hollyisstoppingshopping

The Beginning of the End

2009-05-04T19:47:00.008+01:00

After much umming and ahhing that I have decided to close this blog. It doesn't seem right to run a blog called Holly is Stopping Shopping when I'm now quite obviously doing the opposite (albeit much less frequently).

This blog is the story of what happened when I gave up shopping for a whole year from May 1st 2008 to April 30th 2009. Comments are now closed but the blog will remain open for those who wish to read back over the challenge.

For those who want to know what happened next, I am pleased to announce that I will be running a new blog at:

shopaholly.wordpress.com

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Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the past year, I couldn't have done it without you.

Holly Has Resumed Shopping

2009-05-03T09:31:00.002+01:00

Friday was more manageable than I thought it would be. I worked during the day and my lovely friends bought me flowers, a cake in the shape of a bag and an old lady shopping trolley which I have always wanted. You know, one of those pull along cart things that you can load up your shopping into? Boyfriend says he will refuse to go outside with me if I use it but it's so practical!

In the evening I just couldn't get my head around being able to shop again. When the time came I almost couldn't bring myself to do it. I got myself a bit worked up, decided to put it off for as long as possible. If I could stop shopping for a whole year then surely I could just tack another month onto the end? Eventually I realised I was just being ridiculous, giving myself a complex about shopping and putting off the inevitable.

I'd already picked out the first item that I wanted to buy after browsing Etsy a couple of months ago. To me it just seemed like the perfect first buy. A real symbol of what I've achieved.

This nest-egg necklace is made by London based jewellery designer allthosethrees and cost me $48.95 or £33.50 (all of Etsy's prices are in dollars, even if it's from a non US country) and I think it's just gorgeous. It will always serve as a reminder of what I have achieved and what I want to achieve from now on. I can't wait for it to arrive!

Shopping online was scarily easy. I just had to log in, click "commit to buy" then sign into PayPal and it was all over within a couple of minutes. Quite frightening actually. So many sites these days keep all your details meaning you don't even have to get your purse to buy something. I used to shop online a lot and expect that I will continue to do so every now and then but it's clearly dangerous territory when you can order things without even thinking.

Boyfriend and I had planned to spend yesterday afternoon in town looking around some shops but I felt really nervous about going in. We spent hours walking around but had obviously picked the worst time to go. Saturday afternoon everywhere was packed full of people, all the shops were in a state and I found myself getting really flustered. In H&M I bought a pair of trousers (£16.99) and a top (£12.99 - will post pictures later) and had a little cry outside afterwards. It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders but also strange being free from the rules that I've let govern me for the past year.

Aberdeen isn't exactly blessed when it comes to shops so before long I'd had enough. I bought a pair of canvas trainers (£10.80) in New Look (and remembered to get my student discount!) then that was it. I was done.

Shopping felt so different yesterday. I didn't hate it but I didn't exactly love it either. There was no buzz, I thought about the practicality of each item and found most of the shops so small and claustraphobic. My year without shopping has clearly changed my way of thinking and that can only be a good thing.

One Year Ago Today

2009-05-01T07:15:00.005+01:00

One year ago today I woke up in a bit of a panic thinking "Oh my God!! What have I done?!" All of a sudden the reality of Stopping Shopping for a year hit me, I wanted to take it all back and pretend I'd never come up with the idea. It was too late though, I'd already told my family, my friends, my colleagues and, well, the whole world really by starting this blog.

Everyone was incredibly supportive (even though they were probably all laughing inside) but none more so than my Grandma. She loved seeing the article about me in the paper, bragging to all her friends about my challenge and was delighted at seeing me featured on the local news.

Sadly she passed away after a very long period of illness later that same day. Some days when I have found this challenge unbearable and wanted to pack it all in, thinking about how proud she was has forced me to carry on.

I am so glad to have reached the end of the challenge. At this point I have cleared around £700 from credit cards, a £750 overdraft and have put more than £5000 into savings. It's incredible to have the past year all written down and the challenge has motivated me to carry on saving as much as possible.

But I'm also a bag of nerves and actually dreading going to make the first purchase. I will shop again (and I promise to tell you all about it) but I don't feel much like it today.

Here's a picture of my Gran reading my blog and I hope that wherever she is now she's reading too.

1

2009-04-30T07:57:00.002+01:00

1 day to go and 1 thing I will always remind myself when I'm tempted to shop

1) A penny spent is a penny not saved.

Sure it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but it speaks so clearly to me. Any time I am tempted to buy something I will remind myself that at just 23, I spent a whole year without shopping and managed just fine.

Thanks for reading/commenting/encouraging/listening and not secretly hoping I failed!

2

2009-04-29T12:15:00.002+01:00

2 days to go and 2 things that have really helped me stay focused this past year.

1) Daily Tracking. Seeing everything written down in front on you is the perfect way of realising where you're spending too much. I'll definitely be continuing with this.
2) The support of my family, friends and readers. Know that people care what I'm up to has kept me motivated not to give up.

3

2009-04-28T11:36:00.002+01:00

3 days to go and 3 things a year without shopping has taught me.

1) The difference between a "want" and a "need"
2) The peace of mind gained from knowing exactly where you're at financially
3) The pleasure of plowing money into savings (far better than any shoe shopping)

Five Minutes to Myself

2009-04-27T09:39:00.003+01:00

I've had an absolutely manic few days and have barely been near my computer long enough to update!

Friday I was wide awake at 6am so rather that lie about I got up, caught up on some blogs, watched the new Grey's Anatomy and had a nice big breakfast of cereal and toast. I had the day off so I made an appointment to have a Hot Stone Massage using a voucher that Boyfriend had given me for Christmas. The massage place also happens to be my hairdressers so I booked myself in for a long overdue (last one was in July) haircut. The massage was ok, the hot stones are a bit weird and probably not as nice as a regular massage. It seemed to be over quite quickly too but I'm sure that's because I dozed off!

After getting my hair cut I met Boyfriend for lunch and headed to the International Market. This market comes to Aberdeen a few times a year and is full of stalls selling some of the yummiest foods you can buy. We had a roast pork sandwich, a big bowl of tartiflette and some churros. We also bough some waffles, brioche and stroop waffles because we were heading out to my parents house for the night.

My Dad picked us up and drove us out to the country where we were met by a huge dish of macaroni cheese and homemade crispy seaweed. Was delicious! Then spent the evening watching my Mum watching soaps before bed. I was asleep almost instantly!

Saturday morning we got up and were treated to a delicious cooked breakfast before heading outside to spend the day in the sun digging an allotment. I can tell you right now that digging dirt when you never do any gardening quickly gets tiring. Boyfriend had to retire to the greenhouse for a nap. I had to sit down regularly. We are not made for this country malarky but it was great fun.

Saturday night I had a work's meal at La Tasca followed by drinks and a quiz in the pub. Sadly I didn't win anything because I put the quiz together and that would have been cheating! After a few vodkas I was feeling rather tipsy so made it home shortly before two...

...Which was for the best because I had to be up bright and early on Sunday to do a full day of training at my volunteer job followed by a 5pm-10pm shift at my actual job. Walked home from work last night so fell into bed shortly after 11pm. Was such a struggle to get up this morning. Hopefully I will manage to get a good lie in soon!

Hope everyone else had a fab weekend. I've got a busy week ahead of me but the whole weekend off which is great because I will finally be able to go shopping again. 4 days to go. Ridiculous!

Don't Panic...It's Just Clothing

2009-04-24T08:39:00.002+01:00

Unless you've got your own private dressing room or a walk-in wardrobe (I hate you!) your bedroom is probably something like mine; a bed, a wardrobe, a couple of chests of drawers and an area that becomes a dumping ground for all kinds of crap. The bedroom can be the hardest room to declutter. On the face of it, it's not a big job, everything is hidden away neatly out of sight and there's not too much mess. It only takes a few minutes to pick things up off the floor, make the bed and open the curtains and you're done! Well, sort of.

My wardrobe and chest of drawers have always been jam packed full of stuff. Some of it's good stuff (easily accessed, doesn't stay away for long) and some of it's bad (has migrated to the bottom of the drawers or is lying in a crumpled heap on the floor of the wardrobe).

When I used to read lots of magazines, articles about wardrobe management popped up regularly offering tips and advice for perfectly coordinating and organising your clothing and therefore your life. Wardrobe management?! They make it sound like something you need a 2:1 degree and a small team of staff in order to achieve. In fact, you can even pay someone to come into your home and do it all for you. Credit crunch? What credit crunch?!

It's taken me a long time to get on board with this wardrobe management malarky but I think I've finally figured it all out. The key is doing what works for you! Sure it would be great to have a wardrobe like Cher Horowitz in Clueless; it's colour coordinated, the computer picks perfect outfits for you, it's amazing! But my expectations aren't that high and I don't know a woman alive who could keep everything that organised.

So my clothing was getting a little out of control, and here's how I got the control back:

I had a huge declutter and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. Allow yourself a whole day if possible, it takes time and you won't do it properly if you are rushed. Open the window and let some air in, stick on some good music and get stuck in! I started by taking everything out from one area at a time (wardrobe, chest of drawers, boxes on top of the wardrobe) and laying it on the bed. This allowed me to see everything I had and to decide what I wanted to keep and what I no longer wanted.

Anything I wanted to keep I hung or folded properly and returned to it's rightful place. Everything else I divided up into piles to sell, donate or recycle. Some items were nice enough to be sold on eBay or to local stores, some weren't that great but good enough to donate and some were beyond hope and just needed recycled. Before you get rid of anything it might be worth asking your friends, siblings etc if they want any of it. I wouldn't dare incur the wrath of my sisters by taking clothes to a charity shop before I took it to them.

To get the best from your clearout you need to be ruthless and honest. If something doesn't fit, is damaged, doesn't suit you or you forgot you had it then the chances are you probably won't keep wearing it if you put it back in the wardrobe. Don't forget to do your underwear too. I was amazed at how many pairs of holey tights I had taking up precious space. Bras that don't fit, grey granny pants, odd socks, I got rid of the lot and felt much better for it!

Magazine articles always say that if you haven't worn something in over a year then it's not worth keeping. I don't agree with this at all; some items have sentimental value, some items don't often have the opportunity to be worn and some you simply paid a lot for and never want to get rid of. I'm not going to tell you what to keep and what to chuck, but perhaps it's not a good idea to have half of your space filled with clothes you never wear.

When getting rid of clothing, see if you notice any trends. I have lots of short sleeved coats and cardigans in my to sell pile. They're all cute and lovely but I live in Scotland where it's highly unusual to have a day where it's cold enough for a coat but warm enough for 3/4 length sleeves. Learn from these trends! I'll never go into a shop again and buy a waist cinching belt. Aside from the fact that I have already have no-cinch-required waist, I've just put 4 of them in my To Sell pile which is a big fat reminder that they were a waste of money.

Consider alternative storage. Fill a suitcase with your bulky winter clothes and store it out of the way in the loft. (You'll have a treat in six months when you get to take it all back out again!) Invest in a few vacuum pack storage bag which can hold loads of items then slide neatly under the bed. This is an ideal solution for spare bedding and blankets. I have a couple of large plastic boxes on top of my wardrobe and these are perfect for holiding items that just don't seem to fit in anywhere else. In fact, I use one for bags and one for shoes, awkward items that take up more space than necessary when left in the wardrobe.

When returning your clothes to the wardrobe group similar items together. This will make it much easier to find something in the morning. Jumpers and t-shirts are best folded as they can lose their shape when hanging and try to keep all your accessories in the same place. That dumping ground I mentioned earlier? Mine is always covered in jewellery, receipts and DVDs I haven't returned to the living room yet. Why not leave a decorative box in that place so everything goes into it. You can sort it out whenever you feel like it but at least all the crap is together!

Afterwards I found my bedroom a much calmer place to be. Getting rid of things is quite theraputic and it's always good to have more space. I aim to do this twice a year so it won't be such a big hassle.

Three Easy Steps:

Allow a whole day to get rid of what you no longer want and organised.
Be ruthless and honest with yourself, only keep what you know you'll wear.
Learn from the experience, don't fill your new space with more of the same stuff!

Kitchen Clearout

2009-04-21T11:21:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I spoke about decluttering your bathroom to save time and money and today I want to talk about the kitchen.

The kitchen is probably the easiest room in the house to start saving money in and, as always, it starts with a declutter. I love cooking, so my kitchen is packed full of utensils and gadgets. Some are useful and used regularly (the handheld blender, the griddle pan, the smoothie maker) some are still useful but less regularly used (the wok, the breadmaker). If you have any gizmos and gadgets that you definitely don’t need or use, see if you can make some money buy popping them in your local classifieds (or try Gumtree or eBay) or if you don’t want to sell them, pop them on Freecycle so someone else can get good use out of them.

I aim to have a cupboards clearout twice a year. I go through the cupboards and throw out anything that is out of date or unused. For example, I once bought a jar of jerk chicken seasoning that was way too hot for my palate and despite knowing I didn’t like it, I let the jar sit in my fridge for another 6 months. It happens.

While my big clearout might only happen every six months, I try to monitor my cupboards on a weekly basis. I always know what I have and I’ve found that this is the key to successful food shopping. Before embarking on a food shop, I try to check to see what I have in the fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what needs used up. I then plan meals around these products and add anything extra that I don’t have to my shopping list.

Whilst in the supermarket, I try not to deviate too much from my list. It’s easy to find yourself adding lots of random items to the trolley but this stuff really pushes up your bill. However, I do allow myself to be flexible when it comes to deals. There may be items on special offer which I don't need at that exact time, but I always try to stock up on these when they're on sale. This is particularly good for tinned foods, we use a lot of tuna and tinned tomatoes, as well as jars of Ragu sauce. If these are on offer then I will usually pick them up, that way, I rarely have to buy these items when they are full price. The same goes for cereal, filled pastas, garlic bread, yogurts, washing up liquid etc. If it's something we eat a lot of, I think it's worth deviating from the shopping list to save money in the long run.

I am also a big fan of buying supermarket own brand products, particularly for cupboard staples like tinned vegetables, kidney beans, pasta, cereals, rice etc. I honestly don't think you can notice a big difference in taste, but you certainly can in price. By "dropping a brand" on everyday items, this frees up extra money in my food budget to spend on fresh fruit and vegetables which are sometimes quite pricey.

Another great way that I save, is by making enough food so that there are leftovers for lunch the next day. It's easy to double up while making meals and then freeze a couple of portions, saving both time and money. All I do is take something out of the freezer in the morning and it's ready for dinner that night. Foods like bolognaise, chilli, lasagne, curries, soups, stews and casseroles all freeze well.

Taking a packed lunch to work has saved me a small fortune over the past year. Whilst it's not something I do every single day, on the days that I take food from home I usually have a No Spend Day and a little bit of preparation goes a long way.

To avoid temptation, get rid of any takeaway menus lying around the kitchen. If you're home after a long day, it's easy to give in and order food when the menu is stuck to the front of your fridge saying "EAT ME!!!" so by chucking them in the bin (recycling of course!) you'll find it easier to stop spending. I'm always motivated to cook and try new recipes whenever I read a cookbook. Invest in a couple of good ones, get some from the library or print some from the internet (bbc food has thousands) and get your creative juices flowing!

Three Easy Steps:

Know what you have in your cupboards
Only buy what you need
Shop around for deals

Spring Cleaning

2009-04-20T11:14:00.002+01:00

I've had a pretty manic weekend and any spare time I've had has been spent just sitting and thinking. I've been reflecting a lot lately about what I've achieved this year and how I've made changes in my life to help me save money. I've been carrying on with my (rather slow) spring cleaning so I thought I'd share some of my advice from the past year for getting sorted in each room of the house.

First up is the Bathroom –

First I decided to take stock of what I had and have a declutter. How many of us have hoards of soaps and bottles of lotions and potions that never get used? And that’s not even getting started on make-up! I sorted through all my bathroom products and threw out or gave away any products that I never use or knew I wouldn’t use. I was amazed at how many near empty bottles I had, and as much as I love baths, I didn’t really need three different bottles of Radox.

I then committed to only buying more products when something has run out and needed replaced. It was about three months before I had to buy anything as it took so long to use up all the various bottles of shampoo, conditioner and moisturiser. In a whole year, I think I’ve only had to buy one bottle of face wash. Since choosing to only buy things when they needed replaced, I’ve saved lots of money by not adding impulse items to my shopping basket. I also use products sparingly. I don't feel that I need to shampoo my hair twice then condition then add a leave-in conditioner. I use small amounts of my products which works just fine and makes everything last much much longer.

Whenever I do need to replace something, I always shop around for a good deal. I used to always use the same brand of shampoo and conditioner (I’ve since stopped using this product when it was brought to my attention that the company tests on animals) but now I allow myself to be more flexible. I always try to buy products that are on offer, particularly toothpaste and hand soap so that I can stock up on the freebies. There is always some sort of Buy One Get One Free offer on these so as long as you’re prepared to try different brands then there are bargains to be found. And be honest, when was the last time a company rewarded you for your loyalty anyway?

Where possible, I try to use products that I know are ethical and not tested on animals. It’s not always clear from the packaging but you can look up a product’s manufacturer online to find out their policies. A good tip is that an ethical company will always be proud of their background and will like to brag about it, if it’s hard to find out about a company’s policies then the chances are that they won’t be good. I recently started using Lush Shampoo Bars which are fabulous. At about £4.50 they aren’t always as cheap as bottled products but they can last for up to 80 washes, are made of natural products and have zero packaging.

My Mum always used to tell me that I had more makeup than Boots. While this was a slight exaggeration, when I had a declutter I found that I had so many products that I never wore. I slimmed my collection down to a reasonable minimum (eyeliner, mascara, a few eyeshadows, shimmer blusher and lipbalm) and I felt so much better. Now that I only use the same few products, I’m more likely to use them all up and, once again, I will only buy new products when the others run out.

Another way I save is by lengthening the time between haircuts. Super styled cuts will need a trim every six to eight weeks but I tend to favour the “bed-head” style so it’s easy for me to drag out the time between chops. In fact, I haven’t had a haircut since July so one is long overdue! Hairstyles with highlights and colour are often more expensive to maintain. Even though I used to dye my hair blonde myself, I’ve save a lot since going brunette. This may sound like I’ve given up on my looks all together, but I’d rather have money in savings than an £100 cut and colour.

Once I'd made the decision to only buy what I needed and shop around for less deals I found I was saving lots by ignoring the products I used to buy without thinking twice. My bathroom is a lot less cluttered (sometimes) and it takes me less time to get ready in the mornings when I don't have to apply several different products.

Three Easy Steps to get Started:

Get rid of what you don’t need
Commit to only buying when you really have to
Shop around for the best deals

20,160 minutes

2009-04-17T11:32:00.001+01:00

Or 336 hours. Or 14 days. Or 2 weeks

How on earth did that happen?

Where's the punchline?

2009-04-14T22:49:00.003+01:00

Lying in bed, checking my Google Reader and Saving4Later's newest post.

Boyfriend (who is drunk): I don't get it, so she's spent $600, that's what, like £50?!
Me: Er.... (accompanied by the biggest look of disgust ever, he has dual citizenship with Canada)
Boyfriend: CURRENCY JOKE! Wooooo!!!! HIGH FIVE!!

Minutes later.

Boyfriend: It's only 11pm.

I don't think we're quite on the same page here.

Yesterday...

2009-04-14T19:14:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day, the sun was shining and I even went out with bare legs for the first time this year! I had the day off work so spent much of it pottering about the house, washing clothes and dishes, watching Damages (my new favourite tv show) and having a browse at online stores. I also changed our winter duvet to the summer one and looked out a lot of bulky winter clothes to put in a space-saving vacuum bag and up into the loft. I sorted paperwork and cleared the bedroom floor and my day felt very productive. I made an experimental dish for dinner (chicken, feta cheese, puy lentils and roasted tomatoes - it was average) then spent the evening reading in bed. Lovely day.

