2022 Frugal Living Challenge

RainbowHippie

Grr, system ate my post.. no idea what i'd written either as i'd got distracted by a dog then come back to a vanished post! Ah well.

Sorry to hear about your cat @Bluegreen143. Very sad times.

I'm on my last day at our final house sit, OH headed off a few days early with most of our stuff as some friends of his were putting an event on and he wanted to attend. Plus it's easier for me to clean and tidy up with him our stuff out of the way... :DJust finished giving the house a very thorough clean and loaded everything i won't need in the morning into the car, including the last couple of furniture freebies from this area. I've booked a couple more to collect on my way back to our old home town tomorrow, and still more on the way to/from a work trip next week.

We've now had confirmation of why our move has been delayed - the vendors have switched to a different property for their onward purchase at the 11th hour. I can't be too annoyed as when i spoke to her on our viewing of her house she described the one they're now buying as their 'dream cottage' (they'd been gazumped previously but the gazumping sale then fell through so they got a second chance at it) so i am happy for them but a little dismayed that it means a month's delay for us. Our new completion date is at the end of March, so we've a month's accommodation to find. This week we've booked a tiny studio in our old town, booked in extreme haste on Thursday when we got the new dates, not too expensive and we've stayed before and know it's decent. The following week i have a work trip so hopeful that i can book accommodation that OH can join me in (i tend to use airbnbs anyway so it doesn't cost extra for double occupancy). After that we don't yet have a plan, but will need to sort somewhere fairly cheap for the last week or so. We'll sort something i'm sure! At least OH has perked up since going to his friends' event, and i'm trying to look on the bright side - the delay will give me extra time to find free furniture for when we finally move in! Although i've also noticed the rather extreme cost of petrol at the moment - filling the tank yesterday cost nearly £50!! it used to be 35 tops

Have a lovely Sunday all xx

Hopefuljoy

Hello @Bluegreen143 I hope you are okay after saying goodbye to your cat. My DD and I said goodbye to our darling cat Bella today and we are heartbroken. She was with us from just after we left an abusive husband/father and she really helped us recover in so many ways. Her kidneys suddenly failed and we are in shock as it only came on yesterday afternoon. 

So all frugality has gone put of the window as her end of life care and cremation came to £279. However, I have stuck to our groceries and entertainment budget and have £18 left over from buying top ups for food and cleaning products tomorrow. That will be plenty as I have a lot in store cupboards. 

I will update my budgetting spreadsheet tomorrow with todays costs and see where we are. I have taken the money today out of annual expenses and will just redistribute what's left among the categories as I refuse to raid my emergency savings again. That would be a slippery slope!

I hope all of you have nice evenings. xx

willow_loulou

Oh I’m so sorry for the loss of you pets 😭 @Bluegreen143 and @Hopefuljoy
i seem to be over the worst of covid and I’m suddenly ravenous!! I’ll be good though and just have a hot choc in a bit. I could eat loads though! 

Had to throw away last weeks veg box as mice got in before I could put it away. (Thanks covid) Very annoying. I’m going to get a cool box to store the excess I can’t get in my fridge. 

WinterWarrior

Also sorry to read of the loss of your beautiful cats @Bluegreen143 and @Hopefuljoy. It never gets any easier. 

@willow_loulou your body may be craving food to help with your recovery. It might be worth a few days of eating all the things if you feel ravenous and giving yourself time to feel 100%

cw18

My washing machine decided to empty all the water from a load down through the bottom of the machine back on the 9th December, which turned my kitchen into a paddling pool - and I still haven't pulled it out to take a look !!

My son (who lives about a half mile from me) has done 2 wash loads for me, and my Mother did one when I went up on Boxing Day.   I've done two further loads at the launderette next to work, and am just about scraping by for now but would like to get back to having a working machine at home pretty soon.

I put out some feelers out for recommendations on an engineer if I felt it needed that - but swallowed hard at being told £60 for a call-out.    As my machine is 22 years old (and has already been repaired once following a much more minor - and intermittent - leak) I'm not I can justify spending that PLUS an as yet undetermined amount on parts.   The 'no further call-out costs if they have to come back' didn't make it any easier to swallow.    So I started to look at new machines just to try and get some idea of the outlay for that, and was hopeful that a new machine was likely to be much more economical (both water and energy) than mine which would help with the payback.

I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that machines I'd consider start at around £180, although I can see me spending closer to £280 - I need to decided which features I currently have I can live without and which I'm not prepared to give up on !!!   But I'm sure I paid over £300 for my current machine, so after 22 years I'd expected to be looking at twice that.

I need to pull my old one out to double check measurements and make sure the ones I'm looking at will fit into the gap, and I also need to confirm the model number from the plate on the back to try and dig around to find the quoted running costs / water use.    If I recall it correctly it means almost all machines now have a larger capacity, which amazes me as when I bought this one I sized up from my previous 2.   I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing though - I can manage with what I have (the model I think it is says 6kg in the manual), and I'm a little worried a larger one (the ones I'm looking at are 7-9kg) may actually end up using more water (metered) which also means more energy to heat it.

If I can find one I like on Amaz0n it would make the outlay a bit easier to handle, as I currently have £150 worth of vouchers to use on the site (I earn vouchers which I've been saving up, and my fella gave me some for my birthday).   But I'm starting my hunt elsewhere (on sites that give more information on each machine), then cross checking details against manufacturer sites / manuals that I'm downloading to read, and then looking to see where else they're available and at what prices if it's still one of interest.    I did spot one that was both hot and cold fill which was of special interest (should help with the energy costs - even if my hot water cylinder is 'cold' it'll still be warmer than mains cold, which means less electric for the machine to heat it), but I forgot to note which one and I'm now struggling to find it again

I've been off work this week, and am back in on Monday for 2 weeks.   I'm then off (and at home) again for most of the following week, so could do with getting it delivered at the start of that week.   Looking at delivery timescales on the sites I'm currently on, it would appear I need to be ordering in the next 10 days for that to happen - so I need to pull my finger out and make a choice.  After that, it will be hard for me to arrange delivery until 3 weeks later - and then I'm stuck until the middle of June !!

weenancyinAmerica

Hopefuljoy - So sorry about your cat. Still thinking about my cats and dog put to sleep in the last couple of years. I have the dogs last photos on my desktop. They are so much a part of the family. They do help us over the rough spots. Hope you find peace knowing she didn't have to continue suffering.

DawnW

Sorry to hear about lost pets   So sad, they are part of the family and I still think of the ones I have lost over the years.

@cw18 have you looked at AO.com in your search for a new washing machine? I have had to replace several ancient appliances over the last couple of years of so, and always found them good to deal with. Their prices are good, and they deliver free if you aren't too picky on date, time etc  If you go through Quidco, you can even get a little cash back.

Jellytotts

I'll second AO for a new machine, we've normally only used the local independent shops but they couldn't price match anything this time round and my budget was more important than shopping local this time around.  We went for a 9kg machine (it uses less water than our previous 7kg one did) and has a great short wash with variable temperature and spin speed which is ideal.  I can do a load at 30degrees on full spin for 38 mins, or 1000rpm for 28 mins.  (1400rpm is ideal when I'm drying inside but 1000rpm is more than enough when it's on the washing line all day). We paid around £250, delivery was 2 days later and as we'd shopped with them before they took the old machine away for free.  Perfect.

mumtoomany

When i last used AO they were also on topcashback. Might be worth checking if you use them.

Hopefuljoy

Thank you to everyone for your lovely messages 💕.  You are really kind. xx