More Bangs for my Bucks - MF by 50??

StuartGMC

Thrifty
Rather than sponsoring with a cost, why not commit more to voluntary work in your community and show you children that "things" don't just happen, they need people to make them occur. Voluntary groups are always short of people (I know, I'm in one!) so why not find out what activities are running near you and pop along; local libraries have listings of clubs etc and the net is good these days too. You can then get the personal benefit of knowing you are contributing in effort but need not do so with cash.

Thriftyknickers

Hi, ILoveSaving, Hope you had a lovely birthday! We are very lucky and are relatively well paid. However, I was thinking back to how we were pre-children. We were both working full-time then with just the 2 of us and I can't see that we had any more to show for our money! We certainly weren't overpaying our mortgage! I think most people (me included back then) just live within their means (however much that is) - or above it in some cases! Having to be more 'careful' with our money whilst on Mat Leave, really helped clarify what we consider important. Holidays and 'experiences' are way up there and something we don't want to compromise (too much!) on, whereas we're not bothered at all about not having the latest gadget or new cars - just so long as the old ones work! Figuring out what is really important to us has really helped our MF quest and acheive that infamous 'balance'. You've certainly got to enjoy yourselves on the journey! Good Luck to both of us to be MF by 50!

Thanks StuartGMC. I'm still dithering about the charity stuff. I sent off £1,800 we raised through a sponsored weight loss at work to the Smile Train UK recently and had some stuff back which has reinforced the idea that my money or time can make more of an impact on someone's life overseas. £150 for them, literally changes a child's life - allowing them to have corrective cleft palate surgery. In some of these kids cases they haven't been able to talk or eat properly and have been ostracised and not allowed to attend school. I think the various 'sponsoring a child' charities cost around £15 a month - so not a huge amount, but it would pay to feed a child and put them through school. Totally life-changing. Still thinking it through. In the meantime, I took some things to the Hospice charity shop today and picked up a leaflet for Operation Christmas Child - think me and the kids will work on a shoe box to send overseas.

Oh and I've just hopefully signed up for the MFiT-T2 challenge. Certainly won't be MF in 3 years, but hope to knock our mortgage down to £80k by then. Crikey, wonder what the economy and interest rates will look like by then?!!

disoffer

This is very good promotion indeed....i will participate in it really

Thriftyknickers

Another quick update for the month of October. No overpayment this month as we've been furiously saving for the work on our house - £2,200 now tucked away for this. Its all 'weather permitting' now as its external work, so might end up getting done next year. Still at least I know we have the money put aside.

I had a really good month on the 'additional income' side of things - £215.15. This was made up of £22.36 from Rpoints (£20 for a suggestion which was great!), £1.95 from Quidco, £1 from Lightspeed, £40 from Onepoll :T, £10 from Shop&scan and the rest from Ebay, selling my kids old winter clothes.

We made a £29.01 saving using various vouchers and points - including a massive £14.17 at Pizza Hut.

And we've had a reasonably cheap stay at CenterParcs. I was devastated to find out they no longer accept Clubcard Deals at any of their restaurants - I was sooooo looking forward to a break from cooking and 'eating out' - mainly because although there were 7 of us going, it always seems to be me who does the majority of the cooking! Anyway, to keep costs down we took a packed lunch for the first day and then made a very quick toad in the hole, mash, beans & gravy for dinner, plus took some homemade cakes for our 'pudding' which saw us through every other night too. We had lunch at the villa every day and then had a main meal for dinner at Cafe Rouge and Ortega. I thought the latter was particularly good value - 5 of us, including my 2 kids shared some tapas. For the 4 of us that I have to pay for, plus drinks, it worked out at £31. My kids had a kiddy icecream (£1) from the sweetie shop for their pudding every day - obviously fed up with my cakes! I think we probably saved money by avoiding the children's menus too - they shared a 'lighter lunch' in Cafe Rouge plus had bits of ours. On bonfire night we had Hot Dogs & Hot Chocolate in the villa and then later ate at the CenterParcs Hog Roast. DH and I didn't do any classes etc - we were just happy to have a break! My 3 year old DDs loved their 'Fairy Fun-time', 'Teddy Bear's Picnic' and Hair-braiding though - expensive, but they had a great time and probably pretty good value following my 'more bangs for my bucks' philosophy!

Ah well, back to reality! And getting into gear with Christmas shopping! I've got some more potential Christmas presents to put on Ebay so hopefully that will help towards some of the cost. Need to make some big O/Ps in November and December to acheive my target!

Hope all continues to be MS-y with you!

gallygirl

Thriftyknickers wrote: »

And we've had a reasonably cheap stay at CenterParcs. I was devastated to find out they no longer accept Clubcard Deals at any of their restaurants - I was sooooo looking forward to a break from cooking and 'eating out' - mainly because although there were 7 of us going, it always seems to be me who does the majority of the cooking! Anyway, to keep costs down we took a packed lunch for the first day and then made a very quick toad in the hole, mash, beans & gravy for dinner, plus took some homemade cakes for our 'pudding' which saw us through every other night too. We had lunch at the villa every day and then had a main meal for dinner at Cafe Rouge and Ortega. I thought the latter was particularly good value - 5 of us, including my 2 kids shared some tapas. For the 4 of us that I have to pay for, plus drinks, it worked out at £31. My kids had a kiddy icecream (£1) from the sweetie shop for their pudding every day - obviously fed up with my cakes! I think we probably saved money by avoiding the children's menus too - they shared a 'lighter lunch' in Cafe Rouge plus had bits of ours. On bonfire night we had Hot Dogs & Hot Chocolate in the villa and then later ate at the CenterParcs Hog Roast. DH and I didn't do any classes etc - we were just happy to have a break! My 3 year old DDs loved their 'Fairy Fun-time', 'Teddy Bear's Picnic' and Hair-braiding though - expensive, but they had a great time and probably pretty good value following my 'more bangs for my bucks' philosophy!

