Good lord, where have I been?

[radegund]

Where did the time go?

We're still pretty whacked out after the extension. Snag list is outstanding, but it's essentially done. We live here now, and every day it feels less and less likely that the real owners are going to come back and evict us. Most of the boxes are even unpacked.

Our main object at the moment is to juggle the cashflow so that we squeak unscathed from payday to billpay, slaloming between our creditors like an Olympic athlete. Fun times. [We'll be fine. But it's a little hairy this month and next.]

To that end, we're penny-pinching. (Or cent-cinching, which is the same but in euros.) Problem is, we trimmed out a lot of the fat a few years ago, and it's tough enough to see where we can trim any further.

Things I'm perfectly happy to do, off the very top of my head:

• Go back to washing my hair in bicarb and vinegar (reasonably effective, as I recall from 2006).


• Shop more often in Lidl.


• Find out which of our staple meals are actually cheapest and dearest, and plan accordingly.


• Keep a hawklike eye on expenditure, and stop spending on non-essentials when the allotted budgets are exhausted.


• Work for pay every spare minute I get (which is not very many minutes, admittedly, but I have been doing a bit of paid work).

Things I'd strongly prefer to avoid:

• Stop buying organic food.


• Cut out paid childcare and house cleaning (they're such a relief).

I dunno. What are your favourite money-saving strategies? I'd really love some inspiration.

Comments

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

It's an obvious one, but I've saved a fair amount in the past by not going to the supermarket with a set list, but buying whatever was on special and figuring out what to do with it (also has the effect of expanding your cooking repertoire). Has the extra benefit that you end up eating seasonally without even trying!

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Interesting. We've had the opposite experience: that having a list that we stick to like glue saves money, because then we don't buy stuff on spec that has no place on the menu and goes off quietly while we pretend we can't see it because we only really bought it because it was cheap, not because anyone actually wanted it. Perhaps if we were more disciplined ... or had more headspace to devote to the figuring out part ... ahahaha. Oh well. Eventually, even Fiachra will sleep through the night, and then everything will be possible.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

With gadgets such as pdas, or with internet connection, it should be possible to store recipes so that you can access them in the shop. Then if you see something cheap, you may be able to work out there & then what to do with it & make a decision based on that.