Today however, a thick haar has engulfed Aberdeen and I didn't even want to go outside. I'm still off work so I did even more pottering about and managed to get heaps done. I've sorted more paperwork, done the recycling, more dishes, washed bedding, watched 90210 and Desperate Housewives, removed my nailvarnish, read two chapters in my book, been to the library, been to the bank, browsed around New Look (nothing took my fancy), picked up stuff for dinner (spag bol - mmmm!), eaten a scone with clotted cream and jam, listened to Bat For Lashes, listened to Fall Out Boy, been to give blood, counted out Boyfriend's coin jar (£40+ lucky boy!), eaten dinner (Boyfriend made it) and spent over an hour browsing Kitchen Critic and going "I want that!" at lots of things.

Including this:

Money well spent I'm sure! At least I would live safe in the comfort that I can only blame myself when it's all finished.

Is Your Partner Frugal Too?

2009-04-12T14:00:00.001+01:00

For many couples, money can be the source of disagreements. Men think us women spend too much on shoes, we think our men spend too much on beer. It can be hard to see where the other person is coming from when it comes to spending because most of the time we are preoccupied with our own financial ideals.

Boyfriend and I have separate incomes and, since we're not saving towards any shared goals, as long as his share of the bills is paid then what he does with his money is his business. However, since I Stopped Shopping I find it very hard not to judge how other people spend their money and even harder not to butt in and give them my two cents (not literally).

I've become so focused on saving towards my future that I sometimes regard other people's spending as reckless. I wonder if my sister really does need another pair of heels (although she is a shortie!), did Boyfriend really need a £50 kilt pin and did one friend really need to put a holiday on a credit card? And God help you if you moan to me that you are skint but still manage to find money for nights out in the pub! ... I bite my tongue though. Not everyone has the benefit of my experiences and I know that a couple of years ago I was behaving exactly the same way.

It's the little things that really wind me up though. I use most household products sparingly to save money but Boyfriend is a fan of lather-rinse-repeat and uses as much shampoo in a month as I'd use in three. We go through washing up liquid almost as quickly since he's washes the dishes under running water and squirts as he goes. Any nice fruit juice will get guzzled within a couple of days and our previously full drinks cupboard appears to have been raided by a bunch of boozy teens. Oh no, my mistake, that will have been Boyfriend and his friends who probably couldn't even recall their teenage years after that much alcohol.

Perhaps this is a build up of intense resentment as it's nearly a year since I last shopped and I've watched him continue to spend the whole time. Perhaps I am so delighted with my bank balance, the fruits of my year off shopping, that I simply want everyone else to feel that same way. I've learnt so many great ways to save that I'm driven crazy when people won't do as I do. Who knows why I feel this way?! It's a confusing time for me right now, wanting to save, wanting to shop, almost being allowed to shop. I think I will continue to bite my tongue and seethe in silence.

Friday I'm in Love

2009-04-10T11:18:00.002+01:00

I have a bit of an obsession with birds. Not real ones (though they are lovely) but decorative ones, birds in art and design and ornamental birds. The flat I live in belongs to Boyfriend so it's rare that I get to impart my artistic flair on the place (it was hard enough getting some pictures of lighthouses up in the bathroom, in the end I did it when he was on holiday). However, it would appear that the windowsill in the living room has become all mine and this tree with wooden birds has it's place right there.

They came from IKEA and I'm almost certain that the tree is supposed to be used for jewellery and the birds are Christmas decorations. They're far too pretty to be brought out just once a year though.

As you can probably tell, the view from our livingroom is not one to be jealous of so these birds brighten me up and I often find myself just sitting staring at them. (I'm starting to sound like a mad old cat lady now!) The other items are a candle, a decorative cupcake from My Pink Boutique given to me by my friend Jenni and a assemble yourself T-Rex given to me by my best friend Paul for my last birthday.

Speaking of birthdays, yesterday was my blog's 1st birthday and I'm quite amazed that I've now been blogging for a whole year. Thank you so much to everyone who's stopped by in that time!

Fashion Failure

2009-04-08T21:20:00.015+01:00

Obviously I've been off the fashion radar for some time now. I've spent the best part of the last year living in jeans and t-shirts and outfit creativity has somewhat escaped me. Last week, Boyfriend even had the cheek to suggest that I don't make much of an effort these days and might have even let myself go a bit. I huffed...but he's not wrong.

I've been avoiding shops, magazines, fashion shows and websites since last May in a bid to avoid temptation. I've had a clearout and donated most of my unworn items and I've just become comfortable in my wardrobe staples. In the fashion stakes, I am a shadow of my former self.

For the past few weeks I've been dipping my toe back into fashion's murky waters in a bid to avoid an icy surprise when I dive in (more like belly flop) on May 1st. I'm enjoying browsing stores, googling a few choice websites and discovering what's out there and how fashion has changed in the last twelve months.

However, there are several things I'm noticing that I just can't get my head round. Items that I'm baffled have made it into stores and items that I want absolutely nothing to do with. Lets take a look:

Harem Pants. What the hell are these all about?! Words almost escape me here. I don't know anyone who would want to walk around looking like they'd filled their pants. These are the ugliest things I've ever seen.

Wet Look Leggings. Seriously, why?! I did notice these months ago and thought they'd disappear quickly but no, no, they still appear to be making girls over the country look like they've got two black puddings for legs. Just wrong.

Forehead bands. This is just mind boggling. I'm all for regular head bands; useful, practical AND cute, what's not to like? These, however are just nonsense. I've seen loads of girls in Aberdeen wearing these and I always want to go over and just push it back up into their hair. (Don't worry, I haven't accosted anyone yet!) These ridiculous accessories make you look like a shepherd who got lost on the way to the nativity play! They leave a stupid line around your head and everyone I've seen wearing one has spent the whole night fiddling with it. Just push it back up and leave it be idiots!!

It gets worse though. I found these monstrosities earlier. Barf!

Happy Financial New Year!

2009-04-06T12:18:00.002+01:00

So today marks the start of a new financial year and I think it's a perfect time to review your finances, make sure you're on the right track and set yourself some goals.

Unlike the start of the calendar year in January, April is an excellent time to reassess your situation and decide what you want to achieve. In January it's dark and cold, Christmas spending has made us all feel like crap, we've eaten too much and summer seems forever away. All I wanted to do in January was sleep and eat!

April, however, is full of promise. The days are getting longer, the sun is out (occasionally, it's still Scotland!) and the urge to spring clean suddenly becomes overwhelming. I've already been sorting out my kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. I collected up 14 pairs of shoes to sell at a car boot sale on Saturday (sadly none sold, I don't think fashionisas are frequenting car boots just yet) and I've had another mini wardrobe clearout. Having a declutter feels great and make me realise how much stuff I still have that I don't make full use of.

This is also a much better time to think about my financial goals from now forward. When I started the Stopping Shopping challenge last year my goals were simple. Pay off debt. Save money. That was it and to be honest, I didn't realise there was much more to it than that. But I've come a long way and learnt how to make my money work hard, how to make myself extra money and how to save money every day. I now have a much clearer image of what I'd like to achieve.

So, this financial year I hope to achieve the following:

1. Fill my holiday fund to £3000.
2. Fill my emergency fund to £3000 (I am adding to both at the same time).
3. Fill my ISA for 09/10 (I emptied it today because I made a measly £30 interest on £2400, transfered it to a 6% account and feel better already.)
4. Have a "Fun Fund" of £200 for spontaneous events like nights out, gigs, birthday gifts etc.
5. Have a £500 "Christmas Fund".
6. Save enough money to buy a Scooter (apx £2000).

Once these goals are achieved I won't stop saving, I will just keep adding to it and topping up any money spent (Christmas, Holiday etc). Perhaps I'll even start investing. People ask me all the time if I'm saving up for anything in particular and I always simply say "The Future". Who knows what the future may hold, but I think it will be a much better place with savings to fall back on.

Saturday I'm in Love

2009-04-04T12:56:00.008+01:00

Fully intended to come home after work yesterday and write this but ended skiing, then up to a friends house for tea, drinks and then straight home to bed!

So up this week we have my favourite pair of ski pants in the world. They might be daft, they might be outrageous but to me they are utterly perfect and exactly the kind of thing you can only get away with while skiing. Plus they match my pink skis and boots!

I bought them a couple of winters ago in TKMaxx for a bargain £20. They are warm, comfy, plenty baggy and make me easy to spot on the slopes! Last night at work we had our first monthly girls night which was so much fun. I baked some cakes and one of the girls, Natalie drew some amazing artwork including this picture of me.

All in all, a totally ace day, made all the better by my brilliant trousers!

I'm Going to London...

2009-04-03T09:31:00.004+01:00

....to buy Heat magazine! Sing-a-long-a-sing-song! Not really! Confused? See here.

So while I am no longer buying Heat magazine I am indeed going to London in two months today. Probably too far away to justify this post but I am what you would call EXCITED!

I booked train tickets far enough in advance that I got a return to London for £32! It costs that much to go to Glasgow and back! I've saved up a shopping budget of £500 and I'm planning to buy very little between May and June. Heck, if I can make it a whole year then I can sure as hell go a few more weeks without splashing my cash!

The reason I've picked London is because I always love having a little trip there, I can stay with my good friend Rich and I can visit Bodean's BBQ restaurant in Soho which I can't get enough of. I'm also going because I need a few days out of Aberdeen and I know I will have a far better time shopping there than in Aberdeen. Sure I could spend £500 in Aberdeen but we're not exactly booming with shops (we don't even have a Zara or a Mango) so I'd end up with the same stuff as everyone else!

Some people may feel that a £500 shopping trip is ridiculous but I would just like to point out that I have not shopped in a year. Prior to that year I didn't always spend money on high quality items so some of my wardrobe needs replaced. Plus it's a figure that works for me. I started putting small amounts of money aside as soon as my debt was cleared and £500 was my target. I may not even spend it all, but I won't spend more. It's a treat for all the hard work that I've put in, all the times I've huffed because I couldn't buy a new scarf/jacket/whatever and a reward for taking a year to rescue and redeem my finances.

So, I'll be there from the 3rd to the 8th and I can't wait. Frugal Trenches has arranged a blogger meet-up for June 20th which I unfortunately can't make but if any London based bloggers are interested in meeting up when I'm down then leave me a comment.

P.S. Friday I'm in Love will be up later!

The Final Month

2009-04-01T20:06:00.002+01:00

Still can't believe it's here already...

My only goal this month is to prepare myself for what comes in May. Right now I feel like I could still rush out shopping and find myself in a frenzy and cashless by the end of the day. That is not what I want at all.

I'm fully aware that May (a few bits and pieces) and June (a spree in London) will be big shopping months but after that I'm going to straight back to saving as much as possible.

In some ways I hope the next 30 days don't fly past like the last eleven months have. I'm also frightened!

The Penultimate Month

2009-03-31T19:30:00.003+01:00

Today marks the end of my eleventh month without shopping and I've hardly shut up about it all day. Eleven months is a long time but at the same time I can't believe I'm about to begin my final month.

Having a record of what's happen over the past year is so fascinating because I can look back and see what happened at precise points in time. It's great to be able to actually see what I've achieved every time I look at my savings spreadsheet.

I also had some goals this month so here's how I got on:

1) Run 100 miles - I actually have no idea how far I ran this month but what I do know is that I've fallen behind with my training big time. I'm still trying though so we'll see how it goes. The good news is that I've been walking to and/or from work every day since February 12th and have so far only spent £20 on bus fares which has saved me £68 since I didn't buy a bus pass.
2) Pay as much as possible into my ISA - Unfortunately the rate on my ISA was much lower than I thought so I only paid in £100 this month. Instead, I transfered an extra £200 to my other savings account which is fixed at 6.30%. Smart move I think.
3) Carb load! - I might not be that great at running but I'm awesome at carb loading. This has actually been really good because I've found that eating good healthy carbohydrates fills me up for longer so I'm less likely to spend money and snack. I have eaten two Easter Eggs though and don't feel remotely bad for it!
4) Help my sister set up a blog - I helped Rhea set up her blog before she left and luckily for my family she's managing to update every few days. We are all insane with jealousy. You can read more about her adventures here.
5) Make more time for Boyfriend - I tried pretty hard with this one and I think my efforts paid off. I've met Boyfriend for lunch, taken him out for dinner, made a den on the couch when he was bored and lazy, been (sort of) encouraging and complained less(ish). Well...it's a work in progress!

I seriously have no idea what to set myself for goals next month. I am absolutely in shock that there are only 30 days to go.

Wanna know a secret?! Of course you do! I know what my first purchase is going to be! .... To be continued...

Using up Leftovers

2009-03-30T20:26:00.002+01:00

I've never been the kind of person who has a lot of leftovers after meals. In our house we tend to eat whatever we've made, even if it's too much. Sometimes I will deliberately make too much and portion off an extra serving straight away to freeze or have for lunch the next day. This is a really good way to save money because I'm less likely to spend in the supermarket if I've got something yummy in my lunchbox or defrosting for dinner.

On Friday my lovely Dad treated Boyfriend and I (and my sister and her boyfriend) to a takeaway from Ghurka Kitchen, an incredible Nepalese place on George Street in Aberdeen. I had the delicious Mayalu Chicken. Unfortunately, there's always loads of sauce left afterwards so I kept it and cooked it up with some prawns and spring onions then served it with rice for tea tonight.

I also had some bananas which were going slightly brown so I used them up in a delicious, easy muffin recipe that is low in fat and high in carbs so perfect for before and after a run. They're also great for a midday snack as they're really filling and stop you grazing on other junk.

Here's the recipe:

150g Self Raising Flour
150g Oats (I use fine ground oats but any are fine)
150g Sugar
2tsps Baking Powder
2tsps Ground Cinnamon
100ml Milk
2 Eggs
3 large Mashed Bananas (4 if smaller)

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Measure out the milk then add the eggs and bananas. Mash all together.
Add to the dry ingredients and mix together, it's meant to be lumpy!
Divide into 12 muffin cases and bake for approx 15 minutes.

They're so yummy that I've had two!

Friday I'm in Love

2009-03-27T19:44:00.003Z

I've decided to forgo the usual Friday I'm in Love format this week and instead partake in a meme that A Piece of Wood tagged me in last week. This will give me the chance to share several things that I love instead!

The rules are:
1. Name five songs or pieces of music that you would take with you to a desert island for an extended/indefinite stay.
2. Name the book you would take.
3. And finally, name one luxury item that you simply couldn’t be without (this sort of assumes that you are dumped on the island with very limited resources and very little in the way of a set up camp).Then you have to tag at least 3 other people to do it.

Music: (I'm going to name albums because single tracks is just far too hard!)
1. Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
2. Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows
3. Automato - Automato
4. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
5. Ricky Gervais - Podcasts (Hours of laugh out loud entertainment!)

Book:
With forward planning I'd probably take a huge book that I could also burn if necessary. A bumper sudoku book would probably keep me amused (for a short while at least). However, if it was a book to be read then I'd probably take a Chuck Palahniuk book, probably Rant because I've been meaning to re-read it for ages.

Luxury item:
A huge bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk (and I suppose I'd need a fridge to keep it in too!)

I'm not going to tag anyone else because I think this has been going round for a while but if you're interested just copy and paste!

Research

2009-03-26T09:22:00.003Z

As you will know, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to buy when May 1st rolls around so I've been going into a couple of shops for a quick look around to see what's available at the moment. To be honest, it's messing with my head.

I'm having all these conflicting emotions about shopping. If I see something nice my brain goes:

"Oooooh pretty!!"
"Don't touch it. Don't even look at it. You can't have it, you're not allowed to shop!"
"But I can shop soon, only X days to go...ooh I hope they'll still have it in stock."
"Don't you have something a bit like it already?"
"Um, maybe."
"Well then you don't need it."
"Yeah. Ok you're right. I so don't need that. Lets find something else instead!"
"Good girl. But you can't have it today, you still have to wait."
"I KNOW! IT'S ONLY RESEARCH!"
"You could just never shop again and put all that money in your savings. You could be the savings queen!"
"SHUT UP BRAIN!"

And so on and so forth until I feel guilty for even setting foot inside a shop. I feel that planning ahead while I definitely can't buy things is a good idea so that I won't set foot in Topshop on May 1st and freak out and go nuts. I know I won't do this, I do have some self restrain, but the fear is still there.

On the other hand, I want to treat myself. I've taken a year out of shopping and feel that I deserve to be able to enjoy spending some money on things for myself. I've spent a whole year scrimping and saving so that I could get this far, heck I've even saved up a small shopping fund so that when I do shop it won't impact my regular savings. Really I'm the smartest shopper around!

Perhaps it's the blog. The personal finance community that I love so much is really tight and encouraging and everyone is trying to make cutbacks to pay off debt and save. I'll be the black sheep if I start splashing my cash and twittering on about my new clothes and shoes! I'm sensitive to other's situations so don't really want to brag or boast or make anyone feel bad. And I definitely don't want to encourage shopping! Will everyone turn on me if I buy three pairs of jeans or spend £20 in Primark? I don't want to feel like I have to keep my shopping a secret, that's like the old shopaholic me and we all know where that got me.

And so the internal conflict continues. I think I'm going to have to lay down some shopping rules...

OHMIGOD! OHMIGOD! OHMIGOD!

2009-03-25T18:34:00.005Z

You purchased 2 tickets to:
___________________________________________
Brand New Barrowland, Glasgow, Wed 24 Jun 2009, 19:00

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Have I mentioned before that this is my favourite band of all time and how desperate I am to see them again live? Oh yeah, probably not. This is a personal finance blog not a oh-my-god-I-love-Brand-New-so-much-I-can't-breathe blog. Silly me.

But yeah, just got my tickets, very excited. That gig is two days after my birthday which will make it the best week ever.

Only downside is that, as always, tickets for things you really want to go to always go on sale when you don't necessarily have the cash. I'm having the frugalist (is this a word?!) month ever since I wanted to pay extra into my ISA which means I just didn't have the money in my budget.

.....So I put it on my credit card. I probably shouldn't have done that but by the time I get paid next month tickets will definitely be sold out and then I wouldn't be going. The money will be paid off as soon as possible so I won't incur any interest.

This does, however, highlight the need for a fun fund. Once my emergency and holiday fund goals are met I intend to start up a little fund of about £200 which can be used for exactly this type of thing, impromptu nights out, last minute birthday meals etc. Then I won't need to do that again.

Right now I don't care though because I'm going to see Brand New. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

(Calm, normal, coherent blogging will resume later.)

What To Buy?

2009-03-23T22:56:00.003Z

I've been pondering my first purchase after May 1st. My first shopping trip in a year will no doubt be a little bit scary but I feel that I should buy something meaningful or worthwhile. But on the other hand, perhaps I should buy something small and inexpensive, y'know, dip my toe back in the water, so to speak.

I've asked a few people for their thoughts. Some have suggested a pretty dress, some have suggested shoes, some have suggested jeans (no wonder after reading this). Boyfriend's answer was very diplomatic. He said I should buy "whatever would make you happiest", which was a lot nice than the "something for me!" that I was expecting. One person suggested pants, as though I might have been going commando for the past six months (I haven't).

So readers, over to you. I'm completely open to suggestions! Few of my readers will really know my true taste and style (after not shopping for a year, it may appear that I have none) so I'm interested to see what other people would deem a suitable "first purchase".

If you're reading this but haven't ever commented, please feel free to chip in with your thoughts, I'd love to gather up as many ideas as possible!

I LOVE Maths...No Seriously...I'm Addicted!

2009-03-22T09:00:00.001Z

Just doing some sums in my head (then double checking them on a calculator). If I continue saving £500 a month even when Stopping Shopping is over, by the time I am 30 I will have saved £36000. And that's not even including interest.

If I keep saving £500 a month until I'm 50 I'd have £120,000. I could probably retire on that! This kind of maths is excellent!

In reality, not all of the money I save up will be saved forever. Some is saved for holidays, some is saved for Christmas, Birthdays etc. Sometimes I will need to replace expensive things and some months I possibly won't save £500 a month.

But right now, that's an easy amount for me to save and I want to keep going. If I could have £30k in savings by my 30th birthday I would be delighted.

P.S. For my American readers, I haven't made a typo, in the UK Math is indeed called Maths. Don't ask me why, it just is.

Naughty But Nice

2009-03-21T07:15:00.000Z

I've been a bit mischievous. Sometimes I take my library books back late and get a fine on purpose. I like the "free"ness of the library a lot (who doesn't?!) but I also like to make a little contibution as a sort of "thanks for letting me borrow these for free", hence why I've been taking them back late. I look at my fee as a contribution, a gesture of support for my local library. Surely this is how they make a lot of their money? I only wait a day or two though, I'm not that naughty.

Is this weird? Thank God library fees don't count against your credit rating.

Friday I'm in Love

2009-03-20T10:50:00.006Z

Friday is a good feeling (even if I'm working all weekend and my next day off isn't until Thursday) and I'm particularly enjoying this Friday because it's sunny outside and I feel that winter might just be behind us. And THAT is a really good feeling.

So for today's Friday I'm in Love I wanted to pick something bright and shiny that also gives me good feelings and this pair of shoes has the perfect fit. They came from Primark and cost about £12 so I hadn't expected a lot from them (and also was unable to resist) but they truly surprised me. They're comfortable (well, as comfortable as heels can be), playful and fun. I don't wear them too often but when I do they give me that top of the world feeling that nice heels can bless you with.

It's a rare occurrence to be able to walk around with bare legs in Aberdeen, not that you'd know it. Some of the outfits worn in the city centre on a Friday night would have you believing we're in Brazil or somewhere else deliciously hot! We're not though, it gets cold here. Tights have a tendency to be a bit boring so I love wearing bright colours, particularly if they contrast with the rest of my outfit. Yes it might look a bit daft but I'm only going to be able to carry off adventurous dressing for so long, so I'm making the most of it while I can.

You know what else is amazing about these shoes? I also have them in blue! Trust me, it took a lot of restraint to leave the pink, gold and purple pairs on the shelf!

Famous!

2009-03-19T16:24:00.003Z

Sort of... Check me out on Google Street View! Well impressed!

Excuses, Excuses

2009-03-19T09:00:00.000Z

With only 44 days to go until I can shop again, I allowed myself to have a little look around a few shops today. I didn't spend too long but I was mostly unimpressed. Everything I saw that I liked the look of, I found fault with. I automatically found myself making excuses for not buying things.

"This skirt is lovely but it's an awkward shape that would crease easily." (I don't do much ironing.)
"The colour of this bag is gorgeous but it has a popper closure instead of a zip, too unsafe."
"That dress is cute but it's just like one I already own."
"These pumps aren't very well made, they won't last long."

...and so on and so forth.

Perhaps this is just because I knew I wouldn't be buying anything today, but perhaps I really have changed and my eyes are no longer bigger than my bank balance. Far from going mental and shopping the shit out of Aberdeen on May 1st, I think I might actually be alright at this shopping malarkey.

I've Lost Interest

2009-03-18T16:03:00.002Z

Payday today which means another huge chunk of cash into savings - hurrah!!

However, I'm feeling a little annoyed because of these abysmal interest rates. I've been to the bank and paid some money into my ISA before the end of the tax year but the rate has dropped to a pathetic 1.08%. Hardly seems worth it does it?

Last year I put £300 into Premium Bonds with the intention of topping it up to £1000 but changed that plan when the interest rate dropped to 1.8% and slashed the chances of winning a prize. Now the rate is due to drop even further to just 1% and there's only 1 chance to win £1million instead of 2. The other million will be split up into several smaller prizes so I'm happy to leave the £300 there just now and will cash it out in November if I haven't won anything by then, as per the original plan.

My other savings account is fixed at 6.30% until August so I'm half tempted to wait until I get the interest on my ISA money then move it here to get mega interest! Once August comes the rate drops to 1.5% and then I guess it will be time to shift it over somewhere else.

Oh how I wish I'd been into the savings game when interest rates were lovely and high. Seems like there's no place particularly better than any other for my savings stash right now. At least things can't get much worse.

RIP Skinny Jeans. You were so loved!

2009-03-16T22:59:00.003Z

Bad day today. Remember those jeans I love? The favouritest ones ever that had a hole wearing through the crotch? Today I murdered them. And I had such good intentions...

I was having a little bit of a clean in the bathroom, all the while admiring how soft these jeans feel and hoping I can drag the life of them out for just a few more weeks. I picked up the bleach, started to squirt some around the toilet bowl and before I knew it the bottle slipped and I squirted bleach all down my leg, across the bathmat and onto the carpet.

I screamed, not in agony, but in shock and horror at what I'd done. I whipped my jeans off as quickly as I could but it was too late. I could see the damage was already done. The lovely worn-in grey was turning yellowy white before my eyes. I ran them under the tap to wash it off and then the severity of the situation hit me. They are ruined. They look like they've been worn by a plasterer then shat on by a seagull.

I burst into tears. Big, heaving sobbing and fat tears. Boyfriend laughed and tried to comfort me with a hug but I was too distraught. I threw them on the floor in a huff and flounced on the bed. I physically ached. I have two other pairs of jeans, neither of which are comfortable or nearly as perfectly fitting. I now look upon these with scornful eyes. I hate them, but I have to pretend to like them as I now have no option. Favourite jeans are like a best friend. They know your secrets and your stories and I am a best friend jeans murderer. I feel awful.

Goodbye dear jeans. I will miss you. (Only 45 days until I can buy a new pair - YAY!!)

Weekend Review

2009-03-16T09:19:00.008Z

So...the secretive weekend away is over and I can now actually talk about it! Have been up in Aviemore since Friday night for one of my Boss' 30th birthday. Couldn't really speak about it before because the whole thing was a surprise which I didn't want to be responsible for ruining it.

My friend Julene drove me up on Friday night so I arrived about 1:30am and got settled into a really nice hostel. We were up bright and early on Saturday for a day up the slopes and everyone had made a huge effort and tracked down lots of eighties ski gear. Think one pieces and fluoro. I managed to track down a hideous matching top and jacket (turquoise, red, mustard AND purple - ick!) with detachable pocket flaps in a charity shop for only £4. I ummed and ahhhed about buying it because I've always said that charity shop shopping isn't allowed under my rules. However, it's not as though I already had a pile of vintage skiwear lying around so I bought the outfit anyway. Given the nature of my jopb (manager at a ski centre) I figure that it will probably be worn again at some point but to appease my guilt I am going to go back to the charity shop and donate some of my own items so that they can make even more money out of me.

Once we were up the slopes the birthday boy was chuffed to see us but we were all slightly less chuffed about the 50mph winds and poor visibility. We decided to wait until 12 and only buy 1/2 day tickets but then at 12 they stopped selling tickets and wouldn't let anyone up. Not keen to have dressed up in silly outfits for nothing, we headed to the pub for the biggest plate of nachos I've ever seen and then on to play some crazy golf. The less said about that the better as it's not something I'm good at at all. (Some of the biggest tantrums I've ever had have been at crazy golf.)

After that we went home for a snooze before getting ready for an 80's themed party at the Two Hoots nightclub. My friends and I made a wicked effort and I'm pleased (or ashamed?!) to say that everything in my outfit was already in my wardrobe. Louise managed to track down some retro wavers to really complete the look!

L-R Julene, Louise, Moi

Legwarmers were a must! I've never seen so many in my life!

In the morning (not too bad hangover - yay!) we went for a really amazing breakfast at the Mountain Cafe where I had french toast with bacon, banana and fruit salad. Afterwards we went for a walk around Loch Eilein in the Rothiemurcus Estate, climbed lots of trees and enjoyed the fresh air.

Needless to say I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back but had a great weekend. I really want to go back up sometime in the summer and spend a few days canoeing, quad biking and relaxing.

Moneywise, I knew this weekend was coming up the weekend before payday so I'd put aside £100 to cover everything (hostel, food, lift pass, night out) and I came in at about £75 so very happy with that.

Back to work today. Normal service will resume!

Oh and P.S. Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart is the new best song ever!

Aarrrrgghhhh What Day Is It Again?!

2009-03-13T18:03:00.002Z

Man I can't believe how quickly this week has flown by (may it continue and then my sister will be home before I know it) and I've gone and forgotten all about Friday I'm in Love (sorry Anon, thanks for the reminder!).

I'm leaving town for the weekend (sans laptop) after work tonight so will be back Sunday with lots of pics.

Fear not Friday I'm in Love fans! I shall OVERLOAD you with loveables next week. Promise!

Something I do love however, it the weekly email at MoneySavingExpert.com. If you haven't signed up for it already, do it TODAY and they'll donate 50p on your behalf to Comic Relief,

Have a good weekend all!

You Know You've Got Shopping on Your Mind When...

2009-03-11T10:26:00.002Z

You try to go to the Channel 4 website but end up at Chanel... Ooopsie!

50 days to go! (Not including this one.)

The Adventuress

2009-03-10T09:47:00.005Z

Spent my weekend relaxing, reading, walking with Boyfriend and doing little else. Went to the airport yesterday to bid farewell to my sister who is off to Australia/New Zealand/Fiji for three months.

I tried my very hardest not to get upset but I think that it only really hit me yesterday morning that she'll be gone for that long. That is definitely the longest that I won't have seen her and I'm used to speaking to her almost every day. Nobody else could send me a text saying "OMG One Tree Hill!!!!!" and I'd know exactly what they meant.

She's a tough cookie, so she'll have a great time but I am very jealous and just wishing I could have hopped on the plane too. She's starting the trip with a friend so I know she'll be ok and then she's meeting up with my friend Crocker later next month.

Meanwhile with me, little is going on except work work work. Have got good weekend plans but right now they're secret! In other news, ten days until payday. Can't wait to stash more savings away!

L-R - Rhea and I

Friday I'm in Love

2009-03-06T09:00:00.002Z

Up this week we have two rings which I wear all the time. Like anyone who wears the same jewellery every day, I always know where they are and I feel a bit lost if I leave the house without them.

The first (on the left) was given to me a couple of years ago by my sister Fern. She bought it for me in Florida when she was over there competing with her cheerleading group. I love that it's small and cute and lightweight. I wear it on my left ring finger (the only finger it fits) so sometimes it confuses people slightly but for me it's just comfortable there.

The second (on the right) is really the first because I've had it longest. I got it at my very first Reading Festival in 2001 and after thinking I'd lost it forever it turned up a few years ago in an old rucksack. Ther central band swivels round the and I used to fiddle with it a lot more than I do these days. In contrast to the hearts ring, this one is heavy and solid and chunky.

I've always preferred silver jewellery to gold and I like that, despite their differences, these two form a set in my eyes. I have very few other rings which rarely get worn because I'm perfectly happy wearing these two all the time.

Not Very Well Heeled

2009-03-05T19:00:00.002Z

Had a quick stocktake of my shoe collection today and I am somewhat embarrassed. There are several pairs of heels that I have not worn once since I Stopped Shopping. In fact, there are several pairs of heels I have probably only worn once since I bought them.

However, every single pair of trainers (except my running shoes) and everyday flats has been worn to death. A cute pair of wellie style boots (with dinosaurs on them-yay!) are full of holes and leaky. Two pairs of trainers are worn away at the back and have holes in the sole. Several pairs of pumps and flats have soles that are peeling away or are nearly worn through and anything white no longer resembles anything like it. My flat knee high boots have a scuffed hole in the toe so can't ever be worn when it's wet!

My job is quite outdoorsy (although mostly desk based) so I never wear smart shoes or heels to work and when I go out I often find heels so painful (because they're cheap shoes) that mostly I wear flats instead. Luckily I'm tall so it's not a problem.

Clearly in my shopaholic days I had a proper case of shoe fever because I loads of pairs of heels and very few pairs of nice, comfortable or practical shoes. What is it that makes me spend a fortune on fancy things but scrimp when it comes to the sensible stuff? The same can be said of my wardrobe, full of beautiful dresses but I have only three pairs of jeans, all cost £20 or less and my favourite ones are now so worn out there's a hole in the crotch.

I've been thinking a lot about setting myself some rules for when I can shop again and I think this will play a big part in it. I will not allow myself to blow a fortune on items that I will hardly wear but will be willing to pay more for quality items that are used all the time.

First on my list will be some nice new trainers I think. It needs to be done before I find myself walking to work with a rubber sole strapped to my foot with duct tape. In the meantime, I will be having a clearout and filling Aberdeen's charity shops with a selection of hardly used size sevens.

Busy Week

2009-03-05T10:15:00.004Z

Ooops! Where has the week gone?! I had a great little five day weekend and Boyfriend and I (plus my sisters) went to stay at my parents house on Sunday night. We had a lovely roast dinner and lots of snacks, watched tv, played the Wii and chilled out.

On Saturday night I found a fiver so I did something with the money that I shouldn't really have done. I used the found money to treat myself to the Sunday papers, something I used to do every week but haven't done in ten months. As usual, it took me until Tuesday evening to get through it all. At around £2 a paper (I bought two) it can quickly add up if you buy them every week, not to mention the amount of time it takes you to read it all. I have missed lazy Sundays in bed with the supplements so it was a nice treat but it also reminded me just how little I need to buy them to make me happy. Once I can shop again, I won't go back to buying the paper every week, that's over £100 a year and I quite like using my Sundays to get lots done, but I will still treat myself to a lazy day every now and then.

The rest of my week has been spent doing the most pathetic runs ever. I bashed my shin the other day and ever since my right calf just seizes up when I hit two miles or more. Getting a bit deflated about it now. I also went to help my sister pack for Australia (living out of a rucksack for 3 months requires ruthless packing) which was great fun because I rediscovered a bunch of my old stuff that was lurking in her wardrobe. I can't believe it's only 4 days until she leaves!

In other news, I opened a new savings account with ING Direct yesterday who were briefly offering a sweet deal for new customers. You open a savings account with £1, they give you £20 FREE and 3% AER. I'm sending off my cheque for £1 today and will start adding small amounts of money to this account to save up for other peoples birthdays and Christmas. Sadly this offer is no longer available (the account is, not the free £20) so I'm really just bragging. I also sold a book on Green Metropolis which is another £3 I wasn't expecting as I'd forgotten I even had books listed for sale there.

Really looking forward to the weekend. I won't be working and will have lots of time to chill out and get stuff done. Spring is in the air and the sun is shining which means I want to get active and busy and be doing things all the time instead of lazing under the covers and watching Lost. Hopefully the weather on Sunday will be nice and we can go to Stonehaven for a walk out to the castle.

Goals for March

2009-03-01T09:36:00.003Z

The penultimate month of Stopping Shopping has finally arrived. At some points I never thought my year without shopping would end, but looking back now I am really amazed at how quickly the last ten months have just whizzed past and now we're in March already!

This time last year, Stopping Shopping wasn't even born yet and I was still happily splashing my cash all over town (and the interweb). I didn't know the true value of money and I didn't care. I'm not sure exactly when my mind started to change. Perhaps it was when I realised I'd worn a new item of clothing every day for a month. Perhaps it was when I realised how ridiculous it was that my student overdraft was no longer interest free and I wasn't paying any of it back. Perhaps it was when I realised I just had too much stuff. Who knows?! It's probably a combination of all three but all I know it that I am totally different person now to the one who would have written this post a year ago.

So, some goals for March.

1) Run 100 miles - Feeling a bit of a burn after yesterdays run but off out to do it all again once this is posted.
2) Pay as much as possible into my ISA - April 5th (or 6th?!) is the start of a new tax year so I need to fill it up as much as possible before then in order to get the last good interest rate ever. More on my ISA later.
3) Carb load! - Marathon training needs lots of carbohydrates for fuel so I need to work out the kinks in my diet in order to run well. This could mean no more Easter Eggs, the horror!
4) Help my sister set up a blog - Rhea is heading off to Australia for 3 months so I want to help her set up a blog so she only has one thing to update if she gets near a computer instead of 30 people to email.
5) Make more time for Boyfriend - With my crazy shift patterns, all the running, writing and now a volunteer programme starting this month, poor Boyfriend doesn't seem to get much attention these days.

So there we have it. I seem to set far fewer financial goals lately. The reason for this is that my finances have pretty much plateaued out and I am saving the maximum amount possible each month. My food spending could be a bit lower but now that I'm in training I'd prefer to spend money to eat very healthily than scrimp and save then affect my running.

I also want to make a bigger effort not to waffle on about running so much. After all, this is a personal finance blog, not a runners blog and I'm sure all of my readers (lovely as you are) don't really give a shit how many miles I've covered each day. But forgive me, it's a big part of me just now and I can't help but waffle on when I'm enjoying it so much, the fresh air, the lighter evenings, it's great to be out in it.

61 Days

2009-02-28T10:05:00.006Z

Is anyone else thinking it's crazy that tomorrow we start March?! Wasn't it just Christmas? Time is just flying by this year and already spring seems to be upon us. The evenings are getting lighter again (it's actually still daylight when I finish work!) and before I know it we'll probably be looking at Christmas again!

Despite not getting on so well with my Monthly Goals, I still feel like February was a great month. Finances are back to normal after the holiday spending, my running has improved hugely and I've just got a good feeling about life right now.

Here's how I did:

1. 12 No Spend Days - FAIL! I just can't seem to work these like I used to. I managed a pathetic 6 days in February although there were lots of days with really low spends of only a couple of pounds.
2. Run 50 miles - DONE! All the running and brisk walking to work quickly adds up and my totals say that (not including the 5 mile run I'm about to go on) I've covered 50.36 miles. The best thing is that I didn't really kick myself up the bum until the 13th so that's been covered in just two weeks. Really impressed with getting this one done.
3. Read 4 books - FAIL (ish)! The downside of all the running is that I fall asleep a lot quicker so I've read 3 books this month and I'm halfway through my fourth. I've read Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride (Aberdeen writer), America Unchained by Dave Gorman and On Writing by Steven King. I've halfway through Stuart MacBride's second book, Dying Light.
4. Make 3 soup batches - FAIL! I made just two batches of soup this month and one was so horrible I binned it. I made Tomato soup (lovely) and Artichoke and Chesnut soup which we had on holiday and was delicious. However, the recipe I looked up resulted in the blandest tasting green pulp I've ever seen and there was no way I was going to fill up my freezer with little boxes of the stuff.

Other great things that happened this month:

Took 3 vintage dresses to donate to a local shop and then found out they'd pay me £10 for them - Boost!

Accepted a paid deal for a magazine interview (more on this soon)!

Found out I had two lieu days to take from work and I'm currently enjoying a 5 day weekend!

Ticked "Go Running in the Rain" off my 101 Things list.

Discovered the best idea ever in Tescos. They sell packs of bananas, half are ripe and half will ripen later at home. This is genius! Why didn't someone think of it sooner?!

Realised that as of today there are only 61 days left until I can shop again!

Back tomorrow for some new Goals. Oh and I totally forgot about yesterday's Friday I'm in Love picture. I'll post double next week!

Love Films!

2009-02-27T14:00:00.000Z

Regular readers will know how much I love a good movie or a trip to the cinema. I went last night to see He's Just Not That Into You (a friend treated me - yay!) and today I'm taking my little sister to see Push with some free tickets I picked up.

