Diary of a "Frugal Saver"

Frugal_Saver

Thanks, think it went really well but then I always think I've done well the last few interviews I've done but never got the job.

I'm really hopeful though as they're recruiting for quite a few positions. The pay would be the same as my current basic salary (commission is approximately an extra £2,000pa on top that) but I would be working less hours so that makes up for it and I would get my Saturdays back! There would also be more benefits and room for progression which I don't have in my current job.

I've got my fingers crossed. OH should hopefully have a temp job sorted tomorrow to tide him over until he gets something more permanent.

Didn't have a particularly good start to the day, went to have a shower but it wasn't warming up so I had to have a quick bath. Landlord is coming around tomorrow to look at the shower so I hope he can fix it.

I will be spending the weekend away seeing a friend I haven't seen in nearly a year. I thought about cancelling it because of lack of money but I could really do with getting away for a few days and we have so much to catch up on we wont need to go out, we can stay at hers and drink wine which my mum gave me last week.

Tomorrow I will think about posting my list of things to do for the rest of my time off in the hope that it will motivate me to do them!

Frugal_Saver

I'm thoroughly enjoying my time off work

Spent the weekend seeing a friend, very MSE as the only money I spent (not including petrol) was on coffee. I even got away with not paying for parking as someone who was just leaving offered their ticket which was still valid for long enough.

Took car for MOT and service today, I'd allocated £200 but it only came it £170 so that was a relief. Will need to look at getting new tyres for the rear very soon as they only just passed.

Off to the cinema tonight, not costing a penny as it was free tickets and we won't get any drinks or sweets. The cinema is right next to the supermarket where I need to get something anyway so not really even costing any extra petrol!

Tomorrow I will begin the big task of thoroughly tidying the house. The house is relatively tidy now but every so often I like to have a proper clean.

Had to get ink for the printer today as we've completely run out of both black and colour. Fortunately I had enough amazon vouchers that it's not cost me anything which is good considering we don't have much money at the moment and it's not something I can really justify spending cash on.

Frugal_Saver

Starting to accept that I probably haven't got the job. I did ask at the interview when I would hear from them but they went off on a tangent and I forgot to revert back to the original question. If I don't hear anything by mid afternoon tomorrow I will give them a call.

In more exciting news OH started a new job today, slightly less money than what he was on before and more of a commute (took an hour to get home this evening compared to 20mins max in the old job) however it is less responsibility and less hours. We can certainly survive with the pay cut, he's admitted himself he wastes money when he has it so he knows he needs to be more careful now.

We both enjoyed the trip to the cinema last night to see saving Mr Banks, made a nice change to go out. The only time we ever go to the cinema is when it's free as OH isn't that keen on paying money to sit in a dark room for a few hours.

Today I have scrubbed the kitchen, the only thing left to do is the oven and mopping the floor, I feel a real sense of achievement from doing that.

Tomorrow I will finish the kitchen before undoing all my good work by doing some baking/cooking (at least it won't be so difficult to clean). After that I will scrub the bathroom and put up the new shower curtain.

As I'm without my car for the rest of the week I've made a meal plan for the rest of the week and just popped to the shops to buy nearly everything we need to last the week. I will have treat on Thursday,a local bakery make all their bread and cakes etc in a factory right near where we live (sometimes you can even smell it) and i just found out you can go to the factory itself to buy things fresh and even better they accept luncheon vouchers which i received in the post from a survey site I joined last week.

Frugal_Saver

I've been offered the job :dance:


I'm so excited. As with OH it's slightly less pay (well the same as my current basic which is what I budget for every month), however the advantages certainly make up for this:

• Less hours (9am-5.30pm instead of 9am-6pm)
• No working on Saturdays :j
• 2 more days holiday
• Far more opportunity to progress

It's not that much further to commute than where I work now (it's actually in the same area as OH old job), I'm even excited about going back to somewhere that has dress down Friday, it used to make me think it wasn't a proper working day! I've also found out since going to the interview that OH knows someone who's partner works there and said it's a really good place to work.

I would start 2nd January, just need to hand my notice when I go back to work on Monday. I feel awful about having to do this as I feel loyal to the people I work with and I'm going to put them in a really difficult situation as someone else is leaving this week and they haven't been able to replace them yet, I was going to be helping cover their workload until they find a replacement (I did offer, this wasn't excepted of me).

Just waiting for OH to call now so I can tell him the good news.

Frugal_Saver

OH and I had a small discussion last night about finances, basically he's not happy that he's paying a larger portion of the bills compared to me. He earns more money than me, has less debt but will now be spending a lot more petrol (using my car).

So I've told him that I will pay 1/2 of all the bills but I will revert to buying basic products when it comes to the food shopping as I cannot afford to spend as much as I am now.

I have become more organised recently with meal planning which has helped out a great deal but there is still room for improvement.

