A mission to secure my future!

StrugglingYouth

Better late than never I suppose so,

I had a quick sabbatical from work and went back home to visit both my parents early January. It was great!

In other news, I acquired another sealed tin! I opened my tin prematurely last year. I had saved £202 in about 6 months. I only put spare £1, £2 and fifty pence pieces in. I will continue the same with this one.

I am still making my own soups, bread and eating loads of fresh vegetables and fruit and exercising a lot more regularly. I have a fitness goal I set myself before my birthday in July!

In bad news, my cars headlamp bulb that blew was jammed in place and not even the manufacturers garage could remove it without taking the bumper off and the headlight itself out. They wanted £85/hour + VAT, so Il buy a second hand one and have a go myself.

I managed a mere £29 in January from Opinion World but I have not succumbed into buying Lego models!

Summary:
Fresh food!
Car headlight

Beckyy

Best of luck with the headlamp, some of the car forums can be great help for things. Hope you get it done okay

StrugglingYouth

Been working super hard these last two weeks and I have things to show for it in the form of good and not so good news!

Okay lets start with the not so good + get it out the way.

Upcoming bills
Car requires a clutch + release bearing (£130+labour, 4 tyres(£170+fitting) Roof catches also, (£25)
Estimated cost: £325 + maybe £80 in labour for two hours work. So £405

Pre-Planning!
Overtime: +£190 (Potential for £285 if I can get another one this week)
GumTree sales: +£65
Other + surveys: +£32.50 and counting.


I also have a standing order for £7 each week to go into a 'Car Maintenance' fund. I currently have £100 in here.

£405-£387.50=£17.50. I can cover that without issue or credit cards.

So I shouldnt even feel the pinch really. Unless my chum and I cant sort my headlight out without further expense. Fingers crossed.


Lastly my uni application is going swimmingly. Im aiming to start next April, it will give me another year of experience at it and also another year to syphon off a bit more money incase I need it.


ETA:
Forgot I need a new windscreen too! So Im going to need another £156. Two overtime shifts will solve that. Il see if I can swing them next week.

StrugglingYouth

My estimates were way out.

Clutch, release bearing, new gear box oil, labour + VAT = £304.

Tyres delivered = £163 + £20 for them to be fitted, balanced + new valves.

Totals: £487. £80 more than I thought. Not really an issue, I can cover that. Im going to see if I can do 3 more overtime shifts next month to totally clear the costs which will be a bit nicer.

There is a bit of a silver lining. Quidco cashback for tyres = £2.52 + I weirdly got an email offering me 5% off tyres from the vendor this morning so I saved £8. Not a lot, but better than nothing.

StrugglingYouth

Quick update on my car parts dilemma.

The garage I used to use for tyre fitting now charge £15 per wheel for new tyre fitting and balancing. Rang a few local fitting places, all seem to be £15/wheel.

The mechanics tell me I need a new exhaust (I knew this already, but didnt anticipate it so soon) and a drop link ( again I knew this would be required)

I suspect Il be looking at a bill north of £500 once I buy a new exhaust and drop link and have them fitted. So il be doing more overtime! Im also going to GumTree a few things I have laying around here I no longer use.

StrugglingYouth

All the above car related things have been done. Spent roughly £600 on parts and labour.

They garage also advised me my sills were rusting away from the inside and these 'will need fixing for it to pass its MOT' which is on May 1st..Sigh.

So around £700 later it will be fixed. Major overtime for me I suppose to recoup the savings spent.

I have a family wedding to attend so I bought a new suit to oddly..suit their colour scheme. I already owned a pair of suitable brogues so I saved a little here. But its up in York so I have travelled up twice for rehearsals and a stag party.

In other news I have had a stroke of luck. It turns out my mother has been financially aiding my brother for a while now, shes very 'what he has, you will have' type parent. So to my shock £1500 landed in my account around a week ago.

A few days later, again to my utter amazement a Criminal Injuries Claim result was posted to me. From an assault in 2012, went to hospital for a while. They offered me £3300. Which I gratefully accepted. (I had previously resigned myself to £0.) This will all go towards my education fund!

Also survey update:
Opinion World: £30.25 (Made around £135 since October 2014)
Valued Opinions: £31.50 (Or 3 £10 vouchers. Still deciding which)
OnePoll: Plodding at the moment with a mere £3.50. Long way to go.

Summary:
In:
Surveys: £60.25
Mother: £1500
CICA: £3300
eBay: £4.00
Total: £4864.25

Out:
Pending car repairs: £700
Car service items: £70
Suit: £135
Additional fuel: £90
Total: £995


Overall I cannot complain! All is well in my world. I even have a date next Monday!

StrugglingYouth

General update:

Opinion World stood at £34.50 but I bought some service items for my car, oil, oil + air filters, spark plugs. So I used them to offset this cost. I actually spent around £11.

Also bought some water filters, used some Tesco vouchers I got from filling up at Esso. So £16 turned into £9.50 for six of them had them delivered FOC too. I put the difference in pound coins into my sealed tin. At this rate it may be full by Christmas!

Im also in the process of switching to Santander for the 3% interest on balances between £3,000-£9,000. It should net me around £20 interest each month, which may provide a gym membership perhaps?

Payday tomorrow, did a little overtime last month so it should be a little more than the usual.

Six month water bills were paid today also!

Summary:
Water bills: £159.34
Car service items: £11 < Doesn't include garage labour.

Lastly, I am going to have a scrambled egg + red pesto bagel for lunch. The red pesto is very important in this combination!

StrugglingYouth

I also finally decided what vouchers to get from Valued Opinions. I went for a mixture of 'sensible' and 'nice' with £10 for Sainsburys and £20 for Topman.

Il get non perishable stuff from Sainsburys, chopped tomatoes, chilli powders, rice, kidney beans etc etc.

Im going to have a look for a summery pair of shoes from Topman. If not Il save it for another time.

I also have £50 worth of HMV vouchers, I need to get rid of sharpish as they expire in about a month. So if you have any suggestions for TV shows or indeed anything they sell, pray tell!

StrugglingYouth

My vouchers have arrived from VO!

It seems I had my sensible head on, because 2 x £10 vouchers for Sainsburys turned up and only £10 for Topman.

Not complaining either way!

My Opinion World is currently sitting at £41. I forgot to transfer it to paypal before I bought my car stuff so its still sitting there. Il maybe withdraw once it reaches £50.

I did my usual small bit of groceries shopping at Morrisons earlier today. They gave me some form of peel and win type card. I opened it and won 200 points. If I can amass 500 points Il get a £5 off voucher it appears. I highly doubt I will get anywhere near that anytime soon though.

I have also been looking at Top Cash Back! Im a little miffed, as if I had looked before I bought my suit + other bits I could have had somewhere between £20-£25 cash back from them! Lesson learned however!

Little car update: I have booked the motor in for its rust repairs. Quoted £672 inc VAT I also require a train back home and again to collect it so those will come to about £26. TheTrainLine are on TCB though, so all is not lost. If I keep the car another two years and it needs little for its MOT il be a happy boy!

StrugglingYouth

More MSE smooth moves! I needed train tickets to return home from dropping my car off at the restorers. I checked Quidco as normal practice, no luck. I checked TCB and the trainline was on it.

So I will get my first amount of cashback from them. Its a comical 78pence, but its a start. Covered their booking fee at least.