My Diary v3.0

natsplatnat

Just popping in so you don't all think I've done a runner.....


Decorating done - carpet down!
CC paid.
Still can't find Christmas cards.
Almost all cards written.
About half way there on wrapping presents.
Tree is out the loft but not up.
I think I withdrew £7.something from Q.co or TCB last week - can't remember.
Got paid for house-sitting.
Hair cut and hi-lighted.
Did a sweep of various gift cards we had laying around; almost all had balances on them... some of them have now been spent (£30 Debs, £20 Amazon) but I've got the others with small balances in my wallet. No use leaving them on the side!
Really detest this week at work - it al gets a bit crazy and then there is stocktake just to round it all off for the year! Boooo!


Catch you all later! xxx

kdalwayskint

Hey hun, Hope you've had a lovely Christmas x

natsplatnat

Shuffles in hoping no one notices how long I've been away!

Oops, you caught me! *Waves*


Well Hi! It has been a while! But it is all good in the land of Nats & co.


Here is my end of 2018 summary - not much financial in it for now as haven't really done an annual review yet....




Back at work today for the first time since 11am on Sat 22nd Dec (where has that time gone??)
Survived the end of year madness at work - including stocktake and works meal.
Carpet still in one piece - cats have behaved themselves so far and haven't destroyed it (despite several 4am attempts to do so!)
Never did find the Christmas cards bought in 2017!
Cleared out both N3ctar cards against food shopping - on a mission to re-build for this year (not that I am remotely thinking about xmas19 yet!!)
Managed to re-distribute a load of the Christmas bags I had accumulated over the past few years.
Managed to use up several rolls of wrapping paper entirely (no more part rolls floating around for another year!)
TCB payout was £7.13
76p refund for old G&E received. whoop!
Just checked the CC bill and it is surprisingly ok.
Received a Christmas bonus from work that gave me around £660 after tax et al. Nice!
Received money from my mum for Christmas. Nice!
Had a bit of a spend in the sales. Got 3 tops from N3xt for £14 (£39 less a £25 gift card I had kicking around). Mary Poppins PJ's from Primani for £1 (£11 less a £10 gift card). And then bought 2 coats in Debs for £103... but one is going back; sadly the £44 one! lol
Went to see Mary Poppins returns with my mum - Loved it! Very cleverly done!
Went out NYE - well, eve.. it was 1pm when we went out and was home by 6pm. Watched the fireworks in bed and then Zzz. Gosh I am getting old!


Have just completed a bank Account update... so far so good for 2019! lol




Things happening this year....


Jan - OH's Aunts 100th birthday + family meal
March - house-sitting 1 week
April - Theatre - tickets bought. Night in London with gig tickets (tickets and hotel paid for already) just train and spends to sort.
May - week abroad visiting my dad + SM. Flights paid for, staying with Dad so only spends to sort + cattery costs.
July - best friend home from USA for a week - will take a couple of days off + I said her xmas present was a meal out when she's home.
September - house-sitting about 10 days. Then wedding in Turkey (not mine!) Need to sort everything for this so must look at flight sales this week + find accommodation.


On top of this I (we) want to... decorate the rest of the house. This will include new bathroom and kitchen, but the expense of that is down to the landlord (well, they are upping my rent!), we will buy paint etc and decorate + a bit of carpet where needed.
We need to change the doors - will come to an agreement with the landlord over doors and hanging.
We need a new sofa and a bed + mattress.
We need to sort a new shed.... or workshop as OH keeps calling it.


So, there you have it. This is me - still maximising cashback where possible and making the money I do have work as well as it can for me!


Here's to a wonderful 2019 for everyone! xxx

natsplatnat

Just received an email from a company I bought from at Christmas confirming my refund of £23.00 for 3 items not delivered to store (out of a 5 item order they managed to deliver 2!!).
The thing is.... The store had the missing items in stock so gave them to me to complete the order. I never cancelled or chased the missing items as the store said they would balance it all out, blah, blah, blah. Sooooo, that's 3 free Christmas presents?! Feel a bit bad but if they can't organise themselves then I don't think it really is my job... and having tried to do the right thing in a similar circumstance in the past and ending up spending loads of time emailing and calling I think I will just let it go and send my thanks out through the Universe!
The £44 coat will definitely be going back - I just don't love it like I do the other one.
OH needs to take a hoody back that we bought DSS for xmas but was a little too tight for him (please read this as "wasn't hugely baggy enough for him") and the store wasn't doing refunds until the 29th Dec. That will be £60 back.


Grand total in refunds (that will come off the next CC bill) is £127.00. Not too bad!


Happy Thursday everyone! xxx

natsplatnat

Morning All!
A lovely crisp yet sunny day here today! Always nice to see some sun and blue skies - even if it is only just above freezing!

Xmas decs and cards came down last night. All packed away and sitting in DSS room waiting to make it into the loft. Cards need going through.. I like to keep ones from OH and my mum.
I cleared out my handbag of all not required receipts (those that need to be kept have been filed) and coupons that have expired. All current coupons are in my wallet in date order and will be used if relevant. I also cleared all the expired vouchers from the front of the fridge so that looks tidier now too!
OH hung our new shower curtain, I set up our new dehumidifier (powerless) to reduce the condensation in the corner of the bathroom. All clean washing was put away too. Then it was dinner, TV and bed. Felt like we achieved quite a bit. I am going to aim to do "something" for at least 20 mins every evening, over and above general house-work.


