Hello Dear Reader,


It’s the first banking day of the month and I’ve paid the interest on the mortgage. I’ve also saved up and paid off another £2015………the odd £15 was left in my purse so I put it back into the bank and paid off some mortgage capital with it. I’ve also done the ‘big’ super market shop for the month. We ‘spend’ every penny we earn on the first of every month. All of our utility bills are paid by standing order on that date. We pay all of our insurances annually as well as all major car expenses in one go. To do this, we have to set aside slightly more than the agreed amount each month.

We do our ‘big shop’ of storable and freezable goods. We bulk buy and store when there are very good offers on items that we will definitely use. We also treat savings accounts as bills and ensure that the money goes into our several account on the first banking day of the month. It takes discipline and leaves us with next to nothing in the way of disposable income. We don’t leave ourselves ‘fun’ money as I don’t need money to have fun!

The biggest amount we save each month is the minimum of 1% of the mortgage balance per month and we try to aim for a little more. It’s the same amount of money that was furnishing our debts in the past and we lived without it. Now we live without it and pay off our mortgage at the rate of 10% a year. It means we leave the equivalent of one month’s capital repayment for: car tax, car/home insurance, servicing the car/wear and tear replacements, house repairs, boiler servicing, wood, pet costs. We then save half of one month’s capital repayment for long term savings and half a month for an annual holiday.


If we need clothes or shoes, or anything else, we make the money from ebay trading or out of our food budget. We get most clothes and fabric from jumble sales, charity shops and car boot sales. We get household items from similar places.


This all seems a bit drastic but none of us have a certain future any more. Dearly Beloved and I have pension projections which seem adequate now, but none of us know what the financial future holds so we need to pay off our mortgage as soon as possible and put money aside to meet the needs of the ‘pension gap’. Many of you who read this are living off a pension, and were careful, and did make prudent plans for your future and still find day to day costs a struggle. We all have to budget for the big stuff and making sure we eventually have a bought and paid for home, a private pension of any sort and all bills paid have now become the big stuff. I’m sorry if you thought I would share how I save up for and pay for a cruise, but like everyone else we have to be very careful stewards of our finances just to keep afloat.


I have enough money in my account to buy diesel to get us to work and back for the month and enough money to top up the shopping each week. We have enough, and under the current circumstances, consider ourselves blessed to have that.


Weekly weigh in Froog’s frugal fat fighters - I have now lost 11lbs


Until tomorrow,


Love Froogs