The Frugal Hearth: Stories of Simple Living and Living Well

Cheery_Daff

Elisheba said:

Howdy, everyone and Happy New Year.

A long delay with posts again, but that was mainly because I was away.  Skye was lovely, but as I mentioned above the drive home was not.  Probably should have left a day early to get safer roads, but we left on the Saturday and it was really scaring driving it that.  The main roads were gritted but we got stuck on a back road at Dunvegan, and even with grit some of the roads weren't great.  One road in the Highland was utterly terrifying - its a horrible feeling when you know your brakes and steering aren't working.  I'll definitely have to consider winter tyres or all weather tyres next Winter, as where I'm moving is at 1300 feet and gets a lot of snow.  Possibly snow chains as well just to get to the motorway (about 7 miles) when I need it.  

In good news everything seems to be progressing with the house buying.  I've had to provide sooooo much paper work!  I have a mortgage in principle, but just need to see if they need some more paper work due to some difference with maiden name/married name.  I have never legally changed my married name back but pretty much all my other paperwork is in my maiden name so I guess its a bit of a mess.  

I decided on a 5 year mortgage over 15 years, and I feel rather bad as I didn't go with the most ethical bank, but it was a question of money and I will need it for getting things done around the house. Its not great but I need to be practical, and there was a significant difference. 

So now I'm just doing what they need me to do, when they need me to do it, and fingers crossed it all works out.  I haven't handed in notice on my current property as I want things to be more certain - I need to give 3 months notice so there will be some crossover.  Not ideal financially but will be less stress for getting the old house cleaned and whatnot.  

Other than that, I left the cat litter tray in Scotland so had to buy a new one - £20.  I bought a pile of sugar free chocolate and used an Am£zon voucher for the bulk of it (which I got from some company that harvests my mobile phone data that was mentioned on this site ages ago.  Over 20 weeks I get a £20 voucher) - £14 odd.  The head on my D!son V10 broke and its £40 for a new one so I'm going to see how the duct tape mend I did works for now.  

Bills wise, I managed to cancel my energy transfer in time so that should be fine - at the moment I've paid twice for the last month so one of them should refund me at some point, but now I can get the best deal when i move with no early exit fees. I have finally switched mobile providers so that's now at £1 a month for a few months and I'll reassess when that runs out.  My water bill has gone up, but that's based on usage so nothing i can do there.  previously i was trying to shower every other day and sink wash in between but i decided that I feel so much better for a shower every morning I would take the hit on my water bill.  A little gift to myself!

The house was at 7 degrees when i got back and even when i put the heating on it was very slow to heat, so I needed to use my electric heater for a few hours as I had washing that needed to dry.  So that'll be a bit more in energy this month, but what can you do?  I'm hoping I have enough oil so see me to my move, as I'm not filling it up if I'm moving.  It was empty when I moved in and I'm not filling it up and spending £800 odd for someone else's use.  It should be fine and if not I have the multi fuel stove and electric heaters.

You may recall I normally decide what I'm going to spend annually for each category and then break it down into 12.  However, basically every penny I don't spend from now until the move will be going towards the house move so all annual pots are cancelled until then, although my monthly s/s is the same as usual as that's bills and food and things.  The money i already have will pay for conveyancing, removals, cleaning and a few other bits and bobs. The money I don't spend between now and then should give me two or three thousand to play with for the house, and then I should be getting £1.5k cashback from the mortgage and £850 old house deposit back, which will pay for other things.  Storage, fencing for silly dog, the roof and some immediate repairs to the shed are the big things, but I have a s/s with everything I can think of written down, with estimated costs and what sort of time frame they will need.  

In an ideal world I would have waited another year or two before I moved which would have made my finances more secure, but that would also have been over £9.5k in rent, so swings and roundabout and I can just about manage it all.

Other than that I have done loads of washing since I got home, taken down everything but the Xmas tree, and need to do some hoovering and clean the bathroom.  I finally feel like I have gotten things back in order just about though, so that's good.  The weather forecast can't decide if I'm going to get snow or now, but if it is snow not rain it might be quite bad so I'll make sure I'm stocked up.  If the roads are okay I am going out for breakfast with friends from my old house on Saturday, about 2 hours away, but I'm waiting to see how the snow goes. I do not feel like driving in it again for a while after Skye and the Highlands!

Hope everyone is doing well and cooried up if the weather where you are is cold or white.  Now I'm back to my usual routines I should be posting more often.  

We put all weather tyres on both cars when we moved here, and leave them on permanently now. We're at 1300ft too, - the main road is gritted but we have a long uphill drive onto a lane onto a side road before we get to the main road. All weather tyres are GREAT - they won't help on sheet ice of course, but I know I'll be able to get out to the main road, and I went past someone up a hill the other day who was struggling on normal tyres (felt slightly mean not stopping but there were several people together, and I wouldn't have been able to tow them in a little 3 door Yaris anyway 😂) 

When we moved here, people said 'you'll have to get a 4x4'. Clearly we didn't, just 2 perfectly ordinary cars, and all weather tyres won't help in 4 foot of snow 😂 but they do make me feel a LOT happier about getting out and about over the winter. In my experience they've not been more expensive than other tyres, and we leave them on all year. We'll worth it for peace of mind. 

Elisheba

Cheery_Daff said:

We put all weather tyres on both cars when we moved here, and leave them on permanently now. We're at 1300ft too, - the main road is gritted but we have a long uphill drive onto a lane onto a side road before we get to the main road. All weather tyres are GREAT - they won't help on sheet ice of course, but I know I'll be able to get out to the main road, and I went past someone up a hill the other day who was struggling on normal tyres (felt slightly mean not stopping but there were several people together, and I wouldn't have been able to tow them in a little 3 door Yaris anyway 😂) 

When we moved here, people said 'you'll have to get a 4x4'. Clearly we didn't, just 2 perfectly ordinary cars, and all weather tyres won't help in 4 foot of snow 😂 but they do make me feel a LOT happier about getting out and about over the winter. In my experience they've not been more expensive than other tyres, and we leave them on all year. We'll worth it for peace of mind. 

That is really interesting to know, Cheery - thanks so much! I think I'll get all weather ones fitted on the next service/MOT then, which will be October-ish.  I'll add a line to my budget to make sure I have the extra money for them.  A quick google indicates between £100-200 a tyre, and then fitting and disposal of the other ones, so maybe £800ish.  Think it will be a worthwhile investment.

lucielle

If your old tyres have enough tread you could try selling them
L

Cheery_Daff

Elisheba said:

That is really interesting to know, Cheery - thanks so much! I think I'll get all weather ones fitted on the next service/MOT then, which will be October-ish.  I'll add a line to my budget to make sure I have the extra money for them.  A quick google indicates between £100-200 a tyre, and then fitting and disposal of the other ones, so maybe £800ish.  Think it will be a worthwhile investment.

We tend to just go for the cheapest one, and I think usually pay about £70-£80 per tyre, but obviously it'll depend on the car. We've always had ours done either by Tyres on the Drive (although after the lawn-ruining fiasco probably won't!) or a little local tyre place.

Elisheba

Good morning, freezing frugalistas,

I've woken up to a white world, although it's not as white as it was last night night and no more snow is forecast here, so I'm hoping it'll be gone by tomorrow. I think my friends that I'm having breakfast with may have had it worse where they are, so still no certainty on meeting them tomorrow.

Other than work, I'm not sure what today has in store for me. All my washing from being away is done and out away at last - yay! Think I'll try to get the hoovering and bathroom done today, then I'm up to speed.

Boxed up the Xmas tree last night. I'm giving it to my sister as it won't fit in my new house. Bit of a nuisance as I paid quite a bit of money for it a year ago, thinking it would last forever. Now I'll need to buy a new tiny one next year 🙄.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I decluttered loads of Xmas decorations when I put them up so now just have one box which made putting them away much easier. I had ones that were falling apart, ones I never used, bits and pieces I'd had for over 20 years and kept just because of had them over 20 years. Getting into them mentality of only keeping things I use has really been so helpful for me. This house move wouldn't be happening without it as I would never have contemplated a small house without ideally a garage to store things in before.

I think I'm finally getting a bit excited about the new house. Before my anxiety about it all was just too high - risk taking, uncertainty, so much to do - lots of triggers there for me! Now it has calmed down a bit, and I was even looking at wallpaper yesterday - although there is far too much to pay for just now to even start thinking about decorating for quite a while. Also I'd want to live in the space and get a feeling for it before I did anything to it. It's all white with wooden flooring just now so perfectly livable until such time as the budget allows a bit of personalisation.

I went to the C00p yesterday and bought about £30 of food so that will last me for a while.

Meal plan for the week is -
Fri - cauliflower pizza
Sat - veggie cheese burger and salad
Sun - sausages, mushrooms and eggs
Mon - veg curry
Tues - veggie cheese burger and salad
Wed - veg curry 
Thurs - driving to Scotland after work for funeral on the Friday. Any leftovers in food flask for the drive.

Other than silly dog's walk, which I will just do around my village, I don't expect to be going out anywhere today. The drive back from Skye has left me very wary about driving in snow with the tyres have. It's really good to hear you went for the cheapest all weather tyres and they are fine @Cheery_Daff. I shall do the same next year if it seems to have worked out for you. I'll look into selling my tyres @lucielle but I do quite a lot of driving, so not sure how good they will be when the time comes.

Things I'll need to get started on in the medium term are freecycling some furniture - a bookcase, 2 arm chairs, a trundle bed and 2 single bed mattresses. Sorting out the garage more and deciding what I want to keep. Taking more stuff to the tip. Having another clear out of books - won't be much going this time but think there are still some I can part with. Then pick a removals company and lists, lists, lists. What I can box up asap, what will need to wait until the last minute to pack, what I'll put in the car with me so I have it immediately, what I can dump at my Mum's in the interim (probably garage things until I make my new shed watertight). 

Still some tough decisions to make regarding things that are perfectly good and useful but I might not have room for. Inevitably some of those decisions will be wrong, but all I can do is the best I can with the information I have now.

I hope you are all keeping warm and cosy, and the storm didn't badly affect you. I have friend with a house in Cornwall so I'll be hearing today whether his house was damaged with the winds. 

greenbee

Moving is always hard - I got rid of some things I wish I'd kept, and kept some things I'm not going to need in the long term. But you have to make the decisions somehow. Once I knew I was moving, I worked out that it was cost effective to send small van-loads up to my mum's to store every couple of weeks - so garden furniture went first (my sale took ages, but I knew in the winter I'd be out before summer) to live in her garage, followed by other stuff I knew I wouldn't need immediately, but wanted to have time to make decisions about. As my original purchase fell through and I ended up living with her for four months this had good points (I had lots of my stuff there) and bad (it was quite full with two of us and all my stuff!). The rest of the furniture went into storage in the end, which meant I had time to clean the new place thoroughly before moving in. 

All white with wooden floors sounds lovely. This house was grey... grey walls, grey kitchen, grey carpet, grey vinyl and REALLY depressing. The first thing I bought was a bright orange sofa 🤣 I still love the sofa! 

Elisheba

I don't really get the current obsession with grey everything @greenbee. A touch here and there is all very well, but some of the house I've looked at on R!ghtm0ve in the last few years have been great, grey, grey. I immediately discount them as I would need to redecorate immediately as I couldn't live in that! 

Elisheba

Well, that's another day done 😊. It did indeed turn into a NSD, although once I had seen the snow had melted a bit I was going to go to the garage and fill up on diesel, and buy some coal, and then walk silly dog. However, when I got outside I saw the car was still covered in snow, and I couldn't face getting cold and wet brushing it off. So silly dog was walked around the village, and as no-one was around, and no sheep were to be seen, he got off lead in the fields and had a brilliant time running about and getting very muddy.

Cauliflower pizza this evening turned into cauliflower and broccoli pizza, with a tomato sauce, cheddar cheese, mushrooms, onions, olives and roasted peppers from a jar. Pretty much my 5 a day in one meal! I made two portions of the base, and one is in the freezer for another day. Couldn't eat all the pizza either so that quarter can be a side with my burger tomorrow evening.

After consulting the weather gods, and more importantly my friends, I have called off my visit to them tomorrow. They said the roads are treacherous with ice, and I don't want to risk it. Rather looking forward to a quiet weekend now it's all decided.

I vacuumed downstairs today, and the hoover is on charge to do upstairs tomorrow. I ended up using the small head I normally use for the stairs, and the big head that is stick together with duct tape doesn't bend very well. It worked out quite well with the small head really, as it fits into much tighter spaces.

Need to change the bedding on my bed tomorrow to the thermal set. I'll also clean the bathroom and dust a bit, that that will be that for household chores.

Not sure what else I will do, but some reading definitely. Just started The Hills is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith, which I think I bought on a Kindle deal years ago. It was originally published in 1959 and is about an English woman who is visiting the Herbrides for her health. It'll be an interesting historical read, although only at the second chapter and a bit annoyed by how quaimt and amusing she finds her landlady's way of speaking. She doesn't seem to realise English will be her second language, so getting things wrong like is and are, or plurals, is normal. And in the Gaelic everything is gendered so applying those genders in English would seem natural to the landlady. It's not a sign of stupidity or poor education, little Miss English lady 🙄. 

Right, going to read a bit more then fall asleep. Stay warm, folks! I was just thinking about the first full winter after I started my last diary, when I was so determined to save money to pay off the debts that I refused to turn on the heating other than in the direst circumstances. Good heavens, but I was cold that winter! I am much more laidback now, and have had the heating on all day 🤣. Although I did manage without it all day yesterday, and will put an oodie on to see if I can manage with that before I turn it on even now. Save what you can, when you can after all 😁.

teapot2

I have a somewhat battered copy of 'The Hills is Lonely' somewhere from many years ago when I read it.  Can't remember anything much about it though so might re read if I come across it in my decluttering

Elisheba

teapot2 said:

I have a somewhat battered copy of 'The Hills is Lonely' somewhere from many years ago when I read it.  Can't remember anything much about it though so might re read if I come across it in my decluttering

I'm a third of the way through it now and she seems to have realised that everything is gendered in the Gaelic and that get translated to the English, so I'm much less irritated now 🤣