Maybe You can teach an Old Dog New Tricks

Welcome to Trayci, thanks for joining.

The Old Dog, of course being me. Born in 1970 I was actually born in one of the Chinese years of the Dog, which is quite appropriate for me.

It's Good to Talk

Following in many a Frugalster's footsteps, (not sure that's a word either!), DH and I have today picked the first bill to try and reduce, our Phone Bill. There have been so many adverts on lately for this or that Broadband and Calls package and we are telephoned daily by Talk Talk, so it seemed as good a place as any to start. How difficult could it be?

Immensely difficult, that's how difficult! Why, oh Why, oh Why can they not just compare like with like. Oh no, that would be too easy. We currently rent the BT line at £14.60, we have various call features such as call forwarding and diversion, etc for £6.30 a Minimum Call Fee for using Talk Talk for our Call Fees (what's that all about) of £2.70, Orange Broadband Home Select 8 mb for £23.49 and our calls themselves are normally £7 - £9 per month, call it £8.00. That's a total of £55.00 per month.

DH did most of the talking on the phone, as I'm not great with that, and then searched online aswell. One company was quoting prices for packages on the webpage that included a £5 per month discount for being a mobile customer of theirs already, although nowhere could I see that was made clear. Several that talked about "Free" calls that turned out to be weekend and evening onlys. One who was offering a good price had awful customer reviews. We tried looking on the MoneySaving Expert website aswell, but those offers seemed to be a little out of date. When DH spoke to Talk Talk their rep kept saying, "So are you happy with that?". He was extremely careful not to say yes as, previous experience has taught us, they will take this as a verbal acceptance of a contract and sign you up without further ado. There was certainly a lot of pressure from several to get you signed up before you hung up, when all he wanted was prices. It took an entire day to sort out the unlimited data from the included minutes to the Broadband speeds but eventually DH saved us over £15 per month. Not bad for our first attempt at this sort of thing.

Charity begins at Home

Normally the only time I go into a Charity shop is to make a donation. I even have Donor IDs for two particular ones, but apart from my recent wool purchase I don't really ever look around with a view to buying anything. Not so today.

I bought these two lovely purple braclets for £1.25 and £1.00 and I know exactly who they will go to for her birthday!

I also bought this sweet little tray for £1.50 and there are a couple of people I could give this to, so it depends what else I see for the other person.

I hope neither of these friends will look at these gifts and think I haven't spent much on them. I will put some of my handmade soap and other bits with them, but I know I normally would give far more that I now just can't afford to do.

Finally, I saw these sandals and they were actually in my Size, 8 and they are exactly the same as sandals I have bought in previous years for full price. They don't look as though they have ever been worn. I find buying shoes really hard in a shoe shop where there is a huge range so to find a pair in a Charity shop amazed me. Maybe it's a sign of things to come.

Another Day, Another Biscuit

Today's effort at biscuit making - chocolate fork biscuits. I won't be psoting the recipe for these ones!! DH tried one for his elevenses and they are horrible, very bitter (that will be the cocoa powder) and as dry as powder. It's like eating dust, yuck. Back to the drawing board.

Was your day as successful as mine? apart from the biscuits that is!

Lots of Love Arwedd xx