Paying the car tax via EBay, and other shenanigans.

mfmaybe

Tuesday already. Splurged on a coffee yesterday but used coins that were in my wallet so the £10 note lurking in there remains intact. Have some spends planned for tonight, but in budget.

Food analysis hasn't helped me figure out where the money went. OH put £3.50 of snacks in the trolley that I might not have bought. I put in a £2 noodle box for lunch one day (sometimes buy the innocent pots on offer for when I don't have leftovers for lunch). Part of our problem is simply what we buy. For instance the peanut butter is the organic pure peanut butter stuff rather than the basics variety with palm oil in it. But that's the choice we have made and we have to live with the cost implications. I am going to try sowing a ton of lettuce leaves in various pots. Slugs get them too easily in the ground. Unfortunately we love to add avocado or peppers or fennel to the salad, all of which are hard to grow in rainy cold northern UK. Nearly all our cooking is done from scratch, the pizzas we had on Saturday were a rare "treat" (In quotes, because I don't really like them that much ). But since starting this diary, I've thrown out hardly a single bit of food, menu planned every week, bought yellow stickered fish and meat for the freezer where I can, downgraded where I feel happy doing so, eaten porridge in place of cereal every single day, and yet I don't think our food bill has dropped much. I am definitely spending less by not buying canteen lunches, so I guess some of that cost goes on the food bill, but even so I feel like I'm failing in this area somewhat

In better news, T@sco have launched a new bank account, which means nothing to me other than it also means there is a mobile banking app. This will be helpful, after boiler payment, to start paying off the 0% card with tilly tidies or similar.

Weather continues to affect my mood, rain seems unrelenting, not helped by stories of heatwaves elsewhere. Let's just say my 5 year plan has been reinforced as a necessity.

mfmaybe

Well caffeine got the better of me, or rather lack of sleep, and I bought a coffee. Needed to break my ten pound note though. Honest . But then I got persuaded into buying a raffle ticket. Only a pound at least. I did have lunch with me though, so it's not all bad.

A week until payday. Only one DD still to go, so barring any surprises, I should have up to £70 to put towards the boiler. If I can eek it to £80 that will take me to 51% paid. A psychological boost.

Have worked out that as the weather has been so bad and our gardener hasn't been for ages, I won't have to pay my share next month, as the cash is already set aside for him. So that's the first £25 towards my gap. The gap looks like £270. This is because our holiday flights are on the credit card that needs paid next month (not saved for, not MSE, but hey it's my 40th!). I am determined this won't slip me back into overdraft. I think I can probably reduce cash spends by about £100 without too much difficulty. But the rest is going to be hard to find. Did get a nice (if tiny) surprise of a whopping 13p cashback from Quidco from a small spend in H@lfords. I'd registered my debit card for instore cashback but hadn't remembered about it. That'll be another 13p towards it. Boiler repayment will stall next month so, barring some so far unforeseen miracle. Hmm which reminds me, I actually get my final part of my bonus next month. Ideally that wouldn't make up the current account gap, but putting it towards the boiler might be ok.

The month after looks considerably less scary so far, but I don't want to be stealing from the future again. I've got to start setting up savings pots in July, otherwise come January (a big month for annual bills) things will be back to square one. But it's all slowly moving in the right direction.

The bit I haven't figured out yet is switching our grocery shopping from the Amex we pay off in full each month (so interest free credit) to a prepaid card with a 5% discount. As my OD is now paid off, and I don't earn credit interest on my current account, the 5% discount is definitely our best bet, but essentially means paying for our food shopping twice in a month – ie paying off what is outstanding on the card, as well as loading the prepay card.

In the meantime I've registered my Amex for a Foursquare offer of £5 off a £10 spend at T£sco. Wondering if I can strategically buy a few things we're going to need anyway.

mfmaybe

Hooray, it's the weekend :beer:

Plans are to try to have a frugal food shop for once. Haha. Lots of baked potatoes, pasta and beans on toast I think!

Other things to do this weekend:

[STRIKE]Go to recycling with garden waste, bottles and some shoes and clothes.[/STRIKE] DONE
Diesel in 2 of the 3 vehicles, both of which have the light on. ONE DONE
[STRIKE]Plant out my courgettes. Lay half a ton of slug pellets around them. [/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Stake some other new plantings.[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Weed one spot that is annoying me![/STRIKE] DONE
Some fence painting, weed strimming, pressure washing and car washing. Glamorous, isn't it? SOME FENCE DONE
Turn compost
Actually list some things for sale!
Possibly cut back the hedge at the back if I am sure no nesting is going on.

The good news is that none of that requires me to spend any money other than the diesel, which is in budget.

It's a long and not very exciting list though so better get on with it. Hopefully Mr M will help with some of it.

mfmaybe

Well I didn't do everything on the list (no pressure washing or car washing for a start) but we did do a lot of fencing and I got the hedge tidied up a bit, just not the one I was meaning too. This was cutting it back width-wise, not cutting it from the top, as the bees are enjoying the flowers and there could be nesting birds (I don't think so, though) so I just reclaimed some of the suckers. I'm also going to jot down some other garden stuff I did, so I can check back later:

Planted first courgette plant in garden, and another one on muckheap - it's an experiment
Planted out brussel sprout seedlings
Planted out swiss chard
Moved rest of courgettes and swiss chard outside to harden off
Sowed a few wallflower seeds in pot by door
Planted a few begonias into same pot
Sowed wildflower seeds by bird feeders
Sowed mixed salad leaves in metal trough planter
Cut back bridal wreath
Weeded ground elder along length of hedge. Sigh.

Didn't spend any money today, and yesterday was just food and diesel. Lunch ready for tomorrow.

Cereal bars made. I need to find an afternoon equivalent of those. We have a permanent supply of the Nigella Breakfast bars and they are a bit of a lifesaver in convenience terms. I usually have porridge for breakfast but even so can't make it through to lunch, so one or two of these fill the gap. They are the work of a few minutes mixing of ingredients, and happily last a week or more if in an airtight tub. I'm always hankering after something in the mid-afternoon as well though. Maybe I just need to have cookies or something permanently on the go as well. Or brownies. Would a weekly batch of brownies be excessive :rotfl:

Payday on Wednesday. Unfortunately a rather large chunk of it will go straight back out again to pay the credit card. Oh well, I've planned for it at least. I have £102.51 in my current account. I think all my DDs are now out, so if I can not take any more cash out, I should be able to put all of that against the boiler. I have £23 payable in TCB but that has to be taken as a voucher so need to work out how best to use that. Also have a few tiny things building up in Q-co. 1poll is at about £31 now. Swagbucks I've all but given up on. And just while I am summarising, I still have £175 of Nectar points and £230 of NW credit card points. I really should decide what to do with those!

OK need to do my click snap submission, it wouldn't work yesterday. Then bed.

mfmaybe

Monday already, doesn't time fly!

So I find myself in the unusual position of having to decide what to do with leftover money. I have £100. There is a leaving collection going around the office that I will need to pay in to, so I will take £10 out of the bank, put some of it in the collection, and the rest can be my slush fund for the next week or so. With £90 left I think I will put £70 towards the boiler, which takes me over 50%, which was my aim for the month. With the £20 left I can either start the first of my savings pots, pay it off the 0% card, pay it off the boiler, or use it against the shortfall this coming month. My current preference is for savings pots.

I also get the remainder of my bonus this month. It would cover the shortfall, but that feels like cheating, so it's going to go into savings, possibly for holiday spends. :T

In other news, the courgette in the muckheap was quite comprehensively slugged last night. It might survive if I can get some kind of plastic bottle around it, but I'm not holding out much hope. The one in the garden is better. It's survived two nights. Amazing! I might brave planting the next one out as well.

90p claimed on clicksnap. I gave up on the TCB version, there was only 10p and it kept crashing when I tried to upload the photo.

Leftover lunch was a triumph. I had leftover curry but no staples pre-cooked to go with it. However, lateral thinking = one to remember for future. Take a nest of noodles with me in a tub. Add a cup of hot water out of the coffee machine. Microwave one minute. Serve with leftover curry. Delish!

mfmaybe

Payday tomorrow :j

I have basically cheated though, as I already have my payslip, and rolled everything forward. I paid the massive Amex bill today by debit card(with holiday costs on it),and OH has given me about half of his share, he will give me the rest on Friday, which is his payday. I know from experience the card actually takes a couple of days to come off my account, so I will have my pay before then, but I didn't want to risk it being late.

So I got to the end of the month without going into overdraft, in fact I have £12 left. As well, I paid £250 to my family debt, and £670 to the Boiler. I diverted another £70 of cashback/divi income to that as well, so now owe less than half of it. So that's very nearly £1k of debt paid off. My 0% card did go up a little bit - net it went up £126. I don't mind too much though, that includes a £150 vets bill plus all my horse feed etc in the month. Once the boiler is fully paid off, this will be my focus. It needs paid off by February which should be do-able. But it will still be tight. I've been rubbish at selling things and must get back to this. Am quietly building up the odd bit on TCB and Q-co as well, which is helpful. 1P-ll just over £32 so getting nearer to payout.

Swagbucks - meh. Just can't get it.

So on that note, I need lunch.

Pippilongstocking

You had me at bombay sapphire.......

Popped over to say hi - I'm so stealing that noodle trick.



Poor show by the slugs. Off with their heads.

mfmaybe

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

You had me at bombay sapphire.......

Popped over to say hi - I'm so stealing that noodle trick.



Poor show by the slugs. Off with their heads.

Hi Pippi, thanks for stopping by :hello: I do love a good Bombay n Tonic. Even if I tut every time MrMaybe buys it. It was still on offer in Sainsbugs at the weekend but I resisted. :A

The noodle trick was genius. Double whammy was that I used work's electricity as well. Now this is where I confess it was MrMaybe that gave me the idea. But we won't tell him that.

mfmaybe

Well Karma taught me not to "spend" my money before I have it, as if I haven't learnt that lesson already. But luckily it was more of a warning shot across the bow than a full on attack.....Having updated my spreadsheets the day before payday, my computer crashed before I'd saved it, and I lost all the work :rotfl:. Luckily this didn't cost me money, just acted as a reminder that it's not mine until it's mine.

Huge Amex bill paid, and now cleared my account. MrM will pay me the last of his share tomorrow so bank looks alarmingly tiny for one day after payday, but will hopefully be better tomorrow. However I have made the family debt payment so can update signature, that is now 25% paid :T. I've moved the small bonus into savings so that isn't being touched at the moment, and I've now got about £100 in my vet fund (decided to cancel the insurance on one of my horses but the deal was her premium equivalent would be set aside each month). It would barely cover a call out just now but it's a start.

Had to buy lunch yesterday but managed to spend only £2. Today I'm at home so hopefully a NSD.

In garden news, the slugs truly destroyed the plant in the muckheap but the ones in the garden are so far resisting. The salad seeds have already germinated as it's so warm. Chard and Brussels just about holding their own. No sign of wallflowers or annuals germinating yet but I may be a tad impatient

in_need_of_direction

Impatient? You? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: