Getting a Grip on 2013

Cinny91

I'm not really sure on the clothes front! I think you just have to decribe the item as best as possible and they give you a price from that. I haven't tried it as I doubt they want my cast off worn to death and possibly holes H&M

That's a pain about the house would have been some thing good to keep yourself occupied while you're off work!

Forgot to mention, been offered a possible 3 hours starting in the next few weeks at Job No 2 cleaning the clinic on a Sunday night as well as a week evening. Not going to turn my nose up at that! And news to cancel it all out is that I've broken OH's PS3. I don't know how or why I just know it happened when I was using it and this probably puts me in the bad girlfriend book for life. So I need to replace it. And, same as ever, I want to do it ASAP. I'm such a derp.

Birdie85

Eeek to the Playstation breakage! :eek: Has your OH had a play and managed to fix it?! Before panic buying a new one, try to find a geeky PC/gamer shop where they may be able to do repairs. I hate it when stuff happens on my watch, even if it was on it's way out for ages and just so happened by bad luck to die whilst I'm using it I feel ridiculously guilty (and OH enjoys blaming me! ). Our TV blew up when I switched it on once... bad times

Good news about the extra hours.

Really hope you get the keys soon Shrimpy (you'll find once you get the call it'll all happen super-fast!); you're reminding me why I'm dreading moving again!

shrimpy_80

Thanks ladies - I have also broken OH's ipod dock so it must be in the air at the moment!

Is the PS totally dead Cinny? Might be worth a quick google just in case its something super simple - although I'm sure you've already thought of that. Fingers crossed it turns out to not be too serious! And congrats on the hours too!

Cinny91

Well, he had it in complete pieces when I got home last night delicately cleaning every part before putting it back together. And it still made the death bleeps. I was getting ready for work this morning and he came in to get my hair dryer. Next thing I know he's got the PS in a box, is laid out infront of it, hair drying it! Honestly though, it's the old bulky one and he's had it pretty much our whole relationship. It's already broken twice and he's sent it off to be repaired at the cost of £90 a pop. I just think its time. But he's nurturing it like a dying kitten, I don't feel like I can break the news to him that it's not going to make it.

Will see where we are at the end of the month in terms of buying a new one. Realistically, we have more important things to save for and I suppose it would be a nice thing to go out and buy with cash to celebrate our debtfreeness. But his sad little face pulls on my heart strings. And he really knows how the work the puppy dog eyes! One time he did it to my Sister for no actual reason and she cried. That's how insane it is.

Been looking over things though, and if we were to save out maximum every week by the end of December we could have saved £4000 through the year from my wages alone. Obviously this wiill be minus £1,500 for car bills £500 from when OH's wages flip and £1182 on a hopeful loan overpayment. It's good to know the money is there if we focus! And to know we can achieve what we want with some left over is great.

After this year. Well, after we get the car loan cleared. We are wanting to start saving to buy our own home. We want as big a deposit as Cinnyily possible. Just kind of comforting to know buying our own home isn't so out there as I first thought

squinky

But his sad little face pulls on my heart strings. And he really knows how the work the puppy dog eyes! One time he did it to my Sister for no actual reason and she cried. That's how insane it is.

How funny! Annoying about the PS though

Cinny91

Well if anyone ever has a PS3 death bleep at them, the cardboard box and hair dryer trick works!

Having a bit of a tiffle with myself today. I went into my old town yesterday to do some banking for Job No 1, and while I was there popped across the street to finally ask for a new pin (well, first pin!) for my visa debit card. While I was there I picked up the 123 leaflets and got talking to one of the tellers, I'm really tempted. Does anyone else use it? My parents do and seem quite happy with it, and if I take out the account and credit card then they'll pay the fee for the first year which = moarrr cashback.

It's a good deal and I trust them. It's just, do I really want to start living on a credit card - even if I do set up a DD every month for the full amount so I'm never *really* owing? I trust myself enough to not overspend, so that's not the problem. It's the whole getting a credit card part. And then I'm pretty much in a cycle of owing myself, which might be hard to swing out of?

Anyhow. Get paid from my second job today which means FOOD SHOPPING!!! I did a loose meal plan and wrote a shopping list last night. OH hates meal planning so I've made sure every meal I've planned is something I've never cooked before. Then he's none the wiser, see

Managed a NSD yesterday too, which was nice one of my tasks for today is to get my spending diary back up to date because I've really let it slip! Also want to get a spreadsheet together to track everything including rent and bills which will hopefully help with a budget in a couple months. Hopefully being the main word.

Other than that I'm spending the afternoon cleaning, cooking and being a little homemaker. Need to tweak this weeks budget a little as we kind of desperately need some more gas on the meter. Joy!

shrimpy_80

Great news on the PS Cinny!

