My rags to riches, weight loss, yummy mummy stuff and 'owt else i can think of diary!

ragstoricheswannabe

Thanks mummy, the only thing is i darent get any out to defrost as i like seeing them all in the freezer!!!:rotfl:

Well my car is here and is soooooo nice!!! drove to work and back in it today and i swear the fuel needle hasnt budged!!!!! the vectra would of supped at least 1/4 a tank or there abouts. this could bring my fuel bill right down:D:D

My fella did some overtime today and got £80 cash so that will be winging its way over to the egg1 cc this week. this should hopefully mean that it will be under £1k when i make my payment when i get paid. (fingers crossed!)

Some more batch cooking planned, thinking of a sausage casserole...................and thats as far as i have got!!!! ha ha ha!!! not very good really.

Not much going on, my fella has agreed to get receipts for every penny he spends so we can see where the money goes, have never done this as i have always relied on the online banking but found some things dont turn up till a few days later so not really accurate, and of course i will do the same. Hoping this will act as a spending diary for us both (which we have tried before and got no where fast) and will make us think about what we buy. Going to get a student diary (as start from sept) and write in each day what we have spent and total it up weekly. This should hopefully show us how much we are spending on stuff like groceries, petrol, my fella's coffee habit etc!!!!!!

ooh, must go see if they have started a new grocery challenge......................

pixieface_3

Hi Rags
sounds like you are loving your new car great idea re the spending diary, I have just started a xmas note book so i can keep a check on what i have bought food and pressi wise, i love xmas but it costs me a fortune with having such a big family so i like to get organised early. Keep up the good work your debts are getting lower each month.
Hope you have a chilled out Sunday
Pixieface x

mummy2mygirls

your new car sounds good and even better if it will save on fuel :j:j

Your doing so well on the debt busting - hope it is under the 1k after next payment!! great to see it go down...

Enjoy your batch cooking. Your getting me in the mood for doing some - it might be a good idea for me to make some food when i feel ok as i often feel sicky at cooking time and its the last thing i want to do....

ragstoricheswannabe

Hey everyone. Hope you had a good bank holiday??

well, its the start of the month and most of my bills have come out today so sailing close to the overdraft limit. I hate this time of the pay cycle as for some reason always seem to have more month than money???

OH has agreed to collect reciepts for everything he spends money on and i will do the same so we can see exactly how much we are spending on stuff.

Am off work sick today as for the past 4 days have had a roaring headache. Going to get my eyes tested this afternoon so may have to spend a bit on glasses (fingers crossed not alot) i had glasses a while back when i was at uni for the projecter thingy but not used them since as my mum got fed up and said to buy the pair i was trying on even though they look ridiculous!!!!!:mad:
Means i will be one day short in sept wage (will haveto check now whether that will make me short for oct wage???)

Will be making sausage casserole for tea but doing double so can freeze some and will also be making a stew for the freezer. hoping to put off filling the freezer till the weekend and even then i am wanting to buy less processed stuff (OH not keen as he can cook these all by himself) we shall see.

so will be living by the cuff (if thats the right saying) till my OH gets paid and then my payday next week.

love rags
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smarties84

Oh no sorry to hear ur ill, hope you dont have to wear glasses. x

ragstoricheswannabe

Well my trip to the opticians has cost me £118!:eek: I have to wear glasses for reading, doing my paperwork and computer stuff. I have a problem with distance but my eye muscles are weak so need the glasses to help my eyes as straining them at the moment. Bit of a funny one but they way the optician said it made sense.

Have looked into renewing the mortgage with our advisor (my fella's cousin and here husband are finicial advisors) and no one will give us another mortage as we have an unsecured loan as part of our mortgage (another idea of northern rocks) so have the option of trying to pay it off (£3k) and move or stay with northern rock on the standard variable. not quite sure what to do really can just about pay £100 to it every month but means we will only have £200 (in theory) if anything crops up in the month (like needing to wear glasses)

claire0788

Oh dear, im not feeling that good about my mortgage fixed rate coming to an end at the start of feb (also with northern rock). I have a loan with my mortgage aswell, 2k, i dont think ill be able to remortgage with another company so ill be stuck with the variable rate aswell. Im not looking forward to that because I like to know what im paying each month, when does your fixed rate end ?

ragstoricheswannabe

hey claire, my fixed rate runs out start of nov. my fella's cousin said she was advising most people to go onto the standard variable as the rates are so low at the moment and northern rock have written to say what our monthly amount will be so i asume they will write and inform us should that go up/down. was told that if we pay off the loan with it then we should just about own the % that the other lenders are looking for in this climate. I am gonna stick with the standard variable (at 4.79%) for the moment and work out if we can overpay after xmas.

Was thinking of taking a payment holiday or two to help pay off some of the cc's. not quite sure on this but need to have one of them paid off by early next year so can do the credit card shuffle when the 1 year anniversary 0% offers come up on the egg cards. Means i may be able to get the debt on to 0% possible including the overdraft. Means my current challenge would be a little out but would hopefully stop the banks from taking out near £30 every month in interest and they can start paying it to me instead.

Still not got round to listing on ebay (whats wrong with me?!?!?!?!) as there always seems to be something better to do. Need to do some as sorting our wardrobe out soon so will loads of OH's stuff to sell as well!!!:eek: just hoping i can sell it all really...........................

I have made some soup today instead of a stew. some to go in the freezer and some for my lunch tomorrow. sausage casserole big hit with the kids and bulked out nicely with carrots and different beans and extra portion cooling in its foil tray ready for the freezer.will do the stew for thurs tea and freeze the extra. at this rate i will be able to put off filling the freezer for another week....................we shall see. Was wondering if pancakes freeze well and do you have defrost them before reheating in the microwave???? was gonna do a batch so the kids can have a treat at breakie some days and have pancakes with fruit etc. im rubbish at making them but my fella is (self certified) the king at them so handy if they were already in the freezer for us. what other stuff can i do to freeze???? its becoming quite addictive:rotfl:.

Am re-reading my thrifty tips book to get some more ideas of where i can save money. i am also sky+ing some exercise programmes on a channel called fitness tv so i dont have to go and buy the dvd's!!!!!:D have deleted the carp ones but have got some good ones from cardio stuff to pilates. have even recorded yoga for babies (ds2) and even one for kids (ds1) so they start to get too wired i can stick it on. should be interesting.

this is turning into a long post so am off to check on everyone elses diaries
love rags
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claire0788

Ye im assuming they will write to me in november or something with some advance info about what will happen in feb. Im just scared that itll change drastically when the rates go up again and worry ill not be able to afford it. Obviously this is still a good few months away though, which means ill have no overdraft or credit card by then...

Ye having the choice of taking a payment break is good, when I was going from my old job to my new job this year that really helped me (skint doesnt even describe the money situation at that time )

ragstoricheswannabe

I def have more month than money at the moment, sailing so close to the limit that i have just had to transfer the £70 i had in the clothes fund as didnt have enough to cover the loan amount that will be coming out soon. Really hoping they havent tried to take it out this morning when there wasnt enough in.

Really not sure where we have gone wrong????? OH gets paid tomorrow so should make things a little easier till my payday next week (of which half will pay for childcare) and he is STILL owed overtime from about 6 weeks ago. Glad i have done plenty of meals for the freezer as will be needing them now as def cant afford to fill the freezer this week.

Bit of a depressing start to the month really, the more we try to be good the worse we seem to be. hoping collecting the reciepts will help????

am gonna ring up today and see if we can have a payment holiday from the mortgage. we really could do with it till we get back on our feet money wise. dont really care at the moment what it will do to our credit rating, bit fed up of struggling at the end of every pay cycle. have to stay with northern rock anyhow as we have the unsecured loan as part of the mortgage.

right, off to find my motivation and positive thinking
love rags
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