Second Time Lucky

amycool · 28 July 2014 at 9:37AM

After watching Jacques Peretti's series, "The Men Who Made us Spend" over the past few weeks, it got me thinking. I've never been a big spender, but I have noticed that as I have become older and more content with my life my urge to spend has diminished to almost nothing.

As a child we would spend hours looking at catalogues and thinking about what we would buy if we had the money. Then as a teenager I went through a stage of buying "stuff" and collecting things, before realising that it was mostly tat and wasn't making me any happier. Looking through my old spreadsheets (I've kept them since 2003!!) I find that a few years ago I stopped buying things and switched to experiences like gig tickets or items for hobbies like yarn and plants.

So far this year (out of my £70 a month frivolous spending budget) I have spent a grand total of £46.57 on things for myself!! :rotfl:This included a pair of running shoes in the sale, top-up for my mobile phone, and stamps. I probably could have got away with putting the latter two in different columns! In comparison, I have spent £327.35 on gifts and £24 in charitable donations.

I spoke to my husband about it and he feels the same. Neither of us can understand that feeling of needing a smartphone or getting very excited over a pair of shoes. I suppose partly it might be that we have become a little wiser but I like to think that we're just a whole lot happier.

amycool · 28 July 2014 at 9:43AM

Just checked the bank account and something odd has happened! My OH has been paid £250 more than usual!!! Either:
a) there has been a glitch and we'll have to pay it back
b) he was owed some expenses that we'd forgotten about
c) he's had a huge payrise and nobody thought to tell him

Please let it be C!!!!!!

in_need_of_direction · 28 July 2014 at 8:09PM

Even b would do.

Supadupa · 29 July 2014 at 2:54PM

Hi Amycool,

I look forward to following your journey. Did you get to the bottom of the mystery overpayment of salary? Its always a nice surprise when things like that happen-I get excited when I find a tenner in a pocket that I had forgotten about. Actually that happens more often when I'm emptying DHs pockets for the wash but still....

I'm going to be following your planting with interest, I've just finally got around to building a planter for the garden and filling it with soil. I have some seeds for beetroot, broccoli, carrots and errrr....sunflowers (not that we'll be eating those!) I have no clue what I'm doing though so please pass on any tips you get!

Goldiegirl · 29 July 2014 at 10:00PM

Hello, just been reading your diary,

I think you've got a good balance between overpaying, home improvements and things for the house, and 'experiences'

We're gradually expanding our fruit and vegetable growing. We're currently growing in pots on the patio, but hope to move on to a raised bed next year.

Good luck with your plans.

amycool · 30 July 2014 at 6:14AM

I've been awake since 4.30am so decided to just get up! I don't start work until 10 today - very annoying!

So, was it a, b or c? It was d!!

The payslip says something about a travel allowance. My OH found nothing about this in his work info but apparently George Osborne came up with the idea. We're still not 100% sure how it works so I've asked him (OH, not George Osborne) to ask payroll. Don't want them to ask for it back after it is spent!

I must admit I was really hoping it was a backdated pay rise but I'm happy to take a free £250.:D.

In veg plot news, I made a plan based on 4ftx8ft (not sure exactly how big the garden is yet) and next I need to check that it will work. Some plants take lots of nitrogen so I don't want them next to each other. I've put various herbs in too - some that we use in cooking and some that are good for insects.

Supadupa - the sunflowers will be great for bees and look amazing so worth growing for those reasons alone!

I love sunflowers and I like the idea of having pretty plants amongst the veg. From my experience of gardening, my tip would be to expect a lot of failures and then be surprised when things grow. :rotfl: I always make the mistake of planting out too early and everything gets frost damaged or wind damaged or slug eaten! This year would have been great for a first year as it's been so warm.

