The 300k debt-free diary!!!

pandapaws

I've just been talked into taking DS out for the day on the train. How can a kid who's not quite 3 manage that?! I hate trains! He just asked me 'what day is it?' to which I responded 'Saturday', and was told 'trains go past on a Saturday'!!!

So my catch-up day on here has just been blown right out the window. 2 trains a week that I know of go past here on a Sat, to and from Sheffield which takes an hour and a half, with an hour and a half to wait in Sheffield centre for the train home. Could get off somewhere in-between but that would mean spending even longer in some God-forsaken place with nothing to do!

I WILL catch up with what's been going on here! Means I won't have to watch Sat night TV - hooray!

chocaholic110

pandapaws wrote: »

I've just been talked into taking DS out for the day on the train. How can a kid who's not quite 3 manage that?! I hate trains! He just asked me 'what day is it?' to which I responded 'Saturday', and was told 'trains go past on a Saturday'!!!

Can't argue with that logic!

itsnowtime

pandapaws wrote: »

£200 for a new windscreen (DH got a huge stone chip that cracked badly a fortnight ago, so unavoidable but anoying!),

Might not be of use but just wondered if you could claim against your car insurance for your windowscreen. I had exactly the same problem and I made a claim - only had to pay £60 not sure what happens with no claims - not sure if it's affected or not but £60 was definitely better than £200 and Its what we pay our insurance for...

Great thread by the way!!

Natlou_2

Hi Panda, glad to hear you have enjoyed your week off - I was beginning to wonder where you had disappeared to, but nice to have you back!
I too have been spending a little too much of late - just got back from B & Q where we just spent £99 on a christmas tree, the logic being it will pay for itself over the next 4-5 years, and we won't have to mess about cleaning up the needles, have yet to see if 18 month old DD will wreck it!
Had a trip to Monks Cross yesterday and bought jeans and a jumper, but could have spent loads.....
Hope you didn't get too soaked today, Catch up later

Natlou x

pandapaws

Phew, just survived the most boring, cold, unconfortable afternoon in quite some time, and paid £13-odds for the priviledge, but hey-ho, DS enjoyed it. Note to self: trains are crap - don't do it again.

itssnowtime - thanks for the idea, but we're third party only on that car since it's probably worth less than the fuel in it, so no possibility of insurance claim. It would have been cheaper, but apparently it's an expensive screen, typically, the seal had all rotted around it which was another £50. Just a shame it happened a week before the MOT and not a week after, otherwise we'd probably have put it off till next year!!!

Natlou: I'm shocked - £100 for a Xmas tree??!!! Wow! (Says me who bought one for £89 last year, BUT that was Pre-LBM so doesn't count. And we put it up the other day and it's a very nice tree!).

Maccas: hope you have some better luck with your house sale. Our agents rung just before I went out today to say that the local paper wants to do a property section front page spread on our house because it's such phenomenal value (yeah, don't we flippin' well know it!), so I guess there may be another open day coming up. I read something about there only being a 6 month exemption from the HIPs, so if you haven't sold within 6 months of them coming in for your property band then you've got to get one anyway. Have you heard similar, or did I imagine it? Our agent doesn't seem to know much about [strike]selling houses[/strike] HIPs.

Dan the money saving man: Thanks for the tip about stoozing. We've sort of thought about it, and if the right offer comes along we'll probably take it however all the 0%s we're offered seem to come with transaction charges that would pretty-much wipe out any interest. Martin always says its 'only for those with no debt, and for the very financially savvy'. So that pretty much rules me out on 2 counts, but it's something to keep in mind.


Ooh, it's good to be back. I can feel myself recovering from my spend-itis already.

hypno06

Glad you survived the train journey. I hope you manage to get your catch up day tomorrow instead!

Fingers are still well and truly crossed for the house though - I REALLY want you to get that other house - and the fact that no one else has viewed it surely means that it has your names on it

pandapaws

Thanks Hypno! I hope you're right!

Just had a friend pop over to drop off a late birthday present - she got me the Leona Lewis CD which I'm quite looking forward to listening to, and a massive box of Thorntons fudge. Why do I never buy that stuff?? It's fantastic! Especially the bar of chocolate with chunks of fudge in it! What a shame DH is away tonight - he'll just have to have the remains tomorrow (there wouldn't be any if it wasn't for the rum & raisin variety - it's rancid!).

But the visit delayed me from nipping out to the Chinese, which was almost a foregone conclusion since the fridge is empty, so had a rake around the freezer (that thing below the fridge that we keep ice cubes in) and found some mini-kievs & potato waffles which were actually surprisingly tasty when I mashed them all together! According to the packets, they're not as unhealthy as I'd have expected, and best of all it involved no spending! Might take a trip to Farmfoods tomorrow. God, did I just say that?! One day back on here and all thoughts of Waitrose have been well and truly banished!

pandapaws

Just finished the last of the fudge while finally getting my head around Pigsback (thanks for the advice Hypno & co!). I feel quite sick now!

House is a tip and DH will be home soon from his stag night (a few pints and an early night - riveting stuff or what?!) so I'd better make a start.

Hope everyone has a nice relaxing Sunday!

Natlou_2

Hi Panda - God you make me feel guilty - We had a chinese last night! - How are you doing on that one - I read your 'Can cook, must cook thread' - I tend to cook all week, but don't really go near the cooker between Friday night and Sunday night - it all adds up, but starting on 1 Jan Im going to keep an online spending diary to motivate me.

My house needs a good sort too, the lounge needs a good clean as does the bathroom, which I'll do later, other things to do are write christmas cards and try and wrap some pressies!

Have a good day

Natloux

pandapaws

Hmmm, yeah - I really need to think about that thread. I started off really well, but slipped back into old ways quite quickly, and was too ashamed to go back to it! Since I haven't seen it on any of the top pages since I gave up, I'm guessing that everyone else who joined the challenge gave up too!

I'm in for the 'faffing around' challenge now instead - sums me up perfectly, so really going to try and take it seriously! And no offence meant Natlou, but from what I've read it sounds quite a bit like you too! Have you joined? I think it's called '20k by Xmas 2008' or something.