BK & Husbandface diary

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

Thanks for taking the time to reply thegreenone.

I love Anton! Thanks for the tip! I didn't book tickets a few years ago when they stopped here on their tour, now I regret it!!! It sounds great.

Realistically, I don't hold out much hope of cutting the Christmas present list. But as HF pointed out, it is time to impose strict budgets of £10 per person, less if we can (we do get some presents in the January sales and store them away). At the moment, though we buy things in the January sales for gifts, I spend far too much really (for example, I got a big Soap and Glory set in the Boots 70% January sale this year, it was £60, I got it for £18 as a gift for someone). HF used this as an example of where we (read that as me!) spend too much, yes the massive S & G set looks fab on Christmas day when they open it, but it is too much and unnecessary. I think that some people may be a bit disappointed with the downgrading of gifts next year at Christmas!!, but it is a cutback that has to be made, 42 gifts is a lot to buy, and it is time to look after ourselves. Not that we give to receive, but HF did point out that people do buy us token gifts, so it doesn't really make sense for us to buy such large, extravagant gifts. As I say, I think that what people are expecting from us next year, and what they actually get, may come as a bit of a shock!!!

My friend will deck me for buying her a birthday gift, as she knows I am stressed about the cost of Christmas this year!!! But I have only bought her a £6 mug, nothing too major. I am just gutted I couldn't combine the postage of her gift and her daughter's mug. It is just bad luck that the lady I ordered the handmade gift for her daughter had a nightmare with one of her ribbon suppliers, so is late posting it to me, sigh! The good news is that once I have sent the present for my friend's daughter, we have no more birthdays where presents are needed until February, a whole 3 months and a bit of no Birthday spends!!! There are a few birthdays in January, but just cards for those.

In terms of birthdays, we do have a "rule" where we stop buying for the children in the family once they turn 21. For friends we also have an age limit on present buying. So over the next few years, there will be a few "falling off" the list.

Now HF and I have had a chat about the whole Christmas/birthday gift issue, and we have agreed it is time to rein it in, in a major way, I am feeling much better. We will visit the Boots 70% sale again, but this time we will be looking for gifts that were £10-£15 at full price, so will only cost £5-£7.50, so under our £10 budget. I probably sound mean, but we just can't carry on spending so much on Christmas (and birthday) gifts.

Oh, and ramble away

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

Ooh, just realised, today was a no spend day, good times!!! We haven't left the house all day, slobbed about in our PJs, it has been fab!

Paige

I love those days when you can both cosy up indoors in your pjs, put the fire on and watch mindless tv. Our lives are usually hectic and for some reason I feel I can only justify those days if its raining outside.
Good idea about visiting the boots sale for bargains for next year. Just beware that toiletries do go off. I have had two occasions when I have kept toiletries'for a year, hand cream turned to liquid and shower gel turned thick and gloopy and stunk !!!!!
We stopped buying for adults at the suggestion of my sister in law about 8 yrs ago and then stopped for the kids past 18. The last couple of years we have all met up about 2 weeks before Christmas, gone to the cinema and then out for a meal, each family paying for themselves. If the kids are home from uni they come as well if not then the adults just meet. This has worked really well.
I just cant believe 44 gifts, it must take you ages to wrap them. x

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

I know what you mean Paige, I have discovered over the years the toiletries that keep, and the ones that don't, I hate to say it, but the more expensive premium brands do last better than the cheaper ones! Not good when you are trying to save money, but in the 70% off sale the cost is perfectly acceptable!!!

I love what you do, I would love to just all meet up and have a nice big meal and a night of laughs together, things like that mean much more to me than material gifts.

It takes me two evenings to get them all wrapped up. I soldier through it though!!! By the end of it I don't mind admitting I have had enough and don't want to see a roll of sellotape or wrapping paper ever again!!!

LittleMissDetermined

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja wrote: »

It takes me two evenings to get them all wrapped up. I soldier through it though!!! By the end of it I don't mind admitting I have had enough and don't want to see a roll of sellotape or wrapping paper ever again!!!

I LOVE wrapping presents at Christmas... If I had more time on my hands I would offer this as a service as I'm actually quite good at making them look pretty too!

ooooh counting down to Christmas :j:xmastree:

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

So today was not a no spend day sadly, but necessary spends, not frivolous. I managed to get some of the big 240 boxes of Yorkshire Tea in Asda today at the offer price £3, when we went over the weekend they had sold out. In our local Asda parking is £2, but you get that off your shopping via a refund voucher attached to the parking ticket, so long as you spend £10. I only needed teabags and bread, so I bought 3 of the boxes of Yorkshire tea, a loaf of bread and some aspirin which came to £10.60, but I got the £2 parking fee taken off, so free parking effectively, good times! My husband rolled his eyes at the three enormous boxes of teabags when I got home!, but at least we are sorted now for a good few months. I also had to get some Covonia dry tickly cough medicine for HF, I found the cheapest place was Tesco where a large 300ml bottle was £4, I also got a bottle of the chesty cough Covonia while it was on offer, so the medicine cabinet is now all set for the onslaught of Winter colds. I also got our crisps for the week from Aldi (I forgot to pick them up at the weekend), so another 99p spent there.

While in town at lunch I paid £30 in to my bank from some things we sold on the local FB selling pages. This will be paid off the Nationwide credit card. It would have already been paid off it today, but we have lurched to another debt discovery. When I got home from work today, HF said he has mucked up his bank account and is £17 over his overdraft limit, so I have had to use most of the £30 paid in to sort this out for him until he gets paid next Thursday. Sigh. It's not been a great few weeks, but I think all of these things coming to light have been just what we needed to wake us up to the path we were heading down AGAIN. We have both admitted that we haven't felt like this for years, physically ill at the state of things, and the feeling of relief that our paydays are fast approaching (mine is 2 days away, this Wednesday). With the admission of our feelings, has also come the agreement that this won't be happening again.

So, on payday, the money given to HF for the overdraft issue will be paid off Nationwide. Just a few days later than originally planned. This month, Nationwide Credit Card & Halifax Credit Card will be cleared in full. We should then have around £400 left, I said to HF we could just more or less clear his overdraft, but he said he would rather it go in to savings (he pays no interest on his overdraft), but we have agreed that £200 will go off his overdraft, and £200 in to savings so we have made a start towards paying off the co-op loan/replacing my car (whichever is most pressing once we have enough to clear the co-op loan). HF is going to cancel his overdraft once it is paid off, we don't need it so it is pointless, it is just too much of a temptation. I had no idea he was so close to his overdraft limit, which is why it is not included in our debt figures in my signature. At least it is all out in the open now and can be dealt with.

We have both withdrawn our topcashback earnt this year, which is just over £20, and have agreed this will pay off the curtains on Very, we can then close the Very account (we only opened it because of the recent Groupon offer which enabled us to get cheap curtains for the living room of our new home).

I spotted on our mymail account today that we only need 3 more codes, and we can then trade in 2000 of our mymail points for a voucher for a free Bernard Matthews turkey for Christmas. We are considering doing it, as it is another "free" Christmas thing sorted without costing us anything. 2000 points equates to a £5 shopping voucher for Sainsburys/M & S etc, so £5 for a turkey isn't bad at all. We will still have enough points left to buy a £15 voucher for M & S or Waitrose for our Christmas grocery shop, so we will still be able to buy a few luxury bits for Christmas from those shops. I think we are leaning towards Waitrose as we love the Heston mince pies from there!!!

I am having a bit of a "how the hell have we ended up here again" day today. I am not feeling down about it, more annoyed with us for being so stupid really.

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

LittleMissDetermined wrote: »

I LOVE wrapping presents at Christmas... If I had more time on my hands I would offer this as a service as I'm actually quite good at making them look pretty too!

ooooh counting down to Christmas :j:xmastree:

I will be right over with our haul of gifts LMD!!! :rotfl:

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

Not much to report today, today was a no spend day though which is good.

So, tomorrow is payday (praise the lord!), and I can pay off Nationwide CC, Halifax CC and Very. Even better, I can close all three! I am really excited about getting these settled and closed. For the first time in my adult life, I will have no credit card debt, or credit card accounts open. It is already feeling so good, I am looking forward to the bragging rights on this!!!

Then from next month, we can start to address the Co-Op loan by beginning to save towards early settling it. I really hope we can settle it early, but once we have enough saved to clear it, we are going to have to assess how my condemned car is doing. If it is still soldiering on, then the Co-Op loan will be paid off, but if my car is starting to show signs it is done for, then we will have to use the saved money to replace my car. I just hope my car lasts another year or so, that would be perfect in terms of allowing us to clear our debts right down and start to save for a new car without having to take on new debt. We will see what hand life deals us!!!

I will be finishing off our Christmas shopping tomorrow hopefully, if there are any we can't buy for, money will be set aside in an envelope so that we don't have to budget for it next month.

Come on payday, I have plans for you!!! :T

Paige

Well done newlywed. You have done so well with paying off those cc, and being super organised for Christmas. Thanks for the Yorkshire t bag tip. Ill call into Asda tomorrow and get some after my Aldi shop.

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

Thanks Paige Glad to have been a help with the Yorkshire Tea tipoff!!!



So, payday you sexy thing, hello!!!

I have cleared my Nationwide CC today, I am just feeling so good about it!!! I will be closing it once I have my new statement with the zero balance. I have held off paying off Halifax for now, as I need to make sure I have enough to finish off our Christmas shopping first. I will be gutted if I don't manage to clear Halifax CC this month, I know it isn't interest bearing, and will be paid off next month anyway (I have a DD set up for £100 each month). I really hope to clear it this month, I know I will feel a bit down if I don't. Flippin' Christmas!!!

I have ordered the handmade gifts I needed for Christms today, I had to get those done for definite today, as a lot of small craft businesses start to close their order books in the next few weeks. £56 spent there, so definitely not a NSD today!!!

I am now off to amend my signature to show the Nationwide CC paid off, woohoo!!:T:beer::j