Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

I thing your right. 7yrs for periods of change apparently! 7yr itch!! I'm about 9yrs overdue!

shangaijimmy

Feeling very smug this evening as i've managed to fix the TV! Bit of youtube, bit of google...hard reset that took a few goes but all sorted. Mrs SJ is very disgruntled as she was setting her heart on a 4K ultra super duper smart tv!

£5 spent at soft play this morning. But more importantly managed to get the boys playing out for an hour! They were froze when they came in, but its a start to the spring,

shangaijimmy

Hurray. Temporary TT ban has been lifted with Mrs SJ payday today. How sad is it that i've missed them this week?? Anyway a nice 97p TT for me.

Its been a tough start to March money wise. I've felt behind on money and with a lack of control over a few things. On my side we're over £200 down from work petrol expenses (had a 6 week period of quite a bit of travel for meetings. Usually i get the train so get tickets paid for immediately but for the last few driving has been the only option), then Mrs SJ is behind £110 for osteopath treatments. Now these get refunded via a work fund that we pay £2 a month into (its a charity as well), but it takes a few weeks. As avid readers may recall i make sure that everyone of our pounds work hard for us, so losing £300 out of 'cashflow' has been psychologically challenging for me. We've have the savings to borrow money out of, but its mentally difficult to do this with a settled viewpoint.

So hoping all will be rectified by my next payday in 2 weeks, and at least we don't have any big outgoings until the end of month. This makes me so grateful for being in control of finances as you can easily see how people get into trouble very quickly, and trouble that leads to loans, credit cards etc...

All of the above explains why i was so desperate to fix our TV yesterday!! Mrs SJ is definitely not impressed though....she'd started dreaming...!

michelle09

But it is better to have fixed the old one than get a new TV (I have to keep reminding OH that we are not buying a new one just because this one is 'a bit small'. It's only four years old!)

Will the £300 come back in your next payday?

shangaijimmy

Michelle, we are both on the same side!! £200 of my expenses will come back, but Mrs SJ £110 may take a few weeks. It'll come as a cheque rather than in pay. There is a charity attached to her firm that offer £500 towards alternative treatments that keep people from going off sick. So we donate £24 a year but can usually claim £400 or so back a year through these payments. Having said that we haven't c;aimed for last 2 yrs!

themadvix

Our TV is probably 12 years old, but apart from being a bit small there's nothing wrong with it so it's staying! DH would like another one (I would too probably), but until it breaks it's not happening! Well done for fixing yours Jimmy - there's nothing like the satisfaction of fixing something!

lippy1923

Just wanted to pop in and say well done on the 36 month journey SJ. Really good work and great results.

shangaijimmy

Themadix - definitely correct with the satisfaction and Mrs SJ seems to have forgotten her dream new TV now.

Lippy - good to see you, although i'm gutted to see your signature and me still being £7k behind you... one day, maybe one day. I'll pop across to your world and check on your progress.

I made a nice 90p TT this morning and it definitely feels good to be back doing them. In ebay news I'm happy to report that 5 items have sold today, and we have 8 with bids that finish tomorrow. As ever the money isn't bank busting but its a good part of out constant de cluttering process.

I also have to admit i'm not very organised for mother day tomorrow. Present off the boys for Mrs SJ hasn't arrived in the post (oops, left it a bit late) so made an emergency dash to Tesco. I am absolutely useless at presents, and shopping come to think of it, so i dread these days. Mrs SJ dreads it just as much I suspect. Made worse by the fact that it was her birthday 2 weeks ago, so all ideas have been exhausted!

So i may report in the morning, providing i'm not hospitalised!!

CathT

I am sure Mrs SJ wont mind. You sound like a fab dad and husband and thats what is important.

I am happy to have flowers for mothers day but only a couple of days later when they are reduced!

shangaijimmy

Well Cath, you were right and i survived! I survived it so well i was even offered bacon for breakfast before i head off to work.

Made a nice £1 TT this morning and then OP'd the weekly pot which interestingly sat at £4.71 and that's surprising given it was only 3 days worth.

Mothers Day is a good affair for us. No extortionate meals in chaotic places. Everyone heads round to Mrs SJ mums (3 siblings, 3 husbands/wifes, 7 grandkids and 4 dogs), we all bring some kind of food and then just trough with a day long buffet. Sport on the tv, snoozes for daddies on the couch... Its like a mini Christmas Day.

Our mortgage statement arrived yesterday as well. Pages and pages of it, woo hoo. Its impressive in paper form and a good motivator for Mrs SJ, so a timely reminder after the month we've had. Happy to report my smallest OP was £1.75, though in true form the lowest would have been a 1p TT its just that i OP the weekly pot every Sunday.