£5000 by hook or by crook

ILGPink

Another bit of good news today. We have built up so much credit with BT that we are having a payment holiday next month and the monthly DD is reducing by £6.50. Also I pay my council Tax throughout the year even though they only want 10months, means we are in credit before the new year starts. anyhow this has also managed to help reduce the monthly payments by £3 (compared to last year). So all in all have managed to save an extra £9.50 a month off the bills :j

I know its not a lot but every little counts and this is ontop of the other little saving we've already made in the last 6months. Between the switching of providers and watching our usage on leci, phone, water we are now £42.50 a month better off than this time last year. Thats a whooping £510 a year better off:T:T:T:T:T

A massive thank you to this website, forum and fab members who have all helped us get this far. Really do feel like we have changed our ways for the better and I dont see us EVER going back to the wasteful pair we once were

Hope you are all ok

TTFN guys xx

keelni

I love North Wales got two trips planned up there this year.
Finally got round to doing the boot sale and made £80 though didn't sell as much as I would of liked and have made £145 from things I've sold in the local paper.
I am thinking of putting a few things trough musicmagpie like you said it's better than having the things cluttering up the house and gathering dust.
Have sold two things on ebay but time I pay the fees won't be left with much.

ILGPink

Well done Keelni sounds like you are making a nice little bundle with the selling and decluttering also. Know what you mean about the ebay fees tho, bit of a joke really and does make me :mad: with how much money they make out of ppl! Must admit I had never thought about selling things through the local papers, sounds profitable, will keep this in mind next time im looking to sell more.

Music magpie are taking a while with processing the order and sending out payment; just for you to be aware. I sent them all last monday and they are still showing as in quality checking

Well no more news on savings, Hope that I will be able give another savings update soon. Have sold one thing on ebay sunday but me other item isn't due to end till thurs (has a bid already tho).

Have managed to speak with Tax Credits also, and they have given me more of an idea what we are entitled to this year. Was getting a bit worried with all the stories of people dropping down to £0 from getting things like £500 :eek:. We NEVER got anywhere near that much, and from what I was reading I dont know how the people who were did. I find the whole Tax Credits very confusing, the people who read posts on were earning a lot, atleast double what we do as a couple, yet they were also getting hundreds more in tax credits each month than us. Very odd, dont get me wrong I am glad we will still get something that will help to part pay her nursery fees. But just find the whole calculation and system very very confusing. Having said all that we are sooo lucky compared to our parents who NEVER had anything like tax credits back in the '80s.

Anyway im rambling again now

so TTFN guys x

ILGPink

Happy to post have managed to add a little more to the savings, between ebay and few other bits and bobs we have put in another £125 :j:j:j

Music magpie finally sent the cheque out but can take up to 7working days to arrive, so have not added this with the above total till the cheque is in the account.

Hope your doing ok Keelni and Barros

TTFN guys xx

ILGPink

Music magpie cheque arrived £12.07. Not a massive amount but every little helps as they say.

Another mad week in our house, OH had food poisoning start of the week and has had to take 2days off (the bare minimum he could manage with, only gets SSP when sick and this isn't paid for the first 3days so we are now £100 short ). To be honest he should have taken the full week to get over it but we just cant afford it .

So we will need to reign in the spending this month to compansate the wages were short of.
Did have a bit of good news on my wages tho, because of the change in TAX and NI I am £26 a month (take home) better off than last year. So I guess every cloud and silver linings I guess. My plan is to put this straight in the savings every month, especially as it's money we didnt expect and have been living without.

Well that's all the news I have for now so....

TTFN Guys xx

MaryMurphy

Hi ILGPink,

Really hope your OH is feeling better now, I had mild food poisoning a few months ago and it was just awful

Not too sure if you have one already, but if you don’t would it be worth setting up a small “emergency fund” for such occasions when money will be short (e.g. if one of you has the flu/etc and can’t work for a few days)? It might take the pressure off a bit.

I have an emergency fund but even if I have money in it for a very specific purpose I’ll still try not to spend it (which kind of defeats the purpose of having one to “take the pressure off")!

And great news about your tax/NI! Woo hoo! £26.00 over 12 months is… well, lots

MMxx

ILGPink

Thanks Mary, hes a lot better now :j
We do have an emergency fund that we can use, but i'm REALLY reluctant for us to use this. Would really prefer to tighten up and watch our pennies.

Have managed another £36.50 into the savings. Also another £80 for the xmas funds, this now stands at £320.

Electric company also let us know that the monthly DD is going down by another £4 as of next month. So glad we've had our energy monitor since last year we have managed to reduce the monthly DD by £11thats £132 a year less :eek::eek:.

Well again I hope you are all ok. Have the kids gone back to school for yuo now Keelni??

TTFN x

ILGPink

Been ages since if updated, so thought it was best I bite the bullet and get posting.

Well since I last posted loads has happened some good others not so good. You will see from the sig that xmas fund is basically on track and the £5000 challange is not far from completion. Had hoped we would have achieved this by now, in all honesty tho. We suffered a harder year finance wise than i had anticipated (always the way), and this had a knock on effect on how much we could save each month.

Anyhow the target is to have the £5000 saved by Jan'12. So in real terms that would mean saving over £400 per month, being completely honest I dont see us achieveing this however we will try to save as best as we can.

Wish me luck guys
TTFN x

keelni

Well hello there long time no speak.
hope you are keeping well
As you can see I've deleted my sig as it was so out of date
Will update when I have more time

ILGPink

hi Keelni,

sorry just seen your post. I know it feels like and age since we last spoke. Doing ok, trying to keep going with the target; not sure how close i will get to it by the deadline tho to be honest .

hope you are keeping ok. bet your kids are getting excited for the impending santa visit.

hope to hear from you soon
x