No-One Expects The Spanish Inquisition.

A couple of reader picked up on a point I tried to hide in the text yesterday.

Yes, The Chap received a gas bill of £700 for the quarter. We live in a 3 bedroom house.

I am not worried about the Cats getting up the duff anymore as The Chap's had kittens!

I write a blog on how to reduce your outgoings and pay off your debt then go and then receive a quarterly gas bill for £700.... something is wrong somewhere.

Of course no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition which is exactly what I got when I returned home from work. Actually I got a text about it whilst still at work he was that upset.

But, not with me...

For you see I do not even know where the central heating control panel is. I think he suspects the cats..

Ofcourse the upshot is that gas usage is being reviewed. The Results

• We are changing supplier
• We have reviewed the when it will now be programmed. Not at all in the morning, and 4 hours from 6.30 - 10.30pm
• The thermostat has been turned down
• The Chap is looking into cavity wall insultation.
• We are also going to purchase draft excluders for the lounge.

I did point out that my combined bill at my 2 bed flat was considerably less than this, and so perhaps he should allow me to me to control the heating.

Watch this space!

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

The Budget & A Moan

Firstly Hello & Welcome to my new followers - J Stevens and OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod Only blooming Frugal Queen... bow scrape etc etc. (For my family members who only ever read my blog because they have to. Frugal Queen is the rock star of thrifty blogging!) Thanks so much for visiting. x

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2013 spring budget was announced yesterday. It has been aimed at “those who want to work and get on”. I want to work and get on, so lets have a look then.

The Main Points

·        A cut in corporation tax.

Oh good, an employer gets the benefit of an increase in profits. Not helpful to me at all. Plus my employer gets to cut his National Insurance bill by £2000, and as it is a small company there is every chance he might not have to pay any NI according to the budget.

·        Frozen petrol duty.

Well considering I am already being stuffed at the pump paying c. £50 for a full tank of petrol for a 1.2l POLO and that lasts me 1 week. Then I am not going to notice that it is not getting MORE expensive.

·        Cut in beer duty by 1p. Who cares? How many pints of beer would you have to be drinking to think at the end of the month I have an extra tenner. If you do then you should probably be looking at stopping drinking!

·        Income tax threshold raised to £10,000 as of 2014. At the end of April 2013 the income tax threshold is going up anyway and so I will be better off by £23 per month. These income tax rises are the only raise I have had in well over 5 years.

·        Shared equity scheme extended to assist first time buyers get on the property ladder. I already have a home, though I welcome any steps to assist youngsters buy a house and therefore kick start the housing market.

·        20% tax relief on childcare up to £6,000 per child from 2015. The Chap and I do not have a family.

I recognise that The Chap and I are very lucky. We both still have a job and a roof over our head, but paying our bills and trying to save is difficult (especially for me) and rising fuel costs always worry us (our gas bill arrived yesterday £700 for the quarter...gulp! We have a parliamentary enquiry going on as we speak). The budget seems to go over our heads as we are neither better or worse off.

Does anyone else out there feel that The Budget always forgets them? Our little sector that has not ever or rarely taken any benefits, or used social housing or had a yacht or a £million house. Am I alone in thinking this? Or perhaps just miserable and unfeeling of harder hit sectors of society. I don’t know, and that bothers me that I might not understand the difficulties other people face.

But what really upsets me is the level of debt the UK has. 85% of GDP. To put this into context, if you earned £20,000 it is the equivalent of having a debt of £17,000.

Mr Osbourne is planning to borrow £120bn this year. Perhaps he should start readinga thrifty blog on how to cut your cloth accordingly.

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

A Shopping Trip With A Difference

I went shopping with a friend 'Ann'on Friday during my lunch hour. We rarely meet up as she lives in Kent and I live in Staffordshire. She has a little lad, so when we do meet up we do not get to mooch around a clothes shop for an hour.

Friday we made a special effort as Dorothy Perkins had such a good sale on of up to 30% off. She needed some new togs and I wanted to pick up another T-shirt.

So off we wandered to the store, we discussed various items, gave our opinion on dresses, tops and Ts and showed each other the items we rather fancied.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

Nothing unusual about shopping with a friend you might think. Ah Hah! You would be wrong!

You see I was in Dorothy Perkins Wolverhampton, and Ann was in Dotty Perks London. It was such great fun, we both managed to log onto a wifi signal in the shop and then proceeded to use WhatsApp to send each other free pictures of what we were looking at and  then the other would respond with their thoughts.

I think we spent about 30-40 minutes in store and online together, I came out having purchased this T-shirt (I bought this in peach a week or so ago and loved it so much I picked it up in white too) for £8 instead of £10.

 

Ann Picked up this little lot

A Denim Tab Shift Dress

A cardigan

White ruffle drawstring Top

And finally a lace tunic that I just cannot get you a picture of

All for £85 in the sale!

We were both delighted and it was so nice to have a chat as we wandered around texting and taking pictures to send to each other. Shopping at lunchtime is a lonely business and to get a friend’s input was invaluable and a lovely way to keep in touch during the stresses and strains of the week. I don’t know about Ann, but I was giggling all the way around

Ann did admit that one of the Sales Assistants thought she was rather loopy!

A sale on at one of my favourite clothes shops, is always enough to keep me in a good mood! Quality and Price! Thanks Dotty Ps.

I think it is safe to say Ann and I have invented a new type of shopping.

Now, ummm how do we patent it?

Frugally yours

Abigail

xx

Stuck in an Expensive Mobile Phone Contract?

Recently I posted about my favourite phone apps, it got me thinking about the price of my iphone.

I took out a 2 year contract on my phone with O2 in about November 2011. For £39/month, I get 600 minutes, unlimited text messages, 20 MMS and 500MB of data.

Part of yesterday I was  messing about on my iphone. O2 provides a handy little tracker app that tells me on any day, how many free minutes I have used and current data usage etc.

I had not noticed before, but it has a little tab on the right hand side of this app that says “Chat Now”, so yesterday I tapped it and started having an online conversation with an O2 Assistant called Deepu.

So after the usual jumping through hoops to ensure you are who you say you are – password, date of birth, address, inside leg measurement etc I told Deepu that I was concerned as I thought the monthly bill was expensive and was there any way of getting it reduced even though there is 8 months left to run on my contract.

I have been with O2 since I was 22 years old, so about 15 years and have always had the same number, always renewing my contract.

As I am a “valued customer” Deepu offered to reduce my monthly bill to £27 / month until the end of my contract when I could change for a SIM only deal at c £15/month.

Did you know you could re-negotiate mid contract? Nope, neither did I.

My deal would be very similar, 500MB of data, unlimited texts and 20 MMS, but with 300 minutes instead of 600. I barely use half of my talk time at the moment anyway, so I was delighted.

It seems sitting on my bum on the sofa yesterday saved me £12 per month, nearly £100 up until my contract runs out later this year.

So that was a Sunday well spent!

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

The Cat’s got PMS.

Hello and Welcome to my new follower Tasmanian Minimalist, thanks so much for visiting. x

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I have never owned a cat before and I am not a vet, so this is just my humble opinion.

As we have not had the cats spade yet, I suspect they might be coming into their first season.

We will get them done, but as at the moment they are indoor cats then we are not worried about teenage pregnancy just yet.

Twinkle seems to have changed personality in the last few days and become much more affectionate. She miaows at me all the time and last night even came up to me and asked for food, the first time either cat has ever done that, so I did put an extra pouch down for them both.

She then came and jumped on my lap and just sat there talking to me for ages and wanting to be stroked and generally fussed. I was nudged whenever I stopped the scratching.

I know that feeling.

So I started having a conversation with my cat (Gosh, one of these days they are going to cart me off to the funny farm)

TWINKLE: “Miaow”

ME: My poor little baby, are you feeling poorly? Oh sweetie pie I am sorry. Do you feel sad? Have you got a tummyache?

TWINKLE: “Miaow!”

ME; Oh dear dear dear! What are we going to do with you hmm? I don’t mind if you want a good cry. Is someone being mean to you Twinkle? Would some chocolate help? Shall I get you a hot water bottle little one?

TWINKLE: “Miaow”

I then happened to look up, and see The Chap at the other end of the sofa watching the pair of us bemused. I explained

ME: “I think she has PMS”

He looked faintly horrified and quickly resumed killing alien super villians on the xbox.

Bet he wishes he hadn’t got 2 female cats and a girlfriend living with him now doesn’t he?

:o)

Frugally yours

Abigail

X

P.S. Don’t start writing in, of course I did not give the cat chocolate or a hot water bottle.

Is It Ever Acceptable To Lie To Your Partner?

Yesterday, as I wandered off for my lunch hour I passed a shop closing down. It is relocating to another site, and in the last few days before shutting up for good.

I have never ventured through the doors before, as it sold ex-catalogue goods, karaoke machines, gym equipment and CD players. The sight of the gym equipment is enough to send me high tailing it to the hills squawking in abject fear. After all you do not a get body this lumpy through judicious use of gym equipment.

However, when I passed yesterday they had a table outside with lots and lots of bottles of shampoo “Girlz Only, Dawn Til Dusk” Shampoo 150ml, and were selling 10 bottles for £1.  That is 100pence for 1500ml of shampoo.

For that sort of price it was worth grabbing a bag full.

The sales assistant gave me a mixture of pink and green bottles.

Smells ok.

But, I cannot see The Chap using anything out of a bottle marked “Girlz Only”, he would prefer to squeeze his soap from a rock and then use an armadillo to scrub himself down afterwards. No exfoliators, loofers and cleansing serum for him. Think Captain Caveman.

 

However, his shampoo is from Sainsbury's a basic own brand bottle that smells of apples, it is green…. Do you see where this is going yet?

 

Is it acceptable to empty a couple of bottles of my very cheap green shampoo into his own brand stuff?

I think it probably is. What he does not know can’t hurt him. Right?

My work colleague (lets call her Jane) has a partner (lets call him Bob) who insists she buys Nescafe Gold Blend as he says he can taste the difference to any other brand of coffee. Now Bob drinks a lot of coffee! and as Jane has to buy it all she gets fed up with the expense incurred even though she buys in quantity and when there is a supermarket deal on.

300g refill pack £8.85

What “Jane” recently revealed to me on a boozy night out is that Bob only every drinks cups of coffee that are two thirds Gold Blend, as for every jar of Gold Blend she decants into the kitchen coffee can she then adds over half a jar of cheaper brand alternative, very often a decaffeinated alternative at that.

Apparently “Jane” has been doing this for years without any comeback and she still allows Bob to state he only ever drinks Gold Blend.

I was really laughing when she told me.

Is it right? I don’t think so. Am I going to decant my girlz shampoo anyway?

What do you think?

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

Fluffy Bunnies, Jam Making & Kittens

If you are a bloke (especially The Chap), then you probably do not want to read this post. It will be very boring and about erm…. fluffy bunny rabbits, and jam making and I will probably finish off with some pictures of kittens and maybe babies in plant pots and watering cans.

So why not go off and play with your xbox or a power tool? It is okay, I don’t mind.

…

…

…

Right, have they gone?

Oh My God!

I found a grey colourless hair the other night and have been too traumatised to speak of it for a few days.

Finding a grey colourless hair, is not that unusual I suppose. I am turning 37 in 44 days. Work is so pants I could open my own Knickerbox outlet and I did move house recently. All apparently stressful events that would result in the odd grey colourless hair.

I have, in fact, been finding the odd grey colourless hair for a few years now.

So why has this particular grey colourless hair sent me into a tailspin of epic proportions? What bothers me is WHERE I found it.

Mother Nature or Father Time, I am not sure which of you is responsible for this particular humiliation, but it is just NOT ON!

Silly Witch!

And, why wasn’t I warned? Is there a code of silence like discussing Father Christmas in a public place? I mean I was prepared for my boobs going from pert to a pair of your dad’s old socks with a tangerine at the end, I even had my back go once. I am never going to be showing off a concave stomach with an artfully placed navel adornment. But this! This is where I draw a line, there was no warning what so ever. One day everything was ok, maybe in need off a bit of attention, but basically all fine. Then Bang! the next day there it is shooting up Loud and Proud like it like a beacon to Tena Lady.

As someone who can truthfully state I have never inspected another person’s “lady garden” I had absolutely no idea this could happen.

My sister told me once she had my nephew she was completely surprised by the exclusive club she joined behind the baby changing doors. She has a good friend she made whilst breast feeding together in John Lewis’.

Is this a similar thing? Do I now get invited to go to a Woman’s Institute meeting or join a luncheon club? If not can I start one?

“Abigail’s Grey Colourless M^ff Meeting”

We could drink Bacardi Breezers and prank call the youth club.

Oh God, I feel sick and do you know the worst of it? The blooming, wail inducing and buttock clenching worst part?

I don't know what to do. I cannot see myself taking a discreet trip to Boots The Chemist, and there is certainly not an aisle to deal with my particular situation “Just For Lady Parts”. Plus removing the offending item would require a 20x magnifying glass, an angle poise lamp and very probably undertaking such positions that I not done since my school gym classes. I would also need my glasses… sigh.

I suppose I could remove everything, but I have done that before and quite frankly found my work colleagues were a bit disconcerted to see me at my desk scratching every few minutes. Mmmmm, No, definitely not an option.

I cannot help but worry too, is this the start of something new? What if it is counting down? Perhaps next week, there will be 2, then the week after 4….. Of course if that is the case, what is it counting down to?

Of course after finding the bloody thing, I was sitting on the bed wrapped in a towel contemplating a future of coach trip to the gardens of Kent, or perhaps having to take a crash course in Bingo when The Chap wandered in the bedroom.

TC “What’s the matter?”

Me “Nothing”

TC “Ok”

And off he toddled back down to watch Storage Hunters or maybe another program about a car being reconditioned.

I can share anything with The Chap, he knows about The Debt (now gone), about my work and how much I loathe Polystyrene.   He knows I like to bet on the Grand National, am obsessed with vouchers and like to suck the chocolate off Maltesers before I eat them.

However, there are some things he most definitely does not need to know. I believe this qualifies as #1.

Frugally and Rather Desperately Yours

Yours

Abigail

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