Going to the cinema is ridiculously expensive but I always find ways to keep the costs down. Using my student card give me a discount, Vue cinema also issues a voucher with each ticket sold which gives you £1.50 off your next visit (within 2 weeks) and I usually find some of these vouchers just lying around the place that people have left behind. Orange Wednesdays gets you 2 tickets for the price of 1 and I'm also a "Friend" of my local independent cinema which means that for £40 a year (joint friendship) we get 6 free tickets (so you save straight away), and £2 off each visit. Plus they also throw in a handful of free "Friends Only" screenings a year.

On top of this, I also have a LOVEFiLM subscription which works like this. I pay £12.72 a month (yay for the VAT cut - not!) and can rent as many films as I like and keep them for as long as I like. We can have two films at a time so Boyfriend and I always have something each that we like and there are thousands of films to pick from including a huge amount of world cinema that you'd struggle to pick up elsewhere.

I've had my subscription for just over a year now which means I've spent about £156 in total. When I first figured this out I was quite surprised, that's a lot of money, until I checked the number of films we've rented. In that time we've had 75 films totalling just £2.08 each. Comparatively, if those films had been rented from our local (useless) DVD shop, we'd have paid around £262.50 and if we'd seen all of those films in the cinema (our average trip, non Orange Wednesdays is about £9 for tickets I'd guess) we'd have forked out a huge £675 in a year! And that's not even including the large drink and popcorn that Boyfriend can't see a film without!

All this maths has made me really glad I took out my LOVEFiLM subscription. I really love out movie nights in and clearly making our own popcorn and not drinking a litre of coke is doing us good and saving some money. Anyone else use an online DVD service (I'm aware that there are others, I don't work for LOVEFiLM by the way)? Anyone got any films to recommend I add to my list?

Good Day/ Bad Day

2009-02-25T16:37:00.003Z

The running is still going well (although today is a rest day) and so far I've managed to cover about 45 miles. I'm really impressed with how quickly my body has adapted to handle further distances and I'm very much enjoying being outside in the fresh air. As a matter of fact, today was the first day in 2 weeks that I got the bus so not only am I improving my fitness but saving myself lots of money too.

However, I am finding that I have more energy during the day and much less at night so there's barely been a night where I've gone to bed and not fallen asleep in a few minutes. Poor Boyfriend is probably a bit fed up of spending his evenings alone watching tv and playing PlayStation...or not perhaps!

Yesterday I had an excellent day off involving a (not as long as I'd hoped due to cramp) run, a bit of browsing around town, food shopping and picking up some cinema tickets for FREE. That's right, my favourite price, free. If you've seen a film at Vue recently and that film one an Oscar, dig out your tickets and take them back in to exchange them for a free one. How cool is that?! You can get more info here. Luckily I had my Benjamin Button tickets still in my purse but I'm not sure what happened to my Slumdog Millionaire or Wrestler ones, otherwise I'd be seeing free films forever more! Lots of good films out at the moment so planning to see a few over the next week or so.

Different story today though. Disaster struck when I found a hole has worn away in the groinal area of my favourite pair of jeans. Could feel a unusually positioned breeze whilst waiting for the bus, a quick check revealed that we didn't have an unbuttoned fly emergency but further investigation revealed a definite hole in the fabric. On reflection I really hope I had the forethought to be retain some dignity while carrying out that investigation and that I didn't just stand there rummaging about and lifting one leg in the air. Also, when I say favourite, I really mean that. These jeans are lovely and I wear them at least 5 days out of 7 (don't judge me, clothes don't need washed until they actually look dirty if you ask me) and I'm gutted that their time has almost come to an end. I can probably get away with wearing them a bit longer but I had already noticed that the fabric around my bum is wearing a bit thin. What can you expect really when you've worn a pair of trousers about 300 times? I will try to limit their use and prolong their life for as long as possible, or at least until I can buy a new pair in May. Until then I suppose I'll have to wear some other not as nice but perfectly fine trousers, or hope the weather stays warm and I can out some of my fabulous skirts!

Side note! Whilst running I've been listening to lots of podcasts such as Steven Fry's Podgrams, the Adam and Joe show and Answer Me This but I'm always on the look on for new ones (preferably funny). If anyone can recommend something good then send it my way!

Recession Rants

2009-02-23T11:55:00.003Z

A few things I've noticed recently have really wound me up and, as always, here's the best place to get things off my chest.

First up is bad advertising. I actually read an article the other day that started "With all the economic doom and gloom going around, there's never been a better time to get away from it all..." before going on to advertise holidays costing around £1000 per person. Are these people insane? With all the economic doom and gloom going around I'd say there's never been a better time to save up some money and protect yourself against job loss, increased bills etc. It's hardly the time to be splashing your cash on a fancy holiday.

The second thing that's boiling my blood is the millions of articles full of (crap) money saving tips and (inpractical) extra ways to make money. These are nothing new, they've been going round for over a year now but they're always full of the same old tat. Why not rent out your driveway for extra income? Fantastic idea if you don't live in a flat (like me) or live somewhere with a drive that you never park in. Know anyone who has a driveway but no car? Me neither! Why not hire out your home as a movie set? I know I live in Scotland but it's not all country manors surrounded by rolling hills and lochs. My pokey little one bedroom flat couldn't fit a bloody film crew in it and god knows why they'd want to film here anyway. Take in a lodger? I don't know anyone rich enough to live in a flat with a spare room.

One article even suggested baking and selling your own bread! Perhaps this is advice for unemployed people with huge kitchens because I can barely seem to fit time in to make just one loaf of homemade bread for myself, let alone start a side-business out of my kitchen. Offer a dogwalking service? I've got better things to do with my time than pick up the poop of a dog that I don't even own. Is this advice for teenagers who are too young to get a job yet?!

Here's my favourite one though: Do what you love and the money will follow. Er, what now?! I love reading and watching Lost and taking baths and eating chocolate chip muffins (sometimes all at once) but I don't think anyone (who isn't batshit crazy) is going to pay me to do those things.

I suppose some of the ideas genuinely are workable but the thing that irritates me most is that none of it speaks to me or my demographic. Nobody ever has advice and top tips for twenty-somethings without a huge garden to grow and sell veg from or the skills to provide cut rate haircuts for their friends. Cashback sites are pretty useless when you've banned yourself from shopping altogether.

Most of the money saving and money earning tips I've learnt since I Stopped Shopping has come from simple common sense. For me, the easiest ways to save or earn money are watching my spending, planning food shopping ahead of time, clearing out my clutter and selling it on.

By far the biggest money saving move has been cutting out shopping altogether. Without the odd pair of shoes here and there, a new skirt every other week and more jackets than any person ever needs, I've saved myself a small fortune. Yes, I could have simply cut back but I chose to go one step further and take a year out of my fashion crazed consumer driven lifestyle and get back to basics. And boy am I glad I did.

I suppose money saving advice really just comes down to what works for you and your situation. If you bought a house with a driveway but don't have a car, by all means rent it out. If you're an expert breadmaker with a lot of time on your hands, start selling your wares. But if, like me, you're young, you work a lot and you like your free time to be your time, then let me know if there are any more ways to get my hands on some extra cash.

Friday I'm in Love

2009-02-20T10:12:00.003Z

Again, perhaps an unconventional choice given the lack of materialistic value but this tattoo is still something I purchased and something I still love.

I have nineteen tattoos in total, all stars in various colours and scattered all around my body. Mostly these are my favourites though. They were the last tattoos I bought, just over three years ago and I love the unusual position of them, the contrasting colours and that they look fantastic with a skirt and bare legs (a rare occurance in Aberdeen).

I also have three small stars across the top of my right foot, my two sisters both have the same tattoo and I really like that. I got my first tattoo (three stars on my lower back) about six months after I turned eighteen (despite knowing what I wanted from just fifteen) and it hurt so much that I left after just getting the outline and no colouring done. There's not a lot of fat on my lower back so it was probably the most pain I'd ever felt. A few months later I felt brave enough to go back and get the colour plus a few more.

Tattoos are so addictive which is how in just two years I ended up with nineteen. I love every one of them though and I love that they are all stars so it's really just like one big themed tattoo. I also love that you can't tell just by looking at me that I have so many, they're like little hidden secrets. Some people ask if I'd get anything else and I don't think I would, it would feel strange having something that wasn't a star. I would like to get some more but they're not cheap and as I've previously mentioned, you have to wait a year to give blood (also addictive!) after getting a tattoo.

Anyone else got any interesting tattoos?

Itchy Feet

2009-02-19T19:57:00.002Z

My lucky little sister has just returned from a 2 week New York - Washington - Las Vegas - Los Angeles - San Fransisco trip and is with up for just another two weeks before jetting off to spend 3 months travelling around Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

Needless to say, I am more than a little jealous and wishing it was me who was heading off for an adventure. I've been on copious travel and holiday websites in the past week, planning trips and holidays in my head, all the while knowing it's just a ridiculous fantasy. Oh my god has is given me itchy feet though.

I'd love another winter ski trip and would desperately like a beach holiday with lots of lazing around, reading books and swimming in the sea. I'd like an adventure holiday (perhaps a cycling one), a volunteering holiday and I'm also quite partial to the idea of a couple of UK holidays too (Cornwall or Wales perhaps). Then there's the city trips, I can't wait for the day I set foot in Manhattan again, I'd like boyfriend to see Paris (though he'd probably hate it and I'd be annoyed at that very muchly) and it's a longtime dream of mine to travel all around of the united states.

I won't be booking or even seriously planning anything until my Holiday Fund is up to £3000 though. Right now it's half way there and the day it hits the target I will plan myself a wee trip. I won't spend the whole £3000 but I think that's a good amount to have saved. My intentions are to take a trip anytime I make it up to £3000. So if I have a £500 Greek beach holiday it won't take too long to build it up again, if I spend £2500 on a month long venture across the globe then I'll take a year out of holidaying to top it back up. Seems like a good plan to me anyway.

What about you dear readers, anywhere you'd desperately love to visit?

Not really the response I was after!

2009-02-18T13:57:00.002Z

Occasionally I will sign an e-petition over at Number10.gov.uk to let it be known how I feel about our governments decisions. The most recent one I signed was to campaign for the 17.5% VAT (now 15% since our tax cut) to be removed from the price of fruit juices and smoothies. The petition says it better than I can:

“We are currently charged the maximum level VAT of 17.5% on healthy fruit juices and smoothies – but for cakes, milkshakes, frozen chips and other less healthy food and drinks, the VAT rate is a big fat ZERO. Why should people pay a premium on pure fruit drinks when they don’t pay VAT on fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables? We believe that the government could use the tax system to reward those who make healthy choices in their diet - boosting fruit and vegetable intake means people are less likely to develop chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and some cancers. So we would urge this government take the first available opportunity to change the tax system so that 100% fruit juices and smoothies are levied with a 5% VAT rate in this November’s pre-budget report.”

I couldn't agree more with this. I love fresh fruit juice and smoothies but they can really eat into your food shopping budget. Some smoothies are priced at around £2.50 a litre and some of the more unusual fruit juices (pomegranate for example) are so expensive I can't even consider buying them.

Today I got an email informing me of the goverments reponse which can be read in full here and it's basically a thinly veiled "No, piss off" hidden under some mumbo jumbo and spin. The petition had just over 14,000 signatures which leaves me wondering how many people have to sign in order for the government to do something about it.

The Number 10 petitions page is host to thousands of petitions, many of which cover important issues that may affect you. However, anyone can add a petition so it's also host to some fairly nonsense ones too such as Put a minimum age on the internet 18 at least preferably 21, Knight Liam Gallgher(sic), abolish all prison sentences and ban all religions. Clearly there are some crazy kooks with strong opinions out there.

If there's an issue that you feel strongly about, make sure your voice is heard and sign up. But please don't sign to give Liam Gallagher knighthood.

On the Run

2009-02-18T10:45:00.002Z

Forgive me for being so quiet for the past few days. I worked late shifts Friday - Monday and yesterday was my 8th day in a row. However, I'm proud to say I still haven't gotten the bus once since my pass ran out!

In fact, after all my procrastinating and putting things off, my marathon training has officially and properly begun. I wiped all the old half effort runs from my Nike+ trainer and started fresh and back to basics. I've brisk walked to work every day since Friday (5km door to door) and yesterday I ran it for the first time then walked the same distance home! Since Friday I've totalled 15.6 miles or 25km which I'm pretty happy with. The Nike+ trainer was definitely worth the £20 it cost. It's so encouraging to see how far you've run, how fast you're doing it and I even got a little "Well Done" message from Lance Armstrong on my longest run. It wasn't really a run, more of a brisk walk along the river for an hour but I'm counting all of that as part of training. Just need to get to the stage where I can run it and then I'll be well on the way! Still got a long way to go though...

I'm taking today (my day off) as a well deserved rest day then tomorrow (another day off) I will have a nice long run in the morning. I can feel the difference from just 5 consecutive days already. My legs are feeling tired but good and I've started making a conscious effort to eat a lot better and carb load as much as possible.

We had an unfortunate incident last week that resulted in all our freezer food defrosting and being chucked out so I'm planning on filling it back up with meals and soups this week. Today is also payday, another chunk of money off to savings. Feeling very positive, lets hope the rest of the week continues the same way!

Random Acts of Kindness

2009-02-14T10:28:00.003Z

Something funny must have come over me last night because I was suddenly all about kindness and giving. After work I went to the pub to meet Boyfriend for one of his colleague's leaving do's. At the bar an older man was about to get served but told the barman that I was first (technically I was, but this is a rare gesture in Aberdeen). I was really grateful, and in return for his random act of kindness I made one of my own and bought him his drink.

Later on, we picked up a pizza on the way home but straight away I realised I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing. I offered a piece to a couple of chilly looking girls on their way into town and at first they were bemused but then gratefully accepted a piece before calling me "a babe" and then heading on their merry way.

Stuff like that feels good. It doesn't cost anything to be nice to people, although I am a couple of quid down for a pint, but it's a small price to pay.

Anyone else committing random acts of kindness?

Also - Day two of not having a bus pass. I've had enough already and my wellies have fallen to bits!

Friday I'm in Love

2009-02-13T08:32:00.002Z

Up this week is a rather lovely apron that my Dad gave me for Christmas last year. It came from the Eden Project and it has an absolutely gorgeous pattern. I know it doesn't seem like the most obvious item to love dearly but I really do.

You see, when I put on the apron it means I'm in kitchen mode and that I mean kitchen business. When I've got the apron on I get loads of kitchen stuff done. I'm less likely to wander off and roam the other rooms of the house with my apron on. The magic apron keeps me in the kitchen and even keeps me focussed and organised. I don't know what it is, it just has lovely effect on me and my kitchen. Apron = Business.

Up next week, a more fashionable item, but today I just wanted to share the love for my apron.

Strapped for Cash

2009-02-10T12:25:00.002Z

I'm in a shit mood about money today. I put so much into savings this month (not to mention the several birthdays) that I only have £22 until payday (the 20th). And my bus pass expires on Thursday. I hate that broke feeling (even though I'm technically not - the savings are looking good) and I hate that I forced boyfriend to pay for a train ticket for me on Sunday as I was having a No Spend Day and said I'd buy the next lot of food shopping. (Sorry boyfriend - xx.)

Have decided not to renew my bus pass until payday and walk (hopefully run if the snow clears) there and back each day.

I will not dip into my savings before payday. I. Will. Not.

25 Things About Me

2009-02-10T09:00:00.001Z

Have seen this thing floating about a few other blogs so thought I'd give it a bash and maybe dig up a few bits and bobs that wouldn't usually make it onto this blog. Prepare to be enthralled (or not!).

1. I have nineteen tattoos.
2. I love baths far too much. (Think I've had eight this month.)
3. My favourite film is a French film called Love Me If You Dare.
4. I could easily eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner and a late night snack.
5. I am almost always cold.
6. Salt, Peppa and Spinderella by Johnny Foreigner is the most played song on my iPod.
7. I enjoy having a great big cry every now and then.
8. Show me an American TV Drama and chances are I'll love it.
9. I can't roll my tongue but I can touch my nose with it.
10. I am planning on buying myself a Tiffany Necklace to mark the end of my year without shopping.
11. Boyfriend and I mostly hate each other's taste in music (his is just pure noise!!)
12. I regularly wish for just one more hour in the day.
13. I hate smoking and will moan and grump when anyone (dickheads!) smokes near me.
14. I find it hard to enjoy any icecream more than Ben and Jerry's.
15. I still have my childhood "blankey". It's called Numnums.
16. I portmanteau so often that I mostly just speak a cross between gibberish and nonsense (or nonserish!).
17. Nature programmes are awesome.
18. I would love to take a few months out and travel round all the states of America. I can't drive though so this will probably never happen.
19. I love wearing my glasses and hardly ever wear contacts (except for gigs, drunk dancing and skiing).
20. I'd really like to be good at photography but right now I think it's too expensive to get into.
21. I am looking forward to and dreading the day I can shop again in equal parts. Think I might be sick the first time I hand over cash for clothing.
22. I want to start a family. Badly.
23. All my closest friends are boys. I only have a handful of girl friends. I find most girls are too mental to handle.
24. Is how old I will be on my next birthday.
25. I recently joined Twitter. Follow me here http://twitter.com/hollyjunesmith

And there you have it! Had a fab and lazy weekend with little to report (although Sunday was a no spend - woohoo!). Yesterday my boss treated the guys in my team to a day up the mountains which was much needed and a totally great surprise. Back in the office this afternoon though. Enjoying days off almost a little too much lately.

Slush (And Getting Through the Cold Snap)

2009-02-06T19:05:00.003Z

Three pairs of socks, one pair of legwarmers and one pair of pink wellies and my feet are still freezing cold and wet!!

Aberdeen has finally had some lovely snow over the past few days and today it came down in huge big fluffy clumps which made me very happy. Getting home from work was a total nightmare though. What is it about snow that turns drivers into complete chumps?! With less than an inch of slush on the road, I'm baffled as to how traffic in Aberdeen came to a standstill this evening. I got the bus home (as usual) and only travelled 500m in 45 minutes! Eventually I got so sick of waiting that the driver let me off and I walked the rest of the way home. The craziest part of the whole thing was that at just one Aberdeen roundabout I could see 17 buses stuck in the traffic and most were only half full. When will it occur to people to leave the car at home and get the bus in this weather? Aberdeen doesn't need another car with just one person in it sitting clogging up the traffic.

Being Scottish, we are never prepared for the weather even though we should know full well to expect the worst. I thought I'd put together a few tips for getting through the snowy weather unscathed but this won't just apply to Scotland, all around the UK people are getting annoyed by the white stuff!

1) Prepare to get wet - I have a full change of clothes at work including several pairs of socks. Be warned that if it's snowing, you're probably going to get wet feet (even with wellies on). Sitting with soggy socks all day is horrible so if your feet do get wet, dry them off as soon as possible and change into something else.

2) Prepare to get stuck - Be in in traffic or at home, be prepared for not being able to get about for a while. If there's a chance you might get snowed in, make sure you've got in plenty milk, bread and food to last you for a couple of days. Look out some candles too if there's a chance your electricity might go out. If you're city based then it's unlikely you'll be unable to leave your house but, like I said, snow turns the roads into mayhem. If possible, I just save myself the trouble and walk everywhere. If you drive, I'd strongly suggest doing yourself and everyone else on the roads a favour by ditching the car and using public transport. If public transport will have you stuck, always carry something to read and something to snack on so you don't get too bored or fed up.

3) Stay In - Usually advice for keeping happy in the winter is to get out and about but in the snow and at night I generally disagree. There's never been a better excuse for staying in and snuggling up with your duvet and a DVD. If you must go out be sure to wrap up warm and keep your head and hands covered up. Women in Aberdeen go crazy at weekends and on the highstreet at night you'll see hundreds of girls in short dresses and heels with no jackets or anything. These people are properly mental and this is just asking to get ill.

4) Have fun! - It doesn't snow very often so instead of moaning about it, why not layer up, pop on your gloves, hat and scarf and head out for a winter walk or a snowball fight. The fresh air will do you good and you can look forward to a lovely hot cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate or a bath when you get home.

5) Layer Up - No matter how well you think you are dressed for the snow, chances are you'll still be cold. Lots and lots of layers is the key to keeping warm. Remember you can easily take something off if you get too hot but can't add anything if you're too cold once you've left the house.

Friday I'm in Love

2009-02-06T09:00:00.000Z

Welcome to a brand new series called Friday I'm in Love. Each Friday from now until, well, until I've had enough I'm going to be posting a photo and rambling on a bit about something that I love (mostly clothes).

Don't worry readers, the aim of this little project is not to rub your faces in how fabulous and extensive my wardrobe is. Nor is the aim to make you feel jealous or encourage you to shop. The aim is simply that I've been a bit fed up with my wardrobe lately and I think this will keep me focused on the last three months and remind myself how lovely my things are. Compliments are welcomed though (as always).

So first up is a lovely little jacket that I got a few years ago from H&M for about £35. I think I got it around the height of houndstooth fever shortly after Sienna Miller was pictured in the classic print. I wore it loads that summer and eventually relocated it to the back of a wardrobe after wearing it at Leeds festival and bringing it home grubby and smoke-ridden. A few weeks ago I dug it out again and remembered why I fell in love with it in the first place. It's made of the softest cotton, fits delightfully and is perfect with jeans and a t-shirt or simple dresses in the summer. It won't get worn much just yet (3/4 length sleeves = terrible winter fashion) but I can't wait to have it on all the time this summer, providing we actually have one of course! I love the way this jacket makes me feel a bit like a grown-up (I've still to reach fully grown-up status) and I think it will be a jacket that will always have a place in my wardrobe.

Goals for February

2009-02-04T18:14:00.003Z

Ooops! Where did the time go?! Ever since Sunday I've had a whirlwind few days involving lots of shouting and drinking and eating cakes (at the Superbowl party), lots of being jealous (my sister is off the the States for 2 weeks!), lots of being tired (slept about 14 hours on Monday night), lots of reading (excellent trip to the library on Monday) and of course lots of work.

I've also been neglecting internetland lately because my laptop is going so bloody slow!! I've got all the latest updates and antiviruses (sic?) but it's still driving me nuts. I suspect it's because I've got so much music on it (from when I put everything on my laptop then sold my CDs) so the only thing I can really do is buy an external hardrive and clean Mr Laptop up. Not happening though. Far too expensive and will have to wait until I can shop again at the very earliest.

So, on to some goals for February. Short month. Short goals. Seems fair (and I'm feeling uninspired).

1. 12 No Spend Days - I can do it, I know I can!
2. Run 50 miles - Not all at once of course. However, my marathon training is thus far pathetic. If I haven't cranked it up 50 gears by the end of the month I don't think I'll manage to do it.
3. Read 4 books - 1 a week should be manageable. I often moan that I don't have time to read when I'm wasting my time doing other silly things.
4. Make 3 soup batches - Missed out in Jan due to holiday and eating everything in the freezer to make space for ice (for Superbowl party) so will triple my monthly goal. Any recipes welcome.

That's it. I'm getting bored of setting goals and not achieving them, but also, I'm pretty happy with the way everything else is going right now. And we have snow!!

Shopaholics in the News

2009-02-01T10:42:00.002Z

The Sunday Mail have a feature in today's paper about Holly is Stopping Shopping and it's amazing! Picked up a copy from the 24 hour bakery on the way home from the gig last night (which was fantastic but a very sad day) and jumped up and down the whole way home. The article is basically an overview of what my life used to be like and what drove me to begin the Stopping Shopping challenge. I'm not sure if it's only in the Scottish version of the paper but it's page 45 so have a look if you're out and about today. I'll try to find the article online and link to it later.

Hello to any new readers who have popped by to say hello after reading about me in the paper. In case you're wondering what the fuss is all about, here are a few helpful posts to get you started:

Why would anyone want to stop shopping for a whole year? - Just noticed I've written "I'm not a shopaholic" in that post. Denial! But I'm not anymore!

Things Holly Can't Buy - The definitive list!

No Spend Days - The simplest and easiest way to start saving yourself money.

Feeling inspired? Read Fix Your Finances - My five part series on how to get your finances in order, start paying off your debt and saving those pennies!

Nine Months Down!

2009-01-31T16:59:00.004Z

Couldn't believe it this morning when I woke up to a text from my Dad saying "Only three months left of your challenge now"! Sometimes it does strike me as completely mental that nine months have already passed and in that time I haven't bought a single pair of shoes. If this time last year someone told me I could go this long without a new handbag I'd have run away in fear that they were casting some sort of voodoo on me. Nine months feels like a really big achievement. Much more than six, seven or eight. At nine months, the end is really in sight.

At the start of the month I set myself a few goals so it's time to recap them and see how I got on. Warning: It's not good!

1) 10 No Spend Days - I managed a meagre 5 and really just didn't bother. Despite this, in January I was really good at taking plenty food to work, but spent often because I always seemed to need something for at home.
2) £30 a week on food - No way did I meet this target. In fact, there were two weeks where I spent double my target! However, I put this down to eating everything in the house before we went on holiday and needed a lot of cupboard and freezer stuff when we got back. February should be easier.
3) Research and sign up for a Fruit and Veg box delivery scheme - This is half done. I know which one I'm going to join, just need to go and sign up for it. Will do that after this so it'll be a tick!
4) Write for 15 minutes each day - Took my laptop on holiday hoping I'd be inspired but failed to write one creative word the whole time. Upon my return I was struck with severe writers block and cried several times while staring at my laptop and blubbing "I just haven't got anything good in my head" and so on and so forth. Seems to be better now, I've written a short story and started a longer one this month.
5) Have a wardrobe declutter - Hurrah!! Something that I actually did. I even went as far as sorting out the bathroom and the kitchen. Decided not to eBay anything in the end. Takes too much time and the rewards are generally too little for it to be worth my while. Donated lots to charity though and felt very good about it.
6) Get the £2 coin box going again - The pretty little box is jingling again! At least £20 in it this month. Can't wait to see how much is in it on December 1st!

Been thinking a lot lately about what life will be like when I can shop again. I'm really looking forward to treating myself to a spree but I know I'll never go back to the way things used to be. I love saving money far too much now! However, I don't suppose I can really keep running a blog called Holly is Stopping Shopping when I'll be doing exactly the opposite.

Went to a British Military Fitness class this morning for a free trial and think I will definitely sign up. There were various levels of people there and, even though I thought I was going to be sick at one point, I had a great time. Seems like a good way to kick start my marathon training again. I only ran twice in January - pathetic! There are classes all over the UK so if anyone is looking for something a bit different to the usual gym routine I'd recommend giving it a go. And like a said, the trial session is free which we all know is the best price ever.

Currently having a tidy up and a marathon cupcake baking session (I love my new cooker by the way!) in preparation for our annual Superbowl party tomorrow night. Tonight is my best friend Paul's bands last ever gig so I'll be heading along to that for a few drinks and probably a few tears. It's the end of an era.

2009 Bloggies

2009-01-31T13:19:00.003Z

The votes for the 2009 Bloggies close on Monday. While I'm sadly not up for an award (there's not even a personal finance category!) it's worth going over to take a look because I've spent the last 24 hours discovering some amazing new blogs. I'd only headed over to vote for the wonderful Cake Wrecks but have fallen in love with several others including Fat Cyclist, Dooce, Attack of the Redneck Mommy and Wee Birdy.

Best of all though is Matt, Liz and Madeline which is the heartbreaking tale of Matt Logelin whose wife Liz gave birth to the beautiful Madeline and sadly died the next day. His blog is articulate, bittersweet and features some of the best photography I've seen in a long time. Be warned though, don't visit without a box of tissues. But do visit, it's well worth a visit. This guy should get some sort of Dad of the year award.

You can vote for the 2009 Bloggies here and it closes on Monday. Have fun! I'll be back later with an end of month update but for now I'm off to buy eggs!

Oh Product Where Art Thou?!

2009-01-29T21:24:00.002Z

I'm on the hunt for something that I simply must have. This time it's not a Want, it genuinely is a Need. I've scoured the internet and still not managed to find somewhere that sells this elusive product. No it's not the perfect pair of jeans or a lipstick that really does last all day. I'm on the hunt for a dish cleaning utensil that doesn't disintegrate in my hand after about a week.

Why are these products (sponges, scourers, J-cloths, sponge cloths etc) all so effing useless. I'm not the biggest fan of doing the washing up (boyfriend says I'm crap at it and regularly rewashes things I've cleaned) but I'd probably enjoy it a little bit more if the tools for the job didn't get all gross and manky and need replaced so bloody often. Am I doing something wrong? How is it possible for something that gets cleaned in hot soapy water on a daily basis to be so minging?!

I'm after a product (it must exist) that I can use to clean my dishes, cutlery, pots and pans which can then be washed in the machine with the rest of my washing and come out shiny and new again. Surely such a product is out there. I am sick of buying scouring sponges every month and throwing them out a week later. It's a ridiculous waste of money and obviously no good for the environment.

I've searched a few websites but can't seem to find anything to fit the bill. Anyone got any suggestions? I know the obvious answer is a simple knitted cloth but my experience with these is also that they get gross, damp and stinky after just a few days.

The Cost of Kids

2009-01-27T09:17:00.003Z

Far from being intensely career driven (don't get me wrong, I love my job) more than anything in the world, my dream is to be a Mum. And as soon as possible! This won't be anytime soon though, our dinky one bedroomed flat can only just fit me, boyfriend and my shoes, let alone a baby and all it's bits and bobs.

Sometimes I feel that this dream will never be achieved. I know it's hugely expensive and I've always felt I'd never earn enough to be able to give up work (for a few years at least) and bring up my child(ren). So I was dismayed when I read this article on MSN Money about the true cost of bringing up kids. According to the figures, the average cost of raising a child from birth to 21 is £194,000 (or £9,227 a year, £769 a month, or £25 a day)! WTF?!?! That's like 10 years salary. Also, how many 21 year olds are still having everything paid for by their parents?! Apart from the odd helping hand here and there (thanks for buying us a flat Mum and Dad!) I've been pretty much paying my own way since I was 16.

However, upon further reading I found myself chuckling away. Obviously these are average figures but I can't help but thinking that most of the expenses could be cut back on. They break it down like this:

Childcare £53,818 and Babysitting £10,826 - I appreciate that everyone has their own personal circumstances but I can't understand why anyone would be at work earning money to pay for childcare when they could be looking after their child themselves. Perhaps I am a little bitter, I once worked in a nursery where some parents left their kids (from 3 months old) from 7:30am - 6pm, why they even had kids is beyond me. It seems to me that spending time with your child would be priceless so why work to earn money and pay someone else to do it? Obviously I'm lucky that I have family close by and if I needed assistance with occasional childcare I'm sure it would be there free of charge, better start kissing some sibling ass!

Education £50,240 - Most of this figure is based on uni fees which, in Scotland, is currently free. I don't think I'd send my child to a private school because I don't necessarily agree that the education they'd receive would be any better. I wasn't private schooled and I turned out just fine. I understand that there are still costs involved; uniform, school trips, new pencil cases etc. but I reckon over the course of primary and secondary schooling you're looking at £5k tops.

Food £17,205 - Clearly kids eat, I'm not going to starve mine to save a few quid. Over 21 years this still only equates to £820 a year or £70 a month which I think is pretty reasonable. In the early years, breastfeeding is free and preparing your own foods instead of buying jars or pureed mush will save a lot of money too. I know nappies aren't food but I wouldn't use disposables and this would also save a fortune over the first year or two.

Clothing £13,281 - Again, this figure seems huge and it's probably down to the sheer amount of crap people feel compelled to buy for children who instantly outgrow them. Oh I sound so high and mighty here, I bet being a mother turns me into one of these people overnight. I like to think I wouldn't spend a lot of money on clothing my child in the early years, what's the point when they're pretty much in babygros 24/7? When my child grows up it will probably want the same expensive fashions as all the other kids but I wouldn't want to go out and buy everything they want. It's important to teach kids the value of money and the importance of saving up for things. Plus it'd be nice if they were individuals and not sheep. I remember going mental when my Dad wouldn't let me have Adidas 3 stripe tracksuit bottoms purely because "everyone else has got them" (my exact argument) and now I couldn't be more glad that I wasn't allowed to follow the pack.

Pocket money £4,144 - Say they get pocket money from the age of 8-18 this averages £35 a month. Far too much for an 8 year old in my opinion but you could start with a few pounds a week and increase it when you see fit. This seems like a reasonable amount to me. Like I said, it's important to teach children the value of money and allow them a little independence with it.

Other £11,207 - Presumably this is presents and treats. and works out about £530 a year. This is far too much for presents but under the catch-all of "other" it's probably rather accurate.

Furniture £2,366 - Initial costs would be rather high, nursery set up etc but there are some great products out there that are designed to last for years, plus if you have more kids, most things can be used again. If this is all I'd spend in 20 years I'd be very pleased with myself!

Holidays £11,920 - Where on earth are these kids going on holiday?! And don't most travel agents offer free child places these days? In my opinion there's nothing wrong with holidaying in your own country and some of my best childhood travels were spent with friends in Devon, trips to Scotland (before we moved back) to see our family and day trips to the beach. Not all kids need to be packed off to fancy summer camps either, most of mine were spent running about in fields and jumping in the river (aka FREE!).

Hobbies & toys £10,313 - Again, I feel the same way about this as I do about clothing. They don't need everything they ask for and quite often it's the simple basic stuff that they use most often (think how much they play with cardboard boxes on Christmas day).

Leisure and recreation £7,415 - Kids do so much stuff these days. At my work I encounter so many people who seem more like personal assistants than parents and kids who do gymnastics, snowboarding, rugby, horse riding, football, swimming, music, ballet, drama, chess club and the list goes on and on. However, I would be more than happy to pay for these activities if that's what interested my kids. I would not, however, pay for these things simply because I wanted my kids to do them and force them to do activities that they had no interest in.

Personal items £1,037 - I'm not sure what exactly this covers. If it's bikes and skateboards and voice activated diaries then this is hardly a lot of money over 21 years.

Looks like I just saved myself about £130,000! Good work! Any parents out there got any thoughts on this?

Bored

2009-01-26T11:21:00.004Z

I'm getting pretty bored of winter now. Once January comes around I always start to think "yay winter's over and soon it'll be sunny again" but in actual fact winter in Aberdeen often lasts into April. And I'm just bored of it!

I think I'm also looking forward to summer because that means I'll be able to shop again. It's been on my mind a lot lately and while I'm really looking forward to it, I'm also a bit apprehensive. My Stopping Shopping challenge is sort of like a bubble of rules that I've created around myself and bursting the bubble seems scary and reckless. I suppose I'm just worried that I'll go back to my old ways even though I know there is no chance of that happening.

This to-ing and fro-ing in my head is making me feel well and truly fed up. Ever since I got back from France I've felt like there's nothing to look forward to and I've spent most of my time either at work or just moping about the house. Each day that this goes on I feel more annoyed at myself for wasting a day and getting nothing done, which is not to say that there aren't things to be done! There are only 17 weeks until the marathon, I'm barely writing, my books remain unread and I haven't done anything creative or crafty since before Christmas. I just feel blah. I keep getting these irritating headaches which I'm sure is just because I'm stressing myself out over not doing anything with myself.

Hopefully this week will be a better one than last week. Friday is my sister's 19th birthday, Saturday is my best friend's bands last ever gig and Sunday is my me and my boyfriend's annual Superbowl party. Definitely things to look forward to.

Can you be Ethical and Frugal?!

2009-01-23T11:11:00.004Z

For Christmas I got a copy of A Life Stripped Bare by Leo Hickman. This is the story of a guy who invites three "Ethical Auditors" into his home to assess how ethical his life is and how much more he can do. They look at travel, food, the home, toiletries, and even finance.

I really enjoyed the book, it was full of insightful bits and bobs without being even remotely preachy. Before I read the book, I would have already considered myself pretty ethical but now it's given me so much more to think about! I now actually feel a little bit ignorant realising that there's so much I hadn't considered.

The biggest thing that shocked me was the chapter about toiletries. To be fair, it's not really something I've ever looked into in great detail. The most I've ever considered is buying the biggest bottle of shampoo to cut down on packaging. I'm also a big advocate of using products sparingly. I never shampoo, rinse then repeat (unless it's after a festival!) and I still use a pea sized amount of toothpaste. I've never seen the point of dumping half a bottle of bubblebath into the water although my bathroom does ever so slightly resemble Boots. This is getting better though, I now only buy everyday products when they've run out and in nine months I still haven't made it all the way through my various fancy face creams.

What shocked me though was how ignorant I've been about the companies who make the products that I buy. It has never occurred to me to look into the ethical policies of these companies and now that I have, I'm a little bit mad at myself. My boyfriend and I have been using Herbal Essences for as long as I can remember. It smells delicious and who wouldn't be fooled into thinking it's a good product by all the talk of enriching and nourishing botanical extracts?! Ask me who even made the stuff and I wouldn't have been able to tell you. Now I've looked into it though, I've discovered it's Proctor and Gamble, a company who are involved with animal testing. This company also makes a huge number of other products and you can see the full list here.

Several products that I use or have used appear on the list, but if someone offered me a product that was tested on animals I would refuse it point blank. I'm angry that it had never occurred to me to look into the policies of companies who's products I use but I'm determined to do so from now on.

This leaves me with a dilemma though. Do I bin the products I have straight away or use them all up before replacing them? If I bin them then I'll be dumping chemicals down the drain and adding packaging to landfill, but if I use them up then surely I'm advocating these companies?! But they've already got my money so using them up does no extra harm. Plus it's not exactly in keeping with my frugal tendencies is it? I think I'll just begrudgingly use everything up and then replace it with ethical products when necessary.

I've done a little bit of research into ethical and organic beauty products and holy frick some of them are expensive! It's like a minefield out there, and not a world that a person trying to save as much money as possible feels comfortable in. Should I buy an inexpensive unethical product and save money, or should I pay for expensive products to appease my guilt? Let's not forget that browsing around the internet for fancy shampoo and conditioner feels an awful lot like shopping and completely contradicts the way my mind works.

Arrrrgghhhh!!! Too much to ponder...this could take a while to figure out. If anyone is already using some elusive inexpensive and ethical product then advice would be greatly appreciated!

Keep or Bin

2009-01-20T22:33:00.002Z

I went to give blood again this afternoon. This is now the second time I've been (they give you a little badge to say thanks for coming back!) and I'm really glad to have done it. I'm going to commit to the three times in 2009 challenge (you can only donate thrice a year) which means number 26 on my 101 list, get another tattoo, will have to be put on hold (you can't donate for 1 year after having a tattoo). I also forgot to mention that I successfully completed number 34, teach someone a card game, while on holiday. I taught several people how to play a really easy game called Coins.

My goals for January list included "Have a wardrobe declutter" and tonight I did just that. I started out by dumping all of my underwear, tights, bikinis etc onto the bed and sorted them into piles of Keep, Donate and Bin. I couldn't believe how much I had (2 drawers plus two boxes on top of the wardrobe) and so much of it was useless. I threw out loads of pairs of laddered tights, holey and mismatched socks and minging grey pants. I've kept everything that was in good condition that I think I will keep wearing, but I've also put a note in my diary for 6 months time to have another clear out. The drawers look so neat and tidy now!

