Beating Lifestyle Inflation and Staying Mortgage Free!

earthgirl2

Yes Ed, olio. I don't collect myself, but I request from others and pick up a bag of food every so often.

I switched the extra fridge freezer off finally 
We got a great bike from gumtree for ds1 - it's normally around £200 new, and this was 40, and looked brand new!
I got an amazing suit for a wedding for ds2 off gumtree for £15. Just another for ds1, and some smart shoes to get ...maybe school shoes will do. Me and OH will use clothes we already have.

Potential lodger has decided that I sound helpful and trustworthy, so he is just going to come and doesn't need to view the room before hand I won't count my chickens just yet but fingers crossed it goes well when he arrives next weekend.

beanielou

Good news on the lodger.

themadvix

 Some excellent bargains there! I’ve never used Gumtree - never really think to look there. Definitely worth remembering by the sound of it.

Cheery_Daff

Good lodger news! Hope he turns out to be helpful and trustworthy too! 

Mr Cheery often finds useful stuff on Gumtree. I think we even found our last couple of cars on there 😂😂

earthgirl2

@edinburgher I've found airtime rewards app to be excellent for rewards and you don't have to do anything other than upload your card details - it tracks automatically. I was hesitant to join because my (giffg.) provider wasn't listed, but actually you can just request the money when it gets to £20.
My code is GPQJQQC6 and I think we get 50p each for nothing, and they you get £1 when you use a card in the retailers, then actual cash back as well, for doing absolutely nothing ongoing.

Anyone else have any good easy money making apps they would recommend?

@themadvix I just keep a running list of things I am going to need in the future, and set up a saved search on gumtree, check oxfam online, charity shops, ebay and hotukdeals once a week for the items. By far gumtree seems to be better quality stuff and less hassle!

savingholmes

Great news on the lodger

themadvix

Thanks for the Gumtree reminder - I bought something on there (or FIL did, but I did all of it!) this week!

earthgirl2

Hello all, 

Terrible news from Ukraine this week. Just awful. Thousands (millions?) of people affected. Last week a Ukrainan couple were reaching out to me for online tuition to allow their son to learn English and better educate himself. Parents just like me. This week they are fighting a war. It's difficult to comprehend.

I have some savings, income and some spending to report - and some advice needed.

Firstly the savings. Finally the electric vehicle at work actually worked and I cut my mileage massively. I normally have to claim back this and invariably I don't get a lot back and petrol prices are high at the moment.
Shopping was £57 this week which is good.
Some of my s&s's suffered this week which was to be expected.

Spending
I needed new boots for work had the others for 2 years- got a great deal - 70% off, but still a £28 spend.
Hair cut booked tomorrow, will cost £15/20.
DS2 has been changed fb teams and there is nobody nearby whom he can lift share with. I'm not happy about this, I don't think he is either.

Other things I am considering spending on. DS2's handwriting is very bad, he has extremely poor fine motor skills. Gross motor skills and general coordination is good. A little hypermobility evident. He is 9 1/2. From being a teacher myself, I understand how important it is to be able to write legibly but fairly fast. I am considering getting help from an OT for handwriting particularly.  The school is pretty useless and will just pull him out of class to work on little exercises whilst he misses important things in class - I can do the same exercises at home without the need to miss class. We have been trying for years to get him to improve finger dexterity. I am wondering if a specialist OT would give us a boost. I know he has the wrong pencil grip but I'm not sure how to fix it without nagging. OT costs £60/hour.

Income
I started with a new student, but the second one I had lined up is from Ukraine and it will not go ahead. 
The lodgers start date has been put back to 6th March.
When searching for handwriting tutors I came across a whole world of tutors doing my day job which is now more mental health education for anxiety, online, and charging quite a lot. It got me thinking that I should look into this as I haven't raised my prices for ages - or worked in this area online before. At work I'm designing a couple of online programs for anxious teens with 1-1 support and counselling so I'm wondering if I could do this online too - I have the certification.

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like some potentially interesting opportunities for you. Good plan to sort out DS's handwriting if you can. And yes, how awful for that family, and all the others in the same position. How quickly life can turn round.

badmemory

Maybe they were hoping to get him out of the country before the proverbial hit the fan.  Cannot blame them one moment for that, I'd have tried it myself too.  No-one seems to be doing much to help though.  I guess we will just have to wait until they walk into east Germany.