This Time I'm Really Going To Do It

GreenNinja we sound so alike. Keep reading. I am going to get there. I am. I am.

After 3 days heroic efforts (ahem more of that later) I found myself contemplating a lovely pair of country boots on line and only just stopped myself reaching for the card to buy them feeling that the excuse *its nearly winter and I dont want to spend all winter in my wellies* was not really up to the mark. Will restrain self for the moment!

oh dear. Am reading diaries on this forum for inspiration and all this talk of no spend days is worrying me.:cool:

I'm thinking that yesterday I spent £100 at the dentist, Tuesday I spent £5 going to a demonstration by someone I wanted to watch as I'm thinking of getting him to start the yet to be purchased young horses, £20 on a lunch out with pal who came to demo with me (I put some cash towards hers for good reasons) and Monday the farrier came and shod the horses. Today has the potential to be a no spend day but it is just possible the farmer may deliver the winter hay.

Will go and put washing on line and get something out of freezer for dinner and pick a couple of apples from the baby trees and then I really must start work. I work from home but sometimes the word work is aspirational rather than reality :rotfl::rotfl:Thankfully I am self employed !!

Fabulous Calfuray I now understand No Spend Days :j. Thanks. Working from home, keeping the horses at home, having dog in house, being a hermit means I dont actually spend that much cash so am always mystified that we have so little money left over at the end of each month.

Diary certainly helps with the motivation to look at this though as having said yesterday i would look at the joint account and work out where the money actually goes, I finally did that yesterday evening. Armed with highlights and calculator I discovered that "we spend a lot". Ha ha. I knew that already but I know see clearly where it goes and had a long think about that and where we could save money.

10% of the money going in comes out as *cash* and Mr Watty says he spends his on extra food!! Was horrified by this as he seems to spend around £10 a day on food anyway when at work (he works a weird shift system so is not every day thankfully) and our actual food *and other* meaning cleaning stuff for house and selves came out £554 in August :eek: Would love to say there is a house full of people but actually there is only 2 humans, 1 large dog and 2 horses.

So, food bill needs cutting. We discussed that last night and do admit we are very time poor (despite the amount of time I spend reading on here I really do have a full time job and the house is old and has many bits that need work blah de blah). Excuses over, we still need to save money. So I spent some time reseaching ideas as Mr Watty says he wont take food to work as he likes chicken and salads and he does not have time to make his own. He likes to snack on nuts and fruit. Ummm....Excuses me thinks. So, I think we need to start with packed lunches that would be cheap and portable and he would like.

We also live in a reasonably rural area - the chap up the road keeps chickens and sells eggs at the gate for half the price Mr Ocado delivers them at (delivery cheaper than driving to supermarket) so lots of eggs on the menu me thinks. And I need to investigate exactly what veggies the neighbours sell at the gate as that should be cheaper too.

And the bill that seemed high was our electricity at £88 a month - so - as was a cheap supplier - have found our little OWL monitor and put new batteries in. Will figure out how to programme it later today for up to date info. That bill must come down too.
Gas really high too but not on mains gas and gas not nickable like the oil (lots of folk here have had their oil stolen). I've never really understood how to get the gas price down, though large tank might. When I'm feeling brave will post on the MSE board for help tho they were a bit scary over there last time I tried.

So thats todays plans to start saving.

And found 65 pence whilst tidying. In the face of such high bills it seems daft to say I put that in my purse and moved an equal amount into the overpayment fund ...but..every little helps:)

Doing well on the food spending as havent been to supermarket. Am making do with cash in the village and the freezer.

Mr Watty off work at the moment on hols and goes back middle of next week. This is great as its nice to have him around, various jobs get done (mainly at his dads but I sort of believe he might do some here ......) and we are saving on travel!

I think a decent food plan each week is the way to go and yes, Floppy Disk made a great point about making his lunch for him. I'm also planning on making a couple of vats of soup so he has that when he comes in after a late shift rather than stopping enroute for "extras". Oddly enough he was fine as this all involves no effort on his part :rotfl:

Haven't figured the OWL out yet but have been switching off lights and not leaving anything on standby. Was shocked to see the heating came on Monday:eek: That was switched off pronto in favour of a jumper!!

The house is an old brick built outbuilding and converted to house and if we'd realised how damp and cold it would be we might have done something about it when we were renovating but hey ho. To late now. Have lit wood burning stove instead. As we get our wood really cheap (we collect offcuts on our big trailer from a local timber yard and Mr Watty and his mate chop it up) this is a cheap way of keeping building toasty and dry.

Not doing too well on building up the Mortgage savings pot .. Sat was out for lunch with friends (train fare to London + lunch out) Sunday went to the Southern Fell Pony show. Ended up sponsoring a class, buying a book and some christmas cards and a couple of bacon rolls despite having food in the car. Still did take flasks (which failed to keep the tea water hot and clearly need chucking out) and lunch so that was a positive.

And finally yesterday felt smug as after reviewing August's business income and outgoings I had nearly £1000 left over to pop in Mortgage pot .... and then today I spent over twice that on a paddock hoover to pick up the pony poo in the fields.

Am justifying this as no longer employ person to help out on the yard and I am time poor. If I use this instead of employing someone I will break even by easter :T

As Calfuray said last week "we are MFW not DFW"... and that comment has cheered me up more than she will ever guess:)

EchoDelta wrote: »

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Can I just say that I absolutely love that there is such a thing in the world as a paddock hoover! Despite living in the country for most of my life I've never heard of such a thing! Obviously had a sheltered life! :rotfl:

There is and it is fabulous! Have spent over 2 hours this evening hoovering up horse poo. Now this may seem
frivolous to many of you :rotfl:but it is much better for the grass that the horses eat and saves on wormer in the long run. Finished off by clearing out a water trough. Such joy. When I've paid off the mortgage I'll get a life I promise