Back in control...now to stay there!

stiltoncheese

Morning Diary and MSErs

Up at 7am with the little man. Milk and nappy done so just catching up on here for 30 mins before we have breakfast.

Got 3 more items being collected today so should give me another £7 to go into my pot, bringing it up to £22. Not bad for getting rid of stuff that is junk to me. Some things have had no interest so I'll bump them up on the site again later today and see if they go too.

I am in a more determined mood today after deep cleaning the kitchen yesterday so am planning on tackling the bathroom and toilet today. They aren't horrible or anything, but now I am so heavily pregnant, I tend to just give them a quick going over instead of a deep clean so they need to be done properly really.

My plan of action for today is:

Check online banking DONE
Update YNAB and spreadsheet DONE
Breakfast, dinner and tea from stores (all meal-planned last week) DONE
Write this weeks meal planner
Order weekly food shop to come tomorrow
NSD DONE
NPD (No petrol day!) DONE
Load of washing DONE
Washing on to airer to dry DONE
Put stuff already dried on airer away DONE
DH to hoover tonight
Polish living room DONE
Phone up RAF to report bathroom light issues DONE
Chase up OU re: course DONE...no news yet
Read some more diaries/challenges on here DONE

I realise that's a massive list and probably a bit over optimistic, but some of it can tick over to tomorrow if I don't have time. Want to try and capitalise on this sudden burst of energy I've had as they are few and far between at the moment!

stiltoncheese

What a mad day today has been. Achieved almost everything on my list. Will do the meal planner and order my food shopping tonight after I've put DS to bed.

Also deep cleaned the bathroom and toilet, straightened the bedrooms, polished the whole house and cleared all the remaining washing. Just need to hoover the house and mop the kitchen floor, and put the rubbish bin out for collection tomorrow morning, but that is hubby's job after dinner!

Roast dinner that I didn't cook yesterday is cooking away nicely and I have built up a huge appetite for it now after doing all the housework.

Always feel so much better when the house is immaculate and I can just relax.

Only 1 of my items has been collected so far though (£2.50) so hoping the others are still coming tonight. The other 2 items only sold for £4.50 total but it all counts and is better cluttering up someone elses house than mine. Found a couple of other bits I can sell when I was straightening up so they have been added to the pile and I will try and photograph and list them either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Off to finish dinner off and relax for a bit as I am totally pooped now.

stiltoncheese

Hubby hoovered downstairs after dinner and he will mop the kitchen floor and hoover upsatairs for me tonight. Bins out and waiting to be collected and food shopping due to arrive later today. Have just written up the meal planner on the blackboard in the kitchen for the next 7 days.

Really pleased that I got all of yesterdays jobs done, plus more I hadn't intended to do. Today I just need to change the cat litter and put 1 load of washing on that hubby had 'forgotten' about in his bag from his work course last week. Then me and DS are going to spend the day chilling out and I am going to have a nice long soak in the bath when he goes down for a nap.

Bank account checked and all tallying with YNAB. Hubby transferred me £20 yesterday that he owed me, so thinking of moving that, plus £30 over into my car tax/MOT savings, leaving just £20.01 in my account. It's 10 days until payday, but I am staying home all day today and tomorrow meaning 2 x NSD so will really only need to last for 8 days. I have already kept money aside for fuel I need to put in later this week and next week, and keep grocercy budget in a different account too.

If I can be really strict with myself, I will hopefully still have most (if not all) of the last £20 to transfer the night before payday, but we'll see!!! Not over stretching as I find it more demoralising taking money back out of savings.

stiltoncheese

Sod it, I've done it.

£20.01 to last for the next 8 days with all bills, food and fuel accounted for. Should be doable...£2.50 per day really.

Just noticed interest was added to my esaver yesterday too, so moved that over into my emergency fund...another £1.18 into the pot.

Sig updated

in_need_of_direction

Well done. Real commitment shown there.

stiltoncheese

Thanks INOD. I'm determined to start 2015 positively with little savings pots for everything as it's the year I finally become debt free! Don't want to undo all my hard work by not having any money saved for the less frequent costs like tax etc as I normally just panic when they are due!

stiltoncheese

Kitty litter all emptied and changed, washing done and on airer and dried clothes put away. Off to start dinner in a bit, using up the leftover chicken in a pie from the roast I made last night.

Had a NSD and someone else just collected another item I sold. It was supposed to be for £2.50 but because she didn't turn up yesterday and just appeared at the door unannounced today, she gave me £3 instead. One more item being picked up tomorrow at 11am and that puts me up to £22.50. Have bumped up my other items but they aren't showing any interest at all sadly.

Still no news from OU about my course. I will give it a couple more days and phone them again. Hate being told a time frame for something and then watching it pass by with no news!

stiltoncheese

Emptied my terramundi pot today as I hate the things. It was a gift a couple of years ago which I only started using a couple of months ago, but I hate not knowing how much is in them and like to count it up periodically. Eventually managed to get the money out using a knife, but it took ages. £37 in £1 coins, so I have added them to a pot with a lid and advertised the terramundi on the local selling pages. May as well see if I can get some cash for it. Also started a £2 pot and a 50p, but only have one of each coin in them at the mo.

Also decided I want to do the save £1 per corresponding week number from Jan, but I can't really afford that much as I am also going to be doing the £1 per day challenge too. Decided I will save 20p per week number instead, which should mean £275.60 saved at the end of next year. Less likely to miss the smaller amounts and it will be easier to do when my occupational maternity pay stops and I go onto SMP only. Not sure what it will be for yet, as the £1 per day is for xmas 2015. May put it towards a new bed as me and hubby could really do with a new one.

Really am loving seeing all these little savings pots add up. It's nice to know I have got £567.65 saved up for next years one-off bills, plus the £3000 I have in the mortgage deposit fund. Just need my loan to end now...6 payments and counting

stiltoncheese

Been into work today so had to use petrol...booooo! I need to put some more in tomorrow as the light came on just as I got home and will be in the office again tomorrow.

Was a NSD though, and planning on tomorrow being a NSD too. Payday next Friday and still have my £20.01 in the bank, so really hoping to move this into another savings pot next thursday night.

Sold another 2 items on my selling page too, so another £13 made. £10 needs to be put into my son's account as it's his and the other £3 can go into my £1 pot making it up to £40.

My manager has offered me some overtime today too. I have agreed to work 30 extra hours over the next 4 weeks (so basically 7.5 hours extra a week, which is one full time day). They will let me do it from home in the evenings as I have full access to work servers etc, so should hopefully be an extra £250 or so in my December pay packet. That will go straight into the MOT/Service fund though, and means I won't have to find the extra from my wages.

Feel like things are quite positive money wise at the mo (touches wood!!)

stiltoncheese

Evening MSE'rs

Another work day today and had to put fuel in the car, but it's come out of my fuel budget so counting it as a NSD. Had £37.60 left in the fuel budget so £15 put in to cover what I have used this week (as had been using the fuel hubby put in, instead of putting my own in) and will keep £20 to cover my 2 days next week. Transferred the remaining £2.60 over to the emergency fund like a good girl, instead of caving and using it to buy chocolate at the garage! Was hard and so tempting, but I didn't succomb

Payday is in a week, so if I can get to Wednesday without needing to spend anything, then I am going to transfer the final £20 in my account over to the emergency fund, leaving me 1p.

Hoping that my overtime and expense claim which will be paid in December and January paypackets will net me around £500 extra, so half will go into the MOT/service pot and the rest will go into the emergency fund. Determined to get this up to £1000 before my SMP kicks in as I won't have much spare then.

It's the weekend yaaaayyyy!