The Frugal Hearth: Stories of Simple Living and Living Well

missymoo81

Enjoy your holiday!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, very well done on your book culling, and the weight loss! Impressed at your minimalism themed actions 😃

I meant to say about your toilet cloths - is there a reason it needs to be an ugly bucket?? I bet you can get some pretty and unobtrusive ones these days - and it doesn't matter how pretty the cloths are if they're in a pretty tin. I bet you could find something lovely. We use an old bread bin as a bathroom bin 😂 (not recommending that, I suspect it's not watertight).

Have a lovely holiday! 

Elisheba

Good morning, frugal friends 😊,

Well, I have been back from holiday for almost a week now and haven't gotten around to posting on here - oopsy daisy!

The holiday was wonderful - great weather, fantastic and huge holiday house, and lovely to be around my family. Having so much space meant we could all have quiet time on our own which worked really well as well.

Money wise, I stuck to the budget I had made, and in fact as my mum gave me some money towards diesel I had more left than planned. However, on the second last day my car wouldn't start which necessitated calling breakdown, which has a £25 charge. They said it was the battery and jumpstarted it and said to run it for a while. The next day the car started initially, but wouldn't later on, which meant calling breakdown again then a trip to Kwikfit for a new battery.

Altogether with the breakdown callouts and the new battery it came to more than £200. There was money for it on my car maintenance annual pot, but quite a big nuisance all around. At least we all managed to get home though!

Since I got back I have mainly been decluttering again. I found Marie Kondo's Magic of Tidying book in the holiday house and read it when I was away. She has some very odd ideas about socks, and frankly her treatment of books is criminal, but otherwise there were some very inspirational and motivational parts to it. 

So, since I got back I have weeded my summer clothes down again, gone through all my winter clothes and weeded them, tackled the paperwork boxes, and cleared out most of my drawers. Had another bootful of donations to drop off yesterday.

I think the clothes weeding is made a lot easier by the fact that a lot of stuff just doesn't fit me anymore. If things still had I don't think I would have been as brutal as I have been with everything. As it is, I doubt the things I have kept will fit me by next year (certainly, the plan is that they won't!). 

I have two built in wardrobes. Previously my clothes were separated into summer and winter, and the off season was stored away in vacuum bags. Both wardrobes were always stuffed so full that you couldn't move anything, as well as tops and other oddments being in drawers and shelves elsewhere.

Now I have summer clothes in one wardrobe, winter clothes in the other. Tops are hung up there as well, and both wardrobes have plenty of space to move things around. I think I am down to less than 50 items altogether. As trousers are short on the ground as they really don't look good on when you are 2 sizes smaller, I *may* have to buy one or two pairs for the winter, but other than that I am sorted for now and have enough to wear. 

And as a consequence of all the decluttering my house is looking great and is much easier to clean. It's been a mission though, and properly disposing if everything is time consuming and hard work, so when ever I go to buy something in the future I need to say to myself - am I prepared to live with this for a long time with all the associated work it will bring throughout it's life, and the work disposing of it at the end of its life will bring as well? Because it's a lot to take on when you think about it. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned my savings before I went on holiday, but they are now over £7k which isn't bad considering they were zero at the start of the year and I still had thousands in credit card debt. I'm easily able to put away £400pcm, and can get to £500 if expenses are low that month. Which means house buying will probably take another couple of years, but I'm heading in the right direction.

Out pay award has been announced and I will see it in my September pay packet, back dated to April. So I've fired some rough figures into my s/s, and that will be a little bit extra to squirrel away.

I have kept aside a few items in all my decluttering that I think I should get a few pounds for on V!nted, and if I get time I will list them this weekend. It's going to be a busy one though, so it may end up being next week.

Just having a coffee in bed before I start the day. Theoretically I am planning on doing a food shop and taking silly dog a walk asap, and then I'm meeting friends and hour and a half away for lunch and a look around a castle at midday.  

