2023 Frugal Living Challenge

Glittering_M

Not sure if ok to post but L1pton ice teas are doing a daily giveaway of vouchers for their drinks. Only claimable at certain supermarkets though and I've not actually tried it myself. 

https://www.liptonicedtea.com/en-gb/grab-some-sunshine

Cas

Evening everyone!  I’ve not been on for a few months and have spent yesterday and today having a massive catch up as life just seems to have got so busy.  I’ll split my comments into a few posts as otherwise I don’t think I’d manage to get everything on the one page.

I’m in Scotland so we’re not on metered water and reading some of your comments I’m absolutely horrified at the costs!  Hats off to you all for your ingenuity though as there’s definitely lessons to be learned about saving water. 

@Frugaldom I’m in awe of what you manage to do frugally. I need to put in a fair shift to get the garden in the position where I can grow a lot more produce.  I also need to get into the right headspace too as I never seem to find time during the day to do those things I need to do never mind what I would like to do.  Walking the dog (and keeping my eye out for stuff I can forage) seems to take up half the day and the other half just seems to disappear.  I need to lock my phone away as I know I’m wasting too much time doomscrolling or reading about how to do things rather than actually doing it. 

@mumtoomany how are your peanut seedlings coming along?  Is it worth trying?

@willow_loulou some of our newer strawberry plants had huge leaves (bigger than my hand!) and have sent out lots of runners but they produced virtually no fruit.  I have 4 big pots filled with them plus another dozen baby plants from last year all in separate plant pots and will end up with over 2 dozen seedlings this year.  The tayberry hasn’t fruited at all and the blackcurrants were poor and I’m wondering if it was the weather that’s caused it as the wild raspberries in the nearby park and fields were poor too. 

@nellis10 good luck with your plan!  We’re doing something similar – our house is full of stuff! – as DH wants the opportunity to take redundancy if it comes up over the next couple of years so that he can effectively retire early.

@2Scratters are you any closer to your dream of giving up work?  I ended up hating work and leaving under the guise of redundancy – it was the best thing I ever did.

Cas

@cw18 I’m so sorry to hear that things haven’t been going well.  So much of what you wrote about the place you work sounded so familiar. My last job was awful, those in charge didn’t know what they were doing and our team lurched from one crisis to another and it felt like here was a constant chip, chip chipping away at your soul.  I won’t bore you with the details but my doctor ended up signing me off with work related stress for a few months.  Anti depressants were suggested but I refused them as I didn’t want to get addicted to them or have to deal with side effects. 

I spent the time away from work looking after myself – simple things like getting up and dressed and putting make up on before going out for a walk rather than mooching about the house, working out what really mattered to me.  I won’t pretend it was easy. Work coped without me and the essential stuff got done by someone and when I returned to work I started working my proper hours just like the younger team members who had no qualms about being packed up and leaving as soon as it was 5pm. 

Work did get better and when it started to get dreadful again I took the offer of redundancy and bailed.  I was lucky that my DH supported me saying he’d rather have me happy and bringing in no income than than earning a good salary and being unhappy and stressed.

One of my biggest problems was that I stayed up way too late, I think it was because I didn’t want the day to end because it meant that the new working day was almost upon me. Every night was a Sunday night witht he dread of what the next day brought.  It’s a habit now that I’m desperately trying to break which is difficult given that I’ve always been an bit of a night owl. 

And @RateTartExtraodinaire is right, speaking to someone – friend, family member or health professional – so you can get it off your chest is essential. The other thing I would say is document everything - what’s happened and how it made you feel, just in case you need it to back up a chat with management or for a grievance case.  It was an HR manager that told me that and also that HR Is there to protect the business not the employee! 

Sending hugs and message me any time you want.

Cas

So what have I been up to recently?  The outdoor stuff has been a mixed bag.

In the food garden it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. Rhubarb and fennel have grown one like crazy this year but the strawberries and blackcurrants were a disappointment. 

Ribes came to nothing so I’m thinking they’re the non-fruiting variety.  Potato shaws are dying back so I’ll be having a rummage in the pots soon - fingers crossed! The coppiced hazel has grown back and has a number of nuts on it so hopefully I can get to them before the squirrels.  Lettuces were sown late and they’re coming along nicely. 

