Simplifying Life - Mark II

Justamum

firework wrote: »

just been thinking about the 30 day rule for buying what we think we need/want. wondering if i can apply it to my ds of 7 . do you think 30 days is too long for a nipper to wait to spend his money? he has some birthday money still to come (probably about £100 - we like him to save most of it (is that unfair?) but we'll let him spend a bit - what do you think is fair? his birthday is Christmas Day (poor lamb). i'm thinking maybe he should save two thirds of it but be allowed to spend a third. i'm conflicted between thinking he should save for the future and letting him blow it - it's his moeny after all...

advice please.

Never to early to learn to save. When I was 7 we went to the Post Office and opened an account there, and every week our pocket money (10p at the time) had to be spent on a savings stamp. One page of 10 equalled a pound which then went into your account! Even though we constantly struggle, I think my early lessons have really helped us to be able to manage on what little we have. We'd be in dire straits otherwise!

If our children get money for Christmas/birthdays as cheques they get put into their savings accounts, but any cash they get to put in their piggy banks and they can spend it if they want. DS decided to put his £10 cash for Christmas into his account as well this year! Other times he's had money he's wasted it on what I would call 'plastic tat', and I think he's realised it was a waste of money :rotfl:

DD1 was going to save up for either a DS or an ipod. She said all her friends seemed to get an ipod for Christmas, but she didn't realise at the time that you have to pay to download any music onto them from the internet. She said she's quite happy with her phone as she can download her cds onto it! So far she's got about £50 saved.

Why not suggest he saves about 1/3?

Gigervamp

Charis wrote: »

If you can get hold of a wide necked funnel (used for jam making) either from a cheap shop or a charity shop, you will be impressed how many things you can decant from packets to jars without spilling anything. Rice, sugar, lentils, beans, pasta... I sheepishly admit to spilling things for years while I had a jam funnel in the cupboard. Didn't connect the problem with the solution. Now I don't have to go looking for a clean piece of paper every time I fill the sugar jar.

Doh! Now why didn't I think of that? I've got one sitting in my cupboard!:rotfl:

EagerLearner

Charis wrote: »

If you can get hold of a wide necked funnel (used for jam making) either from a cheap shop or a charity shop, you will be impressed how many things you can decant from packets to jars without spilling anything. Rice, sugar, lentils, beans, pasta... I sheepishly admit to spilling things for years while I had a jam funnel in the cupboard. Didn't connect the problem with the solution. Now I don't have to go looking for a clean piece of paper every time I fill the sugar jar.

Hi just a suggestion - a few months I was also wanting a funnel for making jam - and instead I realised I could try to cut a milk plastic bottle and use the neck part. It works fine and I use it for anything that needs a wider funnel. Green *and* moneysaving - my fave kind of idea... :j

mary43

firework - I think charis is right -never too early to save and learn the value of money. So many kids grow up with the 'easy come -easy go' outlook if they're not taught early on. I'd save save half, spend half myself but its really up to your DS and you to decide between you I'd think. Thats just my opinion though.

I'm like you with the 'black' theme............no fear of losing a sock and having an odd pair if theyre all the same.

I've just delved into the blanket box in this room .......loads of left over wrapping paper that I'm taking to the charity shop or putting in spare room to re-use, bubble wrap (always handy so I'm keeping that) but also in there are two silver plate tea sets (tea pot, jug, sugar basin and tray) One came from MIL and the other from my great uncle ............they're not the sort of thing I would want to display, they never get seen stuffed in a box but I feel I should keep them............. Can't seem to bring myself to get rid. They wouldn't be worth much.........uncle polished his so much half the plate has worn off ! I'm also looking at mums wedding photo - feel reluctant to take it off the wall but I can replace it with a smaller one and pop her next to my dad on top of the china cabinet. Think if I do that first I won't feel bad about taking her wedding one down.
I need to sort my walls out so I can hang the books up..........and I found three pine frames in the blanket box - think I'll re-frame some of the piccys I'm keeping to give them a different look. Oh dear..........I seem to be creating more work for myself !
Still at least I can see the carpet in here now.........have bagged up charity shop stuff and that can disappear tomorrow:T

(Pats self on the back)

firework

well done Mary43, you're making good progress although i don't know what to suggest you do with the silver plate tea sets... know exactly what you mean though - you just feel as though you "shouldn't " get rid of some stuff and yet you have no use for it and don't want it on display either! ... and then back in the box it goes!

chuckling about my black socks - 7 pairs all the same - bet it'll take me ages to wear them out / lose "one" in the wash etc. wonder how long they'll last me?

mary43

firework.............re socks..........they'll last and at least you'll always have a pair.....................lol

