Praying Daily

 Once again thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post. Your suggestions are all terrific, thank you.  I hope I didn't come across as self pitying because that wasn't my intention at all.  I do realise how lucky we are to have a warm home and food to eat,  it's just that I have to focus on controlling spending so as not to worry to the extent that I can't sleep 😕  This has happened too often in the recent past.

Now....I had £7.87 personal spending left yesterday and I wanted to top up the car with petrol because the price is creeping up on a daily basis.  I had allocated £14 for fuel this week but decided to add £6 from spending to make it up to £20, leaving me with £1.87.  There was a long queue at Morrisons petrol station but I stuck it out and got my fuel. 3/4 of a tank should last me a while.  The remainder of my pocket money was dropped into the bucket for Ukraine 🇺🇦 

Praying for peace in  Ukraine 🙏 

Also praying for respite from severe flooding in Australia 🇦🇺 🙏 

 My son, his wife and small daughter live in the suburbs of Sydney where they have had torrential rain for more than 2 weeks. Flash flooding is everywhere....

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

Making a Little Extra....

 I've been pondering ways to earn a little extra money.  At the age of 72 no-one wants to employ me but with the rising cost of simply everything , and the fact that we are both on a fixed income, a little extra wouldn't go amiss.  Fuel has just hit 164.9p per litre in our area for diesel, our rent is being increased by almost 5% from April 1st which is around £20 per month, and the energy bills are set to increase by at least 54% on the same date.  As pensions are only increasing by 3.1% the gap between income and bills is shrinking exponentially.  G works part time, just 12 hours per week, but I can see that his health problems are making it much harder now and I simply don't know how much longer he can carry on for.  Once he has to stop we might be struggling to have anything left over each month to enjoy our lives with.

It has been 2 and a half years since I last had a sight test and they keep trying to jog my memory with reminders in the post.  I should have gone back after 12 months but covid put paid to that so I really need to make an appointment.  I'm just reluctant to because if my sight has changed again I will need glasses for daily use, sunglasses for driving and mid range for computer use 👀  My current ones darken in the sun but not through glass in the car 😎  Heaven help me 👀

Edit:  Appointment booked for later this month.  At least my eye health can be checked free of charge.

My thoughts are:

• Online surveys eg YouGov, PopulusLive (now .Y Live)  both of which pay cash into a bank account once the £50 threshold is reached and neither of which seem to sent you spam afterwards.  There must be loads of others too but I find these two are the best for me.

 

• Royal Mail postal surveys run by KantarTNS.  In the past I have been a member, posting and receiving test items so that they can report on efficiency to Royal Mail.  For doing that you get a free allocation of 12 first class stamps and 4 first class large letter stamps each month.  If you want to give it a go try https://postalsurveys.tnsglobal.com   It's usually a 6 month stint at a time.

• eBay selling.  I've been an active member for almost 20 years and have found it useful to sell unwanted items although some sellers have gone off the idea because of dodgy buyers. At the moment I've run out of things to sell though 😓

• Facebook selling pages.  I've never tried this so can't say whether it's useful or not and I don't really fancy people coming to the house.

• Car boot sales.  The season will soon be on us for local boot sales everywhere.  It's tricky doing it by myself but I have done it in the past.  I have wondered whether plants sell.  We will have lots of surplus plants and cuttings in pots as the year progresses.  What do you think?

I can't think of anything else at the moment.  Do you have any suggestions folks?

Thanks so much for popping in and  stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

March Food Shop Challenge:

£25.98/ £275.00

More Free Food!

Once again I would like to thank all of you who have left comments on my recent posts and a big welcome to my newest follower 😃  it's really lovely to know that people do actually read my ramblings 👍

This morning I popped to Sainsburys as we still need a TV guide for the coming week.  I failed to get a free newspaper with the listings inside and G says he is confused without a guide 😏 So....at the same time I wanted to buy some more fruit and veg to help get us to our 5 a day this week.  I bought beetroot, iceberg lettuce (which was the cheapest lettuce I could find), a pepper and another tin of pears which were on special Nectar price at 77p.  My favourite Dorset cereal, which I've run out of, was on offer at £3.30   £2.00 and the yogurt on special at 60p.  The flavoured water at the back was 85p but I'm going to the cinema tonight for the first time in 2 years with DD and the Grandchildren (G has very kindly paid for my ticket.  I think he wants to watch Peaky Blinders in peace on his own tonight!)  and I don't want to pay cinema prices for a drink 😊

I want to save as much cash as possible again this month so used £7.50 worth of Nectar points, accumulated since I spent the last lot in January.  The shopping therefore cost the princely sum of 9p This has been added to the total below.....

 

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

March Food Shop Challenge:

£25.98/ £275.00

Free Reading & Cheap Lunches

 On visiting our local plant nursery on Wednesday I was lucky enough to find the new FREE Living magazine on display so grabbed one while I had the chance.  It will keep me busy reading this weekend.  We didn't spend any money but enjoyed planning the new garden, just spending money in our heads!

In an effort to be frugal, not waste a thing, yet to eat healthily, I boiled the last 5 eggs which were on the best before date on Monday.  Lunches this week were:

• Monday: Egg and cress Sandwiches
• Tuesday:  Reduced price cheese and onion rolls, an egg each, salad

• Wednesday: Reduced price quiche from the freezer.  Half each, which was a bit greedy but it was too delicious not to eat warm.....

served again with salad....

• Thursday:   DD came for lunch so we had spicy beanburgers on a wholemeal bun with a cheese slice and sliced tomato on top....

• Friday:  We ate a decent breakfast of banana and cereal so skipped lunch as we weren't hungry.  Tea ( dinner or supper as you prefer it 😊)  was baked salmon fillets with jacket potatoes and peas with fruit and yogurt for pudding.
• 
  
• Saturday: we are going to DD for lunch and 
• Sunday, as explained, will be a ready meal each

If we eat a hearty meal at lunchtime we then eat more sparingly in the evening.  For example:  cheese or beans on toast, cheese and crackers, soup, jacket potatoes etc 

We are definitely not going hungry but are cutting back on the spending nonetheless.  We do, however, need to increase our consumption of fruit and veg 😬 I'm thinking... I'm thinking....

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

March Food Shop Challenge:

£25.89/ £275.00

Topping Up The Shopping & 'BIG' CS Purchase!!

This morning dawned as yet another wet and windy day and we debated where we could go just to get out of the house for an hour or two.  Inspired by Sue Hall's freezer reveal in A Smaller and Simpler Life, Aldi seemed to be a good choice especially as we fancied baked salmon for tea and it's cheaper there.  I wanted to limit the spend so we just did a top up shop of potatoes, fruit, cheese, 2 ready meals for Sunday (so that I can have a day off cooking) some cooked chicken for G's work sandwiches and a couple of things for the freezer which I forgot to photograph before I put them in the garage 👀

They were: a pack of 4 vegetarian spicy beanburgers and a lemon meringue pie. 

DD has invited us to lunch tomorrow so I bought a pack of cupcakes @ £3.79 to take as a contribution to the food......

The bill came to £19.92 which I have added to the total below.....

Whilst in the village and whilst G was browsing the street market stalls, I popped into the CS.  On warmer days when working at the allotment we sometimes buy a portion of fish and chips to share.  I keep plastic forks (used many times over) in the car to use when we have grubby hands but they are becoming brittle and breaking one by one.  I won't be buying more so when I found this Oneida fork in the CS at just 20p I snapped it up along with a reduced antibac hand sanitizer @ 75p. I can put the fork through the dishwasher tonight and pop it in the glovebox ready for next time.  I had £8.82 pocket money remaining which is now down to £7.87......

I notice that I have a couple more followers.  Thank you for joining me on my challenge year 😀

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

March Food Shop Challenge:

£25.89/ £275.00

Spending Pocket Money Wisely

 I have my first crisp £10 note of the month.... 😀

It was such a lovely sunny day on Tuesday that G decided to lay another slab on the patio so I took myself off to the village for a walk and a browse around the charity shops.  My handbag straps are coming loose and they will be difficult to re-attach so a new bag will be needed at some point.  I was shocked that the CS prices are more than I paid for my current bag when new 👀 so I didn't succumb.  I took another 12 handmade cards in to the Hospice shop along with a few other donated items.

At the pharmacy I bought paracetamol  (out of my own money) 49p x 2 = 98p.....

....then I popped into the library where they have a sale of withdrawn books at just 10p each.  I love Erica James and this Josephine Cox one is a different style to her others; a bit of a comedy, so I bought that as well.  So...20p spent.  I will remove the horrible plastic sleeves before I read them.  The dust covers underneath are usually lovely and pristine  👍.......

That came to £1.18 leaving me with £8.82 to last the week.

I wasn't going to go into too much detail about my shopping this month but comments on my last post have indicated that people like to know the nitty gritty.  So be it! If you don't want to know look away NOW! 😂

This week I really don't want to do a 'big' shop at all in order to give me a head start on the savings.  I had a fancy for a banana so popped into Sainsburys on the way back home.  I saw this cress reduced to 14p which gave me the idea of egg and cress sandwiches for lunch as I had some eggs which were right on date and needed using up.......

Sugar has been in short supply here and so has basic range pasta so when I saw minimal stocks of each in the store I snapped up a pack of  them.  The jelly babies are for G as a treat.  I'm not tempted by them luckily 😇

The total cost was £5.97 which has started off the total below....

I will need to buy a TV guide at some point but want to try to stay away from the supermarket until then.  I was really shocked to see how empty the supermarket shelves have become although whether it's because of supply problems, lack of staff to re-stock or stockpiling going on, I have no idea.  I'm hoping it's just staffing problems but who knows. 

Last night I didn't sleep very well. It took me until after 3am to drop off and then I seemed to wake every hour. Consequently I feel like a wet rag this morning 😴😳 I really must learn to empty my mind before I put out the light. Any tips for a good night's sleep? 

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

March Food Shop Challenge:

£5.97/ £275.00

And So Begins March...

First day of the new month 😃  Somehow, and I don't quite know how I did it other than the fact that G paid for our Sunday lunch in the pub, but I have 50p left from last month's allowance.   I could have held onto it and added it to my March allowance....

...but decided to pop it into my sealed pot instead which will be opened in time for Christmas shopping in early November........

For March my personal allowance is the same @ £100  but I've juggled the figures a bit to give me £10 for 'emergency' spending (like GC pocket money which threatened to derail me last month 👀) I won't need a haircut this month but I've put aside half the cost (£16) so that I will have enough for it next month.  I don't need a phone top up so £10 has gone into the birthday tin.  I will put £14 worth of fuel in my car. This leaves me with £50 for a 5 week month ie £10 per week

I will still try not to spend unnecessarily though my weekly foodbank donation will still come out of it.

March is a very expensive month:

• Insurance for both cars
• Road fund license for G's vehicle
• Service and MOT for G's vehicle
• Several birthdays including our daughter and 2 good friends who get token gifts

The money for everything bar the birthdays is in the joint account ready and waiting to pay alongside the usual Council tax, rent, energy bill, boiler insurance etc  so although we do have the money put aside it will dramatically reduce the balance 👀

The food budget is the only place where there is a little 'wriggle room'. March is a 5 week month so we have £55 x 5 = £275  to spend.  My challenge for this month is to spend less and save the difference whilst still re-stocking a little in case of emergencies.

Off we go!

Thanks so much for popping in and a big thank you to everyone who posts comments.  I don't always find the time to respond but but I do read and appreciate every single one 😘

 Sending special thoughts and prayers for the people of Ukraine 🙏

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

March Food Shop Challenge:

£0.00/ £275.00