having a plant sale at the lottie in May, so any extras can go on sale there as we usually get quite a few 'ordinary' folks coming in to buy for their gardens. 
That's about it really.
Nannyg

WinterWarrior

I’m glad ‘not my cat’ was brave 😁

nannygladys

The cat also visited yesterday and had a sleep, so I guess he's back but today I have been out all day from 7.45 to after 6pm so I haven't seen him.

Today was grandma duties and I took eldest dgd with me as she stayed last night, her college has already broke up for Easter and we took pup and dgs for a long walk this afternoon, no money spent, so as it's pay day tomorrow and my £10 is still in note form it has gone into Xmas present savings. Happy New month for me tomorrow when I'm rich for a few hours/day depending on when I do the money shuffle!!

 I will be going through the cupboards and seeing what I have and doing a freezer sort out, I can 'see' what I have in the fridge so I have an idea on what I'm eating over the next few days, and I will be visiting the food hub and community pantry this week to top stores up.

WinterWarrior - youngest dd came in from work with four huge lovely Easter eggs from her boss (what a lovely man!!) and was trying to get me to take a couple home and I turned her down!!!!!!! I know - I would just guzzle them down though, I bet one would have been eaten already but I'm ever so slightly regretting it now amend that to hugely regretting it!!!!! Lol

I spent yesterday watching my smart meter like a hawk and was surprised how fast it went up even when I only had the necessary things plugged in ...... Not going to watch anymore it's too much .... I'm going to ignore it for a while and carry on being as frugal as I can with g&e and not become obsessed by checking every 5 mins.

Anyway going up to bed, the electric blanket Is on to warm it up as I hate cold beds in winter, love them in summer though.
Nannyg

nannygladys

Payday

Didn't last long though, after I moved monies around into all the little pots it's looking sad again but at least everything is paid for).

Went shopping in Mr T's with voucher and some 'stock'  change that's been left over from previous months and I also got rid of a load of 5p coins I'd put into a jar last year, there seemed to be loads but in the end there was just short of £6 worth. I hasten to add I used the self checkouts so it was a machine counting them all not some poor assistant!! Anyway felt better about getting rid of them all and I managed quite well stocking my 'emergency' box up.

After yesterday's good weather I woke up to rain, rain and rain so my idea of doing laundry was put aside and I had a pottering kind of day and didn't really do much. I did read Martin's guide on heat/eat article and found I'm doing quite a bit of it already but I will start looking at thermal wear in readiness for next winter to see if any is on sale, which reminds me I ought to replace the hot water bottles I have for dgd when she stays as they are very old and I don't want her to find a wet bed when she goes to bed one night

That's about it really, probably more pottering tomorrow not sure what I'm doing yet.
Take care, keep well and carry on.
Nannyg

joedenise

Don't just replace the hot water bottles @nannygladys - test them first; quite easily done by filling them in the normal way (doesn't even need to be hot water) and wrap in a tea towel and leave for a few hours.  If the tea towel isn't wet then it doesn't need replacing.

We've had ours for about 15 years now and I test them around the end of winter (usually around Easter); so far no problem.  Have to say though we only use them in the motorhome as we have a water bed indoors which is like a giant hot water bottle anyway! but kept at temperature by electric (fortunately doesn't use very much to keep it at temperature).

I was going to do some washing today but after the rain last night and the forecast of the possibility of more rain have decided I'll do it all at the weekend rather than spreading it out over a few days like I usually do.  Fortunately my rotary line will hold 3 machine loads easily which will be enough for the full basket I've got!