One frugal year = freedom and choices

lobbyludd

Londoner01: you're right it was really sweet, we did a car boot sale last year and he sold some of his toys, and he got to keep the money, I had to persuade him not to try and sell the really good expensive presents he got from his dad as he was initially chosing things he thought would sell rather those he didn't want. Putting things away for 6 months to test his resolve and whether he misses them is a fab idea!

brizzled: thank you for your lovely comments, we're nearly used to the TV now LOL the fracture pattern is strangely beautiful, it looks like a rainbow spiders web, it would make a cracking piece of art-work if it wasn't on my TV! I may take a picture of it to print and hang on the wall I've nearly sorted out the nappies - need to take pics in daylight at the weekend.

Mum2one: Hello! thank you for stopping by, and definitely the more the merrier! I've received a big pack of freebie sensitive skin olay anti-ageing cream to trial through supersavyme today so I'm feeling that I'm being karmically rewarded for putting the toiletries in boots back! What a great idea of yours though to do a pamper set . The airing cupboard is WAY down my list, my decluttering to date is very much scratching the surface I daren't venture into the big problem areas LOL. great plan on the local paper ad too, for the stairgates, again I'll get pics at the weekend and try gumtree and vivastreet first (tCB give £1.70 for a free ad at the moment)

This is such a great supportive place, I really feel excited that I'm doing something positive that I can be proud of, and it's great to be in touch wth other people wrestling with similar things, and full of brilliant ideas.

daily clicks done,
half-way through sb,
kitchen curtain hung, can't find my curtain hooks so it's attached to the curtain rings with paperclips :rotfl:it's not hemmed as I hate hemming and hopefully won't be using the paperclips forever so don't want to get the length wrong.

zapper haven't emailed me the postage labels to print out for tomorrow's book pick up, so that's not going to happen on schedule - I've emailed them to let them know.

made cakes with the kids yesterday. Nearly finished coffee pot cosy, - very gradually working through the pile of wool!

lobbyludd

forgot to swap mortgage money into the account last night ready for this am (goes out at about 3am). ARGGHH! put it accross at about 10am, and right now it's showing as paid, but I know NW of old, they will bounce it and charge me.

B*LL*CKS.

lobbyludd

gramdpa's funeral today which went well, was lovely to see family and give him a good send-off. Have completely blown my budget with approx £200 put on my credit card: petrol, flowers, take-away when I got home (400 mile round-trip, lots of accidents on motorways, so difficult drive, I just could not face cooking when I got back). But there you go, all my mse efforts this month make the impact of this much less than it otherwise would have been and it just did not feel like the time to be worrying about the pennies.

nat west do not seem to have bounced my mortgage payment (won't be sure for a couple of days) so that's good, and the reason zapper didn't send the labels is because I mistyped my postcode LOL! so that's easily fixed.

got some chocolates to test-drive from toluna which adds to the other freebies I've had this month (toothpaste, olay, coffee sachets and *ahem* feminine hygeine products).

It's been a good month all in all I think I'll do a round-up once my credit card statement is in.

brizzledfw

Glad funeral was OK..well as much as these things can be.

Look forward to hearing the round up..drum roll..:D

lobbyludd

snow day.....

snowing all day but very light and rained later on so it's all gone now, but kids had fun making a teeny snow man and finding icicles and "rescuing" worms from their cosy hidyholes under pots.

I am siiting on the sofa, wirelessly surfing HURRAH, best part of 5 hours, multiple reboots of modem/router/netbook in every conceivable order and MUCH muttered swearing, but worth it in the end.

very cold so heating on low all day, not very mse. swagbucks, toluna (which I hate) and clicks done. Beef stew in the slow cooker and split peas soaking to make a pea and ham soup. tomorrow is going to be my version of baking for luhchboxes and treats.

I am setting myself a goal of listing 5 x 99p items on ebay tomorrow evening.

