Doing up the House (and me) while doing away with the Debt

supersaver1000

It really did Cherryfudge. I felt more relaxed than I have felt for a long time yesterday. I went to bed early (about 8.30 pm) and slept until 4 am. What a difference a bit of sleep makes. I'm also feeling like the lurgy is on the retreat.

So, back to bed with a cup of tea and I signed up to the frugal living challenge and then the saving for Xmas 2020.

Lots of good tips on frugal living and I am working my way through the posts. Someone mentioned Dave Ramsey and the baby steps so I had a look at his website. The steps make perfect sense for us and I listened to his podcast about house buying vs renting, which has reassured me that we are doing the right thing.

I'm happy to find the Xmas 2020 thread. Last year for the first time ever I started xmas saving in the autumn and saved around £100, which was especially good as I'd forgotten the cat's insurance was due in December. This year I'm joining the challenge to save £366 which will more than cover kitty's insurance and pay for Xmas.

supersaver1000

Just checking in to say I have listed another 20 eBay items today and my pile of clothes to list on eBay is now hung in the spare room :j. Although if they sell and I have to pack and post them I will probably be :eek:

Pleased with myself though, even if they don't sell I can send to the CS knowing that I did my best (and I have another 15 bags for the CS as well) :D:D

Update - just had my brake pads changed at Halfords and it cost me nearly £40! You can buy the pads for £3.99 each, so I think another one of my targets is to learn how to do bike maintenance!! In the meantime hope my fleabay sales do well.

supersaver1000

Just checking my to do's and these are top of the list:

Sort through old Shoes
Look for new shoes - white trainers, chelsea boots, lace up loafers/shoes, long boots - block heel/round toe. see this website
Sort the work out gear
Sewing - mending stuff and taking up pencil skirts
Work through my paper list of To Do's
Keep up moisturising
Print off house paperwork
Start taking bags to CS

There are quite a few more but I will check this thread and update once these are done.

supersaver1000

My list took a back seat to:

Paid stuff today
Dropping parcels at the PO
Shopping for the week after paid stuff

All good, so I don't feel too bad. Priority tomorrow is to book a dentist appointment as overdue. Need to pick up some cat food too and some bread on Weds.

Sort through old Shoes
Look for new shoes - white trainers, chelsea boots, lace up loafers/shoes, long boots - block heel/round toe. see this website
Sort the work out gear
Sewing - mending stuff and taking up pencil skirts
Work through my paper list of To Do's (incl. life ins)
Keep up moisturising
Print off house paperwork
Start taking bags to CS

supersaver1000

Picked up the cat food and the bread, but still have to do the dentist appointment.

Paperwork to do for the solicitor is the priority tomorrow first.

A couple of pounds earning towards my xmas savings. And I might just have ordered another pair of leggings. Apparently leggings are suddenly cool again.

And another fleabay sale to post tomorrow.

I will probably overspend on groceries this month, but its not a bad start to the month. There's a radio programme on this week (Friday?) - I swear they said a family of 5 or 6 reduced their food bill to £20 a month - got to listen that.

*I think its £20 a week and I think its Womans Hour

supersaver1000

Dentist still not booked. But I posted the parcel and sent the legalese stuff off.

5 fleabay items been bid on, and another without bids. Will be another posty weekend then.

Made a start on the shoes - there are not as many as I thought, but a bit like my clothes - too many that don't really work and the rest are all hidden under the others.

I really need to get on with my to do lists below.

supersaver1000

I feel like I've taken a lot on this week, but its mostly been MSE challenges and following MSE threads. :rotfl:

I love the saving a pound a day for xmas challenge. Such a good idea as £366 will pay for kitty's pet insurance with plenty left over for the big day. I'm not doing too badly but I am a month behind so have a bit of making up to do.

