Second Time Lucky

Time is flying!

Big expenses recently:
2 new tyres - £160
Operation and medication for rats - £250 :eek::eek:
Yearly prescription - £104
Music lessons for DD - £39
Lunch out - £33
Xmas gifts - £30

We still need a boiler service this month. :undecided

I doubt anything will be going into the savings this month...

The music lessons will probably be dropped next term as she has learnt literally nothing in 2 lessons. Considering she could play 4 chords before she started, it's not great. For the £39 I could have bought a few good books and done it at home.

Another pet appointment tonight so that number might go up. We're definitely not getting any more pets after this as it's cost so much money! Stressful too when they're poorly.

I have done an energy switch. It won't save much at all but I get £50 and it's even greener than the last one. There's no fix so if a better deal comes along I can switch again.

I've signed DD up for an online maths app as she is about a year behind (last year's teacher disagreed with me all year but this year's seems more aware). I'm pondering paying £45 for the full year.

I was considering booking next year's holiday (we're thinking North Yorkshire) but decided to wait as the next few months are going to be expensive.

The boxroom decoration has stalled (again). I have busted my shoulder and my right index finger, which makes wallpaper scraping agony. So annoying!! Had hoped OH could do some, but he's too busy at the moment.

DD is settled in year 2 now and enjoying it. A few wobbles but seems happier than last year. I'm more relaxed so I've started my language learning again on Duolingo. Because I'm so flighty I am now doing Danish, German and French. :rotfl:

Have bought quite a few birthday and Christmas presents so far so hopefully only need to get a few more things.

In fantasy window buying news, I'm now thinking just get really good quality upvc. I love the look of the aluminium but if the insulation is less than what we've got, there's no point.

Just in case September wasn't proving to be expensive enough, the 2 year old washing machine broke! Got a big whiff of burning and turned it off quickly (my Mum's actually went up in flames a few years ago). I did a quick diagnosis online and it didn't look to be any of the cheap to fix things so the new one is coming on Sunday. Really annoyed that the last one lasted so little time. So that's £223 that we really didn't have to spare. :mad::mad::mad:

OH has also decided that now is a good time to start socialising more and he has spent £35 on a computer game. I can't really moan as he works very hard, but it's not great timing. £85 spent this month so far just on eating/drinking out (for OH - I've spent £1.30...) and he's going out again this weekend.

Took advantage of the 2 for 3 deal at Argos with my Mum so we both got a £20 toy and then got the £17 one for free. I think that's DD's birthday presents all bought now. I need to put them all together to check. Could probably do with some more clothes but she's not desperate yet.

My boiler man can't come until November, which is a bit rubbish, but I didn't want to risk anyone else as we've had some dodgy heating engineers in the past. I'm not sure if this invalidates the 5 year guarantee. I'm hoping not as it doesn't state that the service has to be done exactly a year from when it was fitted (this is the 3rd service).

Did the banking spreadsheet and taking into account any expenditure this weekend, we should just about break even this month. Boooo! It's hard enough not being able to overpay but I rely on seeing the savings grow!! My little line graph is not going to be happy.

The plan is still to pay 10% off in January, which should take us almost to £35000 (probably by March) which will be half the mortgage paid off. It's painstakingly slow as the payment each month is just £395 so only about £300 is knocked off each month and any overpayments will incur a fee. I think the fix runs out in October so then I shall be overpaying a nice big chunk.

We shunned the ridiculous Peugeot service (£430 last year...for a SERVICE) and went back to the local garage, which charged £130. How they can cost £300 for exactly the same work is beyond me.

All the refunds are in - just waiting on the £100 mastercard from EE. I've paid my 2nd bill but no sign of a claim email yet and no mention of it anywhere. I'll be fuming if I don't get this as I only switched for the extra money.

DD's birthday went well. Went to the cinema, which was eye-wateringly expensive, but didn't spend a huge amount overall.

Spent the Amazon vouchers on some maths equipment for DD as she's really struggling and bought some photo albums as we always need them. Also bought 3 presents.

I need to get a move on with thinking about presents for people other than DD! Haven't even thought about it and time is ticking.

Have been trying to work out where OH's pension is up to but the website is only showing additional contributions and no documents at all showing his forecast. It just won't let us log in, which is annoying.

Boiler service finally got done - £60.

Managed to save a few hundred this month, which is nice, as the strike days will come out next month.

Got the EE email so my £100 mastercard is being processed. The pension people said OH will have to wait for an annual update letter so that's okay.

Worrying news about the NHS tax refunds being stopped or even asked back. Apparently the one OH was at isn't requesting any money back, so that's a relief. We would be completely f**ked if that happened!!!

Had a spendy weekend. £60 on jumpers for all the family, winter boots for DD, shoes for OH (as he gets through a pair every 6 months for some reason). Spent nearly £20 at Home Bargains on Christmas stuff for DD (PJs, slippers, flannel etc).

I was struggling to know what to get my niece and nephews as I've spent about £5-£10 on each of them so far but I know their parents will spend more on DD. I think I'm going to get the UNICEF Christmas parcel for each of them. Even if certain people don't appreciate charity gifts, it seems obscene to be spending so much on kids who have a million toys already when there are children cold and scared this winter. One family member asked what DD would like for Christmas, I told them, and they said it sounds rubbish so they're getting her something that she definitely doesn't want/need because they like it. :eek:

I've made it clear to the adults that they're getting nothing. I just make a photo book for the grandparents each year.

Speaking of which, I need to go and see if there are any good deals and get uploading photos!

After a stressful weekend I have ended up at least gaining in financial terms.

So, Argos sale. Ordered the Smart TV, which is our family gift from the in-laws, for £180 (They said up to £200 so glad to save them £20!) and the games console OH wanted reduced to £35, plus used a £5 voucher. Also got some half price playmobil for various nephews/nieces and something for DD's adoption day, plus a printer for £15.

We're desperate for a printer as it costs 50p for a colour print at the library and I can't keep stealing them now I haven't worked there for over 2 years! So I ordered the ink ready. We went to collect the printer - service was dire - and got home to discover it's the wrong model. Argos wanted me to carry the printer on the bus back to the shop to swap it. I refused. In the end they said I should keep the wrong printer, which was marginally more expensive than the one I ordered, but I realised it has a 3 month free trial for free ink.

So stressful, but I can return the wrong ink and pay postage for that and will end up with much more ink from the free trial. 300 pages a month. I might need to buy more paper though. It'll be good to print out stuff from the Woodland Trust for DD and stuff for school.

In other money saving news, I have a 60% off code from Bonusprint so I've made some Christmas Cards and I'll get 2 photobooks for the grandparents.

I have been sat at the computer all day so going to go now!