From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

mumtoomany

Guinea pigs? Nooooo! You're vegetarian. I do know a family, reasonably local to us, who bred and ate them. They had, I believe, pushed their finances to the limit to buy their dream property, and needed to eat. They started growing veg and keeping livestock, then no longer ate guinea pigs. (Taste ok, but lots of bones!)

I was thinking of you, while watching Wales almost win the rugby. 

Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

EssexHebridean

Just a couple of quick points on the laptop situation - first up, if the current one was bought new I would question whether it has “lasted a reasonable length of time” - personally I would lean towards saying that no, I would expect a piece of tech of this level to last for longer than 2 years, so you may well have a claim under consumer law. See Martin’s “SAD FART” rule for more info on that. Secondly - do you think you need to consider juggling your ongoing financial planning to ensure that you start building an  emergency fund, and (possibly) also a “new tech pot”? We pretty much always advise newbies on here to ensure that they have one - with rough guidance of £1000 as a minimum for a homeowner (personally for a homeowner with a car I would suggest £1500 is more appropriate). I’ve not had a specific “new tech” pot until pretty recently - but have now started a person rather than household one as my phone is now over 3 years old and although I am hoping to keep it a decent while longer yet, I’d like to have at least something stashed away ready for its replacement when needed rather than raising my personal longer term savings pot for this. 

We too enjoyed the rugby - although I confess that we did feel substantial glee on Italy’s behalf, and there was a good deal of banter flying about with various Welsh-supporting pals about them at least being able to stir their bolognese sauce with their wooden spoon…! Ireland definitely deserved the championship - and that they did it without getting the triple crown was a bonus from an English perspective. Personally we both felt the decision in the final minutes of the England match which lead to the French match winning penalty was harsh at best, and possibly wrong at worse - as pinging the player for a no-arms tackle in that situation didn’t really feel within the spirit of what the laws intend on that, but hey ho, that is the way things go! 

Wet here today too - although it sounds like you are further ahead with planning uses of a wet day than we are! 

Greying_Pilgrim

peb - My apologies!  I didn't see your posts - so sorry 🙁  Gosh, I didn't realise that a 'third party' condition could trigger diabetes.  Sounds like you are on it with your dietary needs and planning though.  

mumtoomany - I remember someone I knew trying roasted guinea pig in South America... They were very, very, very ill 🤢somewhat of a greasy meat apparently.........🤢 It wasn't going to be Wales' year in the rugger.  No one likes to receive the wooden spoon, but I'm pretty sure they will re-build and quickly return with a vengeance, and their supporters will be singing again 😁

EH - yeah, we have an emergency fund in place commensurate with our household - hence why the windows are taking longer to save for, as I (foolishly or prudently) am not wanging every penny that comes into the house over to the windows pot.   Notionally 'tech' would come out of the white goods pot though - trouble is with that is that moving house from a rental that had (some) integrated appliances meant that we had to buy 3 'big ticket' items when we moved here - so that fund took a hit, and it's not back up to 'new' (not refurbished) computer levels as yet. Unfortunately we were only able to trickle feed our various budget pots when we were in the rental, as we really were on the wire between sinking and swimming financially - and we couldn't have even moved to a house with 'lesser rent' - as well as property prices exploding, rental prices went through the roof in the time we were renting.  We actually were on a 'reasonable' rent there - highlighted by the fact that the tenants that followed us had to cough up nearly £200 a month more rent than we were paying.... for the same house..... in the same condition........

However, it's sort of a reasonable expectation for a lap-top to last longer than 2 yrs, but I suspect the retailer will just point to the 1yr guarantee that came with the computer, and the optional top-up insurance that was available.  IF the issue is the button battery (if this machine has one), then really, it's a pretty inexpensive fix - the expense comes from someone with knowledge finding the darn battery inside the gubbins or telling me what I have to do instead.  IF it is the power supply to the BIOS, then I need to not run the power level down to nought - otherwise I will get a black screen.  So the impetus is on me to observe my machine's battery levels.  First time it happened, I really did think the machine had died, and I was grateful to have the reprieve.  

Our weather is supposed to improve to dry with sunny spells today, but I'll have to double check what time the chance of rain showers allegedly decreases to nought........  The towels are in the wash now, along with some 'essential' wear.  If I can get this dry today, then I'm getting much closer to having caught up on the essentials.

