Nagme's Diary - getting it under control in 2013

Nagme

A day at home today with nothing on the calendar and no car - bliss!

• Applied for the free two month family and friends railcard, I hope we get that in time for the day trip to the Natural History Museum as promised to DS.
• Bought the Sun for the 2 free tickets to Legoland, 8 more rags to go.
• Joined MSE's Cheap Energy Club
• Used a discount code to get 6 months worth of deliveries for £30, (£27 if the cashback comes through.)
• Tested the laundry gloop on a coloureds wash, good results (ok I added a bit of vanish powder to help with DH's work shirts)
• Only used about 250g of chicken for curry, bulked it out with red lentils, spinach and grated carrot. (oops was going to do Pasta tonight, ah well, I'll do that tomorrow!)

Total spend £30.40

Nagme

I had a NSD :j
Did lots of Onepoll surveys this evening, and invoiced £94 for this month's working from home.

However - DH spent £6.49 on a can of spray paint, and £75 on paving slabs and sand to lay dad's new arbour (need to get that put up soon to cheer dad up), 40p on paper, and about £3 on Friday chocolate. He did work from home today, saving us £10 diesel.

Did a check on the figures, and they look better than 17th April by £200 despite paying the balance on the holiday, buying some noo shooz and clearing the Argos card this week.

Something got into the greenhouse and nibbled the little brocolli seedlings!

Nagme

Had a nice low spend weekend - got refund on £70 diy purchase and replaced with cheaper £50 option, had a ride out on the sidecar Sunday and stuck to our £15 budget for lunch out (snuck some drinks from home!) Dh built dad's arbour (and very nice it is, too) and sold 3 things on ebay, including my bike jeans, which I got £50 for.
Discovered the local butcher does some great chicken wing packs for 99p, I was getting them for £3.50 at the supermarket.
Discovered that my hair likes the 80p massive bottle of coconut hair conditioner from Sainsburys.
Day at home today, washed the car by hand instead of paying a fiver plus fuel to get it done. Dried washing on the line.
Took the mini's dashboard to a furniture restorer's to have it re-lacquered as it was all peeling. £225 - ouch
Used Paypal funds to buy bike jacket and trousers and boots for DS.
Made a big chicken and rice meal that will do for tomorrow as well.
Sent £350 from current account to Capital One.
Home phonebill is a good £5 less this month as we're using our mobile phones' free minutes to make any calls and emailing overseas instead of calling.
Work tomorrow, payday next Friday....

kimberlybrown

I am new in the forum but I really enjoy here because there are so many new things that I learn today thanks for who answered here.

Nagme

kimberlybrown wrote: »

I am new in the forum but I really enjoy here because there are so many new things that I learn today thanks for who answered here.

It's amazing the knowledge you can build up after being an MSE serial lurker - welcome to MSE

Nagme

Went to the custom hot rod show at Peterborough yesterday £36 plus fuel. Took our own food, thank goodness after seeing the prices there, but did spend £9 seeing the wall of death and buying DH a pair of jeans for £40, oh and DS sunglasses for £3 - both were needed anyway. Total spend £88.

Only spent 1.45 today, on bread.

Nagme

Not quite a NSD today but not too bad;-

Last week I earned myself a £10 voucher for placing an order online for mum and dad, which they've reimbursed me for, so I used that voucher today to stock up on car cleaning stuff (including one of those long handled brushy things for short people/tall cars) , total value £10.44, total spend 44p

Remembered I had £5 credit for a dept store, spent £4.80 on a friend's birthday pressie for next week.

Cancelled DS's haircut following the semi successful home job, £10 saved, looks very good apart from where he couldn't keep still and DH missed a bit, so that'll be done before the term starts next Tuesday.

The free F&F railcard came today courtesy of DMail, booked us the travelcard ticket for tomorrow's trip to London £29.60 with the help of the helpful peeps over on the train tickets thread :j

Mr T delivered, £75 this week, but got Loads. Unfortunately he didn't have the own brand petits pois so upgraded us to Birds Eye for no extra cost - I love it when that happens.

Can't believe my luck - when I bought the 6 month advance delivery saver for with a code which reduced the price from £60 to £30, the cashback has tracked at £6 - so £24 for 6 months of food deliveries from Mr T instead of £60:j

Finished off with a handful of Onepoll surveys, a Pinecone survey (best payers) and a nice Ipsos one.

Child benefit came through today, must remember not to spend it so that I can give it back.

Got the car back from the garage today too, with a working suspension (covered under the warranty). Our poor cars, the potholes are ridiculous around here.

Nagme

That time of the month again.

Overall, the debt has risen by £430.37 to £7,665.27 - due to paying the £470 balance for our holiday. And clearing £300 off the Argos card (balance now zero)
Thing is, this month we've got the bike insurance, MOT?, tax, then July it's the mini's insurance, August I'm not earning as it's school hols all month (apart from £100 working from home) and also it's DS's birthday, September it's my 40th and October it's DH's birthday.

I feel useless.

I must confess, I did buy a bicycle last week . This will mean that I won't need to drive to work so much as it's got more than three gears and has an aluminium frame, unlike my steel town bike which I struggled to get up the hill after being on my feet for 6 hours (the car was so much more an attractive commute in the morning with that hill in mind)
So, the bike was £399, reduced to £279.99 instore, but I ordered it online via TCB with a £20 online discount taking it to £259.99. I redeemed £69 against that total using a card that had all my cashback saved up on, taking it down to £190.99, and banked my 20p stash worth £40 = £150.99. Cashback from TCB: £7.87 (and cashback from Quidco £5.17 but a fiver may well be deducted from that so not counting that money) £143.12. My old bike is on Ebay, similar have sold for £130ish, so it may just cost me pence for my bike upgrade - I wouldn't have done it otherwise.

My other confession is the purchase of an apple tree on Monday, a patio one that is self fertile, from M27 root stock and reduced from £38 to £24, called "Scrumptious". I shall count the apples he yeilds us this September, at 50p each I need at least 48 to square up (okay maybe not all of them this year then)

The broccoli has been pinched by the wildlife apart from 2 plants, the tomatoes are slow roasting in the greenhouse, the onions are doing just fine, and the salad leaves are where I planted them. The free lavenders have needed potting on as they're bigger now, and the stocks are potted up, and not all the sunflowers have been dug up by the blackbirds. I've learned a lot this year.

I really need to avoid garden centres.

Nagme

I've been AWOL for three whole weeks!

Got £90 for the bike, so overall upgrade was roughly £40.

I'm yo-yoing - one minute I'm so careful with spending, then next minute I've gone and bought deckchair for the garden. Our debt over the last 6 months since the start of this diary has gone down by £200 but I have a balance of £200ish on Next so we're no better off.

I also spent last weekend updating and improving our finances spreadsheet, the new version includes absolutely everything - so it feels more precise and we can now see just why the offset balance never goes down. Thankfully, DH now realises the need to tell me all his spends.

I will be keeping my little old mini in the garage this year for the first time since I owned him; it's such a logical way to save a few hundred pounds, and seeing as I bought the citroen in March I don't actually need him as an everyday car any more. His dashboard is back from the furniture restorers and looks so lovely. At least if I keep him in good condition I'll be able to easily sell him if needs must.

So - good things done today:
Did two washes on eco and line dried it all.
Did 2 balance transfers to new 0% card.
Rearranged patio, our tatty old mismatched garden funiture looks much better now in new position.
Checked freepostcodelottery
did some surveys.
Drove smoothly and economically - I will make it to next week before refilling the tank!
Used up surplus eggs and old mushrooms for an omelette for lunch.

Bad things done today:
Bought some fence paint for patio facelift £9.98 (fence all painted, looks so much better now - talk about 60 minute makeover)
Bought sausage and egg mcmuffin, sudden craving, I've not had one for Years, £1.99
Bought 2 bags of reduced birdfeed £10

Working tomorrow, £35 shift.

Nagme

Today's good bits:
Cycled to work
Free lunch @ work
Ordered 6 school polo tops for DS from M&S in sale - £10.50 inc delivery, plus hopefully a bit of cashback if it tracks.
We have green tomatoes in the greenhouse
Salad leaves are big enough to eat!

Bad bits:
Spent £1.60 on sweets at the market for donating to the fair through school
And 80p for a bag of coconut mushrooms to share after school with DS
Discovered a direct debit of £42 going out fo a subscription we got for Dad a few years ago when we were feeling a bit richer. emailed bank to cancel it, I wonder if it's too late though?
Needed to use dryer thanks to the weather
Got an invoice for £200 for back consultation, should've been covered by Bupa so now need to waste half a day sorting out someone else's mistake. Not good timing, due to have an MRI scan next week - definately can't afford that if the insurance isn't sorted out!


Tomorrow: payday