Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Tescodealqueen

Foxgloves I generally use the app on my phone these days just been on there to pay a bill and the interest rate on savings now showing as 4.4% not sure if this has happened since the BoE announcement

foxgloves

And now for today's small positive money saving wins:
Well, the big one is some energy bill news, so I'd better start with that. ....
*Latest bill from the Cephalopods arrived yesterday so have been number crunching the figures. Over the past month, we have used £46-60 of electricity & £30-05 of gas - a total of £76-65. This continues a clear downwards trajectory from January:
Jan £245-15
Feb £228-99
Mar £194-47
Apr £128-32
May £79-85
June £76-65
Credit balance currently standing at £521-23 towards the coming autumn/winter, so I had thought that as we still have July, Aug & Sept to go before we generally put the heating on, I would request a reduction to our monthly DD. This was pre-empted by the Tentacled Ones, however, as I received an email today explaining that as energy prices have now dropped, our DD has been re-evaluated & reduced to £120-74 (down from £173-73). I am going to leave it at this new amount because if we are using around mid-to high £70s at the moment, then there is still some leeway there to build a bit more winter credit. Anyway, updated Spreadsheet 1 (bills/DDs) with new amount. Hope everyone starting to see a similar drop now or very soon.
*Did tomato plant maintenance that fell off the list yesterday when I saw it wasn't going to be a quick job. Took me nearly an hour to side-shoot & tie in 15 tomato plants, while also avoiding the ants' nest in the grapevine pot.
*Picked another cucumber.
*Pulled a small bundle of rhubarb.
*Vacuumed all of upstairs plus conservatory, then marched up & down garden for a bit of exercise during optimum TRE fat burning window. Not very exciting, but I thought of that velvet dress I want to wear again.
*Made tomorrow's packed breakfast & lunch.
*Did triage of fresh stuff to prevent food waste......some unloved carrots prepped & frozen, two wrinkly oranges (fine inside) squeezed & the juice used for cooking the aforementioned rhubarb. I had some for lunch topped with skyr - very nice!
*Did a few surveys - Ips*s is starting at least to get into the vague vicinity of a voucher & on PA, I'm just 9p away from £40. 
*Very little effort required for tonight's nosebag - I've defrosted a pot of the chard pesto I made a few weeks ago for some pasta & grated some cheese for topping it.
*Two library books I requested arrived, so that's another couple I shan't feel tempted to buy.
The only job I have left to do before that is watering the veg. I think the hose is already rolled out, so that shouldn't take me too long. It has gone rather grey here, so I waited just in case we had a shower, but nope! It looks like I will be doing it instead.
Right, in the absence of the arrival of a 9p survey, I shall sign out & proceed with the watering.
F x

Tescodealqueen

That’s great news on the energy saving front

foxgloves

@Tescodealqueen - 4.4%? Yes, you are probably right that it's because of the latest BofE interest rate rise. Every little helps, but I do feel for the poor sods needing to renew their mortgages. So many people only have experience of rates going down or being very low & stable. I think old crocks like me well recall the hideous rates back in the 1980s.....not that I was actually paying those. My plans to buy a house were put on hold as I was completely & utterly priced out of the market in the stampede.
I will check for the new 4.4% rate next time I sign  into online banking but it does sound as though we have the same account.
F x

Makingabobor2

That's an excellent amount of credit to go into autumn with. We are about £162 in credit at the moment, but I'm sure will be a lot more by September. Waiting to see what happens when our fixed rate finishes in August....fingers crossed for another good one. 
Looks like its going to throw it down with rain any minute here, just heard some rumbles of thunder as I got the bins in. Like you, I am hoping  for rain so I don't have to water garden. Although DH is due home on his motorbike at 6pm, so would rather he didn't come in dripping wet. 

Tescodealqueen

foxgloves said:

@Tescodealqueen - 4.4%? Yes, you are probably right that it's because of the latest BofE interest rate rise. Every little helps, but I do feel for the poor sods needing to renew their mortgages. So many people only have experience of rates going down or being very low & stable. I think old crocks like me well recall the hideous rates back in the 1980s.....not that I was actually paying those. My plans to buy a house were put on hold as I was completely & utterly priced out of the market in the stampede.
I will check for the new 4.4% rate next time I sign  into online banking but it does sound as though we have the same account.
F x

It’s the old PP account don’t think it’s available In its original form but it covers our travel insurance which gets used a lot, car breakdown , mobile phone cover which I wouldn’t usual bother with but they paid for my sons lost fruit based phone when he was at sixth form, together with the linked saver.

yes I feel sorry for those with mortgages. we were younger and less savvy on Black Wednesday when the rate on our mortgage went up to 15 percent. We panicked and stupidly fixed at a rate of ten percent for ten years thinking at least we know it won’t go up again as we had a very young child at the time and living no where near family had childcare costs to manage too. It was a bad time for us and I am sure it feels much like that now but hopefully people with access to the internet (hadn’t heard of it back then myself (I had to be specially trained in my job to be able to send a fax!) won’t be doing the same thing in a blind panic as we did for lack of useful knowledge

Cheery_Daff

I need to do our meter reading when I get home but I expect we'll have our DD amended too - last I looked we were about £350 in credit for electric only, and our DD is £88 a month - I know we're not using that. Must check.

Must also work our some mortgage stress testing for when our fix ends, although thankfully that's not til September next year. Need to work out if I'm going to need to be working full time, because if I am, I'll need a new job! Hoping things are at least less uncertain by then so we know where we stand.

marionmgcars

Amazing number crunching on gas/electric.  Hopefully charges will reduce and everyone will have good credit for next winter.

small win here, had my 3 hr drive today, resisted visit to chip shop en route even tho I parked outside their door, to stretch my legs and visit charity shop to break journey.   👍. 

Off to Cumbrian Wool Gathering to help my friend, so hope not too tempted with all the goodies.  

2Scratters

Today I am a giddy kipper (very tired though).
 Small things please, I have received my car renewal and it has increased by £8 and still under £150 for the year. I did think they would have refused me renewal by increasing it dramatically  which is the polite way of saying we don't want your business anymore, as I had closed my current account with them. Not worth my time trying to find cheaper. 

Take care all

2 Scratters xx

foxgloves

Just a quick post as still have a couple of things I want to do this afternoon. 
Hi diary readers. Thanks for your comments, which I always enjoy reading. Yes, I hope ALL of us have good news about electricity bills very soon. I will certainly enjoy having over £50 to use in other parts of the budget, that's for sure.
Today's small wins:
*Felt I'd had a mini-workout whizzing around cleaning the rest of the house before it got too hot. Vacuuming the stairs with one hand while wielding a cloth at the skirting boards with the other certainly felt like a new aerobic move!
*Did a few surveys. Am over £40 now for June's PA earnings & still have £23 to draw down from P*p*l for last month's.
*Pulled a small bunch of radishes & picked a posy of flowers for the house.....mainly sweet peas as want to keep those blooms coming for a bit longer.
*Sowed more spring onions (2 varieties) & radishes.
*Transplanted a dozen lettuces babies to a large container.
*Harvested a bit more of our home made garden compost, which does make the bagged stuff go further, & seems very good this year.
*Planted out the 2 remaining squash plants - on the small side but they are clearly sulking so they will either decide to pull their finger out & grow or they won't! The other two are growing nicely - the small ones were from a 2nd sowing.
*Did a small amount of financial admin & checked grocery budget - about £6 left which isn't enough for the very few bits we still need from the market tomorrow, but we won't be too far over.
Right, must fly & get a couple more jobs done, then I think I deserve a nice hair wash. It's Mr F's cooking night, so no need for any kitchen effort on my part.
F x