Bright light, bright light!!

Northern_Lassy

ZTD wrote: »

You just want to feel the bigness in your hands - that's all it is...

Hehe...you got me there lol :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I have not been a very good Northern Lassy this year and do not expect to find these lovelies crammed into my stocking on Xmas morning...it's very sad...a lump of coal for me if I'm lucky!!

ZTD

Northern_Lassy wrote: »

Hehe...you got me there lol :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I have not been a very good Northern Lassy this year and do not expect to find these lovelies crammed into my stocking on Xmas morning...it's very sad...a lump of coal for me if I'm lucky!!

No, we're all modern now. It's an energy saving lightbulb for your stocking these days...

scubaangel

Mags_cat wrote: »

I saw one of your posts on Moo's thread and decided to mosey on over here....

You aren't helping my mahoosive "Threads wot I have subscribed to and really need another two hours in the day to read" issue, you know...:D

Looking forward to reading more about the exploits :T

I have that problem too mags
Then again I do find that moo's diary does attract the most interesting and random collection of people.

Hi knitting, thought I might join you for a while, keep meaning to take up crafty type things again but never get around to it, plus not buying materials is saving me money just now....

*wanders off for a bag of crisps and a brew because I have spare calories to eat before bedtime then will return and start reading*

Knitting_Nora

*sticks head out from under quilt* Cheers Elantan and ZTD.

ZTD:

- won't step away from the calories, and you can't make me...nuh uh...

- it's rent and is a fair price for the property. In fact, it's a little lower than others in the same area - but it's an extravagant property for little ol' me - which is why I've decided to move out. I'll be spending a couple of months with family (someone needs some company for a little while), and use the time to get somewhere considerably cheaper and more in line with the new MSE-me! :-)

- That's just for me! I know!! Much of it is because I don't fancy eating what I've got in the fridge so I'll go and get something else then chuck away what I didn't want. Plus numerous little stop-ins at the rather expensive village shop...sure - good for their profits, but not for me. Interestingly, since lurking around the grocery threads, starting this diary - and being inspired by Shower's approach to meals - I've had a complete turn-about. The mealplanner and list is already underway for November...

- No commute, but the petrol has been high because since the breakdown I've been doing a few regular trips down to my family in the South. But as I've been getting better, we've now agreed a routine of them coming up and me going down for visits, so I intend for that amount to halve.

- the parking. Good idea...(my inner sloth has just had a heart attack). I'll certainly look into that - though in the meantime, I'm going to pay purely for the actual time I need. Radical approach, I know - but it'll instantly reduce that amount by about £6 per month if not more.

- I don't use Quidco - but will when I rearrange, thanks.

- Yes, I did mean 2012. I swear, when I write my memoirs you need to be my proofreader!!

- by 'regular saving' I really mean 'put out of the way for the main part of the month until I get desperate' or 'oh hell, another wedding - best put a little aside for the present, travel, new dress, etc'. There isn't a big amount waiting in the wings - not worth saving until the debt is sorted.

- That's funny - I was thinking the same thing myself about the tv. I really don't watch much (plus now I'm totally obsessed by talking to you lot out there!). I'll look into this, but it's toast by December anyway.

- I usually buy for all sorts, but the amount also includes the travel etc usually included in celebrating birthdays of certain friends. However, I've started to turn some of that down as it's just insanely expensive for me to trek around the country for dozens of birthdays. I've also agreed with various people that it'll be token gesture gifts from here on in as everyone's in the same boat.

- As for the coffee one - you're right (go on, you knew it already didn't you - but it's nice to hear it confirmed!).

And nope, haven't snowballed - I'm off to play!

Thanks again.

