Tunnel Vision in 2014!

Chardonnay

Thanks SA! I am quite pleased really, just impatient!

Well today has been a good day. Dad came over for our Sunday walk and coffee and cake by the river. He insisted on paying as it was his turn. I'll be so glad when we're in a better position - I do pay my turn, but it would be nice to just tell him not to worry, you know? I did offer to pay but he wasn't having any of it. So we didn't spend anything today apart from £1.99 on a multipack of crisps

We had a Tesco delivery on Thursday and were going to have roast chicken for tea, but it appears to have gone off I have emailed them to ask for a refund and in the past this would have been a cue to get a takeaway or go and buy something else but I checked what we'd got in and am going to cook a spicy sausage pasta instead. Not very Sunday dinnerish but everyone seems happy with it

Finally got around to sorting out our phone and broadband today. We've now switched to BT. They aren't the cheapest, but I did a check online and they are by far the fastest in our area for broadband. As OH and I both work from home, it's essential that we have fast broadband and our Plusnet broadband has been playing up lately. So, we chose BT and we will save £16 a month, plus went through Quidco and will get £75 cashback :T We did have quite a good phone deal with Plusnet, but now we both have work mobiles which we're allowed to use for private use, within reason, we don't really need to make many outgoing calls on the landline, so now we will just have free calls at weekends on the landline, but I think this will be fine for us.

Also, I got the bit between my teeth and decided to call Sky to see if I could get some money off our bill. I told them that I'd just signed up with BT for their phone and broadband and was thinking of signing up for their TV too. I said I'd been a customer for a long time and wondered if they could offer me any discount. Anyway, they have offered £5 off our bill a month, plus a brand new Sky + box with wi fi enabled so we can get catch up TV :j Very pleased with that. We do really need to stay with Sky as OH loves his footie so we wouldn't want to lose the Sky Sports package. All in all, this has worked out very well for us. Plus, we also now get BT Sport 1 & 2 and ESPN for no extra cost! So very happy with that! :beer:

Then decided to look at our contents insurance which is due to be paid on 18th Feb. We were with the AA last year and after thinking about it, I've decided to stay with them. The reason being is that we have roadside cover included and I also paid some extra for home start too. The total renewal cost is £70.10 for the year, which really isn't bad. However, I had budgeted for a monthly cost but as it's cheaper to pay for it in one hit, I'm going to try to find the money from somewhere this month so we can pay the lump sum.

Car insurance next! That'll be due in late February so I'll start looking into that soon.

In weight loss news, I've put on half a pound this week, but that's not unexpected due to meals out, drinking etc last weekend. I've been on the treadmill religiously three/four times a week for at least half an hour and managed to run for over 40 minutes yesterday! So hoping for a loss on Friday , when I weigh myself again, as I've stuck to the points this weekend.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Sun_Addict

Well done on the deals front! You're doing really well with the treadmill too! Need to get back on mine, although I'm walking to work and back every day (approx 6 miles) I feel I need to do something else when I get home.

Chardonnay

Thanks SA! Wow, walking 6 miles a day, you will soon tell the difference with that! I wouldn't be too hard on yourself, as that is some distance and I would think the last thing you feel like doing when you get home is exercising! Thanks for your support

Chardonnay

:oTaken me a while to get back on here....busy week!

So, what's happened so far....well, my laptop died and wouldn't switch back on properly. I messed around with it for ages, not really knowing what I was doing, concluding that I'd probably have to take it to be fixed (cost me 50 quid last time ) but eventually managed to do system restore. I tried doing it back to a recent date, but it wouldn't work, so I ended up taking it right back to when I bought it! It is working brilliantly, but of course has wiped out all of the spreadsheets for my budget etc. So that's not good, and I'll need to do some work to get them back up to date but at least I saved £50! :T

Not a lot happening on the budget front. Having lots of NSD's. Very boring really! But I am going to stay with my best friend tomorrow night and a few of us are going out around the pubs. She's cooking for us and I've bought a bottle of wine to take over and have budgeted £50 for the night. Hope I bring some change home with me!

I've been thinking about the Marriott card and decided that as soon as I get the next statement, to check if there's any interest owing (I know that my 0% deal ended very soon, but even after ringing them was none the wiser!) I am going to close the account. Hopefully the statement should be due tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that! Really, it would take me ages to build up enough points for free nights in a hotel and at this stage, I can really only focus on getting into a good financial position to buy the house, so must get my priorities right! Psychologically it will give me a boost I think, especially if I can get the Barclaycard paid off and closed at the end of the month too!

Three little boosts we have had actually - hubby has received notification that he's going to be paid £35 into his account tomorrow. It's from his works pension, the one that is stopping until next year. Must be what was left owing I guess! I'm due Quidco cashback of £11.07 and also from April, we will be over £40 a month better off, as hubby has been paying back an overpayment of tax, and although he still owes a little bit, it's much less than the previous amount, so his tax code will improve :T It all adds up and as this month is extremely tight with having to pay up front for our contents insurance and make sure we have enough to pay off the Barclaycard at the end of the month, every bit is welcome!