I then moved on to my other bulging drawers which are stuffed full of t-shirts and jumpers. Again, I put things into piles of Keep and Donate. None of my clothes are so bad that they need to bin but I was very ruthless and got rid of a lot of stuff. 47 items to be precise, bringing my total number of things gotten rid of (number 54) to 86. I'm going to take them to my sisters and see if they want any, then ebay the good stuff and donate the rest.

I feel a bit like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I'm certain I got my hoarding tendencies from my grandmother who kept EVERYTHING but also from my Mum who used to say "I used to have something just like that when I was your age" to almost everything I bought. This used to infuriate me because I'd wish she'd kept everything (hugely impractical) so that I could have an incredible vintage wardrobe for free. This also made me feel like I should never throw anything out, as fashions always rotate, and for a long time I was convinced I'd wear everything again sometime. I'm once even found myself thinking that I should keep everything as a way of building a wardrobe for my future children. How mental is that?!

Looking through my wardrobes I had several severe "what was I thinking?!" moments. There were so many things that I know for certain I wouldn't look twice at in a shop now and things I don't think I've ever worn. Lots of it I wouldn't even consider wearing, like a navy blue cumberbund with pink lips print all over it. Who the eff even designed such a monstrosity?!

Before I went on holiday I also had a kitchen cupboards clearout and binned everything out of date and everything that I knew wouldn't get eaten. Fortunately there wasn't too much stuff, but it was a good place to start and got me in the right frame of mind for getting to work on the bedroom!

My wardrobe and drawers seem very tidy now and I know where everything is. I've even made room for the new additions I'm planning on buying in June!

Payday Blues

2009-01-20T13:57:00.003Z

It's probably quite rare to be in a grump on payday but I sure am. I was really looking forward to paying a lot of cash into savings this month but somewhere along the line I screwed up. Having eaten our cupboards bare over Xmas/not having a cooker I did rather a lot of food shopping last week. Like, twice my weekly budget. I also forgot to budget in money for my bus pass (dates got shifted due to being on holiday) which means I've managed to rack up some cash on my "supposedly for emergencies" credit card. Grrrrr!

Totally my own fault though and I'm not going to beat myself up about it. Lesson has been learnt. Card has been removed from purse and hidden out of sight. Balance has been paid off. It does mean that my savings hasn't even broken even this month. To go on holiday I removed the £420 I'd saved up and today I transfered a measly £350 into my accounts.

I'd have saved more but this is the paycheque that gets eaten up by birthdays so at least I've budgeted for that. I've got a couple of lovely during the week days off so I'm catching up on bits and bobs, attempting to declutter and heading out for a walk in a bit.

Here's to spending as little as possible this month so that February's savings contributions can rocket!

New Cooker in the House!

2009-01-19T17:54:00.002Z

As I mentioned the other day, our new cooker (oven/stove etc) has finally arrived. After a month (felt like six) without one I feel almost normal again. We did the right thing by waiting until the January sales and got a good one for £200. I did look into buying a second hand one but there wasn't much available that suited our needs.

To mark it's arrival, I cooked a yummy steak pie which was the also the last meal I attempted to cook in the old piece of crap. (It was burnt to pieces in 5 minutes.) Boyfriend is very happy that the cooker is back as it means cakes are back too.

We love food and now I'm off to eat some more!

Les Gets - January 2009

2009-01-17T10:23:00.003Z

Finally, a long overdue holiday update! It's a week since my return and I've spent most of it running around like a headless chicken but also feeling a bit miserable. Very much a case of the post holiday blues. Without a doubt, our week in France was the best holiday I've ever had. We booked it almost a year ago and after months of anticipation, it didn't fail to meet my expectations.

The chalet we stayed in was gorgeous (complete with hot tub and amazing views) but the best thing was that it was fully catered. Each morning we had a huge breakfast (porridge, cereal, croissants, pain au chocolate, juice, coffee, yoghurt, bread, honey, jam - yes I ate it all) then we were driven (so lazy!) 2 minutes up the road to the nearest slope. I skied every day and upon our return there was always a freshly baked cake to feast upon (chocolate and pear sponge, black forrest gateaux, epiphany cake, choux buns and an incredible cake with a crunchy chocolate cornflake base with a banana and strawberry mousse layer on top). Needless to say, by 5pm each day I was stuffed! We'd then sit in the hot tub and watch the sun set, have a shower and get ready for dinner.

Our chef is a local but used to work in a 2 Michelin star restaurant in Ireland so everything we ate was unspeakably good. There was no menu, which was good because it meant I ate a lot of things I'd probably never have ordered in a restaurant. Highlights included pumpkin and curry soup, beef bourguignon, belly of pork, caramelised bananas, tiger prawns, vanilla mash (so good), dauphinoise potatoes, artichoke and chestnut soup, lemon tart and so many other things that I can't even remember. Each meal was finished off with a cheese course which, in my opinion, is the way all days should be ended.

The skiing was incredible. I've just been uploading pictures on Facebook and have about 100 of "The View" which is simply indescribable. In six days I only just managed to ski each area that our lift pass covered and some of the runs were so good I can see them in my sleep. I've skied for almost 20 years but I felt that I came on really well with six days of practise although there were one or two dodgy leg days.

On one of the days I went paragliding which, at 75 EURO was pretty pricey, but it was a blue sky day in the Alps with a perfect view of Mont Blanc and I'm so glad I did it. I was first of 6 to go and was a little nervous (running off a hill is quite hard to imagine doing until you do it) but by the end I just wanted to go up and do it again and again. I loved it so much that I'm going to look into doing a course as there are lots of great places in Scotland to glide.

I don't think we could have asked for much more from our holiday. We flew via Terminal 5 which meant I even got to have a look in Mulberry (and almost fell off the wagon at the sight of a gorgeous blue bag at 50% off - only £258 (!) surely that means I could have it in pink too?!) and Tiffany, where I got to see the necklace I've picked out as a treat to myself come May 1st. Unfortunately we were delayed coming home which meant we missed our connection and had to stay 3 hours in Terminal 5. Patience wore thin as everyone got a little stressed out but I had dinner in a lovely restaurant and a Mango Daquiri chilled me right out!

And just writing all that up has made me all the more grumpy for not being there anymore. It's quite nice to be back to normal now though. Our new cooker has arrived (bring on the cakes!) and I can get back on track with saving every penny possible. But I'd still rather be skiing...

Unauthorised Absence

2009-01-16T12:11:00.001Z

I've had an absolutely manic week since I got back from my holiday and unfortunately that has meant blogging has fallen by the wayside. Lots to catch up on with work, friends, writing, housework etc. Never fear though, normal posting will resume shortly. Here's another picture from France, this time paragliding in the alps. Wooohooo!!

Fix Your Finances - Part 5 - Keep Going

2009-01-09T09:00:00.001Z

Now that you're on your way to financial freedom it's important not to lose momentum. You can start off with all the best intentions but, like diets, it's easy to fall at the first hurdle.

The most important thing I've learnt is not to beat yourself up when things don't go according to plan. Sometimes I set myself a goals and I don't meet them. It's frustrating and sometimes depressing but I try to focus on the positive things that I have achieved. Getting stressed out when you aren't on track can lead to impulse spending and excessive purchasing. I know I used to be guilty of shopping just to cheer me up but it just makes you more miserable in the long run.

Reward yourself! Give yourself a pat on the back when you get things done. Whether it's paying off a credit card, reaching your emergency fund target or having more No Spend Days than you'd planned, it's vital to give yourself the praise that you deserve. Writing down your goals and ticking them off helps but so does telling your family and friends what you are doing so that they can give you a big well done!

Once you have cleared your debt or are cutting back as much as you can, it's time to focus on savings. Financial goals are forever and you need short term and long term goals to keep yourself going. Once your debt is cleared it's easy to think that all the extra money you have is now for spending. By putting this extra cash into savings you will be boosting your financial outlook and protecting yourself for the future. You will have become accustomed to not having that money, so diverting it to savings instead of debt should be easy.

There are lots of ways to save. I personally have two online savings accounts (Emergency fund and Spare Cash), an ISA (Holiday fund) and Premium Bonds. Premium Bonds are not great anymore though, the credit crunch has slashed the odds of winning anything. I personally like having my savings in different places. Interest rates and terms and conditions are always changing, so shop around to find the deal that works best for you. I also recommend the £2 coin box for savings for Christmas as well as having a change jar in the house to empty your pockets into. Take it to the bank every few months and you'll be surprised how much you have.

Continually reassess your goals, set yourself new ones, reward yourself and most important of all, do what works for you. Eight months of Stopping Shopping had completely changed my views on money and spending. Once you learn the difference between a "need" and a "want" you'll find yourself saving money quicker than you can spend it. If you've ever imagined that you couldn't live without shopping or your credit card then give it a go, see where a bit of determination and effort can get you.

I hope you've found this series useful and informative. A year ago I could never have pictured myself in the position I am in now. Taking control of my finances has changed my life for the better and I now find myself happier than ever, with a lot less stuff. If your finances are in a muddle, take the plunge, take control and take my word for it, it'll be the best thing you'll ever do.

Fix Your Finances - Part 4 - Getting Started

2009-01-08T09:00:00.000Z

By now you should know how much you owe, how much you've got, what you want and what you want to cut back on. It's time to get started!

You've taken the big steps but once you begin your new financial journey things can seem pretty overwhelming pretty quickly. It can be hard to stay motivated, particularly if you owe a lot and your goals are a long way from being met.

Some people may not aim to meet their goals for a year or two. However, keeping track of everything will keep you focused and productive. I can't recommend Daily Tracking enough. On the first day of each month I print out an A4 monthly calendar either from Microsoft Outlook or here. At the end of each day I take a minute or two to write up what I've spent that day. I include everything here except bills. Food, bus pass, toiletries etc. Anything I spend gets written down and then at the end of each week I can total it up. Savvy computer types could easily make up an Excel spreadsheet but for me the paper system works best. I leave it somewhere visible then I never forget to write it up. My daily tracking sheet makes it easy to add up what I've been spending on food too and then I can see if I need to cutback.

I'd also recommend aiming for two or three No Spend Days a week. These are days that I choose to spend absolutely no money but they do require a little bit of planning. Here are some easy ways to spend zero:

Make extra dinner so that there are leftovers to take to work for lunch the next day.
Make a packed lunch before you go to bed. If you don't have time in the morning you'll be more likely to spend that day.
Whenever you food shop, think ahead and see if there's anything extra (milk, bread etc.) you need to stop you spending here and there.
Always carry bottled water in your bag, medication etc so that you won't have to buy any when you most need it.
If you travel a lot, carry a book so you won't buy magazines when you're bored.

There are loads more ways to stop yourself spending, it just requires a little advanced planning.

If you try a month of Daily Tracking, you will soon notice which purchases you make when you're bored or due to lack of planning. Start off with just one No Spend Day a week and try to build that number up. Some hardcore personal finance bloggers can get 20 No Spend Days a month!

Motivation is vital to achieve your goals and meet your targets. Working to meet long term goals can feel like you aren't getting anywhere so why now draw up a list of rewards for when you get to certain stages. For example, if you're paying off £5000 why not treat yourself to a slap up meal for each £1000 that you clear. Or if, unlike me, you're allowed to shop you could let yourself buy a highly coveted item once your savings account meets £1000.

At first you might seem like you're getting nowhere but give it a month or two and you should notice a huge difference.

Mountains are Magic!

2009-01-08T07:39:00.002Z

Fix Your Finances - Part 3 - Cutting Back and Making Savings

2009-01-07T09:00:00.003Z

Now that you've Realised Your Goals, the next step is to find ways to cut back and save money so you can achieve your dream as soon as possible!

If you've chosen to become debt free, the first step is making sure you have the best deal. If you have debt that you are paying interest on, you should try to repay the debt with the highest interest first as this will cost you less in the long run. If you are paying high interest rates on credit cards you could try to transfer the balance to another card with a 0% offer. This will mean that every penny you pay clears the actual debt and doesn't get swallowed up in interest.

Websites like MoneySupermarket and U-Switch can compare these for you. If you have several high interest debts then it may be worth a taking out consolidation loan to pay off the cards and move all your debt to one place. However, many of these loans are taken out against your property so remember that your home is at risk if you find yourself unable to make repayments.
These sites can also be used to make sure you're getting the best deals on your other bills (electricity, insurance, internet, phone bill etc.) It may seem time consuming but a few hours work could potentially save you hundreds over the rest of the year. If you're happy with your current company but see a better deal elsewhere, challenge them on it and hopefully they'll match the better price.

The next step is to make cutbacks wherever you can to free up extra money to pay that debt off. I want to introduce you to a fantastic tool called The Demotivator. This helps you to figure out what all those little spends (coffee, cigarettes, magazines, shop bought sandwiches etc.) add up to in a whole year. Figure out what you're little spends are costing you and add them up. Here's an example of what I would have been spending before I stopped shopping:

Magazines (2 x weekly, 4 x monthly) = £388 per year! I picked one magazine that I wanted to keep reading and took out a subscription for 12 issues for £12. Total saving = £376

Starbucks/Cafe Nero/Costa Coffee (2 per week) = £364 per year. And that's a fairly low number. Anyone who buys just one cup of coffee each working day spends roughly £875 a year! I stopped buying coffee from shops altogether and now I make my own. I drink a lot less of the stuff too. Total saving = £364

"Quick" trip to Primark (Roughly £15 per week) = £780 per year. Again, that's a low estimate because sometimes I'd spend 3 times that. By cutting out shopping altogether that's a saving of at least £780 a year and that doesn't include money spent in other stores or online.

So just by adding up those three expenses, I'm saving myself £1520 a year. That's a pretty big chunk of £5000 debt and over half of a £3000 holiday target. Not bad eh?

Smokers, if you're smoking 20 a day at £5 a packet that's £1825 a year that you're throwing away. For help on quitting see Quit or SmokeFree. Your doctor can also give you advice. Drinkers, £50 a week on nights out costs you £2,600 a year. Try alternating your alcoholic drinks with soft drinks or always getting water for yourself when it's your round. Or why not have people round for a few drinks instead of going into town? Buying lunch instead of taking your own can cost you around £1250 a year. Making your own lunch may seem time consuming but give it a go and you'll notice you're saving money within a few weeks.

So if you're a magazine and coffee addict who smokes, drinks, loves primark and always buys lunch then you could potentially save yourself a whopping £7000 a year. And there are loads more ways to save a few pounds here and there:

Food Shopping - Make a list before you go and only buy what's on it.
Drop a Brand - Buy your supermarket's own brand for a change. You won't notice a big difference in taste but you will notice big savings.
Use your car less - With petrol costs through the roof, leave the car at home and walk as much as you can. Good exercise too!
Ditch the gym membership - Unless you go 3 or more times a week, you're probably not getting the most out of it. Cancel it and get outside instead.
Skip the cinema - Watch a movie at home or join a DVD rental scheme. It works out much cheaper and you won't spend all that money on junk food.

My point here is that small expenses soon add up. A few pounds here and there makes a huge dent in your wallet just as saving a few pounds here and there can make a huge dent in your debt. Again, it's all about what works for you. Stopping Shopping for a whole year may seem drastic but it's what I needed to be able to do in order to achieve my goals.

Fix Your Finances - Part 2 - Realise Your Goals

2009-01-06T09:00:00.003Z

After Assessing the Damage, the next step is to take a look at your life and set yourself some goals. In reality, it's not the sort of thing that you can do in one day, it takes a lot of thought. If you're anything like me your dreams and goals will be changing all the time!

However, most people have something they know they'd love to achieve. Perhaps it's being debt free, being able to travel more, work fewer hours or simply have more time to do the things you enjoy.

I used to moan that I could never afford to travel but a hard look at my finances showed me that I could afford it, I was just spending all of my money elsewhere.

If you have debt then becoming debt free should be your first goal. I don't see the point in saving money for travel, a new car etc when you could be paying off debt and saving money in the long run. You should have figured out by now how much you owe so the next step is to decide how quickly you want to pay it off. For example, if you owe £5000 debt and want to pay it off by the end of the year that's £417 a month. Sounds like a lot of money but tomorrow we'll be looking at ways to cut back.

If your dream is to travel, set yourself an amount that you'd like to save up before you plan your trip. For me, I chose £3000. It's quite a high amount for holidays but that's my personal choice. Perhaps you want to be able to eat out more? Figure out how much your average meal out costs and come up with a target for the month. Maybe you want to buy a house and need to save money for a deposit and you want to save as much money as you can each month.

This step is all about knowing what you want and figuring out how much (roughly) it will cost you. Once you know the price of your goals it will be easier to focus on achieving them.

I'd also like to highlight the importance of an Emergency Fund. This is a savings fund built up to be spent only in case of an emergency. For me, the fund is £3000 and the emergency would be something like losing my job and needing money to fall back on until I found a new one. I think everyone should have an emergency fund because that cash offers you peace of mind should something happen. It's personal choice though and for many people it's just some spare cash incase your fridge breaks down or your car blows a tyre etc. If you choose to start an emergency fund, have a long think and write down what you feel constitutes an emergency. It's not money to be dipped into every month, but it should be easily accessible.

So now that you know your goals and how much they'll cost you it's time to start cutting back and making savings.

Fix Your Finances - Part 1 - Assess the Damage

2009-01-05T09:00:00.005Z

For many people January is the toughest month of the year. You've spent December spending too much, eating too much and pushing any thoughts of debt to the back of your mind. But with the festive season now over, many people will start 2009 with the outlook grim and struggle to get their finances back on track.

Over the next five days, I'll be sharing some of the lessons I've learned in the past year and I will show you how to make 2009 the year you fix your finances. I'm no financial advisor but everything I will discuss will be things I've tried that have worked for me. Most of the things I've learnt have been from reading other blogs and plain common sense, but it's about figuring out what works for you. Please be aware that I will not be discussing mortgages in this series as I don't have one and don't feel qualified to comment!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at stoppingshopping@gmail.com and I will do my best to reply to everyone when I am back on the 12th. So without further ado, I give you:

Part One - Assess the Damage

Before I started my Stopping Shopping challenge, I never had an accurate idea of how much money I owed or how much was in my bank account. Shockingly, very few people know where their finances are at. Until you do, it's impossible to get yourself sorted.

Ignoring your bank balance is bad news, so if you aren't already signed up for online banking, do this now and start checking it every day. If you have any credit cards, store cards, loans or overdrafts, spend an hour or two calling every company and asking for an accurate balance, current interest rate and minimum monthly payment and write these down. You may be shocked, possibly even upset but give yourself a big pat on the back because you just took the first step in managing your money.

You also need to look at your other monthly outgoings; bills, food, social events, clothing etc. I highly recommend downloading the Budget Planner from MoneySavingExpert.com. It's completely free and easy to use. You write in your income, all your monthly outgoings and it does the maths for you. Spend a few hours doing this accurately. If you need to estimate, aim a few pounds over so you're covering yourself. When you've entered all of the information it will show you whether you spend more or less than you earn. If it's more, then you're borrowing and that's what we want to stop. If it's less, then you should be saving and we'll look at that later this week.

Banks have gotten a really bad name in 2008 but most offer a free financial review service. This usually involves a 30 minute meeting during which they'll review your outgoings and see where they can save you money. They may encourage you to take certain products but you can always go away and have a think overnight before signing on the dotted line. And you can always say no if what they're offering is not for you.

If you are really struggling to make repayments on your debt then it would be worth contacting your local Citizen's Advice Bureau or National Debtline. They have qualified staff who will be able to give you excellent advice.

If you are starting 2009 without debt, then good for you. However, being debt free doesn't always mean that your finances are in order. Many people are debt free yet still have no savings and spend all of their income each month. This is not about me telling you what to do with your money, it's about figuring out what's best for you.

Once you have a clear picture of how much you owe and how much you have (after bills and outgoings) you are ready to get started on fixing your finances. Tomorrow, we're going to figure out what we want to achieve and set some goals.

