Confessions of a wasteful spendthrift turned tightfisted skinflint

kazwookie

Hi

How low are your ceilings? a trampoline might not be a good idea if your head ends up hitting the ceiling above or worse still goes through.

Why not try your local freecycle for a stepper or whatever, saves money.

Have you done a SOA, and looked at reducing, gas etc etc
Do you pay your Council tax over 10 or 12 months, if 10 ring them up and ask for it to be spread over 12 months.

The making presents, there is a good thread somewhere about that, 'cup cakes' 'log rolls' etc made out of towels/ fannels etc, baskets just for that person. I would find the thread for you but I had the search options.!!

The is a meal planner somewhere as well, to help you plan the food you buy and cook, and hopefully reduce what you spend in the shops / waste.

Have you considered the 0% cards and moving all the high interest ones to those?

It might not be a lot on its own, but it all adds up in the end
Good luck with it all.

kazwookie

Oh dont forget about the ebay challenge

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1057775&highlight=ebay

Found the basket / gift one as well
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=309335&highlight=ebay

Bargainfinder_3

Hi Kaz,
Thanks for all that!

When we started off on our df journey we did all we could to lower outgoings etc; we have no high interest cards, Council tax worked out best over 10 months as it gave us a break when it happened we most needed it! I do a meal planner, have for the past few months now, and it did drastically reduce our shopping bill!!

Thanks for the threads, I will have a read when I am back in work on Mon

I am off home in 15 minutes, and don't log on of a weekend (why use my leccy when I can use works lol!)

So I will update you all on Mon.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!

B xx

icka

Hey honey

You are doing so so well. I am sitting here dreaming up an image of your perfect little house wife life. With the choir and the helping others, Im imagining you baking lots of apple tarts for church fates. I can see you quilting these amazing spreads that tell a story Sound perfect. Would love that life too absolutly love it. But yet you are only a little baby yourself

Keep posting its fabulous

xx

Bargainfinder_3

So, my weekend.

Saturday we had church outreach at the local park; and guess who ended up playing 4 games of rounders!!! We also have a disabled lady who cant walk; but she played too, she hit the ball and guess who ran for her.....:rolleyes: So, I got loads of exercise and didn't spend any money at all, which is a good thing.

I was thinking about buying lunch and taking it, but DH had made it by the time I was ready to go:heartpuls
On Sat afternoon we went to get hubby some clothes for holiday... £91:eek:
As he is size 5XL, the clothes cost a bomb, and he needs shorts and t-shirts for holiday end of this week; so it had to be done; and the money was in the bank (well the overdraft:o ) so we were both ok with it, but I cant wait until he slims down into 'normal' sizes so his clothes are cheaper... how come we can get cheap women's clothes up to sizes 24+, but men cant:mad: very irritating:D

Then on Sunday afternoon I walked the dog for 2HOURS!!

In the end, I did the MSE thing, and didn't buy either a tramp or a stepper... I borrowed my sisters trampoline:rotfl: My head just doesn't hit the ceiling... as I am a little short:rolleyes: which can obviously be a good thing!! I figure if I use it a lot, I will buy one, if I dont, I will give it back and be no worse off:rotfl:

Bargainfinder_3

Hi icka! Nothing in this world is perfect, but I have to admit some days the dream of what the end of next year will be is the only thing that keeps me going!!

I have sooo much to fill my time with when I'm not working!

My church have a Tuesday morning service at an old people's home round the corner from me; a Youth group on a Wednesday evening and Sunday school Sunday morning; Once a month at a sheltered housing scheme and a prayer meeting every thursday.

My gran (dads mum) is getting old and frail and has no-one near her; my dad lives in Hove, my granddad married my gran later in life (when my dad was 17) and his sons just dont do anything. My grandad is falling slowly senile; and it's really taxing on my gran. I would just love to be able to go round once a week and just keep my gran company; take them shopping etc..

A friend in church has a 3 month old baby who is a 'moaner'!! And she is so grateful for some respite in looking after her so she can get some sleep, and at the moment I can only do that in the evenings.

My mum runs her own business, selling sweets and gifts to old peoples and sheltered housing schemes; I really want to join her in this 2 mornings a week!

The dog needs an hours walk everyday, Springers are so energetic, but at the moment she only gets 30 mins.

Oooooh there's so much I could do!!!

Bargainfinder_3

Well, I thought I would do something useful for myself this morning, and list all our debts roughly so that I have something to refer to, and also so that you guys can cheer me on when we pay something off

HSBC credit card £4000 (down from £5000 in march wahoo!!)
Natwest credit card £2800 (down from £3200!)
Virgin credit card £1800 (up from £1500 as merged 2 cards)
HSBC overdraft £1500
Unsecured loan £6700 (down from £7500)
Lloyds TSB card £300 PAID OFF AND CANCELLED CARD!!!
Argos Card £380 PAID OFF!!
Lloyds overdraft £200 PAID OFF!!
First Choice Holiday £1500 Spending Money £700 PAID OFF!!

From October, I am earning £500 extra a month which will go straight off one card at a time (on top of minimum payments) The Natwest will be the first to go, as it's interest free for all of a few months longer, so February and it's gone. Then the Virgin by May 09. The HSBC one DH is going to try and overpay on/get extra work so should be gone by June 09 (fingers crossed).

The overdraft is not a priority, we are used to living out of it; so as soon as all the cards are paid off, then we will pay the overdraft off...

phew... that got that off my chest, now I can look forward to paying them off!

Bargainfinder_3

"More than 400,000 holidaymakers face severe disruption at the end of the month after staff voted to go on strike at Britain's two busiest airports for charter airlines and low-budget carriers.
Baggage handlers and check-in staff at Gatwick and Stansted will stage 24-hour strikes on bank holiday Monday, August 25, and on August 29 after rejecting a 3% pay offer. The strike by workers at airport services firm Swissport will affect services by Gatwick-based airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Thomsonfly, Monarch and First Choice, and flights operated by Ryanair and easyJet at Stansted, where they are the biggest customers."
We're meant to be flying out from Gatwick with First Choice on Monday:eek:

We're with an agent though, so they should be able to arrange something else/they apparently might transfer us to another airport... eeek

Bargainfinder_3

On a good note, over the weekend I managed (with DHs help!) to do everything on my list from last week!!

The bedroom is spotless, wardrobes all sorted out (found myself a basket of ebay stuff for when we come back off hols!) carpet vacced and polished:D Dining room cupboards sorted out (eeeww there was some junk in there!) Binned the yucky stuff and polished inside and out, swept and mopped the floor, cleared and cleaned the table... Bathroom SPARKLES, as cleaned it all thoroughly lovely, and put the white mats on a 90degree wash, which has made them come up lovely. Spare room, all quilts folded, bed setee all put away, carpet vacced and polished, borrowed stuff returned to my mum, packing for holiday stacked neatly next to washing on clotheshorse drying! Lounge carpet vacced, polished tidied spotlessly so room for the trampoline to take up most of the floor infront of the tv LOL!

oooh I love having a tidy house!!

Bargainfinder_3

I really should be doing some work, this site is addictive!!