Memorygirls - Make Do and Mend

Memory_Girl

moo2moo wrote: »

No problem. Glad I could help.

As for the "live happily on £1667 a month for absolutely everything challenge" suffice to say its been an interesting foray into reality. Most months we seem to come in under budget. Obviously theres the odd blip but it has made me reassess each and every descision we make. I've prioritised our spending and found alternative ways of doing what we were already doing. Our biggest outlay each month is always the unexpected and whilst I can't control this I can at least influence it by anticipating it and dealing with it before it happens.

Rather stupidly it isn't the amazing goal it seems. £1667 a month equates to £20,000 a year which is above the average income and certainly more than most have as an income. The challenging part is to utilise this to its full potential to ensure that our children have absolutely everything they need and then some. Initially it was hard going but I've relaxed into it and am enjoying the whole ride. My obsession with balancing the books has become more and more relaxed to the point of normality. It means I can say with confidence what the heck we can afford that and that and that without worrying where the money is going to come from. The question is do we actually need it in the first place and most of the time the answer is no. Mentally theres a huge chasm between wanting something and thinking you need something when most of the it its inconsequential. At the point my children realised this life changed. They are very different to everyone else in school. At times they seem like children of the 1950s but they are happy and healthy and they do things with their free time unlike a lot of their peers who seem to spend far too much time playing X-box games designed for adults.

I think the fact you've set and are sticking to a budget is the amazing thing - whether its £10K or a £100K the actual act of setting and committing to acheiving a goal is where the magic lies.

To move from "crisis" management of our money to "financial planning" albeit on a weeny scale wa the liberating thing. My kids now know that during this holiday if we have one "spendy" day then we need to balance that with several no/low spendy days.

To live within their means - and to have the ability to "choose" how to spend their income is the legacy I hope to leave them with.

As for the whole "wanting" v "needing" - I think thats a battle we all have occasional skirmishes with.

Happy to have you along for the ride though.

Memorygirl

Memory_Girl

Helen105 wrote: »

Good morning all

I hope the challenge is going well.
Mine is
1.Lose 30lb (this will also involve doing more exercise

2. Pay off one 700 pound debt

3. Get house ready for winter .Mainly means getting round to getting gas fire fitted into the hole in my living room that I've had for the last 9 months.

4. Get house decluttered fit to invite valuer in so to start the process of paying off ex husband & ultimately getting divorced.

Go for it Helen - looks like a lot of us are in "Fight to Flab mode" too.

I think getting our environment sorted is another common theme. I don't have any flooring in my hall - and the dust really gets me down and causes so much more work. Because it looks scruffy I don't want to do anything with the rest of the place IYSWIM.

I feel another goal brewing

Memorygirl

purple_angel_3

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Oh!!! Purple_angel - that is such a good idea. To take 100 jobs you've been putting off and to do one per day - imagine how lovely your home could be if you got into the habit of dong one thing per day.

Brilliant:j:j

Coffee was really good - Best Friend had a voucher for a free one which she gave me to use - so I was well on target for a NSD........ then we walked home through the Farmers Market!!!!!!!. And I bought a huge cauliflower for 90p.

So this week we will have

Cauliflower and pea curry - with roti and raitha
Cauliflower risotto - with parmesan and wilted rocket leaves
Cauliflower n veggie bake (mixed veg in cheesy sauce topped with shredded crispy potato)
Cauliflower, potato and blue cheese soup with ciabatta bread
Cauliflower and pasta bake with new roasted potatoes.


All of the other ingredients are in my storecupboard / freezer.

I think I now have reached "critical mass" - where I have enough "storecupboard" ingredients that I can lash out a whole 90p on a cauliflower and think - well that will do us the best part of a week for dinners.

Food budget finally under control - only time will tell???

Memorygirl

Good morning Memorygirl,

The house will be wonderful when I get all the jobs done, I have made a list and some are five minute jobs, a few will take a couple of days. It's a good feeling to be taking control of the house instead of letting the house and my life control me.