I started Fashion on the Ration by doing a declutter and looking up capsule wardrobes. But I've slightly stalled because I've realised I have a lot of shoes that I don't really like and aren't very comfortable. I can't just get rid of them but will probably have to take out a small mortgage to buy the shoes I want - white trainers, chelsea boots, lace up loafers/shoes, long boots - block heel/round toe so that's on hold at the moment. At least until I can get to the city shops/make some money. More fleabay stuff to post this weekend.

The grocery challenge isn't going too bad but I'm amazed that I've
spent nearly £300 already. Payday is soon and I will start again from then, but will definitely go over budget. We are eating a lot more veggie/vegan now so that might help.

Exercise has taken a back seat, although I am still cycling fairly regularly. But I must get back on track with exercise.

I've also got a huge 'To Do' list that I am procrastinating over - a few frogs to eat methinks.

supersaver1000

My saving for Xmas has toppled over to £24 (lucky as its the 24th) so we are on track.

Had a lovely free treat at lunchtime and a nice free cake in the afternoon. Yum.

More bids received on the fleabay items so there will a lot of leftovers.

Started to sort the shoes. Some will definitely go on fleabay.

And I am still loving looking in my very tidy wardrobe.

Looking forward to a productive weekend now with the fam.

supersaver1000

I've just been having another sort of the shoes and I'm starting to feel very positive, although a little way to go still.

I have a pair of short ugg boots that tend to be my go to footwear for the weekend with jeans. I've actually got three pairs of wrangler boots and a pair of walking boots that all hadn't seen the light of day for ages. I've been wearing one pair of wranglers this week and one pair were for DD but she hardly wore them and didn't take them with her so more for fleabay methinks. Then there is my really old trusty pair - will be sad to see them go both DD and I wore them a lot (can I keep them?). I'll keep the walking boots - useful for standing around jobs/gardening and I might have to take up walking again. I've old trainers for running of course (well worn) and another pair for not running (they were supposed to replace the others but didn't work out so were a £70+ bad decision). I've a pair of long black boots that I'm not too sure about but need to make a decision before replacing. A pair of low black work heels that aren't really me and I have my higher black heels that I haven't worn since I had plantar fasciitis - I need to see if I can wear them again. I've also got two pairs of low heel black boots which need to go to the CS and then be replaced by the new black chelsea boots I'm hankering for. Plus about another 10 pairs of various footwear, sandals etc. that I don't ever wear and aren't really comfy. So I need to fleabay what I can and CS the rest. What a shoe mess, honestly.

This weekend I've got 20 fleabay items (mostly clothes) coming to an end - 8 have bids on them and I'm hoping to make around £25. Fingers crossed, but it does mean that tomorrow I will be packaging like mad and making trips to the sorting/post office. So next week will be my shoe/boot list it week. I'll let the clothes run another week as well, maybe adjust the prices down a bit.

Only a few weeks until my student loan bites the dust. It was hard going doing the degree and working, and paying for it myself but its an achievement I will always be proud of. But I will be glad to see the back of the loan. It should more or less coincide with us becoming home owners - scary but exciting stuff. It scares me to commit to such a high figure, but I have to keep reminding myself to stay positive and take one day at a time. And it is encouraging me to declutter - I don't want to take any carp (physical or mental) to our new home.

I'm going to exceed the £300 grocery challenge budget this month, but I'm working on that and I'm also following the Frugal Living Challenge for tips mainly in the background. We haven't had a take away for ages and DH seems to be finally convinced about this and cutting back elsewhere. Although he did make a comment about also wanting 'to live' the other day, so there is work to be done still. He's definitely so much better now but he hasn't quite made the connection that cutting down on things we need, means we can spend money on the things we want or want to do (i.e. 'to live') later on. For now we need to concentrate on getting ourselves into a place where that is possible and with some security (i.e. an emergency fund).

