New Mission, New Diary

MoneyMission2015

Finally some of the cashback I've been waiting for has gone in to payout status on Topcashback! I've converted them to New Look vouchers to top that up ready for some Christmas presents for my daughter. I am also pretty pleased because I was checking my vouchers balance in YNAB (got them as an off budget account) and realised when going through my purse that I haven't got all of them on YNAB, so I double checked the balances of the gift cards online and have managed to 'find' an extra £35!! I am well on my way to getting my voucher balance up to £400 which will be great for Christmas.

MoneyMission2015

I was having a tidy up on the weekend and went through a pile of papers that my husband said was his that he needed to sort through & recycle or file as needed. As I was going through them I found the first lot of Virgin Atlantic credit cards that I thought had got lost in the post! So all that time I was waiting for them to arrive and then calling Virgin Atlantic to get them cancelled and new ones sent out, they were sat in my OH's pile of letters. Men!!:mad:


Oh well, no harm done & at least I was able to get new ones sorted quickly. I finally got around to calling them again this week to add my flying club number to the account, so the points I've earned will now be added.


I have made an extra £57 on Amazon today too. I had bought something for my youngest daughter back in January and it was put away for her birthday, but then we didn't give it to her for her birthday because we forgot about it & bought her other things. Well I was talking to a friend about it who got it for her daughter last year for Christmas and she said her daughter loved it for the first few weeks but then just went back to using her ipad because there were more games that she liked. So I decided to put it on Amazon and it sold after a few days of being listed, so I've posted it special delivery today. I'm just glad I didn't pay full price for it in the first place like my friend did!


I'm pleased that I've got £57 for it as I bought it for £50. I'll leave it a few days to make sure it arrives with the buyer and then I'll withdraw the money to my account. Now I've just got to decide what to put it towards, maybe a split between Christmas & Holiday savings.


I've also FINALLY got to another payout on a survey/search site I've been using. I have been on around £17 for the last week or so & not really been getting anywhere with the surveys on there because I kept getting screened out, but I had a confirmation email earlier today confirming a payout from a free offer I signed up to a while back & it credited me with £3.50 which means I have been able to cash out & will now await the cheque. They don't offer any other payout alternatives but fingers crossed it should arrive in the post pretty quickly and I can get it to the bank asap then. I will probably also split this money, although I'll probably split it between something different; maybe Birthdays and Clothing.


I've not set myself any targets this week but we have got quite a bit to do to prepare for holiday, so I don't think I'll worry too much about setting targets this week.

MoneyMission2015

Major disaster!! I've come back from our weeks holiday, wanted to update YNAB because a few bills have left & I've been paid but YNAB won't load. I've tried loading the correct budget file but it keeps saying there's an error. I emailed YNAB for some help but the instructions they sent me have not worked :mad:. It's not syncing on my phone app either so it looks like I am going to have to start again

MoneyMission2015

Crisis averted, my YNAB worked on my work computer today & is now working on my phone too so looks like it's ok now. I haven't tried it on my own laptop yet but I'm sure it should work now that it's all synced ok. I'm so relieved it's all fine now though because I had convinced myself I was going to have to start all over again.

My credit card balances are still reducing nicely. I've also been working hard to save money as much as possible, especially with the Christmas shopping I've started. I've been checking for vouchers & cashback before I buy anything.

snowscreamer

Hi MM,

Just catching up, seems much like with me YNAB keeps you on the straight and narrow (your crisis sounded very scary!!)

Great that credit card balances still reducing. Not long now for either of us and we can start putting the monthly excess towards savings or nice things - without feeling guilty!

SS

MoneyMission2015

So everything is going well. I was a bit disheartened a few weeks ago because I had to increase my debt. I registered to do a course, which will eventually lead to me finally getting my degree, so very beneficial, but the course is £900. I put it on a 0% purchase card but I was disappointed my debt had gone up. But then I was talking about it in work to my boss & he said they would pay for it, so I took the receipt into work and they reimbursed me. I'm so pleased : )

More good news too, my OH has finally been accepted for a 0% balance transfer card. He had pretty bad credit for some reason, I think he just used his credit card without really checking the balance etc so went over his limit, which incurred charges & it just ended up in that cycle. The annoying thing is he has more savings than I do, but he pays no attention to his credit cards etc. Anyway, we tried his details on the MSE eligibility checker about 2 months ago & it came back as 0% chance of any, so we left it. But I tried again tonight because I know we've overpaid his cards a bit the last 2 months and it came back as 95% on most of the balance transfer cards, some were 90%, then a few were lower. So I went for one that said 95% & he was accepted with the limit being more than enough to cover his cards. So I've told him now to keep an eye out for the card so I can sort it all out for him. I'm really pleased with this because I saw the DD leaving the joint account every month & it used to annoy me that it was paying interest to the bank every month. So now it will all go towards his card debt.

