Spending Update

So, yesterday was payday - how did I do?

Due to an admin oversight at work I have been underpaid for some time, last payday was my first at the correct rate so I immediately transferred the extra (£130) over to my savings to start me off at what I have been living on.

I stuck to buying one Pret hot chocolate a week (although I didn't say no if someone else offered to buy one!!), my one lunch out and my one takeaway.  On weeks where I was going out for dinner I ditched the takeaway altogether.

The meal planning worked brilliantly (thanks Jo at http://simplybeingmum.com) up until this week! I didn't make the effort last weekend to plan properly. I went to visit my Auntie straight from work on Weds and didn't want to take my empty lunch box so told myself it was OK to get lunch out! I won dinner out on Thursday night and used the same lunch box excuse! Friday I went to dinner at my Mums and as it was payday decided it was OK to treat myself to lunch again. Bit of a failure there but the rest of the month I was really good. The food shopping is also being supplemented by my allotment now which is producing lettuce, radishes, broad beans, marrows, beetroot and rhubarb, and the tomato plants on my balcony are also now producing fruit. The onions, shallots and garlic will also be ready soon. I have been including all this in my meal plans as it would be such a dreadful shame to let all the hard work in producing it go to waste!

I haven't bought ANYTHING from eBay, nada, nothing, zilch - and that is a BIG thing for me so I'm chuffed with myself. I have however been listing and selling things and the money I've made is going into a separate pot!

Of the events that were coming up that I was thinking about I booked two of the three, sacrificing a slightly cheaper one for a more expensive one rather than doing all three.

Now I'm not quite sure what I expected on the money side of this experiment but at the end of the month although the bank account was bare it wasn't overdrawn! Normally my standing order that goes into my savings goes through but then I end up transferring most of it back! This month the extra went through as did the normal monthly one and it stayed there!! I clear my wallet out every night of everything except £1 coins and notes. I have one terramundi for £2 coins, one for 50ps, a unicorn money box that a good friend of mine painted for me that gets the 20ps and an oversize whiskey bottle that gets the 10ps, 2ps and 1ps (my Mum gets the 5ps!). This month I still cleared out but put everything in a cup to count at the end of the month to see how much was there. The grand total £26.03. I also had £30 left in my wallet.

So a total of £216.03 has gone into savings (not including eBay sales) and I might put the £30 from my wallet in there too - that's nearly £250!! Go me!!

I'm going to do even better this month! The eBay, hot chocolate, lunch out and takeaway policy will stay the same. I am out for dinner tonight and away tomorrow and Monday so that will involve some spending but I'm not going to go mad. I don't think there are any events on the horizon at the moment to book for and I have another payday before I go on holiday.

So the challenge - can I bank more than £250 at the end of this month - come back and find out!!!

My New Mantra

Have nothing in your houses that
you do not know to be useful, or
believe to be beautiful.
- William Morris

PayDay Challenge

So, this secret plan of mine isn't getting very far (as expected!). One of the obstacles is money (isn't it always?) so I have set myself a challenge as it's payday today. This month (that's my pay month which is 15th-15th) I am going to only buy the 'essentials' and see how much I have left at the end of the month.

Now I admit I am still deciding what I mean by 'essentials'. If I am too strict with myself then I know I will fail (a little bit of what you fancy and all that) but at the same time I have to set some boundaries.

So far I have decided that I will allow myself to buy one Pret hot chocolate (a serious weakness of mine!), one lunch out (by that I mean soup or a sarnie from a shop near the office, probably on a Thursday as I love the current Thursday Pret soup!) and one take away a week. All my other meals will be made at home from the grocery shopping. I might even try and plan the weeks meals and then only shop for what I know I will eat that week thus reducing the 'ooh that looks nice' purchases and hopefully not having food to throw away (this is inspired by Jo over at her blog, who does a 'no waste tastes great' bit)

I am looking for a pair of black MBT's for work on eBay and if they come up at the right price I will buy them - I have set myself a budget that I promise to stick to on these.

I have a couple of things planned this month that include reflexology, dinner out, a surprise trip (I know where we're going but the person I'm taking doesn't) and a day out with friends in London. I will still do these things but keep an eye on the wonga.  I also have a few things that have cropped up in the next couple of months that I would like to go to so I am thinking hard about whether to pay out for all, some or none of them!!

I have cut down a lot of the newsletters that I was subscribed to (I'm a bit of a gadget freak) to try and stop some of the exposure to and therefore the want of new 'stuff'.  

How will I do? Who knows - I'll keep you updated!!

Motivation

So, it's been a while. Yes I've been all de-motivated again. But no more. I came across something this weekend that has given me a nice big boot up the backside! I don't really want to say too much as I don't know if I can pull it off, and even if I can how long it will take but it has definitely put the zing back into me!

So it's back to de-cluttering (another batch of things on eBay tonight) and some serious planning, investigating, researching and generally making a nuisance of myself!!

Watch this space!!!

30 day song challenge

I've been taking part in the Facebook 30 day song challenge.  Basically you have to post a song every day following the rules below...

day 01 - your favorite song

day 02 - your least favorite song

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

day 04 - a song that makes you sad

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

day 15 - a song that describes you

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

day 29 - a song from your childhood

day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

It's prompted me to go through my music collection to find songs for each day and I've rediscovered gems I'd forgotten all about. It's made me realise you really DON'T need stuff to remember people, places and events.

I went through my music library and just selected random songs to fill up my phone for listening to on the commute.  I've found myself re-living so many memories over the last few days. Reminders of events I'd forgotten, places I'd like to go back to.  

I don't need the physical 'stuff' to trigger the memories and this has just proved it!

Mama Nature - Japan Eathquake / Tsunami

I was going to start this post by saying that it has nothing to do with minimilism but then I thought to myself that maybe it has everything to do with it...

For those of you that don't know I work for a police unit that deals with aid during incidents / crisis etc.  So yes, I could be involved in assisting with the events in Japan today.  As this is the case the TV has been on since 7.30 this morning (I was in early) and we all find ourselves glued to the images coming out of Japan of the debris that has been swept in land.

I'm finding it hard to deal with these pictures. One piece of footage appeared to show a car trying to outrun the incoming flood but cut out before you could tell if the driver made it to safety.

So what is going on, why is Mama Nature trying to make her voice heard so loudly at the moment? Does it all come down to our want of more stuff?  More oil to power our production lines to make more stuff.  More buildings to house those production lines, and us and all that stuff. More bridges, homes, businesses, schools, colleges, shopping centres, car sales rooms, office blocks, factories etc etc etc to be swept away.

Where do we go from here?

eBay - again!

Well, I pulled my finger out (only my little one admittedly!) and put a few more bits on eBay. After a lot of watching and very little bidding the items finally sold!  One of the items was a Myth and Magic chess set so that's a really big box gone plus the space the chess set took up and the dusting it involved!!  I also sold a Radley bag that I'd bought from eBay for more than I paid - hurrah!  I'm waiting for one of the buyers to accept my transaction cancellation as he decided he no longer wanted the item (well he blamed it on his wife), if he doesn't do it soon then I'll get stroppy!

I read a blog recently of someone who is further along thier minimilist journey than me and they now use eBay as a threat when they want to buy something. They used eBay extensively during their clearing out and can still remember the endless hours of taking photo's, writing descriptions, measuring, weighing and calculating postage, packing up and lugging to the post office. Now when they are yearning after something one of the conditions they apply is 'Will I end up having to list this on eBay a few months down the line?' - I will be using this in future as well!

Hopefully this weekend will be productive in that I will either be able to get up to the allotment that I now have and get started on clearing it, or if the weather is rubbish (as it has been the last few weekends) then back to the clearing out.