Enjoying the Sunshine whilst Saving for the Rainy Day

debtfreewannabe321

Thank you Dolphin It's cheered me up no end! My next target is just a mini one to reach 10,500 I think it will feel like progress if I work in smaller £500 amounts ....our aim is to reach £15,000 by the time we move and i've just played around with the spreadsheets and I need to pay around £410 a month so I've set myself targets of £420 a month from now on! I can make this without too much trouble I hope and I will squirrel away more on quieter months so we have more money to play with on the holidays. I've added in a new category - £100 to a days out fund I feel it's deserved and a treat every now and then is nice (thought we could use it for cinema, take outs, soft play, swimming etc) I've also upped the grocery & petrol just a tad hence why my savings have dropped from £600 to £420. We could do the £600 but it was impacting on everything else! xxx

please-let-me-be-lucky

Brilliant news on reaching £10k :T.

Good idea re a days out fund, you need to enjoy life too!

LOVE Robin's curse on nasty neighbour :rotfl: Xx

grannyx2

Fantastic news re savings and yea I agree Robin's curse was much safer for you than mine :rotfl:

Granny x

debtfreewannabe321

I'm here!

I have a new car too. Well not new new, but you know what I mean . We swore we'd never buy another R3nault so instead we bought a C1troen :rotfl: My aim is for it to last at least 2 years so fingers crossed it's not another French dud please . It cost me my car fund, my tax fund and a teeny amount of my emergency fund, so far. We'd also like to get it serviced as we bought from a man who could barely speak any English to answer our questions, it drove well though, looked ok and everything appeared to be working so we bought it. DH is on the phone to the garage this morning to see when it can be seen and we will pay for a full service and also the windscreen wiper needs looking at as well as a wheel (it had something stuck in it!!) But for hopefully £1500 overall we've got a bigger car which is more suitable for us. DS1 is 17 next (not this) October and he's already made noises about wanting to drive so I think we may be able to downsize again before I know it That's the plan anyway, but we all know how plans like to be scuppered!

So my car fund (for insurance, MOT, servicing, broken bulbs, etc etc) is empty. My Car tax fund is also empty (which had nearly £200 in it) and my emergency fund is dwindling before my eyes. SO I have a plan to get them up and running again (the funds that is), my insurance is due end of July meaning I have 2 months wages to save nearly £400 so I can pay it outright again (saving me money on APR of paying it monthly!) so for the next 2 months I won't be paying into the emergency fund I will instead put £200 into the car fund so by the time my insurance is due I can pay this. I have also upped the car tax fund from £25 to £38 until December so that I can pay for the car tax for the whole year. Once the insurance has been paid I will go back to the £80 I put away for insurance and MOT this should be enough come November when the MOT is due.

The emergency fund is really tough though I am thinking of moving it to a separate bank altogether, I tend not to touch any of the other funds really which is how they've built up so nicely (I had just over £700 in the car fund! ) but the emergency fund I use as my back up for everything. Oh I've run out of petrol money, i'll just borrow some from the emergency, Oh i've no money to buy a dress I'll just borrow some then etc and so on! Anyone do anything differently that i'm missing out on so that they don't touch it unless it's a real emergency!

Anyway it's half term, it's raining, of course so we've done all our washing this weekend as I knew it was going to rain. I want to go and see my mum and sister but am awaiting the car being serviced first. I am definitely going to see my dad this weekend too, his operation was postponed (:mad:) until next week so I thought it a good chance to see him, I asked first and he seemed happy for us to come albeit a shorter visit than usual which is fine by us as I don't want him tired and stressed from the kids running all over his house and ruining his expensive furniture -they are little g1ts for doing this too and they don't do it at home so I don't know why they do it there...I think it's because his house is 20x bigger than ours and they see it as a playground (no exaggeration either it's huge)

So i'm sorry to have gone on and on, well done to anyone who actually read all of that I must have missed posting

Today I'm waiting in on a parcel (of a paddling pool :rotfl:) so I may be back and will try and catch up on all of you, DS1 said he was finished with his homework.....I can bet that he will want the laptop for something else though! Hence me taking it whilst he's still sleeping :rotfl: Ta ta for now!

debtfreewannabe321

Oh I forgot to ask.....I haven't actually told any of the kids about their grandad being ill yet I don't actually know how to do it or how to pick my moment does anyone have any advice? DS1 is nearly 16 so I feel I should be most honest with him as he will understand better. At the same time I don't want to upset him, the first day back after half term is the second part of his GCSE physics exam so I don't want his mind to be on that. We will be seeing my dad the day before it so I am praying he doesn't look any different to when we last saw him.

I was also reading up about ginger tablets and how they can help alleviate sickness and although I told dad on the phone about them he's not into herbal schmerbal noncy stuff (as he would put it NOT ME) but i'm thinking of buying him some anyway! I wanted to put together a little hamper (or perhaps shoebox as i'm poor at the moment) of things for him when he's recovering. He doesn't like reading, he hates sitting still (god knows how he will cope!) does anyone have any ideas of what I could put in it??? xxx

mummytogirls

Morning DFW,

Yippee to the new car! Sounds like you got a bargain, im sure the service will be all ok.

My kids do that at grandads too and his house is about 20 times smaller than ours :rotfl:!! I think its just the excitement of seeing grandad, no matter how many warnings they get they still go wild! Not sure what to put in the recovery hamper, Im sure others on here will have lots of good ideas!

Have a lovely half term xx

PinotGrigio41

New car sounds fab DFW.

Wish DS loads of luck with his Physics exam. DD1 is revising Biology today and its tough going .

Not sure what to say about telling him about his Grandad. When my dad had to go into hospital, the girls already knew that he hadnt been top of the world, I had explained every now and then about hospital visits etc although it was still a massive shock to them when he went in for the operation itself , despite being forewarned that it would be happening. I didn't tell the girls the day he went in for the operation as I knew it would worry them too much, I waited until it was over and done with and then told them. My head is saying wait until the exams are finished and then let DS know what is happening, am I right in thinking he will only have one more to do after Physics or will that be them all over and done with until next year ? Boys don't always seem to notice if someone looks a bit poorly, i think girls tend to pick up on things more, but if DS is a tad sensitive only you know if he may or may not notice. Oh god I'm burbling again here. Its such a tough one isn't it ? I think I will shut up now !!

As for the Recovery Shoebox, what a lovely idea. Dad always liked doing crosswords and puzzle books, so we always stocked him up with those, and he loved being surrounded by photos of the girls. Maybe if your dad likes that sort of things you could pop a crossword book in there ?

xx

debtfreewannabe321

mummytogirls wrote: »

Morning DFW,

Yippee to the new car! Sounds like you got a bargain, im sure the service will be all ok.

My kids do that at grandads too and his house is about 20 times smaller than ours :rotfl:!! I think its just the excitement of seeing grandad, no matter how many warnings they get they still go wild! Not sure what to put in the recovery hamper, Im sure others on here will have lots of good ideas!

Have a lovely half term xx

DH has booked the car in for Thursday morning so we'll know then if we have a bargain or a dud _pale_ (this is how I feel before MOT's usually :rotfl:) The basic service is £220 I think DH said :eek: so we'll see what they say, so far we've spent £1026 on it and I had budgeted £1500 to get it right so fingers crossed it is no more than that as I haven't got any more in the emergency fund

I think you might be right about the kids, as they do it at my mum's house but she is more laid back (and they usually listen to me more there, at my dad's he's always saying "oh leave them be they're fine" and then they break something and he gets annoyed!)

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

New car sounds fab DFW.

Wish DS loads of luck with his Physics exam. DD1 is revising Biology today and its tough going .

Not sure what to say about telling him about his Grandad. When my dad had to go into hospital, the girls already knew that he hadnt been top of the world, I had explained every now and then about hospital visits etc although it was still a massive shock to them when he went in for the operation itself , despite being forewarned that it would be happening. I didn't tell the girls the day he went in for the operation as I knew it would worry them too much, I waited until it was over and done with and then told them. My head is saying wait until the exams are finished and then let DS know what is happening, am I right in thinking he will only have one more to do after Physics or will that be them all over and done with until next year ? Boys don't always seem to notice if someone looks a bit poorly, i think girls tend to pick up on things more, but if DS is a tad sensitive only you know if he may or may not notice. Oh god I'm burbling again here. Its such a tough one isn't it ? I think I will shut up now !!

