Feeling sorry for myself

[bonniethomas06]

Gosh I am feeling sorry for myself today.

It is the first day of the month, and we have the princely sum of £112 left in our bank account, after both of us have been paid - having paid off bills. Thankfully, OH's work pay for his fuel - so he can get to work (until the MOT is due on the 22nd, but we'll have to deal with that later). Thankfully, we have bought all of the pig/dog/chicken food required for the month already - so at least our animals won't starve!

And I suppose £27 a week to buy food isn't impossible, just not very enjoyable. I KNOW others have less. I KNOW that at least we have a roof over our heads, which is more than most - and I feel guilty moaning when just the other day I posted about those poor chinease men living in cages. At least we have a house to live in which is (relatively) warm and comfortable.

And, it is partly because we were irresponsible with our christmas spending. I just feel grumpy about it all and resentful that, if January wasn't enough, we are facing another month of being skint. It is so boring and it causes arguements between us. It is such a waste of life not to be able to go anywhere or do anything. Grrrr!

Please people, say something, however harsh, to snap me out of my self pitying wallow!!

[boboff]

Don't look it as missing out, look at it as a challenge.

Pretend you have millions, but just this month you are going to feed a family of 4 for under £100.

Keep notes, write a blog, dream of publishing a stingy arse guide book.

Sell things that you can, look for the easy make, shop for bargains, do a bit of part time work, when you give away a jar of jam, ask for the cash, don't drink, get your meters read, and if you are in credit ask for the cheque.

[merlin]

Move to somewhere more sustainable, don't stop drinking, make your own, cut down on jam, sugar is sooo bad for you.

[Green Aura]

You can do it Bonnie. And with more flair than you imagine

Do a complete inventory of your fridge, freezer, dried goods etc and do a menu plan based on those, working out what you'll need to buy to supplement it. I've just done the same and have worked out a menu plan that means I don't have to go to the dreaded T*sc* until the end of February ( last shop was before Xmas!). We just need milk, cheese and butter from the local shop and our veg box. If you've not got much in the way of veg it might be worth looking at frozen - v. cheap and you only use what you need, no waste at all. I wouldn't recommend them all the time but in a crisis they have their place.

I also try to make sure I put something back in the freezer, so if I make a cottage pie that has 4 portions, I freeze one (as there's only 3 of us and we can and have quite easily eaten the whole lot in one sitting - hence the size of us ).

I suspect, you'll be able to damn near feed yourself for the month, but if you can't - socialise! Have a pot luck supper where each friend provides a course or part of (and tell them to bring a bottle). Or visit family or whoever.

Like Susie said February is a very short month and it'll be over before you notice.

[Thomzo]

Sorry to be a downer but February isn't quite so short this year. It has an extra day, being a leap year.

Bonnie - if it's a kick up the @rse you're after here's one:

If you want to stop moaning about money - go back to the office!

There, I bet that made you feel better about not having much money, at least you're not being miserable at work! I'm still hanging on to two or three days a week which sounds great until you factor in that last week I did at least 7 hours of unpaid overtime across the three days that I was paid for. Still, at least the big boss has done the decent thing about his bonus.

[Milims]

I totaly agree with looking at the situation as a challenge - make a game out of it and it will be much more fun! Why not see just how LITTLE you can spend? As GA said, do an inventory - you'll probably have much more than you think! How about you post your list here and give us the chance to make suggestions and collect a few cheap sugestions for ourselves too! Check out when your local supermarkets do their reductions - last week I picked up £35 worth of meat for £12 - enough to feed 5 of us of at least a month. If you have a local chinese supermarket near you, have a look at what they have there. I bought 2kg yellow split peas for £1.25 instead of aroung 50p for 500g - a saving of 75p - not a lot but if you do that with a number of things it soon adds up. Good luck and good management! Let us know how you get on!

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

I tend to agree with the bit about it's not much of a life without going out and doing things. But, if you view this as an experience (albeit a shit one!) like you'd get if you went out then it just adds to all the things to see in life. Imagine it as something to experience before you die - gotta see the crap as well as all the good stuff!
Hope you make it through the month without getting too depressed

[noplasticbags]

Hi Bonnie,

Thank you for sharing this. I too did my sums (pay day was yesterday) and realised how less than I would like is left for the rest of the month (my MOT is due too!).
Once the monthly bills are taken out I divide what's left into weekly amounts - I find that it's easier to find I've no money left for one or two days a week, knowing that I'll have money again on Monday, rather than getting to about 20th and knowing there's nothing spare until payday.