Goldiegirl - thanks for posting. I'm trying very hard to find a nice balance now. I have a chronic illness that gradually gets worse so I've always been very mindful of the prospect of unemployment, but now my husband has a fairly steady well-paid job (after 10 years at uni!) the pressure is off a bit. I'll never be a "live for the day" kind of person as it's not in my nature but equally I don't want to waste the health I have. It works fairly well as I can't do a lot of expensive things anyway!:D. Long haul flights, scuba diving, sky diving - all out!

We did sweet corn, courgettes and tomatoes in pots last year but it's nice to have something a bit more permanent.

It's almost normal waking up time now. No idea how I'll get through work...yesterday was insanely busy!

amycool · 1 August 2014 at 9:08AM

Went to sign the contracts yesterday so hopefully exchanging early next week. I can't really be a MFW until I get the new mortgage. :-)

Did some home insurance comparisons which ranged from £180 to £68 if you count cash back. We paid something like £130 this year so I'd be very happy with the lower amount!

I was tempted to switch phone/internet providers but we've opted to stick with the one we're on in the hope that we'll be back on-line quicker. OH sometimes works from home so can't cope without it!

Had an expensive but lovely day yesterday. Drove 25 miles to a beautiful spot in Yorkshire where we hired a bike (I took my folding one) for £13. Car park £4.70. Ice cream and a can £3.90. :-) Well worth it for the silence and did 18 miles so feeling fitter today!

amycool · 2 August 2014 at 2:26PM

Feeling ever so slightly (massively) stressed at the prospect of moving house. Spent the morning boxing more stuff up and taking yet more stuff to the charity shop/tip. Then we decided to bring the big scary heavy bits of furniture downstairs as we don't want to be doing it on the day. The 1930s wardrobe wasn't as bad as expected but the sofabed was horrendous! We ended up getting wedged in at the bottom of the stairs and OH had to dismantle it whilst I held it up. How we originally got it upstairs in one piece is a mystery. Everywhere is a total mess but I'm now too tired to do anything about it. I think tomorrow I need to get on top of everything. I suppose the worst thing that can happen is that we take all day to load up the van and spend another day unloading it, which isn't that bad. It'll be worth it once we're in.

In mortgage news, my old mortgage is now at £7411.29 and of the £458.65 payment only £34.54 was interest. £1.11 a day. It's almost painful to think that next month that will be about 5 times larger!!

In good news, I realised I had miscalculated (hopefully) how much we'll have left after all the fees have been paid. It's the second big spreadsheet mistake I have made in the past few months (forgot about the ISA last time!) - I must be more careful! At least I was overestimating costs rather than underestimating.

amycool · 2 August 2014 at 2:54PM

Now I have all the numbers in for July, I am flabberghasted at our grocery spend!

There's just the two of us so we normally spend somewhere around £130 a month for food, toiletries, cleaning supplies etc. However, after deciding to eat more healthily the total for this month was £164.52! And that doesn't include some fruit that I bought with my own money.

I suppose the question is whether the extra fruit and veg is worth £35 a month to us. We also had slightly more waste than usual as things went off before we could eat them.

I know lots of people on MSE do meal plans and it saves them both money and waste, so perhaps it would be worth a try. It's tricky because my OH is the resident cook and he rather likes making it up as he goes along so doesn't like the restriction of a plan. Perhaps we could have 3 days planned each week to start with and see how it goes?

Of course, once we get the veg plot going we'll be fine!

Could do with looking at the best way to store things too. We had a small pantry in the new house so if we could get some of those wooden slatted pallet things the fruit and veg would almost definitely keep better than in a plastic bag.

amycool · 4 August 2014 at 1:52PM

Went to see the new house this morning.

Feeling very excited now and cannot wait to exchange. There should definitely be room for a good sized veg plot in the front, although I'll feel a bit bad about destroying the perfect lawn!

The garage roof is reinforced with metal struts so I imagine it should easily cope with the weight of a sedum roof.

The bathroom is smaller than I remembered. I don't envy whoever we get in to tile it.

Second Time Lucky

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