Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

girlatplay

Beach trip sounds lovely and relaxing.

Is it MnS the other vouchers are from too?  I remember getting £40 MnS vouchers as a leaving gift from a job I hated (think they hated me too haha).  I was poor at the time and spent it all on a grocery shop.  All mns basics and yellow stickers.  We ate pretty well that week.

savingholmes

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan

The vouchers I'm waiting for are MnS too. I still need to ring mns but probably should start work now if I don't want to get too behind!

I've been re-listening to a book called the £ or your life - and it talks about life energy as being what we exchange for £. One way to keep better control of said £ is to write down every spend - I'd find that very difficult - but that would then encourage reduced spending so less to track. She says we should then mark at the end of the month whether we felt it was worth the life energy it took to buy it without blame or judgment - in a mindful way.

She has a way of calculating life energy too - as your hourly wage minus commute, special work clothes, childcare, transport to work, lunches at work, any time stressing about work etc. It's in the context of financial independence - and that it's more achievable than we think - if we save / invest and reduce our spend on unnecessary items. 

I'm going to try and track my spends better as my spends are creeping up - particularly at Am**** and HB and BnM. Yet an extra £20 every month that I consistently send to my mortgage or save over the term reduces my mortgage by 6 months. When I set my budget post divorce I put in some 'entitled to' type fun spends which is well and good - but I want to make sure I get the most value from them. My house is still overflowing with stuff - so I want to try and give myself a shopping hiatus - and just focus on essentials for the coming month. Don't worry - I'm still planning fun - I need to use my NT card and go out more. Then in September I hope to go down South and see DS. I'd rather save my £ for those kind of experiences... than have it go out my life without knowing to where. 

I've also come back from my mini-break wanting to recommit to my diet. I've rung up to see if I can get another free code for SW and am awaiting a call back. I've also chased £5.25 that never arrived from £co - they've said they have reissued them but they aren't in my inbox yet. 

savingholmes

Just read about the latest price cap increases!! Predicting £4.2K by Jan!!! The article I read said gov asleep at the wheel! Martin called them a zombie gov. This is completely unreal! Given that elec is supposed to be largely generated by renewable energy - they should at least decouple renewable energy from these kind of prices like Spain and Portugal have. It's crazy. How are people on fixed incomes supposed to cope or the so called average family or young person? Serious belt tightening for many and over the edge for others. Something has to change. Neither of the two candidates seem to be offering any workable solutions - it's like two children shouting at one another - well I'll do this, so what I'll do the other - without moving the debate forward in any meaningful way. They need to wake up to what voters want not just those with membership of their party!! My heart breaks for all those who will be forced into debt or made homeless due to lack of targetted help.

Having said that - I mentioned hanging out my washing recently to my mum and that I was considering a rotary airer and she just gaped at me. 'You hang out washing?' I replied, 'Everyone will be soon at these prices!!' I don't understand how some people are so slow to grasp what's going on energy wise - and climate wise - and that we have to change our habits if we want a financial future - and to provide a world fit for future generations. We have to reduce consumption - of energy - and of other stuff.

I don't get the BOE logic of raising mortgage rates when the crisis is caused by conflict and energy and fuel price rises - and food availability issues again partly due to conflict and climate. It isn't due to us just over-spending on non-essentials so how is that helping? Grateful I have a fixed mortgage but still.

lucielle

My favourite house work job is pegging the washing out.  Told the hairdresser this and you'd have thought I suggested eating small children for breakfast!!
L

jwil

It is so worrying, and even more terrifying that the Govt just blatantly don't care.  They are obviously rolling in the extra tax moneys.  It should be a no brainer to decouple electricity from gas prices, it would help incentivise the switch to renewables.  Also they should have done more about support for insulating homes.  It would help protect against the heat as well as the cold, reduce consumption and save people money.  All at relatively low cost!

I also hang washing out as much as I can.  It probably dries quicker on the line than in the tumble drier at the moment anyway.

LadyWithAPlan

I cant hang out my washing as I have no outdoor space so I have old fashioned air dryers.
I dont have a tumble dryer only a washing machine so ..

I have said to my mum already I will send them some cash for the utilities if they need, she said she ok at moment but my parents are on a fixed income and not a great one so I can spare a few hundred £ a month over winter  towards their food if it saves her worry.

As I am going to the gym and a swim most days I am showering at the gym so that will save me cash in the winter  But terrible indeed all the people on the fuel poverty line.
This Tory govt has been a succession of idiots with no sense of the population's real needs between partygate, brexit and the current inflation I am not sure how anyone could have governed worse.

I hear you on the spends, the life energy book sounds interesting to try for say a month.
The cc cards are hard as easy to just add stuff. Cos I am waiting to be paid I did put a couple of work things on there - so I can see its gone up - so annoying. However I am sending money over to card from my pots as I spend to whittle it down.

badmemory

They can cut taxes as much as they like but if you don't pay much tax anyway it really is not going to help.  If the annual bill is going up by £1000 (an underestimate) that means an increase in allowances of £5k & that is not going to happen.  Cutting tax will just help the better off, so nothing new there then.  It might help if they removed VAT off everything you HAD to buy, but if you can't buy much then much less of what you buy will have VAT on it, except tinned food of course, which could help.

Thank goodness for pre-retirement savings which will help me ride the storm & for deferring my state pension which means it is much more survivable.  If it is a worry for me I dread to think of how worried some people must be.

Honeysucklelou2

Hope you are continuing to enjoy your beach trip SH. There is something wonderful about swimming in the sea. Hoping for an evening beach trip myself!

Well done on all you are continuing to achieve, especially the weight loss and the making your home your own. You continue to be an inspiration!

doingitanyway

Washing drying on a line is a beautiful thing to me. It saves energy and the planet and smells divine. Whats not to like?

FlacosFloozie

I get sadly excited when its a warm breezy day- can get multiple loads dried outside.