Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

badmemory

I updated my interest rates a few days ago.  Wouldn't you think that after paying 17% on a mortgage that I could have more than 2 years with a halfway decent interest rate on my savings.  The good news is that the long fix I had at the massive rate of 1.9% with no access until the end actually finish next month.  That was a really really good rate when I got it.  Then when I should have got long fixes I thought of this & didn't.  I could really do with a crystal ball.

foxgloves

Oh yes, those 16 & 17% interest rates were shocking, weren't they? I didn't have a mortgage back then. I was renting. The crazy property bubble at the time didn't help either with people putting in offers on houses, getting gazumped & losing what they thought was a done deal. I was about to return to uni to do my MA - before I went, there were quite a few areas in & around the city in which I could have afforded to buy a small terraced house. Just one year later when I graduated & working full time in my 1st professional post, there were none! Even with a 100% mortgage (which were still available from some lenders back then), I was priced out in a year! It was another almost 5 years before I was able to secure a mortgage & had an offer accepted on a house. During this time, my friend who did manage to buy a few years earlier was paying mortgage interest rates of 16% so at least I avoided those. They were crazy times, though I have huge sympathy for the very many people who would love to buy a home but are now priced out by ridiculous prices & the unrealistic deposits required. I have been keeping an eye on property prices in the area of Suffolk to which we plan to move when Mr F retires. I was looking at the details for a two-bedroomed bungalow recently - very ordinary (though nice) & as I scrolled down, I saw the purchase figures.....we will be cash buyers but for mortgage purposes, with a £27K deposit, the monthly repayments over 20 years were well over £1200k.. It really highlighted how difficult it is for people now & with soaring private rents, it must be incredibly difficult to save those big deposits. 
F

foxgloves

Today has gone quite quickly though will doubtless drag later, as Mr F is on one of his occasional very late shifts & won't be in until bedtime. I shall have the cats to entertain me, although they can be quite peculiar when their routines are different & spend a silly amount of time zooming around the house creating mayhem. I'm hoping at least one of them will fancy sharing the sofa with me & watching some TV. Time will tell.....
Hello Sunbeams,
Such a freezy start this morning. Awoke to the sound of neighbours scraping cars & our back garden was frosted white. The sun soon came up though & it's still pleasantly bright outside where 2 woodpigeons are trying to get it on outside my HQ window. Do they ever think of anything else? (Apart from guzzling more than their fair share of our birdseed, of course!) Right, budget-friendly activities:
*Returned bottle to farm shop & used the money off a pack of bread rolls.
*Made a sourdough for baking tomorrow.
*Home care hour involved sorting yesterday's clean laundry, putting away & ironing, plus general tidying.
*Did some wrapping using recycled materials from my wrappings stash.
*Council Tax bill landed so I updated Spreadsheet 1 with the new monthly amounts. It wasn't such a big increase as I was anticipating - a total of £89-42 more than last year's bill, but that's still an extra £9 on each payment plus a slightly more expensive month to accommodate the oddment. I tell myself that at least this money pays for useful public services & not shareholder bonuses & servicing debts which have been built up to pay those bonuses.
*Another increase also landed today......ink cartridge subscription. Not a big monthly amount, not a huge rise, but it was enough for me to stop & think whether this service now suits our needs & I don't think it does. I was busy writing up & printing out a lot of in-depth genealogical research at the time, which I like to illustrate well with topographical, historical & family photos. I have mostly finished these big studies now, & so when I do need to print something, it is usually to add something new to existing text so I can just print out a specific page. Have raised this with Mr F as it is money which may well now be better directed elsewhere......as in straight into the Savings Pots.
*Ordered anti-Evil Weevil nematodes. The bloody things are rampant in our garden, but only certain plants, all of them in containers - primulas, heucherellas & strawberries. Have ordered a very slightly cheaper brand to try.
*Did 4 PA surveys - My March earnings currently at £36-19 once everyone has paid me. 
*Entered a customer feedback prize draw. I rarely do these now - I don't know why, as I did once win £50 on a C**p one. I suppose it is low odds of winning them generally & another thing to remember to do though.
*Not the most helpful entry on tonight's meal plan - Basically, I was to "sort something out for myself" as Mr F taking dinner for late shift. Hmmm. Well I had a rootle around in the freezer & pantry first thing & decided to defrost the last of a bag of prawns & use with some sweetcorn & other odds & ends, plus the last of the half-fat creme fraiche leftover from last night's stroganoff to make a concoction capable of topping a jacket potato. Back in the bad old Spendy Years, I'd have been straight on the phone to order a pizza or a biryani! I still like both, what I DON'T like is spending the money when we have finally achieved building some savings after so many years!
*Aiming to knit some more of Mr F's extremely colourful sock for the Presents Bag while he is out of the house. Love being able to create a present from existing stash materials.
According to Mr F, we are on for an even frostier night tonight so I am going to get all the curtains drawn soon to keep the heat in, as quite a nice temperature has built up from the additional heat of the sun on the front windows this afternoon.
Enough of the yakk,
Enjoy your evenings,
F x

badmemory

I don't think those ink subs were ever a good idea for me & even the cheaper versions don't really seem to be.  I had one well known one last time & it lasted less than half the time of the original & I had stopped printing a lot of stuff I used to.  I no longer buy paper either.  Have you seen how much you get through the post that has nothing on one side or "deliberately left blank".  Altogether from my house insurance I got over 20 usable pages

ladyholly

badmemory

Thank you for the blank page usage. I had never thought of repurposing it.

Blackcats

Hope you and the cats find something good to watch on tv tonight.

Sun_Addict

I recently cancelled my ink subscription too. It was only £1.49 a month but I rarely print anything and the ink always dries up. If I need to print anything desperately I can do it at work. 

badmemory

It is amazing how much stuff comes through the door with a blank page on the back.  My writing can be so bad sometimes that I print my shopping lists & cut that out & then turn the paper round for the next one.  I do watch that there is nothing on the back that needs shredding not just paper binning.

foxgloves

Thanks for comments. Yes, I make use of clean-on-one-side A4 paper too.....mostly in bundles clipped together with a big bulldog clip to make a desk jotter, also for non-important printing & a range of other tasks. It surprises me how on one hand, businesses encourage us to go paperless but on the other, seem to send out a lot of documents printed only on one side or containing those pages 'left intentionally blank'. I also get through a lot of it when I'm doing a big genealogy project or to draft out craft or planting ideas so keep a stash in a box file. Far too useful a resource to dump in the recycling bin.
F

foxgloves

Morning Campers, rise & shine!
I'd earmarked today & tomorrow as gardening days but everywhere is frozen white again atm, so I'm going to do a couple of indoor tasks then see if it's thawed after breakfast. It's sunny & bright, so am hopeful. Quite glad of the frost after all the hoeing I did, but raring to go on progressing our food growing, as well as other outdoor tasks. Hopefully I'll be popping back later with a decent budget-friendly list - certainly I'm not intending to spend any money today.
Let's aim for a useful day.
F x