Tis the first day of the new year!

Happy new year to anyone who reads this.

At the moment I am watching swagbucks TV and writing this at the same time.
I have Opera as my web browser and when there are 2 tabs open, I click Tile and can have the pages side by side.
So the SBTV can play in one window and I can go to the next video as each one reaches the progress bar point , and still do something else at the same time.

My resolution this year is to get back to frugal earning and veg growing.
I shall also continue with my fitness through exercising and running.

This Christmas my weight has not risen much despite the lack of running.
We were much more sensible about what we ate.
I bought 1 tin of chocolates before Christmas and we received another as a present.
Last year we had 2 tins,received another and also had chocolate oranges.

Today we will have a turkey dinner rather like our Christmas Day meal, with a home made Christmas pud  to follow.

Lunch time was home made bread,crackers, cheese and pate.
Coffee to follow.
The coffee was a free gift from Taylors or Harrowgate.
It is Christmas Blend and is actually very mild which I prefer.

My ebook reader has been busy this week.
So far it has only needed to be recharged once despite daily use for over a week.
I charged it on boxing day and it isnt even 1/4 used yet.


The men have gone for a driving lesson .

What things pay for themselves?

I was thinking about how much we had saved by buying the battery charger I mentioned earlier.
I think we have had it about 15 years.
If I bought a packet of 4 batteries for 3.99 and used them once, they would cost £1 each.
Recharged and used again,they would cost 50 pence each.
Again would cost 33 pence each and again 25 pence.
WE would buy probably 8 sets of batteries in a year as all the cameras use Alkaline batteries and every one has an MP3 player.
8 X £4 is £32
In the first place we might buy £32 worth so that everyone has a set for a camera and a set for an MP3 player but the next time around,
1st recharging the batteries saves £16.
2nd recharge would save £21.12
3rd charge would save £24
4th charge would save £26.72
The better batteries will charge 4 times before being unchargeable.

If you did this sequence for a year you would save £87.84
The charger was £20 and also charges rechargeable batteries.
It would have paid for itself the second time it charged everyones full set.

You often see discarded batteries in the street where they have been removed from MP3 players and just thrown down. These can be recharged if they have a little bit of power remaining.
If you buy second hand electricals, they often have a set of batteries in which can be rejuvenated.

Rechargeables are cheaper now than they were 15 years ago but still run at around £5 for 4 and all depending on size.
With the non rechargeables, you can easily have 3 or 4 charged sets in your bag ready to swap out when your light dims or your camera or MP3 begins to sound tired.

Our charger can charge large sized D batteries(cycle light size) and below and so paid for itself ridiculously fast as we biked a fair bit to get to scouts or drama for the kids .
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We bought our breadmaker some 5 years ago.
 It was about £32
Bread at the time was about 48 pence and we went through about 5 loaves a week .
So we were spending  £2.40 on the cheapest, pappiest, stick to the roof of your mouth 'bread'.
 A bag of flour was around 48 pence and yeast was about 99p a tin.
We could get 2.10 loaves from a bag and about 17 loaves from the yeast.
About 2 pence of electricity.
So about 30 pence a loaf to make it in the machine.
The machine bread was more filling so we made 4 loaves a week to do the same job as 5 shop breads.

We were saving about £1.20 a week on bread
 The bread maker paid for itself in 6 months.
We are still using it today and bread is far more expensive while flour is now 68 pence(32,38 a loaf)  and yeast around 55p(3.23) .a loaf cost is now about 38 pence in the machine.
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My Bicycle.

In 1980 I was traveling 6 miles to work and the same back in London.
The  fare was £8 a week Plus the waiting was tedious and could easily be an hour for going home.
The trip took around 35 minutes on a good day due to London traffic.
I decided to buy a Bicycle to do the trip.
I wanted a new machine. A mans frame because they are less whippy.
So I paid £315 for a machine with 12 gears and a leather saddle and added some lights and a saddle bag.

At first my trip took longer than the bus because I had to walk up the hills but soon, about a month I think, I could ride the whole way.
It wasn't long before my trip was taking me 25 minutes.
The machine had paid for itself in just commuting costs in 9 months.

In 1984 I moved jobs and worked 15 miles from home. It was a train ride costing around £50 for a months ticket or free on my bicycle. It took 58 minutes to cycle it or about 2 hours by public transport.

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As with all of these instances, once the original purchase money is reclaimed in savings,the purchase is actually earning you money in future savings.

I still have that bicycle. It was an expensive outlay in 1980 but is still perfectly sound today.

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Sometimes it pays to sit down with a paper and pencil and do the maths!

Not exercising

Shh another non exercise day!
Well ,on Friday I did the usual pull ups and managed 10 in a row.
100 push ups and some bicycle crunches.

Saturday was walking in to town day so I often don't do a workout as well.
It was cold and wet.

Today I let my learner driver son drive me to the supermarket.
He is getting quite good.
His test is in a month.
We bought everything we need for a weeks meals ,6 bottles of malt vinegar to keep the toilet clean and it all came to £20.70.
I did already have some of the veg as I bought it last week when it was reduced,then chopped and froze it.

The vinegar gets used weekly,2 bottles at a time.
I empty the water from the toilet,replace with vinegar,tuck some paper under the rim (also vinegar sodden) and then leave it all night with the 'do not flush' sign on the seat. In the morning,it gets flushed and brushed. During the week it just gets brushed and the lid and seat get a clean every time I think of it.

This afternoon as it is dry again and a bit warmer, I shall dig my last onion bed and plant the shallots and Garlic. Then it is just a matter of keeping them weed free.
The greenhouse is shut now as it is colder and needs watering just as it always does. It has lettuce and spinach growing in containers.

I really must get my camera back into use. It needs the batteries charging so I shall take them downstairs and plug them into the universal charger.
This charger charges non rechargeable batteries as well as rechargeables so has saved us a fortune over the years.



This one that they have on Amazon does the same thing. I would recommend it for anyone who has kids with lots of battery operated devices as it is a massive money saver.
Plus once the batteries are fully depleted and useless(about the 4th use in my experience) you can still take them to poundland to be recycled.

We buy the energizer batteries as they are strong and recharge back to a good strength each time. It is a false economy to buy the cheap ones, they last a far shorter time and recharge only once or twice.