£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

MatyMoo

PositiveBalance wrote: »

Ooh, I like the look of this! Do you use it often? Can you do clothes with it?

Many moons ago I used to work in a posh clothes shop where all the clothes were dry clean only. We had a steamer in the back for steaming the wrinkles out of the clothes.

It will be a wish to my dying day to own one of those contraptions for the same reason.

ToPM: in all sincerity, if you would actually USE it (not just buy it and admire it) a steam cleaner could be the answer to many of your environmental worries. Admittedly, they ain't cheap, but if you got lots and lots of use out it if, possibly financially justifiable if you could buy one with points of vouchers or offset the money some other way e.g. savings on cleaning products etc.

Especially if you could use it on posh clothes that need de-wrinkling. :T

Think about it for a bit and ask if you have any friends who have one; how much use do they get out of it/what do they use it for etc.

I have a steam mop for doing hard floor but use the Polti for kitchens, bathrooms, window frames, fridges, freezers and general cleaning of tight spaces! We are in a hard water area and it really helps with taps, loo's, shower screens etc.

Haven't used it for clothes ( my iron comes out a couple of times a year :rotfl:) but I'm sure there is an attachment that can do clothes!

A friend lent me hers for the weekend and I loved it so bought my own straight away

PositiveBalance

MatyMoo wrote: »

I have a steam mop for doing hard floor but use the Polti for kitchens, bathrooms, window frames, fridges, freezers and general cleaning of tight spaces! We are in a hard water area and it really helps with taps, loo's, shower screens etc.

Haven't used it for clothes ( my iron comes out a couple of times a year :rotfl:) but I'm sure there is an attachment that can do clothes!

A friend lent me hers for the weekend and I loved it so bought my own straight away

They look fab and it comes with so many accessories at such a reasonable price! I have just come into possession of a Karcher but the basic version so it comes with two attachments for blasting outside things. I thing I will have to invest further to be able to not kill things indoors with the amount of power at my fingertips, but the attachments aren't cheap. It's a question of priorities, I guess.

Can't wait till I can steam clean my oven, though! :rotfl:

db2016 wrote: »

interesting reading lately,

a couple of points that may not be popular but hey ho.

i get the eco / organic thing, (tbh not that i bother much with it, ill refill water bottles for gym and sports but thats it, cost wins for me). BUT, as you say, with the organic thing, that your happy to spend out on it to be comfortable with things, but at the expense of pushing your DFD further away. you have already done this with other things, compromised with yourself for a level of comfort, and pushed the DFD away.

imo, and it is just that, an opinion... bash the debt down then think of the extra luxuries. and personally i think being too organic and eco, and mega clean, does more harm than good on an individual level. i have friends in healthcare and teaching that the amount of kids / young adults they encounter with allergies has rapidly increased, and the healthcare friends do seem to blame the indoors life of kids these days and also the non exposure to dirt and certain chemicals etc, the body has its own ways to cleanse imo, sure its nice to say your doing your bit, but for me, unless it becomes a choice only on that, or very close in cost to justify, then cost will win. i also do think its a "uk divide" issue, industrial town here, and there isnt much eco warrioring going on. priorities differ i guess. all the best.

This is very interesting. For balance, I live in a large northern industrial city. I agree with the increase in allergies of children not being allowed to develop their immune systems through not being exposed to muck etc. and the great outdoors in general oftentimes, but have you of multiple chemical sensitivity? Apparently this is on the rise (part of the 'too clean') so personally if I had children and could do the same job with less chemical cleaners, I probably would. Will, one day, even.

But don't worry....I'll let them splash in puddles/smear themselves in mud/lick rocks, so hopefully they will be building their immune systems at the same time!

