Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

Yesterday afternoon I was having a think about how we can get the house selling/debt clearing process moving more quickly. Without the ability to make substantial regular payments things aren't really going to speed up, so I toyed with the idea of going back to work.

There were a few jobs near the in-laws, which would be great for childcare but by the time I'd paid for petrol (about a 70ish mile round trip) I'd lose a massive chunk of my wage (also, although they were classed as part-time, they were still 5 days a week which is more than I wanted). That made me realise we were in a bit of a vicious circle...

....can't get a job as we live too far away from free childcare - need to move house....

.....can't move house until we can reduce the price or save up to pay the estate agent....

.....can't afford to drop the price and no spare cash to save - need to get a job....

Arghhhh! :mad:

I guess we just need to accept that we'll be living in this (perfectly nice, big) house for longer than we would like. We're not in a horrendous situation, it's just not where we want to be...then again, it's doing (and spending) what we want that has got us in this situation in the first place!

So, I'm trying to be a grown-up about it and just accept that things can only progress when we sell the house and until that happens life will have to continue as normal. I've deleted the Rightmove app from my phone, so I can stop depressing myself by looking at houses we'll never live in and I'm going to have a final sort out of all our eBay stuff next week and make as much money as I can in June (must also get my suvey head back on and start getting the pennies dribbling in again).

Jaspersmum

Its free listing for the whole 4 day weekend on fleabay so I will be sorting out all my 'treasures' to list and hopefully make some extra cash.

Have a lovely weekend.

White_Iris

Jaspersmum wrote: »

Its free listing for the whole 4 day weekend on fleabay so I will be sorting out all my 'treasures' to list and hopefully make some extra cash.

Have a lovely weekend.

Good luck with eBay Jaspersmum - fingers crossed for lots of sales :money:

We're going to stay with the in-laws for the long weekend so won't be able to get anything sorted out for listing until later on in the week, when I'm also hoping to get DH involved in a mini-eBay-listing-marathon!

White_Iris

June Mini Money Resolutions

1 - save £15 in emergency savings pot
2 - save £20 in personal savings pot
3 - save £25 in conveyancing savings pot
4 - save £25 in holiday spending money savings pot

TOTAL MONEY TO SAVE - £85

5 - sort out all remaining eBay inventory and get it ALL listed in June
6 - do a food inventory of freezer. fridge and cupboards
7 - make meal plan for the month
8 - sort out childrens toys and get rid of 5 they no longer play with

Eyebright

Loving your mini-money resolutions, what a fab idea!! I may borrow that for my diary if you have no objections? It would be a fantastic motivator for me.
BTW you are doing fabulously well, especially with coping at the speed bumps life throws at us

EB x

LianneH

White_Iris wrote: »

There were a few jobs near the in-laws, which would be great for childcare but by the time I'd paid for petrol (about a 70ish mile round trip) I'd lose a massive chunk of my wage

I would tend to still go for it as at least if its a chunk its not on child care as well as petrol?

i suppose it depends on how you balance the "getting out of debt" with "staying at home with the kids". i have to be honest, I think working is easier than staying at home with the kids, at least you get a tea break! not sure how you do it - i take my hat off to you!

hows the surveys going? im still stuck at £19, just get screened out all the time! :mad:

x

White_Iris

Eyebright wrote: »

Loving your mini-money resolutions, what a fab idea!! I may borrow that for my diary if you have no objections? It would be a fantastic motivator for me.
BTW you are doing fabulously well, especially with coping at the speed bumps life throws at us

EB x

Hi Eyebright - feel free to use anything you would like in your diary and while we're talking about my mini resolutions, so far I have inventoried all the food and I'm about to start the menu planning (we have a lot of pork chops for some reason - may have to get creative with some of those!), weeded out some of the childrens old toys and dumped all remaining eBay inventory on the spare bed to be sorted through tomorrow.

We've been away for the last 4 days, staying with the in-laws and trying to get back to normal today - tidying, laundry, cooking, cleaning - is starting to feel a bit stressful. The children are looking like they need a nap, so it may be time to chill out for a while.

White_Iris

Back to normal today, DH is back at work and I've got to get the house back in some kind of order and get the twins back in to their routine after another weekend away.

I managed to get another 14 items listed on eBay last night and I'm aiming for about another 10 today. I also have a few things still to photograph, but they're quite large and need assembly or to be displayed properly and I really can't be bothered at the moment...maybe once things are back to normal later in the week.

It's quite a grim, rainy day here and I need to walk down to the post office later. That may also be a job that gets put off until tomorrow! I managed to spend a bit of time tidying up the front garden yesterday but the back hedges badly need cutting and there are a lot of [STRIKE]weeds[/STRIKE] plants that need taming too. Fingers crossed for some dry weather later in the week.

Money making has been a bit slow, although I did make £3 from MySurvey and I'm due another £3 from Pinecone soon. Unfortunately money spending hasn't been quite so slow but we've no plans for the rest of the month so we should be able to stretch the cash.

Better get started on some housework I suppose .

White_Iris

Good job I got the post holiday chaos sorted out yesterday, as I had a phonecall from the estate agent in the afternoon to arange a viewing for today. They were here this morning and styed for 45 minutes! There was lots of measuring and discussions of where they could put there things...good signs I hope. Just waiting to hear from the estate agent now with some feedback.

lucielle

OOOH fingers crossed.
L