Pulling my frugal pants on.

ladybird1106

Not a good day yesterday. OH got to work and heard rattling, looked under the car and a spring has gone. Bl@@dy car is a money pit😤Had to wait all day for a constantly promised ( it’ll be there soon) flat bed truck. Finally arrived at 5:55pm ( he tc them at 9:20am) cost us £270 to have moved to the garage our car goes to. Dread to think how much that is going to cost😱. Luckily we have a car fund which should cover it and I have an investment maturing at the end of the month. Anyway it could have been worse, so I’ll count my blessings that OH was safe.
love 🐞

ladybird1106

I also went shopping earlier in the week and yet again was just over £2. What I find worrying is that it’s that amount, but most of the stuff I’m using in meals is coming from what I already have in the house. I’m going to go throughout the last couple of weeks receipts and see if I can cut stuff we buy or try alternatives. To see if I can bring the bill down.
love 🐞

ladybird1106

OH had an email saying that the department he works for need to make cuts to their budget and are looking to make voluntary redundancies amongst other cuts and cost saving exercises, He seems to think his team are safe as they bring in a lot of revenue. 

Even though he appears to be safe at the moment it makes even more important to build up an EF asap. Although I’m not overly concerned at the moment, who knows what will happen in the future. So glad the mortgage is paid off.
love 🐞

Cherryfudge

That's a lot happening all at once, I hope the car costs aren't too high and your DH's job is safe. 

As for food costs, someone's recently started a thread about them increasing since Christmas. My only (feeble) suggestion is to pad meals out with cheaper ingredients (rice, carrots, beans, swede, tin of tomatoes, potatoes) and try to stretch to a portion for the freezer. Even just half a portion, as you can combine two half portions!

badmemory

Cherryfudge said:

That's a lot happening all at once, I hope the car costs aren't too high and your DH's job is safe. 

As for food costs, someone's recently started a thread about them increasing since Christmas. My only (feeble) suggestion is to pad meals out with cheaper ingredients (rice, carrots, beans, swede, tin of tomatoes, potatoes) and try to stretch to a portion for the freezer. Even just half a portion, as you can combine two half portions!

That is definitely not a feeble suggestion, it is an extrememly good one.  It is something I have been doing for years but to help DS reduce his cholestrol (sp) which also turned out to be money saving.  Cook once & stand there chopping etc only once (the real longwinded pain) & eat several times.  Years ago I always used to cook for 4 but when we were only 2 I carried on & froze half.  I now cook & up the veg & freeze at least two thirds.  Some would be surprised what you can hide diced (15p) cabbage in.

ladybird1106

Thanks for your suggestions, I’m a big padder outer of meals already. We used to have guess the extra ingredient competitions with the kids when they were small, obviously waited until they had eaten it several times before doing this. Had a leftover bits frittata and fried mushrooms this morning for breakfast along with buck fizz ( mil didn’t finish her bottle of Prosecco off from yesterday’s big lunch). 

We are about to go into the garage of doom to retrieve a very long piece of wood that has served us well over the years when we decorate. We are planning on suspending it from the ceiling to make a shelf. We are going to use metal brackets from dads ( sprayed white). I’ve looked at shelving from ikea and can’t justify the price especially due to unknown cost of car repair. I’m get my pyrogragh pen out to decorate it. 

Right time to get a move on
love 🐞

ladybird1106

It’s took almost all afternoon to sand plank, but it looks good. Just need to come up with an inspirational quote. We’ve come up with “welcome to the jungle”, “always look for a positive no matter how small”, others which are very much us have swear words in and it’s not appropriate. Need to look on line. 

We’ve also found a bar for the youngest room to help with their mobility. They’ve gave it an undercoat and I’ve spayed the metal brackets. Hopefully will be done for tomorrow evening. 

Tea is done, ys spinach, pc cooked chickpeas (so much nicer than canned) and halloumi curry. Mmmm might make nan bread if I can find the recipe. 

Love 🐞

ladybird1106

Didn’t make man bread as no yogurt. 

Not an exciting morning, youngest dropped off in town to get to college as our paths are still not wheelchair friendly 🤞snow will be gone by the time they get home, prescriptions in, dads fish fed, dropped off several boxes of donations for cs,, sm shop was £50.35🥳. Lunch eaten and now off to the Swedish shop 
love 🐞

ladybird1106

Oh joy , OH has come home and there is now something wrong with my car. Think it’s the clutch spoke to our mechanic and been advised to only drive it to them and nowhere else. Will ring me in the morning to tell me when OH car is ready and then I can take mine in and swap it for OH’s . Car bill is going to be astronomical. Tomorrow I will have to borrow mums to get him to work and then he will have to catch the bus home. OH totally fed up and concerned about how much it’s going to cost etc. Told him it could of been worse, he could of had a accident in it( I saw someone having to be cut out of their car after a nasty accident, when out walking miss giddychops today)
Time for pudding I do believe 
love 🐞

redofromstart

ouch - hope its something simple