The last day of November and what a month......
We accepted an offer on the house and changed our minds about where to move to - for the time being at least ( i.e the hospital side of Ipswich rather than of our old home town 12 miles the other side of the County town ........will we ever get to our hovel in the hills?).
Cols acute allergic reaction to the stuff he had to take to prepare for the camera thing meant they were only able to do part of the investigation so he is still lacking in energy and anemic and waiting for more tests next month to find out why.
It was our first month living entirely on savings.
How glad we are that we paid off the mortgage many years ago and so grateful we were sensible with the money inherited from my mum and dad - we could have gone on crazy spending sprees, cruises, foreign holidays etc. Instead what we invested in extending the house will be repaid when we sell and what we invested into savings accounts is still there for us to live on.
My low/no spend challenge went quite well I think judging by the number of times I avoided buying a magazine! I have nothing to compare our spending with as no one else I know has ever shared what a low spending month in their home would be.
This is how it went :-
Direct Debits for Council Tax, water, phone/broadband and charities plus a birthday gift for our youngest came to £250. Diesel, the cats, the smallholding total about £140, The chemist, hospital car park, post office, a watch battery, clothes, kitchen and laundry was roughly £30. Food just over £100. And a really good amount of the 18 ( will need to re-think next year) Christmas presents that we are giving this year:- just over £300 making a grand total of money spent this month of around £830.
Is that good, bad or indifferent? I'd love to know.
In December we have car insurance, an electric bill, a big food shop and the rest of the Christmas presents to buy but again I will be avoiding all magazines and unnecessary spending.
The very final tip of the 30 ways to save £1 list first published in 2013 was- Drive wisely, accelerate and brake slowly and don't carry more weight than you have to and take off the roof rack.
Out of all 30 tips I think the most useful one if you are serious about living on less is to STOP before you rush out to buy something and think if there is a way to use something you already have. Is the thing you are going to buy a need or a want? Are you buying something in order to save money - really? Is there something more useful you could do with that money? Will you regret what you have bought later?
And finally to cheer up a wet, grey end of November day here are a few busy bird feeder pictures
Back Tomorrow
Sue
