working it out as I go along

I wrote this entry at the same time that I wrote my last entry, but I didn’t post it then, because I didn’t have time to quite finish it. But now I have remembered to finish it, so here it is:

I am always fascinated when something I have always done or been interested in becomes ‘trendy’. Right now the trend is to find ways to be frugal – well, it’s a trend caused by necessity, because of the credit crunch, but it’s something I have always been fascinated by. The credit crunch has not affected me yet, as I’ve never earnt a lot of money, so I’ve always been frugal. And the way my mind works, I actually love finding ways to be frugal. Right now I have to be more frugal than ever, not because of the credit crunch, but because I am choosing to work agency work, and I actually don’t want to work full time, as I find it very exhausting. So I’ve been busy trying to work out the minimum I can live off, so that I know how many hours I need to work. I see time as far more valuable than money (another reason I have restricted my internet usage, because I was wasting my free time online). I would rather have more time to myself and a very simple life, than less time to myself and lots of luxuries.

I have decided I like to work three shifts a week. This is enough money for me to live simply off, and also it forces me to walk long distances three times a week, which helps my health. Incidentally, according to my normal cycle, yesterday would have been the day when I started getting abdominal pains, but none came, so I’m really hoping this walking habit has fixed it. I am observing closely and will obviously have to test for a few months to make sure it is properly having a good effect. Anyway, so I work three shifts a week, and sometimes more if I want to buy something extra like a digital camera.

I have decided to write out my ways of being frugal, because maybe they will be useful for others trying to be frugal. They will probably be a bit haphazard, and I’ll probably miss things out, because I will just think of them as I go along.

1. I rarely use my central heating now. I have two wheat bags that I bought online, and I put them in the microwave for two minutes, and then I put one round my neck and the other one against my back. They keep me warm. I love having something warm against my back. When I was a kid I used to always crouch on the floor with my back against the radiator, whilst I read books. My mum would always tell me this was very bad for my back, but when I asked her why she had no reasons other than it was ‘unnatural’. However, it has never caused any problems with my back.

2. When I do use my central heating, I make sure to coincide it with when I’ve done a load of laundry and am hanging it on a clothes horse by the radiator to dry.

3. I really love having two baths a day, but I realise this costs quite a bit of money, so I have found ways to save money on this. When I have a bath, I don’t run the water very high – it doesn’t really make that much of a difference. I keep planning to replace my morning baths with going swimming (since I have paid for membership at the college pool, and so it’s ‘free’ to use whenever I want), which is also healthy and will make me feel more energetic. Also, I like to go once a week to the sauna and steam room, which I find really relaxing and also it works like a facial on my face, making it really soft and fresh. It costs £1.90, so much cheaper than a facial or a massage, and it can also replace one of my baths, because there are showers there. (I know I can have showers at home and they are cheaper than baths, and I have tried this, but I really find them difficult to get used to. I don’t like the unexpectedness of them. They are easier in the swimming pool or the sauna and steam room, because I’ve already psyched myself up there.)

4. I have decided that each week I will allocate £30 to food and toiletries. In order to keep to this budget, when I go grocery shopping, I mentally add up each thing I put in my basket. Not exactly – I just round up to the nearest pound. So if something is £1.20, I will add it up in my head as £1. If something is £2.69, I add it up in my mind as £3. It works out very close if you do this. I did it the other day, and I added it up to £26, and it turned out to be £25.91. This is good because it stops me being surprised when I get to the checkout, because I’ve spent more than I expected. It also means that if the cashier has made a mistake (such as a two-for-the-price-of-one item being charged as two items) I know and can say something and thus not get overcharged.

5. I look at my gas and electricity meters every day and write down the reading and the time. That way I can monitor how much I am using. I have a goal of using no more than £1 of each per day, and that gives me something to aim for.

6. I use less electricity by mostly using my laptop on battery, and then charging it up when I go on the internet. It used to be that I would leave it plugged in and running all the time, even at night, which obviously is a waste of electricity.

7. I save my leftovers. I never used to do this, because it seemed silly – I live alone, and if I don’t eat all my dinner, the amount left over is not very much! But I have realised lately that if I have some rice leftover, then it is very easy for me to make a packed lunch out of it to take to work – I just add some salad and bean sprouts, and I have a good meal for work.

8. I sprout mung beans and aduki beans and chick peas. They are very easy to sprout, and when they are sprouted, they are healthier than if you cook them. They are full of protein, so a good and cheap meat alternative, and you can put them in salads.

9. I don’t buy junk food – well, I do, but very rarely. This was originally for health reasons, but now I realise it’s a good way to save money. When I fancy crisps or doritos, I will chop up potatoes into little chip shapes and put them in the oven, drizzled with oil, and with chilli powder on. And then I add cheese when they are nearly cooked. This is much cheaper than buying a bag of crisps and tastes nicer and doesn’t have artificial flavourings.

10. I try to shop at Asda around the time when I know they will put stuff on the bargain shelves. This is around 7:00pm or slightly earlier. I try to go at that time and buy stuff cheap. Particularly I like to buy freezable stuff, like lamb chops and chicken legs. I buy these and I put them invididually in freezer bags. So even though lamb chops are quite expensive, if you can buy six of them for £4 in the bargain aisle, and then eat one per day, it only costs 67p per day. I used to eat two lamb chops per day, but I don’t think that much protein is necessary. I eat them with rice, so now i just have one lamb chop and extra rice, and I don’t feel any less satisfied. And often I don’t eat all the rice, so I save it and put it in a packed lunch.

11. If I make a huge salad and don’t eat it all, I don’t throw it away. I just leave it on the table and then I eat the rest of it later, particularly when I’ve just come home from work. I find walking long distances makes me have a good appetite and it makes food taste really good. Sometimes I take ryvita, fruit and nuts to work, and although it seems like a boring meal when I prepare it, it tastes really good when I eat it because I work up an appetite from walking to work. I find walking to work makes simple foods taste better – I don’t have cravings for junk food.

12. Sometimes I sleep in my clothes. This might seem lazy or silly, but the thing is, most of my clothes are extremely loose and comfy and very similar to pyjamas anyway, because I am very uncomfortable if my clothes aren’t soft and loose and comfy. I don’t sleep in clothes I’ve worn to work – I change out of those when I get home from work, because my work can be dirty. But I have other comfy clothes I wear when I’m at home in my house, and there is no particular reason not to wear them to bed. That way I have less to wash in the laundy and so I save on electricity because I do laundry less often.