BK & Husbandface diary

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

As I am off work today, I took the opportunity to call Co-Op bank to discuss if overpaying my loan each month (I know each bank has different policies). The good news is, Co-Op do allow me to overpay each month, so I have scheduled in my first overpayment of £400 for next Friday when I get paid. It is a bit of a faff, I have to ring up every time I want to do it, tell them how much I want to overpay, the date I want to overpay, they then have to read through a whole heap of legal stuff (I don't mind really, though I am sure after 6 months of hearing the same blurb it will be wearing a bit thin!). I then get sent some kind of letter regarding my overpayment within 5 days. I post them a cheque for my overpayment, once they have banked and cleared it, I get another letter from them advising the overpayment has been processed successfully, and how it affects my future payments and end date of the loan.

I am really happy, over the moon infact, about this. I know we were going to save up to settle in full in the future, but I am actually happier that I can overpay in this way each month. It will really spur us on to see the balance dropping significantly each month, things like this really motivate me. I will also love to see our spreadsheet looking awesome and the total of our debt dropping faster than expected.

My Halifax card is settled in full in a few weeks too, I am so looking forward to closing it! It feels already like we are getting somewhere! My husband's £500 overdraft has been halved this month too, all being well next month we can chip some more off that. Once it is cleared completely (probably January), he will be getting the overdraft facility removed from his account. Temptation gone, of all credit options we have had, it is my belief that overdrafts are the worst of all.

I have joined prolific academic, Nectar canvass, and started participating in Yougov again, so racking up a few extra points/£s that way. I am aiming for our Christmas 2016 grocery shop to be free in the same way that this year's will be.

If anyone has any other websites where I can do surveys etc to earn points/vouchers/£s etc, feel free to share them.

I will be ordering the £20 Waitrose voucher from our Mymail points next week, that will be going towards some Christmas goodies for us and our guests.

I also have been picked for a Tesco Orchard programme, £5 voucher on its way to us for their "freefrom" range. We don't have food allergies/intolerances, but thought we would participate to try them, we are always up for trying new things. I had a look in store at the freefrom range yesterday, and they had some lovely looking finest cookies, and some nice looking carrot cake (HF's favourite), so I think we will get some of those for Christmas too.

I have been feeling a bit flat the last week or so, but suddenly feeling more positive. I am also really happy that our grocery shopping budget has lasted the month too.

The fact we have managed so much this month, bought Christmas gifts, stuck to our grocery budget, cleared a debt in full, halved HF's overdraft etc, well, it just makes me mad that since May we have blown over £6,000 and have nothing to show for it. If we hadn't been so stupid, we would only have around £9,000 debt, instead of £15,000. We are utter idiots!!!

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

So, weekly shop all done, I am pleased to say our shopping budget lasted the whole month for the first time in months, so I am really proud about that. I realise I am running the most boring diary in the world, but writing down our meal plans, shopping spends, breakdowns helps keep me focused and on track!

We spent £34.80 this week on food shopping, breakdown of spends below. We again ditched the supermarkets for fruit and vegetables, and I can't see us ever going back to be honest. The fruit and vegetables are no different in taste to what we buy in the supermarkets (in some instances they are better), and the cost overall is no different.

Market stall 1: £3.30, 6 large oranges, large cucumber, 450g red grapes.
Market stall 2: £4.05, 8 satsumas, 5 large oranges, 2 mangoes, 5 large pink lady apples.
Butchers: £6.04, 600g steak mince, 300g chicken pieces.
Sainsburys: £1.60, 2 loaves of bread
Aldi: £8.13, 2 bottles of milk, 830g mature cheddar, 500g pot of natural yogurt, 10 slices of smoked back bacon, 150g bag of twiglets (for Christmas for HF).
Tesco: £5.30, Catsan cat litter
Greengrocers: £6.38, 6 XL vine tomatoes, 1 round lettuce, 1 XL cauliflower, 2 large flat mushrooms, 1 honeydew melon, 3 swede, 170g closed cup mushrooms, 530g carrots.

Meal plan for the week as below:

Saturday: Slimming world fakeaway chicken nuggets, slimming world chips, mushy peas
Sunday: Oven baked meatballs and penne pasta
Monday: Chicken and leek pie
Tuesday: Cottage pie
Wednesday: Chicken and spinach curry, cauliflower rice
Thursday: Bacon and mushroom omelette, slimming world chips and salad

We both did well at slimming world weigh in this week, I lost another 2 pounds, making 7 stone exactly in total (6st 2lb at SW group). But the most amazing thing is HF achieved his 3 stone award this week, I am so proud of him, he struggles bigtime with willpower, but has stuck with it and finally achieved this.

I have joined swagbucks this week and am beavering away at surveys on there, as well as Yougov, Prolific academic, and Qmee. It is slowly all adding up which makes me happy.

kittycatfan

Wow well done you have both done so well with your weights its great , also well done on your debt busting once new years here youll get it gone so much quicker without the worry of xmas will subscribe

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

Thanks Kitty, it is nice to receive positive comments!

