Monthly Archives: October 2010

When life give you lemons….

Saving money

I’ve had lovely comments on my blog recently, with praise about my organisation. Necessity is the mother of invention! I have obstacles to overcome so I’ve found ways of getting round them. Diesel costs are escalating with diesel costing £1.25 a litre in and around where I can get it, so I use the train for £96 a month, which saves me £15 a week (diesel would cost £40 a week) and therefore £600 a year. That’s one problem solved!

Food prices are sky high! Today I made 400g of beef mince into three cottage pies, one was shared between four of us and two have gone into the freezer for another day. Tomorrow, I will cook the chicken I have and that will make three meals for the pair of us, so that’s our food sorted for the week. I’ve sorted enough food for our lunches and snacks for the rest of the week. That’s another problem solved.

I’ve bought new clothes and I need to earn some extra money to compensate for what I’ve spent. I’ve photographed all of my old clothes ready to list them on eBay which seems like a lot of work for little return but every penny counts, even if I make £30, it’s all positive in our direction. £30 is a week’s commuting costs for me or a week’s groceries so a little work is always worth it.That’s another problem on the way to being solved.

The things I do to save money all seem so natural to me. When commuting, I take my flask on the train so I can have a coffee on the way home. I take a couple of biscuits to eat as a snack. I don’t carry money so I’m never seduced by the coffee trolley. I cook once or twice a week and plan all of my meals. I plan what I will wear so I have outfits ready and they are varied so I always look professional and I never look frugal. Can you see a problem? I can’t; only solutions.

It does take a little effort but it is my normality. I leave home every day at 6.30 am to walk to the station and by the time we walk home from the train every night, it’s 6.30 pm…………….but we have jobs!!!!! I make, mend, scrimp and save because I have to, but I will see the rewards one day. Again, I don’t see problems; just ways of dealing with what I have.

I never forget how lucky I am. I have some disposable income due to having a lodger and I can afford to make little gifts to give people for Christmas. The house is warm enough, we earn enough, we eat enough and all the bills are paid on time every month. I have lived frugally for quite a while now and I’ve never been happier because treats are so special when I get them. I have brand new, one owner only clothes in my wardrobe (primark and matalan) and I have a new coat from Trago Mills (waterproof walking coat for under £15) and I feel, excuse the pun, like a queen.

I don’t feel ‘organised’ and my life is what it is. Anyone can do what I do; anyone can give up spending money and live within their means. I’m different from some people and I’m proud of that; I’ve been called subversive and a maverick and I’m proud of that too. I have a glorious end to my debts in sight and I will get there, in the mean time, I will just continue dealing with what I have, by making lemonade.

Making a frugal wardrobe work

Frugal fashion

Today, I put all my summer clothes away. I have put them all in a big drawer in the bottom of the wardrobe and I judiciously went through my wardrobe and recycled, put aside to eBay and bagged up clothes for the charity shop. It may look as if I have hardly any clothes as the clothes in the picture below are actually my entire working wardrobe.

I have two suits. One new and one from the charity shop. They are tonal and I brighten them up with a coloured tops or a black/white top along with a coloured scarf. Look out for the street vendors who sell ‘pashminas’ (not real one I hasten to add! the acrylic but nice and soft ones) - I bought four last year for £10 and will be wardrobe staples for years to come. I’ve been asked how to wear one - I wrap it round my neck and tie a knot!

All my work skirts are of a similar style and are tonal and will go with any of my suit jackets, any of my coloured tops or any of my cardigans. I can vary what I wear to have a different outfit every day for almost a month.

It may look as if we are getting rid of more than we are keeping but I think it’s really important to look at your clothes and recycle them if they don’t fit, you don’t like them or you’ve worn them to death. I have six suits and jackets that are going to be sold on eBay because I’ve put on all the weight I lost. I may have liked being a size 12, but I didn’t enjoy the discipline or the starvation required to stay that weight when my body wants to eat and be a size 16.

I have a chest of drawers for my weekend wardrobe which contains: three pairs of jeans, 1 pair of jogging bottoms, 2 cardigans, 1 fleece, 1 polo neck, 1 crew neck, several coloured t shirts, all of my socks and underwear. It may seem like a very small collection of clothes, but they all fit, I like them all and they are all a size 16.

A frugal wardrobe has very little in it; it will all fit you; you will like everything in it and you will wear it all on a regular basis. Go on, have a good sort out, check what goes with what and recycle what you don’t want, need or doesn’t fit.

I saved a fortune today

Days out

We went to see DB’s mum in Bristol today. Everyone else had the same idea. A38 was nose to bumper, so the was the M5, M4 and M32! We had to stop at those dreadful service stations, you know, the places that want £3.50 for an expresso. Today, I saved a fortune!

We make left at a reasonable time and made sure we had a good breakfast. We took a snack to eat on the way, a flask of coffee and a packed lunch of a homemade pasty.