Greying X

EssexHebridean

The retailer can point to whatever they like - but your statutory rights remain, and that is that an item should last a reasonable length of time. Seriously - Martin has done a lot on this, and some of his stuff will signpost to precisely what to say and how to deal with the issue. I would definitely say it was worth a try, particularly if the retailer in question is a high street option. IIRC one of the recent “Martin Lewis Podcast” episodes dealt with SAD FART as well - although I can’t recall how far back it might have been. Them pointing you at insurances you could have taken also is no good legally - they can’t get out of abiding by your statutory rights by selling you insurance! 

As for where funds for any repair or replacement should come from if required - in this day and age we have a huge reliance on tech for various functions and to keep our households running smoothly, indeed, we’re not given much option but to rely on it in a lot of cases are we! As a result I would totally suggest that any such costs should be considered to be an emergency. You could not have foreseen such a new device failing, therefore the argument that it “should have been” budgeted for fails. And realistically - it’s it practical to manage without it? No - not these days. Do you have anything which will work instead? From what you have said about your phone - no. Therefore computer needing sorting = very much “emergency fund” territory as far as I can see. 

I had always assumed that you did have an EF - it’s very much the basic sort of step which I would have been astonished had you not had in fact! I was thrown off track by your anxiety about where any associated costs required might come from though into thinking perhaps you’d thrown your EF into moving costs and not yet had the ability to build it back up, though - you wouldn’t be the first on here  after all! I’m glad that’s not the case though! 😁

Greying_Pilgrim

Ha ha - EH - I'm in good company on here too, for wincing at the thought of having to use our emergency fund 🤣 And yes, we can tell ourselves "that's what it's there for"........but....... 🤔

I think my anxiety stemmed from knowing that a replacement couldn't come from the 'white goods' pot, as that wasn't flush enough.  I get your point about us being reliant on tech - even though I hate that we are, but no denying it's an 'essential' irrespective of it's format - tablet/phone/laptop/desktop.

Also, my anxiety stems from thinking the machine was dead as a Dodo - certainly the first time, and I just thought my reprieve had run it's course when it happened the second time.  But further research now points to CMOS failure, not CPU/GPU failure.  In "theory" CMOS failure is fixable, I even have a packet of CR lithium coin cells here  - I just need to know where the blessed battery is in my machine 😁 If I can't determine where the battery is, and if a computer tech can't (I will ask this week at the local repair shop), then I need to modify how I use the machine, to try to avoid it running out of power.  And in the meantime, peddle like mad to shove money into the various savings pots that we have so that anxiety can be minimised in future 😁  

Greying X

kayannie

I need to apologise to you GP if I almost gave you a heart attack with the WRONG INFO on the forthcoming Royal Mail price increase on parcel post! Of course, I will not take the blame (!) as I notice now that RM have altered the layout of the pages. UK signed for  prices are now on the page where standard prices were &  standard prices have moved. The 'good' news is that the price increase on a small parcel is 'only' 20p!
KA

Greying_Pilgrim

kayannie - no need to apologise, if the RM have altered their pages in such a way to cause confusion, then they will lose business, simple as.  And yes, you are right, although no increase is welcome, 20p will be easier to find than £1.50+  Thanks for popping in to let me know.  I need to get a wiggle on with my charity knitting, but the fact that I can still afford to send off my resultant efforts is added incentive.

Greying X

badmemory

If your laptop is only 2 years old that is frankly dire.  I confess to not liking laptops & prefer desktops.  My last online desktop which was on a minimum of 10 hours per day in its last few years & in its almost 5 previous years permanently almost made it to ten.  I have another that doesn't go online that is on well over 12 hours per day which is pushing 14 years old.

Greying_Pilgrim

badmemory - I agree, and would prefer a desktop over a laptop.  I had a desktop for many years, and was aided by having the space in the converted cellar at Greying Towers to have it set up with room to do admin etc on the table around it.  However, I swapped to a laptop when the desktop/monitor finally succumbed to failure to 'keep up' with software developments.  We had LG by then, and I must admit, it was more convenient to have the laptop where ever i needed to be to look after LG, than be limited to using the computer when DH was home.  We would struggle for space here to have a desk top set up permanently - unfortunately.

