Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

LianneH wrote: »

WOW you really have been busy today! You put me to shame!

I went back to work today after the festive period and it was a looong day! Just found out that I'm pregnant too (just 8 weeks) so been trying to hide my expanding waist line and feelings of total exhaustion. I really wanted to sort through DD's wardrobe and sort ebay stuff but I can't keep my eyes open - could I hire you for a few hours! lol

Congratulations on the pregnancy - wonderful news! I'd love to hire myself out to de-clutter other peoples houses but I'd want full control over what stays and what goes, I've no patience with people wanting to keep tat because of sentimental reasons!

White_Iris

Mattress arrived yesterday and it is hugely better than the old one but I still woke up achey this morning - must be my old bones (or having to share with DH and DS who always seems to end up in with us at some point during the night). Boiler service man did not arrive however, so that company will be getting a stroppy phone call on Monday morning! Ebay sales still doing well, I'm currently scouring the house to find anything of (relatively) high value that we can list to make the mkost of the free listing weekend...no luck so far. Managed to return £30 of duplicate Christmas presents this morning, so now have another voucher in my purse, ready to redeem later in the year when we actually need things. That makes a grand total of about £85 in vouchers, from various places, waiting to be spent :-)

LianneH

White_Iris wrote: »

Congratulations on the pregnancy - wonderful news! I'd love to hire myself out to de-clutter other peoples houses but I'd want full control over what stays and what goes, I've no patience with people wanting to keep tat because of sentimental reasons!

thanks you!

and full control duly handed over!! :rotfl:

White_Iris

White_Iris wrote: »

Starting to get a little bit annoyed with DH though. Before Chrismas we talked about him setting up a savings account with our local credit union, which he agreed to. I got in touch with them and sorted out all the paperwork, which then sat in his work bag untouched. last weekend I fished them out, filled them in, sorted out copies of ID and even stamped and addressed the envelope - all he had to do this week was get the papers signed and get his managed to confirm the copies of the ID were accurate. So far it hasn't been done and when I ask about it I get a sigh and a long, drawn-out no (in husband speak this translates to 'stop nagging me' I think!). I suspect it will be several more weeks before he gets it done :mad:

He brought home all the paperwork, fully completed and ready to post, on Friday Shame on you Iris, you should have more faith in your husband :rotfl:

White_Iris

Posted off some eBay sales this morning and also paid in some of my bagged up change, so that's a little bit more in the savings pot. I've made about £20 from eBay this week, which doesn't sound much but I sell low value things, for a few pounds each - £20 a week works out at over £1000 a year for things which would have otherwise gone to the charity shop! Should be on target to make the same this week too. Still waiting for my Premier Inn refund to come through but they did say it could take up to 4 working days - between the refund and eBay I should easily meet my savings targets for this month.

White_Iris

Children are napping so during the brief spell of quiet I've been thinking about what we(I) want to achieve once we're debt free...

a - Have a 6-month emergency pot - approx. £10,000
b - Overpay the mortgage - aim to be mortgage free by 50
c - Save for the children - would like them each to have £10,000 in savings by the time they go off to Uni
d - Each have personal savings in the region of £5000

Wow, that's a lot of money to save! Our most expensive debt will be paid off in 21 months and the credit cards not long afterwards. We will still have one loan remaining but with the £600ish extra cash we'll have available, we should be able to re-finance and pay this off within two or three years. So in the next five years we should be debt free and, having sold our current house and moved to a more affordable one, we should be in a position to spend the following 10 years working towards those goals - hopefully with enough spare cash to start enjoying ourselves a bit!

To get the ball rolling, my target for 2012 is to have £1000 in the emergency fund and £1000 in my savings account at the end of the year.

White_Iris

A few pennies coming from Quidco too this month - yay!

debtfreesomeday

Your motivation is inspiring whiteiris, I've just cleared out my Ds's drawers and shall be ebaying the clothes that are too small. I was wondering whether to bother, but then remembered your eBay successes, so I shall get obeying very soon!

Good luck with all your targets, I'm sure you will achieve them with your determination.

Dfsd

White_Iris

debtfreesomeday wrote: »

Your motivation is inspiring whiteiris, I've just cleared out my Ds's drawers and shall be ebaying the clothes that are too small. I was wondering whether to bother, but then remembered your eBay successes, so I shall get obeying very soon!

Good luck with all your targets, I'm sure you will achieve them with your determination.

Dfsd

Aww, thanks!

The thing that's made most difference to me over the last few weeks is keeping track of the little bits of money. They add up quickly, a few pounds from Quidco, £3 from a survey etc. - added to any money I make from eBay it's slowly mounting up in my savings. I often wonder whether eBay is worth the bother but when things sell (even just for a few quid) I'm so pleased. Stuff out and money in! Alos, as a SAHM with no income to contribute, it makes me feel like I'm doing something positive for the family finances.

Just had the Premier Inn refund come through and along with the left-over cash in the bills account I've been able to add some more to the savings pots...just off to update the signatures but I think the emergency savings is now well over £150 and my savings pot is getting close to £100 :T

White_Iris

Just remembered a case I'e opened with eBay before Christmas is due to be closed next week. If they decide in my favour (which I hope they will - item I bought was damaged in the post, seller is refusing to refund saying it's up to me to claim from Royal Mail, I'm pretty sure this is against eBay policy) and the seller has to refund me, then thats another £10 in the pot :-)