2023 Frugal Living Challenge

2Scratters

Ran out of bathroom air fresh and had added to shopping list for later when I go shopping. However had a LBM, I shopped under the kitchen sink and found a fragranced product that would do the job just as well. Well this morning the dodgy air freshener dispenser decided to throw another wobbler with the can that was in it. It is nearly empty and clearly thinks it should go. Popped in a new one and the left over bits of the can will be dispensed manually instead of the "shopped" one which can be used later. 
I can't believe how much difference - to me especially - having a visual of a list is making to me. Less worry and very much in the live situation.
I have also discovered when I look about I am a list person 
I don't mind as it keeps my head empty, too old to try to remember everything. 

2 Scratters xx

Bluegreen143

Oooh, you’re good to him @cw18, would it be an option for him to take over the car now if he can afford high end gaming stuff and he’s the one who needs it rather than you? Or can he contribute to the repairs, even by selling something? Seems fair if it’s him using it!

cw18

He's supposed to be chipping in the major share for these repairs & the road tax, but as he's already had 3 weeks with no work - and can't commit to any more until we actually have the car back - he's currently living off what was left in his bank account.    I'm hoping he'll start handing over something on a weekly basis whilst I'm paying off the plastic once he's back at work.   If he doesn't I'm tempted to take him off my insurance at renewal - but if he has no income he'll not be able to pay rent, and then he'll be looking to move back in with me (and I don't want that either as we wind each other up - he doesn't 'do' recycling, and wants all clothing etc washed after 1 use even if only on for an hour!   He also hates I refuse to use the tumble dryer so he can have stuff back within a couple of hours for going out again )

Sweetlittledaydreams

@cw18 could you both look at switching your bank account for a switching reward? One bank is doing a £200 switch reward paid within 90 days and it has a £3 charge a month, but if you both switched you could pay a big chunk off the bill. Just an idea

cw18

Sweetlittledaydreams said:

@cw18 could you both look at switching your bank account for a switching reward?

I'm not sure how easy it would be for my son to switch.  He's officially self-employed, and doesn't have a regular salary - but many of these accounts have a requirement for a minimum monthly salary going in.   And I've always ignored these things as I'm happy enough with the bank I use now - plus I'd lose my small limit emergency credit card by doing so, and it's unlikely I'd be able to get another one anywhere else these days due to the balance of my incomings and outgoings.   In theory it would have been a great idea though - let the bank(s) pay for my car repairs

Annies_too

 I don’t post very often so hopefully this makes sense - I was sceptical about changing banks but decided to try it…I set up new bank account, closed my old Ser current account but kept my Ser savings acct and credit card (I wouldn’t qualify for one with new bank). I don’t have enough monthly income for new bank but I transfer the shortfall from my Ser at the beginning of each month into my new account and then immediately transfer it back to my old Ser acct ready for the next month. a bit fiddly but I’m in the swing of it now and the £150 I got came in very handy indeed

zafiro1984

Went to Lidl a couple of days ago and saw cooking bacon at 1.70 at a kilo. I got a couple of pks as I use bacon quite a lot, not just as rashers but as toppings/flavourings for soup/pasta, in casseroles, around chicken and sausages etc. I decided to split the Ikg pks into 4 x 250gms and freeze them.
When I was splitting the pks I noticed there were a lot of streaky rashers that looked just as good as the ones you can buy separately or as part of 'middle bacon' - Quite a useful find.

patentgirl

Just popping by to report January went to plan although I do find January an easy month to start food budget in particular as supplies left from Christmas had 23 NSDs so was pleased with that spent slightly more on entertainment budget as we went  away for long weekend but will  even itself out in a  few months as nothing planned till another short break in May no spends unaccounted for in January resisted charity shops especially as I volunteer in one but been very strict with myself. Good start to February £50 on premium bonds and no council tax to budget.

@cw18 I feel your pain with car DH old banger due soon fingers crossed goes through MOT it's always a challenge every year to pay up or replace  but his point he knows history mileage etc so we normally end up paying and to be fair so far it's the only big expense each year from the car.

SecondStar

3 days into the new month’s budget, and I’ve already had a setback.

Our busses here are rubbish - you have to either pay with cash, or use a bus pass which you can top up with an amount of journeys for a certain route. So no using a debit card, and you have to use a different bus pass if you want to take a different route, as it only takes off journeys when you tap it, rather than taking off the cost of the route you travel. Oh, and all the bus passes look exactly the same.

I already had 1 bus pass for short journeys into our local town, where 1 journey costs about £1.50. I needed to order a new bus pass for the long commute trip into the city, with 30 journeys on it to cover the whole month. For 30 journeys, it cost me £70. The pass came, and I tucked it into my card slot alongside my short journeys card.

Got on the commute bus yesterday morning, tapped my new bus pass, checked the ticket - yep, 29 journeys left.

Got on the bus home at 4pm, tapped the bus pass in my purse, checked my ticket - 4 journeys left. Because I had tapped my short journeys card, and my brand new, £70, commute journey bus pass was gone.

I didn’t take my purse out of my bag all day, and the pass wasn’t in there. I can only assume it must have slipped out of my purse as I was putting it back into my bag on the morning bus.

I am absolutely gutted - they don’t get replaced, so it’s akin to losing £70 in cash.

The only reason I got it was to save money, as the bus passes do a percentage discount on the cost of travel, as opposed to paying with cash or using the ticket app (ticket app costs more than using cash, don’t ask me why).

Our stupid transport system is so far behind every other large town and city, let alone capital cities. It’s embarrassing. We had our busses ‘upgraded’ a few years ago, with USB chargers and electric engines, but no one thought to put a bloody debit card payment system in place.

 No one wants to carry the equivalent of that much cash around with them, for exactly this reason.

ellenvan

oh that is painful - might be worth checking someone honest might have handed it in at the depot.