Women and cats will do as they please! :)

TheMagician

Well, this isn't how I had today planned...
I'm currently lying in bed feeling very sick, I've somehow managed to get gastroenteritis. Woke up 1.30am feeling awful and well you know...most of us have had it at some point or another

Bad news - I feel positively horrendous and nausea just won't go away

Good news - I can make my time up at work so it won't affect my pay

I just want to feel better though... this is awful

enjoyyourshoes

Good luck with the deposit. is it all gaining compound interest in highest earning account?

I also use same account to save for 1/4ly, 1/2 yearly and annual bills, the compound interest on these items will be added to your house deposit saving. I use Excel doc to create separate labelled account headings under the one account

Some food ideas:-

Avoid going to the shops

Food shopping

make lists and add tolist as you run out.

Use home delivery service (not enticed by marketingexpertise)

Scratch cook items immediately shopping delivered & freeze for week

Batch cook

Use economies of scale for reduced costs (larger itemsgenerally cheaper per unit weight)

Use freezer as a high interest savings account

Bake easy & inexpensive cakes, biscuits and treats.Store in airtight containers increasing longevity

Buy weeks supply bread & milk and freeze. Stopsemergency distressed trip to convenient stores for not so convenient prices andtreats to tempt you that you do not need.

Use dehydrated Quorn to extend your mince (hydrate in tinned tomato & Oxo mixture forbetter flavour}

Don’t buy pre prepared meals wastes space in freezer foryour own home made food

Use slow cooker for stews and soups ready for when you walkin from work (can use timer for efficient cooking times)

Cheaper cuts meat, i.e hock can be used as basis of soup andfamous Ham, apple, egg & mustard pie

Don’t overcomplicate food coking

TheMagician

Hi enjoyyourshoes, yes, I'm getting 3% and I'm also stoozing, my credit rating is pretty good so I've got a healthy amount in the bank for interest whilst 0% is on CCs.

Thank you for your advice regarding shopping, I mentioned in one of my posts that my fridge is tiny and the freezer is just one tiny shelf so I cannot batch cook and freeze and I can't do a whole week's shop at once. But I stick to the lists as best as I can

Me and my son are also wheat intolerant and never fancy cakes but I do bake them for my friends

enjoyyourshoes

Hi

what's stoozng ?

Santander CC get cash back on food purchases and petrol, any good? Set up DD for full amount repayment.

Price bigger freezer offset over food savings and time saving calculation.

Rolled Oats instead wheat ? Flapjac etc or just test out recipes substituted with oats or sorghum similar.

Don't pay for any insurances with monthly plan as they fleece you on credit. Pay annually. Saving for these will earn compound interest and this again goes to your deposit pot.

TheMagician

Thanks enjoyyourshoes, you're full of advice

Stoozing is when you get a 0% CC and use the whole balance to earn as much interest in another bank account as possible, making minimum monthly repayments and paying back in full once 0% period ends. Just search stoozing on this website, there's loads of info.

I use American express CC for 5% cashback, ends in Jan, then I think it's around 1-2% depending on how much you spend. But you also earn points which then can be used as Amazon etc vouchers.

I would buy the fridge freezer now since I'm going to need one anyway but there's absolutely no room to put it anywhere. We moved to 1bed in July to start saving and it's great but every inch of space is spoken for.

I pay insurances in full, my car insurance is a killer though, £500pa. I compared every day for a month before the renewal date on all big compare websites (btw, worth doing, some days it was much cheaper than others and then you can save the quote No and use it when you do need to renew as long as it's within 4 weeks or so), got £30 cashback too.

TheMagician

Still feeling awful but a little better than before

Today is going to be a NSD again, simply because I'm so ill I'll just about manage to pick DS from school and I will not eat, that's for sure

Bring on pay day, who else enjoys adding all the numbers up to see just how much you saved/paid off CCs and loans

pollyanna24

Hope you are feeling better soon.

Good luck with saving for your house.

I am also a single mum to two little girlies. I think myself lucky in that I bought my house before I had them, but then my ex moved out and my brother took over his half of the mortgage. He is now due to get married, so in the next year or so, we will be selling up. We are currently overpaying in order that we each have as much deposit as possible to put down on our next places.

Good luck with the exams. I still have nightmares where I wake up thinking I haven’t revised or done my maths homework, eek!

As for the cat, I’d gladly get rid of mine, but I’m not that evil. She pees all over the place which is driving me nuts. I’ve had her years and she has got progressively worse. People have suggested that she was all stressed when I had my children, which is fair enough, but they are gradually making less and less noise (well kinda), but she has it in her head to just go wherever she likes now. She has made me never want a cat again, even though they can be very loving creatures.

Ps and just cos I’m nosey. Whereabouts are you planning on buying a house?

submarine76

Hi Magician, hope you are on the mend. I'm looking forwards to seeing how much I can pay off next month too, even with Christmas around the corner.

I'm enjoying the diary, good luck with the saving. :O)

enjoyyourshoes

Magician,

one last idea (they are never meant to be advice)

SIPP (self investing personal pension) for you offspring.
Get tax relief of 20% max you invest is £2880 & Govt adds in the £720 total pa £3600.
Start at birth earliest take out 55
The one I use allows min £1K pa lump sum to be added or £100 p mth.
Can stop investing at any time. Lined to 'investments' so can choose individual shares, IT, bonds etc.
Gives ids a feel for more riskier investments, tempered with long term outlook and options to get financially educated through reading and analysing what you are investing in.

Thanks for the reciprocal advice too

TheMagician

pollyanna24 thanks, think it must be viral since I've gone all achy and feels like a flu now, also kidneys feeling tender? :eek: Will see how I feel tomorrow morning and go see a doctor I think.

Exams suck don't they, I get pretty stressed beforehand but there's just no other way, I keep thinking of the big promotion I'll get at the end

Cats and children, interesting. I had a cat before my DS was born, when I came back from the hospital the cat had changed and was nothing like what she used to be, started peeing everywhere like yours, tried to scratch DS. So I had to give her to relatives and there she turned to her normal self again. I think it's female jealousy

I'll be looking for a house in the north west