Diary of my new life !!!

Karmacat

Sounds like you've really worked hard at getting your accounts in order, benben - thats my task for this weekend, I think. Was the disco fun? Hope you enjoyed shaking yourself around!

benbenandme

Was a bit of a strange disco tbh ... they didn't even turn the lights off ... more like a kids party really! Ds came home singing amarillo so think he had fun! .... didn't realise agadoo and superman still did the rounds at discos these days :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Ex has just collected ds and gave me a cheque for £50 from his mum to go towards ds swimming lessons (he doesn't even have swimming lessons :rolleyes:) ... was really nice of her though, and I will put it towards his football lessons (although they're not goin well again ... he managed 20 minutes this morning before he'd had enough :rolleyes: ) ... this means I can put £50 of my budget to clearing my bills account and then I should end up with an extra £50 in the mortgage fund at the end of the month Hope that all made sense!! Then again, I'm going xmas shopping now so I expect I'll be back here later saying I've spent faaaaarrrrrr too much money again

benbenandme

Back from xmas shopping and I bought absolutely zilch for xmas :mad: :mad: ... you know when you ust have one of those days where you don't see anything suitable for anyone ??? I just seemed to be wandering round the shops and it was all the same old stuff as every year ... not sure really what I wanted to find, jut something a bit original does that make sense?? You go into Boots and its the same old same old as every xmas!

Anyway, thats not to say I didn't spend any money I did buy ds 5 pairs of trousers :eek: ... this was planned though ... he currently only has 2 pairs of jogging trousers and one pair of jeans, all his other trousers have holes in the knees. I got 5 pairs of trousers and a umper in Asda for £24 so was pleased with that. Needed a umper for him as we're having a whole family portrait done next weekend so he needed something new / not bobbly.

I also bought some sweets in Asda (£1.68), some lightbulbs and biscuits in Wilkos (£2.60), a pack of birthday cards and xmas card for ds teacher (£1.78), nail varnish remover, a vsmile adaptor (reduced to £2;) ), 2 x travel firstaidkits (£1.25 each) in Boots, £3.50 on lunch and £2.50 on the car park :eek:

benbenandme

So, to make up for my lack of xmas shopping on the high street, I have been virtually shopping and spent £38 on books :eek: I know it sounds bad, but I bought a boxes set of Thomas the Tank books for ds for xmas ... the little ones like Mr Men books. They're £2.50 each but the BookPeople are doing all 50 for £30 (should be £125 ). Ds already has 2 of them and loves them, so now Santa is bringing him another 48 of them :rotfl:

I also bought The Gruffalos Child for his stocking (he loves it!) (£3.99 instead of £10.99), and a MillyMollyMandy book for my niece (£4.99 instead of £16.99). Got free delivery and 5% quidco too I have moved the money across from my xmas fund already.

chocaholic110

I absolutely love the Book People. I don't know what I ever did without them...well, I do, spent FAR too much money on books!

Did you get the free Christmas cards for spending over £35? Be careful they don't charge you for them. They did to me and it took loads of e-mails to get the money refunded.

My DS loved those Thomas books when he was little. He even used to tell people his name was Thomas - it's not! He's embarrassed when we say that now though (he's 13). Wondering if our new little one will be the same?? - although his name is likely to be Thomas so it won't matter!

I buy DD the Daisy Meadows box sets from the book people. The books are £3.99 but a box set of 7 from the book people costs £6.99. I missed the last set and had to buy them from ebay - £13!!! Was gutted as I knew all the people selling them had bought them from the Book People first!!

benbenandme

Ooops yeah, thanks for reminding me .... I also got free Snowman wrapping paper set ... I actually bought one from them through work and was thinking about buying another one, so am very pleased!!

skint_spice

I saw the Millymollymandy books too Benben and tried to work out who I could buy it for! I loved them as a kid but no youngish girls to buy pressies for anymore. Have ordered the Roadhl Dahl cd set for DS though - looks fab.

benbenandme

I bought the Roald Dahl cds last xmas for my nephew and he loved them ... they come in a lovely tin case and his Mum loved them too because all his other presents were huge boxes and the cd's were about the only present she didn't need to "find" a new home for

benbenandme

Thought it was about time I updates my soa ....

Income:
My wages: [STRIKE]£580 [/STRIKE] actual wages = £610 :j
Maintenance:£280
Child Ben £72
Tax Credits [STRIKE]£198 [/STRIKE] new amount = £255
Total = [STRIKE]£1130 [/STRIKE] £1217 :beer:

Outgoings:
Mortgage £340
Contents £9
Life Ins £28
Elec £50 *
Water £20*
TV Licence £10
Phone/B.band £30
Mobile[STRIKE] £25 [/STRIKE] Last month of having 2 contracts, so this month £20 + £30, then will be just £30 a month
Council tax £70
Ground rent £15
Service charge £25

Food £150
Petrol £60
Car tax £10
Car insurance £28
Car maintenance £30*

Total £925 (then £905 from next month)
* = not set up on direct debits yet due to not knowing accurate figures, so I put this month into a separate account each month ready for when the bills come in. After 6 months when I know monthly amounts I will arrange direct debits).

Other good point is that my new pension payment comes out of my salary before tax so this payment has already gone each month :j It is £47 of my wages but my employer also contributes although I stil haven't found out how much , I must look into that on Monday

This leaves me with a healthy amount left over each month for day-to-day stuff, clothes, ds football lessons, presents etc. I also have income from AQA, mystery shopping etc, but this goes towards my mortgage overpayments.

skint_spice

I've been thinking of doing mystery shopping and applying for AQA but worried about it messing up my tax credits - do you have any problems with this or is it relatively simple as long as you keep good records? I just don't want to end up as one of those poor folk that has to pay back loads!