My money saving ways

La_escocesa

Quite happy with my lunch efforts actually:

• Sweet potato, onion & peas risotto
• wee box of dried fruit and nuts
• flask of tea
• water bottle
• sneaky little biscuit

jwil

Sorry to hear about OH's job.

The risotto sounds yummy!

Lemon_Tree

risotto does sound very yummy, my friend does a scrummy pea and prawn risotto which i need to get the recipe for.

Hope OH finds a job quickly and that the last day thing goes well, it's really hard on your last day when you're being made redundant i've been through it before.

La_escocesa

Thanks LT :grouphug: He's only been at this place temporary so I think he's always been psyched up for leaving. I know what you mean about your last day though - he got made redundant at his last place after being there for 9 years.

He still hasn't heard anything about his job interview from 2 weeks ago. He sent the guy an email yesterday to ask if he knew when he'd find out so hopefully he'll get some news (good or bad or 'we're still waiting') v soon. Rubbishness.

Lemon_Tree

fingers crossed that you hear something about the job preferably good news.

La_escocesa

Hello hello

Haven't really been updating/keeping on track tbh…

Busy time for me… costing me lots of £££… Trying to keep the small things under control so we can afford to do the important things we want to do… Been a bit of a juggling game recently but hoping it'll all start to calm down towards the end of the year…

Got a few trips away coming up and all the planning and spending (new waterproof jacket and new passport) that goes with that:
Camping trip
October weekend away
Christmas trip??? - hopefully
Hogmanay trip
SA!!!

Also still thinking about either:
Selling the flat
Renting out the flat
Staying in the flat

Basically comes down to a question of priorities… If we had more money we would sell the flat, deal with any loss we would make, buy somewhere else and go on all the holidays we want to go. As it happens, we don't have enough money for that, e.g. we can't afford to be £10k down at the end of selling the flat - that would scupper any deposit we might have for a start! - and tbh our holidays this year are higher up our priority list, as much as that might surprise folk.

There's just such a stigma related to living in a small flat. Family members give us a look like they pity us for a start. SIL started asking us awkward questions yesterday about buying a house (as though it was expected that it would be as easy as that given OH has a new job…"yes, all of a sudden people will be bombarding us with offers to buy our current place…") which really p'd me off. She's so interested in our finances - really riles me - constantly trying to find out what we earn, how much our mortgage is, how we can/can't afford this and that… They earn less than we do but they've got a house so they can't understand why we're still in a 300 sq ft flat. Basically because BIL lived in a council flat for 20 years with low rent (he's 15 years older than I am) so managed to save up a nice deposit for their new house, which is great. But they don't realise that it's not like that for everyone else (I've been paying a mortgage since I started earning and we're concentrating on paying off debts and trying not to stretch ourselves too far) and our priorities are different (i.e. not trying to buy a house as quickly as we can so we can start a family…). The ironic thing is that they've now gone from paying low council rent to paying a mortgage and are now struggling - not something we want to happen!! - so you'd think they'd understand a bit more. Difficult to say "we don't want to do what you did" without offending someone though.

Grumble grumble, eh?! Maybe I'll feel better now Monday morning is over with and I've had a bit of a moan

Lemon_Tree

hi La Es, glad to see you back.
Hope you enjoy your trips away you deserve them.
I know how you feel about your flat. when i bought ours i was single and it was perfect for me, now there's a Mr LT it's too small, but there's been work needed on the shared bits which has meant we don't stand a cat in hells chance of selling. We're finally getting the repairs done but i'm sure we're stuck here for a while yet.
My MIL is like your SIL, she's desperate to know what i earn and we keep being told we should be in a house. It's annoying though as OH had nothing when we got married so why does she think that he's 'living below himself' IYKWIM. They insist that we should be moving straight away and completely don't understand that we can't sell at the moment, and need to do so before we can buy. She also thinks saving money is a waste of time as you could die tomorrow in her words, she doesn't get that if you don't save you can't pay bills etc
sorry shouldn't winge on your thread.

La_escocesa

Hi LT :wave:

Winge away!! I'm happy I'm not the only one getting 'advice' about things I don't want more advice on!

Feel a bit better about it since getting it off my chest tbh. I know they just want the best for us but it just gets so frustrating.

Lemon_Tree

you're very right, it does feel better, and where better than here where we won't hold a grudge and bring it up again and again over the rest of your life.

unusuasiods

I thank for the help in this question.