I'm Debt Free

That's right, I'm debt free! :) (Excluding student debts – more on that later!)

I've been hovering around 89% debt paid off for the past couple of months now. The reason is that I've been putting away any “spare” money to pay for what I thought would be expensive dental work (I get paranoid about my teeth as I neglected them as a teen). Fortunately I didn't need any treatment at all, so I now have an extra £750 of saved cash!

The first thing I did was top up my Emergency Fund. I've now got a £500 buffer to fall back on, which is around two months rent, car and living costs for me while living at home (not including saving for annual expenses), or the cost of a particularly expensive car repair (I'm looking at you, Jools!).

I put the rest of this “spare” money into my current account. It wiped out my remaining overdraft! I am finally debt free! (Click here to read my original entry about my debt). I won't say that I'll never have debt because I'll probably want to buy a house one day, but I hope that I'll never have consumer debt again.

As I mentioned before, I still have my student debts, but these are not consumer debt, don't affect your credit rating, and are at such a low interest rate that it is better to hold onto any extra money in a savings account. I'm also not eligible to start repayments until the next tax year.

What's next for the Frugal Graduate? Time to go out and splash the cash? Well, the advice on frugal living I have received and learning to waste-not-want-not have not been wasted. I'm still growing my own veg (a tomato seedling came up today!! :D), cycling, re-using and thrifting. My new target is to save £800 to pay for a deposit, first month's rent and moving to Bristol in September.

:)

UK Fuel Shortage?

A proposed strike action by tanker drivers has led to mass buying of petrol and diesel at UK pumps over the past couple of days. The BBC has shown images of huge queues at garages, leading to some retailers running out of fuel. 

The UK Government gave advice to keep your car over two-thirds full, and if you'd normally put half a tank in, fill it up. I work opposite a garage, so took the opportunity to fill up after work when the pumps were quiet (there haven't been huge queues there yet, although the weekend may be bad). I have to admit, normally I only put in half a tank but this time I filled it with over a month's worth of fuel. 

This sort of mentality is the reason that everyone's rushing to the pumps; there is no shortage, but the high demand for fuel means that suppliers are running out anyway! No-one wants the needle to hit "EMPTY" on the way to work.

Despite this situation, I think that we frugal types are in the best situation. We know how to make fuel last longer. We keep cars clean and empty to reduce consumption, we keep speeds low and accelerate and brake slowly, and importantly we take alternative transport where possible. 

Plan your route to incorporate several chores at once and minimise car usage. We can beat both the fuel shortage AND the huge price of fuel in the first place!

P.S. Check out these before and after shots of washing Jools! Productive use of a sunny day I think!

Filthy before!

Sparkly after!

Decluttering: Sentimental Items

You've got rid of all those books you'll never read, you've halved the clothes in your wardrobe and there's finally some space in your chest of drawers.

You know that something's lurking though... In dark corners of cupboards, hidden in the attic, underneath the bed... It's all your keepsakes and sentimental items. Gifts from relatives, birthday cards, favourite children's books, occasion dresses, stuffed toys.. If you're anything like me, the list goes on and on!

Trouble is, it gets to the point where you're keeping more stuff for sentimental reasons than the useful stuff you have! Linda over at Practical Parsimony commented on a recent post that “Hoarders are very sentimental”. I don't want to be keeping, storing and moving boxes and boxes of meaningful-yet-never-see-the-light-of-day stuff!

How do you go about reducing the volume of sentimental stuff? Here are some techniques I have been/will be using!

1. Get rid of all of the replaceable things. This knocks a lot of my children's books off the list. I was half-heartedly keeping them for future offspring, but I can save myself some space now and replace them in the future, possibly via Ebay or bookshops.
2. Digitalise it. If you're only keeping something so that you can look at it in the future and evoke some happy memory, take a photo of the item! This could work well for wedding or prom dresses, as well as old artwork/schoolwork.
3. Keep one favourite, donate the rest. Do you have a big box of your childhood toys? Why not pick just one favourite, take photos of the rest of them and save yourself some space. You could even display the one you picked, rather than leaving it buried in a box somewhere.
4. Set a size limit. Decide to keep just one box of things. Fit the most important things into that box. Donate or throwaway the rest.
5. Will you ever look at it again? Would you notice it's absence? If not, why keep it?
6. Would you pay to keep it? People often buy a bigger house for more space. People often rent storage. Moving home is more expensive with more stuff. If your many boxes of stuff are costing you excess money, are they really worth it? If so, is there something else you could get rid of instead?
7. Make sure you save things that are truly important to you. I know I will never part with the ~100 year old bear that my Great-great grandmother gave to my Grandma, who gave it to me. Well, I may one day give it to my granddaughter! I will never get rid of a letter from my Nana from my 18^th birthday, nor the doll handmade by my Mum when I was a baby. Anything that you truly love, keep.

I think Rachel from Small Notebook hit the nail on the head when she said

“the fewer things you keep, the more special they are.”

Do you have a stash of sentimental items? Is it under control, or is it a vast pile of stuff like mine? How do you feel about letting go of it?

My First Ebay Sale

I have been decluttering a lot lately and rather than just giving away items of value, I decided to see what I could get for them on Ebay. I am probably in the huge minority, but I have to admit that until this week I have never bought or sold anything on Ebay. I know, how very 20^th century!

I have always been wary of Ebay. Everyone seems to use it with ease, but until recently I just wasn't motivated enough to learn what was involved and how to do it. I found the guide to Ebay selling on Money Saving Expert useful for a complete novice like myself.

If there is anyone out there (apart from me!) who has never used Ebay, basically all you need to sell something is a vague idea of how much your item is worth (check out completed listings on Ebay to see what has sold before and at what price!), a small amount of money upfront to list an item for more than 99p (although there are often free-listing weekends to encourage people to sell), and a digital camera to take photos of your item. You also have to register with Paypal to send and receive payments.

I decided to list some things that were not hugely valuable as a tester. A couple of coffee table books, some perfume I didn't like, that kind of thing.

The first thing I noticed was that you get a lot of “watchers”. These are people who are keeping an eye on the lot, but are not currently bidding. A quick Google search confirmed my assumption that they are usually either other sellers researching how much items are selling for or people who may decide to bid at the last minute (but often don't).

For an extra 6p you can add a “Buy It Now” option, to set a price for people to just buy the item for outright without bidding and waiting until the auction ends. I did this with one of my lots and it sold within three days. I based the price on what other people had sold the item for.

I'm quite excited to see how the rest of the lots pan out though. A couple have low bids on them already, but apparently the last couple of hours is where the real fun is to be had! I'm going to put any money I make into my Emergency Fund to try and beef it back up a bit!

Any experienced Ebayers out there with some tips for a newbie? :)

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! :)