A Year of Living Frugabulously

Marty82

Sainsbugs is actually what I usually call it so will stick to that on here I think. Are you sure you didn't eat the chocolate on the way round the shop as a soothing mechanism against your Tatco irritation? Hehe.

Had a look at the Joe Brown's website and they do have some lovely dresses so I'm sure you looked fab! How "country" is your cross country trek by the way. I really should walk places more as I use my car far too much which isn't good for me, my pocket or the environment.

I've started a debt free diary so am chuffed with myself for that. You can find it here if you're interested in taking a look.


Have you had diaries on this site before? Just wondered as you mentioned "grumpy" as if he was a common occurrence on here. Hope you survive him and that you exude fabulousness to counter his negativity!

taxi73

You are fantabulously fabulous and don't you forget it x

Lula-Hula

I do love a Thursday & all that it brings with it:

- the dustmen who take away all the recycling that clutters up my space :T

- home-job wages

- last day at work-job (for the week, not ever)

- no home-job work when I get in from work-job :j

Everyone of those items is FABULOUS by itself, but together they're F* FABULOUS .

It's been a busy week but I've survived it & have also introduced a new pleasureable (sp ?) routine that I'm hoping to stick to.

For so long I've rushed home from work-job with a view to starting on home-job as soon as possible, & simple pleasures & health benefits have suffered; after a 10 hour day the last thing I want to do is a workout & an evening walk is pleasant when it's warm & light, but less so when it's dark & gloomy.

On my recent hospital visits I've parked for free in the park next to it & walked the 10-15 minutes to get there. The park is lovely; wide open space, which I find really therapeutic & liberating, a pond & plenty of wildlife too. I can easily pop in there for a half hour walk on my way home from work & yesterday that's what I did.

It was FRUGABULOUSLY wonderful; I saw toadstools, geese & a duck with 12 little fluffy ducklings . I tramped & rustled through the leaves, my boots crunched on acorns, & I gazed at 3 trees completely bare of leaves, but covered in bundles of mistletoe.

That brief half hour expelled all work residue, & refreshed & energised me enough to come home & tackle the home-job work & later relax without feeling guilty about not doing any exercise.

Since clearing the debt I no longer need to do so much home-job work & can prioritise some time for my own health.

Back later with finance news ...

Marty82

I do love the idea of you getting excited at the prospect of the binmen coming; talk about simple pleasures! I get three collections: black bin fortnightly, black box and white bag fortnightly and brown bin fortnightly. I have only just started to manage remembering which is on which day but I am actually pleased that I have done so as it means I have less stuff lying about when I miss collections. Recently also got a green caddy and biodegradable bags for collecting food waste in which then goes into the brown bin. Glad to be a bit greener!

Can I ask what your work job and home jobs are? Did you take on the home job to help to clear your debts? It seems to have worked so is it now just for extra money to spend on treats or does the money go into your normal spending? I'm thinking about taking in a lodger to boost my income as can't do any home working while off my job as I guess it would affect my benefit.

Your walk to the hospital sounds lovely; mega jealous if you seeing ducklings! Luckily I live very close to the main hospitals here so I can walk there easily although thankfully car parking charges at hospitals have been banned in Scotland although it has led to the car parks being jammed full.

Looking forward to your finance news later; I'm just taking a wee tea break from putting the second coat on my living rooms walls. Back to the coal face now I'm afraid!

Lula-Hula

Hiya Marty,

I do like the sound of your living room, very similar colouring to mine, duck egg walls, but with white floor boards & a teal rug. It was a bit like being in a swimming pool at first :rotfl: but I love it & how it makes me feel closer to the sea. The hallway & my daughters room desperately need painting but I've yet to summon the time & energy to do them .

I can't be too specific about work due to anonymity issues but suffice to say that work-job is mainly admin-ish & home-job is all about smoothing away the wrinkles of the sartorially concerned & idle rich .

I was doing home-job full time pre recession but was slowly becoming unhinged due to being at home alone for most of the week. The work really dropped off to such an extent that I was no longer able to maintain necessary payments & I did a succession of short lived dreadful jobs to supplement income & then finally found the work-job I do now.

