Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

White_Iris wrote: »

GETTING RID OF THE BIG STUFF IN JULY

1 - dolls house SOLD £33
2 - coffee table SOLD £16
3 - writing desk
4 - changing table SOLD £10
5 - extra large holdall SOLD £33
6 - tent

Not bad and we're only half way through the month!

White_Iris

LianneH wrote: »

hey WI, not been on in a while as my laptop went capoot!!

you continue to do great on the ebay front - your energy is fab!

keep going forward, you are doing great! x

Nice to see you back, hope the laptop wasn't too painful to fix/replace!

White_Iris

Had a talk with Dh about our loan and we've decided to get a savings pot together and try and pay it off early. We can definately get enough money together in the next twelve months to clear it one month early but we're aiming for three months. So we're trying to save £1314 in the next 12 months :eek:

The plan is to continue saving the emergency fund and try to get it to £500 asap and then put all spare cash in the overpayment fund. It's unlikely we'll need the conveyancing pot in the near future (unless the housing market massively improves) so that can continue to get little drip feeds now and again but it's not a priority. The same with my savings - I've set up a standing order to add £5 a month but that's it for the moment. We've earmarked some of the money DH will earn script marking this year (maybe £100), the council tax money in Feb and March (£260) and the majority of his script marking money next year (£600 ish), so if all goes to plan we should only need to add about £400. Not too dificult in theory!

White_Iris

Well, that's me done with eBay for the summer. Last thing posted today, although I do have to package something else for someone who is arranging their own courier (I have a niggly feeling that this sale is going to be a headache though :cool:). I'm quite looking forward to not traipsing to the post over every other day but at the same time I can't quite stop myself checking my eBay app, forgetting that I'm not buying or selling anything!

This week looks like it will be quite grim and rainy, so I'm planning on doing some baking and batch cooking (while cbeebies baysits - naughty mummy ). I also need to start thinking about what we need to take on holiday with us and hopefully avoid overpacking. DH is still script marking each evening but he should be finished towards the end of the week and then it's the summer holidays...and relax! :j

White_Iris

White_Iris wrote: »

GETTING RID OF THE BIG STUFF IN JULY

1 - dolls house - sold £33
2 - coffee table - sold £16
3 - writing desk - only just finished using for script marking, definately get rid of in August!
4 - changing table - sold £10
5 - extra large holdall - sold £33 (but this is probably going to be refunded as the buyer has not arranged to collect it and I'm getting fed up of being strung along :mad:)
6 - tent - no progress here, still taking up space in the utiliy room

Hooray, the holidays are here! We managed to clear quite a bit of space by selling some of the stuff listed above, so August is time to relax.

In total I managed to save £285 towards our holiday spending and we're aiming not to put anything on the credit card while we're away. Our spending credit card is taking a bit of a battering at the moment as my car needs new brakes at a cost of £290 (:eek:) but we should be able to pay off a big chunk of the balance when DH gets paid for the script marking he's been doing.

The challenge for August will be not to overspend and also to try and save towards paying our loan off early.

White_Iris

Hooray, the holdall buyer has finally arranged a courier for today so I don't need to cancel the sale! It also looks like we've sold our car (the one we bought back in October - DH has been given a better one by a family member) but the bidder hasn't come to view it and has zero feedback on eBay so it might just be a timewaster.

DH and I have also agreed to put £25 a month each from our own spending money in the pot to pay off the loan early :-)

debtfreewannabe321

just popping on to see how you're doing and as usual you're doing great on the ebay sales :T and loving the plan that you've got to pay the loan off early, it's great that your DH is so on board with it all

White_Iris

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

just popping on to see how you're doing and as usual you're doing great on the ebay sales :T and loving the plan that you've got to pay the loan off early, it's great that your DH is so on board with it all

I've never known DH to be so concerned with paying off a debt early - this one really bothers him! I think he just realises how much easier our life would be if we had an extra £450 a month.

I've just checked the online banking and DH has been paid for the script marking he's been doing and it's about £200 more than we expected :beer:. This means we can whack a bit in savings, pay off almost all of our "spending" credit card and have some left over for treats!

White_Iris

We're back home now after a lovely but tiring week away and (thanks to a small donation from my parents towards fuel costs) we managed to only over spend by about £25 (petrol is sooo expensive...grrrrr). That can come out of Augusts petrol budget, so that's not too much of a problem.

In terms of money-saving, the rest of August will involve a little bit of eBaying but mostly prepping the childrens old, cold weather clothes, to start selling in the autumn. I also want to get a head start on Christmas (I know, it's way to early to start thinking about that!) by listing the gifts we need to buy and working out how much I need to budget each month to pay for them. I might also make our Christmas cards if I have a spare few hours.

White_Iris

Feeling a bit low about our housing prospects at the moment. Still no viewings (although our agent assures us that August is always quiet) and two of the houses, in the town we want to move to, that I have been watching on RightMove have been sold. Now I always knew that they would sell eventually, and that our grand plan was to rent while paying off our debts before we buy again, but it still made me feel a bit sad that we never had a chance to buy them because of our current situation. Still, I should be getting a final payment from the tax credits people soon, which can go in the loan over-payments pot and once that loan is gone (aiming for next July) we can think about renting our house out and moving next summer.