Breaking it down into smaller time lumps seems to help

On the plus side - at least you've started me posting again - I seem to have totally hibernated from everything (except I have developed a sad obsession with Pinterest this winter)

Bring on the sunshine - everything's better then

[cideristhefuture]

What about asking your family / house hold for a list fave of cheap tea's/ dinners.

egg n chips, jacket spud & beans, veg soup with homemade bread... the list is endless....

as is cheap cuts of meat cooked long and slow. leftovers with spuds made into a pie the next day.

liver, kidney and ribs also good value.

make a list....£112 at the top.........cross off every penny you spend. will make you think if you need it before you spend.

good luck

[Green Aura]

And if all else fails there's the toast sandwich for 7p a portion.

And if the thought of that doesn't give you the necessary kick then I don't know what will.

More seriously, you don't have to go out to have a good time. Invite friends round or visit them or there are other things the two of you can do that generally helps resolve arguments and costs nothing (although you may not want your friends round then).

[baldybloke]

Agree with all the above but have you got anyway of generating extra income. Items you no longer need which you could put on fleabay, or even hold a garage sale.
Coping with adversary can only make you stronger in the long term. Dig deep and find some positives.

[Jessiebean]

cut down on jam,

I make my jam using unrefined dehydrated cane juice so my jam isn't that bad for you.
I am sorry to snigger but I find the slightly incongruous phrase "cut down on jam" has tickled my fancy!(but yes sugar is bad for you!)

ETA something actually helpful. here in Australia we have the $21 challenge (haven't read all the posts yet maybe Nev has beat me to it!) but basically you can use $21 per week *About 10 quid, to buy groceries and add to what you have about the place. Sounds hard but it's sort of fun. I enjoy having to use my wits rather than my wallet to get through life, our business is seasonal so Winter is very lean as far as income goes but we always muddle through, selling things on ebay, eating cheaply and taking food/coffee with us instead of eating out, going to free places for entertainment and doing garden work to keep warm.
Oddly it really is quite entertaining.

[oldjerry]

Didn't see this before the Pig thread,I hate being skint too,truly draining.Forget the bales(too expensive) sustitute bracken,newspaperr,packed soil etc,you'll come up with something.

While you're at it,wwhen I neededto unload a pile of stress,I used to spend as much time as possible getting to know my pigs.When kept your way they are content to be warm and well fed,and I find that really positive(non-pig keepers will think I need sectioning,and they may be right!).Anyhow,if it's as cold as this,you cant do much outside,'cept collect some firewood,sow afew tom plants on your windowsill.

Spring isn't that far away, this poxy winter will soon be done with. BW

[bonniethomas06]

Thank you SO much all, I knew that you would cheer me up and now I just feel silly for being so down about it. I take all of your ideas on board and feel much more positive.

Zoe - such a good point. When you put it like that, hey, bring on the split peas!! I too am hanging on three days a week in a job not too dissimilar to the one I left, but hey, at least it is only three, not five! And it's not forever, much like you. I think I can stretch to tea this feb (probably not biscuits though!) so if you want to meet up for a cuppa at some point, would be good to see your stuff?

And thanks all for the recipe suggestions, I am going to do a big supermarket shop and will post progress reports! I actually like the challenge of frugality now and then. A, hooked on the 'frugal queen' blog (google it, the woman is amazing) the problem is that I live with someone who doesn't look at things that way and just cannot save money. It really helps when you are both on the same page...but I am not discouraged. And anyway, if it isn't there, it isn't there, is it?

Thanks again. I love this place

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Please people, say something, however harsh, to snap me out of my self pitying wallow!!

Well, since no-one else seems inclined to help you with a harsh comment, allow me:

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR BOTTOM AND GET OVER YOURSELF WOMAN!!!

Did that help?

No?

OK - how about this: you did the maths, you know what your situation is and why you are in it, so that's half the battle won. Even at 29 daysn February is shorter, and at the end of it there will be more hours of daylight in a day than at the begining.