The turtle moves.... slowly

astrocytic_kitten

Thank you @Merlin's_beard (every time I read your name I hear it in the voice of Stephen Fry reading the HP audiobook!) and @savingholmes, you’re both very kind. My health tends to get a wee bit worse at this time of year, so as you say I’ve just got to do what I can do to get through.

I’m slightly inundated with balance transfer and credit card and loan offers at the moment, kind of ironic since when I was paying off debt and trying to consolidate or balance transfer nobody would touch me 😂 out of interest I did a pre-check on a card offer my bank sent today for 24 months at 0% purchase, they’d give me a 7k limit, which is around what I’m hoping to save up over the next couple of years for some more flat work. 

If I was feeling more secure in my health and my job I’d be very tempted to take it now, get the work done in the next few months, and pay it off at 0% over the next couple of years. And with inflation who knows how much the same job will cost by the time I have the money. I’m definitely not going for it though - partly because I need a break from the upheaval of work getting done (especially planning/organising/sorting people to do the work) and partly because I’d just lie awake and stress about not being able to pay it back with the way the economy is. A sensible and risk adverse financial decision, who’d have thought it 😂

savingholmes

Sounds a good call. With iffy health you don't need £ stress on top. 

astrocytic_kitten

I’m sitting listening to an audiobook on my phone by candlelight as part of the Octopus savings session today, and it’s actually very relaxing and peaceful! I don’t use much electricity at this time normally so I’m not really expecting to get money back (if any) as it’s based on average use, but candlelight and an audiobook and no other distractions is surprisingly nice, I’ll need to do it more often. One of those things that’s lovely as a choice but not when it’s imposed upon you by poverty. The savings session is from 5-6 so shortly I’ll put the porch light on so I can call one of the cats in for his dinner, he’s normally in by now and I’m wondering if the dark house has confused him 😂

Other than that, I’m just plodding along trying to get as much rest as possible. I’m about halfway through the birthdays and Christmas shopping I’ll need for the next couple of months, and hoping to start writing Christmas cards next week so I can get them posted in early December rather than the 20th like normal!

savingholmes

Hopefully we will all learn to be more energy efficient this year! Good if you get rewarded for it too.

astrocytic_kitten

So far I’ve done 2 savings sessions SH, and not received any points at all - turns out that I normally use very little electricity in the evening (and I’m a low user generally), so minimal savings were registered with me sitting by candlelight v sitting with a lamp and the radio, on before going to bed at my normal stupidly early time 🤣 

Sitting by candlelight is a very nice and relaxing thing to do though. Anyway, I’ve hopefully finished my Christmas shopping (depends on the supermarket having some chocolates I’ve ordered as part of my next order in stock) and I’ve got into a real muddle with ynab. I’ll need to wait until the first of the month DDs have gone out to untangle what’s wrong - I imagine I’ve forgotten to transfer money from one account to another to cover things, and I’ve also borrowed from December’s gifts budget to cover spending this month, but it’ll be much easier to sort once the bulk of the monthly expenses have gone out of the account.

I need to get into a properly skint mindset now. I feel like I’ve been saying that for 3 months with no real progress, but I’m really noticing that with price rises there’s just not as much slack to cover things as there used to be. I’m very lucky that I’m not going to be deciding between heating or eating or struggling to pay bills, but I do need to be more mindful and stop buying random plants and books.

South_coast

Eon have offered me two sessions to try and incentivise me to cut my usage - both for times I'm normally out of the house 🤦‍♀️! The first one I didn't opt into because I got the dates wrong, this week's one I did opt in, wasn't at home, and funnily enough missed my target! Turns out it's tricky to use less than (almost) nothing 🤣!

I eagerly await an invite to a time when I'll actually be at home....🤔

astrocytic_kitten

I must admit I’ve started to wonder if I should run the washing machine at the same time each week so if there’s ever a saving session at that time I’ll be able yo actually make some savings 😂

I also have high hopes that I’ll soon reach Target 1 in the nectar count up to Christmas 🤣 I don’t spend much at Sainsbury’s but I’ve managed to get through past challenges quite easily, have given up hope for hitting the points for this one but would at least like the first lot of bonus points…

Merlin's_Beard

If you find a way to stop yourself buying random books, please do share. All I've ever managed to do is to turn a charity shop £2 book habit into a 99p kindle habit.

astrocytic_kitten

I also have a terrible 99p kindle book habit, despite reading a lot of library ebooks, having an audiobook subscription, and already having an entire shelf of unread paperbacks at home. Not to mention the TWO HUNDRED unread books on my kindle, which is a lot of 99p deals 🤦‍♀️

In my defence, the vast majority of the kindle books were bought in the mindlessly racking up debt days. I have a much better ratio of actually reading the books I’ve bought in the past few years. I’d really like to get the unread number down because it’s embarrassing, but there’s so many other books I want to read more, and so many new books I want to read coming out all the time…

savingholmes

I switched to digital a few years ago as books were taking over the house - and I am at over 500 audio books, similar for kindle - and that's despite mostly using KU!

Good luck with your spending cut back plans...