My Diary v3.0

natsplatnat

Morning All!


Happy first day of the month! Let's have a little round up of September....

• HOUSE-SITTING - done, should get paid this week approx. £90-£120
• Money withdrawn from cashback sites Sept total £44.46
• Still waiting on 'bush man' to finish front garden bush
• New SIM delivered - just need to unlock phone and transfer number … a job for this week
• Financial review... started yesterday. I now have a full list of OH's DD's and SO's so tonight I will update his spreadsheet and see what we can do. We are now in the position of not owing anyone anything (excluding the CC bill which is cleared every month)! Ok, we rent so don't own a house, but both cars are ours and so is everything in the house! Rent is silly cheap really and buying a house would easily double the amount we pay out for rent. Plan is to maximise savings and set up more 'pots' for annual things like car insurance and Christmas etc so it doesn't come as a shock (this is more for OH's benefit than mine).
• Yesterday we managed to move the shed. It was great to feel like we had actually achieved something BIG! It was a definite case of teamwork (rolling it on bits of plastic tube) and not only did we do it (despite OH's huge reservations) we managed it without a single cross word! The next phase is to decide on size of new shed and whether we need to replace the old fence panels behind the shed before putting the new one in. I am thinking not as behind this area there is the side of next doors garage so a fence is a bit pointless as there is no point of access anyway.

So October is here... time to start thinking about Christmas (sssh, too early to mention that word).
Things on the list...

• Finish sorting my phone and get OH sorted too.
• Change G&E supplier
• Finish 'project shed'... new one in and old one removed
• Locate duvet set that has just vanished!!
• Family trip to Plymouth
• Out for family meal 19th
• Get some items on fleabay
• I need some long sleeved tops / jumpers / hoody
• No alcohol... apart from 19th October for family meal. This is a biggy for us as we always have wine open at home. Hoping this will lose us lbs and save us £'s.
• Healthy eating to help with lb loss and reduce shopping bill.

I think that is it for now. Nice in a way not to have too much in the calendar for a change.


Long may the good weather hold - I love cold, crisp, sunny days!


xxx

natsplatnat

Just a quick update from me... House-sitting paid = £175.00


Have moved money into my savings account for now

natsplatnat

Morning All!
So.… last night I filled out OH's spreadsheet until the end of 2018.
He needs to set up a SO to DSS to cover travel weekly at £20 and then he is good to go - I have already put this figure in the spreadsheet.
I tried to get OH to agree to withdrawing his weekly spends in cash once a week, so when it is gone... its gone. But he made it very clear that he will not be doing that. In his words "yes I understand - but I am not you!" Fair enough! lol
So, having had a think about it and to stop him frittering away his balance I will suggest he transfers out the 'surplus' that his spreadsheet shows should be in his account the day before he next gets paid. This will leave him with only enough money for all his DD's, SO's and weekly spending - it will then be down to him to manage the remaining balance for the month. Why do I feel like I am talking about a child!!? lol
I will then manage this 'surplus' to cover primarily his share of the CC bill and then divide whatever is left into the agreed pots. I will then match this amount from my account. I think we will run with this plan (as long as OH agrees - but he did kinda last night) until Jan by which time he may have just got in the swing of it a bit more!

Put new SIM in my phone last night ready to unlock my phone - turns out it didn't need unlocking so I have a temporary number until my old one is transferred... this should be complete tomorrow.
I think OH is keen to change is now too - he wants to see if he can stay with his current provider, so I will try and get him to call them tonight to see what they can offer. If they can't come up with anything, then he can cancel whilst he is on the phone and I can get him a new deal sorted.
First night of NO ALCOHOL completed. It does help that work is no where near as stressful as it is during the summer months so I am not going home totally frazzled and looking for a way to unwind. I did treat us to a rather expensive bottle of cordial last night. Lemon and raspberry! Mmmm. Well I should hope so for £3.25 a bottle! I usually buy R0binsons for around £1!! But if it helps me/us not reach for the wine then it's still a major saving over the week!


Been thinking about what to do about Euros for our trip away next May. Obviously we will be post Brexit by then and I am trying to second guess what will happen with the exchange rate. Think I will just monitor for now as I don't think anyone has a clue!


Have updated some more of my spreadsheet - a few accounts now run to the end of 2019!


Right, I really must do some work as we are still short staffed and there are deadlines looming.


Have a great Tuesday everyone! xxx

natsplatnat

YAY! I have my old mobile number back - very impressed so far with +net I have to say.


