Minky's stop messin about diary!

MinkyBoo

Well I didn't get anything on ebay, nevermind. I've been paid today and so as long as I don't have any unexpected expenses then that is £175.61 off the overdraft. Half of the Bodyshop order arrived today unfortunately the other half has sold out and this half isn't much good on it's own so will have to go back, I need to make sure that happens tomorrow and keep my eyes open for other bargains. My OH was paid on friday too and with his overtime there was an extra £21.40 to come off the overdraft, it would have been more but we had to pay for a last minute school trip for DS which was £22!!

I had a talk with OH last week about our cash expenses and we have agreed to keep the £20 for birthdays and xmas but we've stopped the entertainment of £10 a week and we'll stop the clothes of £10 once DS's school uniform is all sorted and we've dropped our weekly spends down to £15 a week with a view to this going down even more in the future. I don't think we'd do very well if we suddly dropped our weekly spends right down. Now I just need to start on the direct debits and other expenses that come out of the bank.

Minky x

MinkyBoo

Tax credits and child benefit went into the bank today so that's £10.05 & £20.30 off the overdraft. That leaves the OD at £462.20 :j

Minky x

MinkyBoo

I had a bit of a clear out in our bedroom and cleared out a large carrier bag of rubbish, 17 books and some other bits & bobs to go on ebay or off to the charity shop. I now know we don't need any body lotions or creams, shower gels, bars of soap and exfoliators for ages as I but all the stuff I've been given for birthdays and christmas together in one place. Of the books 5 went in the bin as they were in shocking condition, mainly ones I've bought from the library. 7 are to go on ebay and I've already listed the final 5 on amazon. Now if I can get my lazy bum to put the books and other bits and bobs on ebay I'll be laughin, I'm gonna aim to get that done sometime before sunday night.

Minkyx

MinkyBoo

I'm back. I've been lurking on here from time to time and mainly sticking my head in the sand.

In an effort to be positive I've sorted out the books I have listed on Amazon, so they are at reasonable prices to sell.

I need to look at how our debt is doing I suspect it has grown somewhat and it's easier to pretend I don't know about it.

Minky x

MinkyBoo

I feel like I've been quite productive today, I made my own lunch and made sure I left the house with breakfast inside me. Tonight we're having chicken enchilada's they're in the oven cooking now. I've made then from an El Paso dinner kit but I'm sure it would be easy enough to make from scratch.

I closed 3 spare savings accounts I had loft open so £3 was to be had from them and I sent back a dressing gown I bought which will hopefully refund me about £11.

Off to have tea. Minky xx

MinkyBoo

I started the day off with £19.95 and seem to have spent it -

£3.88 on 2x bottles of shampoo and 2x bottles conditioner, they were on offer and I might stock up with some more next week.

£2.99 on a new loaf tin, I threw my old one out last week as all the non stick coating kept coming off into my food. I spent ages trying to find one without non-stick coating so I don't have this problem again but couldn't find one anywhere in the end this was the cheapest and was from TK Maxx so quite a fancy make to boot! I needed this for tea tonight.

£3.68 on some second class stamps and to send dressing gown back to get a refund.

£6.04 on library fines that have been sat on my account for a while. So I paid that and then renewed the books I still had out, only to get another charge of £2.10, I told them it could wait until next week!

£1.10 bus fare home from work, I did get off a stop early so that saved 30p, something I should think about doing more often.

All that left me with the grand total of 8p left. Even though I feel like I've spent a lot today at least everything was on stuff I needed and not too wasteful, although if I'm more organised I shouldn't have anymore library fines.

Tonight I have a little list of things to try and get done:

Check Asda receipt online
List 2 items on ebay
Try and take remaining balance out of bingo website
Finish lightspeed surveys
Empty inbox of surveys
Get tomorrows packed lunch ready
Find Boots points vouchers

Minky xx

MinkyBoo

We've been and done our weekly shop today and I do think I've got some good bargains. The co-op is shrinking it's stock so there were lots of reduced products there, Lidl had some really good offers on and we picked up quite a few bits we would normally get from asda but cheaper than asda. The lastly we went to asda to finish our shopping and what did they have on offer with lurpak butter, but loaf tins. Two packs of lurpak butter with a loaf tin and 6 recipes for £2. I picked one up as even the cheapest butter is almost £1 per pack and I do use loaf tins alot. That leaves me with £3.32 for the rest of the weeks groceries and I think I've got everything I need for the week.

I've had a good look at all my direct debits this weekend to see where I could save.

Cooker insurance - £4.49 per month. Need to cancel asap
Life Insurance - £9.69 and £20.31 per month. Shop around for cheaper.
Home Insurance Buildings & contents - £51.66 per month. Shop around for cheaper
Council tax - £119.00 per month. Nothing we can do here as we are in the correct band
TV Licence - £36.87 per quarter. There would be uproar if I cancelled this.
Mortgage - £666.87 per month. Locked into a 5 year deal, so nothing we can do here either.
Water - £27.58 per month. We're not on a meter and I doubt we'd save anything on one either.
Elec - £29.00 per month. Need to shop around for cheaper
Gas - £45.00 per month. Shop around for cheaper
Lovefilm - £18.99 per month. Cancel asap
PC World laptop cover - £7.99 per month. Get the laptop fixed and then cancel
Weight watchers - £19.99 per month. Cancel asap.

Total monthly direct debits = £1,032.86

There is a lot to keep me busy here.

Minky x

MinkyBoo

I've cancelled the weight watchers direct debit. :j

Lovefilm has been reduced to the minimun of £3.99 per month while I send all the DVD's back and can then cancel properly.

I rang and cancelled the cooker insurance and cancelled the direct debit with my bank. :j

My laptop should be busy fixing itself as I type (it's doing some kind of restart), I'm going to book it in for a health check too as I think I get one for free, so may as well, then will get it cancelled hopefully before direct debit goes out towards the end of the month.

I've filled in the direct debit form for my land line and broadband provider and put a stamp on the envelope ready to post, as they charge me £4.50 to not pay by direct debit. :j

So I've reduced the direct debits to £993.38 :j

Minky x

MinkyBoo

The laptop fix did not work :mad: so it's been sent off to be fixed but at lease it will not cost us anything.

I've done a quick bit of shopping around online for more home insurance and we can save absolutely loads, so will do all the comparison sights and check for cashback too.

I got some vouchers through the post today from a survey sight which has really spurred me on to answer more of the surveys in my inbox. This voucher has been earmarked as a gift for Christmas leaving £5 towards buying another Christmas gift. I feel like I might actually be organised for Christmas this year. :cool:

Minky x

MinkyBoo

I've just signed up for new home insurance for £180 a year with hopefully £20 back from quidco and another £4 from all the searches I did. I bought this to start next week which will give me enough time to cancel the old insurance.

Minky x