The final countdown... and a newbie in the DFSD house!

debtfreesomeday

I seem to be neglecting this diary a little lately...

With regards to the ongoing DFW journey, there have been no major milestones, just a few little ups as well as a few little downs, as life goes. The £96.61 gas refund hit the bank account last week. I was hoping to use it to pay a chunk off the credit card, but it was needed in the bank account more, so stayed there for now. It is payday on Thursday and we will not be overdrawn!!! :j We have done it by about £3-odd, BUT I did have to transfer £37 from the maternity leave account which I swore I wouldn't do, to go towards the extra petrol cost for going 'home' at the weekend, which is a 3 hour drive each way. The maternity leave account is now back at £1400, but more will be added on Thursday. This coming month I really need to keep a tight rein on the budget as we can't afford to keep transferring bits of money from the savings accounts.

We also had £61 cash back from our house & contents insurance this month. £20 of it has gone into the bank account today, £15 has been spent on Christmas presents and the remaining cash paid for more petrol.

As for next month, there's nearly £9 waiting to be paid from Quidco, (although plenty more to be paid out which is still in limbo :mad: ) and we should have £23 from September/October Mystery Shops.

The tesco clubcard reward vouchers finally arrived this weekend too, so I need to fill in the recipients details and send it off for the Christmas gift we've ordered with a £2 cheque to make up the total - first I need to find the cheque book though - I don't even know if we still have one!

With regards to Christmas shopping, I only have about £25 - £30 left to pay out and then it's done! :T Obviously this is all waiting until after payday!

I am feeling somewhat melancholy today and last night. I had such a lovely weekend at home with all my family and just spending time in the area I grew up in. I am really feeling homesick and would love to move back home, especially with a baby on the way very soon and the prospect of being stuck in the house on my own without the car and with very little money for most of my maternity leave. All of my (very few!) friends around here work, so I won't be seeing many people during the day either. I just wish I lived close to my parents and friends so I could walk over to my Mum and Dad's in the daytime and spend the day with my Mum - that sort of thing.

I find this area we are now in, unfriendly. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice area and we have a lovely house, but people seem to eye 'newcomers' with suspicion and there is not the general friendly, welcoming atmosphere that I have grown up in. I started to think it was me, but several people I know who are not 'natives' have said the same. People seem very narrow minded in this area - they've known one thing all their lives and that's the only way things should be. Even the landscape seemed friendlier at home at the weekend - I felt so at ease and happy. I'm embarrassed to say I actually cried for most of the drive home.

We have looked into moving, but the job prospects and property prices mean we would have to win the lottery first; it's so unfair. I feel so bad that my parents are going to miss out so much on seeing their grandchild grow up too because of the distance that we live from each other.

debtfreesomeday

Damn - £16.21 overdrawn when I checked the bank account this morning - I forgot about a gift I bought in a rush last week. I've transferred that amount from the tax & insurance savings just to get it out of a minus figure - I hope there's nothing else I've forgotten about!

debtfreesomeday

I wasn't planning on getting any shopping in until after payday, but last night I had to hang around for an hour before picking hubby up from work and we really needed some fruit & veg. I figured the money wouldn't come out of the bank until Thursday if I paid by debit card, so I did a big shop last night at Mr S. I spent £48, but £5 of this was some half price jewellery to put in the present box for 2 birthday presents next year. I also picked up a couple of half price toiletries to put in the hospital bag. :eek: This spend also included a couple of bits we wouldn't normally buy, as we have a friend staying this weekend so have an extra mouth to feed. Those bits only came in at an extra £5 or so though.

I will temporarily transfer £50 from the savings just to make sure we don't go into the overdraft (and get charged Lloyd's new £5 overdraft fee :mad:), but will be transferring this back tomorrow when the wages have gone in.

Tonight, after work, I need to drop a couple of carrier bags off at the charity shop which have been hanging around in our dining room for the best part of two weeks. I have also dug out loads of hubby's pay slips from the last couple of years as he changed jobs quite a bit over one period and we were a bit suspicious as to whether his tax code was correct at one point. I shall check them all online tonight if I'm able to.

Have a good day all

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

Right, I've just put pen to paper and worked out the budget for this coming month and it looks reasonable healthy (ish).
I've budgeted for 36.21 extra to go to the car & house maintenance account as this covers the bit I 'borrowed' from there this month to keep the main bank balance healthy.

