I can't beleive how easy it can be

milasavesmoney

I'm hoping both want to have you so you can choose the one you want the most. But either way, getting away from the nutter will be good. And pay raises are always a plus.

Bonglecat

Just had my annual credit card statement, so despite being debt conscious from May 2015 to May 2016 apparently I spent:

Transactions £5248.37
Interest paid £326.80
Fees £27.83 (foreign conversion as I used it when I was on holiday in Madeira last year)

But the good news is I repaid £6828.76. Pretty stark when you see it like that.

Anyway, I have accepted the job that I was offered, the other one didn't get back to me so I withdrew my application. They are looking in to how much they can offer me as a pay rise :-D

Bonglecat

Heard from the new job they can give me 10% which is fantastic as I didn't get a pay rise this year or even and annual bonus. It was officially because although I met all my objectives that I "hadn't performed as well as others in the team" however I'm afraid the real reason was my manager was sulking because I won't take on all the work of a higher grade and work unpaid over time. The fates were smiling on me though as I got my bonus by way of the compensation payment and I now have a pay rise probably 5 times higher than I would have got normally anyway. Also she is a little puzzled as to why I decided to leave, hmmmm let me think about that?????

I have upped the savings DD to £1,000 per month now and with a fair wind I can start getting rid of the car finance.

DH has now got an appointment for his angiogram, hopefully they can do something then even if it means the full heart by-pass, at the moment he barely has the energy to walk down to the papershop.

I've got enough pre made dinners in the freezer to last another week if I just get a little veg from the green grocers tomorrow morning.

milasavesmoney

10% is fantastic! Happy for you!
I'm sticking my toungue out at your soon to be ex-manager.

It's so good your DH has the appointment. Fingers crossed.

Bonglecat

Shopping time again this week spent £14 in the Co-op getting frozen pizza for DH, fresh bread and some treats. At the butchers I only got a couple of chicken breasts and some pakora (addicted to this stuff) £3.85 and £10 at the greengrocers but that did include £1.99 for some lovely english strawberries.

I'm making more adventurous meal plans since the last rebellion and tonight we had a very nice fakeaway. Chicken Madras using the reduced sauce I got last week 49p and some broken Naan breads. I also added a pinch of Turmeric to the rice so it looked like a pilau :-)

Well it's 16 days to pay day, still going well but I am giving up a few pleasures, this weekend is the Foodies Festival which I have always wanted to go to but it is £14 per ticket and would certainly spend more at the stalls. Next weekend I am taking my Mom to get a massage I bought her for her birthday, I have resisted booking myself anything but we are going to have a nice lunch and that will be about £50 if I pay for us both.

I have been thinking I should share my good fortune around and so I have decided to donate some extra furniture we have to the local homeless mission.

milasavesmoney

Dinner sounds wonderful. I'll have to try the pinch of turmeric trick.

You have such a nice day planned with your mom. It's always exciting when one of my daughters plan something for just us. I love being able to spend time with my beautiful girls and I really love the women they have become.

joeyjimbles

Well done on all these achievements, so pleased to hear about your new job too.
Also the turmeric in the rice is a good call - there are lots of people who promote the healing benefits of it so it can only have been beneficial to include it in your rice. Incidentally, have you come across making rice in the slow cooker - wipe with tiny drop of oil, add 1 cup rice and 2 cups water and cook on high for 2-3 hours (mine seems done at 2hrs 15). Perfect fluffy rice and seems a much higher yield of rice than other methods.
Fingers crossed for OH's appointments.

Bonglecat

By the looks of it I should be getting an annual statement on the Car Finance next month. But according to my calculations it is currently on £5379.64. A rough calculation on the interest means I think that early repayment would result in around £1000 of interest refunded, so if I play my cards right I may even be able to pay this off in September if not certainly October. Just need to make sure the savings are not pinched for anything, so the penny pinching must continue.

Not sure I will be able to meet my target of £5,000 EF by the end of the year, but if the car loan is gone it will worth it.

According to my budget I should have around £1000 spending money per month and this does not include food shopping or petrol, but I cannot figure out where it goes. I take into account DHs cigarettes before that as well. I think I need to start doing some serious analysis of what we are spending money on, where is it all going. DH and I don't drink, we only go out for meals on special occasions and we have a takeaway once a month on pay day. But I have been in the habit of buying sandwiches at work for lunch and of course for the one uninsured cat we need to pay for his meds. But that shouldn't come to £1,000!!!!

Having done so well so far I just don't want to find us slipping backwards.

milasavesmoney

I know a lot of people keep a list of all expenditures for a month to see where the money is leaking.
Mine was being spent at the grocery store and on TA's. I now have a budget for groceries...which I keep going over... And am spending 1/4 less a month. If I stuck to the budget I could cut my previous normal amount in half. (I'm just such a sucker for sale meat)

Bonglecat

Well the day out with Mommy ended up costing me over £100 what with one thing and another. And we needed to stock up on pond minerals on Saturday so I did end up overdrawn by pay day, not too much though.

I now have £1,000 in the savings account but suddenly realised that DHs medical bills will be coming in soon, so need to have something put aside for that. He has BUPA via work but he still has to pay the excess and some bits for his outpatient treatment that aren't covered.

So my challenge now is to keep costs down save as much as possible. I'm still shopping smart and local, in fact this Saturday the cat got me up at 6:45 so I ended up in Asda at 7:30, great time to go no crowds and in the butchers at 8:30 he was very surprised to see me :rotfl: Anyway weekly shop was under £50 and that's my goal.

In other news some friends and I have been planning a girly holiday next year it started off as Vegas and has now been confirmed as Sicily. One of the gang is single and lives at home with her parents not really paying much for the upkeep of the household so she has oddles of disposable income, so she was suggesting things like Cambodia and Bali. One of the others is a single parent on benefits with a little part time job, so I took it on myself to bring the scope down to something more manageable. The Sicily holiday will cost £1500 each for two weeks in a lovely hotel, but since one of the girls works in a school we are having to go in the school holidays hence the price tag. But we have more than a year to save up, so no biggy.

Also as you probably know DH and I try to go away for our anniversary every year and this year was my choice, so I went for Venice. Our anniversary is in March which I think will be a nice time to go as it should be quieter and best thing we can fly direct from our local airport. All in all it is £600 for 5 night for the 2 of us, including local flights, insurance and water-taxi transfer from the airport. V excited :j we have both been before but not together so this will be lovely :smileyhea:happyhear