Tomorrow I have church, then I need to write a reference for a friend who is adopting, and I want to get some gardening done. I also have a list of odd jobs that needs doing as well, so will have to see how I get on.

I hope everyone is keeping well. Looks like the next few days will be scorchers so stay cool everyone. We certainly haven't been hard done by with the weather this summer at least!

Elisheba

Cheery_Daff said:

Ooh, very well done on your book culling, and the weight loss! Impressed at your minimalism themed actions 😃

I meant to say about your toilet cloths - is there a reason it needs to be an ugly bucket?? I bet you can get some pretty and unobtrusive ones these days - and it doesn't matter how pretty the cloths are if they're in a pretty tin. I bet you could find something lovely. We use an old bread bin as a bathroom bin 😂 (not recommending that, I suspect it's not watertight).

Have a lovely holiday! 

To be honest, Cheery, they were just getting on my nerves 🤣. There was a fair amount of work involved in cleaning and drying them, all the paraphernalia made the bathroom look awful (and I didn't want to spend any money on improving the visual) and I couldn't be bothered anymore. It's definitely a quick win for those who want or need to be extremely frugal or eco conscious, but since I'm a bit more comfortable financially now I'll treat myself and switch back to eco loo roll 😊.

foxgloves

You're doing well with the savings, @Elisheba. I find I now get as excited about seeing our savings grow as I used to about frittering all my money (plus plenty of the bank's) on endless stuff. It will certainly help bring house buying into the nearer future for you.
F

Elisheba

Evening, all,

Thanks, @foxgloves! Yeah, I'm excited about my savings! I have made a wall chart where I highlight a line everything they go up by another £100 🤣.

It has been a lovely weekend. Ended up popping to the C00p for a couple of bits I needed immediately, and doing an online nig shop to be delivered on Tuesday as I just wasn't going to fit a physical big shop in this weekend.

I met up with friends yesterday and we had lunch, looked around a few shops and visited Chepstow Castle, so a very nice day indeed. I found it surprisingly tiring though, and wasn't worth a button yesterday evening. I think I underestimate quite how tiring lots of driving, and then socialising on top of that, can be for me. Must make sure to remember to write off my evenings when I have activities like that planned.

Today was more of a flop day. I don't think I slept well, so after church and lunch I had a two hour lie down. That left me less tired but more antsy and out of sorts. Day napping has never really agreed with me. Silly dog had a quick walk, bins were put out, online shop done and other than that I sat out in the garden reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, which seems very good so far.

Money wise, yesterday spending was for parking, lunch and castle entry, and a coffee later, which were from my monthly personal allowance. I also bought part of a birthday present for a friend which will come from my annual birthdays pot, and the Atomic Habits book for £1.50 from a charity shop which came from change in my purse and doesn't need a budget allocated. 

So I'm quite chuffed I did well at not acquiring any more stuff, and long may it continue. One of my friends did give me birthday presents, as she said she has bought them before I asked for charity donations instead. Gift giving is very much her love language so I sort of expected it, but no matter how lomd the thought is, I hope she doesn't in future. It's literally just more stuff I don't need.

Other than that not too much to report. The week ahead will be busy as on top of work where I have a big project I need to start and make a lot progress with, I also have to prepare for a couple of friends who are staying next weekend. With all the decluttering done prepping for them is a lot easier than it used to be, but dusting, hoovering etc all need to be up to date. Should probably do some gardening as well if I can fit it in.

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend and is feeling refreshed for the week ahead.

honeybee1234

Some great decluttering going on round your way @Elisheba! Also your savings progress is so good from the start of the year, that is seriously impressive! 

Elisheba

Good evening, frugal friends, and happy end of work week!

My brain feels absolutely fried after a busy week at work ticking off at least one  big project, and quite a few little ones. I've been putting phone in the other room, rewarding myself with YouTube videos to promote productivity, and it seems to be working quite well.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I just haven't felt like I had much to report. I had a friend over last weekend, so there was a bit of spending on food and wine out of either the food budget or my personal allowance budget. It's all been totted up on my Notion spending tracker.

