Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

themadvix

A bit of movement on the OP front over night. Have received £4 reward for one of my Internet monitoring 'things', so that's been transferred, TT'd 10p across (after I'd rescued current a/c from a balance of -£2.90! :eek: That's what comes of leaving the month's spending money earning 5% instead of being where it needs to be - so annoying as unusually I've got quite a bit of cash in my purse. It was only like it for a few hours and I have an arranged overdraft, so will have cost a couple of pennies max. NV cheque has cleared, so OP fund standing at £56. Need to find another £432 before end of the year to make a nice round £6k OPd. It would be nice to get about another £100 of this from alternative income (i.e. not my month's pay).

When looking at finances at weekend, discovered I'd been sending more money than I needed to DH - was aimed at his company sharesave scheme, but we cancelled that in July! So have requested the £90 back from him. New sharesave starts this month, so no point changing the SO. This money can go in the OP pot when it arrives.

Also waiting for £20 from YSP - that will go there too... And I'm already at that £100...! Might need to up the goal a bit!

In process of doing a big shop online - not had a delivery in over a month, so stocking up on all the bits we've run out of. Able to get a substantial discount on some bits due to a work trial I've volunteered for through DH's company - so 50% off of up to £30 of shopping! :T Unfortunately a very limited selection, but still, better than nothing! Cupboards will be well stocked between the two orders though.

Have been practicing my Frazer accent from Dad's Army - after the US election, we're definitely all doomed.... :mad: Looking forward to seeing the back of 2016.

Want to buy a nice bottle of gin for the friends who took us away for the weekend. We're not gin drinkers - does anyone have any suggestions? Happy to spend up to £50.

kirtsypoos

Bombay Sapphire is my go to gin - I'm not often a gin drinker but it's lovely!

themadvix

Thanks Kirsty, but I was thinking of something a bit more niche as they're the sort of people who like the finer things in life! I know gin is the in thing at the moment, but as we don't drink it, it's hard to know what is good out of all the fancy ones about.

OP fund looking healthy - YSP and Crowdology credits mean it's up to £80.52 (including a couple of TTs over the weekend), and I'm still waiting for money from DH.

Weekend was hectic and tiring... barn dance for charity Friday night (the one my friend had bullied me into going to!) - was good fun and glad we went, but not home till after 12! Quiz night for my charity Saturday eve - involved lots and lots of running around, but raised £340 which is great! Remembrance parade yesterday morning and then lunch with mum and nan. Was glad to get home for the GP, although that was stressful too!

This week is looking a lot less stressful - no funeral to attend for starters (friend's dad's funeral on Thurs - went well as could be expected and so proud of friend - she gave the eulogy and held it together brilliantly).

DH away with work quite a bit in next couple of weeks, which isn't great, but I think I'll find plenty for me to do when he's not around (I hate him being away as I'm at home all day on my own as it is). Will probably involve a couple of trips to work in a coffee shop, but it's a small price to pay for some sanity.

Need to start thinking about Christmas properly. So far all I have done is get a present sorted for DH's nan. My M&S voucher for taking CC out has arrived, so hopefully will use that to buy cards. Need to buy gift for friend who has had a baby, so might pop to M&S later and see what I can find for both of those jobs.

themadvix

Well yesterday was a spendy day! Went to M*S in the afternoon with mum. Bought some Christmas cards (it's a start, last year they had loads in plastic-free packaging, this year only one range of tiny ones), some bibs for friend with baby and a thermal top for me (£18 - DH is going to check in the M*S outlet over the road from work to see if they're cheaper there!). My £25 voucher is gone, suffice to say! Wasn't very inspired by their neutral baby stuff (sis doesn't know what she's having - finding it very frustrating!).

When I got home I ordered £280 worth of clothes from an online company who only use natural fibres - however, some of it was in two sizes so I'll definitely be sending some of that back! Used £co so should get some money back and have also sent referral details to my mum, so if she orders we'll both get 20% off.

Then, DH and I booked next year's holiday to the Carribbean! While expensive, it's also a bargain - £1500 for 8 nights self-catering for both of us, including flights and a stay the night before at the airport. Just got to sort insurance and car hire. Very excited! (Would have been cheaper had the pound not tanked against the euro, but we waited for it to recover a bit at least!). Also went through £co for that and will get Nectar points from Expedia too. Signed up to all the frequent flyer schemes too.

While the clothing isn't budgeted for, as I rarely ever buy clothes (it's usually an area fraught with guilt about artificial fibres and the ocean), I will be happy to take some money out of savings to pay for them as everything goes into savings at the beginning of the month and I do my utmost not to remove it. The four jumpers I ordered I hope will last for quite a few years - buy once and buy well is the theory. On the other hand, the vast majority of the money for the holiday is sitting in budgeted bills account waiting to be spent on the holiday - will only need to find £150 from month's income for this.

