Friendship and Falling Leaves, Frugal Autumn Continued

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Weight thank goodness your ds is ok now. It's horrible when they are that sick. It gives you a real fright.

Great news ds is home

Great news to hear frugaleer family members are on the mend!

Just had an email from Octopus saying our direct debit is £67 less this month as part of the govt help scheme, but surely this isn’t actually going to benefit us? The DD is a notional sum, and if they charge us £67 less DD surely all that means is that it won’t cover our usage? Wouldn’t it be better to give us the cash or add it as credit to our account?

Gen i dont fully understand it all but we're getting ours added as credit to our account. Which makes a little bit more sense, I think

Mrs sounds like things are on the up.

I really can’t see how reducing the direct debit helps at all?! Can anyone explain to me? 😥

@Gensola I had a look on their twitter as people have been asking the same question. They've been asking people to message them x

The £66 payments start in Oct so they are reducing your DD to account for this.
You have the option to.leave your DD the same and build up credit if you wish.

Hi just catching up. Sorry for your loss @AdoraBell .

Good to hear DS is ok @WeightoftheWorld that must have been so scary.

Ok, so who started the whole Seasalt coat chat??? Because I got one in the sale which I love. And now some enablers on here have got me checking out Vinted. Where I’ve found loads more that I want! Must resist…..

Evening.

Great news re your DS weight. Such a relief. It's very hard going into hospital everyday. I'm about four months in, but my DC are adults. Still a juggling act. Rest and relax and recharge as well as you can now. I prefer not to dwell on the early stages, but I'll need to process at some stage.

Fuel today - £70.

And got twitchy re interest rates so used some savings to pay off a chunk of the mortgage. We are fortunately at the stage where the payments are taking chunks off the outstanding loan rather than just the interest and I need the security of knowing we can keep the house more than anything. Realistically, the savings would pay for a holiday or car etc, and that's unlikely in the short term, so better use the money sensibly. I think!

I’m getting twitchy about our new mortgage product that is still pending full approval. DH finally went in to check on our account that we have submitted everything as I kept reminding him. To be fair, I normally sort these things as I have more time out of work, but the mortgage broker put DH as the contact on the account because DH is a bloke

We have 3 more years on our current fix, we would really struggle at predicted 6% interest rates so just have to hope we can over pay mortgage once we are debt free and try to increase our equity as much as possible. We have a short mortgage because of DH age so our repayments are really high even though we have low interest and we didn’t borrow anywhere near the max we could have.

Sorry, not sorry about the sea salt coats s as I’m wondering how I can justify one 🤔

we thankfully took a 5 yr fix mortgage last year, I would throw everything at it I can too when the renovations are done so I hear yeah need

reducing dd is a bonkers move, let’s hope the contract centers are staffed to cope with the calls.

nsd yesterday, Just dog Walker to pay today as I’m in a 6 hour event

Enjoy the event life, that's a fair time to be at one.

Yeah, dawned on me I'm unlikely to realistically need a holiday pot for the next few months and if anything, one of the cars will be sold, so might as well pay the mortgage down.

The interest rate hike is worrying for all, I am concerned for renters, it's even more of an insecure situation. And first time buyers etc.

Day at the office. Food made. No spends planned.

Thai veg curry for tea.

Told DD to stew the huge bag of apples from the allotment and freeze them.

Might be guilty of the enabling on Vinted...I'm currently searching and favouriting 'chunky jumpers'🤣

reducing dd is a bonkers move, let’s hope the contract centers are staffed to cope with the calls.

Just looked at mine again -for clarity.

My current DD was reduced by the £66 payment due in Oct but they added the 27% which is roughly what the new government directed cap works out as from 1st Oct.
This ensures my new DD will cover the expected usage .

I found a job i really want

The lady messaged me on LinkedIn and asked to have an initial chat. What is that? 😆 I know I'm perfect for the job, great hours & it's local. But why an initial chat instead of an interview. She seems very casual. I'm quite niche and DH is wondering if she wasn't expecting an eager local applicant. Haha!

NSD although I want to buy nice things. But I won't...

Good luck collie, it will be to tell you about the role and gauge your interest

chunky jumpers you say need,.,,,,

Is it inappropriate just to tell her "gimme the job, I want it" 😆 I'm just so lonely working from home doing little self employed jobs. I love it but I think it's making me feel sad.

So a role in an office for a day or two a week would be perfect.

I can feel the air coming down the chimney. It's howling too. Ahh. I'm home alone today so I might just cover myself up in blankets and crank up the music.

Ooh good luck collie
I’m doing a 2 hour work event this eve as a sort of test to see if I can cope. Had also agreed to a meeting this morning and to drop into a leaving tea this afternoon but have apologised for those as there’s no way I can do both then the event. Need to be realistic!

Not in so many words though I did to someone last week but I already know them

it’s an opportunity that I’m very interested and has come along at a fortuitous time for my availability… 😂

Thanks everyone :) was a nice interview.

I've checked how much we saved this month and its almost £800! That's very careful food budget, me working freelance a little bit and us being super super frugal with fuel.

Also getting refunds for a few things! Like the water company refunding us and also my dentist being paid for by the supermarket etc...

It hasn't been easy. And my heart is all fluttery from stress and niggles.

But I'm so bloody chuffed!

And that £800 goes into an account which is our emergency fund which was at £0 before, and I hated it. So we're trying to build it back up again.

We do informal chats to give people more information about the job reality is to screen out the weirdos

@Timetoswitch 🤣🤣🤣 do the successful ones get an interview afterwards?

Sounds like an excellent day all round, Collie! great progress. Wish I could find £800, but we will get there. DH and I made a good start at the weekend with our 'let's pull together and set some joint plans' initiative. I mean, we're nowhere near the whole picture, barely even one corner, but we've got a 3 year plan in place for the car fund, he's starting to monitor his expenditure more closely and fill out a spreadsheet (mm, got the horn for him now), and we've started to put our cards on the table about future priorities and dreams.

In other frugal news, E.ON wrote to notify me of the £66 rebate on this month's DD, but I have asked them to keep it. The next payment is the last of our (relatively) cheap fix which we secured before the rises in the price cap last year. After this it goes up to around £260 pcm before the rebate. So it seems to make sense to try and build up a bit of credit while the price and our usage is low.

I have started to pile on the layers - merino, cashmere, alpaca socks, sheepskin slippers. I was cold in bed for a while last night, despite putting on the heavier duvet. This is not a good sign, since it's still September and double figures outside.

Was going to go to Aldi today, but have decided instead to make frugal soup from various ends of veg and lentils; and dinner tonight will be pasta with roast peppers and tomatoes.