The Frugal Hearth: Stories of Simple Living and Living Well

Elisheba

Good evening, troops,

Just trying to work out what I want for dinner. My original plan was cauliflower pizza, but I forgot and didn't defrost, rice and cook the cauliflower earlier, so it would take forever to cool down if I did it now, so I need a plan B. I'm peckish but not starving and can't really think what I would like.

It's been a very showery few days here at Elisheba Cottage. So far I have managed to pick and choose my dog walking times, and avoiding getting drenched, so that's a bonus. Fingers crossed for the rest of the week.

I had a very nice, fairly relaxed weekend. I felt pretty tired for a lot of it so didn't get much on my list done. Errands on Saturday morning, and lunch out on Sunday, and basically spent the rest of the time reading 🤣.

I may have had too many carbs at lunch out yesterday - just some chutney with my cheese board, and there was some leek dish on the shared veg that had some breadcrumbs, so that may be why I felt so exhausted yesterday evening. I tested my blood sugar, and it was higher than normal (although nothing concerning) so must be a bit more careful in future.

Lunch was £20 yesterday, so that comes out of my personal allowance for the month. Shopping on Saturday comes out of monthly food and pet budgets respectively. Picked up a couple of library books when I was out on Saturday, and have started the Yorkshire Shepherdess one. It's one of her more recent ones with lots of photographs so very enjoyable.

Finished a book called Stuffocation by James Wallman at the weekend. It was quite interesting, although 10 years old and things have moved on. I shall summarise it for you -

We all have too much stuff and it is causing us problems. From the early 20th century in the Western world, people have been encouraged to spend and consume rather than their previous thrifty ways. This is because the factories were over producing, and it was either encourage people to buy more or reduce production. Although it seems obvious to us now, at the time there were arguments on both sides and it could have gone either way.

However, once the 'buy more' plan was decided on it was very good for our economies. Turns out the more people buy, the more they earn. This created generations of materialists where what people wore, the cars they drove, etc were seen as status symbols and signs of success. 

Now people have mountains of stuff, and there hasn't been a correlating increase in happiness since about the 1980s. 

There are several ways this could go in the future. The author examined minimalism and voluntary simple living, but didn't see either of them taking off as the new paradigm for various reasons. Instead he advocated for a new experientialism consumer, where people are more concerned with experiences than material goods. This wouldn't necessarily reduce spending, and therefore not tank the economy, but would be less resource heavy and make us happier. The end.

Interesting to see how some of his predictions have happened - the pandemic really moved working from home/anywhere forward. With the rise of cheap Chinese imports though I don't think we have reduced our material consumption much, so not sure if experientialism will quite look like how he thought. Also, I don't think he paid nearly enough attention to the environmental impact of anything.

Other than than, not much to report. I have a meeting tonight, and I think my church group starts back tomorrow night. Moneywise I don't see me needing anything until the weekend. I have decided to keep a £200 float in my current account as the the transfers from in instant access savings account seem to be taking a while, and I don't want to use the overdraft if possible.

Right, off to find something to eat. Hope your weeks have started well 😁.

Elisheba

Quick update (I know you are on the edge of your seats) to say dinner turned out to be turnip chips (done with olive oil, smoked paprika and nutritional yeast in the air fryer - could have done with longer tbh), fried eggs and peas. Got another portion of the turnip chips left for another day as well.

Elisheba

Morning all, and happy Friday (had to check there to make sure it was actually Friday - my days of the week are all middles this week for some reason),

For the Am@zon haters out there, you will be happy to hear I needed some medical cream yesterday, and a comparison between Am@zon, the C00p and my local pharmacy had my pharmacy coming in by far the cheapest, so it was duly patronised.

It has been a quiet week here at Elisheba Cottage. Have just about managed to doge the rain for my walks with silly dog. Today though should be dry, so hopefully no need to study the forecast and the sky as I try to predict the future.

I'm finding myself missing my big decluttering project now it is basically done. It was an enjoyable way to spend evenings and felt really productive. I did a bit more of it last weekend and have a bookcase and some books to dispose of. Local charity bookshop said they are taking books so I'll see about dropping them off there at some point, and Freecycle the bookcase.

I have a village BBQ tomorrow which should be nice, especially if it stays dry. It's £10 which is very good value if you can eat all the food and ice cream provided, which I can't of course but there will be salad and cheese and a veggie burger which should all be okay.

I ordered a pair of walking trousers on Vinted last week in a size 18, knowing it would be unlikely that they fitted yet. And of course they don't, but I did manage to get them buttoned up which wouldn't have happened even month or two ago. Anyway I have enough to wear until they do fit, and when they do I have a pair of trousers I am happy to get rid of so I don't accumulate more.

Oh and I must tell the story of the towel. People of a certain size will be aware that normal bath sheets don't fit to wrap around, and you are left wandering around extremely indecent (if you can even get the towel to join). You need to buy extra large/long one if you want to be covered.

Anyway my Mum bought me 2 normal sized bath sheets a couple of years ago and I have been using them as hair towels. On impulse I tried one on to wrap around a few days ago - and it fit! I was fully covered and as decent as you can be wrapped in only a towel 🤣.

I have absolutely no idea when the last time a normal towel fitted me - 20 odd years ago I imagine, so that felt like a really enjoyable milestone. Also a frugal win as in the future I can buy normal towels when they are on sale, rather than hunting for extra long ones which you can only really get online and are never on sale.

Jobs for the weekend are clean the bathroom and hoover the house. See if I can be bothered putting things on V!nted. Meal plan for next week and buy anything that's needed. Dust everything. Think that's it really. Life really is so much easier with less stuff!

Hope you all have a great end to your working week.

beanielou

Good news on the towel.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, excellent towel finding! 😊 well done on your weight loss, very inspiring. I am very much in need of taking a leaf out of your book - I have been hovering within the same 3 or 4 lbs for MONTHS while saying I'm 'trying' to lose weight- and clearly not trying very hard given the number of photos of cakes (that I'm about to eat) that I take 😬

Also inspiring to hear you miss your decluttering project! I could do with committing some time and energy to that too 😬 Maybe you can come and start devluttering my house! 😬😃

Jellytotts

Our mog is on a daily dose of painkiller and we asked for a private prescription and buy 6 months worth online in one go.  Vets charge us £24 a bottle but a private script is £13 for 6 months and an online vet pharmacy charge us £4.99 per bottle.   

honeybee1234

The book you posted about a few days ago sounds super interesting @Elisheba, I wonder if there's an updated version available? I may investigate this. And well done on the weight loss! 

KajiKita

Hello 😊

How has the rest of September been for you?

KK

Elisheba

Hello, hello, hello, all! And sorry for my extended absence! I have little in the way of excuses other than not feeling very motivated I am afraid.

Despite my lack of motivation I have been sticking firmly to the frugality train. September wise I came in firmly under on ever budgeting area except fuel, where I was 68p over budget 🤣. That meant I was able to fire £595.71 over to savings, which included savings from earnings, £40 from selling some stuff, the annual interest from one savings account, and the monthly interest from another two. That brings my savings total to *drumroll* £8236.81. And October's savings should be even higher as I got my back pay from my pay rise in this month's pay check.

I'm just back from a really lovely week in Scotland seeing my Mum. I went to see a folk group called Skipinnish with my Mum and brother, that my Mum had won Ticketmaster vouchers she paid for it with. She also gave me money towards my fuel so it was a very thrift trip indeed! I had 2 days off, and worked from there the rest of the time, and it really was a lovely relaxed break.

In other fab news, my landlord has decided not to put up my rent by the full amount he is entitled to this year - RPI is 4.6% apparently, and only put it up 2.6% instead. As I had budgeted 10% just in case, that means I am quite a bit better off than expected. So more money to go towards a house!

I also opened a Chase account, and their linked saver, which offers higher interest than I was getting everywhere else. So pretty much everything is now being stored there, except the money in the LISA. It's 1% cash back for food and fuel purchases as well which is nice, and I'm still using Barclays as my main account so as to keep my long credit history - apparently good for the old credit rating.

I am still resisting having the heating on, although it was hard after coming back from my Mum's who has it on all the time! Silly dog keeps crying for me to open the front and back door though, so I'm not sure having it on would do much good anyway 🤣.

I am still decluttering here and there. All the big ticket stuff is done, so it's just nuts and pieces as I go along now. I have a pile of stuff upstairs that I need to take to the recycling centre this weekend, and then my house will be clear again. It really is so much easier to keep clean and organised now - well it would be if I didn't have the pile of stuff for the recycling centre anyway 🤣.

Not much else to report for the time being. Just hit a T£sco delivery so the cupboards are full. Made a Quorn chicken and vegetable fish yesterday which I had again this evening, and have another portion left for tomorrow. My weight loss has stalled a little the last 3 weeks, so I may need to revisit portion sizes next week but I'll see how this week goes first.

Hope you are all well, and lovely and snug and cosy on these colder evenings ☺️

foxgloves

Great to hear how well your savings are progressing, Elisheba. I can tell that you are finding it motivating seeing that figure grow. It's all that little bit nearer to buying a house. Good news on the rent increase too. That could have been a lot worse.
F