Well I've actually taken down mums photos - her wedding one and the two of her at the seaside with her brother. They'll go in my family history file.
Books are now on display and to be honest, I think they look really good.
Found I'd got an assortment of picture frames - more than I thought and one postcard size one has buttons all round the edge -perfect for a photo of Mum -always one to 'make do and mend', well had to after the war. Dads photo is in a 'music' frame -very apt as he was a musician.......so they'll sit side by side with their own little 'identity' if you see what I mean.
Cleared the other smaller set of shelves and put another bag of bits in the spare room for christmas/birthday pressies, actually got the duster and polish out and cleaned the shelves and the bits and pieces I put back. Looks much better now and I feel better for it.
Another plus - did I mention OH not bring able to refuse another tele as it was free ? Well thats now all installed and our old one we're letting the lad we look after have it 'on loan'. Bigger screen for his xbox games.
So what started off a bit of a non-prductive day and me getting nowhere except round in circles has ended up very satisfying.
Silver plate tea sets are back in the box................well for the time being anyway.

Charis

firework wrote: »

well done Mary43, you're making good progress although i don't know what to suggest you do with the silver plate tea sets...

Well...there is that old William Morris saying, about not having anything in your home that is neither useful nor beautiful And a more recent (FlyLady?) saying that you should work out how much rent you would have to pay to house all your unloved liabilities or keep them in storage.

Never that easy though, is it? My summerhouse (double glazed shed) is full of things toys, trinkets, musical and sports bits and stuff they cant find room for, that belong or belonged to my older kids. Summer is heralded by them (the things, not the kids) being dragged into the garage, winter by the reverse process. Too expensive to replace all that lot if I ever get any grandkids near enough to visit me. Too good to chuck out, but no room in the house. I keep thinking about getting a big shed but the frugalist in me thinks not :eek: I could grow blueberries in the space a shed would occupy and look how much I would save... or would I, cos I don't eat blueberries being as they're so expensive.

mary43

charis - I'm trying to work on the principle that if its not useful or doesn't give me pleasure then it shouldn't live in my house -but easier said than done. Sentimental stuff of dads thats in a shoe box gives me pleasure as does the stuff I have on view. The tea sets are difficult. OH is reluctant to part with the one his mum gave him in much the same way as I want to hang on to Uncles. It's all I've got of him. Sounds silly I know and I'm sure there'll come a time when I can let them go very easily -then OH might follow suit.
At the moment there at the bottom of the blanket box, out of sight out of mind I know but for the minute they're taking up space thats virtually empty anyway so I don't feel so bad, particularly as I feel I've done so well with the other 'stuff'.............I think I'm being more rigid about things that last year..........must have learned something.

ceridwen

Well...theres many different views as to what to keep apart from the stuff that we know we are using regularly.

Personally speaking - information is my big thing. If theres one thing that strikes me its that there have always been some people alive at every point in history who have borne in mind "the bigger picture" and thought ahead to the future and I am personally grateful for these people. Every time I walk through a park I am grateful to those farsighted Victorians who realised that a bit of urban green space is important (think it was the Victorian era that a lot of our public parks were set up???). Every time I see a tree of the edible variety planted by a local Council - rather than something just purely ornamental - I am grateful to some farsighted person for their choice.

So - at a little personal level - I think its important to keep useful information from those decades where things have been somewhat hard for the ordinary person in the street - as we know these things go in cycles. So - personally - I didnt have much room at home for books back when I was younger - but I have kept all the useful books I got then - as I knew things would go full circle and their time would come again. Right at this moment - I am focusing on growing food indoors type books by Joy O.I. Spoczynska (a writer from the 1980s) and I think Shirley Goode has a lot of useful stuff to share with us (a cookbook writer from the 1980s).

We are not on an ever upward trajectory in society or in our own lives personally - things go in cycles and this is one of the lessons we learn as we get older - once we have been around long enough to watch at least one of these "cycles" in action. That is when we learn to prepare for a downward swing in a cycle coming up at some point in the future - even when many in our Society seem to be oblivious of that fact.

Hence my own personal belief that "knowledge is power" and my belief in "sending it forward" through to future generations to discover anew - so books are THE single biggest thing that I personally find it hardest to part with.

I must admit to being somewhat amused, for instance, at a new friend I have made walking into my house for the first time - as they took one look at all the books they could see on my shelves and promptly settled back onto their seat with a smile on their face - a like mind methinks! We both agreed that we were very early readers - she knew how to read before she even started school. I didnt - but I learnt very fast and promptly started reading books for an older agegroup than my own. We both agreed that books have always been an important source of information, entertainment and finding "like minds".

Must admit that one of the best compliments I've had was someone calling me a "walking reference library" - heh!

Gigervamp

ceridwen, you've said everything that I was going to say!