Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

Bah, stupid Tommee Tippee have sent me back a totally different cup as replacement for the one that leaked. It's one we deliberately avoided as it has a fiddly valve system to clean. I'm not going to use it and have sent a stroppy email back asking for an exact replacement or my money back...feeling irrationally angry about this (despite the fact they also sent me some feeding bowls and a cutlery set as well!) a bit like a stroppy child, I feel like throwing it away and having a tearful tantrum - it's not the right one and I DONT WANT IT!!!

White_Iris

Just cashed out £5 to PayPal from a survey site, surveys started to trickle in for OnePoll and I'm now up to £35.30 and eBay sales are up to £16 for the week (£67 for the month) with 2 days to run and lots of watchers :j

Plus Tommee Tippee responded to my disgrunted email almost straight away and have promised to send an exact replacement for my cup out straight away (so I get to eBay the bundle of other stuff they sent as they haven't asked for any of it back ).

Good day!

Edit: £36.10 on OnePoll now - come on surveys!!

White_Iris

Ok, confession time...I've spent most of my eBay profits on new clothes for me and the children .

I did a quick check of our summer clothes when the weather started warming up the other day and realised we all needed some things and as I had the money in the account I thought now would be a good time to buy them, rather than wait until later in the year when there might be more demand (and therefore higher sale prices on ebay) and we might not have the money. I did feel a bit guilty when I was doing it but at least it was my money not from a credit card.

So I'm not sure what my savings totals will be at the end of the month but I'm pretty sure I won't have met my targets :cool:

However, the washing machine is now fully working and the correct drinks bottle has arrived from Tommee Tippee :T

White_Iris

Grrrr, some people are just plain rude, or stupid, or both. Just had a message saying they would have bought one of my items if the postage hadn't been so high. HIGH!!!! It would've cost £1.33 to send and I charged £1.50, so I could use the extra 17p to cover the cost of packing materials...that's not so unreasonable is it? I sent a snotty reply back and hopefully he'll wake up to the fact that postage costs a fortune these days!

White_Iris

I know it's not quite the end of the month but we're going away for a few days on Saturday, so I thought I'd review this now and then post my April resolutions when we get back.

White_Iris wrote: »

March resolutions...

Finances

• Increase emergency savings to £400 Actually managed £450 but then had to spend some on an emergency
• Increase personal savings to £175 Not going to happen but I might get close to £150
  
• Save £50 towards summer holiday Done!!
  

House

• Paint hall/stairs/landing Nope - maybe over the Easter holidays.
• Tidy up garden Done!!
• Plant vegetable patch Done!! (or as much as I can at this time of year - got a window sill full of seedlings in the kitchen!)
  

Personal

• Plan a route around the village, go out for a walk at least 3 times a week and record progress on phone app. Route planned but for a variety of reasons/excuses I've not managed a single walk all month :eek:
  
• No snacking in the evenings Improving but not quite conquered
  

Overall not too bad in March - maybe a C+, definately room for improvement :rotfl:

White_Iris

:mad: Stupid eBay buyers - why wait until after you've won an item to ask questions about things that can be clearly seen in the photo and then complain about the item when you get it :mad: I'm starting to get really sick of eBay, I wish I didn't need the money so much . An item I bought for the children turned up covered in stains this morning...so annoying :mad:

Definately time to take a break from selling. I've got loads of summer clothes to prep over the next few weeks, so once they're ironed, photo'd and weighed I'll list them in dribs and drabs once I'm feeling a bit more positive about eBay.

White_Iris

Well, I've played around with DHs account, so that once he gets paid everything is taken out the following day, only leaving him with his spending money. I've upped our food budget to a more manageable £200 (I was really struggling with £150) and budgetted in £100 spending money for me (or more likely me and the children). It doesn't leave much wiggle room in the budget but I think I've accounted for any increases in the bills. Plus we do actually have an emergency fund now (although I'm still loathe to spend it!) so we should be ok for most minor emergencies.

I wish we were brave enough to go completely cold turkey with the credit cards though. We have the one we're paying off, plus another which is currently empty with a massive credit limit. I'm keeping it to balance transfer from the other card once the 0% deal runs out...or at least that's what I'm telling myself. The tempation to spend on it is still there, especially this coming weekend as we're going away for a few days and I can almost guarantee we'll end up putting a meal out with the family on it (probably about £100)...hmmm. We have no other way to pay for these things (unless we spend our entire months spending money in one go, at the start of the month) and although we don't have to pay, it's not fair to let other family members foot the bill for every meal or activity we'll do on our trip. I'll update with the bad news when we're back next week.

Anyway, I've amanged not to spend my entire eBay profits and I have some money coming from Quidco at the end of the month, so I should be able to top up my savings by another £25ish pounds - not bad :-)

White_Iris

Eeek - just as I type that I've accounted for all our bills, our AA breakdown cover notice arrives...£137!!! We've got a month before the renewal so I'll have to shop around and have a look at our cover options I think.

LianneH

I know how you feel about the ebay stuff, some buyers get right on my nerves!! :mad: I tend to do a successful load of listings and then i need a break or else i would burst! I managed to get the end of latest bundle of stuff so i am taking a few weeks off. Going to go through DD's wardrobe tomorrow so bundle should be topped up soon.

White_Iris wrote: »

Eeek - just as I type that I've accounted for all our bills, our AA breakdown cover notice arrives...£137!!! We've got a month before the renewal so I'll have to shop around and have a look at our cover options I think.

I had an equally ridiculous bill in from RAC, think mine was in the region of £150!! I checked out Auto Aid (noted on MSE website as cheapest) the main diff with Auto aid is that you need to pay for the recovery on site and then reclaim it later. i didn't see this as a prob since i always have a credit card and pay in full. also not a prob as the quote was only approx £30!! I called RAC and they said they couldnt beat this quote as it wasn't "like for like" but they could offer me £60 quote and send me £30 M&S vouchers!! In the end i stayed with RAC but would have changed had they not "matched" Auto aid. hth! x

CarolynCh

White_Iris wrote: »

Eeek - just as I type that I've accounted for all our bills, our AA breakdown cover notice arrives...£137!!! We've got a month before the renewal so I'll have to shop around and have a look at our cover options I think.

Have you tried getting a quote from AA as a new customer (use your name if currently in OH name)? It's often cheaper. Also, TopCashBack are advertising up to £50 cashback with AA UK breakdown cover at the moment.