That was scary; now to tackle the remaining mortgage

teapot2

Got my haircut as above, was done by the apprentice hairdresser who is in the last week of her apprenticeship. I know people have to learn but always feel a bit nervous when its me they are practising on :eek:. However she did a good job and it only cost £5 as she's an apprentice - did give her a decent tip though. Also got my free coffee and a whacking great slice of choccy cake at JL. No wonder they are stopping this offer - must be costing them lots.


Been money shuffling lots this weekend. I do feel quite nervous about getting it all right so might write all the steps down as I find it quite confusing too. Seems a lot of effort for a few quid cashback - that's the trouble with being money saving :rotfl:.


Am feeling quite nervous about being the only earner too particularly as I don't have a payday and money comes in in dribs and drabs. Makes planning quite tricky but hopefully we'll get used to it. OH is not convinced we'll manage and I find that difficult if I'm feeling a bit wobbly. I've lost quite a bit of work recently in that it came to an end for good reasons but I haven't been able to replace it yet so things are a bit unpredictable.


Am also trying to make sure OH gets out and about a bit. We went for breakfast today - supposedly just up the road but we both thought the person who was driving knew where they were going but no we ended up driving for 10 miles before coming to a roundabout so just went somewhere else we knew which was just as nice! Tomorrow we're going to see Stephen Fry's show so looking forward to that - got the tickets ages ago and we also get a free copy of his book .


Been a lovely warm day here so out in the garden this affy and did lots of weeding. I also chopped the buddleia back as the flowers were all over. We had someone come to look at the tree at the front of the house which is getting near the roof at one side. He's going to come at the end of next month and cut it back a bit. Only £30 so that's not bad and a relief it'll be done before the winter.


Made a yummy curry in the week - paneer, veg and potato, will make it again. Shopped at Mr A this affy and stocked up for the week and got some stuff for the store cupboard and toiletries stock as well.


Some surveys done over the weekend - probably about 20p worth on 1poll - I keep getting screened out, boo.
Anyway its getting late and the cat is patting me on the leg and getting more insistent!.....night, have a good week all. Teapot x

gallygirl

teapot2 wrote: »

Been money shuffling lots this weekend. I do feel quite nervous about getting it all right so might write all the steps down as I find it quite confusing too. Seems a lot of effort for a few quid cashback - that's the trouble with being money saving :rotfl:.

I've been money shuffling for years and still need to record it on a spreadsheet to make sure it goes to the right places in the right order . As to whether it's worth it - well, how long does it actually take? 10 minutes a month? So that's 2 hours a year. For that I get Halifax £60 (£5 x 12), FD reg saver at 6% and NW saver at 5%. Roughly £108 from FD and £62 NW. £230 for 2 hours work :T. Yup, I'd get out of bed for £115 an hour :j. Just need to make the rest of my work as profitable :rotfl:.

teapot2

Yeah but.. no but............ Unfortunately don't do spreadsheets , I'm more of a scribble it on a bit of paper kind of a gal and it works for me.


Did lots of shuffling when we just had the H'fax accounts plus mortgage but I got a bit disheartened with new Santdr Accts which are fiddly and the shuffling has more steps to it! This last month we earned £3.18 cashback and the account costs £2 so think your hourly rate definitely beats mine GG.


Also not all DD are switched over to new accounts yet - OH is procrastinating but hopefully will all get sorted out and I'll get used to it :cool:

teapot2

Well the week has whizzed past, not sure where that went! This week we have mostly been having rain - sooooo wet last Friday, it was horizontal rain and by the time I got to the station was soaked through. Trousers sticking to me and even socks wet . I tried to dry myself off a bit under the hand drier in the loo :rotfl:. Took socks off at work and dried them on heater but felt pretty cold all day. As I was travelling about to different work locations got wet 3 times!


Ah well, hope it doesn't stay like this all month. Dry today at least and got washing out. I have to go into the city for a work meeting tonight, my work for the day got rescheduled so didn't have to go in this morning.


Mr A shopping at the weekend after breakfast out with OH. Not too bad, about £40 which included a bag of stuff for the food bank. I've made stew for OH and we got a couple of giant Yorkshire puds as he likes those with stew in them. I made paneer and veg curry again for myself yum.


OH has had his final pay and his P45 :eek: so its definitely real - we are managing on my income for now!