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 54: Day 2

My children are grubby as anything. I'm optimistic about their chances . Seriously, I think everyone can only do their best with the information available to them, and we're all going to reach difference conclusions about what matters in terms of the environment, our budget, what we bring into our homes etc etc. At the moment, in our financial situation, we are taking the decisions to do some things that matter, particularly where they are cheaper (homemade cleaners) or extra costs are minimal (recycled toilet roll), but skipping others where the additional cost is significant (organic/unpackaged food).

Yesterday wasn't too bad in the end, so I've got a day of frantically catching up with everything today and a work-related phone call I am dreading, then working away again tomorrow and Thursday.

Was annoyed with myself yesterday - I took snacks and tea in my thermos mug for the drive to my client's, but forgot water and snacks for the drive home, so ended up spending £3.50 on water and snacks. Such a tiny amount, and I did it from change in my wallet, but it irritates me so much when I have to spend on things which were 100% avoidable, plus the unnecessary plastic packaging (where eco meets frugal!).

Three things to do today
1. Pack orders for smaller business.
2. Clear emails.
3. Phone call of doom.

Savings/Spends:
- £5.77 2nd half of February 'rounding down' overpayment pot.
- £1,215.35/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Treadingonplaymobil

February's lists - update

I'm going to check in with my longer lists once a week, so I can keep on track and remind myself of what still needs doing. I'm not exactly covering myself in glory with what's been achieved so far...

Home/Family
1. Play around with designs in preparation for the architect's visit in early March. Supposed to be doing this today with my mum and DH.
2. Eat the contents of the freezer and defrost it. Getting there...
3. Declutter and organise the utility room.
4. Sort through all the stuff I've decluttered from various rooms and store the children's stuff that needs to be kept for a month or two to see if they ask for it. Charity shop the rest.
5. Keep on top of packed lunches and make sure we have sufficient for a few days at any time, especially as the freezer gets lower. Ongoing, but fine so far. Ideally need to make something like a quiche today.
6. Repaint the bathroom tiles - the tile paint is peeling off (we are avoiding doing any proper work in this bathroom until we know whether it is being moved in the course of the extension). I HATE the bathroom, find it utterly depressing.
7. Spend an hour tidying up outside the front of the house. I need to do some proper gardening once the weather warms up, but it needs a bit of TLC before then.
8. DH finish the fencing at the front of the house.
9. Sew buttons and loops on DC1's new coat to hold the inner fleece onto the cuffs (DC1 loves the coat apart from this).
10. Plan veg planting.
11. Put the word out about needing a little trailer for camping.
12. Mend DC3's dressing up costume (Elsa's plait is coming loose...).
13. Buy cheaper spoons for packed lunches - the DC have been taking in our proper cutlery and I'm fairly sure we've lost one or two of our nice (not cheap) spoons.

Me
1. Stick to three things on my daily list at any one time. Managing this well.
2. Keep it SLOW. A steady half term without too much over-commitment and then taking lots of care of myself the following week, which is very busy with work. Half term success! And not over-burdening myself this week.
3. Keep up a fuller yoga practice - it has been a real challenge to get back into this after neglecting it horribly at the end of last year, but I feel I'm settling back into more of a routine. This is going shockingly, will try to improve from today.
4. Finish handmade presents for friend's imminent baby.
5. Plan handmade presents for DC2 and 3 birthdays in March and ensure I have any supplies needed.
6. Try to plan in a night away from the DC with DH. We haven't had an evening out or a night away from them for over 18 months and I think we should try to make it happen. Maybe they could go to my mum's in the Easter holidays for a couple of days, although I'd like to do something a bit more 'special' than just loiter at home without them. But needs to be on budget :cool: .

Work
1. Go through who I'm following on social media for work and make sure they're relevant to my business so I'm not wasting time when on social media.
2. 10% growth on my main social media platform (293 followers).
3. A new blog post for my website.
4. Declutter my work cupboard and clear out any un-needed junk. Done, very satisfying.
5. Confirm childcare for March and April so I can make dates available for clients.

