No photos today I'm afraid. I've been catching up on all of your blogs tonight and came over all whimsical when I read Vintage Vixen's blog tonight. I remembering actually saying to the poor teacher who ran 'Careers' at school that when I grew up that I wanted to be Stevie Nicks. I was 15, a mouth on sticks and had an answer for everything! Poor old fart didn't even know what I was talking about. I think I said I wanted to be a nurse so I could laugh at lots of willies as well..........I think I had to stand outside his office for an hour after school. I was well known in the corridors of my comp!
We've just paid the first of our 'repayments' on our mortgage after having a interest only mortgage for a few years! Previously, we always had a repayment and then stupidly took out a stupidly large mortgage. I've had to gird my loins and dig deep in the frugal repertoire to do this but I will get this house paid for. I can pay up to 10% of the balance a year and I'm going to get 21.5K paid off in 12 months!!! It will nearly starve and freeze us but I'm going to do it!
I thought I would share some of my truly, deeply frugal ideas with people. Some of you reading this may have logged onto 'Frugal Queen' for the very first time today. Over the next seven days, I will be sharing five frugal facts about me every day. Here are today's.
HOW I SAVE MONEY ON THE COSTS OF WATER - Get a water meter. In my water region, South West Water charge £1400 a year for un-metered water per year. Since having a meter I've reduced the amount of water I consume every quarter. I now pay under £300 a year for my water.
Here are my five frugal money savers to cut my water bill by £1100 a year!
1. PERSONAL HYGIENE Stop having baths! I am a bath addict. I can't think of any thing more delicious than a bubbly bath. Now I only shower. Baths are for birthdays and special days. Get a timer in your bathroom (five minutes are all I allow myself). I can wash shoulder length hair in five minutes. I wet my hair, then turn the water off. I then soap it and rinse. I don't do what the bottle says and wash it twice!!! It's a con to sell more shampoo!!! Also, I don't condition! That again is just a con to sell you something you don't need!!!! It will condition itself after a few hours! I don't wash my hair, or myself in the shower every day! I shower every other day. I wash my hair every other shower! I keep it clean by clipping it up and not touching it. Most of the grease on your hair is off your hands.
2. USING GREY WATER Place a bowl under every tap. Every time I wash my hands, or my face or my teeth, the water gets used to flush the toilet. In the kitchen, the water gets taken outside in the summer and poured onto the garden. Make sure some of the water goes down the plug or your drains will block! I also use a large plastic box, or you could use an old baby bath if you have one or get given on, to stand in whilst you are in the shower. I then pour that into watering cans and water the garden. I have run out of rain water from the butts so I really need this water for my veggies. We use homemade natural soap and not much shampoo and very few chemicals, and as I've eaten the veg, I may be proof that this is harmless.
3. THE LOO If it's yellow..........We don't flush pee. We only flush poo. Plus, any hand washing water gets poured down the loo. It's a sin to throw pure drinking water down the toilet so use second hand water. I placed a brick and a water hippo in each cistern, so I've reduced the huge flush in my old style loo by one third.
4. THE WASHING MACHINE - we replaced our top loader, after we'd sold it on eBay, with a triple AAA class front loader, which we chose, not only due to using very little energy but because it used the least water. We place a full size plastic bin next to it. I put the hose from the machine on the side of the bin, to pump the rinse water into the bin. If you use Eco soap powder, which I do sometimes, you can pump all of the water into a bin, or water butt and use it on the garden. I've eaten all of the veg which has been watered by the washing machine waste water and I'm alive.
5. SAVE ALL THE RAIN YOU CAN - Buy as many water butts as you can afford. A good rainy day will fill them and each butt represents a saving of £10 for SWW customers. When it really really rains, I put pots, buckets, pans, in fact any thing that will catch the rain. I use an old bin too, if the butt is full, then I pour the water from the butt into the bin and let the next rain storm fill it up again. Use the rain to rinse the car when you wash it, even to wash the car and windows.
I'll be back tomorrow with five more frugal refreshers of how I reduce my living costs and I'm able to pay off debts at a huge rate and now over pay my mortgage at (fingers crossed) 10% a year.
Until tomorrow,
All my love,