Things to be done this weekend....


OH to return DSS hoody and my coat (whilst I am at work tomorrow)
Both beds stripped and re-made
Towels washed
Xmas decs in the loft + cards sorted
Loft hatch painted
New ceiling lamp put up in hall
Cold tap in bathroom looked at (very slow running)
Shoe amnesty - we have a "shoe cupboard of doom" and it really annoys me, so we can have a clear out!
Measure 3 paintings I want to get framed and research frame options online
Inside of all windows cleaned
Total up CC and schedule payments
2019 annual review with OH - with things like rent increase etc I want to be on top of this!


Not too much then! But all relatively quick things to do... just need OH 'to get doing'!!


Just remembered I have 2 periods of house-sitting booked in for this year so I will add this to my 2nd Jan post for things happening this year!


Happy Friday everyone! xxx

natsplatnat

Eek - just remembered that in March 2020 I have a BIG birthday! I want to go on an amazing holiday to celebrate (with OH naturally) so I need to start saving. Will add a column to one of my spreadsheets so I can track my progress; I will put all cashback, survey payouts, interest earned and house-sitting money in here.... but it's gonna need a lot more than that! Will investigate prices this month by which time I will have my first increased wage and then work out a plan!


You know me.... Love a plan! x

natsplatnat

Things to be done this weekend....


OH to return DSS hoody and my coat (whilst I am at work tomorrow) well, OH and I did after work Sat.
Both beds stripped and re-made one done.
Towels washed
Xmas decs in the loft + cards sorted
Loft hatch painted
New ceiling lamp put up in hall OH needed to shorten the cable and couldn't find his multimeter. Multimeter now found so job for this weekend.
Cold tap in bathroom looked at (very slow running) and we re-purposed the top of one tap onto the tap in the kitchen
Shoe amnesty - we have a "shoe cupboard of doom" and it really annoys me, so we can have a clear out! DONE! 12 pairs for the bin and 4 pairs for the charity shop.... and we still have around 30 pairs between us!!
Measure 3 paintings I want to get framed and research frame options online couldn't find a single tape measure in the house - as a result, drawer tidying is on the list for this week!
Inside of all windows cleaned
Total up CC and schedule payments
2019 annual review with OH - with things like rent increase etc I want to be on top of this!
OH also bled the radiators so that they don't wake us up any more when they come on in the morning!


So, I would say "middling" on the level of achievements for the weekend. Although we slept in yesterday, I did also manage to paint my nails, comb and flea-treat the cats, have cat cuddles (before combing them!! They avoided me after!), 1 additional load of washing, research shoe storage, mugs, towels, bed linen, beds, sofas, shelves (yes, I did get a bit side-tracked)!


Picked up some food bits from M&S whilst we were in town Sat afternoon, had a small balance left on a gift card so that was at zero cost. With the returns we came home from town with more money than we went with … now that is better than spending!


So this week (right through to Sunday!) we need to finish the bits from last weekend and....
Have an underwear amnesty - with the xmas influx of new items drawers are too full!
Take cleared out shoes to tip for recycling and the good ones to a charity shop (will be whichever one we can park near!)
Organise tea party for OH's aunts 100th birthday.
Put away any rogue clean clothes (this will probably mean even more drawer sorting and a full clothing amnesty).
Go to Circuits - first time in a month so that's gonna hurt!
Investigate holiday for 2020.


Right now though I am at work, and with a new computer system going live on 1st Feb, we have a few very definite deadlines to meet. I had best get on.


Hope you all had a great weekend? Nats x

natsplatnat

Just remembered that I this week I also need to …


check the passports. Need to be mindful of Brexit and also that they no longer roll forward any time left to run! (robbing bar-stewards if you ask me!)


also need to look at converting some clubc4rd vouchers for train travel in April.

kdalwayskint

Hey Nats

Mostly wedding things going on here at the moment but the weekend between Christmas and New year I had a bit of a sort out resulting in 3 large bags of items going to the charity shop on 31st, although they didn't want the bag of girls clothes, which I thought was odd! Any way got rid of 3 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of boots. I'm sure there's still stuff that can be uncluttered loitering about!

Hope you're keeping well

natsplatnat

Morning KD!


I can only imagine how all-consuming planning for a wedding can be! I am sure you have it all under control though!


I am loving de-cluttering - last night I was just wandering around downstairs and I reckon I binned about half a black sack of rubbish, tat, un-usable, un-sellable 'stuff'. It was all so meaningless that I can' even remember what most of it was; so I'm not going to miss it!
I need to be ruthless with my clothes. I always say "I've got nothing to wear" but my drawers are full! I'm going to start with "have I worn it in the last year?" If it's a no, and it has no sentimental value to it.... it can go (either tip, charity shop or be sold).


In the interest of progress...
I checked all three passports and we are all good. The first one to worry about isn't until 2021.
Can't currently change clubc4rd vouchers into train tickets as the supplier is currently suspended. Will keep an eye on this as would rather use vouchers than pay for tickets to London in April.
All clean clothes are put away.


Crazy hours being spent at work at the moment.. we have a computer system upgrade on the cards for Feb and expansion ear-marked for March/April. It won't be forever... just eats into my home time... tidying time!


Laters x