Beating Lifestyle Inflation and Staying Mortgage Free!

earthgirl2

savingholmes said:

Glad you got some time to yourself it can really make a difference. 

Good that the lodger is working out too and school settled back down.

Thanks, yes I always find it amazing what I can do when I have time to think. Lodger has paid for another months and seems happy. Not at school but fingers crossed!

earthgirl2

So now that I've spent on a few things to hopefully improve my life a little, I'm interested in not just giving in to my own lifestyle inflation, but trying to make sure we are saving and making money as efficiently as possible so that I can enjoy things like a weekly zumba class, without feeling guilty. I've always struggled with this! Either I spend nothing or I spend a lot and feel guilty!

So I've got an airbnb booking this weekend, which will pay for all of the little tweaks I made for a while anyway. I'm still re doing the garden myself with just the plants I ordered in february which are growing on nicely in their new pots. I am doing more thermal cooking and encouraging the kids to eat cheaper fruits and veggies - but I still have to get it into them so I'll buy one nice punnet of fruit each week to encourage them!

Alchemilla

How are you doing Air AND having a lodger?

We lost our superhost status after (ahem) two and a half years of a closed calendar.

earthgirl2

The lodgers agreement is that he only stays Sun - Thurs, so we can airbnb at weekends - he knows this and is happy - he lives elsewhere and contracts here.

earthgirl2

Urgh I have just done some digging ingto my energy bills. My own fault but I hadn't realised the direct debits hadn't been set up properly when our company closed. So we owe 1k on the account and our dds have to go up to £350 - advised. I'll try and get them to change it to £250 as we are coming into summer. It used to be £69 ouch.

apple_muncher

Great arrangement with the ?offer! But urgggh on those bills. When I looked at ours, I was impressed I could see our usage per half hour!!!

badmemory

Is half hourly usage of any use to you.  I mean sit down for an hour reading you book, usage very little (or should be).  Decide its time to make tea.  Make a brew to go with tea, usage shoots up.  We know that anyway.  The only people this helps is the energy company when a few more of us have had to concede defeat & have a smart meter & they can put us on the highest tariff just when the kids are having their bedtime baths or we are cooking tea.

apple_muncher

apple_muncher said:

Great arrangement with the ?offer!

That was supposed to say 'lodger'😆

savingholmes

Ouch to the bill!

Good luck with the air bnb

earthgirl2

Hi all, 
I've been so busy during the past few weeks. The airbnb didn't go well - the toilet in the ensuite broke the day before they were due to come so we had to get a plumber, and we decided to cancel the booking as we didn't know when the plumber would turn up - it was the right decision as he was here when the person was due to be here. Anyway, airbnb didn't fine us as we could submit pictures of the work being done.

I got loads and loads - mountains! of work completed, but I really had to work morning to night time on it for about a week. I am going to try not to let it build up like that again.

We had a weekend away with ds2s football team, just back yesterday, it was great and very cheap as the club subsidised a lot of it, and I took a lot of our own food.

Another tutees course with me has finished, so I really need to up my income again, and keep costs low. The olio lady from my village doesn't seem to be collecting or posting anymore, so that's a bit of a blow to food costs.

I'm going to have a think about if there is anything else I can do to improve cash in, or stop money flowing out!