Another £500 will be going to the maternity leave account and I will be paying £100 off the credit card. I've allowed £150 for petrol this month as we still have half a tank and we're not planning any long drives for a while now. The groceries budget has been upped by £50, to £200, as we have been struggling to keep this within budget for a while now with the rising price of everything. :mad:

After a few 'accounted for' spends on Christmas gifts, there should be £132.29 left in the account. I need to spend another five to ten pounds on one more gift but no idea what to buy yet so can't enter a fixed amount for that one. We also need to buy a crib mattress but not quite sure how much that will be yet - I know it's under £15 so not too expensive.

Of course, we should be getting a little bit from Quidco and the MS's, so that will all help too.

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

Just completed a survey for £3 in the paypal account.

I did some window shopping around a couple of baby shops tonight with the intention of pricing up the crib mattress. The crib we've bought is still in the box - we haven't even unpacked it yet - but I saw a very similar one in Mothercare and I can't say I was too impressed with it. It looked very uncomfortable and didn't seem to offer much in the way of support. We bought it online months and months ago in a John Lewis sale so didn't see it before we bought it.

To cut a long story short, we've decided not to use it and to resort to the moses basket idea instead (which I was initially not keen on). I shopped around for one in the shops earlier but thought I'd take a look online first before buying. I'm glad I did, as the same one was £12 cheaper from Mothercare online, so I've ordered that, spending £28. Considering we'd have to pay £15 for a crib mattress anyway, it's not that much extra. I will advertise the crib on the notice board at work tomorrow and see if we can sell it. We only paid around £20+ for it originally.

I need to get a folding stand for it but will shop around once I know the size of the basket - should be able to get one for around £10 - £15.

On the domestic front, I've done another load of washing tonight, having to use the dryer now which is an expense, but a necessity.

I wasn't very hungry tonight so didn't bother with dinner myself - hubby had an omelette and I've had some fruit, so a cheap meal for us tonight!

I am sat next to the pile of pay slips to check the tax codes but really can't summon up the energy or will to do it tonight. It's nearly past my bed time.

DFSD

Chocforever

Hi DFSD

That sounds like a good decision to sell the crib and get something else more suitable.

I am always in awe of what you manage to achieve after work . I am keeping up with reading the diary, but not posting much because I am so tired and, to be fair, not a great deal is happening on the money front here. I have been complaining about being tired for a while and my usual health problems have deteriorated. It seems I have vitamin B12 deficiency and will hopefully start treatment soon which should get me back to normal .

It is definitely past my bedtime! Take care x

debtfreesomeday

Hiya Chocs

Sorry to hear you've not been feeling great lately, make sure you take it easy and look after yourself. Don't go overdoing it, especially with the winter coming. Goodness I sound bossy - sorry! That's years of trying to get my Mum to take it easy, that is!

Don't worry about not posting, people lead busy lives and sometimes it's the last thing I feel like doing too. I have been neglecting this a bit lately as well. Make sure you get plenty of rest!

X

debtfreesomeday

It's pay day today so I've transferred all the 'lumps' into the relevant pots and places and paid £100 off the credit card. My I have a very small amount more in my salary this month as I cancelled my union membership last month - it's only about £14 more but every little is a bonus. I have also been paid by the MS company - £24.40 - which will more or less pay for the moses basket bought last night. I might be tempted to do a few more MS's now we've finally been paid, but most of the ones that come up in our area seem to be fast food outlets which I'm not so keen on doing.

I've also advertised the crib on the notice board at work, it's a web-based board so I can see some people have viewed it already. Hopefully someone will buy that one and take it off our hands, it's in quite a big box and we could do with the space.

DFSD

fizzypops

hi dfsd

you seem to be doing really well, remember to take it easy before bubs comes along though as soon your have no time to rest!!

what surveys do you do that gets money paid into your paypal if you dont mind me asking?

i will subscribe and keep popping back to make sure your not overdoing things!!!

xxxx

debtfreesomeday

Hi fizzypops

Thanks for your kind words.

As for the surveys, it is a company called pine cone - I think you have to join up via a banner or advertisement which unfortunately are not that common. There is often a thread on these boards about them - try looking in the 'up your income' section and it may have something about them on there. Good luck !

DFSD
x