Gadget Crazy Abigail doesn't need a new iphone!

Weekly Very: £0/£7.6

Weekly grocery spend £30/£30

Weekly ebay listing 4/10

Saving for Car Repairs: £150.89/£250

Dinner tonight will be a fakeaway indian bought from Aldi £3.50 for the both of us and DS will be having beans on toast.

Sold another book on amazon which I've added to the Car Repairs fund. Have more stuff to put on ebay tonight.

Have ebay fees to pay of £10 - usually I make a one off payment so it comes out of the paypal allowance before I take my earnings but didn't do that this time so technically I need to pay it out of my money. Plus postage for something. So probably need to deduct £15 off car repairs.

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Looks like you're making a good impact on that Very account. I take it once it's paid off you'll be closing it to remove the temptation to spend altogether? Once you're debt free and back in the position of feeling you can trust yourself with it you can always apply to re-open it, after all.

We're going to be in th position of being without a kitchen for a while later in the year too as ours is being done. It's a "strip it all out and start again" job too so I'm not looking forward to it much! :rotfl:

Oh - and Pssst - not sure how old your DS is, but you know he doesn't need £100 of christmas present, don't you. He'll be just as happy with something costing far less, and you'll be happier because you know you've done the right thing for safeguarding his future, too. Also, there is absolutely NO shame in admitting that dealing with little people 24/7 isn't your thing - in fact I'd say that most people feel broadly the same, so well done you for being open about it!

I had actually emailed Very and asked them to reduce the account from £1300 to £200 (in case of clothing emergencies which we rarely have) but they emailed twice to say they were having problems with their emails and then nothing happened. I don't think I will ever be able to trust myself as iphone7gate has taught me, so I won't ever open it. I think what I will make sure is that I have a splurge savings account where if I ever feel the need to buy something unnecessary that it won't hurt my budget. Maybe add £10 a month to it.

The kitchen is coming together but last week was interesting. I've managed fine with the microwave and toaster - which has taught me a lot! Obviously this is only because I've prepared in advance, we've still got freezer mac and cheese left. I've been staring at my new larder unit in the kitchen - previously it was just a tall cupboard, the back had fallen off and you just have to stack things - the shelves were really far apart. Now I've got a slimmer unit but its pull out so I hope it will stop things from getting forgotten at the back of it. Can't wait to plonk all the food in it.

With regards to the present thing - I don't think £100 is actually that much. I'll explain....it's obviously a lot of money but when your child is obsessed with Lego Ninjago and that is all he wants - it doesn't get you much. Mum's giving him a huge box of handmedown lego for christmas (she gave him a handmedown expensive trainset last year) so I just need to buy a lego Ninjago castle, a Ninjago desert bike thing and then some characters. But it comes to so much money!! Even on ebay. I hadn't planned on buying lots of presents but in the past when I've tried to keep the cost down with cheaper presents it just doesn't interest him. He's not the sort of child who wants lots of presents but he definitely seems to be the sort who wants worthwhile ones. I got him the below for his Birthday which I bought for £40 in the January sales. Ok so £40 on a present is a lot but that was all he got. It's been worth it as he loves playing with it every day rather than watching tv

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Secret-Sewer-Lair-/111688588517?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

Just got to weigh up the lego situation.

!

Friday update

Very – paid off in full. To close or not to close?

Grocery budget I have stuck to – as of today we’re switching to daily spending for the next 17 days just because we have no need to do a big shop just need to pick up a few bits. Our kitchen is very nearly complete, its being painted on Saturday and then the freezer put in place.
I’ve made £900 this month on MBing, I’ve put some away for my bankroll and taken £400 from it to fund my kitchen purchases. I don’t intend to spend £400, but I need to get a bookcase for the corner for all my cookery books. I am undecided as to whether to get a second hand one or a new one, if its new I want it to be a solid one (not ikea) but if its new then it’s not going to be cheap! I am trying to find a second hand one, have been checking ebay, gumtree etc. As well as this, we need an oven liner, another oven shelf (it has just the one), a grill pan, a sandwich toaster (getting rid of the cumbersome George Foreman), glass jars for the herbs, and I need to get someone in to fit a blind. So yes, £400 is a lot but I think it covers quite a lot. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? Won’t be put on a credit card.


Saving for Car Repairs: £150

Dinner tonight is a freezer ready meal. I refuse to use the oven until I’ve lined the bottom and the door. OH is very grumbly about it

Son is away at grandmas for weekend, I will be unpacking the rest of the kitchen, shopping for kitchen things and then spending as long as possible making more MB profit

Email sent to Very! I accidentally overpayed by £7.60 but their system told me a final amount that was wrong.

My next one to tackle is First Direct which is at £323.62. It was at over £700 just a month ago but I used my MB winnings to pay it down. That won't happen this month as I need to use winnings to build a bank roll. I'm at about £900 but still need to get to about 2k. Once I hit 2k I can use all the ongoing winnings to pay off debt.

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Well done for closing that Very account...temptation, as you say, removed! :T

Very are horrendous at the moment for emailing back. I've only just had an email to confirm they've received my request!!

Tuesday update

Kitchen still not painted - painter coming this evening. So cooking dinner's going to be awkward if he's starting at 5.30pm.

Went shopping at the weekend, spent over what I intended to spend but not by too much. Mainly because husband wanted the smaller brabantia bin and I wanted the bigger one (£30 more). My reasoning was that our pans were a lot bigger than the opening and we'd end up getting food all over it and ruin the opening mechanism. I do believe in spending money for quality on some occasions and I have been saving to buy it - we did have a swing top bin and the kitchen ended up stinking. We also bought a coffee machine (Tassimo) which I am loving. Obviously the ongoing cost of the pods can be high but I've made a concession which is giving up my cans of diet coke. I also bought a Tefal Soup Maker from lakeland, been wanting that specific model for months but it was £70 - Lakeland had it for £35. Then there were some other bits that we needed, an Oxo Good Grips Pizza Wheel and Garlic Crusher - the last two pizza wheels from supermarket have fallen apart so have invested in a good one. Also bought an Absorb Bin that traps fat, don't want to put fat down the sink.

I got my oven liner and door protector. we need an oven liner, another oven shelf (it has just the one), a grill pan, a sandwich toaster (getting rid of the cumbersome George Foreman), glass jars for the herbs, and I need to get someone in to fit a blind. So yes, £400 is a lot but I think it covers quite a lot. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? Won’t be put on a credit card.

These are all things I probably didn't need but I had planned in advance and the only think I overspent on was the bin. I've asked OH not to buy me any Christmas presents so he's made a contribution towards the soup maker.

But now I've bought everything I want to for the kitchen, its back to being frugal! Oh wait no I haven't I still haven't got a bookcase. I am still searching for one, ebay is proving fruitless and new is just tooooo much. It's not urgent though

MBing slowing down as I learn how to transition from new accounts to reloads and other ways. Need to start documenting daily earnings so I can keep track of it. Over the next few months my target is £300 a month. £200 to go to debt £100 to go into savings

Food wise - we're having to throw food out as we don't have the space for it. It's not a baaaaad thing because I have a lot of things I just don't need. But it's just choosing what to keep and what to get rid of.

No extra payments being made to credit card at the moment - need to build up MBing bankroll