£1.49 in amazon vouchers from TCB (makes 2.50 so far with £5 pending from sb, first birthday these are to go towards is end of march, so time to build this up yet).

tomorrow is going to be a homely lazy day and prepping for the week ahead, I really have to get hold of my incidental spending, it's not in my budget and is making a significant . Am considering freezing the credit card in a block of ice so that it's not available for "emergencies" like me wanting a bar of chocolate on the way home from work.

will post zapper books on monday.

millionaire_in_training

Hi. I read your diary last night and good on you for going hell for leather to get rid of the debt. I would love to do that too but my kids are teenagers and although they are very good and rarely ask for anything they are still expensive to keep - Jeez food alone is a fortune . My son eats everything that's not nailed down. I jump around from going to throw everything at the debt to taking it easier but keep plodding on. I end up doing something in between and should be clear in a couple of years. I'll pop in and keep up to date on how you are doing. And as for the maintenance :mad: I feel your pain. Good luck

lobbyludd

thanks MIT (love the name!),

it must be really hard trying to pay off debts with teenagers in tow, mine are still at the eating-like-sparrows stage, i remember when my brother lived with me for a while as a teenager, my food budget quadrupled, especially as he would "snack" on something I was going to base several meals around, ruining all meal-plans.

best-laid plans and all that, dd had an upset stomach yesterday, and is off school today, so i've done no baking, no ebay listing etc.

am rewashing the cloth nappies in a mild bleach solution as when you hold some of them up to the sun-light you can see a very slight discolouration. not sure i can get them in a good enough state to sell, but we'll see how they come out.

have joined netflix via quidco this morning, tbh, if I can get the wii to connect, i might keep it as it seems like a much better deal than the tesco dvd deal ( free trial coming to an end this week).

will try and get ebay pictures taken today ready for listing at the weekend and put the stairgates on vivastreet (with 1.70 tcb).

2 things it is very clear from my budget
1) i underbudget for petrol use about £60 per month and only budget £40
2) i fritter money: sandwhiches, sweets and cigarettes: my entire ebay earnings have gone on these things (plus petrol for funeral). I have to stop this. I don't budget for it and I'm not sat here looking back on the month thinking that those things have enhanced my life.

organisation is the key (and perhaps visiting gp for patches)

millionaire_in_training

good idea re the patches. That's how I stopped 8 years ago. I had tried many times but managed it with the patches and used them for 10 weeks or so. I rmember being at a ladies night one night with my friend , who was also trying to stop and she said to me 'i'll give you a tenner for your patch' as she was struggling. I laughed and said it was stuck on my a$$. She still wanted it :rotfl:so I obliged but didnt take the tenner.

The cost of teenagers. I just spent £19 today on fruit :eek: and that'll just see us through until the weekend no doubt. I'm a fortune in food. Never mind. They are great kids and worth every penny most of the time

lobbyludd

FIRST MONTH ROUND UP

debts down by £588.27 (was more but I frittered an extraodinary amount of money away on NOTHING, and the funeral, but mostly sod-all, I will tackle this in february).

Bills reduced: Virgin media down £14 a month, Orange mobile down £10 a month
extra money earned (received):
£170 ebay
£2.50 TCB (amazon vouchers)
£19.52 QUIDCO

pending: £5 amazon from SB, £6 from imutual

freebies:
Olay anti-aging cream
Lili perfume samples
2 coffee sample
women's personal hygiene items
2 x toothpaste tubes
children's chocolate samples
wireless router
birthday card for DS
£14.50 in tesco vouchers

Made for free:
2 hot-water bottle covers, I coffee pot warmer, 1 thermal kitchen curtain, three thermal blinds for the lounge.

fixed for free: my netbook (had to reset factory default settings ), re-caulked the bath, lagged the external pipe, glued the edging on the kitchen cabinets before it cracked off.

work in progress:

zapper books ready to post, just need to ge to the post office when it's open!
identified, cleaned and taken photographs of:
stairgates for selling,
nappies for selling
5 ebay items.

am still trying to reduce energy consumption and hoping to have a £100 plus rebate in March when switch suppliers.

toluna (ugh)
valued opinions (less ugh)
swagbucks - v close to another voucher.

and the big one, have today applied for a 0% balance transfer to a tesco clubcard credit card (by post - they sent out an application form) not at all hopeful, but this really would save lots. fingers crossed.

all in all, a good start, but could do better......

mum2one

Considering the expenses in Jan, you've done brilliantly, and love the sound of the home made stuff.

We had some interesting samples form T. - Kellogs special K bar, packet of choc, there was me expecting a big bag full, got mini bag with 5 choc buttons!!, 2 toothpastes and some lube!! (I'll have anything for free!!)

What we've done, if we have a free sample that can get used in the house, then were putting £1 in a piggy jar, as we would have to brought them, also emptied out 2 yrs worth of toilettries, (40 bottles of shower gel!), + everything but the kitchen sink, and why I need 12 mascaras... but for every one we use, pop a £1 in. So when they need replacing it buy a few bottles back. (Or a nice treat!!) xx