Mini meltdown and light bulb moment

AleMrsT

Oh and OH still hasnt had his £501 final PPI payment. :mad: The bank in question sent a letter for him to sign and send back with the 'offer', then he got another letter saying thank you for accepting, now you need to go into the branch with two forms of ID and sign this other form (he already had to go into the branch with ID during the claim process!) so he did that on Friday, then it takes up to two weeks for the cheque to arrive.

This particular bank have been so slow with everything, I assume they were one of the worst culprits for mis-selling and are very busy with claims, my parents got quite a lot back from them and their loan was wiped a few years ago, so I'm assuming they like to drag their heels with it hoping that people will give up or forget or not bother visiting the branch or returning the forms.

It will be a nice buffer just before christmas though, not sure what he is planning on doing with it yet.

AleMrsT

I'm now 2p away from my £15 target on Qmee and I just got declined on 2 surveys in a row! So frustrating.

AleMrsT

I have booked to have some beauty treatments in December in preparation for my christmas meal with friends. I never really treat myself, and its £45 for eyebrows, nails and eye lash tint. This weekend the salon are doing a half price gift voucher offer, so I can get a £50 gift voucher for £25. I have spoken to my grandma and she wants to buy me the vouchers as my christmas present, so it wont cost me a single penny :j very MSE. I'm really looking forward to it!

Looking after niece 2 tomorrow morning, then off to the hospital in the afternoon. It seems like such a long time since I last had a hospital appointment, its been 7 weeks this time.

I've just been doing some more surveys this evening, managed to get to over £15 on qmee so have cashed out, and have also cashed out £5 worth of points on opinion outpost. I'll use both of these payouts to top up the christmas shopping pot so that i can finish the christmas shopping with it. I know its only £20 but its £20 more than I had yesterday! :rotfl:

Today has been a much needed NSD. I topped up my bus ticket last night so the balance on my account is £23.41 (not including the survey payouts which are sitting in my paypal account)

Its making me itch having less than £40 in my account, so need NSD's between now and pay day next Thursday.

We have plenty of meat in the freezer and I have made a meal plan all the way up until payday, the only thing we will need to get is some cream and more potatoes for Sunday's planned meal (parmesan chicken with spinach and potatoes, its so yummy) and will probably need a milk top up soon so hoping £5 will be enough for the small top up shop.

Come on payday, 9 days to go!

AleMrsT

Well pay day is now 2 days away, I have used the survey money to buy dads christmas present, got 30% off in the black friday sale so it was £9.80 instead of £14.

I also bought the vouchers as they were only on offer last weekend, will replenish the savings funds when my grandma gives me the cash for the vouchers.

I also took niece 1 to the cinema on sunday as the new frozen short was out for that weekend only, so £6.40 spent on tickets and ££6.25 spent on pick n mix sweets and a drink. Mum gave me £3 for the bus fare back to my sisters as its in a different town so couldnt use my bus ticket.

I was all on track and on budget, then the pension DD came out this morning, which came out on 30th last month, so it left me £20 overdrawn and I don't have an overdraft facility!

Luckily OH's PPI money has finally cleared, so he transferred £40 across to me to cover the £25 DD and to avoid unauthorised OD charges.

I was doing so well! This is what happens when I let my bank balance dip below £40! I usually keep a buffer in there just in case.

No bonus this month as there have hardly been any sales, so pay is going to be a bit less than usual for this month and next.

Will get £1076.58 on Thursday, and I just have 2 more christmas gifts to get which is around £60 in total, then usual bills £800, new debt repayment of £98 which leaves me with £118 for the rest of December :eek::eek: Minus £40 that OH has transferred across, and £10 to replace the emergency fund is £68 Oh dear!

Hopefully OH will not need the £40 transferring back seeing as he has the extra £500 and I have 2 christmas meals and 1 secret santa to pay for too! This month is really going to be so tight, I'm already dreading it.

Hopefully I can carry on with more surveys to build up some extra little funds. I might cancel one of the christmas meals (the work one) as I'm not really that bothered about going anyway seeing as OH is on lates that day so I'd have to sort out lifts etc to get home.

We're off up to the in laws for christmas so shouldnt really need to spend anything leading up to it.

I left work at 11am today as I feel absolutely rotten, full of cold and cant get warm, luckily its my usual day off tomorrow so I can just rest up. I've been at the new workplace over a year now I *should* get paid sick pay for today, especially as its not a full day off. If not I'll work an extra day to make up for it, and I might see if I can also work another extra day just to bump up Decembers pay, but don't want to try and do too much.

AleMrsT

Quiet day at work today, the other girl isnt in so its just my friend and I, if she had been in I'd have probably taken another sick day as I'm still feeling ropey but it doesn't matter too much if she isnt here.

I've spent the morning working out my December budget, and there is NO wriggle room whatsoever :eek:

£1096 = account balance after wages

£800 bills
£98 debt
£25 pension

Leaving £173 for the month, to finish christmas shopping, planned christmas meals, sisters wedding anniversary and sisters birthday! :eek:

£15 work meal
£20 meal with friends
£10 secret Santa
£13 rest of OH's xmas budget
£20 towards hamper for grandparents
£20 mum and dad extra gift
£10 anniversary
£15 sister birthday
£5 work lunch

Leaving £45 to last the rest of the month! Aaagh I'm totally stressing but i just need to be extra strict with sticking to budget. Been to get a few bits today on lunch, spends as follows

£3.59 work lunch (£1.41 under budget)
£10.97 towards grandparents hamper (£9.03 left)
£2.99 towards secret santa (£7.01 left)

Hoping I will be under budget for both meals out as I've already paid deposits for these and I've factored in costs for a drink, so if i can have tap water it will be even cheaper, meal choices have already been made.

