ATB'S Frugal Foray to Freedom

genieuk

We have made op's between mortgages it was with the same provider not sure if that makes any difference.

atypicalblonde

In a nutshell (cooking kids tea whilst typing!) her advice was centred around challenging what is considered the norm. We all do this in some small way regularly on our MFW journey, e.g. mowing your own lawn rather than paying a gardener £20 to do it, cleaning your own windows etc, but she has taken it to the next level and applies this approach to everything.

By way of example, she asked me what I spent on DD's 5th birthday party. Being completely honest, it was around £200 including a bouncy castle. She did her daughter's party at home for a fiver :eek:and showed me her notebook with it all listed out how she did it. Obviously this takes immense planning, but her argument is she has the time to do it and the savings are extraordinary. She actively uses Freecycle, Gumtree freebies and with permission goes in people's skips.

I appreciate all of the above is waaaay too extreme for most people, but she says once you really focus on NOT SPENDING MONEY, after a few months it becomes a really fun hobby. She noticed both our DCs have Joules coats and asked me why they need coats costing £50 each? To me its just the norm - I like Joules stuff and have one myself so got them one too. But they have an abundance of other coats too, all of which are lovely and were either bought by grandparents or from the chazza/hand me downs. She asked so why don't I sell the Joules ones? I genuinely didnt know how to answer her.

Sorry this is a bit rambly, but it certainly gave me some food for thought (there was loads more, more than my one handed typing can manage!) and hopefully it will help someone xx

hiddenshadow

Interesting - I often wrestle with the time vs money debate. Usually money wins out and I do things myself because I do have the time, but I'm slowly shifting that approach. Where big savings / small time commitment apply (meal planning, switching utilities, etc) I'm more than happy to invest the time. When it comes to things that I don't like to do (hoovering) or struggle to do (mowing the lawn), ordinarily I'd just suck it up and do it myself, but I'm actually researching how much it costs to hire someone to do it. I'm growing to appreciate the mindset of "you can always make more money, you can't make more time" (within reason - I think I'll always be quite frugal!).

I suppose it's also all relative...if your monthly discretionary money is £500 savings of even £20 is a good chunk. If your discretionary money is £2,000 then £20 has less meaning. (On the flip side, if your debt is £500 making an OP of £20 makes a big difference, if you're weighing it against a £200k mortgage it's a lower effect. Likewise £20/mo on a £500 debt makes the debt go away much faster than £20 OP against £200k.)

(Not that I'm arguing against your acquaintance's approach at all, I think it's all about choices that work for you personally, what seems completely reasonable to one person would be ludicrous to the next.)

atypicalblonde

hiddenshadow wrote: »

I think it's all about choices that work for you personally, what seems completely reasonable to one person would be ludicrous to the next.)

Exactly that. Many of our peers would look at me like I had two heads if they knew of some of our sneaky little ways to save money, they simply wouldn't think of doing or be bothered to do what we do.

I make it into a little game sometimes and it makes us happy.

I have applied her logic to a scenario this morning. We have run out of kindling for the woodburner, and DH texted me asking me to pick some up from local hardware shop whilst I'm out. I have the day off, so instead a quick browse of Gumtree freebies section has led me to a huge dumpy bag full of chopped up pallets, being given away by a local business FOC :T. Going to collect it shortly. So slightly more time consuming than nipping to the shops, but saves us around £30. So today will be a much needed NSD :T

themadvix

That's a great find on the wood ATB!

As you say, what works for someone might not work for someone else - and I'm always amazed at people (like my father - don't get me started, he's an MSE nightmare!) who say 'they can't be bothered/haven't got time to Ebay stuff'.... To me, that's the basics of being sensible with money!

atypicalblonde

Working this morning, so will have some more pennies to add to the pot later. Got a huge pile of stuff for Cash 4 Clothes to take on Monday, if i get £10 I will be happy!

Need to list DH old Fitbit later on fleabay, might be a job for whilst I'm watching strictly :money:

atypicalblonde

Some work done, so that's £40 extra in the pot. More stuff flung on C4C pile.

Going to a bonfire party shortly but will drive, so no spends on taxi. Will have one cheeky wine whilst there, then save the rest for drinking whilst watching SCD!

atypicalblonde

I miss OPing

Is it just me or does shuffling money into the savings pot not have quite the same buzz as overpaying directly? Itching to make an impromptu and to h£ll with the penalty, it will still save us money in the long run and reduce the mortgage. Hmmmm.

hiddenshadow

I definitely share that feeling - the only way I found around it was to add to my spreadsheet so that I could update my savings there and still see the "real" number on paper somewhere. Not quite as exciting as having the mortgage at the bank change, but at least it was something visible.

greent

An extra column at the end of the spreadsheet with the mtge balance netted off against the amount set aside ready to OP?

I much prefer directly OPing myself, though - now that we (finally) have online access to our BTL mtge I've been making little payments as and when and enjoy seeing the change in the balance throughout the month

How did your C4C bag go? I've got one building up at the mo - just need to motivate myself to take it there (although may wait until new year, as it's next to a scrap metal place, and we'll have a radiator and a heavy chrome/ copper shower bit as well as some other bits.
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