Sort it out Scuff!

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Scuff wrote: »

Thanks Malc,

Sadly for us I have already been on the website, printed out and read the 100 ways to save money with a fine tooth comb and done pretty much all we can. The tv is plugged into one of those standby things (from yourselves) so it goes off rather than being on standby, I downgraded the lightbulbs and the most expensive room to light (being a modern flat they're all downlighters) we don't turn the main lights on. I can't get behind the fridge to check as it's built in. There are 2 main problems with our situation: The flat is rented so a lot of the things we can't do / change, and it's all electric, so things like heating water (immersion tank) and heating the flat in the winter (electric heaters as opposed to radiators) cost us a lot of money. We also have a ventilation system that in the winter is pretty much always running - it wouldn't be a good idea to turn it off either as the flat gets very condensate-y very fast. I'm trying (and not succeeding as much as I'd like) every trick in the book! Thanks for your help though!
On a good note though this morning I've reduced our dd to £109 a month!

Sounds like you're pretty well on top of things in terms of controlling your usage Scuff.

Good news on the Direct Debit though. Did you use the new Direct Debit Manager on our website?

This gives customers more control over their monthly payments by letting them make adjustments to better reflect changing circumstances.

Just a thought on your heating. Do you have electric storage heaters that charge up over night and then release heat gradually throughout the day?

If you do, you'll probably be better off with a two rate Economy 7 meter. These meters give cheaper off peak electricity at night whilst the storage heaters charge up. If you don't, just ignore this.

Malc

Fudgefund

Hello Scuff

Just popping in for a catch up, well done on all the NSD's, 10 is loads! Good news about the reaplcement wheel too, I imagine you as tiny, so I imagine if it ever needed to be changed you'd have quite the job on your hands.

Scuff

IIIIIITTTTTTT'SSSSSS PAAAYYYYYDAAAAYYYY!!!!! :dance:

It's also Friday and not only a bank holiday but I'm off work next week! :dance:

I'll have to come back later with a list of money stuff, seems like I've been waiting forever for this payday to come around and now its here I'm not ready for it at all. And I really should be working right now...

Fudgefund wrote: »

Hello Scuff

Just popping in for a catch up, well done on all the NSD's, 10 is loads! Good news about the reaplcement wheel too, I imagine you as tiny, so I imagine if it ever needed to be changed you'd have quite the job on your hands.

Funny you should say that, I got a puncture in my last car and it was the first one I've ever had, although I knew what to do. So I get out of the car - in the MIDDLE of a BUSY JUNCTION, cheers car, you pick your moments, at traffic lights so people kept stopping at the side of me - thinking ah I can do this, get the tyre and the jack and the wheel brace out of the boot, take off the cover thing, try to undo first nut... NO CHANCE. I was literally jumping on the stinking thing, sitting on it, using my foot and my hands, all the while white van men were stopped watching me in amusement whilst waiting for the green light. In the end a couple of teenage lads came over and did it for me (although they struggled which made me feel better) Only bad thing was the one who knew what he was doing kept telling me in broken English that it was an easy job there was nothing to it. I was thinking 'I know how to change a bloody tyre I'm just too puny' One of the guys at work has since made me an extra long super bar that gives me enough leverage

Scuff

Righto, had a quick looky at my finances for the coming month - verdict: it's gonna be tight

We went on a trip to Hebden Bridge last Sunday and on the way back I put my window down, pressed the button to bring it back up - NOTHING HAPPENS. I hate this darn car... Dad has picked me up a new mechanism for the window (it's currently held up with a plastic pipe :cool:) in addition to a new tyre for the wheel he bought the other day and a puncture repair to the tyre that had a slow leak on it. Sadly this means I now owe Dad money which I said I would give him when I get paid (today). Also this month (next week eeee!) I'm off work and have a couple of days out planned, just the diesel costs for these add up Sick of feeling poor haha

So, money to go out:

