Simplifying Life - Mark II

Cat_Addict

Charis I'm even more intrigued! I will google altered books.

Sorry for the delay in replying - my PC has been dead!

rosieben

I've converted an old A5 filofax for an address book - discarded all the dividers and pages except A-Z and bought address refill sheets, though I might try printing my own next time so I can leave more space to write!

ceridwen

pagangirl wrote: »

Back to work tomorrow - woohoo! Shouldn't complain with all these people having lost their jobs, but would love to take early retirement/just go part-time but can't afford to. Had pension date worked out for me - will get full pension when I'm 63 1/2 :eek: No way I'm working til then - life's out there - want to finish now and be able to do something with it !!! Like Ceridwen - I'm saving like mad so can at least finish when I turn 60. (winge over)

"Saving" mightn't be quite the right word for it right now pagangirl - I've been doing a lot of "spend to save" stuff - so I've got what I need to grow what food I can/got a waterbutt/done what insulation work I can on the house/made sure my home is reasonable-looking and reasonably comfortable (with the vision of spending more time in it once I retire)/stocked-up well with everything etc. I will be starting saving proper - AT LAST! (you can tell how poor a salary I am on..:cool: ) this year. So far - the savings consists of a 3-figure amount in £2 coins (in case banking systems literally didnt function for a few days - I have enough cash to live on for a month or so). Not much longer now and I can start getting some proper savings - and am planning on getting enough to be able to live on for 6 months if need be. I would have a lot more in savings than that - if it wasnt for the low-level salary these savings have to come out of! - by the time I take into account money that I might need for healthcare/house upkeep/etc.

I do wonder how many women still plan at retiring at 60 - despite the State Pension Age being revised and how they plan to manage until they are getting the full pension from all sources? I'm going at 60 regardless - as I just refuse to work on past MY retirement age (which remains 60 whatever the Government does) - so am already "totting up" all the free bus fares/greater level of help with Council Tax available once one hits 60, etc and thinking "Please dont anyone move the goalposts" on those.

I have never had a job that was either decently-paid or enjoyable - so cant wait to go - so that I have the chance of all my time to do interesting things on the one hand and dont have to put up with an employer underpaying me any more (which has not been good for my morale - i.e. feeling so unvalued) on the other hand. I know I can - and do sometimes - do useful/interesting work - but I've only ever found the chance to do that on an unpaid basis. Hence I need to be rid of the paid work in order to have the chance to do much useful/interesting work. Many of us need a sense of purpose in life - and I am one of them - so its been a very frustrating experience over the years to have to do jobs just for the sake of the money from them and cram what useful/interesting work I can into my sparetime.

Good luck with your plans pagangirl.

barefootlinzi

Hi everyone!

I have been reading this thread with interest and thought I had better introduce myself.

I am Linzi, mum to DS and expecting number 2 in June. I live with my partner at my mum's, an to be honest we owe a lot to her as she helps keep a roof over our heads! We are one big happy family. I am working part time as a home carer round my partner who is a Chef, so we don't pay for childcare. My work is agnecy based and not guranteed and at the moment work has pretty much dried up and things are tight for us. We don't have credit cards but we do have a 12K loan that has 4 years left on it:(

I am keen on living thrifty and old style, and so many time have wished schools teach money and budgeting skills as we aren't great but are striving to do better. This year I want to get more organised and grow some veg, be really thrifty with our food shopping, get organised with the housework and take my upcoming role of homemaker and stay at home mum more seriously. Not much really! I also want to have a huge declutter as it drives me mad!

So thats me!

Linzi

mary43

Hi Linzi and welcome.................we got rid of our mortgage October last year - relief............just need to get rid of the loan now and that should be March :T

Sounds like you've a lot of support from family which must help a lot.
I normally make a new years resolution to be more organised - never works, well not for long anyway so this year I decided not to and so far I've been very good and 'organising' myself and getting rid of 'stuff'.............this morning the decorations came down, I thinned out what I put back on the walls, took down a set of shelves and sifted through the bits on it and Half will do for christmas pressies so they'll go upstairs with all the rest of the hoard. Could save myself quite a bit. Great one for recycling as far as pressies go and never see the point in spending a lot.....last year I was charity shopping around now and snapping up other peoples 'unwanted gifts'...........but so far by the look of what was left over from last year plus bits of my clear outs I've not even thought about it.
So, now I'll have a space to hang the picture up that's been on the floor for longer than I'd like to say and saved a few quid in the bargain.
Feeling quite pleased with myself that I actually got rid of the shelves :T

Good luck

lilac_lady

ceridwen - keep 60 as your retirement age if you can. Retirement is wonderful. I never understand all the people who moan about it being boring - it's what you make of it.