Nora.

dealwithdebtdot

So your income is going to be about £1570? Thank goodness loan 2 is nearly done! Hats off t.o you for posting

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

Monthly Statement of Affairs

Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . 3,147.19

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 Pay&go 10? text more and call less?
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.54
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 Gas and electric are on direct debit to a duel provider.
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.78 This is high, but it's been checked. Water-saving stuff on order from the water company.
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98.00 Includes single person discount You may be able to get more off that when your income reduces?
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . .7.88
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . .22.43
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00 Have you checked to see if your will be eligable for housing benifit?
Food and Household Shopping . . 345.00 !! Purely due to no planning and being wasteful throughout the month. You can very easily half that! 175

NHS PPP Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10.40 This is the cheapest way to get my meds - saves over £100 per year.
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00 Again, can easily be lowered with planning. Don't be going to the chippie then! No idea what you can get this down to, but I reckon you need to monitor it closely! and then slash it
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.60 I always overspend on parking! Totally paranoid that I'll be hours.
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.08
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39.32 Little high due to a nasty accident a couple of years back.
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 I have a prepaid scheme from when I bought the car.
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 My RAC membership is my birthday prezzie from my lovely Dad each year.

Credit Card Repayments. . . . .. . 250.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . .. . 887.89 Last payment on loan 2 in Jan 11.

Regular[STRIKE] Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 ?[/STRIKE]Have you got savings can you pay of the CC2?
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . 44.50 Includes phone and broadband as well. This seems awful to me, but then I don't have a telly!
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 Knitting group - £5 per week.
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00 Friends and I have agreed to cut this back/out and take turns doing dinners at home. 20?

Beauty Treatments . . . . . .58.50 Routine app. now cancelled (though I'm keeping the £8 e/brow wax!!) 8
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00 Last cut and dye with stylist on Friday, then to her student for cuts and no more colour! 20?
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 This can and should be lower
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67This can and should be lower.

[STRIKE]Newspapers & Magazines. . .3.40 For a magazine I barely read! Now cancelled.
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . .50.00 Insanity - I don't even like snacking while out![/STRIKE]

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,147.19

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,020.99

*dives under the quilt and waits for the onslaught of "OMG!!-style comments*

Nora

So the figures in red, and the strikeouts come to £398 off your current outgoings. still over a grand to find really.

Looks like you are defo gonna need to slash the petrol and the food.

Have you downloaded :money:budget planner? I think it is brilliant, you can tweak how much you can budget for each item on the SOA to bring it down, I'm not sure its gonna be pretty though , but you will at least know what you need to cut back on. You might need to freeze squares of chocolate so each bit lasts longer .

It's really hard changing your lifestyle, it's brilliant you are here. :T

Lots of people here do amazing things with all the surveys, click throughs and comps and all that to up your income, I don't have much time to do it at all, but you may? Also look out on the freebies board and vouchers.

Thanks for the more knitting info I am seriously considering it! Oh, and thanks for the tip off to santa.

Dot

freebyfifty

Morning Knitty

I know nothing about SOA's, which is the very reason why I'm on these forums so I shall say nothing :lipsrseal and leave it to all the other very clever and experienced people to help you.

This is me saying nothing








Have a brilliant day, keep going, onwards and upwards.
*flies off superman style* - although my undercrackers are on the inside of my trousers

Knitting_Nora

Morning! :hello:

Welcome to scubaangel *dons her interesting and random hat*, and anyone else that I've either forgotten or is lurking...

After a minor meltdown about my SOA last night, I'm in an up-and-at-'em mood today thanks to the lovely support of the MSE-verse. I'm also looking at the long wooden needles in a whole new light thanks to NorthernLassey and ZTD

There's something massively freeing about just putting it all down on paper and drawing a line isn't there? So, today I'm calling the removal and storage companies for some quotes - about half of the contents of my house will actually go (sold, charity etc), and the rest is going into storage for a couple of months. Before anyone asks, yes I have checked 'free' options - have routed through the lofts, spare rooms and garages of everyone I know, but there's nothing big enough/dry and secure enough to fit a couple of my big wooden pieces (don't do it Z - it'll only cheapen you!).

I've already meal planned and car-journey planned the rest of this week (payday next Monday), so no need for shopping or for filling up on petrol. Is anyone else worried that I'm sounding a little crazed at this point? MSE-ing is my new drug! :rotfl:

Aside from the removals people, I'm going to gather together my next load of things to list on ebay.

For those of you who are still unsure of selling on ebay - I completely understand. It took me months to pluck up the courage and motivation - but I took that time to work out what sort of things sold, and how they were advertised....yep, that's what I was doing - wasn't just surfing the net, nope siree.... anyway, listed my first 8 items at the start of the month (four bits of old furniture - nothing fancy; two Monsoon dresses, a ballgown and a per una coat).