FIL gifted me some sunflowers so hopefully the birds and I can get a good crop of free sunflower seeds later this year.

Managed to get some free compost courtesy of one of the coastal ranger services.  It’s got a bit of sand in it which is helpful given our garden is full of clay soil.

Bamboo was cut back so I have plenty canes for tying up sunflowers or for making simple obelisks to hold up the netting to protect things like strawberries.

Bought some mini patio fruit trees online but by the time Y0del delivered them they were in a dreadful state so I sent in photos with my complaint and got a refund.  They still look dreadful and I don’t know if they’ll survive the winter.

In the nearby fields it looks like there will be good pickings come the autumn.  Aside from haws, rowan berries, crab apples, brambles, rosehips and elderberries I found a grove of hazel trees so if the pesky squirrels get the ones from my garden at least there’s plenty of wild nuts.  I picked wild garlic and garlic mustard earlier in the year to make pesto and then elderflowers the other month to make enough cordial to see me through to next year’s harvest.  I’ve picked some meadowsweet today and will infuse it into the cream I’m using to make my next batch of ice cream.  I love going bramble and rosehip picking with my parents and grandparents and for me this is a return to simpler days.  I’ve bought some second hand books to help me identify what else is about locally and how they can be used.

Cas

Finally (!) you'll be pleased to hear...

I have lots of essential oils kicking about the place so I bought a big bottle of sweet almond oil online and have been making my own diffuser oils.

Our Virgin package has just been renewed at £24.80 pm (instead of £44) until Jan 2025 thanks to DH spotting a renewal offer.  We were gobsmacked to receive the confirmation letter!

I’m also a convert to Chase and Marcus because of the savings interest rates.  I also opened up a Nati0nwide regular savings account at 5.25% which means that hopefully next year I won’t miss out on the members payout like I did this year because I only had their current account.

We had a BA voucher and lots of avi0s points accumulated courtesy of our credit card so we managed  to nab return flights to London for the princely sum of £2.  We’re not really shoppers so we spent most of our time walking and managed to clock up 38k steps one day and 40k the next!

I’m half way through the MSE’s Academy of Money.  I thought I was finance savvy but I’ve learned quite a few new things so far.  Has anyone else done it?  If not I recommend it!

Just received my latest fuel bill and can see that both my leccy and gas usage are both down from the same period last year, 14% and 35% respectively.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a mild winter!

cw18

@cas  Thanks

I had a call from the NHS counselling service late last week, wanting to set up my 'triage' phone appt.   I'd been told it was taking just over a month from making contact with them to them calling to make an appt - I waited 13 weeks!!!

The lady said they'd had an appt come free early next week, but it was in the middle of a working day.  She initially suggested I ask my manager for time to 'slope off to somewhere private for an hour', but understood that's not feasible when I told her what I do.

They don't do many appts from 3pm onwards, and even if I finish on time the chances of me being home by then are very slim - and only on a Tuesday.  So I told her I have a week off at the end of the month (B/H week), but the only free appt was 90 minutes before a mammogram appt I had to defer by a month to get when I was off - and I need to allow an hour for the call, which means I wouldn't have the needed hour to get to the mammogram!   So I'm booked for Tuesday 19th September when I'm off work again, which is almost 21 weeks in total from my initial call to them!  I can't help thinking it's just as well I'm not feeling suicidal, and my daughter has made the same comment

I get the impression that it's going to be just as hard to get follow-up appointments though, so I'm not sure how that will pan out as I personally feel that I'd do better (buy in more) with face to face appointments - and it would take me at least 40 minutes to get there, compared to a 30 minute walk to get home (they can do them as video calls as well) which would still have me missing the last appt of the day!    And I've been told that another option they can decide is most suitable is a group session - I very much doubt I'd get to any of those, as they're almost certainly going to be during the day.

I had the same problem when I was supposed to be attending physio for my sciatica - the last appt was just about doable on a Tuesday, but I regularly couldn't get that one in the however many weeks they wanted to see me again.  In the end I just dropped out as it was stressing me out trying to get there for very little help and support.   (They were mostly giving me exercises I already did, or had previously done for extended periods with no improvement.)

