£14310 off mortgage 2010 lets make 2011 better

sarahevie

Another bug bear - December me running round Morrisons trying to get 3 b day cards for DD1s friends. Cheapest I could find £1.49 each needed a roll of wrapping as well to do the presents came to £6 in total.

I could have bought an extra present for that.:mad:

Anyway was in the card factory today they had in the sale 10 cards for £1 (and they weren't cheap rubbish either. All hallmark brand.) :j

Probably should have got more but will be a good start. Might go back next week.

Unfortunately went into Sainsburys for cheese, bread, butter and spent £20.:mad:

Not sure how long that will last. It was DD2s weaning stuff that cost. I don't 'do' jars - I make my own but do like baby porridge, yoghurts, ellas kitchens for taking out and about. All expensive:mad:

sarahevie

Right it's the beginning of the month.

Just transferred £200 which was left over from last month.

Have two chargebacks ongoing with the halifax totally nearly £300 so hoping for OP there. Stuff purchased online that never arrived.

Grocery challenge was within budget including everything cleaning products, nappies etc. :j

Petrol spent £90 last month. An absolute record for us. I remember 6 months ago when it was £40. A combination of going to see people more (positive) and cost of it rising (negative). :mad:

Really made me realise how much sticking to the grocery budget meant we could afford a take away. Meal out with kids. More leisure activities and still overpay. :T

cha97michelle

Hi,

I share some of your pain on the presents front and the cards. And the fuel. And the groceries. Everything costs far too much.

Cards - i tend to buy from my mums shop, although i did get some from the book people before christmas as they were doing a box of 30 cards for £10. Peppa pig, and charlie and lola. I figure at 33p a card these are good enough for all those little people we know through school and my friends kids.

presents - hawkins bazaar, and perhaps also a website called half cost might be good for you. They do stuff for a few quid that works well. I got some Tweenies domino sets for £1. I used these as gifts for the party bags for my DS2s party last year. Can't go wrong for £1. I am also a big fan of poundland. Especially when it comes to stocking fillers, and making up a shoe box appeal at christmas.

petrol and food are mega expenses for me. We ended up with about £150 of diesel in DHs car and £80 of petrol in mine in January. Mine is not normally as bad but DHs car was in the garage for 3 days so he took mine to work, and we also took mine to london to attend a christening. Dhs car took £101 in one go last fill up. Scary stuff when i only spent £192 on the grocery challenge.

All we can do is keep trying and try for a bit of fun. Like you say, we control the bits we can and hope there is enough left for some treats and to overpay.

CathT

Hi, just read your diary. You're doing a brilliant job with the presents, this is not something i have managed to do yet.

Building plans sound good too, especially if it means you can live there 'forever'. Good luck with your phd, i hope to do a masters one day but not sure when that will be!
Will be following your diary, your mortgage is similar to mine and income not too far off so we are in a similar situation! Good luck x

alibob30

Have just read though your diary, you're doing amazingly well.
My dd (6) goes to an all girls school and each child has their own birthday party (no sharing!) I always bulk buy gift stuff from Monsoon in the sale, it saves so much money and time.
I also check out the pound shop whenever I'm in town, there are some great bargains in there, they often do books which are great for presents. The Works is worth checking out too.

Do you mind me asking where you bought your Mama and Papas pallet from? I'm looking to make a little extra money. No problem if you don't want to say.

sarahevie

The mamas and papas was a one off for me. My OH works for a multi national electrical wholesaler and they implement a system called cbay (whereby other stores/employees list stuff that has been stuck in their stores to try and sell it elsewhere in the country. It was an employee who had a market stall but no longer had time for it and it ended up on the cbay system. Shouldn't have been allowed as it's supposed to be for the company stock but does occur from time to time)

I have also bought ex catalogue /argos job lots off ebay - but not had a lot of success. I find the ex argos stuff (as it's shop returns) tends to have a lot of bits missing or to be unworking. Don't get me wrong I've not lost money on it (but have tended to break even after selling costs.)

I'm thinking about buying ex catalogue clothes next to sell on ebay (but again there's a lot of competition) but at least they are easy to store/post.

alibob30

Thanks so much for replying. I once bought a job lot of La Redoute return from ebay to sell on and a good deal of it was rubbish, not sure I'd risk it again. Good luck with your next venture!

sarahevie

I have been informed today that the boiler in my student property is beyond economical repair.

I've known it was on its way out since I bought the house 4 years ago. It has already cost £1000 in repairs. I've hung onto it because it was quicker to get it repaired (with tenants) than mess about getting quotes and replacing it.

It will be tax deductable - bang goes any overpayment savings for a while.:mad:

Bad day for money today Boots overcharged me (3 for 2 offer) didn't come up and the assistant scanned 2 items twice when I only had 1 of them.

sarahevie

I have had to take £1500 out of the OP pot to pay for the new boiler.

OH going mad again, as our rental house is still in a lot better nick than our house. We gutted it this summer as it was vacant for two months - and three years of back to back tenancies had left there mark. We couldn't find any tenants as it was so run down so we had to do something.

So my dad stripped it right back and re plastered it from top to bottom. Re decorated it throughout and we replaced every single bit of furniture into trendy ikea furniture. Even put in a new bathroom suite.

Now the boiler has gone so another £1476 - it has cost us about £7000 this year. Which isn't bad as a builder quoted us £20K plus VAT to do what my dad did for free. In theory though it shouldn't need anything major now for 5 years - famous last words:rotfl:

*Goes off to have a cry:(

gallygirl

sarahevie wrote: »

I have had to take £1500 out of the OP pot to pay for the new boiler.

OH going mad again, as our rental house is still in a lot better nick than our house. We gutted it this summer as it was vacant for two months - and three years of back to back tenancies had left there mark. We couldn't find any tenants as it was so run down so we had to do something.

So my dad stripped it right back and re plastered it from top to bottom. Re decorated it throughout and we replaced every single bit of furniture into trendy ikea furniture. Even put in a new bathroom suite.

Now the boiler has gone so another £1476 - it has cost us about £7000 this year. Which isn't bad as a builder quoted us £20K plus VAT to do what my dad did for free. In theory though it shouldn't need anything major now for 5 years - famous last words:rotfl:

*Goes off to have a cry:(

i'm waiting on a quote for roof repairs for a BTL so I feel your pain