Meet a UK Reader | Joanne

Time to meet another reader! Joanne lives in the UK, so as I edited this post, I imagined hearing it with a British accent. 🙂 

1. Tell us a little about yourself

My garden – with a very unusual blue and clear sky!

I’m 55 years old and I’ve been married 23 years in September and we have two sons aged 19 and 17.

My husband is an actor who also works as a market researcher, my eldest son is just about to start university, and my youngest starts VI form college in September.

We also have an almost 10-year-old Labradoodle who entertains us daily with his crazy antics!

I live in the middle of England about 12 miles from Birmingham. It’s colloquially called The Black Country due to its industrial past – Google it as it interesting how the area got its name.

I’ve done a little genealogy and all of my family on both sides are Black Country born and bred. We have quite a specific accent, very different to Brummie which is the Birmingham accent!! 

(edit from Kristen: I had to look this up. Here’s a YouTube video that talks about these two accents. And Joanne, do let us know if it’s accurate or not.)

I’ve previously always worked as an administrator in various areas including education and health care.

Unfortunately, a really unpleasant change of management at my previous job resulted in a huge change for me and I am now working at a small holding looking after cats in the cattery; rescue cats; chickens; giant rabbits; 3 goats, 2 horses, and a dog and cat grooming room.

My favourite horse, Flossie – she hates all people except me! I’m her “person” apparently😄😄

I also resell on eBay and that’s is going really well too. I love my new job and lifestyle.

2. How long have you been reading The Frugal Girl?

I fell down an online frugal rabbit hole about 4 years ago and found The Frugal Girl.

3. How did you get interested in saving money?

It’s a case of having to be interested, to be honest. Our retail business failed in the 2008/9 recession and we’ve had to be financially very, very careful since then.

4. What’s the “why” behind your money-saving efforts?

We need to be money-saving minded to ensure we are financially sound from one month to the next.

5. What’s your best frugal win?

I cook from scratch every day and have little or no food waste which makes me really proud.

Friday night is pizza night!

I meal plan and have my groceries delivered weekly so that I’m in strict control of the food budget. I have a good food pantry which I’ve had for grad after an LDS friend explained the concept to me.

I also get free eggs and doggy grooming at my job which saves many ££££ 😄😄😄

6. What’s a dumb money mistake you’ve made?

I had, what I now like to refer to as a ‘starter marriage’ which ended after 5 years when I was 27 (no children).

I bought a small 2 up 2 down terraced house from the proceeds of the divorce with a tiny mortgage, which when I met my now-husband we decided to sell.

My house!

We spent the money from the sale wisely, extending our new marital property but I do wish I had kept that house and rented it out for the monthly income and to have a brick and mortar investment.

7. What’s one thing you splurge on?

We have a takeaway every other Saturday and we always eat out at a nice restaurant for birthdays and our anniversary throughout the year.

It’s something we could eliminate but we really enjoy it and keep it within an appropriate budget.

8. What’s one thing you aren’t remotely tempted to splurge on?

Make-up and hair cuts.

I have my nails done if I can afford it as I have shockingly weak nails from years of nibbling, but I’m super low maintenance apart from that.

9. If $1000 was dropped into your lap today, what would you do with it?

I’d convert it into ££ 😂😂 and then put it towards a family holiday.

10. Share a frugal tip with other Frugal Girl readers

Plan, plan, and then plan again in all that you do.

Food – meal plan and shopping lists

Clothing – buy used if you can and out of season if possible. I’ve just purchased via eBay a winter coat and boots which had I waited a bit longer would have cost me more.

Insurance – get quotes early and shop around

Track your spending and pay everything monthly if you can.

11. Is there anything different about living frugally in the UK as compared to other places, particularly the U.S.? We’d love to hear about it!

a view at the farm

I think the one thing that I notice in reading The Frugal Girl and the comments is the amount of vouchers/cashback/coupons that seem to be available to you in the US. It seems that rewards and incentives are much more prevalent over the pond than here in the U.K.

Obviously, the NHS here in the U.K. means we get free healthcare which is a massive boon financially. I recently slipped on a wet floor in the cattery (my fault) and sustained a radial head fracture of my left arm.

(Here’s a photo of my bruised arm if you are the type who likes to see that sort of thing.)

So far I’ve had in-person A&E, orthopaedic consultant, and physiotherapist consultations plus 2 telephone checkups with zero outlay. I have no idea how we would have afforded this in the US.

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Joanne, it was lovely to learn more about your life. Thank you!

I have a question about the two-up, two-down. I read the Wikipedia entry about these types of houses, and I was curious, did yours have its own bathroom? Or did you have a shared bathroom like the homes mentioned on Wikipedia?

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Readers, the floor is yours to leave questions/comments for Joanne!