The Road to Financial Security

shala_moo

Pushkin wrote: »

I think I need to try and not become too anal about all this - there are always going to be unexpected things cropping up and I can't really quibble about him buying some paint & masking tape bits.

Agreed, it's easy to get possessive about every penny but if you need the stuff and you can afford it then get it.

I agree with Goldie, you just have to find the balance that you're happy with..

Pushkin

Thank you Goldiegirl & Shalamoo - you have re-affirmed what DH has been telling me. Again it was also a part of why we chose not to move - so we would have more spare cash for little luxuries - not that paint & masking tape is a luxury in my mind :rotfl:

I did also get the car washed inside and out today, I'm driving to Kingston tomorrow and was ashamed at my mother seeing the state of it. The last time I cleaned the inside it didn't look much better afterwards - one of the perils of having a dog and driving around in wellies I suppose. £30 but they did a fantastic job - that is more one of the luxuries I was talking about.

Off to do some surveys now - I am still persevering.....

Pushkin

Tiring, expensive but quite successful shopping day today. :j

Annoyed that I can't find my M&S vouchers for this quarter (from my M&S Mastercard) - have looked everywhere and can only think I've binned them - £20 worth of vouchers so rather annoying.

The £20 M&S survey vouchers worked though and used those and a 20% discount voucher my mum had I bought which totally covered the cost of DH's dressing gown (Crimbo pressie).

Will need one more trip to the shops for Christmas shopping apart from that the rest will be done on line. So progress is being made and the end is in sight.

No other MFW news - today has been the antithesis of that, still working through the figures - I get paid tomorrow so will be able to update my spreadsheet then.

Pushkin

Sneaky post before I start work...

Just paid final instalment for DS's ski trip - £397 - ouch! Good job I saved and planned for that one. Just the dry ski slope lessons, ski clothes & spending money to find now - realistically thats another £500 - his ski trip is in April and his birthday in March - no prizes for guessing what presents he'll be getting for his birthday - goggles, thermal socks, salapets (however it's spelled!) etc.

For some reason email has stopped coming in on my laptop - am still getting it on my ipad but it's so annoying. Another issue for DH to look at when he gets home at 8 tonight...

Pushkin

Feel like I may be coming down with some kind of cold bug - aching & think I may have a temperature. Hopefully a good nights sleep will sort me out I am lucky and normally have rude health.

Annoyed that I have cocked up my figures for December (I get paid today, DH will get paid Friday) and now according to my xls am £129 short on outgoings (food, petrol, etc). Caused by forgetting to take off the amount of salary DH keeps for himself.

I will try and use this as a challenge to reduce spend where possible but December isn't really the best month to have lower grocery spends - well not in our house anyway! I'll give it a go but am determined not to beat myself up if I get some out of the slush fund - it's kind of what it's there for.

Pushkin

Zero exciting news, mega long day at work and have eye strain from lots of data analysis - all this IT and yet still end up doing labour intensive manual manipulation.

No spend day but when I finished work at 6 and came out of the study noticed that DS had left the blooming front door open when he came in from school :mad:So we spend 2.5 hours heating the porch - lovely jubbly!

When is it children start getting a little bit savvy? I don't expect him to be expert at budgeting and efficiency but it would be nice if at 12 he had the common sense to check things like closing doors and switching lights off!

egoode

Pushkin wrote: »

When is it children start getting a little bit savvy? I don't expect him to be expert at budgeting and efficiency but it would be nice if at 12 he had the common sense to check things like closing doors and switching lights off!

Hope I don't scare you too much but I don't think I got savvy about things like that until I moved into my first flat and had to start paying the bills myself!

Pushkin

egoode wrote: »

Hope I don't scare you too much but I don't think I got savvy about things like that until I moved into my first flat and had to start paying the bills myself!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Egoode - you are probably right (sadly)

Did a fair bit of Christmas shopping last night and early this morning - still scares me a bit that with one click of a mouse you can spend hundreds of pounds.

Christmas seems to be coming too quickly hence the flurry of buying - think all is tracked on my budget sheet, maybe it's groundless but have been checking and rechecking in case I forget to put something in. Probably to do with the recent oversight on my regular outgoing table and the fact that I'm getting a little frenzied as I want to finish buying all presents.

I say every year I won't let it get like this and every year it does!

Haven't bought DS's advent calendar yet either - not really the sign of an organised, efficient mother/wife/professional huh!

Pushkin

So chuffed it's finally Friday - even though I had Monday off it doesn't feel like a short week.

Plan for this weekend is to make serious inroads into DS's bedroom. Have told DH if we don't get his room re-decorated we won't be able to get the flat pack wardrobe built and out of the lounge therefore there won't be anywhere to put the Christmas tree. I think this will spur him on as he is a big fan of having a big real tree each year.

So hopefully this weekend we can scrape the wallpaper off and do the gloss work.

Can't believe all the police incidents at the shops due to this Black Friday thing. Couldn't think of anything I would like less than getting up a t 5am to go shopping!

Best get the dog out and start work - another day of spreadsheet analysis beckons - be still my beating heart

shala_moo

Pushkin wrote: »

Can't believe all the police incidents at the shops due to this Black Friday thing. Couldn't think of anything I would like less than getting up a t 5am to go shopping!

I can't believe the mentality of it all.. it was like looting!

I hate shopping at the best of times but I can't imagine having to go through all of that to get the "latest" gadgets.. nothing wrong with my 10 year old tv thank you! :rotfl: