Little by little

katiegizmo

No diary! I would love to but I don't seem to have ever had/made the time. Before lo I worked long hours and the last thing I wanted to do in the evenings was spend more time than I had to online. Now I have a dd who does not believe in sleep so we rarely get more than an hour or two to ourselves in the evening and I find that gets filled with catching up on housework and actually DOING the moneysaving! But I do like reading others diaries if they are not too overwhelming in size when I start them.
Fingers crossed for your car - cars are evil money suckers in my opinion! We had issues this year which cost £2k to sort out which was just so upsetting!
Realise I must update my signature...

Emthemist

Wow are those your overpayments in your signature?! Great figures! That's how I pick the diaries I choose to read - if they are quite new I subscribe and try to keep up! And I know what you mean about evenings disappearing into nothing x

Car turned out fine. The parts were already in when we got there so got everything sorted under the recalls that were on it so no money paid out :money:. Lo loved running around the showroom and especially playing with the automatic doors, even though they had a perfectly good children's corner! We were only there just over an hour. I'd packed lunch and everything as I hadn't a clue how long it was going to be.

We've missed our OP target this month. Mostly down to a lot of one off spending, and a £150 course that DH has done to help him in his search for a job (it's compulsary for most he'll be applying for). Thankfully, he got a grant to pay for some of it so we did get it a bit cheaper. We had a little win on the premium bonds so that has helped a little. We've still done well enough, mostly bolstered by the money back from the electricity company.

CM has gone on holiday without letting me know final figures for June, leaving my spreadsheet hanging :mad: (haha, not really that bothered....well, maybe just a bit!) so I can't finalise everything.

I've decided that because of DH's job situation, I'm just going to set aside the OP money in case we need to dip into it, and when we're back on track with two salaries, pay it all onto the mortgage.

So for June, the grand total set aside for mortgage OP is.......roughly...........£218.01 :j

Hopefully will do better next month x

katiegizmo

Yes my OPs do look good - but that's because I am sneaky and don't put up the amount of mortgage left to pay as that would completely demotivate me! Plus the payments will be less and less. DD was born mid 2012 and it's getting harder and harder to find extra money as I only work part time now, only paid just over £100 a month in OPs this year.
£218.01 is a great start, well done you! xx

WhiteSnowdrop

£218 is a great figure, well done you! My DH work isn't always very consistent so we always stash the money we save somewhere we can easily access it when the situation looks a bit 'unsettled' and then once he's on a contract again we over pay it. There is no point having a small mortgage but no food!!!

Emthemist

Hi everyone! Sorry for being MIA! We're back from "holiday" now so I'll do the mid-month update.

We had a pretty MSE time away. All of our entry fees to places were done on Mr T vouchers, including getting the in laws into places. Consequently they felt the need to buy us lunch everywhere we went so saved quite a lot that way.

Before I started this diary I switched energy supplier. My new supplier seemed quite competent so I just let them get on with it. I got a little worried when I hadn't heard anything from the old gas supplier so I called them (this is in one of my early posts) and they said it would take 40 days to close the account and get a refund. Well, last week I got a bill, asking me to pay them for 2 weeks energy that I used under my new supplier. I called them and was told it was a mistake and they would send me another final bill but it would take another 40 days! Unbelieveable! I know NPow=r have terrible customer service but to wait 80 days for them to do something right (well, it's not over yet so it may take longer) is ridiculous!! I'm sure I'm in credit but we'll have to wait and see what the next bill says....

So far OP is sitting at around £150, but it's a long way off being final so fingers crossed for an MSE rest of the month. Got to go on a diet to get rid of a few pounds that have crept on so no sneaky vending machine choccy spends! *slap on the wrist*

Hope everyone is ok x

Emthemist

Been back at work for a week, and oh what a week! Everything went mental while I was on holiday and I think it's going to take me two weeks to catch up! So stressful, and on top of that, my bl***y car is back in the garage :mad:

It hasn't been right since the clutch went (inherent fault in the model - not down to my driving!) and I took it back the day after I collected it to tell them so. They said it was to do with another part that someone else fitted. So I put up with it. It was so horrible to drive. Finally took it back to garage I used before. They said major problem and it was down to the garage to fix it. Zoomed straight to garage, told them I'd had it "independently checked" (best words ever!) so now they're going to have a proper look at it. Could be a faulty part they fitted or could have been more damaged and they didn't realise. Well I know it's their fault and they're not getting away with it. I took it Friday lunchtime and said I had to have it back by the end of Monday. He looked very sheepish and told me it wouldn't be done by then so gave me a loan car - which he'd better not be expecting me to pay for! So angry still, can you tell??!! Not looking forward to the phone call where he tells me what he thinks is wrong with it this time...

On a nicer note, I bought some quiche dishes from a charity shop on Friday and made my first quiches yesterday. Very pleased indeed. Made my own pastry too :A

DH has decided that as his job is coming to an end he's going to enjoy what's left of the social life that goes along with it so he's staying out and going paintballing after work tomorrow. Not very MSE but he never goes out so I think it'll be good for him. Also, he has an interview :T on Thursday. Only another year's contract but better than nothing.

Hope everyone had good weekends.

Em x

Emthemist

I got a call yesterday to say my car is ready to collect, while I was paying for petrol for the loan car!! I told him I could come tomorrow (so hopefully minimal petrol will be left). I really hope it's sorted once and for all.

Did a quick mysupermarket order last night to reserve my Mr T delivery slot for tomorrow. A bit annoyed with myself as I'm doing MyFitnessPal at the mo and was meant to give up the alcohol. Now I've decided I can have it as long as I can fit it in with my calorie allowance! Unfortunately, my BIL and his GF are coming to visit and we'd stocked up on their favourite wine, then we drank it and it's no longer on offer! Boo :mad:

Going to my aunty's wedding next weekend (well, the Tuesday after the weekend??). She's only 6 years older than me but they requested money as presents for their new house and honeymoon. She's my aunty, I can't give money, that feels weird. So DH and I agonised over it for ages and have decided to put together a little food hamper (for the house right?). I've gone through our cupboards and found 5 items we can pass on, and I just need to get a few more. We have a jam, 3 chutneys (very small) and a chilli sauce. Any ideas what I can add to it? Looking to spend <£20 in total ideally. I don't think they're very adventurous with food either, so that makes it harder for me!

Em x

Emthemist

Picked up the car on Wednesday. They showed me the clutch they took off and tried to blame me for driving with the clutch down! It had been on the car for a matter of weeks - cheeky ****! Anyway, no charge (I should think so too!) and I have my car back. Not sure if they've done it right but had enough of it now.

Regardless of no charge for the car, we're having a terrible month OP wise. So far we are in negative figures so not looking forward to doing the final figures at the end of the week. It's a bit scary how I don't really know where the money went. I think I will have to alter my spreadsheet to document it, so at least I can justify to myself that we needed whatever we bought.

Don't really know how August is going to shape up as we're either away or have guests to stay every weekend! That's really not like us, it just happens to have fallen that way.

Wedding pressie has some chutney and some marmalade added, courtesy of the farmers market they've started doing at work. Oh and some olive biscuit things. Still need a few more bits and my lovely crafty neighbour is going to cellophane and tie it up with ribbon for us when it's finished.

I'm not very good at being succinct am I?! Sorry for the long posts but it never seems worth telling only one thing at a time!

Hope everyone had a fab weekend x

greent

Hi Emthemist - just read your diary after having had a short break from mine. I can empathise on the contract front - my DH is a contractor and it's a bit scary at times when contracts end Last year he was off for 10 1/2 months - which was hard - but other than that it's been nowhere near as long and hasn't massively affected us before Worth it in the main for the financial advantages of having his own limited co - keeps his tax bill nicely down!


Good luck with your journey - I'll aim to follow your updates x

Watty1

Yes, limited companies do help on the tax bill front Sometimes I whine about the added paperwork etc but nice reminder there Greent of the advantages