SeriouslySeekingtoSave strongly strides straight into slaying her mortgage!

gallygirl

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hi there!
Sounds like the holiday in NZ was a great success and lots of fun!
I hear you on the socialising as the evenings are getting lighter...found myself all cheery driving home in the sunshine...I can feel summer on its way! ...(or at least spring!)

Sorry, Spring ends tomorrow & back to winter. I washed my patio table & chairs tonight in anticipation of sitting out at lunchtime tomorrow. 9" of snow by the weekend if my usual standards are anything to go by

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

I have reigned in the spending a bit, but I'm having a (teeny tiny) splurge on computer games I'm buying on ebay. Since I decided to stop my online game and knowing how the love of all things pixily and micro manageable, keeps me so very happy, I'm out buying all of the Sims Games. I actually have most of them already but my laptop DVD player is seriously picky and has turned it's nose up at fairly much all of them. Ah well. Hours, days, weeks and months of free enjoyment (once the games are picked up) so it's very MSE.;)

I'm also back to eating food from home as I was a trifle slack for a couple of days. Well I eat my own lunch when I don't leave it sitting on the train like a complete numpty! My garlic sausage probably got blown up by Southeastern Rail as a 'suspicious package' :rotfl:

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Well after my rather too large spending ofrom the start of the month my second half (oh alright, third then!) has been a lot more MS. No more bought lunches, two supermarket trips and no nights out. I had one planned but I got the wrong night lol! I also worked on Sunday which was at double time so that was very nice!

My last paypacket before the ISA window shuts so I had better make up my mind. Well, I have really I'm just waiting for payday and my bills to go out to have a final total of how much I can afford to put into it.

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

I finally decided against putting my money in an ISA, I've been umming and erring over this for a good month due to the bad vibes that Santander gave me. After I set everything up and posted everything off to them, to be given the complete run around by their staff of total know nothings just gave me a very bad feeling. And I've been following my 'bad feeling' vibes a lot more lately after the (hopefully) final disaster of not doing so and being stranded at 8pm in Budapest with my suitcase, no credit on my cellphone and no hostel to stay in. Ah travel, gotta love it! . I could have picked another ISA to put money into but I'm just not that fussed about it. The money I'd make over and above my mortgage OPs is miniscule and I'm going to be sticking with the big 8% on the savings account for my savings pot. I've got a very secure job (well unless the company goes under which I suppose is possible), 3 months notice if they do decide to fire me and the ever reliable Bank of Mum and Dad if things really do go Pete Tong. It's all good

Sooo I'll be hopping online in a minute to make a great big fat OP to my mortgage (oh baby, I've sooo missed doing that these past 2 months ) and to update my spending diary for this month ready for posting.

I did some preliminary toting up this afternoon and, well, yeah... . Oh it's not THAT bad I suppose, I mean my food total was around £100 which is £30 more than the last two months but I have been a bit less organised food planning wise this month. To tell the truth I've been totally lazy :rotfl:. So, I guess £100 isn't exactly a blowout of horrific proportions. My going out spend was about the same. A triffle on the high side just because I had a couple of £30 plus nights. They were good fun but I think it could have been just as good a night for less if I'd been a bit more careful. Still, things could have been worse.

I have also been instrumental in converting another to the ways of the MoneySaver. On a hike on Saturday the conversation somehow got around to banks and how to make money from them. One of the girls had a totally gobsmacked expression on her face as two of us (there was another fervent moneysaver on the trip as well) started regaling her with something like 'our best money saving moments'. I'd say she had her LBM on the train and I've since sent her the web site details and signed her up for the weekly email. Ah :money: would be proud of me!

Well, pip pip all. Despite all evidence to the contrary I am STILL consistant and determined. I'm just going about it in my own 'special' sort of a way

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

What a stunner of a day! Too nice to spend my lunch inside at the gym so currently lazing around the park by St Pauls. Loverly :-)

Now, if I could just get time to stop I'd be sorted!

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

I am so mad at myself! I went out last night to dinner /drinks with a group of friends. I was pretty tired and wanted to get home to pack for my Amsterdam trip, I didn't stay for the bill and just left money to cover it. As I didn't have correct change I left £20 which was more than I needed but as it was about £4 more I couldn't be bothered waiting. However as I reached home my sleepy brain kicked in - as we had the 50% voucher I'd overpaid by £10!

I had remembered the 50% voucher but was too tired to even be capable of basic sums!

Oh I'm so cross! I'll have to be extra MSE to make up for it. At least I've had a NSW apart from that little glitch.

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

P.S. It's another cracker day and I've just been to pick up a parcel a the PO holding depot so I've had a nice walk in he sunshine. Pretty hard to stay grumpy :-)

Iris_Blue

That would annoy be too about overpaying on the meal, but we all do it sometimes. Just think of it that you're a really generous friend who pays more than her way

It really is a beautiful day, I love hearing the birds singing when its like this. It was a pleasure getting up this morning.

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

I'll think of it like that then ;-) although it probably just went in as a big tip and the service wasn't that good!

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

My trip to Amsterdam was wonderful but it has made me definitely realise that I prefer to travel alone, or if I do travel with someone it needs to be with someone with very similar ideas to myself, not just in what we like to do, but in our attitudes to money and what we should be spending it on.

The last few times I've been travelling with others I haven't been 100% sure that I did because it hasn't' been with someone who is very easy to travel with and great company, so I've always thought, well, maybe if it was a closer friend. But now I have and I really have to say, that for shortish trips away, I don't think I can justify going with others. Well, maybe a couple of very specific close friends, but as they don't live in the UK I don't think that's going to happen

Food is the biggest expense when you travel with others because it seems like everyone but me wants to eat out for every single meal.

For instance, lunch when I am wandering around a city on a lovely day is often a couple of buns filled with something from the supermarket, eaten while relaxing in a park or some other comfy spot. I love doing it and it's very cheap. We did that the first day (with bread bought from a local market - sesame encrusted baguettes, yummy yummy yummy!) but the other two were spent in restaurants and that cost far more and I didn't enjoy it as much. The last day was a perfect example, Stefan wanted pancakes and so we ended up at a pancake place; it wasn't the first place we saw but it was in a touristy spot so it was still 8 euro for a bacon pancake. It tasted alright, nothing great, but it didn't fill me up at all so I got a big ice cream swirl and that was another 4 euro (and it was delicious too, I have to confess - that was one that I don't regret - I actually wasn't going buy one but I had a taste of Stefans as we were walking on, and I ended up turning around and hot footing back for my own!). Buns and some luncheon probably would have been 3 euro max and with it being such a gorgeous day, a break in a park would have been perfect. Although I would have missed out on the ice-cream swirl :rotfl:

The worst was the final meal before we headed for the airport; I ended up having to send my meal back and order another one and I had two drinks so it cost me 30 in total. If I had been by myself I wouldn't have gone in at all and that would have been much cheaper! When I add up what I spent on food which I know I wouldn't have done had I been alone, it's a lot for 3 days! And, like I say, I very rarely enjoy eating out because it's not a 'wow, that looks like a nice place, let's treat ourselves and enjoy every minute of it'. it's just a given that you eat out and the food is often pretty blah. I'd much rather save that money and spend it elsewhere. I only deliberately chose two places to stop and drink/eat. The first was a cafe in the park on the second day. It had been mentioned in the guide book; so we parked our bikes, and had a 'sandwich' and apple pie with cream on a bench outside. I didn't order a drink though, used my tap filled water bottle. It was absolutely lovely anyway, as was the canal side cafe we stopped at for a drink in the late afternoon sun (although I shouldn't have order my second cider, that was just being greedy ). Neither of those were just 'oh we need to eat and that's the closest' places, they suited the moment and contributed to the whole experience of Amsterdam, not just fuel stops for the hell of it.

We both like museums, although as the weather was so stunning we only went to the Van Gogh. I also really enjoy doing walking tours around the city - to me they really make a place come alive. Stefan doesn't like them so we didn't go. On the other hand, we hired bikes on the second day and went on a big tour out of Amsterdam to this museum/village which I probably wouldn't have done if I had been by myself. So, that was a big plus.

I'm not an anti social person btw, I always chat to people in hostels and usually find someone to spend the day with every few days or so when I travel alone. But the good thing about that is you only hook up if you have already made up your mind what you are doing and the other person/s are also doing the same thing. So there isn't any 'I want to do this/but I want to do that' which can sometimes make you feel that you are compromising your trip away.

I really really enjoyed my trip and if it has effectively saved me a lot of money in the future by really driving it home that I prefer to travel alone and that way I can always do exactly as I want on whatever budget I chose then it's been very effective. There are a load of short trips coming up which I haven't been able to make due to work and now I'm quite thankful. If this trip is anything to go by it just saved me a lot! of money. I'll head off by myself at some point, do some forward planning and enjoy seeing Europe on a budget - fairly much guilt free - magic!

The only exception to this might be the package holidays. I've only ever done one of them to an off season reason in Portugal - I definitely don't think I would have enjoyed it during the peak season! Because those are twin share rooms then it might be alright to travel, so long as I don't eat out every night and every lunch and breakfast, I guess I'd have to establish that beforehand. The time I went with my friend he was quite a frugal person as well so we struck a happy balance between going out for every single meal and staying in our hotel room and eating dry crackers. That was actually quite a successful holiday - well, apart from the sickness we both got and I did get a little bit frustrated at him leaving me to do absolutely everything because he wasn't a 'seasoned' traveller like myself. Even when I was sick as a dog in bed he left me to go out and I had to drag myself down to reception to book our transport to the airport for the next morning. I gave him a bit of what for when he came back and he was properly ashamed of himself for being so thoughtless.

So that might be an exception perhaps? We were thinking of doing another one of those cheap and cheerfuls later on in the year. Ricky was wanting Greece, I was more thinking Turkey but I'd be prepared to shift to Greece depending on the cost. Greece is meant to be a hell of lot more expensive especially since the recession. I was warned that tourists are now very much treated as 'cash cows' and milked for money. I'm not sure how true that is but something to be aware of anyway.