Also grandma is due to give me £25 back for my christmas vouchers so hopefully i can use this at both meals and I'll only have to pay a contribution.

OH will have to pay travel expenses and any extras over Christmas from the rest of the PPI money as i just dont have it

I hate this feeling of scrimping, i also need to replace £10 that i used from the emergency fund.

AleMrsT

OH is at work this morning so I'm going to have a quick clean up, get the veggies prepped for the chicken casserole then snuggle up on the sofa watching a christmas film

We haven't bothered with advent calendars this year, instead we are going to watch a christmas film every day between now and christmas, which will be free as we have Netflix and online streaming.

Today's Film is Arthur Christmas!

I've cashed out some survey money this morning, £5 from opinion outpost and £7 from prolific, this will go straight towards the remaining christmas presents for this year.

Balance of my account today: £150.99

After posting yesterday I remembered that I owed a colleague £5 for a leaving gift, and its another colleague's birthday mid month so that will be another £5! The account buffer is now down to £35!! :eek::eek: I'm a bit scared. must must must keep a VERY close eye on every single penny of spending to avoid a disastrous December.

misstara

Love the idea of watching a Christmas film every day . Good luck with your December budget, looks tight but you can do it!

AleMrsT

So balance of the account is £123.18 :eek:

Still not got any more xmas gifts, but I withdrew £20 cash for my work meal and have £5 change left, I also bought some new foundation from primark as I ran out yesterday morning, that was totally not budgeted

I have another meal out next week, hoping to stick to £20 for that as I've already paid a £10 deposit and only drink soft drinks, no taxi's needed as my friend lives round the corner so we'll travel together.

I've cashed in some survey money so I have £12.04 in my paypal, and I still have £9 in my amazon account because i cancelled a gift for niece 2 which wasnt going to arrive in time for christmas.

Need to get something else for her, which I will use the amazon money for. Still doing surveys to try and bring in a few more pennies, I do quite well on opinion outpost, hoping for another £10 before christmas.

My sister is going to put some money towards a voucher for my parents so current spending budget looks as follows:

Niece 2 - £10
Mum and Dad £20 (£30 voucher)
Rest of Grandma and grandads gift £14.50
OH £13
Meal £20
Secret santa £7
Colleague birthday £3
Sister birthday and anniversary £25

£112.50

leaving me with £10!! agh I'm so stressed!

I have £7.50 in my purse
£12.04 in paypal
£9.67 in amazon
£25 owed to me from grandma

Total £57.39

Once this month is over I am definitely going to build up the christmas savings. Last year it was amazing to have a pot of money set aside to use for christmas, I've got so complacent (and lazy!) this year, so I've only got myself to blame.

Just had a little cry and stuffed my face with jaffa cakes. Off to get the house cleaned and have a look for bargains online now.

AleMrsT

Christmas shopping is very nearly all done. Just waiting for a love2shop voucher to arrive from Top CashBack so I can order 3 CD's from HMV for niece 1, then it literally is all finished.

I have gone over budget on a few things, but still have money left, and OH is going to transfer money from the bills account to cover my meal out with friends at the weekend, so its all looking good.

Been to a birthday party this weekend, stayed overnight in a hotel as it was easier (and cheaper) than sorting out taxis there are back. Drove home in the snow and picked up some bits and bobs from Tesco, including some essentials (bread and milk) for my grandparents as I really didnt want them having to head out in the snow.

OH has gone off to work on a short shift today as he was supposed to be off for the whole weekend, so I've unpacked the cases and done the washing from the night away, done the ironing, put it all away, cleaned the house, made myself a roast chicken dinner, I'm just about to put the christmas tree up, OH bought it all out of the garage earlier so I could put it up tonight whilst he's at work.

Once the trees up, I'm going to wrap all of the christmas gifts and set them under the tree, then have a nice bath and watch a christmas film

Not totted up final christmas shopping spends or anything yet, need to get on so will probably do a more financial update tomorrow when I have more time.

OH has 5 more shifts at work after today, and I have 6 more days, then we're both off until 29th.

AleMrsT

So I've ordered the final Christmas gift today, as waiting for the Love2Shop voucher wouldnt have given me enough time to then order the CD's for them to be delivered in time.

Total spent on Christmas shopping £231.03.

Total cost of gifts (minus wrapping paper, cards etc) £214.72

Then the important figure, the amount of money that the gifts have actually cost me: £167.51, so only £17.51 over budget for gifts, and £47.21 worth of 'free' gifts :j I'm very pleased with that, I'm really happy with the amount of gifts everyone has, and I've worked hard getting them at the best prices and using survey and topcashback vouchers/money.

OH has transferred me £50 from the bills account as I needed a bus ticket top up and also I was £10 short for my meal out this coming Saturday, but now I have enough to cover that and money set aside for my sisters birthday present and the DD that comes out on 27th.

Now to spend the rest of the evening wrapping what I didnt get wrapped yesterday, then I need to wait for a couple more gifts to arrive and thats me all done.

My sister owes me £13 so once she's paid that I'll add it to the emergency fund which I had to use for presents etc.

This has taught me I definitely need to get back into the habit of regularly saving towards christmas, last year was so much easier because I had money aside, so boxing day this year, I will start to build up my christmas savings pot. I will aim to save £400, as this will cover presents, meals out, wrapping paper, cards, a new outfit if needed. I'm going to carry on with the surveys etc and build up the fund using the survey money, I don't think I'll be able to save nearly £10 a week without it, but we'll see.

Off to wash the pots then I'll catch up on diaries as I've not caught up with any for a while.