Minniepoos versus The Black Hole

Sun_Addict

Hi Minniepoos - schools don't you just love them! They think parents have a never ending source of money. I remember only too well the feeling of having to pay for a school trip you can't really afford but are too embarrassed to say. Re your birthday - you could always have a late birthday present even if it's only something cheap and cheerful.

minniepoos_2

Sun_Addict wrote: »

Hi Minniepoos - schools don't you just love them! They think parents have a never ending source of money. I remember only too well the feeling of having to pay for a school trip you can't really afford but are too embarrassed to say.
My daughter's school even reads out the names in assembly of who hasn't paid - kind of a name and shame technique (just to remind the kids who had just forgotten to bring their money in, apparently :mad:). DD has said that she's happy to not go if we can't afford it, but we know she really wants to go, so it's not an option. Bless her - I think she worries too much for a 10 year old.
Re your birthday - you could always have a late birthday present even if it's only something cheap and cheerful.

Yeah, I'm not over-worried really, was just having a bit of a bummed out night when I posted last. Might have a games and nibbles night - some value crisps etc from tesco, and a big pile of board games. I'm easily pleased really :rotfl:

Sun_Addict

Your DD sounds like a lovely little girl. Your birthday plans sound great to me, sometimes it's what you do on your birthday rather than what you get that's important.

minniepoos_2

Sun_Addict wrote: »

Your DD sounds like a lovely little girl. Your birthday plans sound great to me, sometimes it's what you do on your birthday rather than what you get that's important.

Thanks Sun Addict. She is a great daughter (although I'm sure all mums think that ). We try to keep our worries from her, but I know she picks some of it up. I don't think she knows about our debts, but she knows we're very short of money.

The trailer of scrap is going tomorrow morning. We've got some more that just won't fit on, so will have to make another trip in a few weeks (gives us more time to collect any more!). Apparently scrap is making £140 a tonne, so I'll post tomorrow what we make. I hope it's worth our while going - although to be honest I'll be relieved to see that back of it.

I've just got the OK for 2-3 hours overtime next week so that'll help with next month. Have got the first invoice for the after school club we're going to be using, and the cheeky bleeders charge for 2 1/4 hours per day. I 'll be picking her up at 5:30, and her school doesn't finish until 3:25, but it seems they 'round up'. We didn't budget for that, but should have realised, I guess. It's only another £12 or so per month, but is does make my new hours look little less worth it.

I'm not letting it get to me, I'm just annoyed that I didn't realise they'd do it. Seems obvious now!

I'm more upbeat about this month's money than I was a few days ago. Have done a bit of shopping but still have £18 on the clubcard+, so will probably be ok for food etc. I am going to have to get petrol on my way home from work today, but I won't fill up.

Tesco mobile have sent OH a voucher for £40 off a new tesco moby. If you buy a lesser value phone you can use the rest for top ups, so the plan is to buy a £9.97 one, and get 2 £15 top ups which he can use for the next 2 months to get his free credit. Then I'm gonna try to get a quid or so cashback for the new mobile. Good old Tesco! :beer:

minniepoos_2

Good start to the day - got £70.50 for the trailer full of scrap :D:D!!! We've got a little more to take in, so will start (slowly) loading the trailer up again.

Have finally managed to get to the bank to pay in the £17.50 chq from Fonebank, and DD has withdrawn £26 from her savings to pay us back (she borrowed a bit to buy her new mobile). So, looking a bit rosier here now





Jobs for the rest of this month are:

1. [strike]Sort new home insurance (with cashback )[/strike]
2. [strike]Catch up on mountain of filing[/strike] (literally all we have for the last 6 months of bills, cards, statements etc is 2 Tesco carrier bags! )
3. [strike]DDs old phone, so I can send it to Tesco for £15 in vouchers[/strike] (she owes us another £15 but I said she could do it like this if she wanted, to help her out a bit)
4. [strike]Get the cheapy Tesco moby and send off for a few quid[/strike]
5. Arrange direct debit for LTSB CC (then 3 will be done, and I'll just have to manually pay the MBNA one)
6. [strike]Register with more MS companies[/strike]

Best I get to work then!

