Getting back to frugal ways in 2023 and beyond to reach my future goals

Betharooni

Hi

Have been away from MSE for a couple of years and probably spent a lot of that time frittering my money. Am wanting to get back on track so figured a shiny new diary was a good place to start.

I’ll tell you a little about myself - I’m 36 and I currently live at home with my Mum and older brother. I work full time in a management position in an Accounts Payable team, working part of my time from home and part of my time in the office in London. I live in Kent. I currently have no debt but am burning through what savings I’ve had at quite a speed so need to get my finances back on track and get building up those savings again.

Finance-wise my Mum pays all of the bills for the house, I just pay a small amount of rent to her and then the rest of my money goes on my own personal outgoings, so I am fairly free to mess around with this as I need to reach my goals.

This year I’ve spent a lot of time and money going to conventions for some TV shows that I love, this is something that will continue into next year as well. Also hanging over me finance-wise is a future possibility that my Mum, who is in her 70s, is considering gifting the house that she owns outright to my brothers and I so the main part of our inheritance is dealt with prior to her death, but the brother that I live with and I would then have to get a mortgage to give my other brothers their portion of the house value. So I assume I would need to consider saving towards a deposit for that as well.

My intention is to look at what I can use up of what I already own, what free (or already paid/paying for) ways I can spend my time outside of the conventions I will be going to and trying to declutter my house, mind and body.

I'm currently trying to lose weight with Slimming World and have already lost 2.5 stone since the beginning of the year; however I still have around 6+ stone to lose to get to my target weight. I have a gym membership which I do use but not enough and I’m doing swimming lessons as well, which will hopefully help me make better use of my membership as well. I’m also planning to increase the amount of walking I do and am in training (kind of) for a 25km walk later this year.

The house I live in has been owned by my parents for almost 35 years and therefore has almost 35 years of accumulated clutter in it. We are working to clear some of this out as the house is starting to close in on us. My Mum is getting increasingly infirm as she gets older so clearing as much of the rubbish as possible will make it easier for her to get around.

Both my Mum and I are keen crafters and have built up substantial stashes of wool, card making stuff, cross-stitches, rug-making, sewing, diamond art and more so a priority will be working through that stuff. I have already started knitting some scarves for charity to use up some of our wool oddments.  I also have a substantial toiletries stash so need to work out what I have and how I can use that up.

So, first things first, I think I will spend time this week getting my toiletries stuff together so I can list exactly what I have and make a plan to use this up. I also want to make a more focused decluttering plan so think I will spend some time listing what things I want to do so I can cross off the list, which might help motivate me a bit more. I also need to do a finance review and see how I can make my money work a bit better for me.

I plan to update this diary at least once a week, more if I can.

Any bits of advice and guidance anyone can provide will be gratefully taken on board, as I restructure my finances to enable me to enjoy my upcoming conventions but also focus on building up those pesky savings.

B x

Betharooni

Hi

Been a reasonably quiet week as have not been very well but have a handful of frugalling wins:

• Budget created for August as I get paid on Monday-have a tiny bit of wiggle room but should be achievable.
• Regular saver opened to save some money towards deposit that I will also save money in for holiday to US for convention next August.
• Monzo account opened as saving account offerings are better than the accounts I previously had and I like the saving pot options-have spent time naming my savings pots and should allow me to do kind of virtual cash envelopes, which will work better for me than actual cash envelopes would.
• £7.67 made and cashed out in just over a week on Prolific Academic, with a further £3.01 pending.
• 1 complete scarf made using spare wool, a 2nd scarf is three-quarters done. Still have a ridiculous amount of spare wool left as well so can probably get at least another two scarves done from it.
• Made a start on updating my toiletries list and immediately found something I thought I’d run out of, so that was handy. Still a depressingly large amount to go through but doing it all very slowly.
• £5 Asda voucher I got for joining the app and doing one shop used for shopping today.
• Have been reading through missed posts on Frugal Living Challenge from last year and a half for general inspiration.

Plans for this coming week are to finish going through toiletries and updating list, to sort out some footwear I don’t want so I can offer them to my sister-in-law who is same shoe size, continue with the scarf knitting and to sort through some of the rubbish in my room and see what I can shorten down on. Also I have a handful of books to get rid of and possibly some CDs and DVDs so might get them together either this week or next and see if I can make any money from them. Also I have loads of sewing stuff in a set of drawers that I no longer want so want to see about emptying those so I can get rid of the drawers. Also need my mum to offer a dolls cot which I’ve had since I was about 4 or 5 (so over 30 years) back to my uncle who made it for his grandchildren - have offered it to my brothers for their kids but not interested and it is taking up space in our house that we need. If he doesn’t want it will probably try to sell it. Also have a dolls pram that’s a couple of years younger so will prob try to sell that-it’s still in exceptional condition for its age.

Well that should all be plenty to be getting on with this week and hopefully will come back with a few more frugal wins next week…

B x

Doris17

Hi, 

Well done on making a start on the decluttering. I used to have a large amount of toiletries, been working my way through them for the last year. I keep the products that I am using on my bathroom windowsill, them one is used I replace, I find because they are on the windowsill I am using them, if they are behind a cupboard door they tend to get forgotten about. I set myself targets to declutter each week, my next one is make-up and nail vanish.
Monzo pots are great, love send money over on payday or when I have cashed out from something. Good luck with selling you items.

D.x

Betharooni

Hi

Well this has not been a particularly productive week. Have been off ill from work and generally feeling pretty rubbish so not a huge amount done. However I have achieved the following:

• Monies moved as per budget and making use of my Monz0 money pots to separate out money for specific expenses.
• Have had interest increases already on two of the savings accounts I opened with Monz0, and am enjoying seeing the monthly interest accrued detailed on there.
• £5.17 cashed out on Prolific with further £5.93 pending atm.
• 2nd and 3rd scarves completed, 80% through 4th scarf, might be giving two of them to two of my nieces as they spied them last weekend and asked for them but the ends hadn’t been sewn in then. All sewn now and they will be back over on Friday so will let them pick one each to have, if they are still interested. Bless them, they really love hand-knitted and crocheted stuff still  Still probably enough wool for at least two scarves, possibly more.
• Have caught up on all but two of the bookmarked pages I have on MSE and have been rather inspired.
• Have earned £3 more Asda reward vouchers so might make use of those on my next shop.

Have not really done any of my decluttering jobs that I’d planned for last week, so they are all back on the list for this week. Also need to find old phone and will be trying to unlock that and sell it for some extra funds for my savings.

Aiming to sort out getting pictures so I can order passport as existing one expires in the not too distant future and I have a couple of foreign trips booked for next year. I have enough money in the budget to get it done this month so want to get moving with it.

Welcome @Doris17, like you I’ll probably start setting targets of stuff to get using once I have updated my lists so I know what I actually have. Make up I am reasonably on top of to be honest as wear it all regularly for work but it’s just everything else lol. It should all keep me going for ages though…

B x

[Deleted User]

With gifting the house you have to check the legal implications. If your mother was to need future care gifting the house to children beforehand could be considered deprivation of assets. This could also be the case for future benefits. Just saying check it out.

CRANKY40

[Deleted User] said:

With gifting the house you have to check the legal implications. If your mother was to need future care gifting the house to children beforehand could be considered deprivation of assets. This could also be the case for future benefits. Just saying check it out.

That was my first thought too. It's more likely to be "will be" rather than "could be" if your mum needs to be looked after in a residential setting for any reason. In this instance the council can force a house sale so the two of you that live there could end up with a debt (if you've financed to give others a "share") and nowhere to live. 

Betharooni

Hi @[Deleted User] and @CRANKY40

Yes, in my further reading about this I have seen that is a possibility. When Mum finally tries to sort everything out, she will be seeking legal advice before she makes a choice either way. I think if she needed additional care, I would probably quit work to provide it rather than her going into a home, unless there was some reason that I couldn’t provide her with the care she needed. All stuff to be looked into further but doesn’t hurt to start saving just in case.

Thanks for the input.

B x

MatyMoo

Another thing to consider with gifting the three of you the home is you would all lose your first property buyer advantages. Definitely more research needed. 

