sj`s diary

savingmummy

Very true Pinky.
Being a parent carries guilt all year round especially at xmas for me.
I had such good xmas`s when i was younger and worry mine miss out on certain things.

We went out and spent our Tesco clubcard xmas savers vouchers on Saturday and got some lovely presents for the children.
HUGE issue getting them sorted out and an offical complaint has been emailed to head office :mad:
On weds DH drove 5 miles in the snow to our nearest Tesco to get the vouchers doubled in money before the deadline (took 2 hrs). When he got there the lady scanned the vouchers and said there was a problem! She tried them at another till and told DH the vouchers hadnt been activated :eek: SO she called head office but they were closed (7pm) so she gave us the no` and told us to call and explain.
The following day DH called head office and they said the vouchers had been cashed!!!!!:eek: DH explained again exactly what happened and they insisted the vouchers had been cashed at 7pm and there was nothing they could do!! DH asked what to do next and was told as he had ALREADY cashged the vouchers nothing could be done!! ARGH!! They then put him on hold and came back saying he had to call head office in Dundee to investigate BUT they were closed for 2 weeks!! This phone call went on for almost an hour and no joy - Meaning we would miss out our vouchers and the doubling up of them

SO DH went back down to the Tesco store and went to customer services where he saw another lady and he explained everything. She called head office and they told her the vouchers had been scanned twice and cashed in the 2nd scan. She explained that DH couldnt of had them as he still had the vouchers in the booklet. They said they couldnt do anything and that was that!!
DH asked for them to check the cctv in which the lady agreed but noone could cover her till at the customer service desk so she decided to call the 2 members of staff who were working the previous night. Thankfully the lady answered her mobile and confirmed she couldnt do the vouchers as the till was coming up error : vouchers not activated! PHEW!
Anyway the manager was called and he decided to give us a £60 giftcard to replace the `broken` vouchers - so all came out well in the end BUT it took in total 20miles, 8hrs driving, hour on the phone and a HUGE headache!

We managed to get the children 3 good presents each

DS - huge rescue helicopter which was £10 - bargain on its own!
Fireman sam fire truck and character
Thomas crane/coal digger set

DD - Barbie with baby barbiewith all the baking bits - absolutely gorgeous!!
Timmy time park/playground set with characters.
HUGE zipped bag of my little ponys with combs and hair bits for the ponies.

We also went to Argos and used out nectar points

Got DS a Dustcart with moving bin lifts and DD a animal hospital care set was on sale!!

SO that has helped no end they now have a nice selection of presents 20 each from us. My in laws have bought them a lovely present each. My mum and dad have bought them 8 pressies each. And my older niece has bought them a pressie each which she asked me what to buy so i gave her 2 off the list which helped

Things looking much better now
Tree and decs are up, cards written and sent, pressies wrapped!!


Our new settee is supposed to be coming on Friday, not heard from them yet so hoping thats a good sign:rotfl:I can`t wait to get it:j

savingmummy

Just had a call from our Betterware coordinater and we have been given £125!!!!!!!!!!!!! BONUS for hitting out target on sales:j:T

I am completely over the moon DH don`t know yet as he is at work BUT he will be pleased! He has worked so hard this year with his fulltime job and also doing the part time job with Betterware. He actually loves doing it so it is a really BIG bonus
I am thinking put it into savings but we will have to discuss what DH wants to do as i`m not sure if there is a bill or something needing to be done.

I have also started my surveys again, my mobile broadband wouldnt let me access sites so we now have home broadband and it works :T SO i will be doing these and collecting my vouchers for next Xmas.

savingmummy

OK got a reply form Tesco and they have started an investigation and are going to pull the phonecall conversations and have said they are looking into changing the clubcard issue procedure incase this happens again. In future if vouchers are not activated then the store moanager has to give a giftcard instead of wasting time trying to get the vouchers sorted out with head office.
We ALSO got £10 giftcard as an apology which should be here in 3-5 days.:beer:

Got a call this afternoon our new sofa is coming on Thurday:j
DH has got a man from work coming on Saturday morning to get rid of the 2 old ones for us so thats good - they will be sitting in the back garden on the patio until them LOL!

Betterware slow this week only 3 orders so far but then again it is xmas time and im sure people have better things to do with their pensions DH has had a few tips from his customers aswell which was nice.

savingmummy

Our new sofa came at 8am and it is perfect, really fits in the room well and looks nice. One of the builders took our old ones for a £10 so that was handy, at least they have gone!!

Tesco emailed to say they couldnt trace the calls but are enduring all their staff are aware of the procedure in the event it happens again to others.

We have the in laws coming tomorrow with the childrens Xmas pressies and then we wont be seeing them again til January 2011!! We did offer to go to them Xmas eve but they said No LOL! Fair enough haha!
I have had a poorly DD all week. Had trouble getting a gp appointment so had to take her to the hospital walk in centre she has tonsilitis and a rotten head cold and is now on antibiotics. She cant sleep and i am exhausted LOL! She seems fine though not tired at all, she is worse of a night yet during the day she is fine-ish. I am taking her to the drs tonight to try and get her referred to a ENT dr.

Pinky15

Hope little one feels better soon. Nice one on the vouchers and one the bonus - all come in handy this time of the year - yey!

savingmummy

DD has fully recovered and the gp has referred her to ENT! And now DS is poorly with the same couldnt get an appointment with the go so had to go to the walk in centre and his now on antibiotics.

