Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

ukmaggie45

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never understood people who go away to work ..... I know somebody with a holiday caravan and they specifically didn't buy knick knacks, or a whole second set of cookware/belongings or try to create a "2nd home" so they could just turn up and use it on a whim, without having a big list of jobs that needed doing

I can understand that, but it's a caravan used by family as well as us, so we try to keep it so that THEY can go and enjoy. They are all still working, so don't have time to mess with the stuff there. Even before OH retired I wasn't working, so spent time there and did what I could when I could IYSWIM. We do have a lot of knicknacks I'm ashamed to admit - basically when my parents died we took my Dad's collection of lustre ware down there as I wasn't ready to get rid of it, and we didn't have room at home. It works pretty well there - caravan was second hand and the curtains are seriously revolting pattern, but the lustre jugs and stuff on the shelf above them does seem to help the "decor" a bit! :rotfl: We do have a set of cheap saucepans there too, as otherwise we'd be a bit stuck cooking. August is the big family hols time, so we need to be able to cook for about 8 adults and 3 kiddliwinks... Though there's only 4 of us in caravan - the others hire a cottage together but come up for some meals and barbies and so on.

PasturesNew wrote: »

They've kept it pretty much standard "as it came", re-using old items from home for cooking etc (whether they match or not), to be able to enjoy it and not see it as a moneypit for always having to buy new/matching items and do gardening etc.

Most of our stuff doesn't match. The stuff that did we brought home when we ran out of plates! :rotfl:

But I love the gardening, though am gradually getting less able to tackle it there - have had several falling incidents that wrecked at least 2 digital cameras. Lucky to survive really, as these were back in the days when OH was still working and I stayed there on my own. I could so easily have knocked myself out on the patio and nobody notice! :eek:

Sheets etc are leftovers from before we got new beds, quilts came with this caravan.

I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep it on - but it's convenient for the sailing, so I guess OH will hang on as long as it's even vaguely feasible. It's expensive in plot rent, but means the kids (Yeah I still think of them as kids even though now 2 of them are parents themselves! :rotfl: ) get freebee weekend hols there, and OH's parents did that for us when we were young and skint with 2 young daughters, so we feel we should pass that on while we still can.

Spirit_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

With a couple of good lookouts and a keen eye, if you can nail it in one and run inside nobody will know it was you

One set of neighbours feeds the bl**dy things. I feel sure they would hear the bang 100ft from their windows.

tomterm8

michaels wrote: »

You are definitely on my list of >1m net worth nice people (but it isn't that short a list tbh)

I'm not on that list.

Yet.

Actually, I've always been a bit too lazy to come close to it... probably could be on that list, but it's too much effort.

lostinrates

Dog dog is watching new moon.

The subtitles read 'by now those wolves will be dead'

PasturesNew

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

It's expensive in plot rent

That's the big limiter really ... plot rents. I know there are some cheap areas of the country, but they tend to be so far away the cost of fuel is then the limiter. There are some caravans/similar down this way where I've heard the plot rent can be upwards of £16k/year ....!!!! The cheapest ones there are £5-6,000/year.

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

OH's parents did that for us when we were young and skint with 2 young daughters, so we feel we should pass that on while we still can.

I wish we'd had a caravan like that. But overall, nothing's cheap is it. There is a caravan that I have free use of..... never been though as the fuel cost alone is upwards of £120 and it's 4 hours each way.

If I had lots of money I'd have free holiday homes in the USA, Channel Islands, North Norfolk and Cornwall for starters..... the reality is that "free holidays" would still cost money and you need to have that money already sitting in a "holidays" pot for it to be an option. I've no budget for a "free" holiday, which would then lead to more expenses, where the location is not where I'd choose to be or there are other issues to contend with.

No point going all that way just to sit on a different sofa penniless

PasturesNew

tomterm8 wrote: »

probably could be on that list, but it's too much effort.

Well tell me how to do it, so I can have a go

tomterm8

PasturesNew wrote: »

Well tell me how to do it, so I can have a go
I'm not lazy, I just don't know where to focus effort and have no "risk taking" genes, so scared of putting in loads of effort to get nowhere.

The problem you're facing is that you're trying to beat a level 50 monster when you're still at level, er, 1. (No offence, but so am I )

Obviously, if your aim is to get to 1 million, that's a major challenge.

Instead, you should figure out some things that you can do that will bring you closer to, say, level 2. For example, maybe one of the things you'd want to be at level 50 is confident enough to go anywhere and talk to anyone. So, one of the challenges you need to beat level 2 is talking to one new person every day. Or, if that's too hard, a week. Or if that's too hard just go out to somewhere where people hang out and stay there until you can say hello to someone). Once you achieve your challenge set another one, slightly harder.

That'll eventually mean that you become a good salesperson... which might take years. But, you're just setting harder goals all the time for yourself. Goals that are slightly harder than you've done at present.

The point is to make sure that each of your goals do two things. Improves your life in the short term, so even if you don't get to level 50 you still benefit.

And bring you closer to your level 50 goal.

It's an iterative kind of process... some of those changes will be so small no one notices them. But at the end of the day you're just continuously working to get closer to your goal, and if you don't end up where you want to be you still end up better than today.

Same way I went from a case of dyslexia where I was measured as having a reading age 6 years younger than other people in my cohort when I entered secondary school... to someone with a first class degree in software engineering.

By making small, intelligent changes that stretch you just a little bit. One after the other.

So, you've identified two challenges to yourself: to learn to overcome fear and do things anyway. And to become more focused.

What level 2 kind of challenge could you do to make yourself slightly better at tackling both of these areas?

I don't know you enough to suggest these challenges. Whatever you choose should be slightly hard, but only slightly.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

I just checked: The town where I used to live has one 1-bed place at £600/month (in the 'dodgy estate'), moving the criteria to being 10 miles out there's a studio at £450 (15 miles one way) and a 1-bed at £510 (15 miles the other way). I'd be going for the studio that wasn't in a dodgy estate..... but then I'd need a car to get a job.

Very little choice in the first instance, but opening it up from 1 mile to 10 miles increases the available rentals from one to five. Closest that was cheaper than the £600 was £565/month for a 1-bed flat in a village that's about 8-10 miles out (middle of nowhere).

If you're looking at/can afford 2-3 bed places there's heaps more choice, for 1-bedders it's always limited.

I just checked 2-bedders at the same price - there were six at £600, not further out, but as far.

But then you do live in an uber-posh and uber-expensive county.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was thinking since the comment the other day when I asked about food drying out in a dishwasher if you don't use it more than once in 5 days and I've been watching to see what I mean about what I said.

They really are a lot better at getting stuff clean than you think. Mine gets plates clean regardless of what's on them or how long it's been there. Every once in a while it struggles with something really difficult - like cheese sauce burnt onto a pan, for example - but only one or two items, and only once in every 10 or more washes. It's not as though I always run it very frequently, either, and sometimes I include plates and cutlery that have been left in unexpected places by my kids and not immediately spotted by me.

lostinrates wrote: »

It will cost more, but it IS doable I think.

If it is doable but will cost more, then it would NOT be doable for somebody whose reason for not driving was that they couldn't afford to run a car.

PasturesNew

tomterm8 wrote: »

For example, maybe one of the things you'd want to be at level 50 is confident enough to go anywhere and talk to anyone.

LOL ... this made me laugh. So true

tomterm8

PasturesNew wrote: »

LOL ... this made me laugh. So true



But that didn't involve going out and speaking to people... which is harder. All you had to do was stay in and read stuff

No, it involved getting specialist training from strangers, presenting in classes of thirty people, doing a viva in front of a team of five people who could determine my grade, and being in a classroom every day with dozens of other people and having to ask dumb questions and interact with other people. Also, a sandwich placement where I had to interact with customers, bosses, and people from other companies...

And I was a shy kid, don't you know A very shy kid.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Can I start by looking out of the window at least once a week?

Yes, absolutely. If it's more than you've been doing up to now that's a grand old start.

After you've done that and you feel confident... do something else. A little harder. Sitting in your front garden, perhaps.