Can't say the same about OH - despite all the chat, actual action is lacking with regards to he account/spreadsheet/changing mobile provider etc. and it's driving me round the bend!!

natsplatnat

Afternoon Folks!
Well, it is another glorious autumnal day here today.
Having developed a sore throat last Sunday which spent most of last week moving to a new part of my throat, I fully succombed to feeling that bad yesterday that I took a day off sick. Had the weekend off work, managed a few bits in the house and garden Sat and Sun and then Sunday night my voice went (think Dalek noises). I had been sleeping well over 12 hours Thurs, Fri and Sat night. Sunday night I was in bed by 10pm. I woke up yesterday morning at half seven, stayed awake just long enough to text work and then slept through to 1pm! Back at work today, still sound rough but definitely feel much better.
Bits in the garden led to 2 trips to the tip over the weekend. We have measured out the new shed (14'x7') and now the mission is on to find one that doesn't cost a small fortune and we can get this side of xmas.
Family meal on the 19th has been re-scheduled until November.
OH has changed to SIM only! Whoop! A reduction of £33 a month for him!
Haven't really succeeded on the no alcohol front. Managed 2 days last week and will do the same if not more this. We also had a chinese Sunday night. My fault, as I just did not fancy the caserole that had been cooking all day. No worries, caserole became last nights dinner. Tonight we have fish, fresh veg and jacket potatoes. Hope it tastes better than it looks having written it down!
That's in from me for now! xxx

natsplatnat

Morning!
Another day of feeling like rubbish - this bug is really starting to annoy me now! I think OH might have picked it up from me, so that's gonna annoy me even more! lol


I love my OH, I truely do.... he never ceases to amaze me! A few weeks ago we talked about setting a weekly "little things to do list" - nothing that would take more than a few minutes. After the second week I gave up as seeing the list barely touched at the end of the week just annoyed me (annoyed seems to be word of the day today!). Anyway, last night as we were heading up to bed OH says "we should write a list of little things we can do each evening... nothing that takes too long... like clear out the shoe cupboard for example!!" I honestly nearly shoved him down the stairs!! lol.
To be fair to him though, he did ask when the CC was due as he would rather pay it whils the had the money in his account than forget and spend it! I did point out that if he stuck to his budget there would be no risk of spending the money!! Baby steps though - at least he is showing a level of interest!
Last nights dinner changed from fish, veg and jacket potatoes to chicken sandwiches and tomato soup! The chicken needed eating, so we made use. Fish tonight is the new plan (as I am not going to circuits for the 2nd week in a row thanks to this bug!)
Had 1 glass of wine last night - purely medicinal you understand!
Must sort out utility provider this week - will add to our new 'to do' list!! lol

natsplatnat

Finally got round to having the fish and veg for dinner last night - very nice it was too!
I tried getting OH to update his spreadsheet last night and send me the money for his share of the CC. He was more interested in playing around with the format and cell alignment of the spreadsheet than actually updating it so it was of some use. Grrr. He more or less got there in the end but ran out of time before dinner to move his money. That's on tonights list then! And I need to tweak his spreadsheet as he has added additional columns... now that bit I don't mind!


And to round off a rather dull week, I can report £2.16 withdrawn from Q.co!

natsplatnat

Hi All!


Had quite a quiet weekend which was good as still trying to shift the last of this bug (day 15 now!) As a result of some early nights today I feel better than I have done for over a fortnight!


Still trying to pin OH down to pay his share of the CC!! Grrr. I think I need to implement (or at least suggest) a new plan. We can see from his spreadsheet what is 'personal' bills come to (car tax, mobile, etc) each month. So.…. my thinking is that I suggest he sends me over £1000 a month on the day he gets paid to cover the CC and any surplus can go into the slushfund pot for car insurance, MOT, Christmas etc. This will mean that I don't have to badger him to pay, we can earn a little bit of interest on the whole £1000 whilst it is there and if his share of the CC is over £1000 (which most months it shouldn't be) I can take some back out of his slush fund! Much less stress for me, and he will be able to see exactly what is left in his account to spend! This may need some tweaking to work and I am not sure what he will think about it... but by his own admission, if he sees money in his account he will spend it! A case of watch this space / work in progress me thinks!


Bought 4 jumpers yesterday - my winter wardrobe is seriously lacking anything vaguely warm. All from Primani and came to a total of £33.00. All different styles and colours too as I fear I wear too much blue, black and grey! I did spy a lovely jumper in the window of one shop.... but I WAS NOT paying £59.00 for it!


Tonight we are having the roast we planned for last night but neither of us actually fancied. Some of the reduced chicken was used to bulk out a leftover curry which we had with naans and various Indian bits from the freezer.


And I think that is it for now... nothing exciting money wise seems to happen!

natsplatnat

Does anyone know of a broadband supplier that offers truly unlimited packages? I looked a year or so ago and although some are listed as unlimited, there were charges that kicked in once you used over 35GB per month. Currently with V1rg1n and a good job too... 3 monthly broadband usage..... wait for it.... 748GB!!! That's a whopping 249.3GB a month! Most of it is DSS gaming online, but still!


Oh, forgot to mention - got my last contract mobile bill through at the weekend... they owe me £0.08!! Look forward to that hitting my account (it's the little gains right? lol)
And.... I have been thinking on about OH and getting money out of him. Will need to look at his spreadsheet tonight (shucks!) and check to see if £1000 is feasible. Had some figures running around in my head this afternoon and I think it may be too much! Watch this space!

enthusiasticsaver

Your OH sounds like my DH who is a serial fritterer. He has ruined no end of my budgets over the years but I have now given up trying to get him to stick to a budget and we set rules in place instead. Monthly personal allowance for each of us into personal accounts and that is the account he uses mostly. Anything joint from current account and food and fuel on credit card which is paid off monthly. We keep a large balance in current account as it earns interest.

Not sure about broadband package as luckily DH not into streaming movies or gaming.