Oh No Not Again! Right. This Time......

Nagme

Sold a pair of DS's snowboots yesterday, and DH transferred £65 from his Paypal account to the current account from his recent sales.

In: Estimated £3,500

Out: Estimated £3,362
Broken down:
Bills: £2,570 (inc £230 transferred to vehicle piggy bank)
Cash:£120
Amex:£500
Next £0 (£40 paid from survey earnings)
Cap1:£80
Argos: £59
School dinners: £33

DH looked at the vehicle spreadsheet and suggested we remove the £500 for the Superb maintenance as he thinks it won't need anything this year, so that's extra for the cards.

Woke up at 2am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep for hours, ended up downstairs in the study under two blankets with the cat. Needless to say my willpower was in short supply today and I bought a can of coke, chocolate and a £1.99 magazine (first mag of the year) after work this morning.

I was surprised at how much we spent on clothing this month, over £100 on DS but that included school shoes and trainers. We only spent £200 on fuel though, which is so much less than it has been in the past.

Two weeks till we collect the caravan, I'm so excited. Our first trip will be to our friends' driveway for the night so we don't need much initially, just a hitchlock and mirror extenders, hopefully second hand.

Nagme

Went to Ikea today with a friend and spent £5.55 on a picture frame, a can opener and utensils for the 'van. I felt very restrained. Then we had lunch out, £4.
DH's expenses came in, so sent £41 to cap1 and £41 to car savings account. We're waiting for the next load of expenses to come in as he bought a train ticket on Cap1 for £140.

Yesterday, I checked our fuel accounts and switched again, estimated savings £8 per month and hopefully £30 CB, and cancelled the movie deal through Now TV which was £9.99 a month. It was a free trial we took up over Xmas but it was so popular we voted to pay for a month after the trial ended. Sorry boys! also checked our Sky TV statement and found we'd been charged £4 for a phonecall which should've been free, so got that adjusted too. Must keep a closer eye on that.Water's on a meter, but I think we're coming up to a free council tax month soon? That's always nice.

Got DS off the Chocolate W'bix (£2.69) and onto Mr T Value Cornflakes (31p)

Nagme

Dh got his formal job offer yesterday :j
He was very happy to be handing in his notice, and with luck they'll pay him for the 10 days untaken leave too.
Yesterday and today were both NSDs, and managed to get some ebay listings done. Nothing planned for the weekend, just a haircut for DS tomorrow, and jobbing round the house. We had a bit of snow yesterday (very exciting if you're 7) but it's mostly gone now. We'll see if any more comes tonight.

Came home with 3 slices of chocolate yule log from the freezer at work

Nagme

Had a very uneventful low cost weekend, it was lovely, and DH was calmer than I've seen him for a long time, It's like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders now that he doesn't need to do two jobs. Ran errands for dad on Saturday morning, then took mum shopping in the afternoon, had a late night watching Ted on the telly, then a day at home on Sunday, playing lego . Total spends were £22 on food at MR S, and a fiver for golf balls when DH took DS to the driving range on Sunday morning.
Work paid me more than I'd caclulated I'd earned, so an extra £50 went to next.
Yesterday, I ended up having to go to work on the scrounge for boxes for dad's parcels, and whilst I was out I went to MR T, bought three work shirts and a tie for DH, then to get the £5 discount for the £25 spend I added a £7 t-shirt for myself which only cost an extra £2. so all that for £26 . I also picked up a £2 washable doormat for the 'van.
The snow came down last night, so we had the usual snowfight on the way to school. Unfortunately I am still throwing the snow sensibly at DS's jacket, whilst he is in war mode and throwing at my head. Came home, dried hair again then walked to work, came back and "popped" into see mum for 2 hours. Only just got home!
Everyone was greeting each other today in town, it's like the snow has made everyone a bit more social.
I have a MrT delivery booked for tomorrow, but I will do a meal plan this afternoon for a week of meals, and see what can be used up to keep the cost right down. I've targeted us with a £500 spend for the month on food and fuel, so lets see how that goes.

Nagme

It's been almost a week since my last diary update

Dad had chemo 1/6 on Thursday, I tidied up the kitchen as they had to leave really early, and left them some flowers and vegan chocolates for their late return. Had some lovely texts when they finally got home. Yesterday he was tired, but could already feel an improvement in his hip which is where there are some lesions. It would have been really handy to have a disability badge for the hospital visits during this time, but as I understand it he doesn't qualify.
Took back the possessed radio yesterday to John L (it kept jumping from Planet Rock to Radio 4 - DH not amused), and exchanged it for an own branded one that was £20 cheaper. It has been a very cheap weekend, DH calls it "anti-shopping".
No council tax payment this month meant that we were able to get the security items for the caravan with the joint account.
It's taken a while to change mentality - switching from using the credit cards for everything willy-nilly as we used to when we had an offset mortgage, to checking if we have funds in our accounts before making purchases.
I have been very productive over the weekend with cooking and gardening, but I am so tired today and have nursed a headache since I got up.

lauradora

morning!!


Well done on binning off the credit cards. Sounds like you are being a model daughter

Nagme

Well I really haven't had much to contribute lately, I guess life has felt busy. I think I'm crashing a bit so must watch the sugar intake/bedtime/ general wellbeing today.

The gas and leccie account was massively in credit because they hadn't applied any payments to the electricity account. Glad I'm changing supplier.
Caravan wasn't ready to collect on Friday thanks to a problem with the electrics so we stayed at our friends house instead, BBQ in February was a roaring success - must do that again.Swapped our tent plus kitchen thingy with friends, for their smaller tent plus £120
I couldn't make the birthday cake in the end - all the cake tins had rusted in our draughty and damp corner cupboard! One day we will replace the kitchen and find out where the cold is coming in...

:EasterBun

The easter bunny was DS's idea. We're snuggled up on the sofa under two blankets watching telly - a good start to the day after a busy weekend and before our trip to wales tomorrow. It isn't going to cost us much this week apart from fuel, plenty of food in the kitchen and no expensive day trips anywhere. Just earned enough for anouther voucher redemption from VO - guilt free shopping

Nagme

Pah, so much for a pyjama day - ended up doing a gas run for dad (much to DS's disappointment). Almost ran out of fuel on our way to the petrol station, I'd never driven the Fabia down to a range of 0 miles before, then I forgot Dad's pin number (- he kindly offered to buy me a tank after all the running around I'd been doing), so gutted! To top it all off the shop didn't have gas so that was a 20 mile round trip wasted. The good news is though, I went to the hardware shop in our town, ie half a mile away from his workshop and they had some in stock. I have never got Dad's gas from there before because about ten years ago he went there and they were more expensive (they're not any more). Finally got home at 4pm with a mountain of housework type stuff to do before our Wales trip tomorrow, so instead of that I'm munching peanut m&m's and on my laptop. And I think my rant is now done.

Nagme

The trip to Wales was good, nice to see family. DS and his cousin actually got on really well for once- usually they wrestle with each other like brothers. We did all go out for dinner but sister paid for the main course and I paid for desserts. Came home at the beginning of a cold and had that ever since, and now DS's been off school with it for the 2nd day.

Still trying to be careful with the cash, I redeemed my boots points for a moon cup, reshaped an old bathmat into a pedestal mat for the downstairs loo, made 2 prs of shorts out of some old knee-less jeans and my lovely sister has given me a bag of clothes and shoes, what a treat
we needed a few things last week, work trousers for DH, socks, jeans for myself, and pe Trainers. There's always something it seems.
I'm going to look into interest rates on the n wide card once the zero per cent offer ends in April to see which card is the best for paying dh's holiday money into today. I really feel like I'm losing the battle here but I'm sure it's the depression talking.

Nagme

Woo hoo DH got paid £1,200 for untaken holiday :j

We have decided to use that for clearing the balance off the amex card.
There's £1,266 left to pay off n'wide and the 0% on that is ending next month, so I'll transfer that to another 0% card this month. It would have been good mentally to get that one to zero with DH's money but it's better financially to sort the amex and cap1.

We can't pay the cards just yet though, as DH's new employer pays on the 15th of the month so we need a buffer for all the payments that go out on the 1st April!

Ultimately I don't think we can trust ourselves with credit cards so I look forward to clearing the lot.

Car insurance is due later this month, I shall see if the new insurer will give a discount for having a dashcam (given to me for free). Happily, there are funds in the "vehicle" piggy bank for this

Funny, I was feeling very down over the weekend about money stuff, but we are making progress, physically and mentally. I shall do a tally up when the money is settled.