Oh, I've just remembered, on the negative side (for money anyway) I am now going to see Tom Jones in July! :j I've always wanted to see him! It's at the races, and we'll be getting a minibus. It's £45 entry fee I shouldn't really go, but my best friend has persuaded me, there'll be a group of us and I really couldn't miss this opportunity! The trouble is, the next night I am off down to my step daughter's hen day/night in Bristol! I really don't know how I'm going to take the pace and it's going to be such an expensive weekend, but well, you only live once I guess!

Anyway, no takeaways or eating out to report this week - it all helps!

Chardonnay

Aargh, Monday again! Shattered today!

Had a great time at the weekend, spending time with my friends and the great thing is that I only spent £12 on our night out! Don't ask me how! But that means that I returned with £38 change! :T Now I felt a bit delicate on Saturday to say the least, and in the past I would have blown half of that money on a takeaway, but this time we had the homemade chicken curry we had planned (albeit lovely hubby cooked it ). Money is definitely tight this month, and I really want to pay off the Barclaycard when we get paid so every penny is counting at the mo!

Have now had my Marriott card statement and there is no interest added so the balance stands at £0 :j So, my next job is to call them and close the account and that'll be another one gone!

Checked my new Noddle report today and my credit rating has gone up from 3/5 to 4/5 I know this doesn't generally mean anything, but still very pleasing for me to know I'm going in the right direction! I think it's because it's showing the Marriott card as being paid off but the new loan doesn't feature on it yet, so I guess my excitement may be shortlived! Still, if I get the Marriott card closed down and then the Barclaycard next month, hopefully that will improve things again!

Bad news though, my car wouldn't start yesterday :mad: It happened last summer and I had to get the AA out (ended up paying £100 for homestart as well, although pleased I did now!) It was just a fuse that had gone then, and he gave me a spare one in case it happened again but he did say that I might need something replacing if it kept happening (can't remember what now, no good with cars at all!) We tried replacing the fuse but it still wouldn't start, so I will have to call Mr AA man out again! My car is 13 years old now and I've already made up my mind that I will not be spending a lot more money on it now. I had to spend over £200 on it to get it through the MOT last summer - it's barely worth that! I was also told then that there was something else on the way out (again, can't remember what!) but it might last a bit longer. Well the MOT's due in June again and I'm just not prepared to fork out a load of money for it again.

The fact is, on a day to day basis we can easily manage without a car. We work from home, and live right by the train station and near the bus station too, so if I want to go and see my dad, I can do so easily. The only time we really need the car is for one-off long journeys, which we don't do often and I'm sure we could find a way around it temporarily. I would then look to buy a new car once we have bought a house and are in a better financial situation - or who knows, maybe I'll just get used to managing without! They do seem to be money pits!

So we will see. Not calling Mr AA today as don't feel able to face that today, but will have a look mid week.

Hope everyone has a good Monday and it's not too painful!

Sun_Addict

Hi Chardonnay! If you can live without a car then do it! Just hire one if you need one for anything special. Great news on going to see Tom Jones - I bet he's brilliant live!

Chardonnay

Hi SA! Yes, hiring a car could be a plan! I still haven't got the AA out, might get them out tomorrow. My insurance is due on 24th Feb, so need to decide what I'm doing before then.

Yes, love Tom Jones, so excited!

Good news, I closed my Marriott card account yesterday :T Bad news, I wasted £11 on fish and chips for us all from the chippy last night for tea Was just so tired last night (Monday night = Danger time!) and they were soooo lovely, but know I shouldn't have!

Ah well, onwards and upwards! Looking forward to pay day now so I can pay the Barclaycard off! Having just one credit card left will be a good psychological boost I think

Chardonnay

Back again! Can't believe it's over a week since I posted - must do better!

Well, the main news is that I had the car looked at and despite Mr AA man managing to get it to start, it was going to need more work. With the MOT coming up in June, I made the decision after speaking to my brother, who knows a lot about cars, that it had reached the end of the road When I checked my bills from last year, I realised that I had actually spent nearly £500 to get it through the last MOT! :eek: It's not even worth half that!

So enough was enough, and I had my car collected yesterday to go to the little scrapyard in the sky Actually felt quite upset watching it be driven on to the lorry to be transported away! How sad is that?! But it served me well for 6 years so sad to say goodbye.

And we are now left with no car! There will be no new car until we get the house, but luckily we live right by the train and bus station so should be fine. The good news is that I got £110 for my car (cheque just waiting to clear) and will get £50 refund on the tax, which I sent off yesterday. I also cancelled my insurance, so that will save me nearly £20 a month and I'll get a tiny refund of £3 - better than a poke in the eye I guess! Plus I'll save on the budgeted MOT costs and car tax which was due in May! :T Of course I'll have to factor in train fares etc. but that will only be an occasional cost and probably no more than my monthly petrol would have been.

Soooooo, just waiting for those payments to appear and they will be paid straight off the debts! Can't wait to be paid too so I can pay another chunk off and update my sig! Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Sun_Addict

Oh Chardonnay you are so cruel how could you do that to your faithful old car! Seriously though you made the right decision. There's only so much you can spend on it.

LESLAMP

Can relate to how you felt about the car. I was just the same when we had to get rid of mine. but if you can manage without then go for it.

I need a car as my nearest bus stop to work is two miles away and would entail walking down a horrid unlit windy b road which floods in the rain.

:beer: