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May 2008 Archives

Sam Pole Dancing. The Video- six weeks on....

Posted by Samantha Castle on May 21, 2008 2:57 PM

Regular readers of my Penny Pincher blog will be aware that I took up the offer of free pole dancing lessons at the Break ‘n’ Spin dance studios, www.breaknspin.com based in Llandudno, some time ago.
I agreed to the six week course, normally priced at £90, as I was curious about all the recent hype surrounding the dance crazy that’s sweeping the nation and encouraging women everywhere to swap their pinnys for lycra hot pants to spin round a £180 pole.
After six weeks of spinning round the pole, under the watchful eye of fitness instructor Zara Groves, I had perfect my Seated Lady, Fireman’s, Wheel Spin and various other hip gyrating moves and decided that I should share with my progress with the readers.
With the help of professional dancer and fellow Break ‘n’ Spin fitness instructor Louise Munro, 27, I have made a video so you can see for yourselves (and have a giggle) at how I got on.

Negative Equity

Posted by Samantha Castle on May 14, 2008 3:44 PM

I can remember bragging to you last month about how I’m the optimistic one in my relationship and I always refer to *loml is the pessimist (realist!). But all my happy, shiny thoughts and rose tinted theories were blown out of the water this week when I found out I could soon be made homeless.
It was only a few weeks ago that my landlady made a throw away comment when we passed in the garden about putting her house on the market. “Just to test the water and see what it’s worth, its nothing to worry about,” she reassured me and I honestly thought nothing more of it even when *loml pointed out that her curiosity spelled trouble.
I dismissed his sighs as negative pessimism and I told him not to be so silly. The country’s in a recession after all and houses just aren't selling so why would she bother, right?
Wrong! Low and behold the credit crunch with its rising cost of living really is effecting everyone including my landlady, who’s only option to keep her own head above water financially is to sell her beautiful Victorian four storey home, basement flat with sea views included- (my basement flat!)
Bless her, its not her fault. But on the other hand irrespective of trying to point the finger of blame for our sorry situation, it still doesn’t help me and *loml as I fear we will never find anywhere as lovely or as reasonably priced as our wonderful beach hut style one bedroomed flat.
Although we’ve only called it home for about 10 months we have made it our own with lots of personal fixtures and fittings (junk) and I have enjoyed every money-draining day of my time living there.
I know I’m not a realist, otherwise I wouldn’t of got into all this debt, but even I can see that we are faced with yet another money related struggle as we begin our search to find somewhere else to live which will no doubt cost us more than we pay out now. However, I do believe in fate and that ‘things’ happen for a reason, even if I don’t necessarily agree with them.
So if anyone has any suggestions of somewhere available for rent with all bills included please let me know!

In for a penny in for a pound

Posted by Samantha Castle on May 8, 2008 11:12 AM

IN this age of high inflation, national debts, recession and international economic vacuum, it remains with the individual to be penny wise but not pound foolish. Just how do you nurture your little nest egg in the face of the financial vultures that encourage you to part with your money at every turn?
Once you've got a reasonable grip on not overspending and avoiding unnecessary purchases (which is primarily a personal strength exercise), pocket change can be your biggest boost to monthly savings.
Rather than fish around for exactly the right money or use all those pennies you have for the little things, only spend paper money or large value coins. Take all the change you get at the end of each day and just stash it away into a jar, piggy bank or a sock. Then, at the end of the month, assuming you do a reasonable amount of cash transactions (and not debit card payments), you'll have a nice little stash of money.
I ended up saving £18 in £2 coins over the past couple of weeks which I took to the Llandudno Extravaganza and Colwyn Bay Prom Day. With my savings stash I was able to pay for my twin nephews to go on a couple of the extortionately priced fair ground rides and buy food and drink over the weekend without touching my bank balance.
Saving slummy coins this way you'll barely notice the shift in your spending from coins to notes, and over the span of a year or so, you'll have a significant amount saved, if you don’t spend it like me.
There are now coin sorting machines in many supermarkets that will sort your change very quickly, and give you a receipt to get notes at the cash register. This method does take a small portion of your money (usually 8%) as a processing fee.
At the moment I have a rather nice old glass jar in my living room with a substantial build up of copper coins and those annoying 5p coins, which I’m not going to touch until it’s full and I also have a little silver piggy bank, which my friend Sarah bought for me, which I collect £2 coins in, but they always end up getting spent before I get to £20.
I’ve even got *loml in on the act by getting him his very own shrapnel coin jar as a present, which has a convenient electrical counting function built into the lid, this morning it was registering £82! The first time it reached the £100 total he took me shopping and bought me a Nintendo DS with the money- bless him. He finds it very handy towards the end of each pay month for either an emergency petrol top up or for a cheeky beer purchase.

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Penny Pincher in the May 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.

April 2008 is the previous archive.June 2008 is the next archive.

Many more can be found on the home page or by looking through the archives.