MSE blog 2008

A question about : MSE blog 2008

After encouragement from benbenandme (and yeovilmac) I've decided to start an MSE stylee diary. I've wanted to for a while, but wasn't sure where to put it (thanks for the suggestion MSEAndrea gave me here).

I'm fortunate enough not to be a DFW anymore, so can't diary there....but want to get more focused on OS / MSE / DFW ways!!! I guess I want to combine stuff such as stocking up on freebies, getting to grips with flying, healthy eating and losing weight, reducing my mortgage, stoozing etc. So you can see I want to get in with lots of different areas of MSE, but bring it all together in one place! I thought a diary would help if I wittered on a bit here .

Overview of the situation is that I have a flat I moved into 9 months ago and I still haven't really unpacked.... I had to leave my home suddenly in July 2006 and my lovely family packed up all my belongings so my stuff has been in storage and is all shoved in boxes, who knows what where... Then I managed to get a small flat last year, but have been working away a lot and then when here more working (4/5 jobs....silly Pea). I've decided to cut back on work for a moment while I sort out my life! How one person can amass so much clutter, paperwork etc. is beyond me, but that's one of my skills .

So I'm going to post priorities here and I think it will help me focus.

Finally a big thank you to the inspirational benbenandme diary, read the diary here.

Pea x

Best answers:

• Hi MushyPeas!
  I kept a similar savings diary on this board all through last year and I've just come on to add up my totals for the year and start a new one for this year!
  I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for inspiration and mutual encouragement! Good luck and hope you'll be healthy, wealthy and wise throughout 2008!
• Right young lady, time to have words....it's the 2nd and you've not achieved much!!!
  Ok....so maybe I am talking to myself ...
  To help me focus on some work tonight, this is my list:
  * hand wash 5 items did them all My belongings have been in storage so before I unpack most things have to be washed..oh and washed some make up brushes and stuff.
  * cook myself bacon pasta dish (also tomorrow's lunch), using up food from NYE party (aren't I good, pouring away vodka jelly) kinda yummy bacon dish...but now oven is COVERED in oil - doh. Been a good flylady and just cleaned it!
  * restart Spark logged back on, planned tomorrow's food and weighed ...
  * go through white plastic box of paperwork: URGENT pile start to action tomorrow
  * sort out stoozing card I applied for to sort out other CC tomorrow
  * apply for teaching job tomorrow
  * C work - emails tomorrow
  Ooh and pat myself on the back for completing my Assessor's course, finally!
  Edit 2235: Where did this evening go?!!!! Think I spent too long browsing on here again.... doh!
• Diary is going slowly, but have been away for a few days
  I travelled to London last week for a meeting. The train journey is about 4 hours each way and I have got into the habit of buying tea / sandwiches / bacon rolls on the train. They are disgusting and v. expensive..
  So I made sure I got up at 0530 to make a flask etc. with some Dec 17 dated cake which turned out to be fine.... and here's the evidence on the train:
  Yes I was bored!
  Shopped at Morrisons when I returned, it's a bit wierd for me doing supermarket shopping as I haven't really done any for about a year and a half. Have to keep reminding myself I'm now going to be living in one place . Managed to pick up a carton of soup for Ј0.09 and a tub of humous for Ј0.09 so that was last night's tea and today's lunch. I did buy some crisps for lunches....but ate some last night, no will power!
  Been reading other people's running totals of savings so I might look at doing that myself later
• Well another 'non-work' day, this morning wizzed by and then I met a friend for lunch in town and spent this afternoon / evening at uni. My MSE lifestyle achievements today include:
  * Using the TomTom and driving 'shortest' route rather than 'fastest' route into town and back so saving a total of (drumroll please....) 7 miles travelled . Now I just need to calculate how much that actually saves me in £££.
  * Taking teabags (from hotel stayovers) into Uni to spend £0.40 rather than £1.40 on cuppas
  * Parking 15 min walk away from town so I parked for free and saved around £6.50 +
  * Checking calories at Costa online before lunch so could go for healthy meal
  * Booking train ticket for Wednesday's journey up north at the city's train station so I could a) use credit card with no fee (% cashback) and b) ensure seat reservation
  Today I was offered another full-time job in the smoke, this is the 3rd in as many weeks. I've said no, even though I'm not sure it's the right decision... I miss the smoke, but need to spend time in SWest getting my life in order. Geez I hope I've done the right thing, but I'm not sure!!! I'm so confuddled at the mo.
  Oh, but I have just applied for a job down here, so fingers crossed....I can't keep turning work down, mortage to pay off!
  Right, now to studying. I have an exam at 9 am tomorrow, I think it will be a late night!
• Hey MP, nice diary. Thanks for the "heads-up" on where to find it. What's that? Make it look like I found it spontaneously, oops, sorry! :rolleyes:
  I'll be following your diary intently from now on too. Benbenandme's diary inspired me and maybe we can all inspire each other.
  Best wishes
  Martin
  x
  PS I can't believe you took a picture of a flask on a train...
• Tee hee thanks Yeovil (I'm too used to names on here!), what do you mean you didn't just accidently find this?! :rolleyes:
  Um....'following it intently' well I don't have anything to say for today .
  Though I've just realised today has been a NSD .
  Up at 5.30 am this morning after little sleep and had an exam first thing. Was running late so drove the 'fastest' route on the way there but 'slowest' route on the way back saving..... 1.3 miles, wow! I really need to find out how to figure out the ЈЈ saved in petrol, but don't know where to start.
  For the rest of the day I've been working from home, so not much to report.
  Tomorrow is another long day travelling, I have my flask all prepared....so be warned...I may get bored !
  Pea x
• Oh, the shame, Tuesday wasn't a no spend day after I posted that message....then bought something online
  But I've had two NSD yeyeyeyey get me
  Yesterday I had a 12 hour round trip on the train and was really, really prepared and took loads of food and drink so didn't spend any money. Even after browsing in shops.
  Today my friend made me lunch (as I helped her tidy up her place), then parked in town a 10 min walk away so parked for free AND took shortest route home so saved a WHOLE 5 miles!!
  And have just got some more work It's all good.
  On the flying front, RUBBISH, but am keeping kitchen tidy
  Wowee my updates are exciting But this is helping me keep focused
• Hi Mushy!
  Loving the flask! Looks like you are doing well. I worked out that if I stay at home for one day a week and work from home that is Ј2.50 each day in petrol (and Ј2.30 in tolls) that I am saving. This is Ј250 a year, combined with my "take milk and dont buy cups of tea" this is another Ј175... which almost equates to a week in Mallorca (I like to think of things in terms of how far I can travel!!)
  Best of luck!
• Hey jamjam I like your thinking I want to try and figure out how much it costs to run my car per mile so I can calculate how much journeys cost me and how much I save if I drive 'shorter' routes. How did you work out your cost of running your car? I think that's what I need to do next!
  Oh last night I cancelled what I had bought on Tuesday, so technically 3 NSD and then because I want to get fit I bought some exercise DVDs as my nearest gym is a 20 mile round trip. BUT I didn't buy them till 0030 so still technically 3 NSD . It felt like a bit of a treat as I spent around Ј20 but I've calculated that I saved that over the last few days so feel I deserve it a little bit.
  I also treated myself to an album which contains a song which means something to me. I remember hearing this on the radio when I was driving back from Cornwall one day and it helped me make a big life decision (against all my friend's and family's wishes) about where I wanted to live: Suddenly. It's the best decision I've ever made .
• Afternoon all. Blimey I can't believe it's 1700!!
  Spent the day doing work, just washed up and now need to shower in 15 min and head out the door. Going to see a mate for the evening, we're sharing a curry and then back to hers to watch a DVD so kind of saving pennies. I recon that will save me around Ј30 on a night out on the beers, cabs etc.
  Going to the smoke next week so I'll spend a bit of tomorrow planning how not to end up buying cappuccinos, sandwiches from Pret etc.
• Morning....gosh it's a bit late isn't it . Went out with my friend last night and paid for the curry. Not very MSE but she's just had her 'lightbulb' moment so I thought it was the least I can do. It was nice to chat with her about money in a postive way, rather than her taking the pea for what I do!
  We then went back to hers and watched a DVD (I let her pay for that :rolleyes: ) and I drove back home....then online till 2 am . V. naughty of me, I think I'll start setting a timer.
  Aims for today:
  * Visit aunt & uncle / gran & grandad (not seen for 6 months or so & look at TomTom for shortest route) done
  * Crack on with the ironing pile (washed some of the 'musty' clothes so 3 loads!) done
  * 5 hours work different jobs about 4 hours
  * Spend at least an hour tackling paperwork pile! nope
  I have accounts due.....really don't know where lost of stuff is :confused:
• hi mushers! i went to bed at 4.10am and got out of bed at 12.45am - i seem to think im some sort of student! heehee!
  Car petrol costs - fill your whole tank up with petrol from when its empty - mine currently is about £35-38 per tank from completely empty (a guess from when it goes onto red). Reset the mile clock and see how many miles you do until it gets to the red again. Mine is about 300 miles (approx).
  £36 / 300miles = 0.12pence per mile .
  My round trip is 24miles = £2.88ish. Its shocked me really, I thought it'd be about 90p!!!
  my car doesn't do many miles to the gallon, but its all city driving and stop and start - but I'll review this when I buy a new one later in the year !!
  Sorry to be nosey but what exercise dvds did you get? I'm in Murphy's no more pies club in the Moneysaving Arms and keep saying I'll do my exercise dvds and dont oops! I need an exercise buddy to get me back into the swing of it!
• Morning jamtart
  I set my alarm for 7 this morning, up at 9am I'm sooooo rubbish at getting up when the alarm goes off!
  I'm very excited, my DVDs have just arrived:
  * Davina The Box Set
  * Davina High Energy Five
  They look really good and I can't wait to use them. But I'm flat out today and then away for 3 days so it will have to wait till the weekend! I haven't got a telly at the moment (my punishment for not unpacking) so plan to use my computer. I'll let you know how I get on Exercise buddy sounds like a grand plan, I deffo. want to do one this coming Saturday morning. I know that's 5 days away but it's better then nowt .
  Thanks for the fuel consumption tip. I'm definatly going to have to try that as I want to work out detail such as which would be the cheaper way of getting into town:
  * 16 mile drive & train journey
  * 54 mile round trip
  I can then also work out, like you, how much I save by working from home for a few days
  I had a funny dream last night, that Martin had passed away in his sleep! Glad to see he is still with us
• poor martin!!
  Let us know your figures and then we can see howyou can do it cheaper
  Exercise buddy is a plan! i need to do at least one this week!! I LOVE davina, she is so human in the routines and dies on the floor half way through (exactly how im feeling) - they are really hard tho! I have 3 30minute workouts and power of 3. you don't half ache the next day!
  ps - if you need any photos developing - snapfish (+ quidco or pigsback) are doing an offer 50 for 50p (+99p postage)...im going to sort mine tonight which is pretty good price! (i have about 400 to develop!)
• Hiya jamtart So shall we say we're doing one video this weekend? Which one would you recommend starting with for a newbie? Sounds like I won't be able to walk the day after
  Thanks for the tip on photos...but I have so much to do I can't look at that at the moment.
  Today I've been working from home....my back aches from being hunched over the computer all day . But, I've had two NSD is a row, yippee It's getting quite addictive now! Feel a bit shut off working from home, but back to the smoke tomorrow for 3 days.
• definitely not the boxercise part! it kills me off! power of three is slightly less aerobic!! i'm going to do strictly come dancercise once this week and probably some toning exercises (there was an exercise section in the paper today). They are my aims!!
  Well done for your NSD's!
• Mushety, remember that the slowest route, i.e. shortest is not always best for fuel consumption. If it's slow roads with stop and starting, lots of breaking, suddenly your using more fuel, more wear and tear etc.
  So saving 2 miles might cost more than driving an extra 2 miles on a straight road.
  So say you had 100 miles to do, on the motorway at 70mph.
  Or, 75 miles on A roads, possibly 30-60mph.
  The 100 miles would probably or at least should, work out less expensive overall.
  Look at taxi's, they go through clutches and gearboxes like I go through sausage sandwiches! Lots of stopping, starting, gear changing. Then look at a rep's car with the same sort of mileage. The rep's car will have clost less to keep on the road, and will probably be on the same clutch and gearbox as it always has had.
• good point Graham! I always use less fuel on a long motorway trip than the little city driving trips!
  Mushy - guess what I did today after the excitement of the Boots sale?? Yes thats right..the exercise dvd, 30mins of dancercise i nearly died! so you have to stick to your part of the bargain now! can't wait to update my total spends for week 3 on my thread with the excitement of Bootsing!