The Road to Financial Security

Pushkin

Busy day today, DH has an electrician coming round at 8.30 to talk rewiring - I intend to be out with the dog while this occurs.

While DS is at drama we are going to whip round Costco stock up on our bits there.

Then we need to tackle DS's room.

Am in a bit of an email limbo at the moment. Due to further issues with the old account (just stopped getting emails on my laptop) have created myself a new on (with DH's assistance of course ). Now I'm unsure about putting a forward on the old account to the new or just trawling through all my accounts updating the email addresses.

It's actually much more of an issue than I was anticipating.

The other thing is I need to keep some of the old emails and not sure how to retrieve them.

Pushkin

Well Costco was more than I had mentally budgeted for :eek: (£50 more). I therefore need to mentally justify this to myself which I can by saying we bought DH & DS proper ski gloves, bought 3 boxes 30 cans diet coke as they were such a good price and got dentastix for the dog that I normally buy from the supermarket. We also got our first box of chocolates for our Christmas stash :j

Annoyed that DH showed DS the ski gloves as I had intended to wrap them up as a Christmas gift - mean mother that I am I think I may still do that - its not his only present honest! I just think at 12 quantity of presents still matters however the stuff he wants now is so much dearer than when he was younger.

Unfortunately haven't yet managed to buy an advent calendar so I'll have to pop to Tesco this evening, fingers crossed they haven't sold out - don't think I have ever left it this late.

On the activity front DH has done a sterling job in DS's room and all the wallpaper has gone. Tomorrow we'll get the gloss work done and give the walls a wash down with soap water.

Pushkin

Managed to get 2 advent calendars from Tesco yesterday evening (DH will also have one as he is a bigger kid than DS ) although very little choice left - really not like me to leave it so late.

We've just had Sunday brunch - pancakes and bacon - which in retrospect isn't the best meal to have when you have decorating & a ton of domestic chores to do - it's not really a get going meal more a collapse on the sofa afterwards one. Hence me coming on here before I start on the jobs.

Need to get petrol today which always annoys me - we are supposed to get excited about it having reduced in price lately - I remember the hoo ha when it first went about £1 a litre - now we should be grateful its dropped to £1.22 or whatever.:mad:

Also need to try and get a carpet for DS's room, this room is becoming a real long term effort but really need to make a push to get it done within the next couple of weeks. The wardrobe (currently in flat pack form in our lounge) can't be built until the carpet is down
but obviously the carpet can't go down until the room is painted. And more importantly (for DS anyway) is that the Christmas tree can't go up until the wardrobe has been moved.

I never thought redecorating one bedroom would be so complicated and I daren't get started on where we are storing DS's stuff now that the room is virtually empty apart from the bed. Lets just say upstairs is extremely cluttered right now.

Right I have procrastinated enough time to go and plough through the list of jobs.

Pushkin

Ooh it's the 1st of the month and time for monthly financial update which I've been itching to post all day.

Item MORTGAGE
01-Nov-14 £116,096
01-Dec-14 £114,786
Difference -£1,310

Item DOG FUND
01-Nov-14 £2,514
01-Dec-14 £2,664
Difference £150

Item SLUSH FUND
01-Nov-14 £3,300
01-Dec-14 £3,738
Difference £438

Item MONEY MAKING
01-Nov-14 £164
01-Dec-14 £166
Difference £1.57

Item CAR FUND
01-Nov-14 £700
01-Dec-14 £1,400
Difference £700

Item HALIFAX NISA
01-Nov-14 £4,150
01-Dec-14 £5,020
Difference £870

Might need to work on a better format but basically all is ticking along ok I think.

Managed to put an extra £500 or so into the NISA last month due to getting the monies owed for our aborted house move and also the 10% refund JL gave us for the sofa rip.

Pleased slush fund has increased but that will take hit for sure this month as the christmas present costs continue and we have our trip to Germany this month.

What I'm not happy about is the money making/selling account which increased by the grand total of £1.57 in November.

I have put 2 items on bay of e yesterday & do need to increase my efforts but no chance of making my end of year target of £200.

Will plough on this month and make what efforts I can money saving wise but I do tend to get carried away this time of year. It's weird but in terms of money managing and to be honest income we are probably stronger than ever at the moment (we have had some real touch times money wise in the past) but I actually feel more anxious at times too.

I wonder if this is all part of the process and given I'm pretty new to it maybe something I need to work through.

On the plus front I put in my last holiday form for the year to use up the rest of my annual leave and I only have 12 days to work now - well 11 now that today is done :T Roll on Christmas (holidays).....

Pushkin

I've reached a new low or a high depending on how you look at it - I have cut the top off a plastic pot of honey as it was getting impossible to get the contents out but there is still honey left. Not sure DH is too impressed - there is a new pot in the cupboard which I have forbidden anyone to open until I deem the cut open pot to be empty.

black_cat

Do the same with toothpaste and see what he says?!

greent

Pushkin wrote: »

I've reached a new low or a high depending on how you look at it - I have cut the top off a plastic pot of honey as it was getting impossible to get the contents out but there is still honey left. Not sure DH is too impressed - there is a new pot in the cupboard which I have forbidden anyone to open until I deem the cut open pot to be empty.

Is that not standard behaviour everywhere?? :cool::p:D


xx

Pushkin

I had a sneaking suspicion there might be others here who did similar to reduce food waste

@Blackcat - do the same with toothpaste - don't give me ideas :cool: unfortunately we use the hard pump toothpastes (bought in bulk from Costco) so I don't think that would be possible.

I am now thinking about other things I could do to reduce waste... DH might think I'm losing it but as my beloved nana used to day 'if you look after the pennies the pounds will look after themselves'. :j

Pushkin

Way too busy work wise at the moment which is exhausting me but oddly enough spent most of today thinking it was Friday so very disappointed to realise it isn't!

£0.20 payment received from Mysupermarket today - not sure what for but so far it's the only money I've made this month

Progress is slowly being made on DS's bedroom - not sure about the wall colour - I can never tell from the paint pot what it will look like on the wall. We should have bought tester pots but didn't. DS isn't fussy though and once all the furniture and posters are in place touch wood it will be ok and not look so dark.

Pushkin

Flurry of bidding on an item I have on ebay night which initially excited but then confused me.

3 bids all for the same amount don't understand how that can be fair? Surely if there is a bid for say £10 then someone else tries to bid £10 the system shouldn't let them and they would only be able to bid £10.01 ?

Not sure I'm bothered by it but I don't like things I can't understand (which makes me very frustrated quite a lot of the time )

Busy weekend coming up with DH plodding (sadly it is more of a trot than a canter) with the bedroom re-decoration, friends coming for dinner tomorrow, Christmas shopping Sunday and forcing DS to revise for his big science test next week.