We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Suffolk_lass
Posts: 9,814 Forumite


Time, I think, to start a new diary. My first was about removing our debts, paying off our mortgage and working towards, and through, the first few years of not working. I don't call it retirement at that point, because a wealth of volunteer activities were taken on or continued, and a number of hobbies aspired to or taken up.
Now, I have given up work, stopped being on the Parish Council, and stepped back from being the first person to say "me, me, I'll do it!" Watching other people step up, do things their way? well it's not easy for your average control freak, Queen Bee, "I know best" type, but I'm working on it.
So where are we money wise?
I need to manage myself better. Hence this next phase diary. I MUST NOT STOCKPILE STUFF! I hope to post regularly to just be accountable and share some of my money saving things, and how we live
So here goes, in the wrong place? I am avoiding, rather than being in debt now, but always this part of the forum for me. Along with Old Style Moneysaving this is my forum home. So here it is.
My old diary is here, if you are bored; "Get a grip woman!"
Now, I have given up work, stopped being on the Parish Council, and stepped back from being the first person to say "me, me, I'll do it!" Watching other people step up, do things their way? well it's not easy for your average control freak, Queen Bee, "I know best" type, but I'm working on it.
So where are we money wise?
- There are two of us, plus animals - an old cat, a young dog and about a million bees
- We have both stopped work. We have some savings and we own our rural house with no mortgage.
- I and my sister own my Mother's house that she continues to live in, in Scotland
- and then there is our house in the next town. DH owns 50%, and DS and I own 25% each of it; a small town centre house we bought in 2013, after selling half our garden for development
- I receive a modest occupational pension and started to receive my state pension in April. It isn't quite the max because my occupational pension scheme opted me out (of SERPS, as it was then) and I and my former employer paid a lower national insurance contribution until 2016. After stopping work with 45 years paid (and two missing), I paid for four more to maximise the new state pension and it is just over £200 a week
- DH receives a smallish teachers' pension (he taught for less than 20 years) and he started receiving his full new state pension shortly after his 66th birthday in November, with the first five days arriving yesterday. He receives a full new state pension thanks to paying NI while working abroad and buying one extra year at the end, after stopping work.
- I buy too much when tempted
- I change size from time to time. Sometimes I can attribute the growing to buying and eating chocolate, ice-cream or alcohol (temptations...) - not sure about the losing bit, recently I consciously lost about 4 pounds and another 7 has departed without effort, although we eat less in hot weather and I often don't remember to eat until mid afternoon. That helps from time to time
- When I shop, I buy off-list. I know it is my weakness so I avoid going until we have run out of stuff. It is particularly evident in the SM
- I spend on hobbies. Beekeeping is almost all-consuming. It's not cheap
- Helping out - it is that "me, me, I'll do it!" thing. I have no cope-ability filter; that "have I got time/capability?" thing is missing
- Researching and learning - it's like an autistic obsession with me. Eg I got my X-ray results on my injured knee. By the time the doctor rang at 12.30 for my "what's next" appointment I had researched the abnormality, its cause, persistence, treatment options and self-diagnosed when and how it impacted the injury. I did tell him what I had done and he said my interpretation is correct, and we quickly developed a three pronged approach to improve things (more of that later). Does everyone else go into google scientific and radiographer-pedia (or whatever it's caused) to look at the archive of diagnostic imaging to better understand everything? I know they don't, but I do. Even watching TV; The Repair Shop for one example. By the time Steve was prising the etch-a-sketch apart, I knew about the wires and pulleys, aluminium dust and the polystyrene beads that comprise its mechanism (and that it was invented by a Frenchman, originally manufactured in USA but sold to a Canadian company and over 100 million sold world-wide). I can't just sit, I have to be doing something.
I need to manage myself better. Hence this next phase diary. I MUST NOT STOCKPILE STUFF! I hope to post regularly to just be accountable and share some of my money saving things, and how we live
So here goes, in the wrong place? I am avoiding, rather than being in debt now, but always this part of the forum for me. Along with Old Style Moneysaving this is my forum home. So here it is.
My old diary is here, if you are bored; "Get a grip woman!"
Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here
4
Comments
-
So, here we are. November 9th and I have already spent £48.57 this month on groceries. I am attempting to stay under £200 so my annual budget of £3000 is not exceeded.
My subscription items this month, from big river company, are due in a week or so only includes (6 jars of our preferred brand) instant coffee from the grocery budget and that can stay. There are two treat things, a pet thing, and some stretchy sports tape for the afore-mentioned knee (a work in progress and improving). There is a bottle of medicated shampoo I will skip.
Today will be planned personal treat spends - I am going for brunch with friends, and DH is off into London for a pub thing (not a crawl but 7 pubs with former colleagues) - I predict the Treats and entertainment budget may make up for its under-use in the beekeeping season this month, and use up the reserves. After my brunch I will walk the dog and then study for an exam next Saturday, until called upon to collect DH from the train (no buses here, these days).
I might package up some more gathered-from-home seed if I need a break from my studies. With a week to go I am not ready.
I have plenty of food without going out again, and will take a small piece of lamb out of the freezer to roast this week.
My spending? Two Christmas presents ordered and one delivered with the milk. [Yes, I know milk in glass bottles from the milkman is more expensive but it keeps me away from the SM so is cheaper, IYSWIM!]. A recipe book gift, along with my next year's diary that I must use more diligently! Only a few presents these days and DS & partner have almost been sorted now. A useful personal thing (clothing) for each, something a bit indulgent (still to sort) and some new pillows, for the new bed they have just ordered. I fear they are almost certainly living on the never, never.Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here7 -
Lovely to see you back posting with a diary again.My mortgage free diary: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6498069/whoops-here-comes-the-cheese
GNU Mr Redo2 -
Thanks @redofromstart. I stopped because we were too busy and my posts were feeling a bit irrelevant. The next phase will start next Sunday (the day after my next exam) and focus on some homemade prep for festivities, preparation for selling bee-stuff and catching up with some friends. On the money side it is about making the money work hard for us, without being obsessed.
Consciously reducing what we buy that is not needed. That said, we need a new (well a replacement) out-building and I want to check if I need planning consent to rebuild a permanent building on our deeds. In the first instance I think that is a pre-planning enquiry (a written one, without a site visit), which the council now charge for.
For the timebeing it is all about revision here. Trying to get the viruses, micro-organisms, lifecycles, signs and symptoms, treatments and law into my head before Saturday.
Plan to spend nothing except petrol (5 miles left, according to DH's petrol gauge). My car is making a worrying noise and is booked in for 20th so minimal driving before thatSave £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here5 -
A lovely new diary! I don't have any debt or mortgage either, but very much need to keep our household spending within sensible parameters so as to maximise both emergency & future savings.
F2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (4/100)
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)5 -
Welcome @foxgloves & @redofromstart - everyone is welcome here, especially those of you whose advice I try to follow!
Osteopath appointment today, and we need to get the petrol car refuelled before that as the osteopath is four miles away. I have also had to pay the window cleaner this morning. The external windows were all cleaned yesterday, and I asked him to do the five dirtiest solar panels. There are four more on the garage roof but I think if we use a ladder or the roof of the campervan we can do them ourselves. The five at the back face the field and the surfaces were caked with stuck on residue from harvesting. No wonder our electric bills have been higher than we expected this summer.
In more sensible no spending, we eat the leftover mashed potato I made on Saturday, and had it with a good portion of (half) shoulder of lamb (from the freezer, it was a bit of the monster black half lamb we had from our friend (and gardener) - that I roasted, served together with buttered leek and carrots.
With the electric range on now for winter, no heating until about 5pm yesterday, relying on the house being warmed by the range. The sitting room doesn't benefit from it, unless the door is open, and then the dog is in there, up on the back of my chair, barking. Hmm, it's a choice!
A nice little bonus when our local DPD delivery man called. No delivery, he wanted to buy some honey. He bought £30 of honey. With that much I gave him a small discount and he left with six jars. He knew we had honey because I gifted him a small jar in the summer. We were both very happy with the transaction. I don't know if he plans to sell it or gift it. I don't need to. I labelled it so it is legal and sold it in retail jars. Back from the front door and a message from another regular customer, enquiring whether they can buy a 1.5k pot next time. Very happy that this will help reduce the honey mountain upstairs, and also help to reimburse some of what I have spent this year! It's not a cheap hobby!
Other than that, my day was revising. I'm still not ready. I need to do the practice paper online, to make sure my operating system works with the software that they use for us to take the exam. Other than that, we have one last study group session this evening.
Meal plan for today (in reverse order):- Tonight will be cold lamb, pickle and baked potatoes with simple fillings and a bit of salad (well lettuce and coleslaw). I have all of these at zero risk as no need to go shopping!
- I have courgette soup, to which I will add some lamb meat juices, for a simple lunch with a slice of toast.
- If I can make myself eat breakfast, I'll have porridge with extra oat bran top up (oat bran sucks up LDL cholesterol). I'm often too nauseous to eat in the mornings but I want to take the anti-inflammatory and stomach protection meds before I get manipulated at the osteopath's so I must eat, and a rich tea biscuit (a stomach liner I can sometimes tolerate) just won't hack it. I am also supposed to eat before the big Vitamin D supplements I take daily, but I don't always do so. My blood tests identified low D3 (it helps things heal, so with my knee injury, it apparently needed a boost - Dr recommended)
Back to the studying today. Have a good and frugal day everyone!Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here7 -
So this morning I started by taking the fish I bought last Friday and two lamb's hearts out of the freezer to defrost. The fish is for today/tonight. I have vegetables to have with it so no need to shop. I am about to have porridge for a late breakfast so I can take the pain relief that needs to be taken with food.
Yesterday's Osteopath visit was very relieving, it loosened up bits that we had not felt were tight before and then once the outer ring of tension relaxed, he and I could feel the next layer that has been in spasm. So tight. I had some acupuncture too and have come away with a gentle exercise to try. This morning, that hurts but I think that is as a result of the manipulation yesterday.
