Learning to think like a frugal person

chanie

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well.

FMG - I'm not expecting you to respond to this, but hope things are going okay.

Day 1 of Lent and I re-read my Arc.

Leaving my spending until the end of the week has taken the stress off me and I feel more relaxed about the whole thing, so that's really positive.

StressedSteph

Hi all,


FMG - Hope things are ticking by ok for you. Not expecting you to reply. Just wanted to say Hi.


Hi Chanie,


Thanks for visiting my diary. Do you have one?.


Good idea about the bike for Ds. There are quite a few good deals out there for childrens bikes. Think I got my sons bike for under £100.


Its a good idea to re-read this thread, it has some great tips.


Keep smiling xx

chanie

Steph - no, I don't have my own diary. I came accross FMGs plan and really liked the idea of 'thinking like a frugal person', so I kind of tagged along.

chanie

update

Thought I should rescue this thread from page 6.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. Mr Chanie and I were 1 child down so spent Sunday mowing the lawn and emptying the shed. Our shed was full of all sorts of unwanted items and it really made me think about how we as a society 'waste' money on useless items.

Steph,you'll appreciate this one - I got my plant pots from the shed and filled them with my homemade compost, ready for planting next week.

Mr c and I really want to get our garden in order so that it will be a nice space for the children to play in.

StressedSteph

Hi Chanie,


Sounds like you had a great weekend in the garden.
Was there anything you could sell in that shed? Homemade compost!!. Well done, that's better than me. I buy all mine.


Perfect time of year to tidy the garden as the weeds haven't got a strangle hold on everything yet. I really want to buy some liner and put it in all the beds and cover with gravel to make it a little lower maintenance. Will cost a lot of money though, so will have to keep weeding .


xxx

mothernerd

Just starting to read your diary and am subscribing. Not sure we have a lot in common (as I said,I've only just started) except I am also losing weight and trying to get out of debt (the third horseman of the apocalypse -being depressed -seems to have retreated at the moment,but the unholy trilogy have dogged me for years.

mizmir

Haven't been keeping up for a while but just popping in to say hi and hope everyone is OK. Sorry FMG that you have a tough month ahead. Hang in there.

Well done Chanie and Steph for keeping things going! I'm struggling to even keep my own thread going right now but I need to make sure I am on here or things will slip badly!

chanie

Steph - we have some large childrens stuff (Moses basket with stand and a few large baby toys) which I want to sell.... if I get round to it. I got rid of a load of books, by taking them to work to give away. I 'inherited' the books as I told my aunt I planned on doing a car boot sale and she donated them to me.

I know selling things is 'thinking frugally' but the reality is that I just don't have the time.

Mizmar - don't be hard on yourself if you can't post. I find it really helpful, even though I don't always have anything to update.


On my long walk home from work, I started thinking about how nice it has been these last few months to get through work without spending any money, especially as I bring my lunch from home.

I have identified the following benefits:
I'm walking around with money in my purse that I have no reason or desire to spend.
I'm not thinking about money, so I can focus their things.
I do have money to spend if I need or want to.

chanie

good news

I have been saving this news until it was official and the big bosses at work have agreed.... I'm getting a promotion from 1st April, so should be £300 a month better off. The last time I got a pay rise, it got swallowed up into general living costs, so this time, I want to make sure that I use this money productively.

We need to sit down and work out how we can best use the money. The one thing I am going to do is set up a standing order of £40 (£10 each) to go into savings. It's not a lot, but it's a start and something to build upon, especially for the children.

StressedSteph

Hi chanie


Wow what wonderful news. You can do a lot with £300 pm.


Do you have any debt? If not mortgage overpayments would be fab and like you said savings for Birthdays and Christmas and abit for emergencies.


Its amazing how even a £100 pm off the mortgage can add up and shorten the length.


Would definitely be nice to keep that £300 separate. It would be really easy for that to just get absorbed and then after a few months it won't feel like a benefit at all.


Will be very interested to hear your plans for it.


Fabulous news and its a FRIDAY!!! yay