Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy

shangaijimmy

Just reading another diary reminded me of something to report. My PPI claim came back negative which was fully expected. Mrs SJ on the other hand is convinced she'd have shelled out at some stage in the early 2000's. Now she's had a letter on Saturday from the bank asking her to pop in with some ID to prove change of name etc... SO i'm taking that as a positive rather than a flat refusal!!

Time will tell...

hiddenshadow

Sounds promising! Can't imagine they'd care about her ID if they didn't have something to track down.

shangaijimmy

I'm clinging to that thought too!

Lynplatinum

Hi Sj and folks
Just popping on to say that i havent fallen off the edge of the earth!! Son has been here for a fortnight - kindly plastering the house so it sells better (he worked on building sites during his Uni hols and picked up loads of useful skills + his degree is in Contemporary Crafts Practice and his final project was restoring a church - although now he is a high end jeweler!) All that is left is the decorating which is down to me! LOL

As he has been here its all been a bit chaotic with the small scale finances but intend to remedy a deficit from plan of £75 by a) doing ebay/gumtree for much of the stuff found in his turning out and b) doing less shopping days and more NSDs. Also gonna review finances and see if I can/should change mortgage deals - even although Im gonna sell house soon.

Any advice folks? Many thanks
Great to have your inspirational self back SJ.
nite all

shangaijimmy

My only advice on mortgage is to do spend some time researching and do it yourself! I did and was made up with my choice. First direct were very good to be fair and we fixed at 1.99% for 2 years with no fees.

NSD for me today! 12hr work day does that for you! Also we've started a fruit cocktail bowl for work snacks which is a great help n not doing chocolate run too. 6 apples, 6 tangerines, punnet of red grapes and a melon. All chopped up and tuperwared in fridge on Sunday. Take a pot to work each day and leave on desk to munch on - fabulous!

shangaijimmy

Cooperative account fully opened and online banking up and running. I must say they've been the easiest and most efficient bank to deal with so far, and if i needed an everyday current account, at this stage, i'd have no hesitation in using this account. I'll make the call and start the santander switch tomorrow and hopefully they'll be gone by the end of next week.

No other money news. We need to have a cheap weekend if possible to take us through till next weeks payday. My plan is to take DS1 and his cousin to the imperial war museum and then we have free cinema tickets for Saturday night with nanny and grandad lined up to have the boys for a sleepover. So we just need some Aldi snacks to take from weekly food shop!

I must say this whole being slightly overdrawn malarky hasn't been easy. Its really not sat well with me not being able to do my daily TT's! My own fault for going away for 3 weeks! 7 more sleeps and i'll be back to it!

debtfreeoneday

Must look at Co-op then! the one I spoke to on the phone haven't even bothered to come back and tell me if I've got the account with them!

shangaijimmy

I applied online at the weekend, had confirmation within 10mins. Received the card and account details on Thursday and registration for online took less than 10mins. I phoned to action the switch this afternoon but i didn't have all the santander info they needed so i'll ring them back tomorrow morning.

Definitely in the mid month slump, made worse by being slightly overdrawn so no TT's. Food shop was £20 under budget so we'll use that up on a meal out tomorrow night. It'll be a no booze affair for obvious reasons so won't be an expensive one either.

Deftfree has given me the inspiration to have a look at my targets and see how i best utilise post 1, so i may well be back (though we're planning on watching Batman tonight so i may get scuppered there). I'm wondering whether to have a mini goal for each month that isn't always the balance??

Lynplatinum

Hi Jimmy

I know you and your lady are going out for a treat but do take a look on the coupon bits of this site there are so many chain food places that do deals for 2 meals that i am sure there will be one near you. For the past 2 years, if going out with a friend I havent paid full price once!

My big gripe, being a single person is that no deals are done for single diners. :mad: Even if it were a loyalty type card - you know eat here 5 times then get £10 off your meal sort of thing - I would be happy with that!

Cleaned the plaster out of son's bedroom today and wombled 16p - finders keepers - loosers weepers (they very soon learnt to keep their pocket money off the floor and in piggy banks/wallets as teenagers!!!) so that wombling will go into my 'kitchen pot' for odds and ends of money! :rotfl:

Frugaling and wombling on!

Only 7 sleeps SJ and you'll be back on track! Chin up!
Nite all :A

shangaijimmy

Thanks Lynn, but now 6 sleeps!! Well dog walk calls before the rain comes (he's a sensitive pooch that doesn't like getting his paws wet!), then off to museum - busy day ahead!