January's Big Financial Freeze!!!

poodlegal

fairy3 wrote: »

Evening all just popping in before sleep


Whilst idly opening mail came across thick envelope from taxman, have overpayed for last 4 years and am due rebate of £801.67p!!!!! cheque in the post and have higher tax code for next year woo hoo! All I could think was 'could this be counted as make £155 part of the challenge?'

I would just encourage anyone who pays prof fees, union fees or wears a uniform to make a claim.

Night peeps, off to bed in 3 layers of nightwear.......very fetching look if I may say so!

Wow superb! What a boost! I would say it smashes the make £155 part of the challenge

Iwillsucceed_2

Braking bad habits!

Good morning everyone! Hope each of you are keeping well, warm! and making the most of those white snowflakes landing dancing and hypnotising you to the earth :-)

Well, I started this challenge all enthusiastic however, midway I just felt I wanted to reach for a glass of wine despite mi challenging myself to no alcohol days (NADs)... I found that it is very difficult to brake bad habits but not impossible...
last night it was snowing, it was beautiful, I love the snow and I persuaded my husband to go out to the pub with me, it was romantic cotemplating the snow landing on earth...

Yes, I had so far 3 spend days out of the 26 days of this month,but I realised that my spend days can be very expensive so I need to give myself a pocket money for treats therefore spend days. For example, £20 instead of £80 one night at the pub :-(

I am glad to be aware though that I am not feeling GUILTY over my last night's spend as I used to in the past perhaps due to this amount being much, much, much less than the money that I used to spend in the past months... braking bad habits take time but it is not impossible!

Sending you all positive regards and vibes, have a great weekend!

I will SUCCEED!

rosiecheeksblossom

FAIRY 3 wrote "I would just encourage anyone who pays prof fees, union fees or wears a uniform to make a claim."


FAIRY 3
Can I ask, how did you claim this, was it via a website etc, if so which one? I have a small hope I may be entitled too xxx

I also finally managed to make £10 on Valued opinions :j:j:j:j, so just awaiting my voucher now.
NSD 20 yesterday and hopefully another one today. Have a lovely weekend everyone xxx

beckyboo1980_2

Morning everyone
Just been looking at my spend for the month and feeling really cross with myself. Although my petrol and misc will come in under budget this month, I am absolutely horrified at my food budget :mad:. I have gone over £150 over budget already. Shouldn't need too much more before the end of the month, perhaps just extra milk for the twins and some fruit, but that is just so much to go over by. Have kept all my receipts this month and have just been looking back over them. Ever since we found out Mr Boo was being made redundant I have been batch cooking for Britain. Partly to save money but also because he is the most horrendous chef in the kitchen and couldn't risk food poisoning/wasting food!!! I have therefore purchased lots of extras this month to make up batches and batches of food. Have been borrowing tubs from almost everyone in the village to freeze my concoctions in! The only thing I can hope for now is that this should mean our grocery bill for next month will be much lower. £350ish is still a lot lower than the £500+ per month I used to spend but still lots of room for improvement! My groceries does also include nappies and wipes for twin, animal food for dog/cat/guinea pigs and all our toiletries/claning products. Must try harder!!!!
Had the most frustrating day yesterday trying to sort out all our finances now Mr Boo has been made redundant. It seems we are well and truely screwed. I earn slightly too much for us to be entitled to much, yet not even nearly enough for us to pay our direct debits/mortgage if we were to stay where we are. Then the minute either of us try and earn a little extra towards that shortfall, they take away the pitance we are entitled to anyway! We are screwed whatever we do:(. Spoke to mortgage company to explain situation and see if we could work with them. Wouldn't let us have a payment holiday as we only have 17% equity in the house, won't let us extend term of mortgage to reduce payments as we are already on interest only. Only thing they would offer is to authorise us to go into arrears with their permission for 3 months, but advised us against this as it would immediately have a negative effect on our credit score. We need to keep this good as hubby is investigating whether he might be able to try going freelance self-employed (if he can get the work in!!!!) and he needs to have a good credit score incase there are any associated costs (hopefully not!!!!). So frustrating and depressing. If we wanted to sit at home on our !!!!!! and just claim benefits we would be soooooo much better off financially. However, because we want to try and get back on our feet ASAP, we are knocked down at every step.
Rant over - I promise!:o
Hope everyone has a lovely day!
Beckyboo
XXX

Ninno820

rosiecheeksblossom wrote: »

FAIRY 3
Can I ask, how did you claim this, was it via a website etc, if so which one? I have a small hope I may be entitled too xxx

Thats my job for today - if you go onto the inland revenue website and search the forms - there's one to download there.

