Minniepoos versus The Black Hole

minniepoos_2

Just listed 10 books on Amazon, and haven't even started on the loft ones yet! And it's nice and sunny out (for now) so will go outside in a bit to get some photos of some of the bigger things that'll go on Ebay.

Only 5 days til OH payday, which is when I work out my EOM figures. I think we're gonna make it - the only worry is petrol, but will have a work-out tonight and see what money we have left in the bank. I always round up when I transfer money to the Direct Debit account, so there should be a little in there for emergency petrol (although again, I was hoping to make an overpayment with it - but at the end of the day petrol to get to work is more important!)

The final figure for the animals this month (vets etc) came to £170.80, which is why this month has been more of a mess than it should have been, but it seems we have got through.

If I don't manage to get on here before, I'll be back to do my EOM figures in 5 days. I'll try to come back sooner, but I'd enrolled on an OU course (thanks to Clubcard vouchers) which starts now, so I really should spend some time on it.

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi Minniepoos just read your diary from start to finish. Well done on the job will be subscribing!x

minniepoos_2

BEAT_THE_DEBT wrote: »

Hi Minniepoos just read your diary from start to finish. Well done on the job will be subscribing!x

Thanks BTD. I've just had a read through a lot of your diary - you're quite an inspiration! You sound so positive about everything which I am a bit jealous of (although I'm not toooooo bad most of the time!)

minniepoos_2

Hi all! I wasn't gonna come back on till the 25th (ish), but I've had some excellent news!

I'll backtrack a little (if you don't mind!)....almost a year ago my elec direct debits were £80 per month, which wasn't quite enough to keep up with usage, so we started owing a little more each month. Npower phoned me and said my payments should now be £125 per month. I argued and we settled on £105, and all was well for a year or so. I've been naughty and not been doing my own meter readings and I'm never here when they come to read the meter, so it all just kept ticking along with estimations. I got called by Npower last week to ask for my meter reading, and then today I got my bill......(dramatic pause).......WE ARE £461.11 IN CREDIT!!!:D
I know, I know, any true MSE'r would have kept on top of it, but what can I say? They are going to pay the balance into my account on 4th March, and the payments have gone down to £54!:j

If only every day brought news like that!

Sun_Addict

Great news! Hoping that will happen to me as I've been paying £98 for electric and £102 for gas from when the payments went up to keep up with useage last year. I think I've more or less caught up now so hopefully am getting ahead. It's a pain when your gas and electricity instalments are more than your mortgage (as in my case)!

minniepoos_2

I've got my fingers crossed for you Sun Addict! That reminds me...I really have to phone E-on about my gas bill. They hooked me up in Dec and I've had nothing from them at all - not even the promised welcome pack. Really should sort it out before we owe them too much - don't want to get behind before I even start the direct debits!

Had another book sell on Amazon yesterday, so will update my sig later (being sneaky at work at the mo, so can't remember how much profit I've made on it!).

Sun_Addict

Thanks Minniepoos -the only plus point about paying so much for gas and electricity is that once a year I get paid back into my bank one month's instalment for both. Obviously the more I've paid the more I get but would still prefer a lower monthly payment.

minniepoos_2

Hi all! Had another book sell on Amazon yesterday, so have a little more money trickling in.

Time for my EOM figures....I spent £261.27 on groceries (inc. cleaning stuff & petfood) which is the smallest amount in the 5 months that I've been itemising EVERYTHING (£61 less than the next smallest month!)

Petrol - we've spent £185.50, which is the 2nd smallest amount so far.

Had a lot of unusual spending with just over £170 going to the vets (& for flea treatments), and £50 for new tryes.

All our payments went out on time so no charges incurred.

Somehow we've even got to the end of month with a little money left in the account, which I can't recall EVER happening before. So I've transferred it all to the savings account (together with some mystery shopping wages that have just come in) and it adds up to £169.89. The plan is to leave it there until next months EOM, then if it hasn't been needed either make an overpayment or pay it back to my parents.

When I get the elec refund this week I'll probably pay £300 to my folks and keep the rest in the savings until next month. It'll be nice to have a safety net, and then hopefully next month I'll have some left over to start again with.

All in all a good money month - which was unexpected considering the whole job situation), and I hope we have many more like it .:beer:

minniepoos_2

Meant to say yesterday, that I should get my lowest ever Quidco payment in the next couple of days....48p!! It was expected really, as our spending has really been cut drastically. It all helps though

I'm now going to go to Tesco, to do my big shop of the month, then will probably spend a high proportion of the afternoon making lasagnes for the freezer. Happy MSEing everyone!

minniepoos_2

Just another quickie just so you know I'm still here! Got my elec money back, and have put it in savings account as planned. Just have to pretend to ourselves that we don't have it and then hopefully it'll be untouched by the end of the pay month and we can pay it off the money we owe my folks.

Went out this evening - got bought dinner which was a bonus, but we still spent just under £20. Had a really nice time though, so pleased we went. Just as well we don't go out too often

I got paid from my 2nd job yesterday, only I didn't get anything for all the new hours I'd done last week. It was a mix up by the boss but I'm not too worried - I'll get it in a fortnight, and tbh I've only just got paid from my main job (and OH has just been paid too) so I'd rather have a bigger amount in 2 weeks, just to see us through to EOM.

Should find out what's going on at my main job this week. Not too sure what I want to happen....if I get full time there, I'll have to quit my new (and v. enjoyable) job, whereas if I keep roughly the same hours i'll be doing both. Main job pays more, but new one pays 2-weekly, which helps out at the tight end of the month. I don't know...but fingers crossed whatever I get is do-able. I am worried about having to let my new job boss down, as he is quite a good friend too. But it might not happen, so lets just wait and see.

Working all day tomorrow, so think I'd better come off here now!

Night