Guilt Over Getting Rid of Gifts

What do you do with gifts you receive that just aren't your style? From ugly jumpers to boring DVDs, if you're anything like me you leave them gathering dust in the back corner of a drawer.

I have been trying to cut down the amount of stuff I own. I will be moving out semi-permanently in the autumn (I'll probably impose myself at home for Christmas dinner and birthdays every now and again!). I will probably be moving into some tiny student pad somewhere, possibly a room in a shared house, possibly a small flat. Either way, space will be an issue!

I want the next phase of my life to be clutter-free, so for the past few months I have been systematically donating a lot of stuff I never wear/use. If I bought it myself, I am ruthless! Haven't worn it in a year? GONE! Never going to read it again? BYE! Why did I EVER buy that?! DONATED!

When it comes to something I have been given, it's a whole new story. I am overly sentimental because so-and-so got me it, or I wore it when I did that, or it was such a thoughtful gift even if I've never used it! This is something I picked up from my Mother (sorry Mum, but you know it's true!). I/we worry that when we get rid of it, we will be hurting someone's feelings, or getting rid of the memory of someone or something that happened.

How can things have so much emotional hold over me? I know a lot of people have this issue. To combat it, I have been trying to use my normal approach of assessing the object's worth to be, rather than the worth of the person who gave it to me!

I like to follow William Morris' famous advice:

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”

I am sure that the person who gave it to me doesn't want me to feel burdened by guilt! If you flip it on it's head, you probably wouldn't mind someone getting rid of something you gave them that they didn't actually want.

I dunno. What do you guys think? Do you feel like a horrible person for even contemplating donating a gift, or are you a dedicated declutterer?

Happy Mother's Day - Homemade Gifts

Hello! It's Mother's Day here in the UK, although not in most of the rest of the world it seems! I hope all you mothers and grandmothers had a lovely day. :)

My mum is ace. She goes out of her way for us every day, she is always up for spending time with us, she helps us to learn new things without being patronising - she even taught me to drive, which was no mean feat!

Today I was at work so couldn't enjoy the sunshine with Mum and my sister, although we did all go to my Nana's when I got home. Luckily I had been working on her Mother's Day gifts for a couple of weeks now, so the only thing I had to do today was cut some daffodils from the garden and wrap them in a bouquet. :)

The first gift I made for Mother's Day was a scented heart to put in her wardrobe. The Boyfriend and I both made one, which gave me the hidden benefit of (re)teaching him to sew. It was a simple gift to make; cut out two heart shapes, sew them together inside out leaving a small gap for stuffing, then turn it right side out, stuff and put a few drops of oil in before you stitch it shut.

I also made a more personal gift. Whenever my Mum and I have a day off together we usually end up going for a hike somewhere, usually either around the coast or on Bodmin Moor. I decided to be a little creative and paint a map of Cornwall onto a shell, which is a little bit bigger than the size of your palm. I put a yellow dot on some of the places we've been in the past couple of years (and marked the Moor with a darker green). I used acrylic paint because it's easy to mix and to use. :)

I'm not naturally a painter, so I have to put a lot of effort in to make something resemble what it should, but I think that even if it's not perfect painted shells look really cool. :)

There's also a muddy boot footprint. We I usually come back filthy!

Happy Mother's Day. :)

Get Organised and Make Some Money!

I am terrible for procrastination. Sometimes a simple To-Do list is a very effective method for me, because I like to challenge myself to cross something off. It helps me to get organised and get important things done.

The past couple of days, I have crossed a few things off that will be either saving me money or making me money in the near future! Some things also have the double bonus of decluttering, something I REALLY need to do now that I know I am moving to Bristol in October!

My Get-Organised To Do List!

• Sort out tax code (In Progress) – I have been on the wrong tax code at my job since I started in October! I've been paying £100 extra in tax each month. Yes I can claim it back after April, but I wanted it sorting! I got my P45 from the Chinese last week, so it should be getting fixed this month. (Just in time for my refund!)
• Sell old CDs (Done) – Sometimes you wonder why you ever bought something! I made £5.48 by selling some unwanted CDs online. I probably should sell before moving.
• Count and deposit change (Done) – Whenever I find 1p, 2p or 5p coins rolling around in my bag at the end of the day, I shove them in my cute floral piggy banks. Back in September I had a respectable £27 in small change, but I've somehow built up another £11 over the past six months!
• Get train ticket refund (In progress) – The University of Bristol offered to refund my £44 train fare to visit them, which was jolly decent of them if you ask me! I am also in the process of claiming a refund on a ticket that did not get used, which should be another nice chunk coming back into my pocket.
• Sell old textbooks (In progress) – I have now sold two textbooks, for a return of about £15 after posting fees. I did look into selling them back to AbeBooks as some of you suggested in the comments, however they were only going to give me £1.70 per book because they were older editions. You also have to have £25 worth of books to sell before you can send them all off. It certainly seems a cheap place to BUY used textbooks though, if anyone needs one.
• Sell/donate other books (In progress) – I have listed a few semi-valuable books on Amazon. The rest I will donate to charity, via my Nana who organises a lot of fund-raising events.
• Sell old child's keyboard – Anyone know of a good way to sell large-ish electrical items? I don't really want to post it as it will be a RIGHT faff!
• Sort out what I can't take with me and donate it.

Any money I get will be going straight into my Emergency Fund to replenish the hits it has been taking in the past few weeks, what with Jools breaking down FOUR TIMES and spending so much on finding a PhD.

Other things I need to do ASAP:

• Finish Mother's Day gift
• Make a friend's birthday present
• WASH MY CAR!
  
  
   Have you been putting off anything time-consuming that will save you money? Just do it! You'll feel smug for the rest of the day! :)

Are YOU at Risk of Bank Set-Off?

I was shocked to learn that banks have a legal right to take your savings to repay your debt. Here's why and how you can avoid it.

Bank Setting Off

Your bank is legally entitled to take money from your current accounts/savings accounts and use it to repay any debt you have with them, for example credit cards and loans. This is known as “setting off”. Banks will normally not exercise this right unless you start missing payments, but it is worth bearing in mind. They can only do this if both your savings and debts are held by the same bank.

New rules from the Financial Services Authority mean that banks have to leave you enough for you to be able to pay priority debts and cover essential living expenses. They also have to try and contact you to discuss your options before taking your money.

The Solution is Simple

Transfer your saved money to a different bank. Remember that many banks are actually part of large groups, and may have the right to set off from an account held at another bank in that group.

If You Are Really Struggling

If you are really having trouble keeping up with debt repayments, you might want to consider using your savings to pay off some of the balance. It's not a pleasant thought but it is a lifeline that you could use in a time of need. Don't forget that the small amount of interest you earn on savings is by far outweighed by the interest charged on most debt.

A Little Way to Get More Out of Life

Saving for Travel recently posted about wanting to get more out of life, breaking bad habits and forming new,  better ones. Whilst I think she's already awesomely inspirational, I believe most people would wish to stop procrastinating and get more out of each day.

I have a little trick I've been doing lately to get more out of life; LABEL each day.

At the end of the day, you have to write a one sentence tagline of the most important or interesting part of the day. It can be as big or as small as you like. For example, the other day was "The Day I Officially Accepted My PhD Position", but the day before was "The Day I Sowed My Vegetable Seeds".

The beauty of this technique is that it forces you to do something, anything, productive with your day. If you feel like you haven't really acheived anything today, then tonight you might look back and feel that the day has been wasted. When you know that you will be labelling your day by something you did, it inspires you to do something!

Up until now I haven't been writing them down, but I think it would be a good way to keep a record of your life. I am too forgetful to keep a diary, so this would be a quick and easy way to keep memories for the future.

It's Official: I Have A PhD Studentship!

YESSSSSSS!!!!

I did it! After many months of hunting, personal statement writing and being interviewed, I was offered a PhD studentship one of the top universities in the UK! I accepted. From October I will be researching plant genetics at the University of Bristol, with lots of practical experience and opportunities for work to be published. It is a four year position, with training and industrial placements for the first year alongside the research. The University of Bristol is ranked 7^th for biological research in the UK!

I'm so glad that the application/interview process is over. Personal statements are evil, as are interviews, although I have to say that my interview in Bristol was very friendly and I was set at ease by the project supervisors.

The PhD studentship is fully funded by the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council), one of 59 funded places in the area of Global Food Security in the UK. This means that my tuition fees will be paid and I will receive a tax-free annual stipend of around £13590.

Back in January I wrote about the hidden costs of finding a degree. These included things like admin fees for applying, interview costs for clothes, travelling and accommodation to visit universities, and living costs whilst you are up there. My total costs were:

• Travel: £230.05 on train fares, including £28 for a year's rail card that gets you 30% off train ticket prices. (The University of Bristol has offered to refund my travel expenses, so I should be getting £44 of this back at some point!)
• Admin fees: £50
• Accommodation: FREE! Luckily I had friends/relatives in the towns that I visited.
• Interview clothes: FREE! I wore the outfit I wore on my graduation day. It is a smart black dress with white flowers, with a black cardigan.
• Living costs: £33.13 on food whilst travelling. I also took my hosts a gift to say thank you, but this was bought using money specially saved for gifts.

Total cost of finding my PhD: £313.18!

To be honest, it was worth it to visit universities, speak to experts in my field (I mean, I have referenced these people during my undergraduate years! It was daunting putting faces to names you've read a hundred times!), be interviewed and ensure that I was finding the right place to spend the next four years of my life!

I'm so excited! :D

Sowing the Seeds!

Phase one of growing your own (digging the plot) already having been achieved, I moved merrily into phase two; planting stuff! :D

Planting stuff is the fun bit of growing veggies. It's full of hope and distinctly lacking in caterpillars and mosaic viruses. It might be second to harvesting and eating your crops, but there are a lot of unknowns between then and now!

At our local garden centre, we topped up our seed collection with 89p packets of swedes (plant in May), cabbage, sweet peppers and spinach beet. We also got some onion sets for 90p for ~100! Looooads of potential veggies for £4.46!

Back at home, we whipped out the John Innes and started filling up seed trays. (Side note: I love the John Innes song by Can You Dig It?, a comic duo who write songs about growing your own!)

We sowed cabbages and leeks in one tray. You can plant them directly in your plot but Dad said he likes to keep an eye on them til they're a bit bigger.

In true frugal spirit, the plant labels are made of a cut up margarine tub. :)

In the other tray, Dad planted his beloved hot chilli plants. (Whilst complaining that the seeds were burning his hands!) These have to be germinated in a heated propagator. There are SEVEN varieties in here, plus one line of sweet peppers. He is so excited because he ordered four new "really cool" varieties online, including Fairy Lights and Stumpy! They have some fun names!

As well as the trays, I got stuck into my vegetable patch by planting a couple of rows of onion sets. You plant them so that the tip is just poking out enough to grow a shoot. Apparently pigeons and blackbirds like to pull them up, so if they start getting mutilated we will string cotton above them to stop them being able to land.

Anyone else been making use of the sunny March weather? Let's get chitting some potatoes! :D