Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

DH and I went out for a meal on Saturday night, the first with just the two of us since the twins were born. It was nice but more expensive than we expected and as we had the night off we almost felt obliged to stay out for a few drinks afterwards which was another £20. It was all paid for in cash and mostly budgeted for which hasn't happened for a while. The nice thing was I wasn't thinking about paying off debts and feeling guilty every time we spent some money, so I guess my new attitude to money is working.

We also had quite a good week making money (not just spending it!) - about £70 from eBay and anther £70 from selling an old phone. Plus the final insurance payment from our dogs last treatments came through, so that's another £125. Most of it has been earmarked for spending already but I should be able to meet my £50 savings target this month.

White_Iris

We're now moving in to stage 2 of de-cluttering. We've got rid of the bulk of our surplus things and I can finally see the bed in the [STRIKE]spare[/STRIKE] eBay room, so it's time to go through what we've got left with a more critical eye.

I've sorted through the dog cupboard and free-cycled about half of the bits we had in there, I've also free-cycled some cushions which we had on our bed and served no purpose other than to be moved from the floor at night, then back to the bed after it was made in the day time. I've debating whether we really need our three-tier steamer, which only gets used to cook rice (probably not) and even though we've already massively reduced our DVDs from hundreds down to about 30, we still don't watch them so I think they could probably all go.

The attic is in pretty good shape - mostly empty boxes but there are a few bits which still need to be sold or given away. The kitchen cupboards still seem a bit full so I'll have a good look though the drawers and see which utensils we really need. The cupboard in the spare room is starting to overflow but I think that's more because things haven't been put away properly, rather than it containing too much junk. Really the only place left to tackle is DHs shed, which he swears only contains things he really wants to keep!

The impetus behind all this is the decision we've made to rent our house out in the spring (assuming the property market hasn't suddenly recovered!) and move to a smaller, rented house in the town we want to live in. Since I'll end up doing most of the packing I really want to make it as simple as possible - one box for each room would be ideal and I think for the kitchen, bathroom, utility and our room we could manage that. The living room and the children's things may need two or three but I'm aiming on less than 15 boxes of 'stuff' plus clothes and furniture.

Just writing about it has got me feeling motivated...off to scrutinize the kitchen!

debtfreewannabe321

Oh wow you really are on a mission to de-clutter. Perhaps when i win the lotto i could hire you out to do my house i thought i was good but i'm nowhere near as strict as you.......no wonder i have so much stuff! We have 100's of dvd's and i went through and them and decided i only didn't want 10 or so really need to be more critical in my approach me thinks :rotfl:

Good plan on the renting though. Will you make enough money from renting yours to cover the mortgage & insurances ?

dfw

White_Iris

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Good plan on the renting though. Will you make enough money from renting yours to cover the mortgage & insurances ?

We should be able to rent it for enough to cover everything and give us about £100 a month income...fingers crossed!

White_Iris

Starting to feel a bit anxious about Christmas - well buying Christmas presents really. Normally but this point I've got most things but I've only bought one or two this year and I've no idea where the money will come from to buy the rest! I've got lots for sale on eBay at the moment - mostly Christmassy things, stuff that would make good presents so hopefully that'll sell well but DH's car has gone in to the garage (again!) and DD got hold of his glasses at the weekend and ripped both arms off, so he needs a new pair (although hopefully I can get his to buy the £30 pair instead of the £75 pair he really wants) - money is running away from us as fast as we can drag it in at the moment :-(

karren

White_Iris wrote: »

Hi Calley, the dungarees can and will be mended. The hole is actually on the bottom - she's a bum-shuffler not a crawler! I'm a big fan of "make do and mend", I just need to wait until the weekend so DH can corral the children and I can use the sewing machine in peace! I use to lurk on the Old Style board a lot and I definitely should get back over there - you old-stylers are so knowledgeable. Ooh - that reminds me about a saucepan I need to resuscitate after burning pasta to the bottom of it. I bet someone on that board will know how to fix it!

soak in stardrops or washing powder x

White_Iris

Feeling a bit better about Christmas - got some sewing project finished at the weekend, two of which are gifts, also managed to get some more gifts organised. Nearly all of my shopping done now except for DH.

I've done really well on eBay this month both in terms of making money and clearing clutter. Not much cash left in my PayPal account though but in my defence it has all been spent on Christmas, things for the children or other things that were needed.

I'm getting a bit fed up of eBay though, it's just constant work chasing up buyers, packing, posting, listing. I've only got a few things left that I'd like to get sold before Christmas, so I'll list for another couple of weeks and then have a nice long break until well in to the new year. This should give me a chance to get a bit more motivated again, also I'll be able to dig out anything else that we can sell and let the post-Christmas rush of sellers die down on eBay.

Looks like I have met most of my November resolutions, which is good - I'll update these next week and have a think about some December ones in the meantime.

inthegreen

I have just read your whole diary. I don’t have kids but have just moved to the country and discovered oil and internet (useless speed too) to be so much more expensive. We are using more electricity too having an electric cooker.
Keep going you are doing brilliantly, one day your loan will end and you can pay all that extra off the cc.

White_Iris

I've been thinking about a conversation I had with my sister a little while ago about savings - she was quite surprised when I told her we didn't have any, as I have always been the family saver.

Starting in the new year I'm going to put all of my survey payouts and eBay money in to a savings account and hopefully build up a nice savings pot by the end of the year, in fact I'm going to add my savings account details to PayPal as soon as I've finished typing!

Next year we will have less debt and more savings, be living in the town we to be in and hopefully have sold our house (or at least rented it successfully for at least a 6 month contract).

LianneH

sounds like a plan! but remember that even although you haven't been saving, you have been paying off debt, so its not like you have just frittered the money away! i think you are one of the hardest working MSE's, all the ebaying you do and looking after you wee ones!

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