It had a huge impact on both my self esteem & my finances. Home-job was never recognised by any financial institutions so I was trapped with very high interest rate debts ( Barclaycard at 29.9% at one point :eek::mad:). After about 6 months my credit started to improve & I was able to start renegotiating interest rates with a combination of confidence & blagging - the call to Barclaycard that went " Ive been offered a better interest rate elsewhere & if you don't reduce improve your rate, I will take my debts elsewhere" was one of my finest moments .


They did reduce it & I was able to clear the balance quicker. I never fell behind with payments & always paid over the minimum & eventually I managed to start switching the debt to cheaper & cheaper rates & finally the lovely Uncle Richard ( Virgin Money) gave me a 0% CC & I was able to clear the final £3,000 quite quickly.

The last 6 months I've been paying off intentional short term debt I had with a 0% CC that I use to buy some stuff; car repairs, cooker, laptop/s - don't ask .

Without a doubt, the home-job enabled me to make higher overpayments to the debt & although I really don't earn a big salary & only work 4 days a week, by combining work job 4 days a week & home-job 3 evenings a week & voucher & paypal rewards from doing surveys + all the tips learned here, I manage to pay all my outgoings comfortably & with a bit of squeezing in some areas we do fine.

Admittedly I don't have much of a social life so save a lot of money there, I only commute about 12 -15 miles a day so fuel costs are fairly low & much as I love acquiring 'new' stuff, these days I'm happy to make the most of ebay & charity shops .

I currently use home-job for mine & my daughters weekly pocket money, to save towards childcare costs & buying presents. Once vet fees, christmas stuff & a few remaining expenses are dealt with, I intend to start saving regularly into my ISA & the Escape From Reality Fund :j( camper van / boat / travel / holiday retreat / fairy wings - whatever takes my fancy ).

These couple of months are about trying out a new budget & allocating spare money wisely & not getting carried away with having more disposable income & wasting it

So today:

The childcare fund has £30
The presents fund has £80
The Fun fund has £40

I've put in a claim for another £5 amazon voucher ( survey rewards)
& ... (Drum Roll please) ...

I have received my shiny new photocard licence & the counterpart which has NUL POINTS on it :j:D:j.

It has also been a NSD, number 6 .

Time for a bath now.

Marty82

Thanks, we sound like decor twins! Lol. I will try to post or PM a photo of it once it's done. Sofas coming tomorrow but still need to phone house insurance back about getting warped laminate flooring replaced. Need to find a cheap teal rug, again like you, but not having much luck so far.

If I've got your home job right then can I send you a basketful to do? Hehe. It seem odd that your credit cards wouldn't recognise your business; did you have a business bank account and were you VAT registered? Could you not have paid yourself a wage from the business so in effect you were an employee (of yourself)?

Well done haggling to get your interest rates reduced and good luck with the short term 0% card. How long have you got left at that rate? I can't lecture on the laptop fund but just think you wouldn't be on here amusing us all if it wasn't for your laptop!

I'm doing surveys like crazy, using cashback sites and plan to start looking in charity shops and on ebay but I think women always have it easier when it comes to fashion bargains.

Good luck with the wonderfully titled "Escape from reality fund" and well done on your three other funds. Do you have separate bank accounts for each?

What you going to spend the Amazon money on? A treat for yourself or presents?

Enjoy the bath; very jealous. I had to have another wash at the sink with the kettle which wasn't fun when covered in paint! Roll on tomorrow and the engineer's visit. I think I may kiss him when he fixes the boiler!

taxi73

sounding fantabulous as ever and the walk around the park sounds good

lizzie_dripping

Hooray for Thursdays, and non working Fridays.

Last night I went to see Red Hit Chilli Peppers at the O2. Not a frugal but a most definately fabulous evening!

Karmacat

All sounds well, Lula - in fact, all sounds great! I didn't realise you'd done home-job full time originally - outside work sounds better, indeed it does, even with Grumpy involved :cool:

Lula-Hula

lizzie_dripping wrote: »

Hooray for Thursdays, and non working Fridays.

Last night I went to see Red Hit Chilli Peppers at the O2. Not a frugal but a most definately fabulous evening!

Fantastic - hope there was lots of this > :T:j:dance::T:j:dance::T