Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

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  • Hi there to Sun Addict and brizzledfw! :hello: Thanks so much for coming along on the journey. I've subscribed to your diaries as well so will be popping in to see you as well.

    I had a lovely time with family yesterday power boating and roaring round the Thames. Felt quite the female James Bond! Only thing was I was very windswept afterwards and felt all my hair had blown away and I was bald!

    The tickets were already paid for as we actually bought them for one another as Xmas presents last year and have only got round to using them now! My lovely DD treated me to a burger afterwards and so all I spent yesterday was £20 for taxis home that evening. I used my train season ticket and Oyster card to travel up there.

    DD is actually staying with me tonight. The rest of her family have driven back home but she was meeting a friend for lunch today and will be staying tonight with me as she has early meeting in London tomorrow. So will be making chili tonight and both settling down to catch up with Strictly!

    After Tesco had taken off their branded basket discount the grocery final bill was £69.94 so £16.68 per week left for the month.

    After YNABing the budget for the month I have just over £172 per week surplus minus the £20 spent yesterday. As I'm away for nearly a week I should have some grocery money left over as well.

    I'm going off for a Euro city break on Friday with DD, back early next week, then back for a day and off again for a UK break for a couple of days. It's the end of my 10 month interest free loan to my employer for my season ticket so £320 is freed up from salary this month for holiday money. I'm starting a proper monthly allowance for holidays this time round so I don't get caught out. I haven't been away this year apart from a weekend break earlier this year so really looking forward to getting away.

    Apart from that I haven't got that much on this month so anything left over at the end of month will go into emergency fund.
    Finally Debt Free! - July 2016 🌟
    Finished Emergency Fund- £10,000 April 2017
    🌟
    RETIRED: MAY 2021!!!!😀🎆
    My diary: “Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!”
  • Sun_Addict
    Sun_Addict Posts: 21,094
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    All sounding good. Enjoy your city break :)
    Christmas Savings 2024 £227.29/£600 March NSD:9 March Surveys £
  • brizzledfw
    brizzledfw Posts: 7,302
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    Hi :wave:

    Thanks for subscribing.

    Lovely fun things you're doing with DD..rather envious :) Love the fact that you embrace YNAB too..its an amazing way of keeping on top of everything, easy to use to record and of course, forecasting whats coming up too

    Have a great trip
    MFiT-T4 Member No. 96 - 2022 is my MF goal :D
    Winter 17/18 Savings Rate Goal: 25% [October 30%] :T
    Declutter 60 items before 31.03.18 9/60 ** LSDs Target 10 for March 03/10 **AFDs 10/15 ** Sales/TCB Target 2018 £25/£500 NSDs Target 10 for March 02/10 Trying to be a Frugalista:rotfl::T
  • Thanks guys!
    Ordered my euros on line tonight to pick up at airport. Will be buying some toiletries as well tomorrow - for trip and also for rest of month - I'm going to add a toiletries category to YNAB.
    Yesterday was going well money wise - I ended up not buying paper as I had an early start to work and none of the shops were open on way to station! Took packed lunch in and was just congratulating myself on a NSD day when I got home then I put some washing in the machine and the drum went totally ballistic! I've ended up having to order a new washer/ dryer. The old one was has gone on the blink a few times and is quite old so I feel justified, but its looking like I will be raiding the emergency fund after all. :mad: With connection and removal charges the final damage is £383. :(.
    Today was just paper so not too bad at all. Had work reception tonight so was a little later home - didn't stay that long as felt too tired! Definitely getting old!:rotfl:
    Finally Debt Free! - July 2016 🌟
    Finished Emergency Fund- £10,000 April 2017
    🌟
    RETIRED: MAY 2021!!!!😀🎆
    My diary: “Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!”
  • Day off from work today before my trip. Ended up spending just over £35 in Boots for the toiletries yesterday but with the various offers I saved £12. Had "sunshine" coffees with my friend before I went but took my packed lunch in. Also birthday card for sis plus some people very close to DD and me had some wonderful news that they have been waiting for so we sent them a celebratory bottle of champers - £48 between us!

    NSD day today though! DD arriving later so will finish off packing and we will catch up with GBBO before bed!
    Finally Debt Free! - July 2016 🌟
    Finished Emergency Fund- £10,000 April 2017
    🌟
    RETIRED: MAY 2021!!!!😀🎆
    My diary: “Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!”
  • Mysteek
    Mysteek Posts: 232
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    Hope you had a lovely weekend Seasidegal. How is everything, hope all is well with you.


    I've been trying a bit of 'stoozing' but not sure its working for me at the moment. Have you tried or thought about it?
    MFIT #73 - Pay all mortgage off in 3 years[STRIKE] £46,400[/STRIKE]£34,295 PAID £12,105
  • brizzledfw
    brizzledfw Posts: 7,302
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    Hi, hope alls well xx
    MFiT-T4 Member No. 96 - 2022 is my MF goal :D
    Winter 17/18 Savings Rate Goal: 25% [October 30%] :T
    Declutter 60 items before 31.03.18 9/60 ** LSDs Target 10 for March 03/10 **AFDs 10/15 ** Sales/TCB Target 2018 £25/£500 NSDs Target 10 for March 02/10 Trying to be a Frugalista:rotfl::T
  • Seasidegal58
    Seasidegal58 Posts: 5,677
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    Morning Peeps:wave:

    Yes all well! I'm actually still on the final day of the U.K. leg of my hols. Travelling back to Seaasideville today so will check in later when I get home with full (not so scrimpy) report!:D
    Finally Debt Free! - July 2016 🌟
    Finished Emergency Fund- £10,000 April 2017
    🌟
    RETIRED: MAY 2021!!!!😀🎆
    My diary: “Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!”
  • Seasidegal58
    Seasidegal58 Posts: 5,677
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    Arrived home around 5.00pm. Unpacked then settled down with nice pot of coffee and some cheese on toast! Though I love going away, it’s always so nice to get back home!:D

    Euro Trip“Ich bin ein Berliner” as quoted by the late lamented JFK! What a fantastic city Berlin is! Did our touristy hop on/hop off bus tour, went to the incredibly moving Check Point Charlie museum and also browsed around the brilliant German history museum (why don’t we have its equivalent?), climbed the beautiful glass dome on top of the Reichstag by night and zoomed to the top of the TV Tower and saw all of Berlin by day (that’s the bobble on a stick looking thing!). Also thoroughly spoilt by DD with some lovely meals.

    Spending Tally (oh dear!) – well I came back with just over EUR170 which I decided not to convert back but keep for future trip. With the dire sterling rate at the moment Berlin is rather expensive. As well as euro cash spends I bought the bobbly thing tickets pre-booked on card which worked out after conversion to £37. I also paid return leg of car from airport to Seasideville which was £90 with tip! Whilst in Berlin I bought a rather nice bottle of white chocolate and grappa liqueur from beautiful chocolate shop for one of my sis’s Xmas pressies but this will come out of Xmas budget.

    Got back on Monday evening and spent Tuesday at home with DD though did pop out to meet friend in morning for coffee. Had to stay in from 2.00pm because new washing machine arriving but of course it did not arrive till 7.30pm! :mad: As all the stuff from under kitchen sink was on the kitchen worktop and we weren’t sure when machine was arriving we got a takeaway for dinner from nice Turkish restaurant - £30! I also found out that extra £5.78 went to Sky for box office film I saw last month and call charges I had forgotten about!

    UK Trip – Off we went next day to Windsor, which I have been through a few times but never properly visited. The Castle is amazing, the State Rooms are fabulous and the Chapel is gorgeous. We’re so lucky to have these wonderful historical places to visit in the UK. We also did the “Duck Tour” around the town and on the river. DD again treated me last night to a delicious dinner at very well known restaurant a few miles away which was one of the most memorable meals I have ever had.

    Spending Tally – again oh dear! I got the taxis, rail tickets, duck tour and castle tickets and so:

    (drum roll)

    I now have a terribly unscrimpy debit in my holiday savings category of £285 after the two trips :eek: .

    I’m really going to have to pull my horns in until payday on 25th. I’m looking at £123 left in spending for week 2, which actually finishes tomorrow, and £172 for each of weeks 3 and 4. I should be able to clear this debit with these funds as I don’t have anything in diary till payday apart from perhaps some coffees with friends.

    BUT I also have to pay for the washing machine so that my emergency fund doesn’t go into debit. I don’t have to pay the Amex card till payday so will have to rein in my spends next month so that I can pay for it on 25th.

    Mysteek – you mentioned stoozing. I’ve never done it as it wasn’t suitable for me when I was in debt. I had a quick look at it on the MSE home page, but I still think it’s not for me as Martin stresses that you have to keep your eye on it and have a good memory! :rotfl::rotfl: . However, I am already using the stoozing alternative which is putting as much of your purchases on a cashback credit card and making sure you pay the bill at the end of the month so you don’t accrue any interest. I think I’ll keep with this as it is safer. In what way are you finding it difficult?
    Finally Debt Free! - July 2016 🌟
    Finished Emergency Fund- £10,000 April 2017
    🌟
    RETIRED: MAY 2021!!!!😀🎆
    My diary: “Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!”
  • Seasidegal58
    Seasidegal58 Posts: 5,677
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    Quiet day today. When the guy fitted and tested the new washing machine the other day he said that he thought my kitchen sink drain was blocked. Accordingly I popped out today and bought some drain unblocker. Also needed some food bits from Co-op.

    Im afraid I did succumb to a cheeky spend of £4.99 which was a book downloaded from Kindle called The Recovering Spender that brizzle has been reading. This will be the only unbudgeted “thing” I will buy for the rest of the month I promise!:D

    So Week 2 has finished and I have been able to sweep £110.59 across from spends and £1.34 from food across to the Holiday category debit and this has now been reduced to a slightly better figure of £173.07.:T

    One other piece of really good news that I completely forgot is that my employer will not be debiting my monthly season ticket payment from my salary at end of month as this is one of the two non-payment months. So £320 will be freed up for the washing machine! And this forgetfulness Mysteek is why I shouldn’t stooze! :rotfl:

    I've just bought my new season ticket on my M&S card and will reclaim this back from employer towards the end of the month. So some nice loyalty points accruing on the M&S card (though not as much as last year as they have reduced the number of points earned on non-M&S transactions :mad: )

    This year my new ticket takes the form of a Smartcard and also gives me four non-peak time tickets for our line and I have winged these across to DD for when she visits. You also get automatic refunds pro-rata if your trains are more than a few minutes late. Our line does have a good record for punctuality so they have obviously thought out that one! Another perk with the ticket was that I have a annual senior railcard for when I travel up to see DD in north of England which has only cost me £10 instead of £30.

    So week 2 starts tomorrow. I will pop up to Aldi to sort out fruit and veg and other bits for this week as I'm back to work on Monday. Don’t have anything on socially and just a couple of budgeted birthday cards to buy so hopefully will have a good sum to put onto the holiday debit by end of week.

    P.S and isn’t it bliss to have a quiet washing machine!:D
    Finally Debt Free! - July 2016 🌟
    Finished Emergency Fund- £10,000 April 2017
    🌟
    RETIRED: MAY 2021!!!!😀🎆
    My diary: “Seasidegal's Scrimpy Retirement Diary!”
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