The 'Save 12k in 2014' Thread!

gothrockchic1

So after months of waiting, my OH's employer will be making him permanent in June. He just needs to sign the contract now! So I can breathe a sigh of relief and plan for the next three months and start saving for a holiday

cathybird

Really really really late declaration of savings for April: £607.57. Sorry to be so late with it! It's been so hectic I haven't had the time to sit down and tot it all up.

sparrer

Oh dear, am in a terrible fix. This isn't a 'poor me' post, just can't see the wood for the trees at the moment and would be grateful for any practical suggestions any of you can come up with.
I joined the board to try to save £3k for a month's holiday to friends in NZ next Feb, and am more or less on target. It would be the 'trip of a lifetime', am on a pension so couldn't afford to do it more than once.
BUT on Friday my treadmill Mr Walker (aka Mr W) died. I know it's a gonner because of the smell after the bang when I plugged it in on Friday, which also tripped all the electrics downstairs :eek:. I got it for a song in Jan and it's been a huge help with COPD, walking is by far the best exercise for strengthening lungs/breathing capacity. I can use it in the house for a few minutes at a time five or six times day as I can't walk out very far without needing to stop and catch my breath. I've looked on the bay of e but there's nothing I can afford or which is near enough to collect, I've also put an ad on freecycle but no replies yet.
I can't really afford gym fees, the nearest is 8 miles away so would need to spend on petrol too, apart from which I can't stay all day at a gym just to use their machine off and on through the day!
The money I've saved would almost buy a new one but means I wouldn't get to NZ.
I have 9 months to improve, if I don't keep up the exercises I possibly wouldn't be able to get about with my friends, which would make their holiday difficult - I don't want to stop them getting about because of me.
And just to through a spanner in the already broken works I don't swim, so that isn't an alternative
Tia

Wentthedaywell?

What a blow, sparrer. There are a lot of exercises you can do on a flight of stairs - have a google - that might help, assuming you don't live in a flat.

Don't give up on that fab holiday! There are other, cheaper ways of improving fitness without buying an expensive machine. I'd have thought you may eventually pick a cheap second hand one up though - I can imagine people buying one and it never getting used.

nat21luv

Now the weathers nice I would consider going out sparrar, you can still walk slow and you don't have to go far. Set targets like walking to the end of the road and back, then the next day or later the same day walk to the end of the road and cross the road and back. Use the landmarks as targets, this helped me when running to gage distance rather than time.

sparrer

Wentthedaywell? wrote: »

What a blow, sparrer. There are a lot of exercises you can do on a flight of stairs - have a google - that might help, assuming you don't live in a flat.

Don't give up on that fab holiday! There are other, cheaper ways of improving fitness without buying an expensive machine. I'd have thought you may eventually pick a cheap second hand one up though - I can imagine people buying one and it never getting used.

Thanks Wtdw, googled stair exercises and found a good site for beginners, intermediate etc which I've bookmarked. Still hoping for a reply from freecycle etc., but in the meantime I have some ideas. One they don't mention which should be good for me is to put away the vacuum cleaner (it's so heavy to lug up the stairs anyway) and clean them with a dustpan and brush

nat21luv wrote: »

Now the weathers nice I would consider going out sparrar, you can still walk slow and you don't have to go far. Set targets like walking to the end of the road and back, then the next day or later the same day walk to the end of the road and cross the road and back. Use the landmarks as targets, this helped me when running to gage distance rather than time.

Thanks nat21luv you've just reminded me, the pulmonary rehab unit in a nearby town does short walks so I'll give them a call to see where/when the next session is.

White_Rose_Tight_ThaKnows

Could you perhaps look up the make and model of the treadmill and see if the fault is common? It may be a small electrical issue or whathaveyou that may be fixable or replaceable, i.e. like a blown fuse as an overly simple example. Apologies if saying try fix it is too obvious and you've already tried that!

White_Rose_Tight_ThaKnows

And in the spirit of the thread, checking my statement from 7th Jan and today I'm +£4590.96 for the year.

Twiggy_34

2 bits of good news this week, they won't affect this months savings but they'll definitely help future months a bit. First an email from BT earlier in the week saying they're letting us off next month for our DD payments because it's been too high AND our payments will reduce by £14 a month after that, now an email from E.ON saying that our DD with them will be reducing by £27 a month from July! Shame there aren't any other monthly outgoings that are likely to give us our 3rd bit of nice news!

slowlyfading

Ooh, I hope our DDs will go down - they're a nightmare :eek: