Sunshine

Well it's sunny outside and we should all be making the most of it. Another week of work ticked off and a busy one at that, so its time to enjoy the weekend, a day out is in order.
Now how do you have a day out without spending any money?
We have decided on a trip to the coast, luckily we only live an hour away from the sun, sand and surf so petrol won't cost too much, but there is the dilemma of fish and chips versus picnic. Picnic should be cheaper but fresh fish and chips is the ultimate luxury so maybe just once this month we shall splash out, but if our financial will power wins it will be some home made sandwiches, English apples picked from the tree and home made cakes. We'll be packing up our thermos flasks and some Martha proof snacks and all we need then is the picnic blanket, bucket and spade and we are off. Hopefully the weather will hold and the rest of East Anglia won't have had the same idea as us!

Ebay Assist

My daughters feet grow daily and my six year old teachers wardrobe is looking a bit shabby. The money saving rules dictate I'm not allowed to spend, but needs must so I've been hitting the eBay searchs. Kids shoes still go for a fair few pounds but I'm watching some preloved Clarks that hopefully won't carry the £30 price tag of a new pair. As for my proffesional attire I've grabbed some great bargains bidding at the last moment. Two skirts and some trousers none of which went over the £1 mark and best of all I get some post which isn't a bill!

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

£96 And Counting

Routine equals success, the nightly preparation of snacks and sustinance for the following day. The inbuilt habit to pick up your lunchbox on the way out to work. We have nearly completed our first month back at school since summer holidays and we haven't failed once to take our own packing up. Max has had one unfortunate day where all he consumed was two rounds of peanut butter sarnies but on the whole lunch is good. Martha and I are even baking home made treats to battle the sugar hit you need to see you through the afternoon. The best thing though is the feeling of saving money. Max isn't piling round after round of 30p's into the staff room coffee machine and I'm avoiding the daily 50p spent on afternoon cake. This month we think we've added nearly £100 into the kitty from packing up not buying out. I need to deduct from that a tenner for buying two new thermos flasks after obliterating the old ones caps in the microwave in an attempt to steralise them but that's still not bad. Now I just need anithervVicky Blick visit to cook us up a couple more batches of sausage pie for next month and we are truly sorted.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

Tasty Savings

Saved money today by baking. I followed the no wastage rules and whipped up a batch of chocolate and banana cupcakes. Utilising the very dodgy bananas and some scrapings from a jar of honey. They were very delicious (were being the word to choose as they are now all eaten!) Tomorrow I think it's autumnal enough to cook the first roast of the season and I shall see how many meals I can get out of the leftovers (if there are any). I'm looking forward to the eating already.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

A Hobbit House?

Just a quick post today as I have a pile of school admin to sort before bedtime. Tonight's tip bit comes from my good friend Mr Todd. Now I would love to build me one of these.

This clever man designed and built his house with just the help of his father in law and all for just £3000. Only trouble is he got some free woodland to build it in. Woodland owners let us know if we can come and build a house amongst your trees. For more pictures check out
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/Man-builds-stunning-hobbit-yahoofinanceuk-1514084024.html
On a different note our electricity has decided to go AWOL and we are without power to any upstairs sockets. We only discovered this on our return from work, the fuses had tripped and the power had been off all day! It's good news for the electric bill but not so good for the repair bill. Glad we have been living on a tight budget, it may all get spent on the repairs, that's if I can't persuade the electrician to take payment in cakes or handmade green fair ipod holders!

Shabby Chic?

I've been meaning to post this since the weekend. What a slacker.
Last week Mrs Chicken suffered a cat attack (she survived it, slightly shaken though she hasn't laid an egg since!) We decided it was time our free rangers got cooped up when we weren't around to protect them. In the spirit of saving rather than spending Max went into super scavenge mode. Our neighbor Carl (of the famous Carl cookie) gave us some posts from his wood stash and Mr Next Door (I can't remember his first name and embarrassment stops me from asking him) donated us a little more. A couple of hours spent scavenging in the waste ground behind our house and Max had enough to knock up this little number. You may call it rickety or bodged but I think its fantastic and with a splash of blue to match their house and maybe even a bit of bunting to decorate it it will look dandy. Most importantly it saved us a few bob and it's protected our feathered friends from cat attack.