To be honest, I was expecting to make maybe £20 if I was lucky, and was stunned to make just over £200! I have no doubt that a lot of this was down to timing and luck, and the guineapig being in the left nostril of Zeus or whatever, but it made a massive dent in my £450 Next bill, and inspired me to change up my sealed pot, add in a couple of music magpie cheques and a bit extra and now, no Next bill. *ahem* I mean I paid it off - not that I used the money to change my name and escape the bills...what are you people like!!

So I say take it slowly, and don't expect much, and what's the worse that can happen? If it doesn't sell, relist it....

What else am I up to today? Well, so glad you asked....

Today I move all my glass painting gear from the top of the house to the bottom (I currently live in a townhouse - see, told you it was extravagant....). That may not sound that impressive, but boxes of glass are bloomin' heavy, and I'm allergic to anything with the slight wiff of exercise about it... The reason for all of this? I have a stall at a coffee morning in December to sell some glass, so need to check what I've got already done, and do some more. It's all about uping that income! :T

And while I lay, beached, on the sofa to recover from all that exercise I shall sew up Grandad's cardigan (be impressed - there isn't a section of the damn thing that hasn't been undone at least twice...he came very close to getting a dishcloth); and be continuing to knit the terminator shrug.

Golly, that sounds like quite a day, doesn't it.....*makes no move from the sofa*...erm, I'll get straight on it in just a minute....

ZTD

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

- won't step away from the calories, and you can't make me...nuh uh...

You'd be surprised at what I can do...

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

- it's rent and is a fair price for the property. In fact, it's a little lower than others in the same area - but it's an extravagant property for little ol' me - which is why I've decided to move out. I'll be spending a couple of months with family (someone needs some company for a little while), and use the time to get somewhere considerably cheaper and more in line with the new MSE-me! :-)

Yes, this is a very good idea.

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

- the parking. Good idea...(my inner sloth has just had a heart attack).

Your inner sloth will be happy it's not the gym..

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

- Yes, I did mean 2012. I swear, when I write my memoirs you need to be my proofreader!!

You want your memoirs to be accurate?! :eek: Let me guess, you're new to this 'memoirs' thing aren't you?

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

- by 'regular saving' I really mean 'put out of the way for the main part of the month until I get desperate' or 'oh hell, another wedding - best put a little aside for the present, travel, new dress, etc'. There isn't a big amount waiting in the wings - not worth saving until the debt is sorted.

If it's not accumulating month on month then it should be put into some other section. It is being spent after all, if not on the day after pay-day.

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

there's nothing big enough/dry and secure enough to fit a couple of my big wooden pieces (don't do it Z - it'll only cheapen you!).

I'm impossible to cheapen - I already come with cashback...

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

So I say take it slowly, and don't expect much, and what's the worse that can happen? If it doesn't sell, relist it....

And be careful about obtaining proof of posting/signed-fors, postal insurance and the such-like. Otherwise there are a whole bunch of people who will claim it never arrived.

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

Golly, that sounds like quite a day, doesn't it.....*makes no move from the sofa*...erm, I'll get straight on it in just a minute....

Well you enjoy yourself, and we want to see that inner sloth up and at 'em...

Knitting_Nora

....removal people emailed; boxes of glass now down to middle level of house; beached Nora-whale on sofa quite puffed out; send chocolate.....

:EasterBun

Mags_cat

Knitting_Nora wrote: »

Morning! :hello:

There's something massively freeing about just putting it all down on paper and drawing a line isn't there? So, today I'm calling the removal and storage companies for some quotes - about half of the contents of my house will actually go (sold, charity etc), and the rest is going into storage for a couple of months. Before anyone asks, yes I have checked 'free' options - have routed through the lofts, spare rooms and garages of everyone I know, but there's nothing big enough/dry and secure enough to fit a couple of my big wooden pieces (don't do it Z - it'll only cheapen you!).

I've got a secure garage you could borrow some space in - all it's got in it at the moment is a pushbike and a couple of boxes. Oh, and a stack of floor tiles my LL (Lovely Landlord) is going to use to redo my bathroom. Loads of space left for random junk - and it's in Birmingham. Give me a shout if it's any use to you