XSpender - MFW in Training

XSpender

Morning All :wave:

I am feeling very chirpy this morning. DS has been sleeping to 6.30 to 7.30 all weekend and DH has slept much better for the last 4 nights and is feeling much better in himself:)

We drove down to see my DM, DSD and DB family on Sunday. On the way down DH and I were discussing going away for a weekend in late Feb paid for with ebaying and our own personal spends but I think I would rather get a new kitchen table:rotfl:

DH also suggested with no prompting from me that it would be good if we could bank all my monthly salary when I get a job. I agreed it was possible to bank everything after nursery fees and and diesel costs. We don't have enough emergency money saved so this would be our first priority then make over payments. It is do-able. The HP on our car ends in August and I think there is bit of squeezing to be done and cash back to be earned on AA cover and car insurance this year which should save over £150/month.

I read in the Times yesterday a big article on casback sites so it appears lots of people are starting to use them.

Not much left in the account this month after buying new towels, a Christmas tablecloth in the sale and a kettle before Christmas and having the kitchen plastered and painted but if we are careful we won't need to top our account up from savings as we have every other month. I won't have put more than about £60 to overpayments this month but is is better than a slap in the chops I suppose:D

Plans for this week are:

• Sort out my name on the paypal account (I know, I know I say I will do this every week:o)
• Deliver my leaflets and email them to say what streets I have done
• Eat all the fruit and veg bought/delivered at the weekend
• Send a FB message to DSIL with organic box co details and remind her to say I referred her so I get £10 credit:D
• Lose at leat 1lb
• Go to Zumba with friend and 2 half hours of exercise
• Really good tidy up and clean of house
• See what can be eaten out of freezers this week and use it
• Gloss kitchen paint work (not much to do)
• Do all washing and drying (taking ages without the TD)
• Prepare stuff for interview at JC next week and spend 2 hours job hunting every other day
• Bake HM bread every other day. Might try a Grant loaf or go back to sourdough
• Book DS into creche so I can go swimming next week
• Transfer £10 from our account to my personal spends after I accidently spent my cash instead of the house money:mad:

Other good news is I had a letter confirming I will be getting double nectar points for the next 2 years after taking out home ins with Sains. I thought I might be getting some vouchers as well but I am not going to expect them and if they arrive then it will be a nice suprise and I will use them to stock up. The £30+ cashback I earned will be nice when it arrives too:)

This keyboard is so annoying it misses letters and complete words out when you type. I have just spotted half a sentance missing in my last post!

Better get a move on before DS wakes up from his nap.

SmlSave

Good luck with your weeks to do list

How nice to get double nectar points for 2 years

lucylucky

SPAM - reported

XSpender

lucylucky wrote: »

SPAM - reported

I beg your pardon?

I have reported this post. As a vegetarian I don't eat SPAM:p

XSpender

Bleugghhh! DS had me up at 5am this morning after a poor nights sleep. Must have been the liquorice allsorts I had in front of ANTM last night. Naughy me, I am supposed to be on a diet:o It's allright for DS who went back to sleep but I have to get up with DH.

I don't seem to have made much of inroads into my list of jobs yet. Had a good tidy and that's about it.

Received the credit for my leaflet delivery even though I haven't started them yet so I must ensure they are done this week. They want them done by then end of Jan but I could do with the exercise after eating sweeties last night.

My January overpayment/OP savings pot total is £64.38, tiny compared to others but I am actually quite pleased with it what with Jan been such a long month and me still being jobless and at the end of my mat pay.

DH said this morning that if we wanted to go away in Feb it would need to be later in the month an I replied that I would prefer a new kitchen table and he agreed:rotfl: What a couple of old saddos:o He has also booked the first 2 weeks in August off so we will need to book a caravan in Cornwall, well, we need to wait until I have a job and then save/ebay like crazy people.

Just totted up my extra income for Jan and it is £75.96, need to get my butt into gear to hit my £100 target and if I am to achieve £100 next month. I wish my £80 and £30 TCB payments would get a wriggle on.

Someone on GC thread said they save their nect points for January which is always a long skint month so I might do this too or use what I have accumulated by August for holiday food and then save again for Jan:)

Off for another cuppa and to catch up with the GC thread. No wonder I get nowt done I spend too much time on here in a morning. I should read in the evening when everyone else is on.

XSpender

I haven't had any broadband for nearly a week so have not posted or read much. Lovely next door neighbour has let me use his to check banking and job search but did not want to take the michael as it is very generous of him.:T New router has arrived today so I will be all systems go tomorrow:)

I am still waiting to hear about 1 job and applied for 2 yesterday, one of which they rang about yesterday so hopefully some interviews coming up. Fingers crossed.

JC have signed me up for some additional support they give to managers and professional people so hoping that will lead to something too. I never knew they did anything like that so that was a suprise.

Mortgage statement arrived this morning and balance at 31st Dec was.....drum roll.....

£121,580.29

This is a reduction of £151.62 in 2010. I only made overpayments in Nov and Dec and a little bit of each months payment comes off the £2000 payment break we had a few years back as this bit is repayment while the rest is interest only. It is lovely to see the balance coming down even if it is only a little bit:)

I have had some interesting money talks with DH over the last couple of weks. We want a new kitchen table for our new kitchen and DH says we will ebay, sell his old phone and raise the money to buy it (£225) and not touch the savings. He says anything we want like that or holidays etc we should have to raise the money to buy ot dip into savings. I am up or that:D:T So far there is £59 from DH old phone and £15 of cash back to go towards it. Must be a couple of chairs worth at least:D

We are just waiting to get the pay pal account verified and then it will be ebay crazy here!

There will be £200 in the overpayment pot by the end of the month. Once I have received my first pay from a new job I am going to pay it over to the mortgage. I am too nervous to do it before in case we have an emergency.

The other good money news is my ex colleague asked me if I had got my tax rebate as we paid emergency tax on our mat benefits after we were made redundant. This prompted me to speak to tax office and it should have been sorted when I first signed on. I have worked out I am due about £2000, knowing me I will have not worked it out right though:o That will be lovely when it arrives.

yukkibear

woohoo on the tax rebate.

We are making ourselves save for things we need / want here too. First on the list is a new dining room table at just under £300. Nothing towards it so far lol.

XSpender

I have got a job interview:j:j Mind it's a 3 hour assessment so more like a trial by fire! It's for a 12-18 month contract job so not ideal but is for a big company so I am hoping there will be more opportunites if I get my foot in the door. I was really wanting this one but now want one I applied for on Monday. It is a permanant and about £3k more and no travelling but it is a permanant position. Fingers crossed I get an interview for that one too.

I am going to have to raid the savings and buy something to wear for interviews. I only kept 2 suits when I was made redundant as the rest were a bit tatty and the blouses and things wouldn't go over my boobs which went up 2 sizes before I was pregnant. Don't know what was going on there:o. I don't think I will get my belly in the other suits as I am still a funny post preggers shape but back to the size I was pre preggers??

DS started pulling himself up on furniture on Sat and has now worked out how to climb up the first 2 steps of the stairs. The stairs are in our living room and are quite wide as they turn 90 degrees at the bottom. Because it is an open stair case neither of the stair gates we have fit so I am going to have to get one of the elasticated type when DH gets paid.

DH payp*l account has been verified this morning so we can start ebaying in earnest on Sunday. I have found about 6 baby toys/items to go on and will look for a few other bits so that I have 10 items to list. If they all sell and I find a few more bits to sell we might just get our table by the end of the month:D

Right I am off to see if I can squeeze myself into my black trouser suit. Other tasks for today are:

• Freeze chilli into portions
• Finish delivering leaflets and email which streets I have done
• Come up with an idea and plan my training session for the interview
• Load dishwasher and clean kitchen
• Stick a load of washing on
• Make some baby kedegree for DS lunch and freeze other portions
• Make some fruit puree for DS
• Email DDad some Christmas pictures of DS

XSpender

Forgot to do the money up date bit as I have changed my sig below with all the excitement of job interviews:)

I am going to move all the overpayment pot except the bit I have added in Jan to the main savings account. This way I can keep a track of what I have overpaid in 2011. My target is £3k savings and £3k overpayments so it will all come out in the wash at the end of the year anyway:)

yukkibear

Woohoo on the job interviews, fingers crossed you get the job you want.