Getting a Grip on 2013

Cinny91

Shucks, cheers everyone! Planning on doing a post on how to cut back your grocery bills purely in supermarkets for those who don't have access to local companies?

I'll be cookin' Ramsey pulled pork sandmiches and house fries Mainly because I'm amazingly hungry and could go for that myself right now!

How was everyones weekends? So nice to see a bit a sunshine - and before 8am too! Ours was happily lazy as ever. Was working from 8:45 - 5pm on Saturday so I just wiped out when I finally got home. Spent yesterday in my PJs (apart from when I was walking Ryder, which was a gross case of "I'll just put some jeans on with my jammie top.. yeah, this works.") Had my Sister and her OH over for tea, and they made pie which was gorgeous. Watched A Fantastic Fear of Everything (they finally made a movie about me!! :beer:) followed by some golf, a couple episodes of Revolution and it was bedtime. The weekend went too quickly.

Still. On Friday I paid £75 into savings. OH has taken another £40 from savings for petrol, so I've had to start keeping note of what's what! Good news is that we've calculated OH's wages, and after May 3rd we'll be sat with our emergency fund still fully funded, OH's car insurance paid up, ready to finally tackle the car loan :T Bad news is, I don't know what my goals will look like by the end of the month

Also, finally got through to the PAYE peeps to get my tax codes changed, the guy on the phone sounded pretty confident that work will get the new tax codes through before payday, so here's hoping. My wage from Job No2 will take a dive - expecting around £150 now with my hours being cut back and them needed to "reclaim" £55 tax they should've paid for me last month. Will be able to claim that back once I've got my P60's or whatever they're called and I can get my tax return filed.

Kepp

Great blog post Cinny

Cinny91

Thanks Beccie

Moved our savings into my current account this morning, as I get 1% on balances over £1,000. Think an aim after we've paid the debts off will be to keep that account over £1,000.

Having some shopping delivered today because I'm lazy, and also had some money off coupons to use. Used the rest of our shopping budget for the month but stocked up so we'll be seen through easily. Used the CC so will pay that off at the end of the week, cashback is cashback!

Can't believe it's sunny again, 2 days in a row?! Had Ryder on a great walk yesterday with my Mum and her pack of pooches. Actually sat down on the grass to let all the dogs run wild (apart from my Sister's chihuahua who sat happily on my lap) while we soaked up some B vitamins. Ryder was cream crackered, mainly from the heat, when we got home.

We've got OH's car insurance for £540 this year, £160 less than I budgeted for so there's a bonus! Means I just need to save £40 this week and we've done it :beer: Debt clearing time!! (finally;))

So adjusting my goals to clear the smallest loan (£250) by the end of April Next month we should be able to make a lot of headway as OH will start getting his commission and he payrise comes into play.

Tete_en_l'Air

Cinny91 wrote: »

Tete is the winner though, we're buying a house, just some news has made it a lot more awesome, in my eyes. We'll be moving to MFW

:j What's my prize?! Can't wait to hear more about it

Loved the blog post, totally with you on the cheapy freezer shops, they can be little gold mines!

Birdie85

Good work on the car insurance! That's a great saving! :T

I'm loving the sunny days too, actually been nice enough to walk to work yesterday and today and I'm hoping to be able to keep it up for the forseeable future! My new goal is to walk more and the fact that there's no more snow is certainly helping with that! :cool:

Your blog post was a good'un, will be good to read your supermarket saving tips too.

I hope that when you buy a house we'll all be invited round for pulled pork sandwiches!

shrimpy_80

I am craving pulled pork sandwiches now!

Cinny, I probably can't explain this properly because I don't fully understand it myself, but I read on the CC boards recently about people paying off their cc balances before they were due and then getting hit with late payment charges because the payment had been made too early ie before the cutoff was for that month and so triggered the charge. Like I said, I didn't fully grasp it and I think it depends on your provider (because surely you can't get charged on a nil balance?) but the consensus was to pay it in full when it was due by dd rather than pay it early. Just thought I'd mention it

tinkerbel

How ya doing cin? Any news?

Cinny91

Sorry, it's been a while! Been so busy with work, and home life, I've barely had much of a moment for everything.

So a quick update! I currently have £1,222.94 in my bank account (the 94p is very important) and £20 to le penny in my purse. £600 is owed to the credit card for various things, and £97.26 for the last of this months house bills. £400 is for our upcoming MOT's. Blergh. £80 of what's left is what OH gave me for my next tattoos, the next is booked at the end of the month.

So out of all of that - I have £45.68 to my name. Should get paid £190 Thursday evening, so once my bills have escaped, and I've paid Dinah and NIM back for Saturday I think I'll have about £100 left to play with.

We've been pretty relaxed on the money front these past few weeks. It's been nice to not worry, and to be able to just go out, but I'm still aware of the fact we don't want these monthly payments anymore. So, so far this month we've paid and extra £200 off our debts. I'm hoping to get paid £200+ from my second job at the end of the month, and use this to pay another chunk off. Goal for the end of May is to have our debt down to £2750.

We're definitely taking it down a notch. OH's work have changed his commission rates, and we're determined to see the NY in with my Sister, so something had to give. Ultimately all our debts are at 0% and even if we don't over pay we'll be debt free by this time next year. However, if we can put all of my second job wages into overpayments - we should be debt free by my payday in November. Which doesn't seem so far off with how the months are flying at the moment!

Phew, off for a cuppa after all that maths!

Birdie85

Gosh that is a lot of maths for a Tuesday morning! Sounds like all things money-wise are going well, must be lovely knowing that the end is well within your sights now!

Looking forward to seeing your new tattoo! Fancy coming up to visit me to [strike]drag me kicking and screaming[/strike] hold my hand so I finally get my foot permanently doodled on?!

Cinny91

Of course! Have you 100% decided what you're having now? Saw this and thought of you!

Feeling really anxious today. People at my second job, bar the two people I'm closest too, are getting !!!!!ier and !!!!!ier. I was made to do the appraisal for the new girl last week, which made me really uncomfortable, and then I find out my Boss just mocked me for being "too nice" (which I didn't think I was..) and completely disregarded everything I put. Dreading my shift tomorrow, and I just want to quit. OH says I should just hunker down and get on with it. But I'm kind of sick of being tired all the time, when we'd be just fine on my one job wage