You cauliflower meals sound lovely, OH is not a cauliflower fan but I love it, like the sound of cauliflower n veggie bake.

Today I will be stripped wallpaper on our landing, started taking the paper off in the hall months ago and I FINISHED IT YESTERDAY.

Have a productive day.

purple_angel.x

Memory_Girl

Firewalker wrote: »

MG, about training and Doctoral and staff development in Universities. Have you come across an organisation called Vitae? If not please have a look here http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/

Well worth approaching because most training officers from the British Universiites are involved.

Firewalker

Firewalker - thank you so much for this link - what an amazing resouce.

You have inspired me to think about what researchers - PHD students real problems are with their work. My main experience in working with them has been in using Mind Mapping as a tool to very rigourously plan out the writing of the thesis and research projects.

I have found that the student is OK with the research - and then gets a bit "Stuck" in the "I know what I want to say" kind of way and MM blasts through the "afraid to continue in case I say it wrong" mindset. Also works wonder or your time management when you have a detailed outline to tick off on.

Is this a common experience do you think?? - bacause that would be a very exciting little niche to work in. Imagine helping those students develop the skills to finish (and enjoy finishing) a body of work that is their passion (well hopefully stilltheir passion - LOL)

So come on - all you PHD and Researchers out there - whats the biggest issue you have in your "academic" life at the moment. Your "real" life too if you need to:D

Memorygirl

Memory_Girl

purple_angel wrote: »

Good morning Memorygirl,

The house will be wonderful when I get all the jobs done, I have made a list and some are five minute jobs, a few will take a couple of days. It's a good feeling to be taking control of the house instead of letting the house and my life control me.

You cauliflower meals sound lovely, OH is not a cauliflower fan but I love it, like the sound of cauliflower n veggie bake.

Today I will be stripped wallpaper on our landing, started taking the paper off in the hall months ago and I FINISHED IT YESTERDAY.

Have a productive day.

purple_angel.x

Woohhhoooo!!!

"Well begun is almost done":T:T

DS1 has decided to name this weeks menu plan as the "rubber cauliflower" project:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:. I think this MSE stuff is rubbing off on him.:T

Inspired by you guys

---

15 minutes Mind Mapping outline for TV
followed by
15 minutes setting up DS2 new bedroom

Grabbing my timer now ............BTW Grandad bought DS2 a "In the Night Garden" duvet set which has been washed and ironed reay to go - so bright, bright, bright is the theme.

Budget for creating his room erm?????????? Nothing:cool:

Wish me luck

Memorygirl

Different_Corner

MG
Why have I not been in here before ?
What a funny, positive, articulate, motivating diary I have missed.
I'm up to your annoucement of marriage earlier this month, you do have a great approach to all this.

Now I'm not a gok fan but seriously need to do something about my wardrobe, the contents that is, the actual wardrobe is quite nice...

As an incredibly flakey OU student with an assignment due in on Friday and actually nothing prepared I need some of your oomph.

Lara44

moo2moo wrote: »

No problem. Glad I could help.

The question is do we actually need it in the first place and most of the time the answer is no. Mentally theres a huge chasm between wanting something and thinking you need something when most of the it its inconsequential. At the point my children realised this life changed. They are very different to everyone else in school. At times they seem like children of the 1950s but they are happy and healthy and they do things with their free time unlike a lot of their peers who seem to spend far too much time playing X-box games designed for adults.

:T I think this is absolutely amazing moo2moo! I think you are giving your kids amazing tools for a happier life, especially when they grow up and start to manage money for themselves.

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Firewalker - thank you so much for this link - what an amazing resouce.

Is this a common experience do you think?? - bacause that would be a very exciting little niche to work in. Imagine helping those students develop the skills to finish (and enjoy finishing) a body of work that is their passion (well hopefully stilltheir passion - LOL)

So come on - all you PHD and Researchers out there - whats the biggest issue you have in your "academic" life at the moment. Your "real" life too if you need to:D

Memorygirl

Hey MG, I am actually a phd student in sociology, just finishing my first year (eek). My biggest challenge is happening in 2 months time when I go to Kampala in Uganda for 6 months to do my field work on mobile phone repair there.

My problem at this stage is with articulating my ideas - half is about confidence I think and half is problems with structuring complex arguments. These all seem to be circular(!) I have problems making links between different sections of the work - sometimes everything seems to be so linked and other times I think the links are incredibly tenuous. My uni is Lancaster but I live in London and visit about once a month. I have heard other friends at later stages talk about writing a lot - techniques, having confidence. I think it's quite difficult to 'keep the faith' on such a big project.

At Lancaster there is a centre called CELT that provides certain courses thesis in practice is the main one and teaching support. You can also just make appointments at CELT I think if you're really struggling, and they do also other workshops throughout the year but not masses. The counselling service run a series of workshops about procrastination and managing stress. Students also make writing groups together to learn in a more informal way from each other.

I also think there is a big lack of help for students to learn how to present their work. Especially going beyond just whacking a bit of text up on powerpoint! HTH

Moobear

A happy day so far - Have done a good job on the sitting room, so nice and clean for sitting down tonight. Stripped and washed our bedding. Will have to tumble dry the sheets as putting straight back on today but have pulled my old clothes dryer and set it up in the spare room so that l can now start to put clothes in there and not use the dryer. :j i have to say l hate putting washing out because of the spiders:eek: DH is checking the units on the electricity meter and we are going on a power watch ffrom now on. Amazing how l leave the tv on and then go and put music on or go on the computer - lights on all over the place. What a waste.:mad:

Becoming much more consious of :money:things now. The pocorn sounds really good - is it very fattening though? I cant find popping kernals in Tesco do you buy yours in bulk and where from. Also what is the ratio of kernals to oil?

Does anyone know where l can buy a bulk buy or a big bad of bi carb? Kim and Aggie use it to deoderize carpets and for natural cleaning products. All l can see is little tubs inthe cake making sections. Would'nt last 2 minuites with my stinky hounds:o

Anyway hope everyones challenges are going ok. Am going to make a chart of the 100 days so that l can look at it and feel inspired.

Bye the way the savings that l have is mainly used to repair the old banger as would not be able to get anywhere without a car - very limited bus supply:(

Have a happy day peeps xxx Moobear

Memory_Girl

STANDBY !!!!!!!!! Memorygirl Rant :eek::eek:

Things were going so well .................

I braved the attic ladder - and the spiders in the attic to find the extension legs, side bar and ladder to convert the bed in the "guest room" into a midi-sleeper for DS2.

Emptied the bedroom of all the "grown-up" bits. Hoovered, ironed DS's new bedding and cleaned the window ............................. and now I can't find a b****y allen key that fits to screw the whole thing together:mad::mad:

I'm not strong enough to move the matching wardrobe downstairs on my own - and I've found that my Dad has buried the shelf unit part of the set under tonnes of his tools in the farthest corner of the upstairs. Aaaargghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

I give up ................... it's time like this I remember why it was nice having a man around (not that any of them were good at DIY - but they could at least carry stuff)

So time to stop, have some lunch (bubble n squeak and one of ClootiesMum's chickie eggs poached on top) Big mug of tea and back into the fray again................ either that or I may have to go and borrow someones husband:rotfl:

Rant over

Memorygirl

albacookie

Hi All - I've spent most of the weekend reading this great thread and have finally caught up - thanks to you I now have a batch of stovies in the slow cooker and am looking forward to trying some of your other recipies especially the Khichri - that looks fab.

Moobear wrote: »

Does anyone know where l can buy a bulk buy or a big bad of bi carb? Kim and Aggie use it to deoderize carpets and for natural cleaning products. All l can see is little tubs inthe cake making sections. Would'nt last 2 minuites with my stinky hounds:o

I think I've seen big bags of it in Chinese supermarkets - might be worth a look if you have one nearby.