I have the 123 account for our bills account and have never had any problems with it. The fee is £2 and we get £4-5 cash back each month so its not going to set my financial world alight but I figure its better than a poke in the eye! Don't have the CC, but I am planning to continue using my Amazon CC when I'm 'debt-free' next month as I like getting the points back and they seem to build up fairly quickly. I think it will be easier for me though as I get paid a single salary, so I know I always have x amount coming in each month on the same day to pay it off. You are very organised with money but this still might make it a bit trickier maybe? If it's fee free for a year, could you give it a try, maybe just buy groceries or fuel (or something that's a regular budgeted-for expense) for a couple of months to see how it goes?

Cinny91

Yesterday was a bit of a flop! My Sister ended up gatecrashing my afternoon so I didn't get my spending diary sorted. However!! I did get 6 things on the de-junk. 1 bag of books to a jumble sale, 1 book posted to Birdie, 4 bags of clutter taken out from around the house.

Think I need to mentally to take part in a Keep it Free Februaree, where I don't let things get cluttered again!

Still unsure on the current account, maybe that's a sign to just leave it? The idea only really works for me if I get the credit card and I'm still iffy on that idea :undecided

On the very very good news, come tomorrow I'll have my Grandad paid off :j A week earlier than I hoped for so I'm pretty happy with that It does mean that I need to save £67.50 over the next two weeks for my car tax though, which I think I'll easily do. It's a shame all these things aren't going into savings, but I guess that's what February will be for. And I need to get in the right mindset of getting things paid for in full in advance rather than paying in installments or taking the cheapest option!

Ryder had his check up this morning and it's looking well. Although he's been upgraded to a super creepy looking muzzle to make sure he isn't licking it anymore. He's in for a treat though, he's booked in for le snip on Wednesday. My Vets are running a 25% off promotion at the moment, and it is something we were looking to have done this year. It seems silly to pass up on such a good offer.

It's freezing here!! Put £10 on the gas yesterday but I have a feeling I'll need to put £20 on again tomorrow to just see us through another week till OH gets paid. I just hope my Uncle pays me properly otherwise I'm going to be a little bit chuffed!

Have work in 20 minutes so I best get a move on. Will update fully moneywise, hopefully tomorrow afternoon. Have a good day everyone!

Birdie85

Good news that Ryder's healing nicely. I'm quite tickled that the Vets actually do special offers on the snip!

Sounds like de-cluttering is going well; I'd count the bag of books as however many books are in the bag rather than just 1 thing though, makes the grand total look and feel better. Oh and I'm glad I could help you with your clearout!

I plan on keeping the decluttering going all year too, hopefully it'll get me into a long term habit of staying junk free (once I finally get there!). We can have Move It Out March, Another Clear Out April, More Out Than In May etc!

Cinny91

Birdie85 wrote: »

Good news that Ryder's healing nicely. I'm quite tickled that the Vets actually do special offers on the snip!

It's the weirdest thing, isn't it?! Hoping it'll be sub £100. We were looking at around £150+ before so it makes sense to do it now! Poor bear

Sat down to sort my spending diary out and somewhere between my bag on the opposite sofa and sitting down I've lost it! How does that even work? I've decided to split it into two - one for cash spends and the other one for bank spends so I guess I'll just set up the latter and hope my book materializes.

On the other hand of *yayness* I got my Grandad paid off this morning. So glad that's gone, as I straight up straight down hate owing people. Also got paid from Job No1 so I've just put £50 to one side for my car tax and I'm going to put £20 on the gas meter. My little house is an icebox right now, or feels like it!

My Dad also let me test drive his companies new van, basically a Sooty van. And I accidentally decided to love it. So as there's a chance I might be selling my little car and buying something similar, I'm only going to get 6 months road tax. I did want something that would be good for throwing Ryder in the back of and driving around in. Something that would be good for camping as well with decent mileage but my little car was a steal at £500, with insanely low mileage for a 14 year old car. Guess we'll see! My Dad loves buying and swapping cars so I'm sure it'll happen quickly if I give him the nod to do it Good thing is I should be able to double the money on my current car, so things would be a straight swap. I like the sound of that :beer:

Working 12-6 at Job No 2 today, then throwing an hour at Job No 1 afterwards. Have a lovely curry bubbling in the slowcooker so I'm all set! Working tomorrow, 2 hours at the desk for No 2, then I've offered to do some carpet cleaning afterwards so muffins knows how long that will take me. Eep! But like my Grandad said "You'll be a millionaire younger than I was at this rate!" sounds like a challenge