Money Mayhems Money Muddles!!

Pinky15

Well done on the carboot sale front - every penny counts lol.
We use quidco for house and car insurance and some years have had over £100 - so def worth sticking with.
We have never frozen mash - let me know how it goes.
Have a nice day:)

Money_mayhem

Thanks Pinky15 - I promise to let you know about the mash:rotfl:

So, today being bank holiday and all, we decided to venture out and initially I was worried, what with having four kids, it usually always ends up being expensive, however today OH suggested we make a picnic (already had what we needed for this) and head off to Hill End which is in the middle of nowhere, so we packed the kids into the car, along with the dogs and a football and off we went. I have to say it was fantastic! We had lovely walks, kids enjoyed the fresh air and best of all, it was free. A lovely day was had by all and boy will we all sleep tonight.

On the debt busting front, I have decided that tomorrow I'm going to cancel my magazine subscription for a well known home magazine and put the 5.99 towards the cc. I am determined :T

Will report back soon x

jwil

Good luck! You've made a great start

Which survey sites did you try? The ones which are most productive for me are Valued Opinions, My Survey, Ipsos, Wonderbug and You Gov. You Gov is very slow to cash out but I never get screened out so I like it.

Money_mayhem

Good morning :wave:

I'm quite pleased with myself today - we've managed to secure a weekend away using vouchers out of a newspaper. This will be our first holiday since 2010 so we're really looking forward to it. Its to Southport - never been there before so I'm hoping it's nice

I signed up to a few survey sites yesterday but I'm not sure about them...I worry about how much info they ask for, I know that given the nature of the site, they need to gather information; but are the sites legit? If anyone knows of any 'reliable' sites, could you let me know please.

Ive cancelled my magazine dd as well today and I advertised home cinema/cd player in paper so I'm hoping that will sell soon. On top of that Ive also got two boxes of clothes and a few other bits and pieces to go onto ebay...I just hope it all sells.

Yesterday I was looking at the Grocery challenge and I think that this is something I'm going to try and do. So far since pay day Ive spent £500 on food :eek: and OH had spent about £50 topping up. I really want to get this amount down next month.

3 of our kids take packed lunches to school and I think this is cheaper that school meals which was £90 per month and the kids enjoy it more. I spent £140 filling the freezer up with meat and that will probably last well into next month and over £200 at tesconios , with the rest of my spend being used for topping up. This is definately an area for improvement me thinks.

Really looking forward to pay day (although at the same time I'm not cause this is my last month off work) so that I can pay off my Next bill and make a payment on the cc. I never ever ever want another credit card again. Ever :mad:

Well that's all I can think of for now...I enjoy maintaining my diary as I feel like its keeping me on track so no doubt I will update later

Bye for now x

Money_mayhem

jwil wrote: »

Good luck! You've made a great start

Which survey sites did you try? The ones which are most productive for me are Valued Opinions, My Survey, Ipsos, Wonderbug and You Gov. You Gov is very slow to cash out but I never get screened out so I like it.

I really need to read the last entry before I post don't I?

Thanks jwil, I've tried Valued Opinions which seems good and MySurvey and Maximiles which I wasn't impressed with. I'll go and look at your suggestions now :T

Told you I'd be back!

Money_mayhem

Well, I have done my good deed for the day :A

I listed a portable tv on Freegle and I received an email from someone in my village asking if they could be considered. Unfortunately someone had got there first, however, I had a 28" tv/video combi and videos that I'd not got round to listing so I offered her those and she accepted :T. I even delivered it for her

So now I've more space in my house and the tv and videos have a new lease of life... Good times:)

X

Money_mayhem

Well, good news today. My direct debit came out of the bank to pay the minimum payment on the cc and then I paid off the annoying 84pence on the end as well, so I've updated my signature to reflect my lower debt balance and feel quite pleased with myself :j:T:j:T. Small steps and all that. Oh, and I've noticed that I've gained a star :j

The bad news is that I'm almost at the top of my od limit :mad: and I'm not able to increase it any further so if I do go over it, I'll be charged £5 a day instead of £1.

I really wanted to pay extra off the cc at the end of the month but I hadn't budgeted for car tax so I'm sticking with the minimum for now...I'm hoping when I get back to work that I'll have more money to throw at debt but until I find out what tax credits I'll be receiving, I'm not even sure if I could afford to pay for the nursery fees for dd . I'm living in hope that it will all be fine

I've had a couple of NSD lately :T, to be honest, I never go anywhere to spend money even if I had it :rotfl:

I think that's all I can update for now...I was just delighted at the thought of changing my signature. I'm sure my loan will be less than it states now as well...something to look into :j

Bye for now x

Oh, before I go I've decided that when I do get back to work (and assuming I'm better off) I'm going to start decreasing my od limit a bit at a time. That's they only way I can think of to try and pay it off.

KissyKissyKaren41

Hiyas xx the grocery challenge is amazing very very fast to keep up with but amazing recipes and thrifty ways of keeping an eye on the pounds, I have no doubt you could crop a little off ya grocery spends im doing much the same paying off debts built over the years but have become a little anal about paying not spending now which I suppose has to be a good thing, good luck and dont get to bogged down by not paying everything off at once youl drive yaself crazy stressing.... The NSD no spend day is also a good one to challenge you, so although your not paying off daily your also not spending daily .... It becomes addictive this money saving lol x

Money_mayhem

Thanks Kissy. I'm going to look at those challenges you suggested x . I know what your saying about not being too OTT about making payments, debt busting can be very stressful and seems to consume every waking minute :cool: :mad:

I've just been reading some dfd's and someone mentioned how they rang Sky to cancel and got a reduced rate, so....that's what I've done and have managed to save us £5 a month. Admittedly I was worried that the plan wasn't going to work and that I was indeed going to end up cancelling the account :eek: and then getting slaughtered by the kids :eek::eek: but thankfully it all worked out in the end. Even though it's only slightly reduced it'll still help in the grand scheme of things :T:T:T

On a more frugal note, we made mashed potato at the week end and froze it in small portions . Well, I'm pleased to report that OH had some for his tea last night and ad no complaints :j. What a relief!! :rotfl:

Supermop

I just came in to say hello seeing as you kindly visited my diary! Good luck MM -- can't offer advice but you have my support