Sat`day the in laws came and brought the childrens presents down I knew they had one each but when i looked in the bag they have 2 each on top
They have bought DD a wooden dolls house - she will love that! They got DS a large fire engine that has sounds etc - both from Argos. No idea what the other gifts are.
MIL also gave me £30 so i can buy DD her school bits from the school (jumpers £9 each book bag £2.50 and pe kit £8).
Both Children also got £20 each for clothes - I got DS 2 pairs of trousers and DD 8 tops (pks of 4 x 2).

In our card was £40, our bed was our Xmas pressie yet they both chose to give us some money aswell - we have paid 2 bills with that.

DH`s grandad gave both the children £10 in their xmas card - we are going to open a bank account for each of them and will be opening it with the £10`s.

We are ready for Xmas the children have some lovely things from us and others and it certainly is taking up room in my bedroom As long as the children have new toys and things i`m happy - Its turned out well.

One thing thats bothering me is I have not got my parents anything - well mum has a bottle of perfume so far and fingers crossed both have a coranation street mug coming each Hilda ogden and fred elliott lol.

savingmummy

Well mum and dads mugs havent come and i havent received a email to say they have been despatched so they will have to be for next year now LOL!
Not got anything for them yet hoping to pop out xmas eve when DH gets paid to see if i can get them a little something each.

Got my gas/elec letter today regarding the prices rising and have luckily manahed to be £200 in credit for elec - just done an updated meter reading and they deducted £93 from that!
Gas was in credit by £100 and new reading took that down to £50.
Lady said direct debit wil remain £40 each a month until April when it is reviewed, i have a feeling the gas will most certainly go up from £40!!

We have a terribl problem where our downstairs is so cold The men have been out and the patio doors were the issue and have been told by Redrow manager `Our brickwork hasnt been pointed`. I called last week as its been over a week and we havent heard and they are supposed to be coming out on Thursday to do it.
All the heating just goes straight out Cold blows in terribly
I have rolled 2 bath sheets up as a draught excluder and it isnt making a difference at all SO can`t wait for it to be done and just hope they do come Thursday - we have had a lot of snow BUT it is now raining!!!

Pinky15

Ooh how awful about the cold getting into the house - hope they get a shift on with the pointing - thats not good.
Boo to pressies not coming they might appear in the next couple of days fingers crossed.

savingmummy

Brickie didnt turn up BUT a man came and put sealant all around the skirting boards inside and now i have no draft - well not as bad anyway.
Called Redrow and no brickie onsite so it will be Jan now until its pointed - then it will be 5 weeks waiting :mad:

Still no pressies from the backlog but i`m not that worried, DH got some tips from work and we popped out and got some bits and bobs for my parents on Tuesday. Only socks, chocs, compact mirror, lynx set, hankies and some nice shortbread biccies BUT they were ALL from £land so mum cant moan i spent too much!!
The children have LOADS they soon add up dont they? They have had 1 each from my neice, 1 each from their godmother, 4 each from dh`s parents, mum and dad have got approx 7 each for them - all of these are big pressies too!!
THEN we have 4 black bags full of pressies (approx 20 each) SO they have done well!!
What they didnt have was stocking fillers - so i got them each a huge tube of smarties and 2 bags of choccie coins from the £shop :rotfl:
SO it has turned out really well. TESCO clubcard and NECTAR points saved our Xmas this year, without them we would of been very stuck!!

I have been a bit naughty and bought a few of their things from a catologue BUT i have already paid £40 and not had the bill in yet! (used the invoice slip to pay):T:beer:
January bill should be approz £60 so i will pay that up and get that out of the way. I wont be using the catologue again already been sent 2 catologues and threw them away without opening them :T

We got our £125 cheque today from Betterware - DH is putting it in my savings SO it is back off of £0!! LOL!

DH also came home from work with a crate of fosters, 4 cans of stella, box of celebrations:T and our betterware boss came today and gave us a big tin of biscuits:T Things we didnt have in the cupboard so gratefully received by us all

Have a wonderful Christmas xx

savingmummy

Christmas was wonderful!!!:)
The children had so much fun and the whole day was full of smiles and contentment. They had so many presents each and all were decent ones that made it past xmas lol!
DD had a gorgeous wooden dolls house which is absolutely stunning. Boxing day we went to Argos and got the bits to go with it which included a basement, garage and accessories pack ALL less then half price!!:money:

It is the end of 2010. It has been a tough one (we are yet to have a smooth one) BUT it was the year we got our family home
April was a huge changing point in our lives and it really has changed us as a family. We are happier and so much more confident as a family now. We have our own space and room to move about without bumping into something.

DD starts school on Tuesday - her 1st day!!:eek: I will miss her but will enjoy spending alone time with DS.

I have decorated the downstairs loo and main bathroom ALL by myself this week It took 2 days to do one and 2 days to to finish the main bathroom and i really am pleased with the outcome. It is the first time i have done it alone so was good to do it and see the finished result.
The downstairs loo is completely finished, the bathroom is decorated and now we are just awaiting the sink cupboard and wall cabinet then its finished 100%. They should be coming in 14days time - Got them in the sale and am admitting i ordered them from a catologue BUT they were cheap and the bill is not huge and i can pay it off over 3 months if i pay more then the min payment.

Our bedroom just needs a wardrobe (to match the bedsides lol!) and feature wall and it is done, hoping to start that in the next few weeks.

Happy new year to ALL and hope 2011 is good for you x