A Fool and her money
Mar. 16th, 2005 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4Motivated partly by the regular appearance of Motley Fool newsletters in my inbox, I finally got round to sorting some financial bits and pieces out yesterday.
First, I've got a new NSPCC credit card into which I'm transferring the outstanding balance on my egg card. That should save me about £3 a month, which isn't much, but it'll cover the cost of a birthday card, or one tube ticket, or even just one more slightly-more-guilt-free pint of beer. It also results in £20 being donated to the NSPCC when I start using it -- that's a donation I wouldn't have been able to justify making myself, to a charity which I believe to be worthwhile.
Second, I've fought my way through the Orange website and had another shot at changing my payment plan on my mobile phone, moving from Talk120 to Talk30. (I tried to do this a couple of months ago but somehow they don't seem to have changed the plan, and of course I was too apathetic and avoidant to do anything about it at the time. If it doesn't work this time, I'll be able to tell them when I tried to do this on the website, and complain loudly at them.) This should save me £10 a month, which is actually a noticeable amount.
Third, I've had a look through the records that I'm keeping of what I've been spending my money on, and it came as no great surprise to me to find that the costliest categories were food and train tickets. The train tickets are currently non-negotiable: I want to see as much of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
addedentry as possible, and while we live where we do the only sensible way to do that is by train. I knew I was a clingy and needy girlfriend but I'm amused to find that I really am more willing to economise on food than on time spent with Owen -- though that's partly because there's no way I can make the train journeys cheaper (except possibly booking tickets in advance, which is something I should investigate) whereas I could definitely be more economical about my food-shopping habits.
My expenses spreadsheet wasn't without its surprises, though. I was amazed to find that I was spending twice as much on gifts for other people as on books for myself (though I have been trying really hard not to buy unnecessary books), and horrified to find that I was spending as much on toiletries and medication as on gifts! Gifts are a tricky area to economise (and I'm not really in the best frame of mind to wander into that particular minefield of guilt at the moment) but toiletries really aren't: I could probably halve that figure if I just stopped buying things in Lush. If I don't buy the stuff for myself, it'll mean there's always an easy option for birthday/Christmas presents when my parents have no idea what to buy me. (Not that I would demand presents from them at all, obviously, but realistically they're likely to keep on giving me things, because they're like that.)
The really surprising thing is that according to my spreadsheet I've spent a grand total of £2.77 on music since New Year. Now I think that may be failing to take into account the couple of quid I spent on tapes in a charity shop, because I'm not infallible in my record-keeping; but even so, I'm amazed I've managed to resist the lure of Fopp's cheap CDs for this long.
The next items on the financial task-list are to investigate ways we could save money by moving the mortgage elsewhere, and to sort out my savings account. I've no idea about the mortgage but I'm guessing there are websites where you can type in the figures and they'll tell you if you could save money. As for savings: I don't really have many, but I've got some birthday money and suchlike in a Sainsburys account which was fairly high interest when I opened it but now is frankly rubbish (though still better than keeping the money in a sock under the mattress, I suppose). It would probably be better in a cash mini-ISA or something, but I keep hitting a wall of avoidance when I look at the millions of accounts that are out there which are all nearly the same, and I can't face working out which the best one would be. I think I need to just draw a line under that particular avenue of worry and find something that's better than the current situation.
So much for the outgoings and the savings. The actual income is harder to adjust; there's no way I can get a pay-rise, and I don't really want to look for another job at the moment unless I'm relocating completely (and that's all up in the air at the moment). I'm selling bits and pieces on eBay (though I haven't yet resorted to trying to sell my old train tickets -- thanks toaddedentry for the link), and I'm on the lookout for psychology experiments for which I can volunteer my elite button-pressing skills in my lunch-hour (those usually pay a fiver or so), but is there anything else -- anything more productive? I keep prodding at the question of whether I could earn money from any of the skills I have. (Please, nobody suggest that I become a professional cake-decorator: I think it would take up too much of my time for too little money, and I also worry that it would take the fun out of doing cakes for friends and family.) The only thing I can think of that I could do on weeknights (I'm clutching at straws here) would be something like offering revision tutorials for GCSE/A-level English; okay, I don't have any (relevant) formal teaching qualifications, but then one-to-one tuition isn't formal teaching in that sense anyway, and I've got a degree in English -- and people do teach in schools with just a degree in their subject! The problem is, I have no idea how I'd go about starting to do the tutoring thing -- would any self-respecting parent even consider paying for tuition for their child from J. Random English Graduate? Does anybody have any experience of trying to do anything like this, or useful advice to offer?
First, I've got a new NSPCC credit card into which I'm transferring the outstanding balance on my egg card. That should save me about £3 a month, which isn't much, but it'll cover the cost of a birthday card, or one tube ticket, or even just one more slightly-more-guilt-free pint of beer. It also results in £20 being donated to the NSPCC when I start using it -- that's a donation I wouldn't have been able to justify making myself, to a charity which I believe to be worthwhile.
Second, I've fought my way through the Orange website and had another shot at changing my payment plan on my mobile phone, moving from Talk120 to Talk30. (I tried to do this a couple of months ago but somehow they don't seem to have changed the plan, and of course I was too apathetic and avoidant to do anything about it at the time. If it doesn't work this time, I'll be able to tell them when I tried to do this on the website, and complain loudly at them.) This should save me £10 a month, which is actually a noticeable amount.
Third, I've had a look through the records that I'm keeping of what I've been spending my money on, and it came as no great surprise to me to find that the costliest categories were food and train tickets. The train tickets are currently non-negotiable: I want to see as much of
addedentry as possible, and while we live where we do the only sensible way to do that is by train. I knew I was a clingy and needy girlfriend but I'm amused to find that I really am more willing to economise on food than on time spent with Owen -- though that's partly because there's no way I can make the train journeys cheaper (except possibly booking tickets in advance, which is something I should investigate) whereas I could definitely be more economical about my food-shopping habits.My expenses spreadsheet wasn't without its surprises, though. I was amazed to find that I was spending twice as much on gifts for other people as on books for myself (though I have been trying really hard not to buy unnecessary books), and horrified to find that I was spending as much on toiletries and medication as on gifts! Gifts are a tricky area to economise (and I'm not really in the best frame of mind to wander into that particular minefield of guilt at the moment) but toiletries really aren't: I could probably halve that figure if I just stopped buying things in Lush. If I don't buy the stuff for myself, it'll mean there's always an easy option for birthday/Christmas presents when my parents have no idea what to buy me. (Not that I would demand presents from them at all, obviously, but realistically they're likely to keep on giving me things, because they're like that.)
The really surprising thing is that according to my spreadsheet I've spent a grand total of £2.77 on music since New Year. Now I think that may be failing to take into account the couple of quid I spent on tapes in a charity shop, because I'm not infallible in my record-keeping; but even so, I'm amazed I've managed to resist the lure of Fopp's cheap CDs for this long.
The next items on the financial task-list are to investigate ways we could save money by moving the mortgage elsewhere, and to sort out my savings account. I've no idea about the mortgage but I'm guessing there are websites where you can type in the figures and they'll tell you if you could save money. As for savings: I don't really have many, but I've got some birthday money and suchlike in a Sainsburys account which was fairly high interest when I opened it but now is frankly rubbish (though still better than keeping the money in a sock under the mattress, I suppose). It would probably be better in a cash mini-ISA or something, but I keep hitting a wall of avoidance when I look at the millions of accounts that are out there which are all nearly the same, and I can't face working out which the best one would be. I think I need to just draw a line under that particular avenue of worry and find something that's better than the current situation.
So much for the outgoings and the savings. The actual income is harder to adjust; there's no way I can get a pay-rise, and I don't really want to look for another job at the moment unless I'm relocating completely (and that's all up in the air at the moment). I'm selling bits and pieces on eBay (though I haven't yet resorted to trying to sell my old train tickets -- thanks to
addedentry for the link), and I'm on the lookout for psychology experiments for which I can volunteer my elite button-pressing skills in my lunch-hour (those usually pay a fiver or so), but is there anything else -- anything more productive? I keep prodding at the question of whether I could earn money from any of the skills I have. (Please, nobody suggest that I become a professional cake-decorator: I think it would take up too much of my time for too little money, and I also worry that it would take the fun out of doing cakes for friends and family.) The only thing I can think of that I could do on weeknights (I'm clutching at straws here) would be something like offering revision tutorials for GCSE/A-level English; okay, I don't have any (relevant) formal teaching qualifications, but then one-to-one tuition isn't formal teaching in that sense anyway, and I've got a degree in English -- and people do teach in schools with just a degree in their subject! The problem is, I have no idea how I'd go about starting to do the tutoring thing -- would any self-respecting parent even consider paying for tuition for their child from J. Random English Graduate? Does anybody have any experience of trying to do anything like this, or useful advice to offer?
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 11:21 pm (UTC)I looked into the Open University a while ago but I got the impression they needed a lot more time commitment than I could really give while holding down a full-time job. OTOH I suppose the people who learn with the OU are often doing full-time jobs as well, & if you say that you can set your own hours that does sound quite promising... I will go and look again. Thank you for the reminder.
And someone doing an OU foundation course in Eng Lit is probably going to be more interested in the subject for its own sake than someone who just needs a decent mark in English GCSE so they can do something more interesting.
Okay, this is going to sound loopy, but that's partly what makes me want to tutor teenagers instead of adults. People who are interested in the subject for its own sake and paying to do a degree in their spare time will probably enjoy it whoever's teaching them, whether they get extra tuition or not, and they'll have their own ideas about what they want to study, etc. Whereas people who are frustrated by classroom teaching might really appreciate the chance to say what they think without being told to shut up because the other 29 people in the room aren't interested; and people who are convinced that English is "boring" might actually come to see it in a whole different light if somebody just happens to say something that pushes their buttons in the right way, something that makes it come alive for them. And if not, well, hopefully they can be helped to get the marks they need to do the thing they want to do -- I loved studying my subject and I love talking about it but I don't demand that everybody else loves it for its own sake; it can be a means to all kinds of random ends as well.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-17 09:53 am (UTC)Shouldn't be a problem, I think. Because you're clearly not saying anything about individual teachers, all you're saying is, I'm offering tutoring and I wondered if any of your pupils might be interested.
I also have a very strong impression (and maybe you'll call me cynical again) that a lot of the reason private schools get such good academic results is because pupils routinely get extra tuition in subjects where either they're struggling or the teacher isn't up to snuff. As far as the school's concerned, therefore, private tuition means that they can boost their league table ranking without any extra effort on the part of the school. There are ways of presenting this which aren't quite so brutal, but basically it's an everybody wins situation: you get money, the kids get better grades, and the school gets to boast about the better grades and attract more pupils (who will then get tuition to make up for the school's deficiencies, but never mind that).
I actually think some of the stuff you've mentioned in your comment might work as pitch. You're clearly not criticizing the teachers if you talk about class sizes being too large for kids to get individual attention; I'm sure most teachers would agree! And you're not criticizing the teachers if you talk about pupils who are convinced English is boring (may also be worth mentioning those who find English hard; again, pupil incompetence issue rather than teacher incompetence issue).
this is going to sound loopy
I think I would say idealistic rather than loopy, myself. (And given some of the teaching jobs I've done, mostly voluntary or working for charitable organizations that paid what they could but that barely covered expenses, I'm not at all in a position to call anyone else loopy.)
I guess from your original post I thought you were kind of flapping and feeling the whole idea was an impossible pipe-dream. From things like: " I have no idea how I'd go about starting to do the tutoring thing". But actually, now I've started giving you some practical advice it's clear you actually do have this a lot more thought through than the impression I got. You have a very firm idea of what you do and don't want to be doing and why, and you've obviously investigated lots of the options. In which case my advice is mostly superfluous and possibly patronizing, for which I apologize.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-17 01:56 pm (UTC)Don't be daft, 'twas useful advice, though I feel guilty for making you go to all that effort when I'd already decided against TEFL & just hadn't said so clearly enough.
The real problem here (as everywhere else in my life) is that I have ideas about what I'd like to be able to do but absolutely no idea how to do the practical bits. e.g. I could probably talk to people about Eng. Lit. but I don't know how to advertise things, or how to phone people without just panicking and rambling and talking crap, or ... well, basically, how to function as an adult human being. At all. I have the basic life-competence of your average 7-year-old, which is why I'll never actually do anything interesting with my life despite all the dreams.