Getting a Grip on 2013

Cinny91

Happy Kill A Jebus Day! :j

Had a fairly spendy day by my accounts. It's a certain time of the month so at the crack of dawn I went to spend a silly amount on things that would be free if men had lady parts. Also bought Easter pressies for people at Job No 2 and dropped them in before anyone came in as a surprise. I brought Ryder with me and I was so impressed with him, he sat outside the shop like a pro, now the weather is nicer walking to do errands and taking Ryderloo with me is definitely back on the cards So spent £10 there, and while I was at work I bought my train tickets to York for a princely £14.70 :money: So £24.70 spent so far today, I'm in the office again atm and OH wants me to get some spuds on the way home from work so I'm not quite done yet..

Got paid from Job No 2 too, £275 - so way more than I was expecting! I put £100 in savings, £60 off the smallest loan. So that's under £300 now :T

Have £90 left, but I'm waiting for a quote on replacing one of little cars feet (or, you know, tires) so once I have that I'll put the remainder into savings. Hoping it'll be about £50, I asked for basic! But we'll see after the weekend!

N.I.M

And a very happy Zombie Jebus day to you too Cinny

Cinny91

N.I.M wrote: »

And a very happy Zombie Jebus day to you too Cinny

Ha! Thanks!

Hope everyone's having a nice bank holiday weekend!

I really need to keep a note of my signature in post too, I paid £42.44 into savings/off of the smallest loan but can't remember if I updated my signature or not, I think I did. So I'll leave it where it is - it brings my March Madness total to £771.66 (or 71%) and I'm pretty happy with that :beer:

Had the quote through for Ryder's insurance for next year - the monthly DD has gone up to £9.03 (from £8.35) which isn't bad, but I did a couple comparisons and got a better coverage for £6. So I need to remember to call his current people up on Tuesday and cancel his policy.

Went to the city yesterday, bought my Mum tea and returned the dress from last weekend. Finally got Ryder a Halti harness (£10.99 but it's working like a charm!) and re-spent my birthday money on some house bits. Everyone seems to be redecorating this weekend - so my lazy version is a new canvas for the living room.. basically over hauled the whole house, right?

Been in proper spring cleaning mode today. Had the windows open, washing walls down, chasing cobwebs, rearranging things for no real reason. OH's been cleaning his car out like a pro, came downstairs to find various bits of boot and flooring in the living room covered in foamy stuff. My car's on the hit list tomorrow, along with clearing cupboards out in the kitchen (I refuse to believe I only cleaned them out in January with the Threadies challenge!) and clearing out under the stairs, and the old coal shed.

Most impressive part of the day was finding £5 on my walk with Ryder this morning, no way to really return it to anyone so I'm going to put it in a charity box when I next see one.

2 more days off work and not a clue what to do with myself :j

Cinny91

Pinch Punch, ladies and gentlemans!

Was talking with OH last night and we've decided we're going to call his loan people up and see about changing the payment dates. It'll either mean £300 of what we've saved for when OH's wage switch can be paid back to ourselves, or we have 2 lots of payments taken out really close together. We're obviously hoping for the first, and will be leaving things be if its the second!

Also turns out OH's insurance is due May 1st, not 31st like I had in my head. We've had some quotes for around £650, and with it being something we want to pay for in cash - saving that magical £400 is kind of paramount! It's one of the reason's we're calling about payment dates, as if we can get things changed its not going to completely kill our savings.

So! With this in mind I've switched my goals up, April is for the following:
Save £500 (I mareswell challenge myself a little!)
Get debt below £3500
Pay smallest loan off

I got a tiny notepad, and one of those pukka divider ones on Saturday. I'm now going to be the freaky person who carries 3 notepads around with her (one is for work, I promise!) so I'm spending today being a complete nerd and writing aims down, with graphs (using Birdie's as a template!)

And this is the first day of my "no more chocolate or fizzy pop unless I'm at Nan's" month I regret my choice.

Anyhow, off to get Ryder walked and get something cooking for dinner. OH's requested mince pie but pastry is such a faff and just no. I'm thinking tacos!

Cinny91

Got a purchase confirmation through for Ryder's insurance which I wasn't expecting, £45 cashback so he's insured for only £27 this year :money:

So I've called up his old insurers to cancel, and remembered to cancel my Audible subscription, due about £50 in cashback now. Nice!

Bad side is we spent £53 shopping. Yikes! Our challenge for April is £150, so we're down to £97. And on a cherry wine filled mission I've spent the past 24 hours bleaching the life out of my hair at a cost of £14.. I do have some slip ups don't I?! I really need someone in my life for when I say "LET'S DYE MY HAIR!" says "No, go to bed, you're drunk." rather than "is Asda still open?" As long as I keep in line for the rest of the month, things should be fine. Phew! Going this colour, so some of the outburst has been funded by my medicine cabinet.

Spent this morning cooking and cleaning, then had a little trip to the local garden centre where I got Ryder this - how awesome?! But I've made a massive lasagne for tea, and apple rhubarb crumble for pudding. Yum!

Went to put the last of the gas and electric on, so Ryder has had some very successful "sitting outside the pub with a bag of crisp" type trips. Very proud of him, he's even taking kids thumping his head. He's now snoozing in the afternoon sun. It's a hard life

Back to work tomorrow and I'm having a "I don't wannaa" moment whenever I think about it. Only 6 hours and I'll be back home, I really need to stop being such a homebody. I just want to spend time with my dog :cool:

Cinny91

£15 paid into savings and £93 went off the debt this morning :T

And I have bright pink hair! The dye I used has purpley undertone, so that mixed with the fact it's natural and probably a wee bit out of date and super bleached hair meant after 10 minutes on my head I look like this. Bit bright! Hoping by the time the meet rolls around it'll have washed out to a nice pastely pink.

My love of Superscrimpers challenge is going strong. Was watching it last night and they were at the market, as ever, so I've told OH we're supporting local business by using our green grocers and butchers from now on I already use a local family run garage for petrol, and the same for repairs. Will be fun, and means Ryder will get a bone every week!

Weather is on the up though, was out for 2 hours with Ryder yesterday at a nature reserve where he can run wild in fields and paddle in streams (roll in fox poop..) was just so nice to be outside and actually want to be there, not just push on all huddled up wanting to get back home as soon as possible. Looks gorgeous again today but I only really have an hour free to walk him between my shifts. Got the radio set up so I can leave a bit of rabble on for him while I'm out - keep him company!

starnac

I love your hair Cinny. I'm planning to dye my hair this weekend but not as bright as that. My hair is so dark it never comes out that bright.

Glad the weather is better for you. It's still freezing here. It was even snowing here earlier!

Birdie85

Oooh you gorgeous girl! LOVE the pink! When we meet up will you please teach me how to do my eyebrows and eyeliner like yours?!

Lovely idea about supporting the local greengrocers, sadly we don't have one or I'd use it. Our local baker has closed too (we've just got the chains now ). Bad times.

I'm so happy that the sun is getting shinier! Still not enough to make me ditch my scarf, but getting there!

Dinah93

We have a greengrocer but the butcher has a big sign in the window saying 'retired after 106 years' - after 106 years he deserves a rest

Kepp

Birdie85 wrote: »

I'm so happy that the sun is getting shinier! Still not enough to make me ditch my scarf, but getting there!

Sun? Where?! It's snowing here! :eek: