Back to Black - XSpender's 6 Year Plan

XSpender

Right, here is my list of tasks for the weekend. If I write it down I am less likely to skive off. Feel free to give me a kick up the bot when required!

• Make lemon curd cake and choc chip cookies
• Streeeeetch tonight's chicken into chicken casserole and chicken and sweetcorn soup
• Make veggie version of Quiche Lorraine **tries to think of a new catchy name for it.....fails miserably.......**
• Meet friend for swim and coffee at the gym
• Clean bathroom
• Dust and vaccum up and downstairs (OH to do stairs as I hate doing it)
• Change bedding
• Wash last duvet and last 2 pillows
• Walk the fur
• Clean out wiffy dog basket
• Try for a NSD on Sunday
• DO NOT BUY ANYTHING RESEMBLING GROCERIES, in fact don't buy anything at all (except one coffee with friend:D)
• Iron everything for when away next week
• Meal plan for next week as will be late home at least twice

There is £30.33 in my purse(excluding my £65 birthday money). The 33p is going in the change pig and I want to have at least £25 left in there by Monday morning.

I have been thinking this afternoon about a MSE challenge to set my OH. I look after the finances now, do the GC, NSD and £10/day challenge and would like to think of one he can do as he has had some expensive 'treats' this year including 2 weekends away, concert tickets and is after upgrading his phone to an iphone at a cost of £87 and a £10 increase in his monthly bill. It will save us buying a new laptop as ours has had it and I can use my work one. I have had no treats, by the way. I have suggested he has the phone for for Christmas but he is such a baby boy about presents this did not go down well. :xmassmile

Any suggestions? I may start a thread on the DFW board. Ideally I would like him to raise the money for the £600 worth of 'treats' he has had/wants but I need to come up with a gimmick/idea to motivate him. Knowing him, if he makes this money he will want to spend it on something else while I want to save the part of it that covers the money already spent, about £260, and the rest covers the next weekend away and phone. I will have a think over the next couple of days and if I am struggling will start a thread.

Off to make a start on my list as BIL is coming for tea and need to clean up a bit.

XS

XSpender

XSpender wrote: »

• [STRIKE] Make lemon curd cake and choc chip cookies[/STRIKE] No cookies left and not much cake either!
• [STRIKE]Streeeeetch tonight's chicken into chicken casserole and chicken and sweetcorn soup[/STRIKE] Done
• Make veggie version of Quiche Lorraine **tries to think of a new catchy name for it.....fails miserably.......** Done and eaten it all!
• [STRIKE] Meet friend for swim and coffee at the gym[/STRIKE] Done
• Clean bathroom errr no
• Dust and vaccum up and downstairs (OH to do stairs as I hate doing it) OH did downstairs
• Change bedding Done
• [STRIKE]Wash last duvet and last 2 pillows[/STRIKE] Duvet won't fit in washer, pillows done
• Walk the fur
• Clean out wiffy dog basket
• [STRIKE]Try for a NSD on Sunday[/STRIKE] Done
• [STRIKE]
• DO NOT BUY ANYTHING RESEMBLING GROCERIES, in fact don't buy anything at all (except one coffee with friend:D) [/STRIKE]Almost!
• [STRIKE]Iron everything for when away next week[/STRIKE] OH did all the ironing, bless him
• Meal plan for next week as will be late home at least twice Nope

My last post said I had £30.33 in my purse and it has disappeared:eek: My spends this weekend were:

£7.00 Window cleaner (2 visits)
£2.70 Coffee and scone with friend
£2.00 Raffle tickets at event on Saturday
£0.33 Change put in pig

£11.70 Total and a NSD on Sunday

I have not done any grocery shopping this weekend:T but will have to go get OH some decaff coffee as he wants to avoid it while we go through IVF. I honestly cannot think where it has gone??

It took ages to clean up after all my cooking this weekend so didn't get as many jobs completed as expected.

Checked the internet banking and there is £575.03 left after everything has been paid out. This is to feed us until the 27th, £125 for campsite fees and diesel and spending money for when we are away.:eek: There is £210 in the contingency savings I do not want to touch and a £112 bill that could be paid in September instead and my expenses may not come out until after I am paid again which is another £65.80. I will probably pay the £112 in september as there is no large expenses due then although I would like to spend an extra £50 - £75 on a big grocery stock up and start putting stuff away for Christmas as we are expecting 14! I also want to increase my personal savings (for holidays etc) to £200/month as we are saving £100/month on a reduction in the mortgage.

XSpender

Ah ha! Found a tenner of it in my purse with my birthday money! There are also 2 pound coins in there but that still leaves me £9 odd missing. I will ask OH when he gets in if he can think where we spent it. I gave OH a fiver but I can't remember if that was Friday or Saturday morning.

These drugs I'm on don't half make you forgetfull:o

XSpender

I have just rang the secured loan company to get a copy of my agreement and an up to date statement so will update the sig when it arrives.:T

The bad news is that they do not allow overpayments on the loan so I will have to save up the settlement figure instead. I have estimated I will need about £10,000 to pay off the balance on 1st Feb 2015, the month after my IVA ends. This is based on the number of payments I will have left.

My only problem is I am carp at saving and only manage to save a few hundred quid and then it gets spent:o (now you know why my user name is XSpender - I am still working on the X bit:rotfl:)

My plan is as follows:

• Save £120 in contingency account (£50 for emergencies and £70 towards annual bills and subscriptions)
• Save £200/mnth from wages in savings account
• Make a further £100/month and save in savings account
• Once have £3500 saved (one months joint wages) split savings between 'personal' savings and 'secured' savings

I was doing really well on the savings front over the last 2 months but we got offered a fantastic caravan at an unbelievably cheap price and it was too good a bargain to turn down. In the old pre IVA and MSE days we would not have had ANY savings to pay for it and no limit left on the credit card to take the cash out(:eek:) and would have missed out on it. At least that's my holidays covered for the next 5 years.

XSpender

Signed up for Quidco and Dooyoo this morning. The dooyoo reviews seem a lot of work as I will need to write 100 reviews (excluding views) to get the £50 but I am sure that once I have written the first few they will be easy and quick to do.

I was a bit naughty last night and spent £7.70 on a takeaway as I was too tired to cook by the time I got in from work as I ws in a branch some drive away from home.

I think the OH is reconsidering the i phone and may get a cheaper one. He has come around to the idea it is for Xmas if he does get one. I am still trying to get him to keep his phone and get one of these O2 sims with loads more minutes and texts for less than his current contract. I will have to keep working on him.

XSpender

Forgot to say I have also signed up to music magpie. OH and I have hundreds of CDs in boxes in the loft since we moved into this house 3 years ago. Many of them have the cases in the loft and the CD in a big CD book thing (like DJs use) in the living room so they will need pairing up.

The site looks so easy to use I am going to get a box out of the loft tonight and see if I can get rid of some. We also have a few DVDs and games they may take. It will be much easier than trying to car boot them.

XSpender

Oooo I have just signed up to 2 mystery shopping sites! I don't know wether I am exited or nervous about doing them....wanders off muttering must read up more on the up your income boards before I start....

XSpender

We spent 4 hours last night sorting out DVDs and CDs and a couple of old playstation games to send to Music Magp1e. There are hundreds! Some CDs I thought I would get a good price for were valued at 30p and others you would think no one would want were over £2! I bought a CD in Turkey years ago of the Turkish equivalant of Robbie Williams and it went for £2.25.

I am going to trade a few at first just to see how it works and then if it all goes smoothly will send the lot. Some will need to have cases swapped about as they are cracked.

In total there is almost £75 of sales and we are sure there is another box or 2 of CDs in the loft to sort through as well.

I will then make a start on sticking all the books on green metropolis as it looks a better option than Amaz0n or £bay. There won't be too many as I sold all my books when we moved. There were enough boxes of books to completely fill the buyer's car leaving just enough space for her to get in and drive away! If I had known about Green Metrop0lis then I would have made about £1500 instead of £250 but I did not have anywhere to store them once we moved.

Spends

Spent a grand total of £1.96 on my lunch yesterday.

Earnings

Nowt as yet but 39p to go in the various pots.

XS

XSpender

Had a scan yesterday as part of the IVF and all is going well but I always feel quite emotional after it which always leads to shopping!

Spent

£2.99 on sweets and potatoes
£1.58 on 2 birthday cards
£29.98 on 2 whicker storage baskets for the cabinet
£8.90 on a chinese takeaway:o
£106.00 on a stabaliser for the caravan

Earnings

Nothing. Completed a trade of 6 cds on MM and awaiting the freepost pack

I can't remember when I spent so much in one day! The only good thing is I paid for all of it out of our current account and not a penny on credit (cos we don't have any anymore:o). In the past the damage would have run into hundreds and it would have all been on a credit card. Apart from the sweets and the chinese it was all stuff we needed anyway.

The cabinet is a four shelf unit we got half price in Next last october and it has taken me until now to find some baskets that fit and look right and we can't drive the new caravan on holiday without the stabaliser as it stops the van wiggling about in the wind.

My dates for the IVF have changed and we are going to have to cut short our camping hol by 2 nights, saving about £80 on camp fees and spends budget.

I also have to pay out a further prescription charge today for one more days jabs. That will be 3 prescription charges I have paid out this week for me and OH! :eek:

XSpender

I am gutted!

Been offered my first MS, 5 mins from my house for a tenner, and I can't do it as I work for the same group of companies! It would have been a tenner of profit as I could have done it on my way to the Library.

I am pleased that I got offered one so quickly and I think it would have been straight forward so I am confident there should be more coming along in my area.