School Photos

Martha has got her school photo tomorrow. Well nursery photo. Last year we didn't even realise she was having one taken and it was pure luck she turned up in a clean and coordinating outfit. When we saw the shots we were suckered in to buying the budget set (not that budget at £27). This year we are adamant we will not buckle no matter how cute she looks. To help our resolve I did some maths and worked out that if we bought a photo every year of her nursery and school days from now until she finishes school (which hopefully she will and not become a delinquent ) then we would spend a massive £400. Now that's enough to buy her a first car in years to come, or pay for several euro tunnel crossings to France, or even renovate our bathroom. So sorry Martha, but I think I will be taking the nursery photo this year.

Music Matters

Thirty pounds a day is a challenge. We aren't vast earners and we don't lead a lifestyles of excess, in fact I can't even remember the last time we frittered away our hard earned money on a morning in a coffee shop or a trip to Primarni. So if we want to save we are really going to have to sell. My Ebay items are slowly ticking over with a watcher here or there and the next round of autions may include my beloved gold 80's heels, but that's just not enough. Tonight I discovered Music Magpie (care of a tip off from my sister) Its a nifty little site that offers you cash for your old CD's and DVD's, the proccess is quite laborious needing you to type in and search each barcode and some items only clock up pennies but the odd one I typed in was worth a pound or more. Max owns the worlds biggest CD collection most of which has been decanted onto the worlds biggest Ipod and my Cd collection dates back to the early 90's so I definitely think there are a few things we could say farewell to, and that's before we've begun rummaging through the massive DVD stockpile. Music Magpie will freepost or free collect your items and then send you a check to pay straight into the mortgage account. I think Max's penance for breaking the spending rules may be an evening of barcode typing. Who knows there might be £50 or more waiting for our efforts, but let's just hope we never loose our iPod once we are CD free.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

One For My Mum

My lovely mother spent last night on a sewing mission. Battling to make peg bags while I attempted glasses cases and phone covers. Tonight I worked alone hoping to do her proud. I spent over an hour wrestling with a clutch bag prototype and then twenty five minutes on mark two. I won't say they are as good as hers as they wern't but Max viewed the final article saying "I think you can sell some of those" so it felt like a good nights work. Tomorrow night is vintage fabric iPhone holders and the night after laptop cases. I think my sewing machine and I shall become very good friends over the next month. And if nothing sells at the fayre I will have plenty of handmade christmas presents ready to go.
Mum if you're reading this I'll post up some pictures tomorrow.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

Max Broke The Rules

Max gave me the afternoon off. I spent it stitching and sewing items for the green fair while eating oodles of Carl Cookies (cookies our lovely neighbor Carl bakes). I had a most relaxing time and Max busied himself taking Martha to the park and to feed the ducks. On their return Martha called out that she had a present for me. I got a little excited and then as she handed me a little book I turned it over to discover it was a Thomas The Tank Engine book and she was clutching two others, so mot so much a present for me more three for her! Apparently the trip to Waterstones was a money saving exercise as the books three for two but Max is also the proud owner of a new Mark Kermode book. Tut tut indeed. I shall have to ban him from taking his wallet with him on trips out especially as Martha says they also went in a toy shop!

The Lunch Bunch

My folks are here and fully encouraging the five years to mortgage freedom. My dads encouraging us to get solar panels (best long term money saver ever) and my mum is cooking her heart out on a quest to feed and organise us. What started as a chat about how dull pack lunchs are led into a full on lunch mission. A tenner spent at the blue and red supermarket created sausage pizza, quiche, sausage rolls and my token contribution of windfall apple tart and don't forget all this was cooked alongside the regular dinner and while doing a spot of baking with the tiddler she's a fiend! The long and the short if it us we created 16 packed lunch portions at around 60p each, none of which are boring cheese sandwiches and all of which are now labelled up in the freezer waiting to be chomped! Top money saving marks.

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

100 Days To Go

Christmas is lumbering slowly towards us. Its a great time of the year for overeating and drinking and also for getting a little something for those you love, which set me thinking how present buying and mince pie making will fit into the extreme budgeting calculator. It just so happens that other people seem to be pinching their pennies too (don't know why that is hey David Cameron?) and while I was looking at Christmas things I found a helpful little device to turn those pennies into pounds.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/income/demohohotivator/
It was an entertaining way to see that if I gave up my daily snickers bar (which obviously I am no longer allowed) at 60p per day would give me £61 in cash towards pressies. With a big family and two lovely toddlers to buy pressies for £60 doesn't go that far, but I've gone down the handmade presents route before and it was a bit of a disaster. I think the main trouble was I started with only a couple of weeks to go and making something for everyone in the family was a bit too much of a challenge. My poor dad graciously accepted his pair of his and hers canal boating fingerless gloves without complaining that one hands glove was considerably larger than the other and my younger sister still has her jar of handmade marmalade untouched in the cupboard a year on which is somewhat a bad sign. I shall have to get the thinking cap on for this year and meanwhile I shall keep playing on the hohotivator!

chilly At Bedtime

It's getting cold, nearing that time of year that I like to get my electric blanket plugged in and reved up. This winter though I shall have to weigh up the benefits of getting into a pre-heated bed against the downside of larger electricity bill. I am a complete Scrooge when it comes to finally turning the heating on. I certainly don't allow the spare room radiator on unless it's being occupied and I'd much rather have a roaring fire going than radiators on. Max and I shall have to steel ourselves for our yearly log hunt, scrambling about on wasteland to find chopped down trees or as my neighbour suggested going skipping (looking in skips not the childrens game) to find discarded wood. Perhaps instead of the electric blanket I should unblock the fireplace in our bedroom, or maybe just buy some thermals and a wooly hat for bedtime. Who says romance is dead!

Posted from Blogium for iPhone

Money Saving Tip

Today's money saving tip comes from Mr Jones and it is excellent, if not a little cheeky.
Anything you want to charge eg, phone, ipod, batteries, take it in to work plug it in and off you go. That's definitely going to save a few pennies, but be careful it may loose you many more if you get spotted and get the sack!

One For the Girls

Men, unless you are strong stomached, liberal and want to know how you can get out of the enforced dash to Tesco to buy emergency Tampax for your lady friend then look away now.

Ok you have been warned, last chance

So ladies. The Mooncup, the idea terrifies me, this strange 'cup' seems like some archaic form of contraception or something to do with pregnancy. If you are lost at this point and have no idea what I'm talking about then please check out this link as I am not going into details here!
http://www.mooncup.co.uk/

Two trusted sources have bought this little gismo to my attention and assured me that once experienced I will never go back. Initially I was interested purely in the interest of saving some cash for our cause, but this purchase would also see me doing my bit for the environment and for the health of my body.
The average lady spends between £3-£7 per joyous time of the month and that is around £60 a year. An investment of £20 now could save me £40 this year and then over £250 in five years.
The real dilemma is if I am brave enough to try it, if I am it certainly won't be while I'm at work, it will be in the comfort and safety of my own home and goodness knows what Max would think if he found it, he'd probably faint on the spot.
I'll keep you updated.

