Improving all the time

VelvetFreak

Yay! New diary! You had me giggling with your betting shenanigans
Are you looking into doing any study to help with a possible promotion at work? I’ve been thinking about that a bit lately.

FloraandFauna

Thanks, BeanieLou!

zcrat41 - if I didn't have a range of more immediate tiny goals I'd struggle to retain interest in the odd £1.37's here and there. They'd fritter. Besides, although I've been frugal for some years, reading these diaries makes me realise I've not TRULY lifted up the stone and looked underneath...

Thanks, LeighofMar - I find motivation a challenge, so it's actually easier for me to link lots of different goals into win/wins and so save on the will power (definitely a limited resource). So, if I'm thinking of blowing £7 on a bottle of wine, it's not just 'lovely wine' v. 'boring not-allowed-to-spend', it's 'lovely wine' v. £7 and £3 interest saved off the mortgage AND maybe a 1lb weight loss AND slightly better skin AND a clearer head to be even more impressive at work in the morning. So if I get grumpy and think "!!!!!! the mortgage", I still get to lean on the other benefits, if you see what I mean.

Thanks, Velvet! Glad you giggled - I still shiver when I think how close it was... Have temporarily suspended all matched betting, but will probably creep back very carefully in a few weeks and NOT press any interesting-looking buttons again.

As for work - I've been given a couple of additional projects to run that are quite different. Both due to end around December, so I reckon if I really smash those in the next 5 months then I'll have fantastic evidence to support a bid for promotion in the New Year. I'm fairly new in this role, so study is pretty much ALL I've been doing in my spare time!

Thanks again to all for popping in - really appreciate it. I don't mind burbling away to myself, but it's very cheering to have a wave from others : )

FloraandFauna

Today's results:

- clean/fix something every day - yes, bathroom cabinet and taps
- throw something out every day - collected some duplicate books for the charity shop, admittedly not shooed them out of the door just yet, that will have to wait for the weekend
- Tilly tidy every day - no, no activity on account so no pennies to move
- check an existing, or investigate a new, freebie - prolific, again, think investigating anything new will be a job for Saturday as it's bedtime now...
- tick off one of those tasks at work - one, yes, but it spawned two, so behind on this again
- tell the cats I love them - yes!

Not a NSD, but less than half the daily budget for food, and remembered to take stuff out of the freezer for tomorrow lunch and dinner, so that's sorted.

Another long day at work - I love my job, but I'm pooped. Early bed again.

Busy_Mee1

Loving your daily challenges Flora....it is amazing how sweating the small stuff adds up. Impressed that you tried matched betting, I might try it when I have finished work and have a bit more head space.

It certainly paid off for you, it might be worth picking up again in a week or two when you have calmed down :rotfl:

FloraandFauna

Thanks, BusyMee1! It made it possible for my mortgage to arrive at the beautiful, clean number below, but it might so easily have gone horribly wrong...

You're right about the small stuff. I don't have any 'extra' money in my budget since I really knuckled down to this a few months ago (because all the extra I've found has gone straight to the mortgage or savings). But nonetheless it feels as though I have extra money swimming around all over the place (a spare £18 in my purse! £5 in a treasure box! £15 in TCB!) simply because I'm not ignoring the little bits here and there.

Well, durr, you might say. But it had never seriously registered before that all those small amounts add up to substantial amounts If You Just Keep Track Of Them instead of losing them in the general haze of the current account.

I thought I might feel even skinter and more anxious if I focused on scraping away at the pennies, but I actually feel more comfortable financially, and slightly richer!

VelvetFreak

I agree with feeling “richer” when you really focus on keeping track of your money and spending responsibly. It’s better than burying your head.

FloraandFauna

VelvetFreak wrote: »

I agree with feeling “richer” when you really focus on keeping track of your money and spending responsibly. It’s better than burying your head.

Oh yes! And I was Chief Head Burier for many years. : )

FloraandFauna

Today's results:

- clean/fix something every day - no, am lazy slob and staying that way this evening
- throw something out every day - almost; collected a load of old packaging and boxes for the recycling, so sitting by back door waiting for Saturday (keeping the books company)
- Tilly tidy every day - yes, 90p. Think when it gets to £5 I'll transfer to the mortgage and start again
- check an existing, or investigate a new, freebie - yes, two surveys and applied for a health-monitoring trial
- tick off one of those tasks at work - yes
- tell the cats I love them - yes!

Bonus points: a NSD today, so that's 3 out of the last 5 days, with the other 2 coming in at under £7. Big food shop on Saturday so will have to plan that tomorrow evening.

I was looking at my saving pots earlier, and I now have full pots for vet fees and house emergencies - plus a few hundreds beginning to fill some of the others. Amazing how much calmer it makes you feel knowing funds are set aside if needed!

savingholmes

good luck on your journey

FloraandFauna

Thanks, SavingHolmes! And it is a journey, as in, I'm learning more about motivations every day.

Today's results:

- clean/fix something every day - no, am still lazy slob and staying that way this evening (has been very long week at work, so actually feel OK about catching up with these tomorrow)
- throw something out every day - nothing other than packaging - going to do another sweep tomorrow when I hoover the bedrooms though
- Tilly tidy every day - no, no activity in account
- check an existing, or investigate a new, freebie - yes, signed up for a FD a/c to get the £100 bonus*
- tick off one of those tasks at work - yes! 3 of them! feels good
- tell the cats I love them - yes!

Bonus points: NSD today. Resisted temptation to do the big shop this evening when I got off the train. Brain said it would save precious time at the weekend, and I was all out of food. Peered deep into my murky soul and discovered a) not out of food, b) time is time whenever time is, and c) actually I just wanted a bottle of wine and a family-sized packet of crisps, stuff the weekly shop.

Outraged at trying to lie to myself. So resisted, came home, ate food, feel very pleased indeed I won't be dealing with a fat head tomorrow.

* £100 switching bonus took a bit of strained thinking before I worked it out. Halifax has a better, at £175, but I'm only switching to get access to a 5% regular saver, and FD don't demand the switched a/c have any DDs while Halifax do. This means I can switch an old (empty) Nationwide a/c that the interest rate has slumped on, without having to switch my TSB 3%. Because... you can only put £300pm into Halifax's 5% saver, which would leave the rest of my savings waiting their monthly transfer in a ... 0%... current account. <horror>