Diary of a "Frugal Saver"

Frugal_Saver

Not my usual Sunday morning post today! We're on holiday right now so no need to do housework! (Except keeping on top of the washing up which shouldn't be too difficult as there's a dishwasher here)

Just because we're on holiday doesn't mean I'm going to fall off the bandwagon. We shall be eating in most days, did some baking at home before coming to resist the temptation of treating ourselves while out.

If I have time I will keep up with surveys, we have free wi-fi so brought the laptop with us. This also means I can update my signature when I get my statement for my credit card later in the week.

WantToBeSE

Have a lovely holiday, FS!

today is my birthday so i am taking it easy too

Frugal_Saver

Happy birthday! Hope you have a lovely day.

Just found out our landlord is going to sell the house. Absolutely gutted, we love it there and we won't find anything else like it.

Why does life keep throwing obstacles in our path, now I won't be able to enjoy our holiday

WantToBeSE

Thanks FS

Sorry to hear about your house. How long do you have to move, or can you stay until it's sold?

Maybe you could find something cheaper?

Frugal_Saver

The landlord called us today to let us know they're putting it on the market, we haven't been given notice yet but they only need to give us 2 months notice. Definitely won't get anything cheaper I work in a lettings agency and I've seen how the prices have gone up in the area recently

chevalier

Hi FS well done on getting a bit of control in your life. I am sure having your OH only half on board is very frustrating though. It would do my head in

REf the landlord selling the house. Have you asked him about selling it with you as sitting tenants? If he got another landlord to buy it, I am sure that buyer would be delighted not to have to find good tenants for it (you are a good tenant aren't you)

ON the other hand at least now you can say to your OH that you should BOTH be saving so that you have the deposit for a new place and the moving costs sorted without having to put it on a credit card.

I take it that you can't afford to buy the house you are renting between you?
chev

Frugal_Saver

Thanks Chevalir. I think I've done my usual think of panicking like mad over the smallest thing. It is very early days, they haven't had the house valued yet. They would struggle to sell to another investor, the property does need work doing (minor things that we overlooked because of the reasonable rent).

It has made us (or at least me) start looking at other options. I'm really intrigued by the help to buy mortgage. Although we don't have any savings at the moment, I think we could easily start a savings fund for this, just need to convince OH....

Credit card statement updated today so I have updated my signature. I am now at £8,235.11, that's 22%. Feeling very positive again.

Frugal_Saver

Back from my holiday and back to the daily routine. Had a lovely holiday, really needed the break, it's made me even more determined to clear my debt so we can go on more holidays.

So, the list for today consists of:

• Finish off meal plan for the week
• Make shopping list based on meal plan
• Unpack from holiday
• Put on a couple of washes
• Catch up on surveys
• Prepare myself for going back to work tomorrow!

Frugal_Saver

I've managed most of the items on my list, just need to find the energy to unpack. My suitcase has at least made it upstairs into the spare room.

Now to think about what I need to do this week;

• take back library books which I took for reference on holiday
• look at the best place to get money for my old iPod and look into restoring it to the factory settings
• keep heating off for as long as possible, we've got the fire going tonight, it's definitely got colder
• change to winter duvet, we had a lovely thick duvet on holiday so I think we are going to feel the difference tonight
• must pay money towards next account (I must confess I had let this build up a few months ago but it's definitely manageable and shouldn't take long to pay off)
• should be easy to have a few NSD this week as I have very little money until payday
• get OH to call up the finance company about the payments for the bed, I'm sure we should have another couple of months to go but they never took payment this month, I'm not sure if we didn't have the money in the account on the day the direct debit was due to go out and OH never bothered to change his address with the finance company so we wouldn't know if there was a problem (not sure if the bank would tell us the DD was unsuccessful)

I think that's enough for now, I'm going to finish reading the (free) kindle book I started earlier while OH watches the darts

Frugal_Saver

I had planned on going food shopping after work tonight but I didn't have the energy after a long day. It's never easy going back to work after having time off. I managed to rustle something up for dinner from the freezer and I've therefore had an unexpected NSD.

I must go tomorrow, I've never seen the fridge and freezer look so empty. I've got my list ready and I've already taken mince out of the freezer for dinner tomorrow, I just need to get the rest of the ingredients.

Took the books back to the library today, heating is still off and I haven't changed the duvet yet. Need to work on the rest of the items I listed yesterday!