To Dad:
Spare Tyre £55
Puncture £20
Window Mechanism £15

Diesel for this weekend's trip to the East coast £10
Diesel for day out with G £30
Diesel for day out with L £8
Diesel for day out to The Deep w/ OH £10

Money back to OH £20

Total: £168

I have £35 in my car maintenance budget so this figure is actually £133

In addition to this I could do to buy:

Rest of ingredients for soap making
Material for a cushion I'm making (pug cushion aww haha)
Wool for mug cosies
2x A4 picture frames

Not sure how much this stuff will cost off the top of my head but will get this all sorted as well as the other outgoings / debt overpayments etc when I come back from Filey on Monday - we're going straight from my work as it's on the way and is silly to drive home 15 miles to come back again! Although OH has the car so has cost more in diesel really...

Will try to be MSE over the weekend - don't think that we'll spend that much anyway! I'll have a little thinky about a budget for it, & maybe get back to y'all. If not I will return on Monday full of sea air!:D

Fudgefund

Haha. That really is quite a tale of woe, how lucky you know someone at work who realised an extra length bar was what was needed. It's exactly my lack of that kind of thinking which got me a D in GCSE science.

Sounds like you have got a tight month ahead, but I'm sure you can work with it. Enjoy having some time off and don't embark on any trips out without food if you can possibly take it with you (I spent £2.00 on a bottle of coke in Blackpool yesterday. :mad:). The pug cushion sounds amazing!

Scuff

RIGHT! Quick update before I go to bed ready for work in the morning :(:( although it may be more relaxing there than the past week I've had on holiday, been all over the place!

So what have I been up to, and how has it affected my purse (as this is the point of being here!)
Last weekend we went to a caravan in Filey, was really nice to get away although it went really fast and we only went out on the Sunday (other than bobbing to the entertainment centre on Friday night) as OH was really poorly on Saturday (he finished off my mum's pint as it apparently smelled funny and she didn't want to drink it, I drank as much as him just not the pint and if anyone's going to be hungover it's me, so we think it was the dodgy pint as I was bright as a button!) To be honest though I quite enjoyed chilling out watching films while OH slept off his sickness (obvs didn't enjoy that he was poorly!) & it saved us spending any money. Mum accidentally paid for the takeaway that night & as OH was still not feeling tippety top we stopped in and watched good old Harry Potter Lovely! Then on Sunday we went up to Whitby, had a spot of lunch and went to the abbey, which was delightful and mum purposefully paid for our tea out that night, and we all stayed in again, home on Monday and I fell asleep on the sofa for the rest of the day on and off ! The shock came on Wednesday (and I sulked ) when the joint updated itself and we discovered we had to pay the joint back £55 each, and between us we owed my diesel account £30. I hadn't budgeted for £70 over the weekend!! (especially seen as we only left the caravan one day! I thought we'd done well!)
Before I'd discovered the extent of our weekend extravagance, I bobbed into town (Tuesday) and picked up the bits for my homemade presents - pug cushion for a birthday and soaps for Christmas hampers - all I need now is a mould for the soaps - silicon loaf tin is my plan! Looked in Asda today but they're literally the only thing on the whole of the cookware aisle that was out of stock! This cost me just over £22 in total, due to the sheer price of coconut oil, but will make a decent part of most of my Christmas pressies.
Wednesday I took my 13 year old cousin to Birmingham, and Scuff of old made an appearance, although I'm still excusing myself slightly. I needed some new jeans as I've started to fill out slightly and there is only one pair of jeans that I own that I can fasten. As it starts to get colder I will need to go back into jeans some of the time, skirts and tights might expand more but I might get cold after a while ANYWAY I ended up talking myself into buying £85 Levi's as I don't buy jeans very often and they will last as they are quality (not to mention a lovely fit ) but there was a humbling moment when my cousin (reminder she's 13...) told me how she (or my auntie I'm guessing!) gets her jeans from Asda and they're really good quality yadayadaya! Hmph to me.
Thursday I had a serious KILLER of a headache (it actually started on Weds but was full blown spoon to the eyeball by Thurs) so I just moped around and grumped and shouted at OH and grumped and was generally an awful person! Then we went out for tea at a lovely Greek place in town with OHs family, which was unbudgeted for and due to new strict joint account rules (ie its for supermarket food, bills, rent, and savings ONLY) we paid out of our own pockets... £35
Friday I went on a long since planned date day with a friend who I haven't seen for ages, but it was charity shop shopping and we bought a sandwich in the supermarket when we got there (so we could sneaky use the customers only car park ) and my purchases were some buttons (40p for 9 & they mean I can finally finish off my playsuit modification) a vintage sewing pattern for £1 and a pair of trousers, also £1!
Yesterday we went to The Deep at Hull using Tesco Rewards coupons, and although it was jolly good I'm glad I didn't pay full price! £21.50 for 2 adults!!!!!!!! :eek: and we were done in an hour and a half!! In reality it was only £1.50 though thanks to the coupons! Good day out!
Today has been a spend free day (thank goodness!) I listed some things on eBay and went to my dad's for tea and for him to fix my car window 13 items listed, 1 with a bid already and 1 with a 'best offer' although I don't want to accept it haha. A few of the other items have watchers too