Other than that the only spending has been on food, oh and a small birthday present for a friend, and a bottle of body moisturiser. Now I'm all decluttered I realise I really don't want to buy any new, so that takes the temptation to spend away in the main.

Health wise, the great old weight loss journey continues. I'm at just over 25kg now, and just a tiny tad off 4 stone. I think I'm going toove back from almond milk to full fat normal, as the delivery of Almond milk I have just now keeps splitting in hot drinks. The previous stuff I've had didn't do that, and I've checked and it's in date, but it's very off putting when your morning coffee looks like vomit, and I can't be bothered with it any more.

A week today will be pay pay and the start of my next financial month. I've done a guestimate of how much I'll be able to chuck into savings, but it depends on how much I need to spend on food between now and then.

In good news, I was supposed to be in the office today but there was a rail replacement bus and the timings were dreadful, so that got cancelled. So I'm much less tired that I would otherwise have been, and I've saved £40 😁.

Silly dog had a walk along the old railway line today, and there were so many brambles out. If we're being good I would set aside some time to harvest as many as I can for my breakfasts, but I don't know if I will.

Not got too many plans for the weekend. I want to start decluttering the garage so that will take up the bulk of the time, and I need to cut the grass and do normal housework things. The weather should be quite nice so I'll take silly dog some lovely walks, and read and relax in the garden and aim to spend as little as possible!

How everyone is keeping well and is looking forward to having a long weekend!

Cheery_Daff

Nice to see you Elisheba, and excellent work on the weight loss journey! Most impressive.  And on quelling the desire to fill up your decluttered home

Elisheba

Evening, again, folks! Two posts in one day - blimey!

Some things I forgot to mention earlier. I looked up my credit rating via MSE and all the old credit cards are now off there. It still said I had too much credit though, so I've reduced the Amex limit which was at something silly like 12k down to 2k, and the Barclaycard limit to 1k. Those changes haven't shown up yet but it can take 3 months.

I've had a lovely relaxing evening. Sat out in the garden for a while catching up on the MSE boards, then played fetch with silly dog for a bit. Then, feeling inspired I had a play around with the yarn tub I created a few years ago to keep the yarn away from silly dog when I knit or crochet. It worked as far as it went, but I needed to cut the yarn to change projects. So it now has a cut in the lid so I can just slide the yarn out, and the side of the cuts are smoothed with... want to call it gaffer tape? That thick, silver, plastic tape anyway. It certainly doesn't look very attractive but it does the job. I then sat down to do a bit of knitting, and it it had been so long I had to remind myself how! Even still, the tension is all over the place and I'm sure I've made a couple of mistakes. It's just a test project using the yarn stash for a scarf, so I'm not too worried.

I have booked black cat into the vet next week. She's 19 now and I think she's losing some of her mobility in her back legs, so hopefully they can give her some metacalm or something like that so she's not in any discomfort. I spoke to my ex and he's happy to pay half the excess so that's all sorted.  Although since I've never had to make a claim with this vet I'm not sure if they will wait for the insurance payment, or I will have to pay up front and claim it back. Will need to check that, and have the insurance documents to hand either way.

Dinner tonight was halloumi, egg mayo(with salad creme as I don't like mayo), and various salad bits. I cooked all the halloumi to save on cooking costs, and have enough left for another 3 meals.

I've been trying to train myself into better habits, and I'm getting there with my bed routine. Without fail I'm putting out all the gubbins for feeding both monkeys in the morning, making sure coffee is easy to sort out, brushing my teeth, remembering my meds, cleaning the toilet bowl, and putting out clothes for tomorrow. Habit stacking really seems to work!

Right, that's half ten and a late night for me these days. Have a great weekend everyone!