Lost in Blog Land
I have mentioned before that I recently joined the UK Money Bloggers. The site is well worth a read as it is full of interesting articles on finance and frugality. The members are a lovely, helpful lot with some amazing blogs. I chat regularly to the group on Facebook and they are so willing to share their experience and advice on anything blog related.
This week they have published an article of mine in the Loose Change section about my No Spend Month. Check it out if you get the chance.
Honestly, I would get lost in Blog Land if I had the time. What did we all do before the Internet? Does anybody else spend more time than they should reading lots of blogs?
Dishwasher emergency
Our dishwasher – a brilliant Miele one which was about 12 or 13 years old – finally bit the dust at the weekend. Mr S has pulled it out and managed to sort it on several occasions, but this time it just wouldn’t work. I bought it when there were 5 of us at Shoestring Cottage and very useful it was too. Did we need a new one? I didn’t think so. I reckoned we could go back to that quaint, old-fashioned method of a bowl of soapy water!
However, Mr S mentioned it to his brother and sister in law, and they just happened to know of a dishwasher going for free. Last night they turned up with it and it is now in place. I just need to work out where to put the rinse aid as the light is flashing but there is no obvious place for it to go. I hope we can get it working properly. If not, we will get out the Marigolds. I’m not rushing out to get another one just yet. There is no frugality in buying something if you don’t need it.
Grocery challenge
We overspent slightly on our £35 a week grocery challenge last week. However, we managed to make this last for 10 days, so we are still on target. This week we have spent about £34. We have been having less meat and a lot of pasta and rice. However, we have been eating really healthily, with fruit, salads and yogurt on the menu as well. Anyone else still on a grocery challenge this month? I would love to hear how you are getting on and the kind of meals you are eating.
Do you ever just get an evening where you cannot be bothered to cook? You can’t give in to a takeaway when you are on a tight budget. I feel like this tonight, having fought my way through the flooded roads of Essex and lots of traffic – with very wet feet as our car park was under 4 inches of water! Fortunately I tend to plan an easy meal into my week, in case I am late or don’t feel great and don’t have the energy to cook after work. Tonight we are having fish in breadcrumbs, oven chips and peas. There is no shame in this and at least we aren’t going down the chippy!
I hope it is dry wherever you are and you are making some progress towards frugality!
Margaret Powling says
Is the photo of a car park to demonstrate how much water there was on the ground, Jane?
Well done on all your frugality. However, I really wouldn’t like to be without a dishwasher even though there are only two of us at home. I hope that doesn’t make me sound positively wasteful!
Margaret P
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
My office car park! Not a great way to end the day. Cold, wet feet!
Tania says
My husband is semi retired and normally only works two days but he is covering holiday at the moment. He works in Colchester at the Hythe and it was absolutely gridlock due to the flooding, over 2 foot in places. It took him over 40 minutes to get out of Colchester. Well done on the grocery challenge. I’m cutting right back for the next few months to utilise food in the freezer and cupboards.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Oh Lord! It didn’t take me that long. Colchester seems to have been hit really badly today
Helen Tristram says
Dishwashers are much more economical on water use than hand washing. They also get the dishes much cleaner.I think that I saw 15 litres of water for a dishwasher load compared to 50 for hand washing the equivalent load.
Minimalist45 says
Nice work on the dishwasher front. It was meant to be.
sue cuthbert says
Not sure about dishwasher and emergency being in the same sentence!
We’ve never had one, never wanted one and my washingup bowl uses a lot less than a dishwasher and was less to buy too,
Haven’t been out to see about floods in Suffolk, but it’s been raining all day so there must be some. The farmers must be getting worried
Cathy says
If you Google the make of dishwasher user manual you can usually find instructions on the Internet Hth xxx
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Thanks Cathy. Mr S found it. It now works perfectly
Julia says
Isn’t the weather dire! 🙁
I’ve totally overspent on my grocery challenge so far – spent 2 weeks worth of shopping in just one week! 😮
But I total it up over the month so hopefully I can claw most of it back again before the end of the month!
I think I’ve underestimated how much of a difference it makes when DH is not working away from home each week!! Hopefully they’ll want him back “oop north” again so I can get back on track! 😀
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Lol Julia! Have a word with his boss and say he is messing up your budget
Eloise at thisissixty.blog says
I had a dishwasher for all the years I had a young family at home but haven’t bothered in the past fifteen years as we do not seem to create very much washing up. I reckon it would only need to go on a couple of times a week so it’s just not worth it. My husband does most of it after meals and I tend to wash up as I go along if cooking a lot. I like the extra cupboard space that is created by the lack of one too!
Gillian says
when i can’t be bothered to cook – it’s sandwich and biccies for the night. great!