Anyway so much for a quick update, that took me 35mins haha,sorry if anyone died of boredom whilst reading that lot!

Scuff

Just thought I might do a summary of the holiday week's spending. And then if you never hear from me again because I will have drowned in my tears.

Caravan trip: £70
Ingredients / materials for HM presents: £30.68
Levi's: £85
Lunch: £10 (+£20 paid for by Auntie)
Dinner Thurs: £35
CS Shopping Fri: £2.40
The Deep: £1.50
Money paid back to OH: £25

Total: £224.58

I'll be honest, that's the first time I had written it down and added it up, and I'm actually pleasantly relieved. Slightly more than I would like and I still owe my dad some money for my car repairs but I was seriously expecting it to be £300+

I'm still a little annoyed at myself obviously, but due to overtime and having a week off I had given myself £200 personal spends, although I hadn't planned on actually spending it.

Sort it out Scuff!!

Scuff

I've been particularly bad at updating lately, I think I feel like I have nothing to update and then when I come to update I feel like there's too much and I can't be bothered typing. Excellent attitude there Scuff.
So, what do I have to report. pretty much a week of low spends, all except for Tuesday when I went to Nando's with my friend who is up here with work for at least the month. I'll be seeing more of her, which is awesome as I feel lately like I've lost having a lot of local friends, either due to lack of funds on both sides, people moving away (although this has been the case for a while) and people just being plain petty/mean (long story but it makes me angry and sad at the same time ha). So it's nice to have a good friend that's not OH close by.
Sorry that was a bit of a tangent, where was I.. week of low spends, Monday I just bought milk (45p) Tuesday Nando's (£15.40ish), Weds I went to Tesco to pick up some wine on the deal they have there (50% off select bottles and 25% off when you buy 6 bottles or more) which is joint money rather than mine, but I did also buy a salad pot and some Terry's white choc oranges that were going though the till at 1p each. Have put one in my tummy for quality testing and the rest away for Christmas fillers! Yesterday was NSD and today I need diesel so won't be again! Need to get back on track. I have bought my silicone loaf tins for the soap making (Weds, £2.38 each on ebay) so hopefully they will arrive soon and I can get on with presents!
Speaking of eBay, listed 13 items on Sunday, 12 of them are due to end this Sunday and 1 which was BIN went for £15 on Monday morning - this was a joint owned item though (lounge rug that was too small for the room) and so the money from this has gone in the house deposit fund. Out of the 12 still listed 4 items had bids (last time I checked) sadly for me out of around £26, only £2 of it is mine - the 2 more successful items are the hamster cage (joint) and pair of OH's jeans (OH's...) Hopefully should get bids on the other items soon though, I never really expect anything til the last day or so.
Had a bit of confusion regarding the overpayment on CC1. Basically because I'd done a balance transfer in the last month, this had counted as my payment for the month, so the £400 I was expecting to go out on direct debit on 28th August never went out. I am yet to re-send this, although it will be slightly less than £400 as I have used this opportunity to pay dad back for car parts. Will sort this and also update totals at the weekend.