MSE
1. £28 minimum overpayment from rounding down YNAB pots. Done.
2. Sort out the Partnership/Virgin balance transfer and change name of Partnership card if necessary. Done, transfer complete.
3. List wooden marble run on eBay (as you all know, I loathe the hassle of selling things, but this might actually get some sensible money).
4. Don't raid the savings pots! Managing so far!
5. Move my rounding down savings pots over from my business account in the middle of the month and again at the end (I operate the same system there, with rounding down split between a debt overpayment and an extensions savings pot). Done for the middle of the month.
6. When doing March's budget at the end of the month try to put some money by for train ticket to London for my dad's birthday meal. I have the price of the meal covered.

remote_control

Thanks for the toilet roll tip, I've just ordered some. Tesco works out as 21p for 100 sheets so WGAC works out cheaper. I don't understand why all toilet paper isn't made from 100% recycled paper!!

We have also had to cut back on organic for the time being but don't compromise on some things, e.g. nappies - 500 years to decompose, no thank you!

If there is not already a MSE eco club then I will happily found one with you.

PositiveBalance

remote_control wrote: »

If there is not already a MSE eco club then I will happily found one with you.

I'll join. I think it will be popular, a thread for swapping deals and tips.

remote_control

:-) let's do it!

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 54: Day 3

Morning! Off to do some work with a client I really like today, then staying with friends and working in London tomorrow, which will be hectic as anything as I have to get a train at stupid o'clock in the morning. Busy busy, but I do enjoy doing something different for a day or so. The challenge is going to be taking enough snacks etc that I need to do minimal purchasing while away. I will go armed with my reusable thermos mug (it is so good, keeps drinks hot for hours and hours and hours and hours), stainless steel water bottle (even though this one has a plastic lid, I love it so much because I don't need to unscrew or flip open a lid, it is totally one handed. And it's thermal which is great as I drink warm water in cold weather!), plenty of dried fruit and Aldi snack bars and a packed lunch for today to minimise spends. Hoping that the only thing I will need to spend on is a meal tomorrow before I come home.

Had a long sit down with my mum yesterday and played with extension plans, it was great to get her input and I'm feeling much clearer about what we need to achieve with it all. I had grand plans of moving the staircase to free up more space, but I think we've proved that they are a total non-starter, which has saved us a few thousand before we even start .

remote_control we used cloth nappies with ours, which was brilliant by the time we got to the third, as they had paid for themselves several times over! And then we handed them onto a friend who never really got going with them, which was a shame, as it feels like they were slightly wasted, but I think she has at least handed them on to someone else who can use them now. I would be well up for a MSE eco club!

With one wiggle and another, and a bit more work coming in on my side, I have topped up the car maintenance pot to £250 (plus £52 in the emergency fund) in advance of the service on Friday. It's meant not adding to June's business account expenses at all, and not overpaying much on the debt (although I chucked another fiver into the overpayment pot to cheer me up), but I know I'm just storing up problems for myself if I don't throw everything at the car pot for now. I really hope that's going to be enough, or I'll be robbing some of the savings pots, which will annoy me immensely. I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be, and the bill will be closer to £500, based on what I know needs doing. Grrr.

Three things to do today
1. Pack lunches, snacks etc for going away.
2. Pack actual clothes etc for going away!
3. Contract work for next week.

Savings/Spends:
- £12.17 2nd half of February 'rounding down' overpayment pot.
- £1,215.35/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Savertobe

I'm in what a good idea I'll share it with my daughter too.

enthusiasticsaver

Good thinking to take snacks, drinks etc today. London is ridiculously expensive.

I am driving up tomorrow to London to visit Royal Albert Hall on Friday. Never been inside and always wanted to my sister booked tickets for Cirque du Soleil.

Moving staircases is expensive so yes if you can get away without doing this that will keep the cost down. Exciting to see to see the plans progressing on the extension front.

Fingers crossed for the car. Presumably as it is booked in you have decided to keep it for now?