Sun_Addict

At least things are sounding more on the up Minniepoos! OH is on a Pay As You Go plan with Tesco where he tops up £10 and gets £20 of free credit. Bargain! What sort of scrap did you get rid of. We have quite a bit (old bike, cement mixer and some other assorted metal bits) but OH has just put it in the drive with a bit of paper on it saying 'scrap' in the hopes that someone will take it - which they haven't yet. Can't believe he's left a bike in the drive and no one's taken it!

minniepoos_2

Have got some stuff done already! The paperwork has all been filed away(and I've got a massive stack of shredding to do, which I'm gonna take to work over the next few days a sneakily do there), and DDs moby has been emptied. Feeling quite industrious - not used to having a day off midweek yet, so finding it easier to get stuff done than I do at the weekends!

Probably gonna sort the home insurance tonight, but have to get an assignment started (at least) too, so will see how it goes.

Have picked up a couple of MS jobs over the next few weeks too, so will hopefully have a steady stream of money trickling in from that too. There's a few companies I'm not signed up with yet, so will try to get that done too - in fact I might add that to my list of jobs for April, because it feels so good when you cross things off!!

minniepoos_2

Sun_Addict wrote: »

At least things are sounding more on the up Minniepoos! OH is on a Pay As You Go plan with Tesco where he tops up £10 and gets £20 of free credit. Bargain! What sort of scrap did you get rid of. We have quite a bit (old bike, cement mixer and some other assorted metal bits) but OH has just put it in the drive with a bit of paper on it saying 'scrap' in the hopes that someone will take it - which they haven't yet. Can't believe he's left a bike in the drive and no one's taken it!

Yep, definitely more positive today

My OH is on the same plan, but he does the £15 per month to get £30 free credit, as he does the £2 per week internet too.

The scrap was all sorts of rubbish - the frames from a kids trampoline and steps, bike frames, an industrial steam cleaner, odd bits of angle iron we seem to accumulate (?!), as well as some 'bargain' stainless steel kitchen knives we bought once, but were beyond rubbish! Had a couple of car wheels in there too, and metal bird feeders, and some chicken wire - anything really! The price of scrap seems to be on the way up - it was £150 a tonne today, and when I phoned last week it was £140. We even managed to persuade OHs 2nd boss that we were helping him by taking some off the old broken metal stuff lying outside his, and most of that was pretty heavy!:D

I'd have thought your cement mixer would be fairly heavy? But I suppose it depends where you are in relation to a dealer, and I guess you'd need a trailer.

We've got a really old oven (was in our house when we moved in) to take next time, but just couldn't fit it in the trailer this time.

I can't believe no one's taken your scrap yet - round here scrap is regularly stolen! (I must live in a desperate place!:rotfl:)

minniepoos_2

I know that by posting now I'm admitting that I'm not doing my assignment tonight, but I have some good news! I've managed to pick up a few MS jobs, (which is great), one is for my DD and I to visit a stately home at the weekend, and another is for 2 nights camping at a lovely place on the coast!! (I've got some dull ones too - have to take the rough with the smooth!). So I'm pretty excited about the cheap weekend away, and DD is mega happy - she's been asking when we can next go camping for a couple of months now.

And, I grabbed a couple of copies of the Mirror a few weeks ago when they were doing their camping promo, so I've got another weekend I have to book for only 95p per night.

Feels great to have 'normal' stuff planned again

minniepoos_2

Hi all! I've been super-busy for the last few days, working and looking for MS jobs. I did 2 today (and a bit of overtime) and have another 8 booked in over the next 2 weeks. Quite excited about that, as I love doing them, and it really does help to have a bit of money trickling into the account during the month.

I bought the £9.97 tesco mobile today, with 2 £15 top ups. I used my £40 Tesco Mobile voucher (thanks Mr T!), and have just used Martin's mobile valuer tool, and if I use Envirofone and go through Quidco, I can get £6.66 back! How good is that for nothing?! :D:D :T:T:T

I had another book sell on Amazon today too - I'll update the figure when it's been posted, and received a cheque for £2.09 for a Try Me Free I sent off a couple of months ago.

Having a great few days!!!!!