2017 - Spend less, live more

chanie · 29 November 2017 at 10:32PM

We have 4 presents left to buy for Xmas, plus a few other bits and pieces. Am pretty pleased with that. Ideally, i wanted to have it all done by now, but I’ve struggled with inspiration. I didn’t get as many bargains as in previous years, but that’s because many of the children in our family are now wanting cash or vouchers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to give cash, but it’s not like you can get cash on offer anywhere.

pennywisepoundstupid · 29 November 2017 at 10:34PM

Your doing better than me I have loads left to buy, I just don't want to spend any money. I must get on with it though otherwise it will be a last minute rush.

chanie · 3 December 2017 at 9:59PM

when it all goes wrong

I’ve had a few disasters recently.

Firstly, i got two parking tickets, which were £45 each. Next to the high street is a supermarket which has free parking for an hour, so i normally park there if popping in to town quickly. They recently changed it so that you have to enter your car reg details, but i didn’t know this, so I️ got caught out.

Secondly, i didn’t get a receipt for a service i paid for in cash, so now i have to repay. The company have gone halves with me, but it’s still £60 ish.

So, I’m £150 down. Very annoyed with myself.

sugarbaby125 · 4 December 2017 at 1:48AM

Hi Chanie,

You must be feeling really gutted at being down such a substantial sum.

I am sure you will soon bounce back from it though, as you have that inner resilience.

Take care. You have Christmas to focus on now and to look forward to. I am sure your children are mega excited.

chanie · 4 December 2017 at 11:23PM

Thanks for your kind words. It’s just a major annoyance.

The kiddies are looking forward to Xmas, particularly opening their advent calendars every morning. DD started counting down to the count down (‘mummy can we open our advent calendar today’).

pennywisepoundstupid · 5 December 2017 at 7:54AM

Chanie i'm sorry to hear about the extra expense, id be really upset to.

Focus on having a nice Christmas with the little ones, my 2 are past the excited for Santa stage

.

sugarbaby125 · 5 December 2017 at 12:39PM

Chanie,

My children are 17 and 25 and they can be so blase about Christmas, but as I am not working this year, I am putting a lot more effort into Christmas and have started to wrap presents.

They are catching my excitement and we are making decisions as a family. We are planning a very traditional Christmas, with lots of family board games on Christmas Day.

I am also wrapping birthday presents for my soon to be 35 year old daughter and my 34 year old son whose birthdays are the 10th and the 14th of December.

chanie · 9 December 2017 at 10:12PM

a couple of months ago, we decided to give the children their own bedrooms. Phase 1 was moving DS into the box room, which was being used as a dressing room/junk room. We spent under £50 on the room, as we only needed paint and bedding - we moved the furniture from the shared room into DS new room. Phase 2, was decorating DDs room, which we did today. This will cost About £250 as we need new furniture, bedding and curtains. Phase 3 will be wardrobes for mine and OHs room, as we don’t have any so our room is a mess for now.

Once we’ve finished the bedrooms, the ‘big’ project is the dining room and hallway. The walls are in quite bad condition, so we will need to get someone in to sort them out. Plus, we need a new dinning room suite. I have some ideas to keep costs down:
- We need a plasterer to sort out the walls, but we can paint them ourselves.
- we may just paint the floorboards and put down a large rug, in the dinning room and hallway. I don’t like laminate flooring and don’t want carpet (which is what we currently have).
- am thinking of getting a good second hand dinning suite if I can find one - something well made, but not old fashioned. I may be lucky!

sugarbaby125 · 10 December 2017 at 9:12AM

Well done Chanie. You and your husband must be so pleased with the progress you have made on your house fabbing. Your children must be really pleased with their new bedrooms.

chanie · 15 December 2017 at 9:37PM

Some good news.

Apparently, I’m owed £400 from the student loan company. The money was deducted from my salary, but it can sometimes take time for the payments to stop as HMRC systems and Student Loans systems don’t interact. I paid it off a few years ago, so I assumed I was done and dusted, so that was a nice surprise.

2017 - Spend less, live more

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