Mr SL went to the bees at our two smallest locations and hefted the hives. Both felt quite light and we will begin to feed fondant as soon as we know how many colonies need it. He will check the big apiary today.
I have quite a lot of window-sill ripened tomatoes in the freezer and two more lots pending. Lot 1 are starting to colour. Lot 2 are not and are likely to become piccalilli next week, after my exam. All the squashes have got nice dry tops now and could go in the larder. Not many after so few matured what with slugs, and none of my seeds germinating this year. I still have to sort out my seed stash, but again, not before Saturday's exam.
Right, back to the study, now. Causative organisms, lifecycles, sizes and impact on bees todaySave £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here5 -
Sadly, one of the colonies of bees was a dead-out today. It must have happened a while ago. The queen failed, too late for them to requeen and the hive was robbed out once the other colonies realised they were failing. It's one of the really horrible colonies we had dumped on us, so temperament wise it is no hardship that they failed. We bagged up and binned all the brood frames that had been invaded (or just no longer controlled) by the Greater Wax moth (Galleria mellonella) - there was frass and silky residue all over and some of the comb collapsed as we prised them out of the box. Ugh!
I suppose it will help me on Saturday. We have fallen into Mr SL testing me by reading the questions from old exam papers and me answering verbally. Two so far. Where I struggle, he marks it up and I am ready to re-read those bits of the syllabus. Greater wax moth lifecycle is next. Having seen the larvae and pupae in that hive yesterday, I know what the signs are and the size of the larvae.
Revision was interrupted by going for a hearing test. I have realised I am missing bits of speech. I was shocked that he recommended hearing aids for both ears. I suppose it is the legacy of so many concerts and thinking I was "indestructible" in my younger days. And my age. Mr SL had his initial test three weeks ago and his initial examination identified years of wax build up (which was removed), and he was tested last week, now his brain has adjusted to the boost. While he has a dip on the graph; a flat spot, he does not need aids (yet). Mine trailed off across the graph and the audiologist told me the aids will help stimulate the cochlea, and I need to act before it is too late. A quick read of the NHS site suggests that he is right. I need to think about this for a week or two. It is outside my radar and something I smugly considered was not going to happen to me. I feel quite upset by the prospect, if I am honest. Having given my Mum such a hard time though, I need to do what I said she must do. I can't face telling her though. Not yet. It's vanity, and I wear my hair quite short, so aids will be visible. I just need to come to terms with itSave £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here6 -
@Suffolk_lass it's fab to see you posting again; I've subscribed. Hearing aids can be very small these days; my 20 year old daughter has an NHS one and it's really discreet. So looking forward to keeping up with your adventures love Humdinger xx3
-
Thanks for chipping in @Humdinger1 - it's good to "see you" - you are always so positive!
I'm going to go in for a demonstrator session. I was alone yesterday evening and I suppose being a bit more aware, I felt I was not always hearing the dialogue in the programme I was watching. So it is bite the bullet, big girl pants time and I need to consider the comfort issues. Wearing in ear buds has never worked for me, for any longer than a football match, making my ear ache, but they were not custom-fit ones.
In other news, just the milkman expenditure today, with £7.50 about to leave the account. On a positive note, I can "see" but not touch my state pension, arriving on Monday.
Over £500 of this is leaving the same day, as I offered to take cash that has accumulated for one of the charities for which I am a trustee, and reimburse the account by electronic means as the treasurer has resigned and it is all a little more complicated than necessary. I pay cash for various things, so really not an issue.
Yesterday, for example, I paid the gardener in cash, who tidied up two beds and pruned some more leggy shrubs into nice neat mounds. That sounds so pretentious. He is a friend; a jobbing gardener and handy person, and has helped us all year, with my knee stopping me doing many of the things I normally do outside. I so hope the improvements continue. I must keep up with the exercises; they do help.
Right, more preparation for that exam tomorrow. Going over the old exam papers is a good way of prompting the gaps I need to fill.Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here6 -
So, all focussed on this morning's exam, I set my phone alarm to sound when I had 40 minutes left. So when it went off, I went to the first remaining question, of the two I had left to answer, planning to leave myself ten minutes to quickly recap my answers, after that.
Only I didn't. I seem to have set my phone for 10 minutes to go instead of 40 and the exam locked me out, three quarters of the way through the first of the two. It really was a "you stupid woman!" moment for me. Masses of work, there was not a question I could not answer but at least 20 marks missed. I am sure I have failed. The pass mark is 60. January results.
I shall have to be Scarlett (O'Hara, not the Gogglebox one) and take the familiar position "I'll think about that tomorrow!"
Onwards and upwards, as @Humdinger1 would say!Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £564.77 out of £6000 after January
OS Grocery Challenge 2024 finished at £2970.11/£3000 2025
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £164.86/£3000 or 5.5% of my annual spend so far annual
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here7
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 348.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 452.4K Spending & Discounts
- 240.8K Work, Benefits & Business
- 617K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 175.6K Life & Family
- 254K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards