£1.33

Things are very tight at the moment. Paying off my credit cards has meant that the savings have been severely reduced.  It is time for major belt tightening.

A difficult time compounded as I got another flat tyre last week. Same tyre as I replaced about 3 or 4 months ago. I went into work late on Friday, as I visited Mr Tyre in the morning and they put the spare on so they could look at the offending article.

Another blasted nail. And again it is located at the edge of the tyre so it cannot be repaired. Luckily I know that Mr Tyre have the cheapest tyres around me at £51 per tyre. So on Saturday I went off to have it replaced.

4 new tyres in less than 6 months, plus I know that the last original one will have to be changed early in 2013. According to the nice garage men, it has about 5000miles left on it.

The Plumber came round on Saturday to service the boiler and prepare the gas safety certificate required to let out my little flat. Whilst I had his undivided attention I also got him to have a look at the bathroom sink which was draining slowly. The waste pipe was full of the most revolting gunk!

He also re-programmed my heating so now no heating in the morning and no hot water. An effort to reduce the quarterly bills. Not that I will hopefully be paying them for much longer.

And finally, he checked the shower. It is completely bust. If it was up to me I would just live without it, and have a bath only. However, as the flat has to get rented then it needs replacing.

Sigh…. Always money to be spent that I can currently ill afford. But, it has to be done, so we are both hoping I can get one for about £60 plus fitting costs.

Oh, did I mention the telephone bill arrived £90…

So, I need to reduce my food bill in November.

I had a £15 voucher from Tesco, and spent some of Friday going through the store cupboards to work out what I had in stock.

This is how it got spent.

Pasta                                  .98

Eggs                                  1.19

Cheddar                            1.99

Smoked Bacon                1.64

1x Tin Butter Beans          .69

1x Tin of Peas                   .21

3x tin of sweetcorn           1.45

Chorizo                              2.00

Lard                                    .39

1x Courgette                        .46

Celery                                 .89

1 x Butternut                     1.48

Potatoes                           .99

1x red onion                     .15

1x onion                            .12

1x leek                              .74

Wholemeal Loaf              .47

1xjar peas & carrots        .49   

Total                                     16.33

Voucher                               15.00

Left To Pay                             1.33

This food combined with the freezer and store cupboards will have to last me until 29^th November with the exception of buying milk.

I researched my purchases using mysupermarket.co.uk to ensure that I was getting the best deal and so I knew what my final spend would be. For example  the website told me the cheese was on special Lake District Mature Cheddar was reduced to £1.99 from £3.98 for 350G. I only like cheese melted on pizza or used in cooking so that amount will last me ages.

I did buy a Butternut Squash.

I have eaten it before, but never cooked it. Looking at the size of the thing I am not sure what to do. I was thinking one third roasted and put into a quiche and one third to make some soup and one third mashed with butter. Unless, you have a better idea?

£1.33 is the sort of shopping trip I can get used to!

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

November Pay Day

Afternoon Peeps!

Sorry for the radio silence, I have had so much going on and have been out after work with one thing and another.

Well it is Pay Day today. We all know I love a Pay Day, and today is extra special. I got commission, plus I got some expenses. That coupled with a little Ebay selling of an old Stained Glass window The Chap and I liberated from the workshop we tore down at his a few months ago meant I was able to clear my credit cards.

I did have to dive into my savings too, but I felt it was necessary, as they have really been hanging over me the last few months. Quite frankly I have been stressing about them so much, it is just such a relief to get it cleared.

Ok, I still have a £400 overdraft to tackle and it does mean Christmas is getting pared down for family and friends but I felt it was worth it and everyone understands. So thanks "Keeping It Simply Thrifty" Family!! Love you!!

Starting Debt: £1990.80
Credit Card 1: £0.00
Credit Card 2: £0.00
Loan: £0.00
New Debt Balance: £400.00
% Paid Off: 79.9%

Credit card debt?? What credit card debt?

Whoo Hoo!

The Chap and I are going out tonight to dinner to celebrate as Frankie and Bennys have a £10 off voucher for the whole of November. If I have a pizza and just a glass of tap water, then I can eat free! Yum!  

Frugally yours
Abigail
xx

P.S. On the negative side, the shower broke again this morning..... sigh...

Birthdays And A Trip

Today's was 2 work colleagues birthdays in my office.
We all put in a few pounds, just a gesture really. The lucky recipient normally gets a voucher or a CD etc.
Today one of the girl's who's birthday it was is a special friend.
We often have lunch or meet for dinner a couple of times per year.
So I wanted to do something special.
I mentioned to my mum that I would like to bake her a cake to say happy birthday.
Unfortunately the cake I wanted was a Nigella Easy Almond Cake and requires a lot of marzipan. An ingredient I did not have I stock.
Luckily she had 3 blocks and gave me one.
So all I needed to buy was some almond extract.
I forgot to get it. Typical!!
So again I substituted vanilla essence.
No-one seemed to notice.
It made a lovely flavoursome cake (should do 6 eggs!).
I would definitely make it again, and have to say. I love my new ring pan too.
Creates a much fancier looking bake. It should last a life time.
On a better note. I got home last night to find a letter from the supermarket which gave me food poisoning a couple of weeks ago. £15 voucher. Not sure at all it was worth it!

Currently I am sitting on the train with my ridiculously expensive ticket on my way to Kent for the weekend.

The reason? A girls weekend

We all met about 4 years ago on a singles holiday and still keep in touch.
You would imagine we would all be wearing slinky attire ready for 48 hrs of debauchery...

Nothing could be further from the truth. We all converge about 9ish tonight and tomorrow after a trip out shopping the plan is to camp out on the lounge floor with pizza, wine and strictly.

Maybe as we are all around the late thirties mark we should be more rock n roll. But I know from all the emails rocking back and forth this weekend that it hits the spot for all of us!

Thrifty and fun!

Frugally yours
Abigail
X

An Ode To British Rail

Dear British Rail

Thank you so much for providing a website to book train tickets.

After traversing your website this week in search of a tickets from Staffordshire to Kent for the weekend I wanted to thank you for providing the most confusing information.

It has been a joy to research my limited option for travelling with you. I have been filled with wonder and awe at your varied tickets offers and have been happy to discover that I can pay £100s given the choice for a 175m journey.

It is a shame that with my limited education of only having a degree that I was unable to fathom off peak hours and I think it was wonderful to engage in a 25min hunt around your online pages to discover an explanation.

However it did mean I was then in the position to be able to ring your 10p / minute information line and spend the first 3minutes on a recorded menu. It is always so much more exciting to speak to a computer and engage in a lottery of button pushing to speak to an operator.

My favourite part was the 1 minute I spent saying no to the option of providing feedback at the end of the call, before I had even reached my required destination of speaking to a living breathing human.

The conclusion to this protracted investigation was visiting my local train station and buying a ticket from a charming gentleman for the princely sum of £59.30. More than a tank of petrol for my little POLO, and confirming my journey will entail 3 changes of trains, including a charming trip of 2 stations on the underground with my luggage.

What a thrifty, convenient way to travel.

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

Back Home

Had such a lovely weekend.
Got some great photos of the celebs at the Star Trek convention. Apparently it has been covered in the national press too. Did you see? A couple got married dressed at Klingons. Not The Chap and I,I would add!

Unfortunately though I have managed to pack the cable that attaches my camera to my pc. So cannot show you I am afraid for the time being.

Caught the train home early morning which meant I was back for lunchtime.
As I had viewings at the flat over the weekend it was still immaculate.
So, nothing to do.
Hmm mm
But nothing in the house for lunch tomorrow.

Time for a bit of baking methinks.
First bread to get me through the week at work, then some madeleines.
I have been wanting to make them for ages.
Good old Nigella came up trumps with a recipe.
I am getting so much more confident with my baking, changing ingredients and trying to personalise my bakes.

Nigella wanted me to add rose water to the madeleines. But, who keeps that in stock? Vanilla extract worked fine. And to jazz them up a bit I baked in a pea sized amount of marzipan to each cake too.
They were so delicious I ended up making two batches as I ate the first lot!
Yum!
I love it when you can make something delicious at home without a special trip to the supermarket.
Frugally yours
Abigail
X

Star Trek Convention day 2

We left the convention just after lunch after our money was spent.
We got autographs of David Warner, Mark Alaimo, and loads of others. Some were so charming and others... Well not much.
At one point I lost The Chap for half an hour. Turns out he managed to sneak in meeting only blooming mr trek himself. William Shatner. And he got his autograph.
So we left happy.
We then checked our funds at which point TC came out with the quote of the weekend
"I feel like I have been mugged by nerds" lol!
Some of the costumes were fantastic. The trouble and money spent by some is phenomenal!
Others,....well not so sure the Federation would have wanted them.
My other favourite TC quote as we boarded the train back to central London,
"The problem with Star Trek is, with the Federation I would have only been an Engineerer. But in Star Wars, I would have been Hans Solo!"
You got to love his attitude!
Frugally yours
Abigail
X

Star Trek Convention day 1

I downloaded an app today which means I can blog on the go.
How wonderful is new technology?
We are at the convention and it is amazing.
We met Odo, chekov, Worf and saw all the captains.
So many people were dressed up and I got some good photos but I will have to put them when I get back.
Bit expensive, but all good fun.
Frugally yours
Abigail
X