Specualte to Accumulate

It's time to make money, not just save it. The more cash in the pot the better. As far as I am aware we do not have any rare antiques lurking in our attic and there is no way I'm selling my camera or laptop to get us closer to mortgage freedom, so it seems some hard work may have to go into making the extra cash.
I have spent this afternoon rummaging about through draws and cupboards and I have found an unusual selection of clutter that is due to be listed on Ebay this evening. I have even considered throwing my vintage cowboy boots into the mix, as the last time I went out in them Max asked if I was deliberately dressed as a cowboy!
I shall then be investing my profits in buying the raw ingredients to make some fabulous hand crafted bits (or clutter as most of my family would say!) and then attempting to sell said items at the green fayre coming up in November. Well that is the plan anyway though I haven't quite worked out what I'm going to make and who might actually buy it, but I have started experimenting and hey, we shall just have to wait and see. The stall cost £20 and I've gone in with a friend so hopefully it will be a laugh if nothing else. If it is successful I may have to turn the cellar into my crafting empire and hit the Christmas Fayre's too.
"Cup Cosy" experiments and windfall apple cakes to fuel experimentation.

Here's To The Numbers

We are nearly a fortnight into our cash crackdown and at the end of this month we will embark on the biggest challenge possible for a couple who have no financial sensibilities whatsoever.

So I thought I would try and explain (maybe rather poorly) where the theory comes from.
If you had a £200,000 repayment mortgage over 25 years, which is a bit more than we have but will do for the purpose of illustration, by paying off an extra £150 per month or £5 per day (packet of fags, bottle of reasonable wine) you will magically save over £40,000 in interest and reduce your mortgage by almost 5 years. I will comment here that I'm not entirely sure what exact interest rate is used to calculate this but the idea is that the more cash you pay off the less interest you will incurring as the debt is reducing more rapidly.

If you paid off an extra £400 per month (£15 per day) you would save around £7o,000 in interest payments and reduce your mortgage by nearly ten years.

So, the next stage is to go more extreme, we could have opted for the suggestions of paying the mortgage off in 2 years but I think you must have to be earning one heck of a lot and be spending a lot too, so we reckon on five years, though this is where it may all go pear shaped, we doubled the £400 to £800 and the £15 to £30 and hey presto we are off.

The final hurdle that needs overcoming is the fact that our over-payments each month are limited to £500 so if this craziness actually works out then we may have to do some mortgage re-jigging at the next review and in the meantime any extra dosh can go towards those cheeky credit card and student loan companies.

Anyone who has genuine maths ability (or who is employed as a mortgage advisor) please feel free to correct me, though in a gentle way please so you don't dash my hopes and dreams. Tomorrow I shall be back to anecdotal ramblings and hopefully steering clear of the maths for a while but thank-you for your patience.

Re-Calculating

Having gone Facebook public with my blog it appears that I may have made some rather outrageous claims and for the sake of other dishwasher users its time to put the record straight.
A lovely young man I used to teach (who is rather better at maths than me!) pointed out that my energy meter may be a little (or a lot in this case) inaccurate and that actually far from being an electricity gobbling demon it is actually quite an efficient little helper. Rather than the gigantic £5 per session I thought it cost, it is far more likely to be costing me about 20p per hit. So without a hint of guilt I shall load it up and set it off, while I sit down and relax instead of slaving over sodding washing up.
Later I shall be tackling the ins and outs of this paying your mortgage of malarkey for my brother in law who has been attempting to dash my hopes of mortgage freedom! I shall be calling on Max for maths assistance with this so I shall have to wait for the footy to be over, either that or call upon Dad skills and get him to do the sums for me.
Oh yes, while I'm at it I shall maybe exploring the realms of on-line ASDA shopping, moon cups and slow cookers, it seems that everyone has their own way of saving these days, I just need to steal them all to help me in my quest!

Time For Some Maths

We have spent too long chit chatting about how we are going to save and haven't begun to work out how much it is possible to save in one month. I'm hoping seeing the hard cash totals will encourage us on and keep us away from wine in the week and extra treats at the weekend.
so here's our totals so far.

Taking packed lunch and a thermos £3.50 a day so a monthly saving of £115 (no its not bad maths, I work three days a week and Max five)

Not running the dishwasher £5ish a day so a monthly saving of £130 (thats is mega encouragement to wash up not load up and switch on)

Only going to the supermarket once a week £60 versus normally over £100 so monthly savings of £160 (although we have cracked a bit on this we are still being pretty strict)

So the total we 'could' save this month is over £400 and that's not bad at all, however it is way off the £900 we need to save each month but we shall take it in baby steps. The only trouble is the chickens need a new bag of food, Martha is angling for some new felt tip pens and I'd like some new clothes to go with my new job. Factory warehouse shop here we come!

p.s If you read this earlier there was some extremely bad maths in my packed lunch sums, apologies but it's all corrected now!

