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Beating Lifestyle Inflation and Staying Mortgage Free!
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Thanks Karma. Yes I feel that it's really wrong to use peoples expertise and their own time and not pay them accordingly. I think it happens in the teaching profession a lot. I could contact my union about it but instead I'll quietly remove myself from that project. Until they want to pay me to do it of course!Save £20,000 in 2025. April 2k, May 3.5k2
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So I've added up our grocery shopping so far in October - £110 bulk buy and £55.83 on top up shops. That isn't using lots of stuff from stores, just our normal meals, but cutting back on the expensive snacking habit my kids had.Having a supply of boiled eggs, soup, big tubs of yogurt etc is finally working, although it's early days!Another thing that has saved us money is I'm eating a much simpler diet, porridge and banana, veg soup and egg, and curry for tea. I love being able to eat cheaply and well. This leaves lots of space in the new air fryer for dinner for the others.Save £20,000 in 2025. April 2k, May 3.5k2
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All going well here. I'm not showering in the waterfalls as it's so cold and I'm not driving past any at the moment as I'm on holiday. We have reduced electricity usage though (airfryer is really helping here).
money saving
oh filled the garage with logs after felling a dead tree for a relative, kids helped do it's kept them amused for 1 day of the holiday.Oh found a dartboard for the boys on gumtree £25
£20 top up shop so £186 spent on groceries in October so far.Gifts and cards from store
money making
starting with new tutoring client tomorrow and they want 2 hours per week so this is the same as 2 clients. So I'm now doing 9 hours of tuition per week on top of my normal hours 😬
We can no longer Airbnb in Scotland without a license. One of the exceptions is if it's student accommodation so I am going to be doing more of that as of next week.I've been doing shop and scan, zipzer0 and surveys when I can. I think I earn the least per hour from this so if I get too busy this is what I'll need to drop. I can fit it in at the moment.Save £20,000 in 2025. April 2k, May 3.5k3 -
So i am back from my mini break in Portugal. It was really good, although parts were a bit annoying (it rained a few times and the hotel was kind of villas in a residential area rather than a zen yoga retreat) but the good outwayed the bad and I enjoyed the yoga and breakfasts were amazing. I cooked for myself when I was there and asked for hot water in cafes so I only spent 5 euros on food and drink over the 4 days. I ate a lot at breakfast!!
I'm now working immensely hard with a student staying, nine hours of extra tuition and also a full time job, so basically for the next 10 days I am just constantly working from early morning to late at night. It will really boost my savings though and its for a short amount of time.
I'm still trying to be frugal though although I can see how its easy to use the oven to cook fish and chips etc rather than cook food from scratch - but I'm trying to be as frugal as I can!
Off to a meeting now, then taking DS's to opticians and then I'll try to do some bulk cooking or prep for the week.Save £20,000 in 2025. April 2k, May 3.5k3 -
Wow lots of extra work on but guess you are counting the savings
Well done on the cooking - soups and curries are perfect for autumnDON'T BUY STUFF (from Frugalwoods)
No seriously, just don’t buy things. 99% of our success with our savings rate is attributed to the fact that we don’t buy things... You can and should take advantage of discounts.... But at the end of the day, the only way to truly save money is to not buy stuff. Money doesn’t walk out of your wallet on its own accord.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289577/future-proofing-my-life-deposit-saving-then-mfw-journey-in-under-13-years#latest2 -
Thanks LWAP massively overdid the hours of work but as it was only 10 days I managed it. I was working 12 hours days but today my student goes home, I'm just waiting on his taxi arriving
It's been such hard work, and I haven't had a minute to myself. I'm going to work 1.30-5.30 this afternoon, oh is cooking dinner (sausage and mash) and I'm just going to read my book and get an early night, I'm shattered!
As I've been so busy I thought I'd use it as a way to stop a few bad habits, so I've been alcohol free for almost 3 week, and refined sugar free for 7 days! Feel so much better for it (especially refined sugar). I could take this further but I think I'm happy where I am as I have no significant cravings any more.
in the next few days I will post my October savings and if I managed to stay in budget. I know I massively overspent on the children and was about right with groceries (£350 even with the teenager staying, which means I should be able to improve next month).Save £20,000 in 2025. April 2k, May 3.5k3 -
October 23
Quick round up of the things I'm tracking -Spending
Grocery spends £353.18 / £350
Other General items - £13/£50 stamps, cacao tea(important for when I was cutting back on sugar!)
Gifts/cards - £6
Spending on kids - £250/100
Electricity usage/cost- 503.74 kwh /£128.96 (September was 384.92/£108.76 for comparison)
I'm happy with my grocery spend as it was with an extra student for 9 days of October - should do better in November. Glad I've cut down on 'other general items' buying things just because I want them. Gifts and cards is ok.
To improve is spending on kids. I just don't know how to do this! Not included in this is pocket money - I give DS1 £15 per week to cover snacks and if the other kids go 'out of school' for lunch he can join them, or he can save this money - he rarely does and it mostly goes on snacks. The things I bought there were - tape for football, a game of golf, a halloween costume, a bobble hat for golf, a football kit as a present from holiday (£100!!) and chocolates as a present from holiday.
I know I should be grateful that my kids are sporty and that most of the things are connected to this. Personally I could do much better though - not just buy the thing they want - encourage second hand buying etc. £100 on a football kit - what was I thinking!!
Also to improve is electricity usage. Graph below - The super high usage was when the student was here, and I think that he had the electric heater on in his room all the time. I can still focus on this more this month.Extra Income
£544.8 net tutoring
£1620 net student
£40 dad (a 'tip' for helping him with a french tax bill)
=£2204.80
I'm pleased with that as I'm also working full time as well so it's really been quite a struggle to fit all those hours in. I know that I can't always do it
My target was £1200 per month towards my Aus and Fiji trip.Balance for OCTOBER 23
Extra Income £2204
Overspend -£103
= £2101 to Aus savings
This means I need to earn or save £300 in November to be on track.
Save £20,000 in 2025. April 2k, May 3.5k4 -
Flippin heck, that's a mighty impressive amount of extra income there!! 😱 Well blithering done!! Hope you get a little bit of a break for a recharge before the next push xx2
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Thanks cheery!I've definitely rested - all day today spent reading and relaxing. Mostly with a cat on my lapI did one hour of tutoring and I've added to my morning and evening money saving lists (things to do at said times to save money/make money).
I was reading the madvix thread and she mentioned olio and it reminded me to check if there was anything I could collect and there were a few healthy bits so I collected them on way back from dropping oh off. Lunch organised for tomorrow and soup items for next weeks lunches.
Tomorrow I hope to be full steam ahead again!
- some banking tasks
- cleaning tasks
- student admin
+ anything else I can get off my list
+ 1 hour tutoringSave £20,000 in 2025. April 2k, May 3.5k4 -
Wow Earthie that’s impressive extra income- well done CM3
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