January Re-set & a Challenge ....

Hello everyone, and welcome to 2026.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that 2026 is going to be calm, happy and healthy for you.

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Christmas seemed a bit strange this year, not knowing exactly who was going to be there for meals on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  Unfortunately, our Granddaughter was working (in retail) on 26th so couldn't come for the buffet at ours, but Grandson brought his girlfriend so I ended up catering for 4 guests, not 6 as expected.  The hot, pulled beef cobs went down a treat.  The M&S beef served 8 generously filled cobs and Grandson (18 and 6ft tall) added stuffing, pigs in blankets, a cheese slice and gravy to his 😯😂  I would definitely buy it again.

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We have decided to carry on with a second year of frugal adventures and we would like our March treat to be a few days away in a hotel somewhere.  With that in mind, January will be a low spend month for food and toiletries etc.  We still have a lot of food in the freezer and store cupboard to go at, so only intend to buy stuff as needed eg fresh bread and milk, and only the fruit and veg for planned meals.  

We intend to use the following and to make it last as long as possible :

The change jar contains £20.25 in cash,

My Nectar card has £42.16 in loyalty points,

Graham's Nectar card has £12.50 in points,

Boots card loyalty points value is £12.44

Nectar points can only be used in multiples of £2.50 which means we can spend £40.00 of mine and £12.50 of Graham's plus the £20.25 in cash.  We will spend the points first and top up what is spent over and above the £2.50 multiples with cash, if you see what I mean?  My Boots points will be used for things like paracetamol,  toothpaste and hand-wash. 

How long can we shop on just the above? Can we manage for the whole of January?  Probably not, but we can try 😁🤞 I'll let you know how we spend it.

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We were both given toiletries for Christmas so have plenty to last for a few months.  My lovely Granddaughter gave me some Liz Earle shower gel and body cream (a real treat ) and my Daughter gave me a lovely perfume, so I will smell delicious for a while at least 😁

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In other news, the energy company reviewed our direct debit payment just before Christmas and it will be reduced from £120 per month to £97.53 from January.  This is seriously good news as we are still in credit and won't need to worry about putting the heating on during this cold snap.  The forecast is for even colder weather over the next few days so we won't be venturing far.  At least the rain has stopped, it's just so damp everywhere.....

In addition, I won't have to fork out for insurance on my car in March, as I no longer have it.  This will save up to £200 and there will be no service or repairs to pay for either.  We intend to use some of the money saved to buy car breakdown cover for our one remaining car, as we are no longer able to deal with car problems ourselves.  This will give us peace of mind on our days out in future. 

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I usually write a new budget for the forthcoming year in March which is when the increases in rent, service charges, home insurance and Council tax take effect.  At least I know that we have enough money coming in for the current bills.  Such a relief...

Anyway, thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be.

Happy New Year !

Angie 💗