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  • Dewdrop.ja
    Dewdrop.ja Posts: 50 Forumite
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    Boy when you commit, you really commit! Hehe!

    Thank goodness for the stash at work, be sure to replenish it tomorrow!

    I'm sure you'll go far putting a positive spin on these things!
    Halifax: £4765.18
    MBNA: £6843.51
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 2,202 Forumite
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    I have been checking my MBNA card and PayPal almost obsessively waiting for refunds to clear so I could update my budget/signature - well the £157 refund for the shoes cleared today.

    About the shoes.. I ordered from a company in the US who make custom shoes. I've struggled to find what I wanted (the perfect pair of nude high heels) on the UK high street for a couple of years, and when I saw this I thought it was worth a go even though the price is more than I'd normally spend. In my defense, I do look after my things and my feet haven't changed size at all even on my weightloss journey.

    The way it works is this: you order selecting from a range of styles, colours, materials, sizes (inc widths) and they send them to you with free postage and tax paid. If they don't fit or you don't like them, you return them on the cheapest possible service, they'll credit that amount against another pair, and then they'll remake or refund.

    The returns policy IS excellent and tbh I think my only regrets are that a) I made the purchase on my credit card in the first place and b) we couldn't get the sizing right after 4 pairs of shoes due to my narrow heels.

    It cost me about £30 in postage and I have no shoes to show for it, but it does mean my repayment on the MBNA card has gone up to 21%. :T

    ETA - if they had been perfect, I would probably have been looking to order several other pairs so in hindsight maybe it's a good thing...
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 2,202 Forumite
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    The refunds for the jeans finally cleared into my PayPal account taking the balance over £100, so I've withdrawn £100 to my bank account to then pay off the credit card. This will take the MBNA card under £3000! I honestly didn't think I'd make such a dent so fast so that is a major victory. :j

    MBNA only accept debit card payments and I'm never sure what card type my PayPal card is, hence the roundabout way of getting the payment from PayPal to MBNA.
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 2,202 Forumite
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    MBNA payment made - it'll take a few days to clear out of both accounts but hurrah.

    We've recently gained access to a reward scheme (Reward Gateway) which definitely has potential. A lot of it is reloadable pre-paid cards however, and the idea is you might buy a £100 card but only pay £90, thus getting a 10% discount - before any in store offers etc.

    A particular store of interest is Sainsburys (currently 5%) and Tesco (currently 4%) as we do almost all of our food shopping at Sainsburys and OH buys his lunches at Tesco. I think those two will work well as it's a given that we'll be shopping with them, plus we'll still get our respective points.

    The other stores will be harder, as it might be a somewhat impulsive decision to go and buy clothes at the weekend because something just tore, but we haven't left enough time to receive a card in the post. Some retailers "share" the EasySaver card - so having one of those might be useful, but the stores where it's a store-specific card will take some planning. Definitely interesting!
  • Dewdrop.ja
    Dewdrop.ja Posts: 50 Forumite
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    We had a rewards system like that in my previous job and you could have e-vouchers sent rather than waiting for the post. I'm not sure of the exact timescale but that may be worthwhile for weekends?

    Well done on the MBNA payment x
    Halifax: £4765.18
    MBNA: £6843.51
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 2,202 Forumite
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    Dewdrop.ja wrote: »
    We had a rewards system like that in my previous job and you could have e-vouchers sent rather than waiting for the post. I'm not sure of the exact timescale but that may be worthwhile for weekends?

    Well done on the MBNA payment x

    There look to be different/multiple options for different retailers - will definitely be spending some time looking into it! I think for the ones I know we'll use I'll order the cards with a very low balance, because once you have the cards most top ups only take 30 mins.

    We went to look at three prospective wedding venues today; two of which had wedding fairs on. Talk about getting bombarded with yet more leaflets but so far we've come away from each one with an idea or contact. We also tend to get quite a lot of free stuff in goody bags; today we got a mini bottle of wine, a pair of tights, some ginger biscuits, some sweets, a grow-your-own-cucumber, a packet of seeds, some bubbles, and three free gym day-passes.

    The venues themselves aren't quite what we were after as the charm was in outside space and we don't want to chance everything on the weather. We have two candidates so far, and four more to see next month. After that I think I might be out of steam. Currently we have a lovely country house where the reception/ceremony space has been modernised, with lovely grounds. The other is a converted mill so it's basically a big blank canvass. It does have some outside space but we could do so much with the inside, I think it might be my preference. We plan to have the ceremony and reception at the same place, but may do what the Americans call a "first look" and have the bulk of our wedding party photography done before the ceremony anyway.
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 2,202 Forumite
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    So I got the price list for horsey cremation; ranges from £160 to £605 which is a lot less than I was expecting. His account has just under £1000 in it so when the time comes... I'm still beating myself up over this and what to do. I'm trying to employ a strategy of not thinking about it because even though my brain is trying to tell me otherwise, I don't need to make a decision right now.

    This week is a slightly weird one; I go away with work on Friday. I've meal planned up until Wednesday, with a view to going out on Thursday.

    Today; For lunch I'm having left over bolognese probably with a bit of garlic bread rather than spaghetti. For tea, I'm making a curry and naan bread.
    Tuesday; Lunch will be leftovers from Sunday's roast dinner, tea is hot roast beef sandwiches (also leftover from Sunday's roast) - luckily I don't mind duplicate meals
    Wednesday; lunch will be leftover curry from today, with leftover cottage pie (from last week's roast!) for tea (and Thursday's lunch)

    Whilst I'm working away, breakfast is included with the hotel but lunch will come from a supermarket and I usually eat out for tea. I get a decent meal allowance so I'll claim it all back in October. My only real financial concern at the moment is that I don't particularly have room in my budget for all of the food. However, September's expenses claim should be paid this/next week, and if I need money before it comes in I can borrow either from the joint account or my savings account, so I feel like I have a handle on it at least.
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 2,202 Forumite
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    There are two disadvantages to being very careful with money:

    1) Updating YNAB is seriously boring because nothing ever bloomin' happens, and waiting for some transactions to clear is like waiting for paint to dry

    2) I use the Lloyds Save The Change tool, where my purchases are rounded up to the nearest £1 and the "change" is put into a savings account. Due to not spending, my emergency fund is growing at a snails pace

    Woe is me :rotfl:
  • DD265
    DD265 Posts: 2,202 Forumite
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    Three posts in one day (sorry!)...

    I almost had a NSD - then needed to get some passport photos for a voluntary committee thing = had to withdraw some cash. I didn't withdraw my "spending money" for the week so this is basically that.

    Have also got some large expenses coming out for said committee business but have submitted my expenses claim pre-emptively. This is totally separate to my work expenses and I don't profit, although one of the items was paid for last month so that'll be "extra" money for me now. Also temporarily transferred money from the joint account as I don't want the cheque (I know, what's one of those?! :D) to bounce - will pay it back over as soon as the expenses are in.

    Lost most of my PayPal balance to eBay fees - usually I pay as I go but this time I let it build up to over £30. Thankfully although I withdrew the £100 to pay off the card, I still had £35ish left in the account so the fees are covered.
  • Dewdrop.ja
    Dewdrop.ja Posts: 50 Forumite
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    Sounds great that you have a handle of things at least!

    Very sad about your horsey, is he still with you currently or did I miss something?
    Halifax: £4765.18
    MBNA: £6843.51
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