Spending to Save

Sorry for my absence, I've had a week of being down in the dumps with no motivation to do anything other than the absolute necessities. DD2 (who has a Masters in Clinical Psychology) thinks I might be bi-polar as I have periods of intense activity when I feel on top of the world and get loads done, followed shortly afterwards by a crash when I'm so depressed and lethargic I could happily spend all day every day in bed feeling sorry for myself. I did finally take myself off to the doctor at the end of last year, but the anti depressants made me ill and I didn't gel with my counsellor so I gave up on it all and haven't been back since. 

I know I should get out and join some social groups and I did enquire about a local craft group but I seem to have developed something of a social anxiety problem and gave up on volunteering last year because I'd get so uptight before going out the door. After 30 years as a stay at home mum who devoted their whole life to raising kids, and as someone who has no interest in fashion, make up, celebrities or buying unnecessary household objects I really feel as if I have very little in common with most of the female population. I do chat at my slimming club, but then I've been going there for over 2 years so already feel comfortable and we have our diet in common. I guess I've turned into this extremely introverted person who has lost their sense of adventure and finds it hard to get pleasure out of most of the activities (even crafting and writing) that I used to love so much. Actually, losing the weight hasn't really helped because I used to love food and baking and it was my feel-good thing and I can't turn to it now if I want to keep the weight off. 

Sorry people for the unloading, I guess I really do need someone to talk to about this stuff who isn't a family member.

Well, wasn't that a fun post (NOT!). 

Now for the original purpose of this post. DH wanted to check tyre pressures today and as I had some money off vouchers for Tesco we went to their petrol station first and then I had a wander around the store. I had a £6 off a £30 spend voucher and a £2.50 club card voucher. I'd already decided to stock up on loo rolls and disinfectant, and I also bought some frozen veg, yogurts, quorn sausages, and a couple of tins of corned beef. The only things I bought not on my list were some rolls and haslet for DH's lunch. My total came to just over £32 but with my vouchers I paid just over £23. On the way home we popped into the pet shop and got 2 big sacks of cat litter. 

As I stocked up on other frozen veg during the week and I still have quite a lot of meat in the freezer, canned and dried stuff on the shelves, plus I have plenty of laundry and other cleaning materials and a stock of loo paper and toothpaste, I'm hoping I won't have to do another big shop this month, especially as we were short by £200 on DH's salary for the extra days he had off when his mum was ill and died last November. I've just about come to the end of the sealed tin coins that I've been living on during January, and that has really helped me to put extra by to offset the reduction.

Despite the reduced income I've still managed to overpay on the mortgage and, since the interest rate on our savings is currently so low, we're trying to decide whether to use part of the savings to pay a huge chunk off the mortgage so we can pay it off completely within a year or so rather than the 2-3 years we'd hoped for. If our mortgage rate was really high it would be a no brainer but our rate is low compared with most. It would be nice to actually own our house though, even if it is a wreck.

Dinner tonight is slow cooker veggie curry and rice - a bag of frozen casserole veg (£1), 2 sachets of Ainsley Harriott lentil dhal (£1 for 4 or 25p each from Approved Foods) and 350g long grain rice (approx 35p from AF). Total cost £1.85 or approx 48p a serving (4 servings).

Hope the weather isn't too dreadful where you are. We're forecast a little snow but hopefully it will clear without causing too much trouble.

That's it, I think. Sorry again for the self-indulgent ramblings. Hope you are feeling a good sight more cheerful than I've been lately. 

Love and hugs to all of you, Helen xx