Harvest Time

I long to be self sufficient. I suffer from severe vegetable patch envy when I see other peoples success and yet I just can't seem to pull off my own gardening prowess and that is something I am definitely going to need when I am living mortgage free in my earth ship (otherwise known as a hippy house) making my living through exhibiting my photography while Max writes his best selling crime novel.
Part of the blame rests on me, I never really bother to read gardening books fully, I brush over the detail and instead ooh and ahh over the images. But a large part of the blame rests on my daughters shoulders too, only today I discovered her in the garden with her Early Learning Centre scissors hacking the runner beans to pieces under the illusion she was harvesting them and she just adores the tomato plants, but hasn't quite worked out that a tomato needs to be red to be edible, of my pathetic harvest she has already plucked, bitten into then spat out nearly half a dozen, removed all the support canes to be stinging nettle whippers and copiously watered them (with not only the watering can but also the contents of her potty).
Next year I may not only have to slug proof my veg patch but toddler proof it too, that or plant so many strawberry plants that she will be so busy gorging herself that everything else will get the chance to reach its potential.
My shambolic attempt at tomato plants, not enough for a salad, let alone a batch of chutney.

DVD Rentals into liquidation

Max is a sucker for the DVD Isle at Supermarkets. I think its a male thing, maybe hormones are pumped into the air to entice them over. I think he could spend at least half an hour perusing the £3 DVD selection. We buy masses of films, normally all pretty cheap refusing to buy something at full price. Our cellar shelves are bowing under the weight of the whole James Bond collection, and everything from Bourne to Hayao Miyazaki animations. You name it we have been tempted into buying it. We lend out so many DVD's that its become a family joke that we are like a rental store. So our customer base will be sad to hear that we are going into liquidation and what's more the stock is soon to be sold off via car boot sales and eBay. (The DVDs alone will probably clear the mortgage debt)
Instead we've taken to storing up masses of movies on our sky box and even more savvy watching films and documentaries via YouTube (as I write this I do wonder about the legality of films on YouTube) This week alone we have saved our selves £22 and had the pleasure of watching Nuts in May and Encounters at the end of the world. If you are prepared to have anything you view split up into many parts (seven for Werner Herzog) then its my new recommended form of viewing. Although I am careful to say here I don't condone the watching of pirate videos!

Out of Rations

We were going to go on the wine wagon, only allowing ourselves a glass or two at weekends. Unfortunately the shock to our systems of returning to full time employment after six weeks summer holidays caused a severe outbreak of wine consumption and three days into our two bottles a week ration we are out of supplies.
Now here is the real dilemma:
Max says buy next weeks ration tomorrow and go without next week.
I suggest drinking squash till the weekend and then treating ourselves to a first week back at school bottle.
Hmm which to choose......
On a positive note we did have the most delicious Delia Frugal food dinner and for the cost of brown rice, celery, peppers and mushrooms had a scrumptious tea (all be it washed down with the last of the illicit wine!)

Dirty Dishes

I am addicted to checking my energy monitor. Rushing about the house, switching lights off, un-plugging random appliances and generally trying to get it down to the lowest possible cost per day. (About 20p at one point with nothing whatsoever on at which point I considered turning the monitor itself off!)
However I am horrified to discover that running my most loved and luxurious appliance, namely the dishwasher racks up a cost of over £130 per day to run. Clearly it is not running 24/7 but it does run for a good hour nearly every day and broken down that's nearly a £5 a day (If my maths is correct which it very possibly isn't) It is with a heavy heart that I realised that it probably doesn't cost me any where near £5 in gas and electricity to heat up a sink full of water and have the lights on while I wash up.
£5 is a fair chunk of the magical £30 that we need to save each day, so it seems my beloved dishwasher may have to take a backseat for a while and only be fired up on special occasions.
So, back to pushing up our sleeves and slipping on the marigolds. I think I'm going to need a very inspirational picture hanging above the sink to help me get through the next half decade of washing up.