The real test will come in the new year when I get my first pay from my new job. At least with a set salary I will be able to budget a lot easier. If I am to contribute equally to the bills I wont be able to make overpayments on my loan unless there is any money left at the end of the month. I will therefore be relying completely on Surveys etc to make overpayments. I may also change my target from "debt free by 30" to "loan free by 30" (leaving just my credit card outstanding) which is achievable if I make a few overpayments here and there.

Speaking of overpayments, I have £20 in my PayPal account and £40 pending at the moment. If I can make it to payday (next Friday) without needing any of this money I will put it all towards overpaying my loan.

WantToBeSE

Frugal_Saver wrote: »

I've been offered the job :dance:


I'm so excited. As with OH it's slightly less pay (well the same as my current basic which is what I budget for every month), however the advantages certainly make up for this:

• Less hours (9am-5.30pm instead of 9am-6pm)
• No working on Saturdays :j
• 2 more days holiday
• Far more opportunity to progress

It's not that much further to commute than where I work now (it's actually in the same area as OH old job), I'm even excited about going back to somewhere that has dress down Friday, it used to make me think it wasn't a proper working day! I've also found out since going to the interview that OH knows someone who's partner works there and said it's a really good place to work.

I would start 2nd January, just need to hand my notice when I go back to work on Monday. I feel awful about having to do this as I feel loyal to the people I work with and I'm going to put them in a really difficult situation as someone else is leaving this week and they haven't been able to replace them yet, I was going to be helping cover their workload until they find a replacement (I did offer, this wasn't excepted of me).

Just waiting for OH to call now so I can tell him the good news.

Well done!! :j :j :beer:

You must be so pleased! What great news Do you mind me asking what the job is?

Frugal_Saver

Thanks, I'm so excited, it's working in an office for a multinational office printer company. I'll be in the billing department, I should hopefully have an email from them tomorrow confirming the exact details.

I wont be dealing with the general public anymore which is something I struggle with at the moment. I find that people can be demanding and I struggle to shut down when I go home at night as the work I do currently can directly affect peoples lives and I can take things so personally (I work for an estate agent in the lettings department).

Frugal_Saver

I'm feeling very organised today. Last night I sorted out a meal plan for the week and I've just checked the cupboards and made a shopping list.

The house is still relatively tidy from my massive clean up during the week so I don't need to worry about it this weekend.

I've received the £30 payment from global test market. I currently have £55.00 in my paypal account (all from survey sites). I'm just awaiting £5.00 from Swagbucks and then I will be able to make a £60.00 overpayment on my loan. I've just worked out that over the course of 2013 I have received payment of just over £300 from Survey sites, this includes cash and vouchers. This is amazing considering I took a break from Swagbucks for about 6 months.

Frugal_Saver

I've not posted on here for a couple of weeks, things went a bit off track at home there's been ups and downs over the last few weeks (actually we had the downs and then ups!!).

In my last post I said I would overpay my loan but I hadn't really thought this through. Christmas is fast approaching, we haven't bought any presents and OH didn't get paid last month (he was only going to get a weeks wage but it makes all the difference).

So I had a moment of panicking before sitting down with OH and working out how we were going to manage. We cancelled the council tax and npower direct debits. Council Tax is spread over 10 months so we can catch up with that easily. We are in credit with npower so not too worried about that. We also increased the overdraft on the joint account which is also not ideal but once we get back on track we will be able to pay this back. We were both going to take a holiday from repaying our loans but we left this too late so we will do this for January payments as we are still going to struggle next month.

Last week for the first time ever I set myself a budget for the household shopping, took out the exact cash and came out under budget and with money and food left over at the end of the week.

And then yesterday we got some fantastic news, OH has been offered a much better paying job than the one he has just started. He applied for this some time ago and the process was quite long, he didn't think he'd get it so he's over the moon about it. He feels really bad as he's obviously only just started this other job but it's amazing to think things are finally working out for us. I'm trying not to get too excited, OH hasn't told his family yet as he can't quite believe it himself.

Frugal_Saver

I've been absent from this post for too long, I need to stop procrastinating and update my diary, I feel like if I don't post on here I'm not being honest.

December has been a difficult month money wise. Fortunately there were no repercussions from cancelling the direct debits, instead of having February and March free from council tax payment we have had December and January off which has made life a bit easier. Also when I called to reinstate the direct debit for npower they set it £20 lower than what we were paying before.

I've had to take a payment holiday on my loan for January or we would really struggle next month but I'm hoping by February we will be back to normal as we will both be settled in our new jobs.

I've been off work since christmas eve and I start my new job on Thursday, I'm feeling very apprehensive and not sleeping half as well as I thought I would. I really think 2014 will be a good year for me and OH but there's still this negative thought at the back of my head that's saying it's too good to be true and I'm on edge waiting for something to go wrong. It just seems to be in my nature to be negative about everything.

Tomorrow I hope to come up with a list of new years resolutions which will help me focus on the positives!