DD's accountability thread

DD265 · 4 June 2018 at 11:22AM

beanielou wrote: »

I would have bought another bag of cat food but that's just me.

I was sorely tempted! We have about £150 on the food budget for the rest of this month (which would include the cat food). All the meals for this week are planned and ingredients bought - I shop on a Saturday and plan Saturday-Friday - so I might be able to swing it.

beanielou · 4 June 2018 at 11:31AM

What cat food do you use?
(If it is one I use I want some!!)

DD265 · 4 June 2018 at 11:43AM

The dry food is AATU Duck from Pets At Home - £34.49 for 3kg normally so you can imagine my shock when it rang through at £17. *keep the expression neutral, don't say anything, let it go through in case it's a mistake and they want to charge full price* :rotfl:

To be honest I've struggled to find it elsewhere, but because the bag lasts us 2 months - for two cats - the cost is OK. We feed it on one of those feeding boards so they have to work at it a bit rather than just in bowls, but they're indoor cats so the stimulation is good too.

Wet food we get from Zooplus, and we feed Animonda Carny.

DD265 · 7 June 2018 at 8:34PM

I've just done the meal plan for next week. Some of our meals this week have stretched over extra days so I've managed to wrangle it to avoid a butchers trip. We'll use up what's in the freezer, so it's just a few bits from the supermarket to make complete meals. We may be consuming a lot of pasta next week. :rotfl:

Looking at the reports in YNAB, our average spend is usually around the £400-450 mark - this includes anything we need for the flat, cat food etc - but last month I got it down to £210 largely by using nectar points for a lot of the food shopping, and that included a £110 cat food/litter order, and £33 for the cat sitter as we were away for a few days! This month we're already at £84, and have the same again in 'cash' on the food budget, plus £50 on our Sainsburys reloadable card and almost £10 on an M&S one. I'd like to do the remaining shopping for this month under £100, then I can buy July's cat food (£44) with June's salary.

mark55man · 7 June 2018 at 8:45PM

Hello DD just wanted to say Good luck - its your call obviously but I agree with the poster above, whilst you don't have to go absolutely frugal, it is odd to be spending £4K a year on your PT. Even reducing to 2 a week would help you snowball.

The mental attitude I find most helpful although so hard to do is not to regard current spending as the normal and then try and save from it - as you will always end up back to normal. What you need to do is compress the normal spending as far as you can and then every spend over that is the exception.

When your core spending is automatic and affordable the ££££ will fly off. Like I said I am in that zone at the moment, although no way could you call it hard core

DD265 · 8 June 2018 at 3:50PM

mark88man wrote: »

The mental attitude I find most helpful although so hard to do is not to regard current spending as the normal and then try and save from it - as you will always end up back to normal. What you need to do is compress the normal spending as far as you can and then every spend over that is the exception.

That's a good point about 'normal spending'. The reason most of us get into debt in the first place is spending above our means and I am definitely guilty of that in the past. I'm quite good at quick bursts of debt busting but not so much on the long haul.

Listed two things on FB earlier - time to get to grips with the marketplace. I'm learning that there's a central place to manage your listings, and I am glad that I have created a separate listing for both items. I considered grouping them together, but they're going to search easier individually. I just hope I'm not spamming my friends' news feeds!

It's time to renew my weightwatchers membership through Vitality. I get it for £30 for 6 months, which is extended to a year (if I go twice a month) and then if I actually hit goal weight (this will be my third year

) then I'll get my £30 back. Not a bad deal, but if I stick to that it helps reduce my binge shopping in the supermarket so I both lose weight and save money. Win-win.

DD265 · 9 June 2018 at 4:07PM

Did the weekly shop for £32 today - £10 at M&S (£9.80 left on the gift card so took advantage of their 3 for £10 offers on meat/fish) and £22 at Sainsburys. Still on track!

Also, shock horror, having bought a couple of buckets I washed my car rather than going to a hand car wash and paying £5. We don't have an outside water source and there's no way we could feasibly run a hose from the apartment to the car, so it's a pain. I found the task quite enjoyable really but it's definitely not going to become a weekly thing; took about an hour!

I didn't have the right remover/scrapey-thing to get all the bugs off, so I'll sort that for next time. There's also some road rash that I want to deal with, and then at some point I want to polish it up. Once polished in theory it'll be easier to wash going forwards. I understand that it's a 13yo car and not worth a lot, but I like taking care of my stuff and keeping it looking new.

mark55man · 9 June 2018 at 4:25PM

See link for something that might help. I don't know how well they work - I wash my car every 6 months at Tesco's, so not a shining (ha!) example

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Streetwize-SWPW-Portable-Pressure-Washer/dp/B00GOLJLLI

You could load it into the car empty in the morning, and fill it up (cold) at a petrol station so you avoid shifting gallons up and down stairs, and then all you would need to do is bring a small bowl of warm soapy water down for the initial scrub

its £20 so I wouldn't expect too much

DD265 · 10 June 2018 at 3:03PM

Thanks Mark88Man I'll have a nosy!

After lunch I listed almost all the horse rugs on FB - plus the storage bags as I still have the individual bags - and the storage bags have already sold and been collected so that's £10 in but not much space saved. :rotfl:

I've just found out that when one of the rugs has come back from being cleaned it's missing a part (£5ish to replace, on a rug that was £180 new so worthwhile sorting) but I want to have a dig around the spare room and see if it's just separated first.

I feel a little out of the loop on pricing, but I'm happy with what I've listed things at. Obviously if they don't sell I'll have to have a rethink because the space we'll save is important too. We have family coming to stay the weekend after next, so there's a bit of a push on getting the spare room tidy again!

DD265 · 10 June 2018 at 7:12PM

I got on a bit of a roll listing things on FB - run out of momentum now but made a good dent. I may list some more things later. I've sold three more rugs as well (to two people), one has been collected and payment for the other two is pending. So chuffed about that; I'm up to £90 worth sold so far. :j

The downside to taking cash as payment is that I then have cash in my purse. Our local bank branch closed last year, and during the week I can't get to the bank to pay money in, which means I'm at greater risk of spending it. My plan is to keep it separate (i.e. not in my purse and stored safely in the flat) then take it in to town with me on a weekend and pay it in then. I shop at Sainsburys on a Saturday morning and it's easy to take advantage of free parking whilst I nip up into the town centre to run my errands.

Yesterday I had to go to the bank, M&S and the jewellers. I am now without my engagement ring; when it was resized a bit of dry solder got in the gap and so the join hasn't held up. They're re-doing it for free and I should pick it up next weekend but I feel a bit weird wearing only a band in the mean time!

DD's accountability thread

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