Online Abandoned!

I got my weekly shop down to under £60 and that included wine and nappies, so not too bad. But then Sainsbury's wanted the pleasure of charging me £6 to get it all delivered so where's my saving? That £6 could by Martha a 'Charlie and Lola' hairband and me a king size Snickers bar with change left over, so in my eyes I'm definitely losing out.
Instead of doing it online, tomorrow we are having a family outing to the supermarket, I've written out the list and we shall go with full stomachs and a packet of Smarties (oh no I mean healthy snacks) to placate Martha with as she careers around the aisles grabbing everything within arms reach.
Now the real question is which supermarket to go to? Do I stick as a shopping snob and go to Sainsburys or go with the statistics and hit the aisles of Asda? My mum would be shouting Lidl at this point but with my nearest store half an hour away it defeats the object and I would probably end up spending far more on unusual European looking delights (like breakfast biscuits, honey with almonds and Cherry Brandy) and getting some obscure gardening or DIY bargains and lots of rock bottom priced wine too!
Whichever one I choose I'm bound to turn up without my reward card and having left my bags for life and the shopping list in the hallway at home!

Online Shopping

Watch this space. I am about to attempt an online supermarket shop (If i can get it delivered before my cupboards become truly bare!)
I normally spend at least £70 a week on my shopping but a fair portion of my shopping goes 'off list' and is bought sporadically or because Martha and I are hungry. We often get to the till with a selection of semi eaten products, some awful Disney branded hair accessories and a magazine for her and me too (If we've been good)!
I'm hoping I can do the lot for £30 but its going to be tough as that includes pack lunches. I'm off to read Delia's Frugal Food before I get shopping.

Action Taken

So now this is stuck on the fridge to remind us of the rules. Will it work? Who Knows......

So I lied!

Apologies folks, I told a little white lie yesterday. A white, crisp, fruity one in the shape of a bottle of wine. It was a fundamental rule broken (Only to allow ourselves a glass of wine at the weekends)
We couldn't help it though. It was just sitting there waiting to be drunk and the sun was shining and it was the last day of summer. Plus it helped ease my 'first day at a new job' nerves. Hope you will forgive us, especially as tonight we have succumbed to a sharing size bar of chocolate. So we will need forgiving for that tomorrow too! Opps I think more will power will be required, I better take action.

Did I Break Even?

It is the last day of summer and the sun is actually shining.
A stroll with my sister and my daughter down by the river turned into a slow cooking in Skinny Jeans and shoulder carrying, so as we sweated our way past a co-op my canny daughter pointed out that an ice lolly would be good. Initially I resisted but as the air con blasted out from the shop and the icy chill from the freezers whirred out at us I thought, "hmm what harm would a Feast do to the budget?" so as I already owe my sister a Tapas dinner from my card being declined last month I brought her one too and Martha chose a Fab. Now that £2.70ish brought us a great deal of pleasure as we wandered back to my sisters flat, slurping and crunching and generally feeling much more chilled.
However wracked with guilt on the way home and hoping Martha wouldn't 'fab' blab to Max, I decided to avoid the supermarket and rustle up dinner from the 'on the turn' selection of ingredients in our cupboards and with one of the giant (and I mean giant) marrows my sister gave me from her allotment. I did the business, stuffed Marrow with lentils, tomatoes and slightly suspicious Feta cheese. Even Max who would normally be highly alarmed by a dinner involving both lentils and Marrow had seconds.
So on the whole even though I did have another moment of weakness I made up for it with my chef savvy, hopefully creating a financial equilibrium that won't damage the super saving month too much. £6 down 30 days to go!
The Marrow in all its glory, tomorrow I have to decide what to do with the other half, hmm any suggestions?