Off to see the Wizard!

2009-01-04T08:00:00.002Z

The wonderful wizard of snow!!! Or something like that. Right now I'll be on the plane (fingers crossed no delays) and jumping up and down non stop with excitement and hopefully not worrying about the one thing I've inevitably forgotten to pack.

Stick around this week though for my upcoming Fix Your Finances series which will be running all week.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share with you something I definately won't be wearing on the slopes and something that terrified the shit out of me! Yikes!

One More Sleep!!

2009-01-03T21:06:00.002Z

I'm almost packed but after a hectic day at work and a thumping headache I'm calling it a night. We're heading off at 6am so this time tomorrow I'll be up in the mountains all cosy and warm, fingers crossed!

Holly is Stopping Shopping was featured on my local news again tonight. If you're not in the Aberdeen area, you can see the story here.

Eagle eyed readers will also noticed I've ditch the bleach and gone brunette again. It was quite hard to get used to in the beginning but now I really love it and I'm glad I won't be spending money on hair-dye anytime soon!

I've lined up some posts for my week away but our chalet has wi-fi so I'll be popping on for updates when I get the chance. See you soon!

Goals for January

2009-01-01T17:38:00.002Z

January is a busy time of year for me. In the six week's after Christmas there are a lot of birthdays in my calendar; Mum, both sisters, boyfriend and a couple of friends. Usually January is started with a big pile of Christmas debt but the knowledge that I've also got a lot of spending coming up. This is the first year that I've started without any debt so hopefully it won't be too much of a dent in my paycheck.

However, it has made me decide to set up a new savings account and put a small amount of money away each month for birthdays and Christmas so that when they do arrive all at once, it doesn't leave me feeling like I've had my bank account wiped out.

This January is quite hard to plan for since I'll be going away on Sunday for a week's skiing trip. The trip is paid for and is fully catered so my expenses when I am there should be minimal. I still need to pay for my lift pass but it's impossible to say exactly how much that will cost given the sorry state of exhange rates.

However, to ease myself gently back into the year I would like to achieve the following:

1) 10 No Spend Days - I had considered setting myself a yearly goal a la Saving 4 Later but she literally didn't spend for half the year. Clever girl!
2) £30 a week on food - I can't wait to get back to this and daily tracking. I've spent far too much in December (but eaten like a king) and there's enough chocolate to get me into next Christmas!
3) Research and sign up for a Fruit and Veg box delivery scheme - I've been reading a lot about this and I think it would work really well for me. Just need to decide which one to go for!
4) Write for 15 minutes each day - Despite loads of time off work over the holidays, I've barely done any work for my college class even though I've got lots of ideas in my head. I'm struggling to motivate myself to do it just now but forcing myself to do just 15 minutes a day will hopefully lead to 30 minutes or even an hour or two.
5) Have a wardrobe declutter - Yikes. Just typing that fills me with fear. It needs to be done though since it's very disorganised and I am certain there are a few things that need to be eBayed or donated to a charity shop. I can see myself putting this one off though so I'll try to stay focussed.
6) Get the £2 coin box going again - The poor thing remains empty but if I start filling him up then I can start lookong forward to Christmas 2009!

So there we have it. Some nice, simple, achievable goals for the start of the year. I'd aim higher but going away for part of the month is throwing me off slightly. I can't wait though...3 more sleeps!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T12:39:00.016Z

Last night my sister. my boyfriend and I went to watch the Stonehaven Fireballs. This is the first year I'd been and I loved it. Stonehaven is a small coastal village about 10 miles south of Aberdeen and it had a great atmosphere, all the families were out and wrapped up warm to watch the show. Well worth the trip!

We had a couple of drinks and some stovies before lining up along the streets. First of all there's a band of dummers who parade up and down the street followed by a traditional Scottish Pipe Band and then at midnight the fireballs begin. My pictures aren't that great, so here's one from the Fireballs website.

Cool huh? These guys walk up and down the street swinging their balls of fire before going and dunking them in the harbour to put them out. Then the whole night is stopped off by a fireworks display. Lovely stuff! It's great to wake up on the 1st of January without a hangover although I'm having as lazy a day as I'd have had if I did have one.

I won't be making any resolutions as I never do. I think you're more likely to achieve your goals by continually setting and reassessing them so I'll carry on with my monthly goals. Anyone looking to get their finances in ship-shape this year is in the right place though! Next week I'll be running a five part series on taking control of your finances while I'm away on holiday.

Now, off to set some January Goals!

2008 in Review

2008-12-31T10:42:00.020Z

I chose not to set myself goals in December which I think was a very wise thing to do, although it's certainly had an unsettling effect on my bank balance. Since I opted out of Daily Tracking this month I don't have an exact figure on how much I've spent but I know it's the biggest monthly spend since I Stopped Shopping. Oops!

Regardless of that, I'm ending 2008 on a high. We have just purchased a new cooker (with my credit card, for purchase protection, but paid off straight away), I'm ending the year debt free and with over £4000 in my savings account(s).

Reviewing my Things Holly Can Buy and Things Holly Can't Buy lists has been encouraging and it appears I've saved money in more ways that I'd intended. I stated that I could replace my watch if it broke. This happened months ago and as it stands, my wrist is still bare. Instead of buying new perfume when all others ran out I asked for replacements for Christmas. It's ages since I spent any, let alone all, of my £25 a month craft budget and I stated that I could buy books once I'd read everything in my "to read" pile. This still hasn't happened which means I haven't bought any books since May 1st and do not intend to for the next 4 months.

2008 has been a great year for me. I'm so glad that I set myself this challenge because it has forced me to be more responsible and organised. I've learnt a lot about money and about myself. Writing a blog has encouraged me to take my writing further and has been almost like free therapy. I'd like to thank everyone who has read, commented and enjoyed my blog this year. The kindness and support of strangers has been incredibly encouraging.

Boyfriend and I finished the year with a nice meal out last night and will be heading to somewhere exciting tonight. More on this tomorrow!

In review, here are a few of my favourite things from 2008:

Best purchase of the year, my bracelet from Llorien Jewellery, the last thing I bought before I Stopped Shopping. I still wear it every day.

My writing class was also a great purchase. At just £76 it has given me something to look forward to every week, motivation with my writing and a student card that just keeps on saving me money!

Best saving of the year - Cancelling my gym membership. It officially ends today. I (shamefully)haven't been once in December. In 2009 this will save me just under £600. Brilliant!

Best TV Show - Dare I say it, the best since 24!

Unexpected crush of the year! James Corden from Gavin and Stacey.

Funniest website - I only discovered this a couple of days ago but it made my year! This is the Cake Wrecks blog which features cake decorating monstrosities from around the globe. It's a shame to laugh but the funniest thing is imagining the look on people's faces when they go to collect their orders.

For example, your kid is well into Doctor Who and wants a Dalek cake. You imagine this:

And you get this:

Seriously, WTF?! It gets worse though. To start the New Year with a giggle, head on over.

I'm not a big fan of New Year to be honest (or a big fan of Blogger changing my fonts for no reason?!). In Aberdeen it means drinking, packed pubs, rubbish parties and fighting. We're heading out of town tonight to see the Stonehaven Fireballs festival. Despite it being freezing outside, I'm rather looking forward to it.

Hope everyone has a great night whatever you're doing. See you all next year! (Gross.)

Tips For Successful Sales Shopping

2008-12-29T08:51:00.005Z

The sales have begun and this time last year I'd be heading into town to grab myself some post Christmas bargains. These sales are typically referred to as "The January Sales" but given that most of them start on Boxing Day a lot of the good stuff is gone by then.

We all know the sales started early this year. Many shops have had sales on since November in a bid to boost Christmas spending, so all those bright red sale signs in shop windows are doing nothing for me. I'm dedicated to avoiding shops (and thus temptation) at all costs, but I realise that many people will give in and potentially end up with some real crap in hand.

With the benefit of hindsight, here are my top tips for successful sales shopping.

1) Plan Ahead - Before you venture out, have a think and write a list of what you want to get from the sales. Perhaps you need a new winter coat or want to replace your worn out heels or maybe you just want to treat yourself. The key here is planning. Venture into the shops unprepared and you'll face a minefield of so called "bargains" and inevitably come home with something you didn't need or even want. Try not to deviate too much from your list.

2) Spend Your Vouchers Now - Lots of people receive gift vouchers at Christmas and usually my advice would be to hold on to them until you need something. Most gift cards do not have an expiry date so there's no need to rush out and buy the first thing you see. However, 2008 has seen several stores go into administration and once this happens, vouchers are usually not accepted. Anyone opening a Zavvi voucher on Christmas morning would have been gutted to find they went into administration the previous day and the voucher is practically worthless. It's worth considering using your vouchers asap to avoid having money that is useless.

3) Check the Refund Policy - Most shops will offer a refund if you change your mind, even though they are not obliged to do so. However, this is often not the case for items on sale and sometimes the only notice will be a small, easily ignored sign around the till. Some staff will be nice and make you aware of the change in policy. If you have any doubt about the purchase you are making and feel that you may want to return it then you shouldn't be bloody buying it in the first place!! Sorry, got a bit ranty, that's just my opinion, but people do change their minds so make sure that you'll get your money back if you do. Also, companies which go bust rarely offer refunds so keep that in mind too if you think the store is on the way out.

4) Big Purchase? Credit Card it! - When you make a purchase for between £100 and £3000 on a credit card, the card issuer automatically takes joint responsibility along with the company (Section 75 of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act). This means that if you buy a large ticket item (sofa, cooker, flat screen TV etc) and the item is faulty or never arrives (for example, the company goes bust) then you can claim a refund from your card issuer. You should only make these purchases on a credit card if you can afford to pay it off straight away though. Leave the balance sitting and you'll incur interest, probably cancelling out any saving you made in the first place!

5) Bargain or Burden? - Just because something is on sale, doesn't mean it's a bargain. In my shopaholic days I used to hate it when articles said things like "It's only a bargain if it's something you'd have bought at full price" etc and I'd scream back things like "It's a bargain because I couldn't afford it at full price rant rant rant!!!!!!!!!!!!" I've learnt the error of my ways though and this is in fact very true. I've bought so many clothes on sale that I'd never have paid full price for and, you've guessed it, they're largely unworn and cluttering up my house. If you love something enough to pay full price for it, even save up for it, and get yourself a wicked discount then that is a true bargain.

6) Avoid Trends - There is no point in buying this season's most stylish clothing in the sales, we all know that in a few months it will be dated and banished to the back of your wardrobe. Sales are great for stocking up on basics and wardrobe staples that you'll wear again and again. Underwear, t-shirts, jeans (not flashy ones covered in glitter - those should NEVER be purchased) and workwear and great to buy in the sales so that you don't have to pay full price when you really do need to replace things.

7) You Don't Have to Spend - The sales are a great time to pick up some discounted bargains but that doesn't mean you have to flash your cash. Nobody is forcing you to spend money and there is nothing wrong with coming home empty handed. Buying something just for the sake of making a purchase is ridiculous and you'll only feel shame and guilt the next day.

8) Keep Calm - Remember, it's just shopping. It's supposed to be fun. If you're getting stressed out, claustrophobic in the crowds, giddy at the sight of 75% off signs or considering shoving an old lady so you'll be first in the door then you are doing it wrong. Go home and come back when you've calmed down.

Happy Shopping! I'll be staying behind closed doors but you can count me in for next year!

Winter Weather

2008-12-28T09:00:00.000Z

Some of those lovely winter skies I was wittering on about the other day.

And Just Like That...It's All Over

2008-12-27T20:06:00.008Z

Just two days later, it seems hard to believe it was Christmas at all. All those months of preparation, trawling round the shops, late nights spent wrapping and it's all for just one day. Don't get me wrong, we had a fantastic day, more presents than any of us could remember and a dinner so filling that I felt sure I'd spew. It was great to get out of the city and have a few days to relax with my family.

I got some great presents; the winter jacket my Mum bought weeks ago, a gorgeous kitchen apron from the Eden Project, lots of books, bath stuff and some great kitchen gadgets too. And that's not including the chocolate that I'll be gorging on for the next month or so. I'm working all weekend but looking forward to spending a few days summarising my year and planning how to get what I want in 2009.

I think I did pretty well with everyone's gifts and the bags I've been working on for weeks were gratefully received. Here are a few of the finished products:

Are You Ready?

2008-12-24T08:35:00.002Z

I've been getting ready for Christmas for ages but I'm still finding it hard to believe that it's Christmas Eve already! As I get older days, weeks, months are just flying on past and I have a hard time believing I'm nearly two thirds of the way through Stopping Shopping. I am starting to sound like an old lady!

And in true old lady fashion I am going to have a bit of a ramble about something that really bemuses me. Has anyone else noticed people flapping about, going a little bit crazy and buying lots of crap in preparation for the shops being closed for just one day, or two if they're lucky.

What is it about our society that causes people's brains to go into meltdown knowing that the shops will be closed for all of 48 hours (max)? Can people honestly not organise themselves enough to get in milk, bread and enough food to last that long? I've actually heard people suggesting that some shops open on Christmas day! Can you imagine it, 100 staff manning a Tesco superstore just in case some dafty doesn't have enough goose fat for the potatoes?
There are already enough people who have to work on Christmas day so the country doesn't fall to pieces.

This actually makes me long for a simpler time (really old lady now!). When I was a kid (not even that long ago) there were no shops open on a Sunday and I can't help wondering what life would be like if we went back to that kind of society. Obviously businesses would lose income which wouldn't be good, but without shops and bars open on Sundays I think people would be more encouraged to spend time together, families would see each other more and I genuinely feel people might be happier. I'm not religious at all but a rest day definitely seems like a good idea.

So...if you're one of the pudding heads that can't get it together in order to live one day without visiting a shop then here are some of my suggestions for what you should be stocking up on today:

1) Milk/Coffee/Tea/Sugar etc.
2) Bread (Mmmm...Christmas morning toast!)
3) Whatever you have for your Christmas dinner. Don't be the one who forgot the gravy or the yorkshire puds.
4) Any booze and soft drinks you will need.
5) Medicine. Any paracetamol you might need for after all the booze, antihisthamine if you have allergies, any prescriptions you may need etc. Do what you can to ease the pressure that NHS staff are already under at Christmas and be prepared.
6) Candles and matches. This may seem weird but if you end up having a power cut on Christmas day you'll be glad you stocked up.

If you have any elderly neighbours who are alone over Christmas, please check in on them too. Pop round with a mince pie or two and see if they need anything before the shops shut. Remember, it is the season of goodwill, do what you can and don't get into a panic if you do forget something. The shops are only closed for one day after all!

Update 101

2008-12-23T09:11:00.001Z

I haven't updated or posted about my 101 Things List in quite some time which means I've definately failed 99 - Write a weekly blog update about how I'm getting on. I'm still working on it, though admittedly not quite with the sense of urgency that I first had. Looking back over the list, there are a couple of things that I wish I hadn't put on there such as:

35. Watch IMDb's top 101 Films (at 19/08/2008) - This list of films is pretty crap, some I've seen before, some I never want to see and I think this will be the first thing I change since I do not want to look back at this list once it's completed and be annoyed that I wasted so many hours watching films I didn't even want to see.

30. Look up the meaning of every word I don't know - This isn't even possible. I don't want to toot my own horn (and it probably isn't clear from my blog) but my grasp of language is pretty good. I rarely find words that I don't know the meaning of and when I do I usually understand what it means in context. When I remember to write words down that I definitely do not know, I forget to go back to the list and look them up. Number 30 is not really improving my life in any way.

10. Eat dinner at the table at home once a week - We started out well but I blew it by covering the table in craft materials and finding it better suited to working and writing than fine dining. We've been on the knee sofa eating every since.

Lots of things on my list are unachievably right now, for example, the purchases (obviously) and the summer themed goals like strawberry picking, picnics and climbing Ben Nevis but those I am not worried about because it means I can pack summer '09 full of fun.

The more serious goals like the financial ones, giving blood and taking my asthma medication are well underway though. My emergency fund is up to £1000, I've given blood once but will go again in January and I had an asthma review in November and have been puffing away four times a day ever since.

The most enjoyable thing I've done so far is learn a new card game. On Saturday night we had our works Christmas party (pictures later) and the night was Casino themed. I got all glammed up in a gold dress and we had Roulette and Blackjack tables. We swapped fake money for chips and the ladies who ran the games were great and explained all of the rules as we went along. At one point I'd doubled my money but sadly ended up with nothing at the end. However, I had a brilliant time and wouldn't feel out of place sitting down at a Blackjack table in a real casino.

With only 875 (ha!) days to go I will need to get cracking on it if I ever want to be able to drive or buy a house. Then again, with 10 things able to be changed perhaps I should start making a new, small list!

Winter Blues? Not Me!

2008-12-22T08:33:00.004Z

Like snow in Aberdeen, blogging seems to be a bit thin on the ground at the moment. Everyone has so much on at this time of year, things to do, people to see and personal finances tend to take a back seat. I'm getting hyper excited about Christmas now but also looking forward to January, the first paycheck of the year and getting back on the hardcover savings bandwagon. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to achieve in 2009 and making lots of little notes so I'll shortly be making a big list of targets and goals.

As 2009 draws near, I find it insane that I only have just over four months of Stopping Shopping left. The year has flown by (most typed phrase this year?!) and despite the low points, I have actually found it so much easier than I ever thought I would. It's all been a huge learning process for me and I know I'll come out the other end a lot stronger and better off both finanically and mentally.

I've stopped worrying about how much money I've spent this month. I tallied my Christmas spending and I think it's around £400, although I can't be certain because the list is compiled from memory and not an exact list of spending and receipts. I'm happy with this figure though. I saved some money towards the cost of the holidays and that helped me hugely. In fact it's three days before Christmas and I'm not already poor for the rest of the month - a great feeling!

It's not all spend, spend, spend though. Here are some things I've been enjoying this month that are absolutely free.

The Salvation Army brass band's Christmas Carols - They played outside one of our shopping centres at the weekend and gave me such a good Christmassy feeling that I popped all the change in my purse into their donations bucket.

Christmas Special of Gavin and Stacey - Hasn't been on yet but come Christmas Eve I'll be snuggled up for a dose of Smithy!

Frost - One of my favourite things about winter, I just love the way everything sparkles.

Winter skies - All warm and red and lovely. I never seem to have my camera to hand though!

Hot Water Bottles - I suppose it costs me money to boil the kettle but I think there are few pleasures in life that are greater than snuggling up with a hot water bottle.

Apple trailers - I love watching lots of trailers at once and getting excited about next years releases.

Hand-making Christmas presents - I paid for the supplies, but it costs me nothing to sit down and put it all together which is surprisingly theraputic.

The stupid amount of biscuits and chocolates that appear in the office at Christmas time - My tummy salutes you wonderful gift givers!

Five Frugal Minutes With...SoCal Savvy

2008-12-22T07:56:00.003Z

I only recently discovered SoCal Savvy's blog on FruGal's recommendation. Like me, she also started her blog this year so it's well worth going back and having a read from the start! Unfortunately for us readers, the lucky thing has bagged herself a great new job so blogging is not her top priority now, which just means we can look forward to her postings even more.

Tell me a bit about your "lightbulb moment".
Graduating with $16k worth of student loans. When I started graduate school I knew that this was an amount that I could pay back in a few years of being employed. I did find an academic job and I loved it! Then, however, a move for my husband’s career put me out of mine. I hadn’t counted on being out of work for so long, but that led me to blogging.

What made you decide to start blogging?
I had been out of work for six months and there were still no job prospects on the horizon. The economy was turning down and every college I called said they weren’t hiring and wouldn’t be until the economy turned around.