I enjoy my own company and enjoy getting together with friends and family. A balance is necessary or you can find yourself doing things you wouldn't choose to do (just like working!)

My theory is that people who don't want to retire either don't like their home situation, are in debt or are too fond of money to enjoy life.

firework

hi everyone, been lurking and reading for ages now (think i posted once many moons ago) - i'm only up to page 42 of the old thread - have been reading it for ages and decided to fast forward, read this one and then go back and "catch up " on the other one at my leisure.

hi to mary43 - hope your mum is ok as i have been following her health this last few months along with all the other fab tips on here.

i found my way here through the os board and have been popping in and out for ages, whenever i feel things are getting on top of me (sometimes literally when one pile of clutter collapses as i strive to move another). the calming effect of this thread is absolutely amazing, just reading it offers hope and support through the daily grind and i love reading the simple pleasures people write about.

special thanks to ceridwen (of course) for tons of tips, links to loads of interesting articles and advice and to Aril for the fabulous quotes which have stayed with me over the course of last year.

well, i've been de-cluttering for an age now. i used to be very clutter free in my youth but since birth of DS 7 years ago have just managed to amass stuff at a very alarming rate. back in 2006 we were burgled and that was a clear turning point. they took all our stuff (anything worth nicking at least!) and left us with broken furniture and not much else. after 13 years living there, me and dh immediately set about packing up what was left of our stuff as I couldn't stay there a minute longer than necessary. luckily for us our ideal home came on the market just at the right time and only round the corner so we snapped it up and shifted within 3 months.

anyway, when packing up our stuff i realised it was just that - stuff. alot of it was stuff (furniture, ornaments etc) that i'd been given but never really liked and most of it became meaningless tat that i didn't want to look at anymore. i decided to simplify and start over. we ebayed, charity shopped and gave away anything decent, binned the absolute rubbish and came into our new place with nowt! not a stick of furniture.

we've been here about 2 and a half years now and what i wanna know is - where did all this cr*p come from????????!!!!!!!!

feel i'm back to square one with gear gear and more gear crammed jammed and rammed into every conceivable space of our once lovely spacious home. desperate to grab some space back so i can just breathe freely, walk across a room without falling over stuff and sit down on any chair i chose without having to move a mountain beforehand.

rant over.

anyway just thought i'd let you know i'm glad to be here and glad you're all here to prop me up a bit.

firework

good grief - life story! - apologies!!!!!

mary43

firework - no need to apolgise - better to have a rant and get it out of your system than let it clutter up you emotions.

Well I've had one of those days that could have been better.
Started off well...............OH went off to town and said he'd get plate hangers for my books.............came back and four of them are two big !! To hang them up without ruining the covers with the hangers I've got to put the hanger on the back cover and then tie the book so it doesn't fall open once its on the wall (difficult to explain) so I didn't need such big hangers. Still three are done but don't want to hang them up till they're all finished and I can have a bit of a re-arrange of my walls.

So, thought I'd print off a pattern for something I want to make for christmas. Printer thought otherwise...........kept telling me paper was jammed...........I checked and there was nothing ! Talked nicely to it, shouted at it...........no matter what I did it was still 'paper jammed' and refusing to print. I give up and suddenly a piece of paper goes through and comes out (nothing on it!) three times it did that..............so the air was a bit blue for a while what with that and the letter 0 still falling off keyboard !:mad:
Still I got my head together and covered a notebook -no technology there.........just book, paper, glue and me. Success !!! Today I managed to complete something any way.
Ex foster lad was due up to sift through my rubbish but didn't show -not always very reliable - so I'm still surrounded by bags of the stuff.
Still, we all get days like this don't we. Tomorrow will be better -not sure about the printer though and its annoying as I've a report to do for a lad due in court next week. Might end up being hand written.

So, thats been my day...............not as successful or productive as I intended but am now eyeballing a small set of shelves in here and thinking they could do with thinning out - few more bits for christmas pressies maybe ?

thanks for asking about mum - she seems to be soldiering on (or hanging on) never quite sure at the moment. It's very much a 'wait and see' situation all the time.

beemuzed

Hi Folks!
Will hit the big 6 0 in a couple of weeks...and retired at the end of last term.
So, day 2 of real retirement as term began (without me) yesterday. Have been longing to have time to get here..and here I am! can't yet stop waking at silly o'clock, but am working on it. Seems so strange to have no real pressure in the day..