Diary of a Secret Saver

Harri-bear

Yesterday started well enough and went to a concert with Hubby last night (really good, although I was about twice the age of most of the people there - honestly, they were talking about work experience and college and who fancied who- made me feel about 100!). Tickets had been a pressie from Hubby for Valentine's day so no spend there, but on the way back we met a police car coming the other way going at some speed with its lights flashing. Then we heard a huge bang (maybe huge is a bit of an exaggeration ) but couldn't work out what it was. So, this morning I go to the car and find a huge chip in the front window, along with an unattractive 12" crack £75 excess up the swannee!

Hubby rings and just as I am about to tell him about the car, he tells me about his. It turns out that every time he presses the clutch it cuts out. So that's in the garage tomorrow as well.

You know, I blame myself for being so chuffed at being out of my overdraft this month. Think I must have tempted fate or something.

On a more positive note, washer has been brought back from the brink of death. It turns out that you have to clean the filter every now and then (apparently every five years isn't enough :rotfl: - who knew?). Hubby found all sorts, including, small toys, a mountain of fluff and some very strange five pence pieces that had been so mangled they looked more like very flat 50 pence pieces. Toyed with the idea of putting them in the copper jar, but no bank in their right mind would accept them!

Not going to do any work tonight as I am very tired. Stayed up till midnight because of the concert and then up at 6 this morning. I'm a girl who definitely needs her 8 hours, so going to curl up with a good book. Currently reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and expect to read 2 pages before falling asleep with my mouth open and waking to find the shape of the book imprinted on my face - as you can probably tell this happens to me a lot

Harri-bear

Oh and spent £2.10 on a school dinner - even though I had sandwiches with me :eek: Bad, bad girl!

Harri-bear

Well, so much for saving £800 this month. Car repairs now total £165.00 and have just received two depressing letters through the post.

Firstly, the gas bill for the last quarter has arrived at a whopping £262.00 (electric will follow shortly I presume) and a letter from the student loans company states my Income Contingency Loan will start coming out of my wages shortly. Grrrr - I really haven't got the hang of this!

Not going to write the month off, as I should be able to pay everything and still have a couple of hundred pounds left and, more importantly not be back in my overdraft. Will work out the figures later.

What this has shown me, is that I have no back-up plan for when things go wrong. I just lurch from crisis to crisis! So...

• I am going to save £150 a month for emergencies. When I get to £500 I will stop, but top it back up where necessary
• Heating and electric for this next quarter needs to be monitored and lowered. I need to think about what we are using more carefully. We used to be on a card meter and when you physically hand over the money each week you are so much more careful.

Done the weekly shop at A*di's for 4 of us. Really only a top-up shop. So £35 spent today.

Harri-bear

Okay, so figures checked. Without any emergencies, should be able to keep £500 in savings - £300 down on what I wanted, but certainly not bad. If I can stick to this, then my emergency pot will be sorted and I can start saving to pay off the loan properly from next month. That's if I can stick to it ...

Harri-bear

So after the shock of the HUGE gas bill yesterday I have decided we are going to go cold turkey (quite literally). Obviously, I haven't told anyone I'm doing this, and I am going to see how long it takes before anyone notices!

No heating on at all yesterday and so far, not today either. Will need heating on for a couple of hours this afternoon so we can have hot water for baths for the girls tonight. Yesterday, instead of putting the heating on for water to wash the pots (we don't have a dishwasher) I boiled the kettle twice and used this instead. Not sure whether this is moneysaving but have got to get that darn bill down.:D

The smallest gas bill I ever had was about three years ago in the summer. It was £36 for the quarter! Don't anticipate this ever happening again.

Harri-bear

Right, thingsI have done today ...

Got the washing out. It looks like it's going to rain but with no heating on have had to chance it. Luckily hubby's work clothes dry very quickly, so fingers crossed.

Girls are pairing up odd socks at the moment. They get 2p for every pair they find. I have to be careful though as their idea of what makes a pair and mine can be very different. Hubby found his pair consisted of one adult sock and one toddler sock last week.:D

It might not seem very MSE giving them pennies for jobs, but actually they usually end up leaving it all over the house, where I then find it, promptly putting it back in the change pot.:rotfl:

Have done some work for tomorrow and more to do later. Couple of bits can be finished very quickly, so although they are on my 'to do' list, they won't take long to cross off.


