Back to Frugal School after the Spending Holidays

summertea

Do you ever get this restless feeling at the end of summer that you should be making some kind of key life change?

I do, and if i believe my magazine it all to do with the 22.5 years I spent in education (yep I went to nursery school at 2.5 years old and finished my PhD at 25). Apparently up to 70% of us are mentally programmed to prepare for new beginnings in the autumn.

Nice to know I'm not alone then

I came out of my PhD at 25 and got stuck temping for 5 years (not very much money/no debt), I got my first job (more money/no debt) along with a crazy boss who eventually drove me out . Back to temping (less money/no debt) and on to my current job (middle admin money/no debt)

So yay! no debt but no anything else either (house, cat, partner...)

Currently I feel in debt to my life I've spent a lot of its time and energy and its not amounted to much add to that my immediate friend circle who have to an individual achieved some sort of goal (house, child, second child, partner, career change, promotion) in the last 6 months and I am feeling a bit left behind and lonely. Hence I've been buying silly things (like expensive nail polish) to cheer myself up.

So rather than go at this all gun ho and try to change everything at one I am going to take a more sensible approach and start with one thing I have always wanted a house. For this I need a deposit, I have £8,000 because I do try hard to save. I reckon I need a £30,000 deposit to give me some choice so I need £24,000 at my current saving rate it going to take me 8 years :Eek:

The plan is to get that down to 4 years (you may all lol now), I have seen people on this site do some amazing things so I'm willing to give it a serious go and add more goals as I get more in tune, finding this a bit vexing at present as my old boss (the crazy one) used to make fun of me for doing the challenges or coming back into the office with bargains picked up on my lunch hour. Its nice to be back just wish i could shake this slightly worried feeling

Here we go >>>>>>

summertea

Sleepy today!

A group of drunk non-native English speakers decided to have a barney outside my house at midnight. Three then left and the remaining one decided to sing like a dying baboon for 40 minutes until the opposite neighbours came out and shouted at him (ensue second loud barney of the night). Once this had finished he called someone on his phone and related (I assume it was not in English) the entire saga very loudly.

Dear drunken loons I have stuff to do, please go be loud drunk and bizarre in your own homes.

Still I put 2 items on E**y yesterday and typed up all my spending, now if I just work out my earning I'll be back up to date on my budget.:)

summertea

Quiet weekend really, i have one non-payer on E**y which is rather irksome. It's for £30 odd as well so i'd really like to pull that in, i've tried contacting her twice but she's not talking to me at all, might have to talk to E**y about non-payment but it all seems rather extreme.

Listed 5 more items today, i've hit the i want it out of my house i could just take it to the charity shop phase so it 5 listings a day and away with it if it doesn't sell.:)

summertea

Picked up a couple of lamb steaks today for £1.10 so i shall make some lamb curry next week

Its really tempting to buy loads of "bargains" and fill up the freezer but its no help if i never get them out and eat them.

No E**y listing today but i did go to the gym so 1'st of my visits this week down.

summertea

Nice "present for me" today I've had a £10 W H Smith voucher for ages and finally found something I really wanted. The Hairy Bikers Cookbook - Eat For Life.

Looking forward to making one of the lamb recipes with yesterdays bargain lamb steaks.

summertea

I went for a run at the gym yesterday, Phew! not used to that anymore still rest day today and then a nice swim on Friday

2 NSD's in a row for me maybe three if i can avoid spending today

fyggy

Hey Summertea
You sound to have a plan and getting on well with it all! Enjoying the diary so far and yay to the exercising- all good!

summertea

fyggy wrote: »

yay to the exercising- all good!

Mmmm not quite so much i remembered why i don't like running when i could feel my behind jiggling on the treadmill, still i figure that if i keep up the running until it stops jiggling then I'll probably be fit :j

Thanks for stopping in fyggy

summertea

Well i may have not listed any items on E**y tonight but i did manage to hit spin class making me a nice strawberry colour.

It also has the advantage that i come out of the gym ay the same time Te**o Expre** reduces its stuff picked up some british beef strips for 50p. Chucked them in a pan with 1/2 a box of chestnut mushrooms and a 1/2 teaspoon full of chipotle paste and voila dinner + half a bag of reduced salad on the side. Might put the second half in a wrap with a dollop of natural yoghurt and a smattering of cheese for lunch tomorrow:)

EchoDelta

Good luck summertea! You're so right about September - I always want to buy new pens!

I find a specific goal to aim for really helpful.

All this talk of exercise is making me feel very lazy!

Wishing you well.

summertea

Kind of tired today i was supposed to go and see the life of Pi on a big screen out in the fens last night but the rest of my group decided it looked too much like it was going to rain and we should stay in and watch dvd's instead.

I should have turned around and left as soon as i arrived they were all very much in the same mind set of lets get drunk and be stupid and i just wasn't. I just ended up feeling like an outsider and then just got annoyed when they insisted on playing board games but playing them to screw each other and me over instead of playing with any skill.

Spending today putting things on E**y much more effective