I'd prefer not to be taking meds (I'm currently on the lowest dose), but decided I was too close to melt down to not try them.   I've been on anti inflammatorty meds of one type or another since the end of March 2020 without a break, and codeine since July that year (although I don't always take that one when I'm off work, which pleases my son as he was worried about me getting addicted to it), so figured one more tablet a day won't make that much difference!  (I'm waiting to hear from the chronic pain management clinic, which I'm hoping may offer other options to medication for the sciatica - or a better mix of meds, as what I'm on is barely holding it at bay some days!)



At the moment, the thing I'm trying to concentrate on is eating properly / sensibly.    I've had more ready meals in the last couple of months than I really like to, but I'd been coming home and not bothering to make anything until I should have been heading to bed - and at that point the only quick and easy option was toast and marmite (or honey or marmalad) or cheese on toast, just as long as I had enough bread in the house for that plus breakfast and packed lunch the next day.   So the ready meals did at least mean I ate something at a reasonable time, and I managed to stick to the cheaper ones so I stayed within my grocery budgets

I did OK over the weekend (when OH was here), but I bombed on Monday as I was exhausted (slept for 2 hours sitting on the couch, sorted some bits for 30 mins or so, and was in bed by 8:30pm - sleeping right through until 6am).   Did slighly better yesterday (a reduced to clear chilled chicken & veg soup that I had with a half baguette, having munched my way through a full packet of reduced to clear beansprouts on my walk home from work), and have cooked from scratch tonight.   Planning on picking up some chicken fillets and some salad on my way home tomorrow, and I'll cook the other half baguette and some chicken to have a chicken salad butty.   Then chicken salad with a jacket potato on Friday.

mumtoomany

Hi all. @Cas. I planted six peanut plants in the polytunnel. The rest I sold in the gate. Of these six two were got by slugs/rabbits/mice/clumsy grandchildren. The remaining four are growing well. They had tiny yellow flowers on earlier in the year. I'm going to wait until the bad weather before digging them up. The peanuts grow under ground like potatoes. So won't really know till then if it's been successful. 

Still frugaling along here. Living on next to nothing. 

Speak soon, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

fionaandphil

@Cas I've found the raspberries really good this year but awful last year.  After last year, I cut them back really hard and took some out, and this year they have been dripping with fruit.  Our blackcurrants are the same and I've made a big batch of jam with them and still have about another 5 kg on there which I'm leaving now for neighbours and the birds.  I cut the blackcurrants back a bit every year and I do put some wood ash on the bases of them every year as I heard that this is a good feed.  Keep at it, maybe next year will be your bumper crop

Treasurequeen

Popped into my local JL and had a free reward coffee, which was a nice treat. I have put up separate thermal linings on all my windows and patio door ready for the colder nights. The way I’ve done them they can be tied back during the day along with the curtains. I’ve had to buy a rug to go by patio door as the underfloor heating doesn’t go that far and there was a draught last winter. The rug hopefully has sorted that issue and I will be making draught excluders this weekend to add an extra layer of warmth. My bedroom window is draughty and I will be making an extra long draught excluders for the bedroom bay. The draught excluders will be made from old throws and will be weighted using shingle left over from the garden. 

I changed my mobile package and now only pay £4.50 a month instead of the £10 a month I was paying. I own my mobile outright and am not in a contract. I also Lowered one of my tv streaming service packages to the lowest one. I don’t mind the adverts so saved some money there too, Being disabled tv packages are an essential for me. Apart from the streaming services I just watch Freeview and record programmes to watch later. In October I will lower the other tv service to the basic one they offer. 

I’ve been using the BorrowBox app a lot and have a few things on reserve. I’ve been picking up cheap books and jigsaw puzzles from charity shops ready for the winter. I like to have a good stash of crafts and books to keep me busy as my health isn’t good in cold weather. 

I’m looking at my budgets and I am trying to find ways to save money. 2 NSD so far this month- I set a goal of 10 NSD a month and so far I’ve met that goal. 

2Scratters

Hi Cas. (I can't find your name or type it so it works)
I am still aiming for finishing at work this year. I am really unhappy with it all - I'll not bore you with that I'm focusing on the future 

2 Scratters xx