Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

Woo-hoo! A small windfall has meant I can put an extra £100 in the loan repayments pot :-)

White_Iris

Hmmm, nothing from tax credits yet but the guy on the phone did say it might take a while (I guess they're pretty busy at this time of year). We've had a bit of a credit card splurge recently - probably £200ish!! It has been mostly on things we couldn't really do without - new work clothes and shoes for DH and new shoes for me. I did look on eBay first but there was nothing suitable for DH, as he's a bit of an awkward size, so we splashed out £30 on two new shirts and £35 on a pair of shoes.

I also looked for some shoes for me online but the last few pairs I've got from eBay have either been too big or too small, so I figured I just bite the bullet and go try some on and buy them new. They will be worn almost constantly through the autumn, winter and in to next spring, so I figure the cost per wear will work out to be pretty low. They cost £50 and I'm still in two minds about taking the money out of my savings to pay for them (I probably will end up doing that I should think - the thought of a large credit card bill leaves a bad taste in my mouth). Still, this time next year we'll have paid off the loan and will have enough expendable income to do things like buy new shoes without worrying about it!

We also spent nearly £80 in the supermarket today!! We're having some friends over for tea tomorrow and splurged a bit on food, beer and wine. We rarely entertain so this was a once off - hopefully I can cover some of it from the grocery budget :-/

I've made a start on my autumn eBay inventory (I've got a LOT of ironing to do!) - I should have enough stuff to sell through to Christmas but after that it's going to be slim pickings. The children tend to wear out their clothes now (because I don't buy them many, they wear what they have quite a bit) and we've de-cluttered the house so well, there isn't any junk to sell. It'll just have to be time to get cracking on the surveys again, see if I can make some money from those in the new year.

lucielle

Comfy shoes are worth their weight in gold if you ask me.
L

White_Iris

The tax credits money has arrive and has been put straight in the loan overpayment pot - nearly able to wave goodbye to October 2013 :j

In other money news, we haven't been quite so disciplined with our spending and seem to have bumped up the 'spending' credit card a bit - need to work on getting it down below £500 in the next few months (currently at nearly £680 ).

DH has gone in to work for the day so it's just me an the little ones...and lots of housework :cool: I get so lazy over the holidays, especially when we're in an out doing more interesting things. So, first of three loads of washing is in, now for cleaning the kitchen and downstairs loo, then dusting, hoovering, hanging out the washing and maybe mopping the floor

Still haven't managed to get anything ironed or photographed to list on eBay next month but I have made a start on our Christmas cards (I know, I know... it's like a rude word mentioning Chr****as in August ) and also some birthday cards for the next few months. I'm almost positive I will get some eBay ironing done tonight though...maybe.

White_Iris

B*gger - just got a letter from Santander, telling us they're going to put up their SVR, which means our mortgage is going to go up by about £70 a month from November. That means some serious belt tightening for us I think :-(

White_Iris

Great news this morning - I've received a small inheritance which means we've been able to top up the emergency savings and put away a few hundred in the loan pot...goodbye October 2013, September 2013 you're next!

We've decided not to start paying in to DHs pension in September and instead see how the budget works out with the increased mortgage payments. We'll reassess in January and certainly start paying it again once the loan is paid off. Opting out of DHs pension was only meant to be a very temporary option for a maximum of six months but it can't be helped and he does at least have the option to buy back the missing months, once we're more financially stable.

White_Iris

Well it just gets worse and worse...our heating oil tank seems to have sprung a leak. DH is going to investigate this afternoon but it's likely we'll need a new tank - no idea how much that's going to be but I can assume it'll be bye-bye emergency pot :-( Feel sick at the idea of such a huge cost.

White_Iris

Well there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Oil tank may be covered by a 10 year warranty (no idea how old it is as it was here when we bought the place five years ago and we have no paperwork - it looks quite new though), we just have to wait for the specialist oil tank guy to have a look for a serial number and get in touch with the manufacturer. He's here at the moment, talking to DH so we should find out soon if it's going to cost us thousands or not!

White_Iris

It turns out the oil tank is still under warranty, so it's likely the manufacturer will either offer a like for like replacement tank or money off another tank from their range. We've decided to go for an upgraded tank (from single to double skin), to avoid any future issues if we end up renting our house out for a few years. We'll have to pay for installation but it should cost us about £1800 minus the money the tank manufacturer will offer (don't know how much that will be yet).

Unfortunately, as safety regs have changed since the old tank was installed, we also have to get a fire wall installed as the tank is next to a large shed. This is going to cost about £500 and has to be done :cool:

So all in all it's going to cost us somewhere in the region of £2000. The plan is to put it on the credit card and balance transfer the lot to an empty card we have. Once its at 0% we can pay the minimum, concentrate on paying off our loan early then start the battle against the credit cards once we have some more free cash.

White_Iris

There's been a definite nip in the air today, autumn is here already I think, even though it's still August (just!). No complaints from me though - I'm a cool weather person.

As it's nearly September I thought I'd set myself some resolutions for the month, get back in to the habit after my month off.

September Mini Resolutions

1 - take advantage of the free listing days to start making some money on eBay again
2 - add to the savings pot and say goodbye to another month of loan payments
3 - get the credit card balance on to a 0% card (once we've paid for the new oil tank)
4 - start doing surveys again
5 - finish Christmas cards
6 - buy at least one Christmas present