So, list for the weekend is:

Money:
Check banks
Think of any unavoidable expenses that may come up before payday - set aside
Pay dad back £85 (car bits) - transfer £35 from maintenance budget. Have a think about whether I need to up the monthly car maintenance amount.
Get money back off joint from wine purchase + shampoo
Bank change - both for myself and joint (will see if OH wants his change bags doing at same time, as only Santander (my current account, owner of OD2) has cashiers open on a Saturday) and transfer to respective banks
Send £1 to OD1
Send remainder to CC1

House:
Deep clean bathroom and kitchen
Finish ironing
Do at least 1 load of washing
Finish dismantling bookcase in office so we can pick up extra desk from OH's parents on Sunday when we go for tea
Hoover
Put extra desk in office & start on sorting!

Other:
Make 2 cushions (both presents) - find backing fabric for both hopefully out of stash
Package up eBay stuff that sells
Get extra few bits I missed last week listed (4 things so far, 3 mine, 1 joint)
Make soap
Although this seems like a long list a lot of the things listed are 5 minute jobs if that so hopefully shouldn't take too long. Kitchen and bathroom are already pretty clean as I've got into the excellent habit of cleaning daily so just an extra clean-y clean. Ironing maybe an hour tops.

Scuff

Just got in, rather annoyed as the high bidder on the hamster cage has retracted their offer in the night. This is 4 days after making the offer, and with about 2 days until the auction ends the amount has just dropped £7. GROWL

Scuff

Updating the list for this evening

Scuff wrote: »

So, list for the weekend is:

Money:
Check banks
[STRIKE]Think of any unavoidable expenses that may come up before payday - set aside[/STRIKE] Dad for the car, also leaving £17 in account as a buffer for now. Put £70 diesel in the car today, as week off messed with my diesel allowance total and I'm majorly lost. This should take me well into next payday though so will pay what ever is left in the diesel account at the end of next month off CC1
Pay dad back £85 (car bits) - [STRIKE]transfer £35 from maintenance budget. [/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Have a think about whether I need to up the monthly car maintenance amount.[/STRIKE] Thinking no for now about the maintenance amount, fingers crossed not much more will go wrong with the damn car!
Get money back off joint from wine purchase + shampoo - £25.22
Bank change - both for myself and joint (will see if OH wants his change bags doing at same time, as only Santander (my current account, owner of OD2) has cashiers open on a Saturday) and transfer to respective banks
[STRIKE]Send £1 to OD1[/STRIKE] Sent £1.19 to round numbers down
[STRIKE]Send remainder to CC1[/STRIKE] £200 sent for now, will send more when I get money back for wine / shampoo, ebay sales finish, and change bags go into bank tomorrow

House:
Deep clean bathroom and kitchen
Finish ironing Doing this tonight, joy of joys :cool:
Do at least 1 load of washing
Finish dismantling bookcase in office so we can pick up extra desk from OH's parents on Sunday when we go for tea
Hoover
Put extra desk in office & start on sorting!

Other:
Make 2 cushions (both presents) - find backing fabric for both hopefully out of stash
Package up eBay stuff that sells
Get extra few bits I missed last week listed (4 things so far, 3 mine, 1 joint)
Make soap
Although this seems like a long list a lot of the things listed are 5 minute jobs if that so hopefully shouldn't take too long. Kitchen and bathroom are already pretty clean as I've got into the excellent habit of cleaning daily so just an extra clean-y clean. Ironing maybe an hour tops.