A frugal life is an easy life!

As we approach December, the Christmas spirit is not quite here yet.
To help get in the mood I tried some Christmas songs, ok but not really the festive mood grabber I wanted (10 weeks of new sprog being awake til 3am has that effect)

I was rooting around the cupboards and all the old family stuff, to see if anything would help. I found a bag of old 45's - managed to knock up a contraption of one of sprog1's turntables and a din plug extention lead to my old amp. Hey presto... old music from the 70's and 80's.

Not content with this I carried on digging around and found sprog1's old toy box from about12 years ago. Also in it was some of my old toys from when toys were toys. Brought back a few memories. From this I dug around some more and found some board games...
Of course!

People don't play games at home because they aren't around the place to use! We always used to play games, so this Christmas, under the big coffee table, will be our old board games.
Imagine if we had a power cut (as they did around here last Christmas) imagine getting snowed in for a week (if only) seriously though, if the games are around, a few sherberts and out they come!
Now where did I put the dice....

Even the radio stations are playing Christmas songs, the street decorations are on in town (I say town, it is more of a street) the weather is turning very cold, all the shops and stores are hammering us with Christmas marketing (most of the stuff for sale is complete tat).

The more thrifty amongst us have already paid our local farmers/butchers money for our Christmas meat, the mince pie ingredients are sat safely in the cupboard, bought at a reduced price ready for baking Christmas Eve.
So to get in the mood, here are my ten favourite Christmas songs (at the moment):

1. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - Johnny Mathis
2. I believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake
3. Merry Christmas everyone - Shakin Stevens
4. Little drummer boy - Bing Crosby and David Bowie
5. Jingle bell rock - Burl Ives
6. Driving home for Christmas - Chris Rea
7. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire - Nat King Cole
8. It's the most wonderful time of the year - Andy Williams
9. All I want for Christmas - Mariah Carey
10. Merry Christmas everyone - Slade

These will no doubt change in the run up to Christmas, but until the big day, stay safe and don't let the marketing dictate your purse strings, be frugal!

I have been battling with Eon and British Gas for more than 12 months now, regarding their cheating (strong word but needed in this case) us out of money!
We pay by smart card, like a credit card with a chip built into it.
It is easy enough, we visit our local garage on payday, putting on a months credit on gas and electricity.

It suits us just fine, we pay in advance for our energy, we don't have any arrears, we don't have any sudden changes in direct debit amounts, and the added bonus, we only pay for what we have bought and no more.
Last year both gas and electricity companies, started sending us a six monthly "statement" - showing that we owed them money!
"Not to worry" they calmly informed us, "it will even itself out over the year!"

NO IT WILL NOT!

Their reasoning for taking money off us in the form of paying for these new arrears, is that because we buy our energy monthly, should the price increase 2 weeks into a month, then we owe them the extra amount of the increases! (Can you believe the cheek of these two companies!)
My argument is simple:
We pay in advance, when I purchase my gas and/or electricity, we pay the price it is then - we could buy £10 or £10,000 it matters not. Our till receipt is our sale of goods contract, we have purchased an amount of energy at the price when I visit the shop and credit our smartcard. The till receipt is a legally binding contract, the energy companies are bound by it, to provide an amount of energy for the price paid.

They are not allowed to increase the price of the goods (in this case, the number of energy units) two weeks down the line - how many times have you purchased a washing machine and then been sent a letter by the store stating the price has increased and you owe them an extra £10-£20? Nope, it has never happened to me either!
The fact is the company wouldn't be able to get away with it under the sale of goods act.
The same is true when buying a car, buying a sofa, etc. The till receipt is a legally binding contract between the customer and the company.

So why are energy companies being allowed to get away with this malpractice?
You tell me, for a year I have been unable to find out why!

Now you have the background, you will understand why I am wary of the new changes to smartcard meters that are being brought in by energy companies.
The smartcard is being phased out and an "energy key" method of payment is being brought in.
British Gas were on the news this week, telling us how these key meters will allow them to get more information so they can "help customers better" - yeah right, since when did a national company help people and save them money? Exactly, it is never happening!