We did stop at the services to use the loos. I am amazed at the stupidity of people who use them!Whole families buying burgers, sweets, drinks and being totally ripped off. I cheer when I see the ‘tupperware’ families eating their packed lunches and pouring drinks from their flasks! Good on them!

Let’s work out what we saved! We didn’t buy a Burger King lunch each. Saving! £10. We didn’t have a cost a lot of money coffee each for £3.50, there and back. Total saving? £24!?

It is so easy to let money drip out of our fingers. Take sandwiches, a pack of cheapy biscuits, a flask of tea a bottle of diluted squash for the kids, a bag of supermarket own brand mixed sweets for the kids and you will save your selves so much money.

We had lunch of the homemade pasties with mum in law in Bristol and I knitted there and back whilst chatting to Dearly Beloved. I got to spend all day as close to him as possible and he has a new scarf and I have also knitted half a blanket. A lovely day out, we’d saved money for the diesel there and back and of course, it’s always lovely to see mum.

9p? Yes it’s 9p! Shopping for bargains.

Saving money

I’m totally exhausted today! Mum came and we went to Tavistock for the day. I took her home and after returning, I went to Morrisons. I think everything was 9p! The salad was 9p. So Dearly Beloved and #1 son had salad and they had a pizza each for 80p! I had stir fry veggies, also 9p, which came with a coconut and lime sauce and a small pack of prawns which were 29p! Supper was £2.10 for the three of us.

We don’t often have ‘shop’ food. Today has taken its toll on me and all I could manage was a reheat!

Buy Nothing Day Saturday 27th November

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Ask yourself these simple questions:

Do I need it?
How many do I already have?
How much will I use it?
How long will it last?
Could I borrow it from a friend or family member?
Am I able to clean and/or maintain it myself?
Will I be able to repair it?
Am I willing to?
Have I researched it to get the best quality for the best price?
How will I dispose of it when I’m done using it?
Are the resources that went into it renewable or nonrenewable?
Is it made from recycled materials, and is it recyclable?

Enjoy No Spend day! Spread the word! Here’s the link to the website

It’s a month away but I’m promoting it every day on my Facebook page as my friends and family need something to think about. A lot of them will get back of their ‘cheap’ holiday this half term. I would like some people I know to have one Saturday off ‘going to town’. Stay out of the Mall at Cribbs Causeway…..you know who you are!

Stay at home, bake cakes, visit friends in the homes, make something…….just have one day when you don’t go near a shop, coffee house or ‘bought entertainment’.

How are you going to spread the word about Buy Nothing Day?

Better late than never.

quilting

I never have any time for hobbies in term time and I’m catching up on lost time. I’m breaking all of the quilting rules that tell you to start sewing in the middle and work out. I’m starting on the right and working across. It’s my first quilt and if it’s rubbish, it can go in the spare room! I’ve already managed to sew a pleat into the back and I’ll have to unpick and repin and have a go again tomorrow. It doesn’t matter though as the next one will be so much better.

It’s hard work just holding onto the quilt. I have to roll it into a tube to fit it through the machine. I feel like I’m wrestling with a snake…..like these guys!

The greenest Granny!

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Today’s blog is for Doris Stogdale! Here she is with her 58 year old fridge. I think all ‘white goods’ should be built to last a lifetime; instead of the flimsy one or two years that things last for now! We bought our fridge freezer in 2005 and it’s on its last legs. The seals need replacing (not even sure if you can replace fridge freezer door seals) and it certainly won’t last ten years. Doris has has the chance to replace her fridge in the past, but as it still worked, she didn’t see the need to. I think Doris is a very green granny!

I’m going to have Doris as one of my role models. I no longer want to replace anything with something new, but with something serviceable and functioning. If I can give it a new home, whether that’s a piece of furniture or an item of clothing, I will do that instead of buying new. None of us need a ‘new sofa by Christmas’ or to decorate our home, or replace curtains unless, what ever you are replacing is beyond repair or just totally defunct.

I know there will be people stating in comments that her fridge can not be triple A rated and must use more electricity, however, as most fridges last at most, for five years, by keeping this one; Doris has saved the carbon foot print created by 11 or 12 other fridges if she had renewed and ‘upgraded’.If any of you have seen the ‘Wee man’ at the Eden Project and the skips full of waste electrical goods at the tip, you will know we throw a great deal of electrical goods away, simply to ‘upgrade’. Let’s all raise our afternoon tea cups to Doris Stogdale and her thrifty, non wasting ways and long may her fridge chill her cheese!

No money means saying "No" to friends and family.

Days out

Pay day on Friday, £5.37 in my bank account and £3.78 in my purse and a three quarter of a tank of diesel to take us to mum in law’s (Bristol) and back on Friday. It’s like this every month. I have just enough. There is plenty of food in the house and everything is paid by direct debit. The lodger pays me on Friday and that will cover my water bill. I reassure myself that it’s all OK.

Yesterday with mum has left me feeling ‘out of sorts’. I don’t usually go in ‘normal’ shops and therefore don’t have many reminders of how some people live. As you all know, I deal with the mess I’ve made for myself in a positive way and walk on the sunny side of the street. Today though, is not so good.

What I saw yesterday, in Fowey, were people escaping from their reality. They were away from home, on a break and I know that’s what we all need once in a while. My own mum, who doesn’t have a car, dropped lots of hints yesterday that it would be nice to go out for the day; to somewhere like Tavistock and go round the shops and go for lunch. I don’t have the heart to tell her “Mum, I could afford the diesel to come and see you today and I can afford the Diesel to go and see DB’s mum on Friday, but that’s it.” Our (with Dearly Beloved) days out are lovely. We go somewhere, find somewhere free to park, go for a walk and usually sit in the car with a flask and a bit of homemade cake, we chat and enjoy each other’s company. We’ve no money, but for that moment, in our moneyless world, it doesn’t matter.

I look positively at having what is truly necessary and no more. I have food, clothing, enough heat not to be chilly, the library, nice places to walk, a decent home. I also think that a social life, hobbies and life enhancing experiences are also truly necessary; they all make us who we are. Today, I feel like the last miser in the village who can’t afford to take my mum out for the day and although I don’t feel ‘down’ about it, it doesn’t make me feel good either.

Fowey and the FREE fixed Dyson

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I’ve had a funny old day today. I went to work to run a two hour revision session for the students and then went off to Fowey to see mum. Mum has good days and bad days and oh boy, was today a bad day. It all stems from, I believe to be this. My mum used to make everything when we were small, she had no money and everything was made. Mum associates knitting, cooking, growing veg and any thing frugal with the ‘hell’ that she describes bringing up three kids without any money. I have no recollection of anything being wrong and what we had or didn’t have was normal to us. Mum associates spending money and going shopping with being better off and therefore happy. Who am I to disagree with my mother, so I just shut up.

I took mum for a walk around Fowey and to be honest I would rather walk around a that Chilean mine than Fowey on a school holiday. It’s wall to wall muppets to be honest, who try to drive huge cars around a historic fishing port trying to find somewhere to park the Range Rover and no one can control their Boden clad children as they’ve come on down the holiday cottage without nanny! Give me flippin’ strength! Any way, I needed to get mum out so I walked her round Fowey. I wanted to go to the beach and paddle but guess what? Yep, she wanted to go to the shops. It’s the kind of place that sells Dolce and Gabbana shower gel! I am not joking! Any way, I played along and went from one shop to another (Fat Face, Sea Salt and other high price emporiums) with mum stroking cardi’s with remarks of ‘why don’t you get one?’. I didn’t give any reply as she just doesn’t get it. I didn’t tell her that I can’t shop in Fowey as there are no charity shops!!!

The good news of the day is that I’ve repaired the upright Dyson! I danced around upstairs with it! It is fantastic and it cost me nothing!!! Cleaning is so much easier with a cleaner that works!!

I’m not alone, there are plenty of people like me.

frugal life

I have been looking, as I often do, at Frugal Websites. I do this when I feel as if I’m doing what I do when no one elses bothers. I feel a bit isolated at the moment because, in a management meeting at school, they were discussing rewards for students and mentioned a chain of restaurants,where the reward was a family voucher, so the winning student could take their family for supper. I had never heard of it. It was then I realised how far out of the social loop I am, as I haven’t eaten out since 2008, when I went cold turkey and stopped spending money.

Every now and then, I miss money. Once, if I needed clothes, I went to a shop and bought them. Now, I have to scour eBay and charity shops and keep a constant eye open. I can’t buy what I need when I need it, but have to pre-empt that if I see something in my size. If I see a pair of long legged size 16 jeans, I buy them! If I see something smart for work. I buy it. If something comes up on Freecycle that I could need, then I ask for it and sometimes get it. I now have a £20 a month budget for shoes and all clothing………..and I stick to it.

Today, I was reading various posts and articles on the Economides family website, that you can visit by clicking here . I do a lot of the things they do:

I stock take at home every week - I don’t buy what I already have
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I stock up if something is stupidly cheap and it will keep. Loo rolls, soap powder, shampoo or pet food.

I only buy what’s on the list and I only shop with a debit card.

I menu plan and shop for the menu, including packed lunches, snacks and drinks

I take a flask with me when we go out - there is no way I will pay for a coffee/.

I never carry cash and I leave my debit card at home - I can not impulse buy.

If I go charity shopping, I allow myself £10 and I allow myself to do this once a fortnight.

I bulk cook and freeze meals.

I ration diesel and use of my car to make what fuel I have last a week.

I use freecycle to give things away and sometimes to get things.

I ask the school canteen if I can recycle their plastic containers for plant pots or to use in the home (cat litter, dog biscuits, a bin in each room).

Their website was brilliant and I enjoyed reading it. I am not alone, and I wish I had always lived this way. I soon found out who my friends were when I couldn’t any longer take part in activities that cost money as I now don’t have any. The real friends are just that and have stuck with me.