It was apparent we’d be on one income for a while, and I knew I needed to learn more about finances. I also knew I needed to do something intellectual to keep myself from becoming a desperate housewife. Blogging allowed me to chronicle my fiscal education and kept me connected to a community of frugal people.

A lot of personal finance bloggers talk about keeping their "eyes on the prize" - What's your prize?
My prize is keeping us solvent until I get a job. Once I get a job, then I want to: contribute the maximum to our retirement accounts, pay off my student loan, have enough money to buy my next car in cash, and then there is our $100K down payment on a house fund… but one goal at a time, right?

What's your top tip for saving money?
Getting organized! Many of my early posts dealt with trying to figure out how to combine our finances as a married couple. Without knowing what he was making every month, I had no idea how much I should invest or even how much to spend on everyday needs. Through blogs I discovered the free software program Mint, and we finally had something that showed our whole financial picture. It was a lifesaver!

Recommend a blog that you couldn't live without?

My Google reader includes: FruGal, AllFinancialMatters, BrokeGradStudent, GetRichSlowly, QuarterLife Finances, This Writers Wallet, and Design*Sponge (a girl can’t live on PF blogs alone!)

Has organising your finances and living frugally had any other positive effect on your life, other than saving money?
Beyond saving my sanity? No seriously, job hunting in a tight economy in a competitive field of academia has been very hard on me mentally. It’s a process that robs you of all feelings of self-control.

Learning about finances (and blogging what I’ve learned) has made me feel more comfortable with our income, and has allowed me to feel like I’m back in control of my portion of our income. Right now our jobs are: he brings it in and I invest and spend it wisely.

(However, the first job posting in my area (in ten months!) posted two weeks ago. The position just closed on Friday- so I’ll probably be on pins and needles the next couple weeks waiting to get a call from HR!)

In my heart I know, some day, that I too will back doing what I love for a paycheck. However, my time out of work (aka my time blogging) has allowed me to gain financial awareness and goals that will take us through the next few years of our newly married life. That sort of knowledge, that sort of control- is priceless.

FruGal is up again next week!

1 Week to Go!

2008-12-18T10:15:00.007Z

I'm getting very excited about Christmas now. My presents are wrapped, I'm finishing off my craft projects and it's my works Christmas Party on Saturday night. I have two days left at work and then I'm off for a whole week. Lush! Makes such a nice change from previous jobs where I'd be working Xmas Eve and Boxing Day.

For anyone who's not quite as organised, here are some good tips I've found for getting your presents wrapped.

1) Get wrapping paper on 3 for 2. Lots of place have this deal on but there are also some who don't so make sure you check before you buy so you aren't paying over the odds. I made sure to pick designs that weren't overly Christmassy so that I can keep whatever is left and use it for craft projects. Don't get too caught up in extravagant wrapping. Remember, most people are only interested in what's under the wrapping and kids won't pay any attention to your intricate ribbon curls.

2) Alternatively why not get creative? Wrap your gifts in pages from the Financial Times (I love the colour!) or buy brown parcel paper, some felt tip pens and draw your own designs. I've done this a couple of times and it's always really well received.

3) Lose the tags. I never bother with Christmas tags. Instead I buy a silver or gold marker pen and write all my messages straight onto the paper (dark papers work best). If you simply must use tags then you can get plain brown ones from a post office and these look great when you draw on some simple Christmas designs.

4) Gift bags are great because they can be used again and again. However, they're not very cheap and those less frugal might just bin them without a thought. Another great alternative is Furoshiki which Miss Thifty posted about recently (with a video). It's the art of wrapping in fabric which can be reused again and again. If someone gave me a present wrapped like this I'd be delighted because the fabric itself would be like an extra gift that I could make something with. Having said that, I don't know anyone who I could give a fabric wrapped gift to and know they'd put the fabric to good use.

5) Once your wrapping is all finished, make sure you pack up all your supplies neatly and keep them in one place (ideally the place you also store your decorations). This means you'll be able to use what you have left next year and will be less likely to head out and spend more than you need to.

6) On Christmas day we always put a huge box in the middle of the living room which all the wrapping paper gets put into after being lovingly torn from gifts. This saves scrambling around picking it up later and means it's to hand when we need some extra fuel for the fire. If you don't have a fire, then remember to recycle your wrapping paper along with your cards at your local recycling point.

Next year I would like to do my bit for the environment and have a Christmas without wrapping paper so I will try to find a nice alternative. This year I couldn't resist though. I find it quite theraputic sitting down and spending a night wrapping gifts. Here's a picture of my (rather lopsided looking) Christmas Tree. One Week to Go!!

Elf Yourself

2008-12-16T09:27:00.002Z

I've been refraining from posting for a few days since all I seem to do lately is bitch, bitch, moan, moan, moan, bitch, bitch. The pound is down, I hate shopping, it's too cold, my cooker is broken, I'm tired all the time blah blah blah!

I don't want to bring everyone down with my mumping and moaning so if I'm in a bad mood I'd rather not blog at all. Nobody should be wondering what I'm up to because the answer to that is really bugger all!

There are only 15 days of 2008 left and I'll only be spending 5 of them at work (hurrah!). In my days off I plan to get everything tied up for the year, finances sorted out and set myself some 2009 goals. I've also got a lot of college work to do over the holidays as well as planning and packing for my ski trip. Feels like I hardly have a moment to chill out!

This little gem has been keeping me well and truly entertained though. It's a nifty wee site that lets you upload photos of yourself and your loved ones then it turns everyone into an elf and you all have a Christmas boogie. Sounds naff but it's actually outrageously entertaining, good for giggles and absolutely free! Once you've made your dance you can email it to all your friends too so they can also become addicted.

Have fun! I'll be back when I'm not feeling quite so Scroogey!

The Psychological Cost of Christmas

2008-12-11T11:18:00.003Z

I read this article yesterday and it really struck a chord with me.

It's all about the emotional conflict of the time of year when we spend the most. We all know there's a credit crunch on, our heads are telling us to save, save, save and pay off debts but it's Christmas so our hearts are telling us to spend, spend, spend.

This is certainly the way I've been feeling for the past month or so. I'm on a self inflicted Stopping Shopping mission but I've said all along that I could buy gifts, just not gifts for myself (naughty). I have made some presents this year but bought extra things too. I really enjoy Christmas shopping and giving people gifts. I love planning and making lists and scouring websites for the perfect gift but the whole time I've had a big black cloud hanging over me because I feel that I just shouldn't be shopping, even though it's not for me.

Every time I buy a present there's a great feeling of "YES! Another one to tick off the list!" but also a bad feeling of "I can't believe I've just been in a shop...again."

I'm trying not to let it get me down too much though. This time next month it will all be forgotten about. The article focuses on those who spend more than they can afford at Christmas, then spend the first six months of the year in misery because they're paying it back. I'm lucky that I've been able to afford everything this year and have not gotten into any debt at all. Plus I've been so organised that none of December's wages will go on Christmas presents - a first EVER!

Anyone else battling internal conflicts just now?

Perspective

2008-12-09T12:04:00.001Z

A really amazing friend passed away on Friday. Suddenly money and the stresses that come with it seem so unimportant and trivial. I don't really know what else there is to say.

Five Frugal Minutes With... My Boyfriend

2008-12-08T09:00:00.003Z

This week I decided to do a slightly different interview for the Five Frugal Minutes series and one that I hope everyone will enjoy as much as I did. I've interviewed my boyfriend on his thoughts about me, the challenge and what'll happen next and it's been a bit of an eyeopener! We talk about money in the news but not too much about what's going on with me because, well, after seven months of not shopping it's a bit boring for him!

What do you think of my Stopping Shopping challenge?
I'm quite proud that you decided to stop shopping. It was infuriating when you would come home having spent £80 at Primark but it is quite amazing to see the change in you now.

Did you ever think I would make it this far?
Not really to be honest. The change has been that dramatic. I wasn't sure you'd have the discipline to actually stay away from the shops for this long.

What do you think of the blog?
It's cool that you're enjoying writing about your finances and trying to help other folk out. It's fine to share that info as long as you don't reveal too much.

Do you think that Stopping Shopping has influenced you at all?
Yeah, I guess so. It's made me want to pay off my overdraft and start saving money. If I should ever need to get into debt, it is possible to be smart about it as well. Hopefully it won't come to that though.

Apart from becoming a hardcore saver, do you think the challenge has made me change in any other way?
It's made you focus on what you think is important and helped you cut out what you consider to be excessive.

Do you have any of your own money saving tips for my readers?
Not really. You've probably covered them all. I'd just say that it's important to save money but not necessarily at the expense of missing out on things you enjoy.

Is there anything you miss from my pre-Stopping Shopping days?
Sometimes I would I could see you in awesome new dresses because you would look extra beautiful. You look great anyway but I wish I could buy you something nice.

What do you think will happen when I can shop again?
I think you will treat yourself but feel guilty, you would feel bad shopping the way you did before. But you will be a lot more savvy about your shopping from here on in and the no shopping habit will ensure.

Lastly, any hints on what I'm getting for Christmas?!
Sexy pants! (Note from Holly - these are banned!)

Boyfriend is away just now so this interview has been conducted via text message but it's been rather insightful for me to find out what he really thinks. Hopefully there'll be a much bigger conversation when he gets back because this has really encouraged me. I've been feeling so crap about everything lately that it's great to know how supportive he really is.

Pounds are Rubbish

2008-12-05T07:34:00.002Z

I try hard not to get too chatty about the economy and the recession on this blog. It's depressing and we hear enough of it on the news and I want to keep upbeat about things but now I'm getting really annoyed.

Waking up today I'm dismayed to see that the Pound is at it's lowest ever against the Euro. This is, of course, fantastic timing for my trip to France this time next month! We've also had the lowest level against the Dollar in seven years and against the Yen in 13 years. It's hard to believe that back in July there were $2 to the £1.

I guess this must have been the way America felt after 9/11 when the value of the Dollar dropped while us Brits were thinking "Yay cheap holidays!!"

For Christmas I would like just one day where there wasn't a big gloomy financial cloud following everyone around.

@#$%*?!#!!!!!

2008-12-04T07:31:00.002Z

Just weeks after I bought Premium Bonds (I wrote bongs there for a second, obviously far too early to be blogging!) I am dismayed to discover that something terrible has happened.

With all the interest rate slashing that's going on, the prize fund for Premium Bonds has been dramatically reduced meaning my chances of winning anything have plummeted.

Last time I checked, the probability of winning something in one year when you hold £1000 of bonds is 57%. Not great, but I was happy with that as technically the odds are in my favour of winning something. However, now that the prize fund is less, the probability of winning something in one year when you hold £1000 is a shitty 28%!

Lets not forget that I currently only have £300 in Premium Bonds so my probability of winning something is now a pathetic 9.5% - hardly setting my pulse racing!

I'm not an idiot though, I knew this could happen. My £300 investment is still safe, that money is backed by the government, however it doesn't seem like such a great ideal shoving my money into Premium Bonds anymore. I'll leave that £300 there, it's quite comforting to have my money spread around, but I don't think I'll top it up to £1000 as quickly as I'd intended. Perhaps I'll add the extra £700 over the course of 2009 and keep my fingers crossed that the odds swing back in my favour.

In other news, I'm on holiday for four days (I work 2 weekends out of 4) and boyfriend is off on holiday. I plan to finish my Christmas shopping today, blitz the flat clean and possibly even get the tree out of the loft! How exciting!

The £2 Piggy Bank is Open!

2008-12-01T20:30:00.002Z

Way back in July I made myself an unopenable box and have since filled it with every £2 that has made its way into my grubby wee hands.

Last night (technically not Dec 1st but I needed boyfriend to take photos) I cracked it open and here's what I found inside:

A whopping £202! I'm delighted with that since it's a big help towards the cost of Christmas and it's made up of small amounts that I've contributed over the past 5 months.

I've sealed my box back up and I'll be adding more £2 coins over the next year and opening it up on December 1st 2009. I can't wait and I would encourage everyone to make their own £2 box to help towards your financial goals.

December - The Goalless Month

2008-12-01T11:13:00.003Z

For the past few months I've set myself goals and worked hard to achieve them, yet in November I felt like I was going nuts and hardly achieved anything!

This month I have chosen to banish goals for 31 days, take the pressure off and just enjoy myself. I've almost finished my Christmas shopping and for the first time ever I won't have to spend a single penny of December's wages on presents. I am running more often (but not yet with any regularity) and I'm meeting my major finance targets without even trying.

This is one of my favourite times of the year and I love catching up with friends, spending time with my family and eating lots of amazing, fancy food that I would usually leave on the shelf deeming it too expensive. I'm giving myself a month off of targets and daily tracking and No Spend Days and I'm just going to have a good, relaxing month and enjoy the holiday season.

There are five weeks until we leave for our ski trip and when I get back I'll be tightening the purse strings, going back to 12 No Spend Days a month and saving every single penny that I can. Until then, I'm kicking off my heels, letting my hair down and stuffing my face!

Five Frugal Minutes With...

2008-12-01T11:05:00.002Z

This week FruGal has interviewed the wonderful Single Broke Female. A fellow £2 boxer (more on mine later today!), she's doing a great job of clearing her debt so head on over to read her story!

November Round Up

2008-11-30T18:42:00.005Z

So I've now completed seven months of Stopping Shopping but anyone who's been following me this month will know that I feel like I'm going insane. This holiday season is making me feel like my finances have gone into meltdown (which is completely not true) and I've been spending lots on gifts and losing track of everything. Lets have a quick look at how I got on with my goals!

1) Aim for 5 portions of fruit and veg per day - I don't think I achieved this but I gave it a good shot. The fact that my cooker is up shit creek has not helped because it's thrown me off and I've hard to think outside the box as it were. I was a lot healthier this month though. Lots of chocolate but lots of good stuff too - and I got over my illness which was great!
2) Aim for 2l of water each day - Again, I didn't even track this but I've been pretty hydrated.
3) 3 meals a day - Did this one, but they weren't always the best meals!
4) Run every day - I definitely did not run every day, but I've had lots of long walks and been out and about lots so I'm ok with failing this one.
5) Start meal planning - Haha. Didn't even bother.
6) £150 off overdraft - After realising I didn't have as much Christmas money as I'd thought, I only paid off £100. Will clear the remaining £150 in December.
7) £250 to savings - I did this one of payday. Very pleased as it's really the most important one in my opinion.

Everyone knows I quit NaNoWriMo but I've just had a quick tally up of the words I've written for NaNo, Blog posts, college work and articles which comes to 18,691! If I added up all the emails and comments I've written I'd probably be nearer 30,000 words. I'll be putting a lot of thought and preparation into next years contest and will hopefully be a winner (and novelist)!

December goals will be up bright and early tomorrow, as will I! I feel totally deflated that my goals and targets have gone haywire, but I think it's impossible to maintain my high standards during Christmas as it's a time of year that I love and I'm very pleased with the presents that I've bought.

On a positive note, it's 5 weeks until me and my family are off on our ski trip and I can't wait. Once we're back, normal financial service will resume (hopefully) and I'll be firing through my last 4 months on my way to a (much needed and well deserved) spree!

Here's a picture of the chalet we'll be staying in to keep me going!

Buy Nothing Day

2008-11-29T17:20:00.003Z

Today, November 29th is Buy Nothing Day which strikes a brilliant chord with me, but obviously not with the hoards of shoppers crowding Aberdeen's high street today. Also, I worked today and while I didn't want to buy, I did gladly accept the money of others. I will also not be counting today as a No Spend Day as I'm off out shortly with some people from an old job for a good old (and long overdue) catch up.

However, Buy Nothing Day is a great idea and something I would encourage people to check it out and incorporate into every day life. Why go just one day a year when you can go one day (or four?!) a week? Much better for your finances!

Also in the news today is the story of Mark Boyle who has decided to go one year (starting today) without spending any money. He'll be living it up in a caravan and utilising Freecycle (love!) and bin rummaging (ick!) to get by. Sounds like a great idea but I'll be really impressed if he can make it a whole year. I think at first people will be so supportive and take him meals and things but eventually that will thin out. Good for him for trying though, stopping shopping is hard enough, let alone living in a caravan and scrumping apples to get by. Perhaps I remain unchanged after all.

Cards are Crap

2008-11-26T19:00:00.001Z

I'm fully aware that this will make me sound ridiculously cheap, but just go with it.

I want to put a stop to sending cards. Yep, all cards. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, Valentines cards, everything. I just can't see the point anymore. Here are my top 3 reasons that cards are crap.

1. Waste of Paper - Obviously you can recycle them or use them for fuel (my preferred option, I love to see them burn!) but there are something like 800 MILLION Christmas cards sent in the U.K. alone each year. I don't know how many trees that is, but probably a lot. Of course, you could always be stupidly sentimental and store them all away in a box so that in years to come you can open them and read about who your old next door neighbour's kids got to play in the school nativity in 1995. No thanks.

2. Waste of Time - If I had more time and more talent (like this lady) then I would hand make some cards (though there's still Point 1 to consider) but in reality I'd rather send no card and say "Happy Birthday" (or whatever) in person, or at the very least, over the phone. I actually think cards are lazy, even though they create more work. Why do we go to the trouble of finding "the perfect card", writing something (usually not very) witty and posting it, when we could just pick up the phone and have an actual conversation. Mental!

3. Waste of Money - Well they are aren't they? The only good ones are handmade or from some quirky gift shop and they cost at least £2. I've even seen cards for about £4.50! You could just buy a present for that! If I send birthday cards (and Christmas) to only my family members, I'm looking at about £60 a year on paper and words! I dread to think how much it would cost if I sent to all my friends and colleagues too. And don't even get me started on "budget" cards. Those pitiful multipacks of flimsy card with pictures of a drunk snowman and a soot covered santa stuck in a chimney are just a total waste of time.

The thing that annoys me the most, is just how many cards we are expected to send now. A quick look in a card shop leaves me baffled. There's birthday, Valentines (a holiday invented by cardmakers if there ever was one!), Christmas, Get Well Soon, Thank You, I'm Sorry, Goodbye, Congratulations on your baby/exam results/driving test/marriage/new job/new home/new car/new shoes (not really, but you see my point?) and even blank cards so you can make up your own reasons for sending a card.

Fortunately, several schools seem to have noticed how pointless and wasteful Christmas cards are, and children are now encouraged to send one card to their whole class rather than one to each friend. This is a nice idea. Why not send Christmas cards to just one of your neighbours and encourage them to pass it around?!

This year I think I might send cards that bear the message "Cards are crap. This will be your last one from me" and include a link to this post. I'd probably be hugely unpopular though. I just wish there was a good alternative to cards, people seem to get rather offended if you don't send them. The freaks!

I've Finally Started to Hate Shopping

2008-11-26T11:00:00.001Z

Christmas is supposed to be a happy and joyful time of year but right now I am far from it! In fact, I almost can't wait for it all to be over so my finances can get back to normal.

Over the past few days I've been out getting my shopping done (can't bear to wait until Decembers mad rush) and this means (duh Holly!) that I've had to spend money. After seven months of not spending money on clothes and fancifuls, I am now faced with the prospect of traipsing through the very same shops I've tried to hard to avoid. On Monday I spent £80 in ten minutes and felt physically sick. My finger was shaking each time I had to put my PIN number in. Each time I check my online banking it's like a flashback to last year and nothing has changed, money is just flying out all over the place. I feel like I'm taking 50 million steps back!

Don't get me wrong, I like buying presents for people and I'm pretty certain that everyone will love their gifts, it's just the act of shopping that I don't like. Unfortunately, not everything can be bought over the internet and delivered straight to my door. I'm really looking forward to January when all the Christmas spending is done and I can properly focus on my challenges again. I think I've had about two no spend days this month!

Thankfully, the shopping part of my gift giving is nearly done and I can start focusing again on making the presents that are still unfinished. Just need to nip out for one or two more things!