All the small things - tell me what you have done to be MF today

pixnmix_2

Hi everyone :wave:

Today I bagged up all the loose change lying around the house and car. It came to £32!!! That's enough to get paint for my hall and a lampshade so i'm one step closer to starting OP on the mortgage. I intend to start the OP after December, so aiming to finish all that needs doing to make my house a home before that..curtains, paint etc. Well pleased with today's effort

LavenderBees

Evening, all

Today, I've been back at work, so...:(

NSD
Car Shared so NPD
Charged up phone at work
Took hm soup and bread for lunch
Had lo sunday lunch for dinner (again )
Opened new cash ISA account and started the transfer of funds from various accounts to this one to maximise my (measly)savings interest
Gained some interest on my previous Cash ISA account...nice surprise, I'd forgotten about that :T. Am adding that to my op amount for April...
Worked out how much I think I can afford to op on 24th April...not as much as I'd hoped but still a lot better than nothing

That's all for now folks!

LB xx

curlygirl1971

*£30 shop at Sainsburys to get £6 off voucher
*Some whoopsie items for the freezer
*Made enough dinner tonight for tomorrow and one for the freezer
*Was only down 1/4 of a tank but topped up as Petrol was 2p cheaper there and don't normally pass it
*Realised that between paying in Supermarket and getting into car I'd lost my credit card - I'd dropped it in the store and some fab person had handed it in straight away. Thank goodness I make a habit of checking my receipt and filing it in my purse - otherwise I might not have noticed
*Am currently spending on my Halifax clarity card busy trying to get to my reward threshold.
*Finished doing my Nectar searches for the month

Anti-MSE

*got the heating on for an hour - I am stone cold and boiling myself in a bath didn't work. Got a cold I think


Anyone reading any good threads at the moment? I need a bit of inspiration on the forum.....

curlygirl1971

I quite often feel like a bit of a light-weight on this thread. Compared to other MSE'er efforts, what I do is quite pathetic.

I don't spend time doing lots of surveys, I don't consider myself to be thrifty although I'm often careful and sometimes frugal, colleagues snigger sometimes when I talk about offers, best deals, good prices etc.

I've never sold any of my surplus possessions - I have hundreds of CD's and a wardrobe full of clothes I never wear....that I might be able to get something for - but I've just never bothered.

However there have been a couple of times recently when talking to people outside of my usual circle that made me realise that actually, I'm not that bad and although I could do better, I'm actually an MSE'er on a day to day basis without even thinking about it.

This morning I was talking to a neighbour - an ordinary working class man with a manual job. He started by bemoaning the price of fuel. I asked him where he went as there are a number of stations in our immediate locality between 137.9 - 142.9. He probably passes 3 of them each day. 'Oh anywhere, I don't really pay attention'.

Then we went on to food shopping and he explained that they just go to the nearest supermarket and get what they need because 'they're all the same really aren't they'. Well no they're not and the one he was talking about is perceived as cheap but I actually find it really expensive for quite a few basic items and especially brands so I shop around and use mysupermarket.com.

Perhaps it's wrong to summise but I just got the feeling that his whole philosophy on money management is completely alien to mine. Infact I don't think he even has one!

I know when I talk to people at work that a lot of people accept renewals, don't always shop around and compare prices, don't save up, don't use Cashback, can't be bothered with reward schemes - all to varying degrees.

I know someone whose Dad kindly pays for their Blackberry contract every month (they're 18). So what did he do.......go out and sign up to an iphone contract for £45 per month.....so now he has two mobiles in his pocket. Even at 18 I would have recognised the money saving opportunity and be grateful to my Dad!.

I know someone who didn't realise they were on an interest only Mortgage for 20 years

I know people who have access to the internet, but if they need something they just go to the nearest shop and buy it without research / price comparisons.

I know people who put holidays on credit cards and pay them off bit by bit - and they do this year after year

I know.......we all have to learn but some people just don't seem to....ever. I'm not saying I've never done something stupid financially, I'm not saying that I understood how Mortgage's work 10 years ago, I'm not saying I've always been as good as I am now, but even before I started OP'ing, even before I found MSE.......I've been aware and careful and planned. I always saved whenever I could. Perhaps though some of that is down to my parents. I remember very vividly getting my first passbook savings account when I was 8, I remember the amazement of having the passbook updated with that magic thing 'Interest'.

So whilst I may take my hat off to most of you for your outstanding efforts, I have to remind myself sometimes that actually I do have to pat myself on the back. And I think it's very easy to forget that actually, we are members of quite a special 'club'...and I'm quite happy about that I have a sneaky feeling that people like us are more the exception rather than the norm.