Everything else is going well. The next few months are going to be pretty spendy because of Christmas but I've saved quite a lot & have vouchers to spend, plus I've got my budgets pretty much nailed now so I'm confident I'll get to January with no extra debt.

I've been making other changes too in life. I've been feeling really unhealthy & tired lately so have finally started getting my diet in check. I'm not overweight, which is surprising considering how much rubbish I usually eat, but the foods I was eating obviously weren't doing me any good because I just felt like cr*p most of the time so I decided its time to sort things out. I'm not going on a fad diet or anything, just making changes like completely cutting out soft drinks (I don't drink tea & coffee anyway so they are no issue), only drinking water & eating lots more fruit & veg. I still have treats but nowhere near as many as before. I'm already noticing the difference so I'm glad I've finally started eating better.

Apart from that there's nothing else really to report. I just hope things carry on as they are, I feel like this year has been a good year for change so in 2016 I think I'll be well & truly set into a completely different lifestyle of healthy eating & money saving.

MoneyMission2015

I've found as Christmas is approaching I've not got as much of the moneysaving bug as I previously did. I'm not using credit again or anything and am still saving, paying the 0% cards and using YNAB, but I've not been on here as much and my grocery shopping is getting a bit out of hand again. I have to rein this in because I don't want to fall back in to bad habits!


I've been nosing on the internet today for money off coupons, just to see what's on offer, but it annoys me that the vouchers that offer the decent money off are always for unhealthy foods and drinks. It would be great to find a few vouchers with money off fruit & veg! However, saying that I have grabbed the Lidl magazine with the £5 off a £40 spend. I shopped in there the other day & bought 2 bags of shopping for £10, which included a box of chocolates that my daughter asked for! I have always written Aldi & Lidl off because I didn't like the stores and didn't find the food quality very good, but the food I bought the other day was far better than the food I've previously bought so I think I'll start shopping in there for most of my groceries now and just use the bigger supermarkets for stuff I can't get in Lidl or Aldi. I might even be cheeky and go get another mag so we've got 2 vouchers, then I can use one and my OH can use the other one :rotfl:


Payday was last week so I've made sure YNAB is up to date. Budgets are set for October and everything is covered, which means OH's wages will now definitely be allocated to November budget :j


I hope everybody's money saving journeys are going well.

MoneyMission2015

I think the moneysaving bug is back. All I've been doing the last week is looking for coupons, money off codes etc for stuff I need to buy. I have even put off buying a few things because I am certain I will be able to get them cheaper.


All bills are budgeted for & we still have my OH wages to go in, so we're well on our way to having a moths wages in advance. I think I'm going to set up another savings category for 'emergency wages'. I've got an emergency fund but I'd like to have a few months wages saved separately in case one of us were ever to lose our jobs. We've worked it out that we'd get by on one persons wages if we needed to, but I think it makes sense to have a backup as well.


I need to look at our life insurance policy as we got it when we first moved in to this house but I think we could probably do with looking at other policies & think about adding things like critical illness etc. I know this will be expensive but you never know what's around the corner, so I'd rather have that cover.


I'm still trying to convince my OH that we should cut back on our Sky TV package. We have internet & phone with them too so our monthly bill to Sky is really high and I know there are things we could go without, so I need to convince him that we're better off without some of it.

MoneyMission2015

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I updated here?!


I have been on the site a lot, but mostly just getting tips, nosing at other diaries and frequenting the Christmas thread because I love Christmas :rotfl:


Moneysaving is ticking along. Christmas shopping has been even more enjoyable this year because I know I've not increased my debt at all. I've earned quite a few vouchers throughout the year so used them to do some shopping and also been saving all year, plus I started my Christmas shopping earlier this year too so I have been able to pick things up as I go along and also take advantage of a lot of the sales. I don't think I've paid full price for anything that I've bought :j


We're hoping to go to Florida next year for our family holiday, so my plan now is to start checking our bills again to see where we can save money and also to try and cut our groceries down again. We have managed to stop spending as much but I still feel like we could do a lot better if we just get a bit more organised with meal plans and shopping lists. So this is going to be my next big project after Christmas, because I know I will be a little bit sad not having Christmas to focus on :rotfl:


I hope everybody's money saving year has gone well. I'm looking forward to another New Year, but my mission has not changed, just keep saving money and keep providing a happy home for my kids

MoneyMission2015

Wow, 2016 already! I can't believe how quickly 2015 went. I am pleased to have learnt a lot last year which will help me this year to continue being more money saving and paying off debts. I got paid on 23rd December but haven't touched the money in the bank account so its all sitting in the account waiting to go out. I've budgeted everything on YNAB so all the money in the account already has its job. I have gone ahead and bought a slow cooker though, budgeted for though and something I've considered for quite some time now and think the new year is a good time to do it. I'm trying to do more meal planning and have been finding some recipes on the internet for proper spaghetti bolognaise, chilli con carne, curry etc, which I can hopefully just put in the slow cooker before work and all will be ready for us to eat when we get home in the evening then.