Tuesday 27 January 2015

Tighter than a pair of budgie smugglers

I don’t often write about the fact that our lifestyle could be seen a quite frugal. We don’t go out on a regular basis, rarely drink, neither of us smoke & unlike some of our colleagues we don’t shop as a hobby. Yes we buy things but only when we can afford them & never on a whim.
This is just our life & we are happy & comfortable, we aren't on the breadline by any stretch of the imagination but it does mean our life could be seen as boring.
We are no longer as skint as we used to be, but old habits die hard. Last weekend for instance I defrosted a chunk of turkey left over from Christmas. We had roast turkey for Sunday lunch & the rest was used in turkey sandwiches & turkey supreme. I served the turkey supreme on Saturday with vegetable rice using up half an onion a couple of bruised mushrooms and a handful of frozen peas. Last night I used up the last of the potato from Sunday, added some spinach & made bubble & squeak which I ate with a poached egg.
Our diet tends to be fairly monotonous, not through lack of money but because hubby is a fussy eater & a creature of habit, this actually makes things easier as I don’t have to make many decisions on what to eat as it tends to be the same 10 meals in a repeating cycle. And at least everything is cooked from scratch.
Hubby & I have helped a young couple we know start to cook proper meals for themselves & their toddler, they no longer feed the child on sausage with bought in mashed potato every day. They now make sausage casserole, spaghetti Bolognese & chicken casserole every week and they are gradually adding to their repertoire of recipes.
I delayed my pension for a year & then requested a lump sum, this is still in the bank & has been added to, we were intending to pay it directly off the mortgage, but Santander are proving very difficult & with a possible move on the cards we’ll keep the money tucked away for now.
It’s payday on Thursday, hubby & I both pay an amount into the joint account to pay the bills, what we have left over is ours to spend on what we want/need.
As of next month my reduction in hours means, obviously a reduction in pay so my left over cash is going to be a very small amount but as all I buy is a little yarn occasionally I’m hoping this won’t be a problem.
If I told hubby I was short I could of course reduce my contribution, but I tend to be a bit obsessive about paying my way, so I won’t say anything unless I’m really struggling.

5 comments:

primrosesattic said...

I think you are both sensible.
We are nearly the same, only go shopping when we have to, try to use whats at home rather than keep going food shopping.
Rosezeeta.

Anonymous said...

How nice to hear normal ways of living within your means. Some blogs I have given up on as they were way beyond common sense! Good luck to you, Hubby and your nest egg!!! X

markdebby said...

I bet after a few months you will not miss the money from your drop hours and wonder why you did not reduce a lot sooner.
Syv

TrishWish said...

I think we all have a basic set of repeated meals, changing a bit with the seasons. After all what is a "treat" if its not something different! The bank you mentioned caused me so many problems in the past we refuse to go anywhere near it. I have found time is more valuable and a few years ago when I left I a high powered and long hours I found I needed £5K less a year because the next job I went home on time and cooked properly.

Anonymous said...

From Margie in Toronto - love your outlook and your attitude. I'm getting closer to retirement and having to think much more carefully about how I'm going to manage on a pretty small pension. I'm lucky to live in a large city with lots of entertainment options but many of them cost a LOT of money so I've been scoping out all the freebie or very low cost alternatives and I'm very pleased to know that I won't be short of things to do!

More and more I find that I also stick to a few basic meals - but like today's post - I use bits and pieces to use up leftovers and create new options along the way - and when in doubt - make soup!

Feeling stressed.

I'm worried about Beano, his nose is warm and dry and he hasn't wanted to go out for his usual walks today. My face is sore it feels...