Slight fall of snow last night but turning toslush and something strange, yellow and bright can be seen in the sky - somehow makes life much brighter! Today should see a small grocery spend to see me through to the end of the month but a NSD otherwise. I am spending my unexpectedly free saturday dealing with paperwork, claiming union fees and a ppi claim, posting ebay items and listing some more - generally getting on top of things!

Will update later re groceries. xx

ETA - the groceries cost £2.50 so till within budget (phew!)

wannabee_in_credit

Good morning all...
Another week of my being completely awol again. I've finally accepted that I just don't have time during the working week to get on here - so it's weekends and holidays only. Mind you, being so busy means there's far less opportunity for spending. I've had 2 more spend days this week - car needed liquid gold, and while I was there I caved in and finally bought a snow shovel. Which has more than halved the time it takes me to dig out the driveway. That was Monday and I've already used it 3 times. I also had my hair cut (preplanned every 8 weeks) and got my veggie box delivered yesterday £16. It is grocery day today but I'm not sure if we'll get out to the shops - may have to wait until the snow has thawed out a little more.
I've not updated my siggy yet, but I think it'll be ok - I may be over on groceries. Definitely need a smaller veggie box next week - there's only me eating some of the stuff in there... and I am running out of things to do with 2 giant turnips every week.
It's been lovely to catch up with you all, and to get some more encouragement and motivation.

wannabee_in_credit

As suspected, I'm slightly over on groceries, but cannot believe I've only spent £90 so far this month on petrol. That will have something to do with having the first week of January off work, plus I'd only filled it up the day before new years eve.

nimbo

I found a stash of cash in a survey account last night (WH Smiths - isn't linked with Crowdology as I thought it was - I thought they'd been ripping me off as my totals always seemed light, and this explains why)...

Also cashed out a £10 Amazon voucher today as well - did have a spend day yesterday (Spent £52 on clothes for placement - bought a pair of boots - knee high leather flats for walking in the snow, a cardigan, for £10 as the ones in town were £15 in the sale, a smart black skirt for meeting days, and a long sleeved black t shirt type thing... ) I could have done without the expense, but I do need to be able to actually dress, and washing and drying clothes overnight would cost me more in the long run...

Also ordered a sensible rucksack for placement with my Amazon vouchers...

Brings my total up to £193.56

I'm really going to struggle over the next few months I really need a job!!!!!

Happybeingme

Hi,

I've been watching this thread with interest this month and was wondering whether I'd be able to join in for February?

fairy3

rosiecheeksblossom as ninno82 says I claimed from the link below and there is a thread on the main site (sorry am hopeless at links, and quoting for that matter which I must try harder at!)

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/how-to-get.htm

Some of the unions have calculations of the annual charges on their website, I also claimed for prof fees and flat rates for uniform and £6 for work shoes (I wish that covered a years worth of shoes!) Fingers crossed you are due a refund.

it is sunny today although after a blizzard last night its sort of white and soggy but very pretty. Spent the morning cleaning and sorting stuff for ebay, checking the storecupboard and making a menu and shopping list. I should be okay on food budget as only have bits and bobs to buy.

Beckyboo - I can't add any help but I think you are fantastic and coping brilliantly and admire your resolve to beat this setback, sending loads of fairydust....

Finally think the teenagers are on board :
DS2 - Mum we need some crisps
DD1 - You have no chance she's on NSD's til Saturday
DS2 - What does that mean?
DD1 - You are not getting any!

Right I could stay here all day but better move my arras and update my sig and start preps for weekend food and freezer batch cooking for the week.

Hope you all have a good day x