Time to Focus - Our best year ever?

JennyP

I just made quite a bit - £200 - on eBay. Love doing it.

What was Corfu like? Saw one episode of the Durrells a couple of weeks ago and thought we might like it. It looks beautiful, there seems to be some interesting places to visit and I found a book of Corfu walks on ebay!

noblet

£200 - wow, great work Jenny! Something to aspire too...

I've been a bit spendy the last week, mainly clothes but to be honest I did need a few things. I'm also about to bite the bullet on a new f$tbit because after 3 years I'm having issues with mine so I've been offered a 50% voucher on a new one...

Such beautiful weather - although I've been exhausted from work travel so spend a lot of the weekend watching my beloved plant up some veggie seeds in the garden .... hoping that we're a little more organised this year and have things ready in batches and try to avoid the glut... we'll see! (although I love chutney anyway)

Returned those jars, no issue. Ebay not sorted.... so some May goals...

1. Complete C25K (didn't run at all last week, so a challenge... but still manageable within May I think)
2. Volunteer expenses for year to date claimed
3. Ebay 10 things
4. Start trying to meal plan
5. No email or SoMedia after 10pm at night.

noblet

Oh - and Corfu.... enjoyed it, looks like it would be a nice place for walking although it was a bit warm for us to do that. Nice old town (although max 1.5 days of things to see in the town) and some nice beaches. I can imagine in the summer it could be a challenge to travel around on the little roads.... good choice going earlier in the year I think! ... and we saw a flamingo. Definitely interesting wildlife to see. Although have not seen the Durrells!

noblet

Had a little spendy couple of weeks but not too bad -2 new pairs of jeans, top & dress for work.... managed to cover in the budget. Also, a couple of evenings out etc.
Just updated YNAB and pretty pleased that things are mainly on track. Being able to put £500 per month into 5% regular savers in the last couple of months, upping the mortgage payments, and not noticeably see a big impact on day to day makes me wonder where on earth it was going before.....

Ran (ok, slow jog!) yesterday for C25K, 8 more sessions to go before the end of the programme. Can run for 25 mins now, which is quite amazing regardless of how slow I am. It is hard to fit it in at the moment with work, as I'm pretty much away Mon-Fri and not always in places near a park/ suitable place to run.

Being away so much also having an impact on other things - such as time to process expenses, de-clutter/ ebay, food shop sensibly, social life (!) etc... June should be a little better.

noblet

Super pleased with myself for finding a cheaper haircut this week - it wasn't really the same standard but perhaps its ok for an area to economise.... so £22 into the savings.

Managed to sell a book second hand online, and 3 items listed on Ebay.

Salad starting to make an appearance in the garden, so hopefully will be having some homegrown in a few weeks time. Quite a harvest of rhubarb to be had this week.

Quite excited about getting June budget set out in YNAB, that's really sad isn't it !!

JennyP

Well done on the saving, running and cheap hair cut. I have saved even more by not getting my hair cut for two years.....but it shows!



I am just starting to grow things. But rather unsuccessfully. I bought a little plastic greenhouse and sowed some seeds but a lot just didn't germinate. I have one leggy coriander plant and a few shoots of salad leaves.



Keep wondering if growing your own veg is really money saving. By the time I have factored in costs of seeds, greenhouse and compost, that's one expensive coriander plant.



My ebaying has ground to a halt. I have one thing left to post today but nothing else to list. We have bought some bar stools off eBay though - ones we wanted from john lewis. Picking them up later. Saved £160 on the pair!

noblet

Bit of a lapse in posting - to be honest, not done the best the last 4 weeks.....
I've been incredibly lethargic and found it a struggle to keep up with the day to day (lunchtime naps..) it's been a very busy time at work. I've then made some silly errors which have cost me - the worst being turning up an hour late for a train which I mistook the time for and having to spend £160 on a replacement ticket....
Ebay, claiming back expenses, growing veg.... it's all been minimal.

So - the positive stuff.
- Building & contents insurance - renewal was £485 and last time I shopped around was +5yrs... paid £230 and £60 cashback so definite win.
- Fraud committed on a credit card - spotted and sorted out quickly as being more aware of accounts!
- Grocery spend down this month (a lot of work travel, and better planning/ bulk cooking)
- Keeping up with the £500 pm to regular savers & regular mortgage overpayment

1 week holiday with family in the south this week - will try and be sensible on the spending.

IAAM

Hi noblet

I've just looked at your diary and am going to take a look at the book you mention (Your Best Year Ever). It obviously struck a chord with you so I'm intrigued already.

That's the great thing about this MF site. Loads of people are quite inspirational and have ways of doing things that (I'm hoping) will help me on my journey

Thanks

noblet

@IAAM - yes, worth taking a look, it's really helped me focus. I still drift and I've not hit all my goals, but it has helped me make decisions.

So good things recently -
- Found an A$DA giftcard we'd forgotten about, so used that today for our weekly shop
- Finally lost patience with our DAB radio in the kitchen yesterday - used points to get a replacement which is super nice, great quality
- Arranged a house sitter/pet sitter via a website for our next holiday, saving ££ on a cattery. We've exchanged lots of messages/ references and spoken - seems super nice.
- lots of lovely fruit and berries ripe in the garden, have made rhubarb & ginger jam; blackcurrant jam; raspberry & blackcurrant jam; cherry cobbler; saskatoon muffins; and still some berries to come.... a little garden, but I love it this time of year.
- Realised I have £160 on quidco I can get transferred to our bank account and then make a mortgage overpayment
- work contract renewed until mid next year
- Getting closer to views on what we want our kitchen to look like, so ready to start more detailed planning soon

Still not great -
- Expense claims, I'm really out of pocket
- Excercise... it's been so hot...

noblet

Question -

We're continuing decluttering. We have decided to get rid of 95% of our CDs -altho most of them are quite old. Also a bunch of older DVDs.
Straight to the charity shop or worth spending time doing anything else with them?