Today:-

* Kept my eye on MPG on way to work
* Salad made up at home for Lunch
* Charging mobile
* Reconciled my CC statements and arranged payments in full.
* Tonight I will be reconciling a 3 months bank statement for my Current Account - can't wait.
* Left-overs for dinner
* Living and breathing MSE attitude as always

unhappy_shopper

Curlygirl1971, great post :money:

Tabatha_Kitten

You're quite right Curlygirl, its only when you talk to other people outside of this forum that you realise just how savvy we actually are.
My boss got his breakdown renewal through the other day and threw it at me to file without even looking at it. I persuaded him to take 5mins to ring them and say he was thinking about changing to Autoaid. There is no chance he would ever switch to Autoaid as he has never heard of them but just by making the call he got his renewal down from £150 to around £90 and slipped me a tenner as a thank you !

gallygirl

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

I quite often feel like a bit of a light-weight on this thread. Compared to other MSE'er efforts, what I do is quite pathetic.

I know just how you feel - but we are not pathetic compared to 95% of the population . It's all about informed choices and how much you value your time/choices. So, you know you could make money on ebay, but have decided it's not worth it. That's fine, and just as valid a choice as you choosing to take your lunch into work. What works for you is right for you.

Today I have shopped around for airport parking for 3 (:o) holidays. For 1, went for cheap, Airparks offsite choice and overnight in Premier Inn (flight is at stupid o'clock). Too expensive to stay in an onsite hotel and still need to get a coach from nice hotels so may as well save money and drive to Airparks. For the other 2, have gone for long stay on site within walking distance of terminal. More convenient and only slightly dearer than Airparks. For car hire, will be paying around 10-15% over the odds for the convenience of doing all paperwork upfront and being met by a man with the keys and no queue rather than a long queue and possible bus to off site pick-up. But I researched and made a choice, rather than 'going with Hertz because I always go with them' :eek:.

I have also spent a pleasurable hour or so reconciling statements to spreadsheets . Popped into Aldi while out and just bought 4 packs of their nice bacon which I knew was on offer. petrolprices.com for diesel and squashed air out of ebay parcel before giving to post office clerk so it could go as a large letter :rotfl:.

curlygirl1971

Morning all:-

*Home assembled salad for lunch (Despite appearances this isn't the best MS in the world. I can get a free lunch at work - the trouble is, none of the choices are healthy choices for me so quite often I do bring my own food into work - I guess it's better than popping into Tescos and buying a ready made salad though )

*Freezer surprise tonight - think it's curry

*MPG not too bad

*Charging mobile at work

*Ignored fraudulant email from someone pretending to be Paypal. It looks scarily like the real thing though.

*Checked my latest OP has hit my Mortgage account - I think I'm just in time for them calculating my new Standard payment - new interest rate on May 1st

*Took some clothes back to M&S Outlet for a refund and managed to get in and out the store without buying something else - quite an achievement for me.

Anti-MSE:-

*I suggested a while ago that an idea would be to turn shower off whilst you soap. Not sure what everyone else's shower is like but this is not a good idea for me; when the shower first comes on it treats you to a blast of cold water. Maybe in the summer....but not yet.

themadvix

Only just seen your lengthy post Curlygirl and I definitely agree - I think even with these 'small things' threads we all take so much of the money saving things we do for granted, because we are so conditioned to do them!

As you say, it is amazing what some people do with their money!

My recent small things:
*Bought travel insurance for £64 for two for our honeymoon - a lot cheaper than the first quote I got for £90!
*Switched car insurance and put my Dad on it - brought it down from initial £289 to £258 (and renewal quote was £341, which didn't even have recently settled claim on it, despite being with that ins company!). Didn't opt for cashback as quote was higher through TCB and risk that it might not track, but went via Confused and got my 1,000 Nectar points.
*Bought underlay for bedroom on ebay - less than half the price of Carpetright for the same stuff - however courier didn't deliver yesterday as promised, so waiting in again for them today and complaint made to seller.
*4 items listed on ebay, 1 has a bid on!:j (I never seem to have the success others do when selling - watchers are a cause for excitement for me!)

curlygirl1971

*Started my own MFW diary which isn't just about my Mortgage but also wanting to tackle my general health/fitness. As a kind of bribery/motivation thing I've decided to impose a Chocolate Tax on myself. Ie. I ate a Snack Size Snickers at Lunch 208 Kcal, therefore am taxing myself £2.08 and that will be included in my next Mortgage OP. Mentioning it here incase anyone else fancies taxing themselves