Diary of a home owner wannabe (my 6 year journey)

pennyforthepot

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

Just rushing in quickly to let you know that a book called Mini-missions For Simplicity by the lady that runs the Be More With Less blog is free on Amazon from 25-27 March.

Thought it would be up your street

Oh thanks so much Pearla*Merle - it has been on my wishlist for a while - that's brilliant :T

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

edinburgher wrote: »

Jinxy jinxy! I requested a copy for my Birthday last night, although I'll be getting a paper copy as you can't gift Kindle books

If I hadn't been so impatient to read it I would have ordered the book as I would like to lend it to the kids when they start out in the big wide world - if only I had read it when I was younger I'd be bloomin' rich by now

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

After much procrastination I have now picked up my volunteer's form to work in the Barnado's shop down the road from us. The only thing stopping me now is trying to think of 2 references that aren't friends or relatives

I also took the big step of taking out the last of my beloved designer gear - a max mara raincoat and a hugo boss dress into the charity shop whilst I was there.I could have ebayed them but I would rather a charity benefited from them and as I don't really wear them it is helping with my minimalism. I also made the decision to give them my nan's jewelry which, though lovely, has been sat in a drawer for nearly 7 years now. I have kept one ring thatI wear and will pass down to my DD. The manager of the shop was so thrilled that it made it all worth it. There are just some things that I would rather give to charity than make some cash on.

Today I am feeling good about taking steps to help the wider community. :A

On the MS front I have done a few more surveys, watched a few more ads and looked into opening a new Lloyds TSB account which pays out 5% up to £2000 - its available from 30th March and I think you can open a max of 2.

PFTPx

Arkers

Hi PFTP - Good for you :T, you deserve to feel good about yourself. I am going to take a leaf out of your book and have a look at all those things in my wardrobe that I can give to the charity shop. I can't see me wearing the 1980's jumper dress anymore!:rotfl:


Hope your new approach to life works for you.

pennyforthepot

Arkers wrote: »

Hi PFTP - Good for you :T, you deserve to feel good about yourself. I am going to take a leaf out of your book and have a look at all those things in my wardrobe that I can give to the charity shop. I can't see me wearing the 1980's jumper dress anymore!:rotfl:


Hope your new approach to life works for you.

Thanks Arkers - Are you telling me that my jumper dress is out of fashion :rotfl:

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Received my Water bill this morning for the last 6 months and I managed to pay off £7 of the £180 that I still owe them :j Hoping that the reduced washing and reduced use of the dishwasher will bring it down again over the next 6 months. We used 97 cubic meters which converts to 97,000 litres - that is outrageous when I think of the scarcity of water around the world. I checked on line and it is the average amount used over a 6 month period for a household of 5 :eek:

Gas consumption has increased over the last few days thanks to the colder weather - think I'm going to come in over budget this month but I'm working hard at it. DH even bought a thick roll neck jumper off ebay - think he's got the hint :rotfl: Good news that SSE have frozen their gas prices till January 2016 as I am currently with them - though not so good for those employees who will be made redundant as a result.:(

Im up to 13p on my fuel save so I will fill the car up once I hit 20p.
Transferred my two dds for my new 123 account. Received £10 back from HMRC for interest earned on my accounts last year.

I'm going to order my new glasses today as I am currently on my bonus period on my cashback Amex card so I should get 2.5% back plus my Boots points and a £20 voucher to put towards them. I'm not going to get any extras on the glasses no matter how hard they try and sell it so for £179 I should be getting a pair of reading glasses and distance glasses.

Daily food budget £9.80

PFTP x

edinburgher

Considering water use is a pretty alarming thing to do, my aquaria alone take 144l/week :eek:

Granted, 90% of that goes back down the drain as grey water, but I do have guilty moments!

pennyforthepot

Happy Mothers Day to all you yummy mummies out there

Have been busy over the last few days and been a bit remiss about posting on here. I'm helping DSS1 look for a new flat in London as his tenancy has finished on his last one and he wants to move in with another friend but only has a small budget. His criteria is basically somewhere in London that is cheap for 2 people doesn't exactly help! Hoping to go in on Monday to sign up with some agencies and have a look at a few possible areas.

Got my glasses yesterday after months of procrastination - it's nice to see again

I've had a pretty good month on the MS front and shall report my expenses and savings tomorrow. A slightly false total as I did have a fairly spendy month with my new glasses, repairing my laptop and bulk buying lots of store cupboard goodies for the next year but those spends won't come out till April. That means April's savings are going to be pretty dire.

I met up with my ex for a coffee last week to sign off on our financial settlement which we never did before we got divorced. In doing so I discovered that my investment fund has underperformed over the last 9 months leaving me £9000 short on covering my rent :eek: I have to remain calm as I know the markets go up and down and as I was up last year by £6000 it hopefully will balance out by the end of the 12 months.

I have kept up the monitoring of my gas and electric and tried to carry on reducing our usage little by little. Washing has remained at 7 loads for the week and suprisingly we've only used the dishwasher once this week (not such good news as I have stocked up on 3 years worth of dishwasher tablets!).

Off to run myself a bath and slob out on the sofa for the day whilst the kiddies cook me sunday roast :j

PFTP x

edinburgher

Happy mother's day PFTP, enjoy the pampering

Investments are funny beasties, sure they'll pick up again soon. There has been a bit of a slide of late, Americans making noises about unwinding/reducing extraordinary fiscal measures in place as a result of the recession, and fears about the Chinese engine grinding to a halt.

pennyforthepot

edinburgher wrote: »

Happy mother's day PFTP, enjoy the pampering

Investments are funny beasties, sure they'll pick up again soon. There has been a bit of a slide of late, Americans making noises about unwinding/reducing extraordinary fiscal measures in place as a result of the recession, and fears about the Chinese engine grinding to a halt.

Thanks Edinburgher - so glad to have your reassurance :A

PFTP X