pickle me's diary

sazzlebgood

I'm on a clothes diet until after christmas too good luck:j

pickle_me

Nice to know I'm not alone, Sazzle! I do have my eye on a coat in Next - who kindly sent me a £10 off code - and I haven't had a new winter coat in over 10 years, so it's preying on my mind ... but I'll hold out for as long as I can

On the plus side, I went back to my local FE college a few days ago to get my hair cut in their hair & beauty salon, and got another great cut for the princely sum of £10. So satisfying. I may never go back to a full-price salon again

NHS_worker_bee

Your signature is looking fantastic and you've inspired me to have a "financial sorting out day"

well done you, you're doing amazingly well!

pickle_me

Thanks Bee - nice to see you!

Time for an update - this was October:

October 2014: £0 :j / £2765.54 / £3019.69 Total £5785.23

We've not made our usual £850 credit card payment this month. We had the opportunity over half-term to have a night away, just the two of us - the first childfree night we have had since our youngest was born 3.5 years ago, and only the second since our eldest was born 6.5 years ago. My parents kindly had them to stay so we booked ourselves a hotel in central London. Very MSE though - got it through Lastminute's secret hotel deal, a 5* hotel for £109. To be fair it really wasn't 5*, the decor was a bit dated but the location was great and the service was good, and it was just such a treat to have a night away. We went to the cinema and got that on a deal, too (the Odeon two tickets for £10 as seen on MSE ). Still, with added extras here and there we did end up letting up on the debt-busting this month ...

And my husband's phone broke, so after trying everything he could to fix it, to no avail - he bought [whisper it] a new iPhone. Clearly this is about as un-MSE as you can get (£200 for a phone! :eek: ) but I relented (he wouldn't have bought it without my approval - he's learning ). He does love his Apple gadgets and he has steadily paid off the credit cards for a year now without complaint, so ... I couldn't refuse.

The result is that our debt repayments this month are rather feeble, and next month will be even worse, although this was always anticipated. But I've recalculated our repayments and we're still on course to pay the lot off before the 0% deal ends, so it's ok.

Here comes the Christmas juggernaut rumbling along and part of me wants to throw my hands in the air, stick my head in the sand and pay no attention to my bank balance until the January reckoning. At least, for the first time ever, I think I'm going to have virtually all my presents bought by 1 Dec - I'm being much more decisive about what to get my relatives this year and no longer driving myself insane trying to find the 'perfect' present. In fact I've got everyone sorted now except my kids and I suspect I'll go on buying extra bits for them from here until Christmas

pickle_me

At least we've paid off those niggling little pennies and odd numbers from the credit cards - I'm so much happier now I have round numbers to deal with :rotfl:

in_need_of_direction

I'm sure the weekend away was so worth it. We all need a break sometimes.

pickle_me

Thanks INOD. It did feel amazing to have time to ourselves for once.

PS. I bought the coat. I love it. Totally worth it

in_need_of_direction

Good. We can all see it wasn't an impulse buy that you'll regret.

pickle_me

INOD, you're very kind :kisses3:

Home and car insurance were up for renewal this week. This time last year - having only just discovered how much debt we were in - I was really glad of the opportunity to save some money, and I got my teeth into finding the best deal.

This year ... oof. It just seemed to take so long. All the variables - do you want to insure this, and this, do you want this extra, are you the main driver or is your partner, how many items valued over £1000 do you have, how much to replace all your belongings, how many miles driven each year, blah blah blah. I used comparison sites, I went through Quidco to try and get cashback, I deleted cookies umpteen times so I could start again with a new set of variables. So boooooring. However ... in the end it was worth it. I got good deals on both, plus £50 cashback overall so I'm happy. And glad I don't have to do it again for another year

pickle_me

Ah, Christmas. Destroyer of financial good intentions. I've just plucked up the courage to look at my bank balance and it's actually not as bad as I'd feared, although of course January is a long, long month and the money has further to stretch!

We spent too much, inevitably, and the holidays aren't over yet - we're going away with friends for a couple of nights over new year (no accommodation costs though) and no doubt will have some meals out or the odd takeaway which will add to the overall bill. BUT, I reminded myself this morning, not a penny has gone on the credit cards. Unless you have a will of iron I think overspending is inevitable at Christmas - for me at least - but you can limit the damage at least

I had hoped to have a bit of money spare to hit the sales in January but I think I should shelve that idea. Instead I'm going to try and find my ebay mojo again and see how much money I can make, rather than spend, in January. I can't swear that there won't be any sales purchases made but I'm going to try very hard to avoid it.

The family birthday merry-go-round begins again in February with my youngest's birthday, but we bought so many presents for her (and her sister) for Christmas, that having done a stock-take a few days before Christmas Day we put some aside. This means we will have to buy virtually nothing for her birthday as we have so many all ready - which is and :money: at the same time :rotfl:

Credit card payments begin again in earnest next week, after a few months of lower payments. We're both keen to get going again - just six payments left, then we'll be debt-free (credit cards at any rate - the mortgage and student loan will take longer to deal with ...)

I have high hopes for 2015, financially if nothing at else - paying off the credit cards in June and final childcare payment the same month is going to feel amaaaaaaazing :j

Then we'll have to deal with the temptation of having 'spare money' - I can tell it's going to be a whole new challenge .....