The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

Dusting! So important, and I hate it so much Hope yours went swiftly!

I'm sure I have more dust than everybody else! Still, all done and dusted now


It was my payday yesterday and the M & S credit card came in today so I've been able to finalise the money for the month and do the money shuffle
:T


General spending £459.70 (or 86% of funds allocated for this area) Included in this are theatre tickets for next April and a coach outing to an Ice Show in Brighton in January.
But still in budget, so all good


Groceries and cleaning products etc - £310 (or 95% of last years figure) Quite high, but I have been doing bigger shops every three weeks, and two of these big shops fell in the last accounting month. Plus, I'm still buying some extras for my reserves.


This month I also had to pay for a repair to the alarm system and to one of the window locks - the funds for this came out of a surplus in the bills account


£1830 transferred to various savings accounts.


All in all, I'm happy

Karmacat

I love your analysis of what you spend! I don't analyse in the same way, I confess - I keep stocks quite high, so that there's very little I need over the winter - for instance, there's a Wilko in the town next door, and I bought 4 bottles of toilet cleaner - two loos, so two each I won't need to buy any more for ages

Is there an Asda in your area, Goldie, or don't you want to change to them? I'm definitely switching from Sainsbo, 3 of my main products - pesto, gluten free pasta and feta cheese are a lot cheaper - it really adds up.

Whatever the case, though, I agree about diaries helping - helps you keep going, helps you keep track. And finding that other people share the same issues.

Goldiegirl

Hi, KC:)


This is the first year I've analysed spending in this way - I've kept a spending diary (another first), and I've been finding it useful to review each month. Each time I do it, it reinforces that we will be able to manage on our current pensions, at least for the 2 year period until Mr Goldie is 65.


The thing with me and grocery shopping, Sains and M&S are by far the most convenient. They are next to each other in our nearest shopping centre, and just so easy to get too. Plus, I'm all set up for online shopping with Sains, and all my favourites are in my list, so it's an easy matter to click on them.


I've got nothing against Asda, except it's a trip up the motorway to the next junction or a drive through the back lanes. If I did the online shopping, I'd need to set it up and it'd take time to get all my favourites selected.


But next year, when we have more time, we intend try Asda, Morrisons and Aldi, to see what we think. None of them are as convenient as Sains and M&S, but we'd like to see what money we save and what the quality is like. I'd also set up online with Asda at that point.


Today we've been out and about. We dropped my car off at the garage for it's airbag adjustment (no cost, thankfully), dropped in at M&S for a free cup of coffee and a mooch round, then on to the local High Street to drop off Mt Goldie's proof of ID and address at NWide. My letter still hasn't arrived (small sigh!). I'll chase at the weekend if it doesn't turn up.


Then, we've got to pick my car up, come home and have lunch and then we intend to open our TSB and Santander accounts.


I think that's enough for the day!


Edited to add. There's a Wilko down at the High Street. We mooched in there too. It'll certainly be a good place for washing and cleaning supplies and toiletries

Goldiegirl

We've done some of what we planned and a couple of extra bits


We've applied for and been accepted for a joint Santander 123 account, which will eventually become our bill paying account :T


Even though we are with the Telephone Preference Service, we still get lots of calls - it was particularly bad yesterday. As we'll be home more, we don't was to be plagued by these calls all the time.


So, we've activated BT caller display (free for the next 12 months as we recently paid for our line rental for 12months) and have ordered a pair of new phones from John Lewis for £59.99 (our existing phones are very old and don't have a caller display feature). Unfortunately JL don't take part in TCB or £Co, but we were able to use an offer to get a £5 voucher if £50 or more is spent.


I'm really looking forward to cutting the nuisance calls and these new phones are the cordless type so I'll be able to take calls from the comfort of my sofa


We've also (fanfare) unsubscribed from Sky Movies.


But, we've kept our base package and Sky Sport, as we do watch these


After all this, we'd had enough, so we'll open our TSB accounts another day.

Karmacat

Thats a lot of life admin! And its a great idea to buy from JL if you possibly can - I needed a new phone last year, and I got it from them, the 2 year automatic guarantee for so many products makes it really worthwhile (and I feel great affection for JL, I consider their flagship store on Oxford Street to still be my spiritual home in London )

Goldiegirl

I love looking round JL, there's always so many nice things. It's one of my favourite shops at Bluewater

I do seem to be doing a lot of life administration at the moment. Just want to get things sorted sooner rather than later. My hairdresser and I were talking about this yesterday. We are convinced that, since the advent of the Internet, administration has ballooned. Twenty years ago, I don't recall spending all this time on admin things. I wrote cheques out for bills, checked my bank statement when it came in, and that was it.

Just settling down for The Apprentice. :T

newgirly

Hi GG , hope you don't mind me saying but are you on a discounted sky package? As I've found it very worthwhile to phone up to "cancel" and then am often offered my package much cheaper. On one occasion I was not and so did actually cancel, you get a few weeks before it's gone and in that time they ring up and offer you a cheaper package anyway. Worst case scenario and they don't and you can reinstate the package the day before it goes off anyway.

I've been on a half price deal at £13.50 for almost a year and have recently added sky movies (until just after xmas) for an additional £8pm.

Hope you don't mind my sticking my nose in, apologies if I'm telling you something you already know

Goldiegirl

Hi Newgirly:)


The thing with Sky is that it's not in my name, it's in Mr Goldie's name and he's not particularly comfortable with the bluff/negotiate type of phone call that would be needed. so I've never pushed him in this respect. it's just one of those things that I accept.


However, I'm currently a bit confused with Sky. They sent an email to Mr Goldie, confirming the new monthly payment has only gone done by £8.50 (whereas the cost of Sky Movies is £16.50) and they also want to collect an additional payment of £24.75 on 9th December


I've emailed back ( in Mr Goldie's name) to find out why they expect us to pay to downgrade our package, and why our monthly payment has dropped by such a small amount, and expressing 'disappointment' in this respect.




I've had some fantastic news today. A letter from DVLA arrived, and I'm medically fit to keep my licence :T I am so happy, and so relieved - I'm over the moon, as they say


My 'missing' letter from Nationwide still hasn't turned up, so I phoned them this evening. Believe it or not, I was electronically verified, so they don't need my proof of ID or address, and I haven't got to sign anything either. How odd that the system found me, but not Mr Goldie

BookWorm

:T So pleased for you and your news re: driving licence :j

katep23

Disappointment is such a fabulous word when negotiating!