Turning Straw into Gold: Creating Long Term Security & A Solid Home

liselle

Good thinking.We say at my voluntary roles, we’re quite sure that the powers that be forget that we’re purely volunteers…..So actually, most things are above our pay grade….

MillQueen

I can recommend it @sams247, as I have felt loads better this week and much more relaxed. I'm not sure how long I'll last, because I am, at heart, a person who makes an effort. But even if I just have these occasional periods or perhaps 40% of the time sticking to doing only my actual tasks and not over-involving myself with helping with anything else, I will have a much less stressful life. There are people at work who only do their jobs, nothing more, and they are actually the sensible ones. Good luck being invisible.

Greetings @liselle, our fellow invisible worker, it sounds like you could get away with doing absolutely nothing in that role and the petty side of me thinks it would be fun to try doing as little as you can get away with and seeing how far you can take that. I have had great fun today not going above and beyond. I still did the things that needed doing well enough, I just didn't do anything beyond that like I normally would. It was peaceful.

liselle

Oh well done! Quite hard at first, isn’t it, but I suspect there are quite a few of us now.

Got completely ignored at the hairdresser’s, felt like jumping up on the counter and beating my chest like King Kong……

MillQueen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82038654#Comment_82038654

That would have been entertaining. Although with your evident invisibility super power they may have looked straight through you without even noticing the dramatic display. Tomorrow I might step it up a notch and take my time replying more slowly to emails. Lower the urgency a bit. Take a sip of tea before speaking etc.

MillQueen

In other MSE news, I had an email from the benefits platform at work today, saying we can get free mortgage advice and a whole market comparison 6 months before the mortgage is due for renewal. This is useful and I have put it in my diary to check that out in October when I can start thinking about it.

Reading another free book tonight on Borrowbox, "The Sisters" by Claire Douglas, and deciding whether to have spearmint tea for its calming and hormone balancing benefits, or whether to have a caramel latte sachet for a treat. I bought a box of those when I saw them for cheap, just to keep in, as they feel luxurious.

MillQueen

In work today and I have brought in some powdered milk as a cost effective measure, so that I don't have to keep buying pints of milk and throwing away what doesn't get used. I have sadly gone into my overdraft (by £38), as this month I joined the gym, bought gym and swimwear for that, and a new water flosser. Plus there were some bits of wasted money over the month buying food where I could have eaten what I have.

I am going to have to go on a no-spend rest of month except for putting petrol in the car so that there isn't too much damage, as I don't have anything coming from my self-employed income for a few months.

On another topic, it seems surprisingly common for people to run up debts and disappear, based on the letters that get sent to my house chasing people for unpaid debts. It was a rental house before I bought it and at least 3 previous tenants as well as the landlord all have debts they appear to have left behind here. I am continually returning the letters to sender and thinking I'd be far too anxious to live a life of ignoring debts.

MillQueen

A depressing thing is that in the kitchen there seems to be some damp or water leaking in the ceiling. There was a brown stain on the ceiling of about 10cm, which I thought was just from an old water leak as it looks like it's been previously patched up. I was told by the previous owner that there used to be a separate shower above there (in the bathroom which is above the kitchen), although the shower was already removed and apparently the plumbing still remains in the floor. I only have a bath with integrated shower in a different location now.

The brown stain has now turned green, which does seem to imply it's getting a steady supply of moisture so something must be leaking inside there. This sounds like it will be expensive, as it's all tiled over in the bathroom and probably involves cutting into the kitchen ceiling. I have no money to do this.

MillQueen

Gave my hair a little trim and I am really pleased with how this is going, as I used to pay for a cut and colour every 2 months. As I haven't paid since last April, I have probably saved £800. I've been putting oil on my hair every weekend (whatever I have, sometimes various hair oils from my random collection of hair products, or sometimes just olive oil or whatever I have around at the time). I leave it on there if I have nowhere to be.

As a result, my hair looks in much better health and I haven't spent a fortune.

Incidentally, I also save quite a bit on manicures as I have bitten my nails all my life - money saving tip 🤣.

MillQueen

Cost free joys, I have done some cleaning and tidying - barely managing to stay on top of things because all I do is work, but a bit on a weekend morning is helping me to get back on track and I haven't been doing self-employed work on top of full time work, so I've now had the energy to able to do all of my laundry.

I have made a deal with myself that if I reliably attend the gym and make the most of the membership and make some healthier choices with my diet, I will buy myself a couple of new dresses next year. I have written this in my diary next year to check back in with myself in June 2027, so that will be a nice surprise then.

I've been mostly on a clothes buying ban since last April when I bought the house. This improved my cash flow, as all I have bought over the past year is a dress in a charity shop, which was good value at £3 and I wear it a lot of the time at work and get compliments on it being a nice dress. I also got a couple of pairs of leggings to replace ones that had holes in them, as these are an everyday item, and I got two reduced price thermal under tops and a cheap middle-aisle jacket, which will be good to stay warm in the winter. These will pay for themselves in saved heating costs. The only recent spend was £30 on those couple of items I needed for the gym. I used to fritter away a lot of money on clothes, makeup and getting my hair done, but that's better now. I'm doing an "only one item" approach, where I have one pair of work shoes and one pair of gym shoes, one work bag, one gym bag etc, rather than having loads of different versions. I stopped buying makeup and toiletries and am using up what I have (I track that on the "buying no toiletries" challenge on here now). As a result, the clutter feels easier to manage and when an item gets worn out, I shop around for a low cost, long-lasting one to replace it.

No more clothes expenditure until next year now, so let's see what I can achieve with the gym 😎

MillQueen

Had a nice time at the gym. I've got feel good endorphins and a happy feeling peaceful body now. It really makes a difference to my ability to get things done as well. Popped into the shop to see what was in the yellow sticker section and got multiseed rolls, mushrooms, tenderstem carrots, bag of kale, semi skimmed milk, 2 x Pizza Express pizzas, Richmond meat free sausages, and a medium chicken for less than a tenner.

I prefer to eat vegetarian but sometimes I have a couple of meat dishes every now and then. I have put the chicken straight in the oven and it will last a few days in sandwiches and with pasta etc. Need to be able to prepare some food over the next couple of days, so hopefully the motivation will last or at least return quickly if it disappears. I keep thinking that a lot of stuff even in the yellow sticker section still seems expensive now.