The deal on a Sunday is that I get up early with the girls and hubby has a lie in. When he gets up I then go back to bed for a couple of hours. I know this sounds a bit odd, but I often sleep during the day (except when I'm at work, of course!). This is a bad habit I wish I could break. It all stems from times when I have been really stressed in the past and have used sleep as a bit of an escape form having to think about things. In the summer I hope to tackle this - a better diet would probably stop me being so tired all the time.

Now need to go break up a fight between a 4 and 6 year old who are accusing each other of stealing pairs of socks ...

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

I love your diary so far, it is great! You have made me laugh lots! *followed*

Harri-bear

Hi Ninja, glad you popped in . Nice to know I'm not just rambling away to myself, although I must say it is rather therapeutic!

Didn't think I'd be much good at keeping up this writing malarkey, as I have a tendency to give up on things quite quickly. However, I am really rather enjoying it.

Had my nap (can a nap be 2 hours?) and now putting off doing some work. Now, I know it has to be done, so why oh why do I put it off till the last minute?

Written a letter to the National Savings regarding my old passbook and downloaded the form. Now need to print it off and get it sent. Bear in mind this was meant to be done last week, so I'm not going great guns here either.

Roast pork in the oven for dinner tonight. I am very lucky to be married to a chef. His wage is pants but at least I'll always be well fed!

Moneymash

Harri-bear wrote: »

Right, thingsI have done today ...

Got the washing out. It looks like it's going to rain but with no heating on have had to chance it. Luckily hubby's work clothes dry very quickly, so fingers crossed.

Girls are pairing up odd socks at the moment. They get 2p for every pair they find. I have to be careful though as their idea of what makes a pair and mine can be very different. Hubby found his pair consisted of one adult sock and one toddler sock last week.:D

It might not seem very MSE giving them pennies for jobs, but actually they usually end up leaving it all over the house, where I then find it, promptly putting it back in the change pot.:rotfl:

Have done some work for tomorrow and more to do later. Couple of bits can be finished very quickly, so although they are on my 'to do' list, they won't take long to cross off.


The deal on a Sunday is that I get up early with the girls and hubby has a lie in. When he gets up I then go back to bed for a couple of hours. I know this sounds a bit odd, but I often sleep during the day (except when I'm at work, of course!). This is a bad habit I wish I could break. It all stems from times when I have been really stressed in the past and have used sleep as a bit of an escape form having to think about things. In the summer I hope to tackle this - a better diet would probably stop me being so tired all the time.

Now need to go break up a fight between a 4 and 6 year old who are accusing each other of stealing pairs of socks ...

Love this post it made me laugh. Subscribed.

Harri-bear

Windscreen fixed today, so that's good. Unfortunately whoever did it moved the sun shade in the car and as I got in tonight it gave me a right whack to the head. Now nursing a headache!

No spends today. Hubby's suit came and he likes the jacket but claims the legs are too 'flappy'. Tried to reassure him that they're fine (£20 says they are most definitely fine!) but he was having none of it. Anyway he's managed to sweet talk someone at work into altering them for nothing.

Finished letter to National Savings with regard to old passbook but forgot to post. Will try to do tomorrow.

Work almost finished for tonight and want to watch The Hoarder Next Door at 9pm. It's the only time I can ever think of my house as being relatively tidy.

On a side note...

woke up this morning at 5.30am, and literally the first thought I had was that I need to lose 3 stone. Think I am going to embark on a process of self-improvement.

Going to start a diet next week (which will obviously be a long term goal) but also need to tackle a few other things.

Now, my theory is that it takes 30 days to make or break a habit. So, I am going to pick a part of my body and improve it over the course of a month.

First I will start with my hands and nails. I have nice hands and have no problem growing my nails. My hands however are very dry and my nails often break. So, I am going to use hand cream every day, shape my nails and treat myself to a home varnish session. I will keep this up for a month (until a habit is hopefully formed) and then move on to the next bit I don't like! Hope this doesn't sound too bizarre, but, since having kids I seem to have rather neglected myself.