Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Lol, moving_for - My old blog wasn't on this forum, so it didn't refer much to my past relationship with debt. It covered mostly gardening, recycling, cooking from scratch, baking, the occasional book review, & I'm left-wing, so a bit of a political slant to some of it, because that's who I am. When our financial situation steadies a bit more (hopefully later this year), I'll have a think about whether to keep posting here, which I do enjoy & we all have such a nice community of comments, support & ideas sharing, or whether to move away from such a debt avoidance/financial theme to a general blog using Wordpress or similar, which I could illustrate with photos of some of my projects. I might just decided to keep all my ramblings on here, because it is a great community x

And good morning everyone!
Oh, the joy of waking up this morning & not having a headache! I positively bounded out of bed at 6.15, ready to start my day. We've both been waking up stupidly early. I have always had a tendency to early waking/insomnia anyway, but what's happening atm, is that the incredibly loud dawn chorus here is waking mr f, who is then moving around & that wakes me up. Or he manages to sneak down for an early bath without waking me up, but I am then woken by the thunk of a large cat jumping onto the bed purring his head off, demanding a fuss, then when I've woken up sufficiently to deliver a proper session of cat-stroking, decides he doesn't want that after all. Grrrrrr. So (I am soooo rambling this morning....) I woke up yesterday at 5.10 a.m following 2 weird dreams (one involved me being arrested for shoplifting a roll of purple fabric by the Duchess of Cambridge, the other was a dispute with someone I used to work with years ago - we actually got on very well - who said she thought I had managed an issue involving some staffroom chairs much too casually............) Anyway, I woke up with a bad headache, took some paracetamol, but it lasted pretty much all day & only went when I had some codiene. I couldn't get on with all the nice garden jobs I'd planned in the end & I just hate to waste a day. So this morning, my first thought was 'Has it truly gone?' & it had.
Mr f had a slightly later start today, as he is working much closer to home, so after he'd brought me some scrambled eggs on toast & a coffee top-up, I nobbled him re next week's meal plans. He likes to cook too, so I usually cook Monday to Thursday, & he does Friday to Sunday, which means it makes sense for both of us to be involved in meal planning. As I've said before, we are complete converts to it. It is probably one of the everyday domestic things which has saved us most money, as we so rarely need to pop out for 'top-up shops' & don't we all know what a drainer of fund those are??!
So, brilliant start. He fancied steak on Saturday night, which we don't often buy, but is fine, as the rest of the week is pretty frugal on the whole. Roast chicken on Sunday, chicken, home made jacket wedges & salad on Mon, chicken & mushroom supreme & rice (can't you tell I grew up in the 70s?) on Tues, then two days from the freezer......which will be veggie spaghetti bolognese & fajhitas using some of my batch cooked re-fried beans, then on the Friday, we both fancied those fish cakes with melting middles, jacket wedges & peas. What an easy meal plan that was!! He's off tomorrow, so has volunteered to do the grocery shopping, which suits me fine, as it's pay-day, so will be my Big Budget Day.
Now, I must sign off in a minute, as I've that many lovely garden jobs to be getting on with. I just need to pop out to vote - I've only received mailings from two parties regarding these elections - neither of whom would get my vote if they were the last two standing, so that was a waste of a stamp. Tonight's dinner is in the slow cooker & is just starting to smell rather nice. It's a sausage casserole, a recipe I haven't tried before, so we'll see how it goes. Love my slow cooker!
Have a great day all, very nearly the weekend.
F x

Hello Friday readers,
Well, today is my Big Budget Day, so I spent most of this morning number crunching at my desk. Infuriatingly, Mr F still hasn't received the work expenses he has been owed since March. Last month, this was due to a new IT system, so at least there was a reason. This time would appear to be human error (not his, I hasten to add) so we are nearly £150 lower than we were expecting & not happy about it, but he will chase it up on Tues. Grrrrrr.
To allow me to maintain the usual modest 'safety cushion' in our account for any unforeseens, we have made a pact that June's grocery budget MUST NOT be overspent, as it has been creeping up a bit recently. I'm sure it's partly rising prices, as we were previously able to feed ourselves well on £200 a month (two of us plus greedy cat) so we will look on it as a challenge & I will keep myself accountable on here.
A positive thing through the post though......an annual statement from Mr f's credit card. We each have a credit card, but they are used just for points, because we know what points mean, don't we? Vouchers!! We have spent £8471-90 on this card over the past year & repaid £8471-90. There has been zero interest & no fees or charges. Yes, of course I KNOW it is paid off in full each month, because I do it, but it was still quite a moment there, seeing it in black & white, as it is such a difference from the Spendy Years. So after all those years of paying interest to CC providers, now they pay us!! (in M&S and JL vouchers) And as I consider that we have both paid more than ample interest in the past, that's how I like it!
Statement has now gone in the wormery for compost chomping (they did get two apple cores too, for pudding!)
And now..... (sighs), I must carry on frogging my knitting. Am not happy with one end of the neckband I knitted last night, I know it will annoy me every time I look at it, so it's got to be frogged. Plenty of time though..... Mr f's cooking night, yay!
F xx