She who never saves a penny will never have many

mummytogirls

Hi Choo,

I think a nice chilled out weekend was ordered for you! Have you had a good one?

Ooohhh I didnt know it was free listing, I may do some ebaying too xx

choogirl

Hi Mummy & DFW and thanks for popping by

Another £6.99 made on Ebay so duly added to the total.

Not much else to report, just enjoying the lovely warm weather xxx

choogirl

Good Morning

I hope everyone is well x

A nice sunny morning here, so I have 2 loads of washing out on the line. We managed to get the gardening done yesterday and I did all the ironing so today can be spent relaxing a little.

The in-laws are taking us out for lunch so I don't have to cook tonight, it will be a lovely evening as well as there's no pack ups to get ready or uniforms to iron :j

I'm just reconciling the spreadsheet back to the bank and to say March was tight we haven't done too bad. The cash flow management worked well and we didn't go overdrawn

I've had a nice treat this week, I've treated myself to an Iphone :j I've wanted one for ages and my contract was up for renewal so I thought why not? Its cost me £49 to buy the phone, £34 a month contract for unlimited data and more than enough minutes and texts in a month for me. I went through Quidco and I should get £110 cashback! The cashback will pay for the monthly increase on my contact for almost a year so I am a happy bunny :j I am loving the Ebay app on it, it makes everything so much easier!

Ebay sales have gone well this week, sold another 3 items so far so will add to my total when everyone has paid.

Payrises are been discussed this week so hopefully I should be getting an increase. Theres always a ying and yang though as we'll be losing our child benefit from January 2013 courtesy of Mr Cameron and co, so hopefully the increase should cover the child benefit been lost.

Best get on and do something.

Hope everyone has a lovely day xxx

mummytogirls

Hope you had a lovely meal out yesterday Choo, its always nice to eat out especially when someone else is paying!!

Fingers crossed for a good payrise xx

choogirl

Good afternoon

The sun is shining again :j It was cold and wet yesterday and today its warm and sunny; very bizarre!

I got a payrise :j and it will cover the loss of child benefit so I am very happy. It comes into effect from 1st April and child benefit disappears in January so I have 9 months worth to save/spend wisely before its needed for a specific purpose. I could do with a few new bits for summer and of course DD and DS always need something so it will be nice to use it for a few little treats if necessary.

I've started another little savings tin at home for Olympics spending money and we have £12 in there already so hopefully by the summer we should have a nice little fund to enjoy our trip away with!

No more work now until Tuesday but we have lots of jobs planned for the weekend which mainly consist of having a good de-clutter, we should hopefully get quite alot done.

Right I now need to go hoover the lounge and mop the kitchen floor. I have a pile of ironing to do tonight as well, the fun never ends! I've taped One Born Every Minute so I'll watch that tonight whilst DH plays on his xbox in the conservatory.

mummytogirls

Yay to the payrise Choo thats fab! Such a shame that you will have to lose child benefit but at least you can recoop it this way.

Enjoy your long weekend xx

choogirl

Good Afternoon

Thanks Mummy, it is a shame that it will have a net benefit against the child benefit but at least we won't be any worse off.

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter, we did loads of de-cluttering on Friday and Saturday and then had 2 chilled days which were really nice. The weather wasn't inspiring enough to go out so we stayed in and kept warm.

I've had a quick wander round the shops at lunchtime but I've turned into a right tight a** and hate spending money now! I do need some new summer pieces though but the way the weather is at the moment theres not much point parting with any money as its too cold to wear anything summery!

I do need to buy a few bits for the house though so I might have a look round later in the week. DS needs some new school shoes as well so I think we'll go and buy some later in the week.

I've been having a think about the payrise and I would like to try and save some of it towards giving the back garden a re-vamp next year when the building work is done. I fancy a nice patio area, a sofa seating area with a coffee type table and a huge parasol with a wood burning outdoor stove. It would be nice to have something to show for it before it gets swallowed up substituting the child benefit. Hopefully DH will get a payrise at some point as well, although every time I mention it to him, he just rolls his eyes!

The house doesn't look too bad, the ironing and washing are up to date and I've taken chicken out of the freezer to make a curry later.

DH and I are going to spend the evening reviewing our life insurance , I'm sure we must be able to get a better deal and maybe earn some cashback for our garden fund!

Better get back to work, hope everyone has a good day xxxx

mummytogirls

Hi Choo,

Ooohhh im totally loving the sound of the garden!! Get saving girl haha!!

Im glad everything is in order housewise!! xx

debtfreewannabe321

hey choo loving the plans for the new garden sounds lovely i wish i had a bigger garden i'd love to do so much out there but unfortunately it's too small so just pipe dreams atm lol xx

choogirl

Good Morning

Mummy and DFW, I am starting a little garden saving pot when we've finished paying DH bike to work scheme which will mean that I can save £25 a month towards the fund.

Right on to today, Ebay sales are flying along. I have 1 big item due to end in the next couple of hours so that will help the £2012 challenge. I also listed lots of little things that have been hanging around for ages and most of them have bids on. I'm going to have one final push at listing some more items today and once they're listed that will be my Ebay stock all listed and if the items don't sell after 3/4 weeks I'll just charity bag them.

Its lovely and sunny here this morning but I've devised a washing routine (very sad I know), it looks something like this

Monday - dark wash
Tuesday - coloured wash
Wednesday - whites wash
Thursday - dark wash
Friday - coloured wash
Saturday - bedding
Sunday - towels

Hopefully it will stop me from building up huge piles of washing and then stressing over getting it all done. I've looked at the real flylady website and its even more scary than the fly lady list on this forum so I've decided to adapt the concept and tailor it to my own needs and time availability.

Not much else to report really, bank account not too bad, its been another tight month due to kitchen deposit etc but we're ticking along and managing the cashflow well due to jiggling and shuffling.

Ds didn't need new school shoes after all, his feet were the same size as the last time I had them measured so that saved me a few pounds. I treated him to some new summer t-shirts instead which he enjoyed choosing himself. Unfortunately he's now becoming brand aware (peers) so I don't think I'll get away with George/Tesco/Primark anymore. I think the key is to look for bargains/sale items and buy less.

Plan for today

Dry and straighten hair
Quick tidy round
List more ebay items
Package up sold ebay items
Tidy the coat/shoe cupboard
Make sure the kids have done their homework
Make sure that everything is ready for school tomorrow
Pack ups

I could really do with looking at our own finances as well but I don't think I realistically have enough time and I'm trying not to overdo it all the time, I think that will be a job for one evening this week.

Hope everyone has a lovely day xxx