However if you and a brother want to raise a joint mortgage to buy your other brother out you probably won’t need a deposit. Two thirds of the property would act as a deposit. 

Betharooni

Hi all

Thanks for your comments re the prospect of my Mum gifting the house to me and my older brother. You’ve given me a lot to think about and I have relayed some of it to my Mum as well. As I said it is being pondered as a possible option for some point in the future and we will get legal advice before we do anything but it never hurts to save money for the possibility of it, does it?

The last week has not been hugely productive as I am still ill (stupid migraines) but I have managed a few money saving tidbits:

• Another £6.73 cashed out from Prolific and a further £8.48 awaiting approval.
• 4th and 5th scarf completed, and 6th one cast on today.
• I had bought some wool for a jumper for me a few months ago and have decided to make a Xm4s jumper with it. All oddments of wool for the design sourced from the bag of spare wool that I have been using to do the scarves so nothing had to be bought for it, which I’m really pleased about.
• Have been looking for a particular bed socks pattern for a while ready for the winter as my current bed socks must be at least 20+ years old (they were knitted by my Nan and she passed away 18 years ago) and are getting rather threadbare and, while decluttering some unwanted knitting patterns with my Mum which we will be donating to a local charity shop, I managed to find the exact pattern I was looking for. We have enough spare wool that I should be able to make at least a pair, maybe two, over the coming weeks, without having to buy anything more to make them.
• I had been thinking about getting a nice photo album to hold my convention photos (which can be up to 10”x8”) so not practical for a normal photo album and I wanted a slip in album as the sticky ones can cause damage to the photos over time - the ones I had been looking at were about £20 but were being shipped from the US so with import fees on top, would have been rather expensive. Instead I managed to find an A4 folder that you can add sleeves to but that should fit what I want perfectly for £3.75 so a hefty saving. Not a perfect option but much better than I had been considering.
• I have been pondering Xm4s presents for family (I only buy for my 3 nieces and nephew and my Mum, after following Martin’s no unnecessary presents speech and discussing with my siblings and their partners-saved me a small fortune) - my niece is really into crafting so I am thinking of making her up a crafting box (with personalised labelling using Cricut machine) and giving her several different new crafts to try, with “vouchers” for lessons on those craft processes with me. I also have a couple of books for these crafts that I had been thinking of selling but they won’t get me very much from the book selling apps and they would be perfect to include in that. So that will form part of her present I think.
• Mum has offered the dolls cot (mentioned previously) to my uncle who originally made it and he doesn’t want it so I am free to sell it - need to get it out and give it a bit of a clean and photograph it ready to try to sell.
• Unwanted photo frame successfully sold so the proceeds from that, when I receive them, will be going to my convention savings for next month - I have paid for the convention and have enough money put aside for the hotel room but have found out I have to pay a daily charge for parking so am trying to make the money to cover that from Prolific, selling stuff and round ups on my Monz0 account when I buy anything.
• Am still currently within budget for the month though I still have a couple of things to buy, but am hopeful that I will end the month slightly below budget.

Still not done several of my decluttering/organising/selling tasks that I had set myself but planning to spend some time on some of those tomorrow and Sunday. Have made a list and will see what I can clear of them.

B x

Betharooni

Hi all

A slightly better week, frugality-wise, this week, though am still suffering with this blasted migraine  , but I have still achieved the following:

• £7.47 cashed out on Prolific with a further £3.69 pending approvals.
• Sold old iPhone X, which I replaced earlier this year, to Mu5ic Magp1e and got £120 for it, which I was extremely happy with.
• Started collecting together some unwanted books, etc, for WeBuyB0oks, am hoping I might get something around the £20/25 mark at least - have scanned about a third to half of them and got around £15 so far - will see about sorting out some of the other bits tomorrow and then get that sent off at the beginning of the week.
• Cleared a boot full of stuff to the tip today and took a bag into one of the local charity shops this week, so decluttering slowly continuing. Am hoping to get some more stuff to the tip next weekend as am then busy for the following three weekends - need to confirm with my brother that he’s happy for us to go again next week…
• 6th scarf finished, which is going to be my lot as far as the scarf knitting goes - babysat my two littlest nieces today and they have each picked a scarf so there will be 4 to go to our local foodbank. Have also done 3 matinee jackets with some leftover baby wool in my stash and a pair of bootees for the foodbank bag. Will take those up there sometime this week so they can pass them out as needed over the coming weeks/months.
• Further wool stash used up by my mum making lap blankets for those two nieces, which they also took with them today. Also have knitted a pair of bed socks using the wool stash ready for the winter and have a second pair on the needles at the moment, the first pair still need to be sewn up and have the ties made. Most recently an appeal has come out for baby hats for a local hospital so my mum and I have also been knitting some of those to continue using up my baby wool stash. Am still working on the Xm4s jumper but that is more complicated so requires a lot more concentration than I’m able to give sometimes.
• Made a start on going through my toiletries but that has stalled as can’t get to cupboard that most of them are in, will clear some space over the coming days and see what I have.
• Managed to earn £7.56 is my Mr As cash pot this week so that will come in handy for my next shop there.
• With payday looming on Thursday, I think I might JUST come in under budget, probably only by a couple of pounds. Am going to try a slightly different budgeting strategy for the upcoming month that I’ve read about in another diary on the DFW boards so will see how that works. Will get that in motion as soon as I get my payslip which I would expect I should get on Tuesday.

Less frugally:

• September will be an extremely tight month budget wise I would expect - am going to a convention towards the end of the month up in Birmingham but should have enough in my convention savings to cover most of that (particularly with a refund still forthcoming for a cancelled photo op as guest is no longer attending). However also staying up in London in two weekends time as am meeting up with some friends on the Friday, doing a 25km walk on the Saturday and going to a concert on Sunday. The main costs for all of that have been paid but will have to budget for meals etc while I’m up there. Am strategising what stuff I can take with me to minimise what I will have to pay out that weekend.
• I have got digital passport photo and submitted my passport application this week, old passport posted on Friday via Special Delivery. Am hoping that it won’t take them too long after they receive my old passport on Tuesday, but have got a while before I go abroad again so no panic.

All-in-all I’m pretty happy with this week and am hoping I can keep my money-saving momentum going over the coming weeks with everything I have coming up.

Well done if you’ve read this far, sorry for the ridiculously long post today.

B x

Betharooni

Hi

Bit of a meh week all round but have managed a handful of frugalities and other successes:

• £5.21 cashed out from Prolific and further £2.73 pending. Not really had a huge amount of surveys come up when I’ve gone on there last week but hoping for a better week this coming week.
• £8 of rewards cashed out from RM postal surveys, which I got as PayPal vouchers which have been transferred to my savings now. They don’t need me to actually do anything for the surveys at the moment but as long as I log in to my account once a month I will keep accruing rewards so that really cool to get something for nothing there.
• Have put together a box for WeBuyB0oks which they collected on Tuesday - as long as they accept everything in there I should be getting £33.41 which is not bad for a load of unwanted books.
• I went through a load of books with my Mum a few days ago - not much that could be sold but loads that she doesn’t want so will get those bagged and off to the charity shop in the next few days which will declutter a little more.
• Managed to just come in on budget last month, literally by a couple of pound. Goodness only knows whether I’ll come in within my budget this month - too many unknowns I think so need to just try to be as frugal as I can where I’m able and see what happens elsewhere.

Am hoping to get out in my garden for an hour or two tomorrow as it is full of weeds. Want to try to fill my brown bin and get that out for collection again this week. Still need to plan next tip run with DB1 as he will need to help break down some of the wood before we go to the tip so it fits comfortably in my car. We also have a compost bin to rejig and also need to empty and break up a mini-shed which is falling apart. Will see if I can get some assistance with a few of these bits over the next few days while we have a few days of nice weather forecast.

Also planned for this week is to drop some donations off up to our local high street, some more decluttering around the house (hopefully), making a phone call to chase up some missing money on my travel money card, stocktaking the freezers, cupboards and fridge, and packing ahead of going away for the weekend next week.

Fingers crossed this week will feel like a better week and I can make some strides forward but spend as little as possible while I’m doing it.

B x