Great to hear you had a fab time, and sounds like you had the balance just right on the spending front. Good luck on the work being done & ebay.

Queen-Bee_2

Hello Thiftyknickers

Some great posts - really inspiring... I'm also impressed at the way you keep track of your 'extra' income - I've been filling in lots of on-line surveys, but don't keep track of the rewards I'm clocking up. That must change!

Finally, the Smile Train is such a good cause - I've seen the ads in the paper and often wondered about the lives of the children they show before/after their treatment. Well done.
QB

Thriftyknickers

Long time, no update! Wish it was just because of birthdays (my daughters' birthdays are 2 days before Christmas! :eek:) and Christmas, but more about this bit later.

So, catching up with a November update. I did try to do this last night and then lost my update when the servers went down for maintenance. :mad: Must learn to copy (and paste to Word) before pressing the 'Submit Reply' button! As you can see from my signature, I've acheived all of our targets! :beer: I'm sure I wouldn't have done it without you! I find knowing that I'm going to write a monthly update very motivational!

I made a £950 o/p on the mortgage (wish we could do that every month!) and had an 'additional income' of £91.39 - all but £2 (which came from Lightspeed) profit from Ebay sales. I also made recorded 'savings' of £24.28 using coupons at Tesco, Sainsburys, ELC and using Boots Advantage points. However, I know I didn't record some - pressies bought with nectar points, a 2-4-1 deal at Pizza Express etc. I don't think I'm going to bother recording them in 2010 as I invariably miss some and I don't think it really helps me any more - I automatically, these days, (thanks MSE) look for discount codes, coupons etc. So I think it has served its purpose - but will write up for the end of year to maybe help point a few others to where savings can be made??

And now a little of what's been distracting me from my monthly update and taking far too much of my time and energy. I had a disasterous Ebay sale. I sold 2 identical trikes (having twins) and couriered them out - one arrived safe and sound but unfortunately the other was damaged during transit. I arranged for the damaged one to be couriered back (at my expense) and refunded his money - unfortunately I didn't keep sufficient funds in Paypal (another lesson learnt - not that I hope this happens again!) so wasn't able to recover my Ebay fees or all of the Paypal costs. The guy then neg'ed me - which I sort of understand - as its purely subjective. I was a little miffed though as I really felt I'd bent over backwards to help and refund him ASAP. But in his feedback he then stated that I had knowingly sent out a damaged item! I was absolutely furious! :mad: There were numerous emails going backwards and forwards - me pointing out this was libelous as it was blatantly untrue. Fortunately I had photos showing the item wasn't damaged (but having 2 of the things, seemingly identical, I had to 'prove' which was his!), 2 witnesses (my Mum and DH - so not terribly impartial!) and eventually the courier admittedly liability and is supposedly going to send compensation (which will almost cover my losses) Finally the guy's wife intervened and retracted the feedback and removed the neg (which I wasn't expecting, but was very kind of her).

I couldn't believe the guy though. He said he couldn't understand what difference removing the comment would make anyway! I really pride myself on being straight with people and honest in all aspects of my life and to have someone (admittedly a complete stranger) put incorrectly in writing that I was a liar (a statement, not his opinion) really made me mad. I guess I'm just an old-fashioned girl who needs to get out more! Still, its now sorted. I just kept thinking I should be spending my time and energy on more important things, but I guess defending my good name is really important to me. Wish it had happened at a less hectic time of year though!

Another money-saving tip I stumbled across last month which I didn't know about which might be of use to you: I donated some items to our local charity shop. They gave me a card for regular donors and had me fill in a Gift Aid form - so that they can now claim back tax on any of the items that they sell that were from me. (Hope this makes sense!) So it doesn't cost me anything, but the charity can gain a bit more money. Might be worth looking into, if you weren't also aware and you take items into a charity shop.

Anyway, I'll do an end-of-year update in the next few days and work on my goals for 2010. My 'big' goal is to get the mortgage under £100,000 but I'll work on a few more I think.

Anyway, hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and if I don't write again before the big night - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Queen-Bee_2

Well done on the £950 overpayment and 'additional' income. Sorry to hear about the horrible ebayer... it must have been really upsetting for you. Glad it's now sorted - very few people are like that, but it only takes one, doesn't it?

The Gift Aid form sounds like an excellent idea by the way, might look into this myself.

Happy New Year and look forward to your end of year update!
QB

uzubairu

Well done on achieving all the goals you set yourself for the year.

I too can understand how you felt with eBay transaction going pear-shaped.
It would p**s me off too if negative feedback was left for me unfairly.
Thankfully the wife intervened, saw sense and sorted it out for you (that's men for you - all it needed was a woman's touch).

I hope 2010 is just as positive for you.

MoneyQueen

Thriftyknickers

Well done on achieving all 2009 goals and Good Luck with 2010

Sorry to hear about the horrible EBayer..

I don't generally sell any stuff on Ebay (prefer Gumtree/ FreeCycle) but have sold 2 things today. Have sent one today and will be sending another tomorrow. I just hope it all goes well.

Happy New Year

MQ