I'm back, still struggling along, still frugal

nannygladys

H everyone, It's been ages I know and the forum has changed, but my posts were getting really boring as nothing really changed very much and to be honest I was getting bored writing the same old things. Anyway I thought I'd start another thread as its coming up to winter and like most basic OAP's I'm expecting this winter to be a little challenging! so I thought I'd document my efforts at surviving and having some sort of life through these challenging times.

To bring you up to date a bit, I'm still decorating my front room, the painting is being done gradually as it wears me out so much, but hopefully that bit will be finished before Xmas. I have bought a new to me TV unit, well old chest, from the CS for £10 that might need painting, but that will be in the warmer months, its very heavy and at the moment is living in my car boot as I can't get it out on my own, so will have to wait until I have a visitor who can help me lol!!

My garden has been very productive and I'm still getting carrots, beetroot, cauliflower, celery and potatoes, I froze quite a lot as well. I'm going to see it I can put some fruit bushes into the front garden next spring as I need more than the ones in the back - I eat quite a lot of fruit and I made quite a lot of jam and made chutney and pickles with homegrown produce. 

Moneywise, I'm just like anybody else and having to be more inventive how I allocate my money and making it stretch until it squeaks and I reckon It'll only get worse over winter, so my goal is to save for a new chair for my front room and matching footstool, I'd love a new one but I'm not adverse to buying a second hand one which would be more sensible because I would like a new carpet at some stage as well. 
My energy charges have gone up and to be able to have the heating on for a few hours at night means me being very careful and going without elsewhere, I have been saving a little each month so I'm hoping I'll be OK, but you never know!

Anyway I'll sign off and go for a look around the boards and see if I can get some ideas for challenges, recipes, saving and being extra frugal that I haven't implemented already.
Nannyg

cbsexec

Lovely to see you back and I will look forward to reading your diary.  

Skint_yet_Again

Welcome back nannyg ☺️ Sorry to hear finances are still challenging but good to read that your frugal ways are continuing. 

Look forward to reading more of your posts (never found the old ones boring!)

liselle

I don’t know if you have a Charity Shop selling furniture, near you? They sometimes carry new items too, at very low prices

Four_Seasons

Lovely to see you back. Will be following along x

nannygladys

Thanks for the welcome back it's much appreciated

liselle  we do have a couple of furniture CS and a large CS depot not too far away which is where I bought the TV chest from and earlier in the summer I bought a round table for my dining room from there as well.  My youngest dd moved house in the summer and I have been dropping soooo many bags off there and having a look around at the same time. I also managed to get some dresses and skirts for next summer as well!

cbsexec, Skint_yet_Again, Four_Seasons  Thank you for the lovely comments.

Today has been the usual mundane sort of day, had my dinner at dinner time and cooked the dogs dinner for later took him a walk and then went to my youngest dds  to pick dgs up from school (regular Monday thing)  After school we went to the park that's next to the school with a couple of other grandmas that I have become friendly with for catch up and gossip and then walked back to dds. Came home after dd had finished work (she works from home) fed dog and I've sat down!!!!

Its been frugal because I haven't had to buy anything, dd gave me some rice and couscous for my pantry stash and it's been pleasant because I've seen my dgc and dd and had a natter with some other grandmas! oh and saw and chatted to other dog owners on my dog walk as well so a sociable day all round, I can go days sometimes without seeing/talking to anyone as I don't always see other dog walkers or go out every day!!!

Tomorrow I'll be doing a list of meals for a fortnight, looking what food and household bits I need as it's payday on Wednesday - yay!!! and I'll be doing a food shop. I think I need to reorganise the freezers to see what I can use out of those first and free up some space for the Xmas veg etc!!  I hope the sm's will be doing it again this year, I usually buy quite a bit and freeze it and it lasts me until my garden starts producing again.

Dd had made a pumpkin cake and it was really nice, the recipe was from bbc recipes so I'll have to have a look, it was supposed to have sultanas in it but her hubby doesn't like them so she missed them out, and it had a cream cheese topping, we had a slice before I came home.

So that's my day, just a normal Monday really.
Nannyg

nannygladys

I think I've achieved everything I wanted to today

Hoovered through etc first
Sorted paperwork out and sorted some bills out to pay tomorrow.
Dug into the freezers and now I know what I have in there and I must admit it turned out more than I thought, which is a good thing.

Took me ages to come up with a menu for two weeks, or really its 14 meals, I don't designate the meals to a particular day just work out the best meals that will work together and what can be frozen or can be left in the fridge a couple of days. I may repeat the 14 days or tweak it a bit for the last 14 days before I get paid again.

Also made a shopping list to see what I would need and it's not that much!!! so I'm ready to do my shopping tomorrow and I haven't been near a shop of any kind or online shopping today so not a penny has left my purse!
Just have to make it work now and hopefully any left over can go in my emergency fund to help when prices go up again. If they don't go up lol   then I can put it away and it can go towards the carpet etc for the front room. 

So that's about it really, not anything really interesting.
Nannyg

cbsexec

I need to sort my freezer too. I’m guilty of putting stuff in a forgetting about it.  Also no room for anything else atm😱

Skint_yet_Again

Nannyg I think you would be surprised how many people are reading along and not posting. I’m sure MSE in the past used to tell you how many visits there were to each thread. 

I enjoy reading about your dog, family, decorating, meal planning & gardening even if you no longer have your lottie 😊

dizzydonkey2

Waves and it's lovely to have you back. Sorry I am one of those who reads along but does not post

foxgloves

Welcome back! I think we all sometimes think we are posting repetitive things, but it's actually that routine of repeated small positive actions which keeps us living within our means. I had a think through what I need to do today & realised that 1 of the tasks is "Write 4 lists!". Nothing exciting about that, but every one of those lists will result in us not overspending, so well worth doing. I could do with a freezer list too, as I unearthed something in there yesterday which I'd completely forgotten about.....also a Christmas cake ingredient I'd forgotten I froze.
F