As for the Recovery Shoebox, what a lovely idea. Dad always liked doing crosswords and puzzle books, so we always stocked him up with those, and he loved being surrounded by photos of the girls. Maybe if your dad likes that sort of things you could pop a crossword book in there ?

xx

DS1 only has this one exam to do now, he was supposed to be doing his maths too but the school decided against anyone doing it now! Only 30 people from his whole year are doing the physics as it is as they are in the top set. I wonder what happens if they fail or don't get a good grade though? Do they get to re-sit? I bet they don't so i'm quite worried about it really

I wasn't going to tell the kids until I knew the outcome of the op, but I think dad will mention it when we visit and ds1 will want to know what it's for and then I'll feel bad for not having prepped him beforehand So I think I will tell him at some point this week so it has time to sink in before we go to dad. He looked ill the last time I saw him and apparently he's gone downhill since then so I'm guessing they will be able to tell anyway. I've decided not to tell the smaller two. At 4 & 5 they are too young to understand I think and I don't want to worry them. If we visit him whilst he's having chemo and he's visibly ill then I will explain he's sick but both the 2 younger ones are quite naive to things like this so rightly or wrongly I won't be telling them yet.

Pictures was on my list! I will get to choosing some and getting them printed off this week I swear that my dad has ADHD or something similar. I've never seen him read a book , never seen him sit still for long periods of time or concentrate on anything for long so I don't know what to buy him that he will actually enjoy!?! Might have a wander down to the shops tomorrow for inspiration! I have around £20 in my purse that i'd put aside for diesel in the new car but won't need it now as the service is not until Thursday and we get paid on Friday so I will use that to find something!

debtfreewannabe321

Well guess what I've had a NSD ...not too hard considering I have to wait in for deliveries though
One has turned up and I'm still waiting on the other. They helpfully gave me a time slot of 12-8 at 11.30. So if I had needed to go out I wouldn't have gotten much of a chance hey! Hope you've all had better weather than me today!! xx

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all :hello:

I've been up since 5am! Even the dog wouldn't get up and keep me company, so i've had some peace and quiet already today :T Both kids got up in a good mood and the dog scared the ruddy cat out of the garden that keeps using my flower beds as a toilet :T:T win win, happy happy :rotfl: I've put a wash on and will hang on the heated airer before I go out later.

I've done my banking and found some spare cash :T I always move my DD money to a separate account on payday and move back to the main account as and when bills are pending and I must have had cheaper bills this month because last month I used all of the money and then some :eek: this month I had £50 spare :cool: I'm going to do a quick check to make sure I haven't forgotten one but then I will use the money for a treat for the kids this week and transfer the rest to a savings account Today's plans are a trip to the library (free and out of the rain!!) and waiting in for someone who has bought some bits off of me, all old toys that the kids weren't using any more so i've made a fiver for a bit of effort and i've another £5 coming tomorrow for some old sandals DS2 has outgrown :T That was our treat money for this week so if I manage to stay in that budget then I still have the £50 spare I also had £20 in the current account in case I needed food so I actually have £70 + the £10 coming for sales :T.

I'm debating whether to take DD to the drs surgery she is constantly complaining of tummy pains she's always had them. I remember going to the drs once before and was given some feeble advice which never helped and I'm wondering if to take her back as i've changed dr's surgeries since then. She had bad food poisoning as a toddler (from a dodgy restaurant we visited ) and the dr's misdiagnosed a few times before finally telling me it was food poisoning and I wonder if this is the cause of her tummy aches all the time? Could it have done long term damage? I think I will do this tomorrow or Friday whilst she is off school in fact as it's been bugging her (and me) for a while.

Anyway back to today:- Library, some lunch out with the kids for a treat I think and maybe a little mooch around the charity shops That's about as good as it will get in this weather :rotfl:

I hope everyone has a good day