Had an email from Scottish Power to say they'd moved us onto quarterly bills as the DD had been refused this month:eek: . I think what happened was I'd been on their website trying to change the DD to our new account but it wouldn't let me but somehow I'd managed to cancel the existing DD. Anyway I rang them expecting a fight but they were v helpful when I explained and its all gone back to a DD on the new account. that's a relief as I know its more expensive if you don't have a DD. She also said out DD was reducing from £102 per month to £73 as we were in credit so another result. Am sure it'll have to go up again once the winter kicks in especially with OH at home all the time but that's ok - better we hang onto the cash for now!


Cuppa beckons now I think.......

teapot2

Wednesday already and didn't win the [EMAIL="Euromilli@ns"]Euromilli@ns[/EMAIL]!!! Not even one number .

Off today and busy day - started off putting together a flat pack chest of drawers from Ike@, we bought it a while ago and I've not got round to tackling it. Think it might be the most complicated thing I've done from there - loads of fiddly stuff and little plastic screws and bits and pieces. Had to stop as niece came round for a visit and I needed lunch. Was going to resume but it was such a nice afternoon thought I'd better take advantage and cut the grass as it was getting long and its been so wet lately. Tidied garden a bit too but more to do if the weather is ok at the w/e.

OH had a dentist checkup appt yesterday in the next town so I went too and did a bit of clothes shopping as need some for work. Coffee after then Mr T shopping - bit of a spendy day though today has been a NSD.

Friends over at weekend - I made a pasta sauce from an old Sarah Brown veggie cookbook I've had for years. Its mushroom and walnut and uses cinammon and allspice so quite unusual but yummy. Also made the white chocolate and peanut butter cookies from M21's recipe - yummy and all gone :eek:. All ingredients for both recipes were in the storecupboard or garden except for the chocolate - love it when that happens!

Work bit scarce this week but much busier next week - would be better if it balanced out a bit better but am lucky to have work so shouldn't complain. I chased up an unpaid invoice last night but not heard back. Also did a bit of work admin and caught up on emails.

Been doing well on Amazon - nearly a book a day sold in the last 10 days, long may it continue. Another one tonight so better go and parcel that up before bed.

teapot2

Glad I cut the grass on Wed as its rained quite heavily every day since! Also very windy today, think I've seen more rainbows this last week than I did in the whole of last year.


I finally finished putting the flat pack furniture together and it looks good - also no bits left over and no bits put on back to front or upside down as is usually the case .


Cashed in some OO points to get an ITunes voucher for OH, he got a voucher from a place he did a lot of work in when he left his job but it wasn't activated and they said they lost the receipt!! He's been going on since about it so thought I'd cheer him up.


Went to Mr A shopping yesterday clutching a meal plan and managed to only spend £30 which is less than usual, and necessary as we've had a spendy week. I just have to remember to defrost stuff and get organised to cook. Curry for me and mince and tatties for OH. We managed a NSD today which is good as there haven't been too many lately.


Hoping the trains will be behaving better next week - lots of cancellations last week and long waits for me at the station :mad:. Also one day managed to miss my train and had another wait.


Early start tomorrow so off to bed. Night, night all

skint_spice

Yes, lots of rainbows here this week too - the one good point of the rain.

teapot2

OK slinks in waving, dusts and hoovers very neglected dusty thread and sticks a Crimbo tree up in the corner with lots of lights :xmastree:
Aaah that's better. Fell of the wagon a bit in November and been mega busy in RL so only just getting round to 'fessing all.


We had a night away in an expensive hotel after a gig and then I went to visit a friend for a week. Train travel alone was around £150 even with split ticketing :eek: plus I spent about £150 on clothes for work and £55 on new warm boots so credit card took a bashing. Quite a bit of that already paid off and hope to have it all gone by end of the year [0% card]. Think it was partly a splurge after paying off the mortgage and weirdly a reaction to being the sole earner in the household .


So, am now thinking about maybe having a new diary which is about how we go forward and save towards retirement. Not sure if I'd leave it on this board but don't see it fitting elsewhere and I've been reading Gally's diary re new board but not read the board itself yet so will have a look sometime soon.


Christmas fairly under control and we've agreed with quite a few adults not to exchange pressies so that's good news. Out for breakfast tomorrow [sis treating us] so better head off to bed soon but hoping to think about how this year has gone and plan a bit for next year so will ponder and write......


6 sleeps to my break

teapot2

Happy New Year to all - here's to a peaceful, prosperous and fun 2015 .


Am thinking that I might start a new diary as we've now paid off the mortgage. I've got some plans for 2015 and I'd like to share them here and track progress [hopefully there will be some].

pink_poppy

Happy New Year teapot

I'll keep an eye out for your new diary.