The new key meters will store meter readings on them, give the energy company more information about how much energy the individual household is using. Here's what e-on are telling their customers:

• key meters are more reliable and last longer - we have had one single repair in 12 years
• they will result in fewer call outs for repair - one call out in 12 years? hardly breaking the bank is it?
• The key gives them a meter reading every time it is topped up, so no need for a member of staff to call round and read the meter or send a rep round to your home - so less staff need to be employed, which means less costs for the company, which means that my energy bill will be reduced? Not a chance!

The work required takes only 30 minutes to complete, an appointment will be arranged to suit me.

So I will still have to visit my local shop and buy credit on the key (same as I did with the smartcard) so what will I get out of this new technology?
Will I get cheaper bills? Definately not!
Will I get a more convenient service? Nope - I'll still have to travel to the same place to buy my energy.

So what is in it for them?
Knowledge is power, Tescos - Boots seem to do very well with knowledge of their customers, even in a recession, their profits increase, so what are the energy companies up to? I don't trust them....

Back in the 70's there were two standards of toys, the ones made in Great Britain and those made in Taiwan. Price wise, of course the British made toys cost a bit more, but they could survive the 70's child's hammerings.
The running joke at the time was "made in Taiwan" it was made of lower spec materials and lasted as long as a Christmas tree does.
By the next Christmas, the British made toys were mostly complete and still used, the Taiwan toys, were just a memory.

The simple toy car, British made was die cast with a metal base, it took some real hammering, but the wheels stayed on, didn't bend, the windows didn't break and it didn't come apart. Years later it was still in use, even after being kept under a bed for 3 years, etc.
The Taiwan toy car, looked OK, played with fine for a few days, but an accidental standing on, or any weight or pressure placed upon it, the "axel" would bend in, the plastic base would crack or break off altogether.
I am not having a go at them, you get what you pay for and the Taiwan made ones provided goods for people on lower incomes, as they were cheap to buy.

I walked around our local tescos on Thursday night, it was after 2am, as we had ran out of milk. Whilst there I thought I would have a look around the toys just incase I spotted anything for a Christmas gift.
Firts off, the choice was absolute pants!
Secondly, the quality of the goods was absolute tosh!
Reknown company like MB games, all their prices for their stocking filler games, had shot up to £12???

Most of everything else was cheap tacky tat, which was packaged up to correspond with a TV program or film that's been out. No wonder their value doesn't hold unless they remain unopened and in their packaging, take todays toys out of the packet, within a week, bits would be missing, other plastic parts would be eaten by the dog or damaged with no chance of repair, rendering the toy useless.
The most shocking part of all this, is that the prices were expensive and not based on the actual cost of the product to make, instead, based on paying for the film or TV show copyright licence and the designer packaging that comes with it!

No wonder our kids would rather sit in front of TV screen playing video games, they do not have any good quality toys to play with as they grow up.
Parents are paying for the same toy, made cheaply, over and over again, which comes in different packaging with the cost reflecting the film or tv licence.

What ever happened to quality?

A frugal trick for interior or exterior car mirrors.

Don't buy the special sticking glue or patches to fix mirrors on, they are more than £4 normally and are a waste of space.

Instead buy some "number plate pads" (all car accessory shops have them) they come in 1mm and 6mm thickness, you want the 1mm ones.
they cost around £1.50
Clean the area where the mirror was stuck to, a rag with turps on it is ideal, or washing up liquid on a cloth, make sure its dry, then cut your number plate pad to size, place it on the base of your mirror, push firmly when its in place on your windscreen, for about 30 seconds.
It'll take the windscreen to smash before the thing comes off again!

You can use these pads for all sorts of things indoors or outdoors.
Remember: they are designed to hold number plates on cars driving at 80 mph, I don't think a coat hook or mirror is going to trouble it.
Plus they are cheaper to buy than the designated product.

The reason the glues designed "specially for" sticking them on, are not good, is when condensation hits your screen.
Your mirror is on cold glass, as soon as the warm air hits it, goodbye glue!