Despite money being well under control (bear in mind we've not spent DH's winnings yet either), I was struggling with sleep last night due to stress of spending so much in one day. Will hopefully give me focus to get lots of work done today! And will cancel next week's veg box too... we've got loads of veg in the house. Had butternut squash risotto last night, and used some pudding rice I'd bought ages ago and not used - it worked fine and will save on replacing the arborio for a while. With DH away quite a bit in the next two weeks we won't be getting through quite as much food as usual, although I might treat myself to some salmon for a couple of the nights he's away (he's not a fan, so it's not something I have when he's around).

In OP news, cashed out on YG this morning - thought I was a few £s away still but YG Pulse thing must have credited to my account as after short survey I was at £50! At this rate, I might yet smash the £6k barrier!:j

kirtsypoos

That's fair enough. One of my friends is a lover of gin and likes to try different ones, for her 30th birthday I bought her a miniature set of drawers and put a small bottle of different gin in each drawer.
Monkey 47 Gin came out top of the list according to her, so maybe one to try if not already sorted?

Well done on Yougov, and other spends - holiday sounds amazing spending is necessary occasionally, so try not to over stress yourself

themadvix

Thanks Kirsty - I'll have a look at that! Never heard of Monkey 47 gin! Sounds like a fab present you made her!

I know spending is necessary... I think it was just the shock of all of it all at once! And after my last post logged into cc to check balance and nearly had kittens - took me ages to work out that nearly £300 of it was the clothes last night - honestly, I'm so dippy sometimes!

try_harder

I think its the time of year ,it is just so expensive and all year we are so careful then all of a sudden we have to spend so much .We too have just paid for a holiday for next year and i have bought several christmas presents for the grandchildren ,paid for several of our friends and ourselves for a meal out plus drinks,christmas cards decorations and stocking fillers ,it is pretty scary the £10 a week i had budgeted throughout the year for birthdays and christmas was way too low i have realised now with 5 children plus partners plus grandchildren ,nieces and nephews etc there was no money left for christmas after the birthdays had been taken out and i had added extra to that pot.I dont think i will meet my £13000 savings goal now maybe £11500-£12000 .Its very annoying as i now have to revise all my plans .You have done really well this year ,i must try harder next year.

themadvix

TH, you've done so well this year - don't be so hard on yourself!

I know what you mean about the time of year - we've not started thinking about Christmas yet but I've got DH's birthday coming up, my sister's partner's birthday too and I've said I'll meet a couple of friends for dinner out this month - they won't be expensive meals, but it all adds up! I budget for presents based on what I want to spend per person for birthday/Christmas/mother/father's day divided by 12 but there's always little things/whole people I miss out, and I don't budget for the additional food - although we only have a few people round on Boxing Day not the day itself. So December will be tight no doubt too! I've yet to find the spending/present money for our trip to the Christmas markets at the beginning of next month. I just remind myself that we are sensible most of the time, we can afford it and we won't get into debt because we're just not inclined that way (see above about being stressed over spending!!)

As for doing well this year, we have, but more through luck than judgement!

try_harder

Thank you again themadvix ,i think the main problem arises due to the amount of money i spend on everyones birthday and more importantly christmas ,i have way ,way underestimated how much i spend ,i guess i didnt dare write it down truthfully as i didnt want to see how much i really spend as its obviously a lot and underneath i know it is .I just love christmas so much and want to make everyone happy too .Next year i will work out a true total including all the parties and meals out and the true amount that i spend on all my family ,i dont want to change a thing but the weekiy savings will have to go up dramatically in that pot so no surprises next year.

themadvix

Hey TH, it is definitely difficult to be honest with yourself about things like Christmas spending, isn't it?!

I still haven't got as far as thinking about it...!

DH away with work tonight, so maybe I'll do some planning/shopping for his birthday present then.

I managed a NSD yesterday! Not generally bothered about this, but after Monday it was a relief! Will have to put £20 in car today as got to do a couple of errands and may buy a new baby card if they have one over the road. Then I can get parcel packed up for my friend and sent off.

Few bits on Ebay just aren't selling (BIN) - to the extent that I'd forgotten they were there.... Not presenty type things, but generally things I'd like to see the back of!

Struggling with focus at the moment - so many jobs and bits and pieces to do, and keep getting distracted from work. Seem to have misplaced my notebook with to-do list in it too! £co doesn't seem to have tracked for my clothes shopping either, which isn't great Plan for this morning is to try and crack on with work for a bit, whizz off to do an errand (and get fuel) and get back to work. FIL is coming to do some painting in hall (he's a treasure ) so we'll be having chips for lunch - our treat!

Sorry for (more than usual!) scatty and distracted post. Hopefully I'll find my focus once I've got some of the work/jobs done.