Happy New Year! (Better Late Than Never...)

Well hello there.  So 2012 is here...and already nearly halfway through the first month!  Pretty scary how time flies.

So how was the New Year for you then?  I hope it was good fun for you if you're into it and if you're not, well, I hope you just made the best of it somehow.

We stayed up late and watched the fireworks from London which I personally loved and thought were fantastic.  I wished I was there for them but I know what the long trek home afterwards is like (I was there on the side of the Thames as 1999 slipped into 2000) and my feet still ache when I think about it!

So a new year and new challenges and all that.  The first challenge is to keep warm here without going bankrupt!  We live in a modern house with no fireplace at all or any place for any type of woodburner so we're 100% reliant on central heating and/or portable heaters, along with:  blankets, hot water bottles, cardigans and jumpers! 

I submitted meter readings today for gas & electricity.  Unfortunately there was a fault on the website which prevented the electricity £ usage total so far (since my last reading) but I think it's probably about £50.  The gas however nearly gave me a seizure.  £99!!  In a month!   Hubby said "Do you think that is right?" and after doing some manual calculations, unfortunately I think it is.  We were here a lot over Christmas with annual leave and also with Mum being with us I didn't want her to be cold so I kept heating on longer than I might have done normally and obviously it all adds up, especially when the unit prices are so expensive.

So hubby & I were shell-shocked at that and we're now sitting here with the heating off and it's about 1 degree centigrade outside!  It'll come on a bit later again but we know we have to have it on staggered for the rest of the weekend.  For the next two months, which will be the hardest before Spring, we'll just have to suffer.  Central heating on for a short amount of time in the morning and then staggered from about 4.30pm to 10.00pm which wouldn't be a problem if hubby was working full time but he isn't.  He's working part time and studying at home during the other times so bless him, he'll have to sit in a cold house.  However he can bring the little halogen heater into the lounge and heat that up a bit when needed. 

I do worry for people who are worse off than we are, I mean we're not on the breadline but certainly not well off by any stretch of the imagination, so people worse than us must be frantic with worry about their energy bills.

Well we'll just have to keep trying to make savings where we can.  Today wasn't a good day for making savings though.....freezing cold with no wind at all and a heap of essential washing to do.  I had to use the tumble dryer 3 times and I'll have to use it again tomorrow.  Gutted.  No choice at all though. 

I haven't been biking to work since Christmas, the cold dark mornings are about as appealing as a week old salad with a mouldy cheese slice on the side.  I can cope with the cold I guess but it is the dark mornings that get me down.  When you're still stumbling around in the dark at nearly 8.00am (which is about what time I leave on the bike) it's depressing.  So I have either been getting lifts or, horror upon horrors, I took the car twice last week and paid £2 per day for parking!  Not much I know but that definitely adds up over the course of time and I can't be doing that much.  Oh roll on the lighter mornings and evenings! 

Noisy neighbour has received a letter from the council and *touch wood* we haven't heard anything more but I am not holding my breath too much.  I get the feeling he might kick off again at some point, perhaps after the month long monitoring period but I suppose if he does we just start over again don't we? 

Onto more positive things now though.

I have started taking some supplements recently which I hope will improve my moods (I can get quite dark and self loathing at times and I think it's also related to PMT - sorry if that's 'Too Much Information' for some!) and also have an effect on hair & skin too which is always useful!  I have started taking Vitamin B6, Oil of Evening Primrose and Flaxseed Oil for Omega 3 because I don't eat fish so can't get it from that source.  I am really hoping it will all help come Spring time (I guess I need to give it a while to get into my system) for a new energised me who is a bit more my old "up & at 'em" self and will get out there and start loving life again.  Fingers crossed! 

I am also going to really really REALLY try this year to get some savings plans back on track.  I totally have the will to do it as a long period of enforced frugalness has broken the urge to:

shop shop shop!
possess possess possess!
spend spend spend!

Now I only enjoy going shopping if I have specific things I need to buy.   So that's good.  So I am excited about the possibility of better saving but I have to hope nothing stupid happens, before I have a pot of savings, that would set me back before I even start!  Again....fingers crossed.

And a silly little thing that made me happy this week is I discovered in Aldi, their own brand "Dove" shower cream for about 69p compared to about £2!  I was delighted as I have always loved the Dove original fragrance but won't buy it at those prices any more.  Little things can make you happy eh??

Well that's about it for now I think, not much else to report from here.

Again happy new year to you and thanks for stopping by today.

xxx