I managed to make a 'bakers dozen', Chickpea and mushroom bangers.  They are now in the freezer.  I was also pleased that they were robust enough to be transported/handled to the freezer so that I could leave the tray/greaseproof paper in situ from where the falafel were set to freeze.  Teeny bit of money saving there 😁 I listened to last night's Liza Tarbuck show off R2 whilst I moulded the mix.

Lunch was a 'kind of' Minestrone.  I used up the 4 mushrooms that were left over (after I used 250g for the 'sausages'), along with; onion, celery, garlic, carrot, parsnip, swede, a random tin of red kidney beans and a handful of shell shaped pasta.  Along with some water, a spoonful of the all-purpose seasoning and a splodge of olive oil.  I diced the mushroom, but not to miniscule pieces, and fried them off with the onion, and....... whisper it........ LG ate every.last.scrap. of soup in their bowl 👍  They knew that there was mushrooms in the soup, as they had sat identifying what was in the bowl, whilst we waited for Papa to wash his hands and come to the table.  It captured LG's imagination that the beans had found a hidey-hole in the shell shaped pasta and then we all found 'hermit beans' in our soup 😁

I have brought the washing in - it's pretty dry.  It went very overcast, and although rain wasn't forecast, it looked like it could have started at any moment, so I erred on the side of caution.  The towels don't smell the least bit foosty.  Naturally, the sun has come out again now, and it is lovely, but the stuff is on the airer now.  Job done. 

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

Well, am I glad I am boring, predictable and play it safe some times.  About 20 minutes after I got the washing in, we had a sharp downpour, for all of about, oh 5 minutes.... and then the sun came back out 🤪 It literally would have reversed all my drying gains had the washing still been on the line.  It was purely luck that I decided the clouds looked ominous, and brought the clothes in, as a shower was not in the forecast for that time.  

We watched a bit of the footy.  Whilst footy isn't really my thing, it was nice to see an 'important' match on terrestrial TV.  OK, so I wouldn't bother schlepping to the pub to see it, but it was nice to be able to watch a little bit at home.  I only watched until full-time, and then went to prep tea.  

Tea was a success.  LG lurves a bit of a 'boo-fay', and was so excited that we were going to eat buffet-style tonight.  Possibly the first time in this house.  Ain't it daft how stuff captures little ones imagination.  Anyhoo, we had wraps, falafel, salad, yoghurt-mayo-tahini-garlic-herb sauce and the last few oven chips.  Nutritionally balanced it probably was not, but we don't eat like that all the time, so....




The wraps were a bit small to 'contain' the beast of a falafel, which I'd done as an oblong to try to 'fit' better.  But nobody looks purty when they're eating burritos/tacos/enchiladas - so thank goodness we were at home, and not in a restaurant 🤣  LG is apt to go a bit light on the accompanying salad 🙁 but I did notice that they did had lettuce, cucumber and carrot at least.    I fried the falafel from frozen and then transferred to the oven to finish off with the oven chips.  

Sorry for the picture quality - it had gone slightly overcast/past 6pm, so this is in hand-held in natural light, as the kitchen light casts a very odd glow.

I achieved my nsd today.  Not difficult as I didn't leave the homestead and we had all we needed.  But we didn't waste money either, so.....  DH put the second coat of paint on the ceiling.  It looks so much better - apart from upstaging the walls - just the extra light from the white paint lifts the area.

The more I look into it, the more it would point to my laptop not having a button battery to power the BIOS.  It appears it 'might' use the internal battery for support and operating functions.  I have looked at the battery function on the Device Manager and CMOS is not mentioned, and I have found the spec for my machine online, and again, as far as I understand, it only mentions the battery 'pack' (ie the rectangular block fixed into the machine).  So I guess my question for a tech person would be, 'why is the battery fully discharging to not leave enough to support the BIOS' and 'Can anything be done about it?'.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

Dry, fresh smelling laundry - sooooo pleased!
LG munching all the meals put in front of them, and getting excited for a 'boo-fay'
tmv travel tales prompting lovely memories of a special holiday in Dorset/Devon.

Ta for popping by and reading.  Appreciated.

Greying X