I read a bit about Dave Ramsey - sorry if I've already said this - but he was saying about having a beginner emergency fund (which we have); paying off all debt (we only have one debt which is a vehicle and we can get rid of this in the spring); building up a 3-6 mth emergency fund (which we will do by the year end); then concentrate on paying off the mortgage (looking forward to starting this one). He did mention about saving up for your kids college education, but we are too late for that as we are mid-course and paying £600/mth for DD, but once that ends we will be putting that into the mortgage.

I'm pleased with the Xmas Savings challenge. When we move I want to switch to 12 month direct debits for council tax, so it will be handy to have a lump sum available then. We will be switching to a water meter too, so I'm guessing that will be 12 months too.

The plan is that once we've moved I will join the mortgage free wannabe challenge (gently at first) and I'm hoping that all the time I've been spending decluttering can then be spent sewing, exercising, gardening, walking, fabbing, reading and flyladying (and maybe socialising with DH ).

Oh well back to today, so I need to drop a cheque into the bank and pick up an order from a dept store and perhaps have a quick look around the CSs. I need to pick up some veg and stuff for dinner, so might park in Mr T's and walk into town first. My shop for the week will be Aldee's tomorrow.

Weekly menu so far:
Fri - HM Curry
Sat - roast
Sun - LO Curry
Mon - Pizza/chips
Tues - Pasta and sauce
Weds - chinese curry and rice
Thursday - Mushroom Risotto

Oh and I have that to do list 'to do' x

supersaver1000

Was repaid in cash £30 yesterday for a couple of items I purchased on behalf of someone, so I decided to pop it into my Save a £1 for Xmas 2020 jar. I'm virtually caught up and have over £55 in my various pots - I need to be at £62 by the end of January.

Ebay sales are doing really well, but I need to do a lot of packaging today - about 10 items :eek: and somehow get them to the post office. Sorting office is open until 3pm today so anyone who has paid by 2pm will have their parcel dropped off there. The rest will mean popping out in my lunchbreak, which I don't mind and it keeps the little PO in business as I pay in cash when I get there.

I'm going to have a break from listing this week and try and list everything else next Saturday - which gives people a bit more time to pay so I can hopefully pop up the sorting office on Sunday with any sales. My PayPal balance is looking really healthy now

Had a little re-jig of the menu as lots of mash left over so going to make tuna fishcakes (it means I don't need to buy the risotto ingredients in exchange for a tin of tuna):

Fri - HM Curry
Sat - roast
Sun - LO Curry
Mon - Tuna Fishcakes and Wedges
Tues -Pizza/chips
Weds - Pasta and sauce
Thurs - chinese curry and rice

So I finally listened to the Women's Hour radio programme with the Feed Your Family for £20 guest. It was slightly disappointing and seemed to be promoting the book on sale for £20 but I did pop onto the FB site - which in truth seems to be a lot of promotion too. I was really interested in seeing some of the menu plans, which she said was the key to savings - but there were none there. I could have signed up to the website and might have seen them then, but I didn't really want to. However, in fairness there were 82 pages of recipes and I have picked out a couple that I quite like the look of. Anyway I did another search on the internet for £20 a week meal plans and found another blogger who had managed to do an £80/4 weeks of cooking for a family of 4. It is really impressive and she wrote about what was good and what was bad about it - its here if anyone is interested. I managed to pick up the tuna fishcake and wedges idea from the recipes. We only have porrige oats most days for breakfast here, and DH has a HM cheese sandwich for lunch (I've been a bit more random lately so need to sort that. So the evening meals must be letting us down as I have spent around £350 this month - and its mostly for the two of us. Fussy kitty doesn't help but I don't think he can be more than £40 for the month - I need to check that out. I am including loo rolls, washing up liquid, washing power, bin bags and toiletries etc. in the total which the £20 doesn't cover. And for example I bought a bag of rice for £18.99 at the asian food market the other day which will last us absolutely ages. I'm getting the urge to start to monitor the budget properly now as I can't decide what our budget should be at the moment. It would be great to even save £50 a month and put it into something else.

Right I'm off to package up those parcels. Best get a wiggle on :A