Back To Thrifty - The Ins, Outs and Frugal Bits

Back to my last day of the month thrifty posts..........

 

The huge expenses of moving are over, I've restocked my cupboards and emergency supplies (Bread flour, yeast, peanut butter, tins of pineapple and coffee!), car boot sales will be slowing down and I need to get back to thrifty, to live on my income and stop using the money from savings and from down-sizing.

My income is now 2 pensions - my state pension plus the County Council spouses pension (now being taxed!) and some bits of interest from savings bonds. I looked to see what average income is for a pensioner and came across the figure of £18,000. Well, my income is well below this so maybe some savings will be needed and anyway the very reason I never had a private pension is because we knew we had a house that could be sold and we could downsize.

One spend this month  I was really pleased about was a new winter coat. I've been looking for something warm and waterproof  with a hood for a couple of years, searching charity shops with no luck and the ones in shops were either those huge puffy jackets (I'm puffy enough already!) or had weird mock fur round the hood (nasty) or the sleeves were so narrow that there was no room for anything underneath. Then I called in at the big Asda in Ipswich after the  dentist and £36 later I had waterproof with a hood in blue - perfect.

Other spendy bits were Phones and Broadband bills, 2 lots of diesel (I filled up when I went shopping on the Tuesday before the  country went into panic mode), a birthday gift, Ecover for the washing machine. A couple of plants for the garden and some crocus bulbs -all from boot-sales. The window cleaner turned up and the regular 4 weekly electric bill (which is driving me nuts as no sooner do I get a text message from Scottish Power asking for a meter reading and pay it then 4 weeks is round again!). Batteries for my torch (jolly expensive now),a couple of second-hand books and food - obviously!

These are the thrifty bits I thought of

• Picked the right days to do washing - so avoiding using the tumble drier all month
  
• Dried Bay Leaves from my Bay tree
• Made 4 jars jam using Strawberries from BiL and gooseberries from a car boot sale earlier in the year. 2 are for the hampers.
• Washed hair before going just up the road to have it cut which saves me £4
• Runner beans from the garden
• Yellow and Red Peppers from the greenhouse
• Made two candles for the Christmas Hampers
• Made Wild Fruit syrup from hedgerow fruits for winter and the hampers
• Made Marmalade for winter and Christmas hampers
• £56 income from selling unwanted stuff in village yard sale
• Library books for free
• One pensioners Fish and Chip meal (£3.50 instead of £6)
• Free coffee and cheese scones at the village Monday coffee mornings (instead of breakfast😇)
• I'm still catching cold water in a jug before the hot arrives and using it for watering the pots under the front porch and the new bits planted in the front garden
  
• Also still mixing whole milk half and half with water.
• Couple of cucumbers and courgettes from BiL's garden

and I finally found something to put everything in for the Christmas Hampers from yesterday's car boot sale. I called in on my way to shopping - it was very chilly, damp underfoot and hardly anyone selling

so I was pleased to pick up these for £1.50 each. Nothing else bought.

In October there are more birthdays and a probable trip to see the new baby after it arrives which will involve a stay in holiday let or similar plus diesel, electric, phones and food of course. Hopefully not much else.

Back Tomorrow

Sue