I have been bad this week, I caved and bought some irregular choice shoes (the star wars ones). I am mad with myself, sigh. On my Nationwide credit card, which I am mad about. This is why I need to close it once it is paid off, I paid it off this month in full, and now have to clear it again. I need to remove the temptation, I never ever want credit cards again.

So instead of overpaying my loan by £400 this Friday as planned, I am now going to have to use that money to clear my credit card AGAIN.

I am bound to get some criticism and negative comments, totally deserved I know. But I am determined to be honest on this diary, even when I do the wrong thing, make bad decisions etc. Otherwise what is the point? It is pointless keeping this diary.

My husband has only managed to clear £100 off his overdraft this month which is a bit deflating too.

All in all I am just feeling a bit fed up at my slip this month. I feel like giving up to be honest, though I am definitely not going to. I don't want this debt thing to dog me for the rest of my life.

Payday Friday, looking forward to another month of chipping away at things, if not quite how I planned it to go.

I have £20 in Waitrose giftcards on their way to me now courtesy of mymail membership (I ordered them this week). We have almost £40 in Nectar points to spend in Sainsburys on our Christmas grocery shop (I may have more when we come to do the Christmas shop, as Dad wants a jumper from Sainsburys from Christmas and I have some bonus point coupons to use when I go with Dad that will bump up our Nectar points). We also have some bonus Nectar coupons for some of the Ecclefechan tarts we like from Sainsburys for Christmas, and a greetings card too, so that will be used when I buy our Christmas card to my Mum and Dad. £5 voucher to spend in Morrisons. £5 Tesco orchard voucher on its way. All in all, it is looking quite cheap for our Christmas groceries shop.

After losing 7 stone, I have finally had to concede defeat with my badly fitting bras, and have a fitting appointment at M & S booked for this Saturday. As part of flexible benefits at work, I pay £20 in to a voucher scheme at work, so I have drawn £80 out of this and "bought" an M & S giftcard to get some bras with. I am happy that I don't have to find money for these, it is pretty desperate re: the bra situation, and I can't really put it off any longer. Losing weight has been the best thing I have ever done, but it has cost a fortune in new clothes!!!!

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

So, payday has arrived. Another opportunity to reduce our level of debt which is great.

First of all, the boring but essential bit of my diary! The meal plan for the week is all done. We have also completed our grocery shop for the week too. Details below:

Saturday - Slimming world burger, slimming world chips and salad.
Sunday - Beef stew, mashed potato, cabbage and cauliflower.
Monday - Chicken and Bacon Rosti pots, green beans and mixed frozen vegetables.
Tuesday - Chicken and leek pie, cauliflower and cabbage.
Wednesday - Lemon and herb chicken with salad.
Thursday - Roasted chicken and pepper pasta.
Friday - Lancashire hotpot with mixed frozen vegetables.

Grocery shopping total spend this week was £80.43. A lot more than we would usually spend on a normal week, but we have bought a leg of lamb for Christmas this week which accounts for £15 of it, and a large bag of Catsan cat litter at £10, taking those two items out of the equation brings it down to £55 which is within our weekly budget of around £60 per week.

Butchers - £10.32. 900g chicken pieces, 2 chicken breasts (4 meals in total)

Aldi - £28.32. 2.1kg leg of lamb, 300g pack of smoked bacon, 300g of lamb leg steaks, 350g of diced beef, 6 pack of pocket of tissues, 4 tins of plum tomatoes, 4pt bottle of skimmed milk, shower gel and 30 pack of meaty flavour crisps.

Morrisons - £18.80. Paperdelle pasta, 16 low fat cumberland sausages, frylight, 300g jar of Nescafe, 2 packs of Mcvities chocolate digestive biscuits (33% extra free in each pack, one milk, one dark), Heinz salad cream, box of 15 free range eggs, 2 loaves of Warburtons wholemeal bread, a 4 pack of Morrisons signature Christmas spiced muffins from the reduced section (in the freezer for breakfast on Christmas day!).

Greengrocers - £13. 6 pink lady apples, 4 large leeks, 2 large flat mushrooms, 200g mushrooms, a large bowl of mixed peppers, 2 lemons, celery, 1 honeydew melon, 1 round lettuce, 4 XL vine tomatoes, 4 XL onions, 4 medium swede, 4 large parsnips and 10 carrots.

Asda - £10. Large bag of catsan cat litter.


Yesterday I went for my bra fitting at M & S, as expected after losing such a lot of weight, I have gone down several bra sizes, so all of my old ones are no longer any good. I already knew this to be honest, as I could tell by how ridiculous they looked on me. I was going to throw them away, but I have found a charity online that takes donations of "gently worn" bras and uses them to help women in Africa who can't afford underwear, which causes lots of issues that I have never even considered thanks to the lucky circumstances I was born in to. about 80% of my bras are in great condition with lots of life left in them, so I will be sending them to this charity to help others: http://www.smallsforall.org/.

I like to help my fellow women whenever I can, wherever they may be, so this seems a perfect solution regarding my now-too-big bras!!! I managed to buy 7 bras at M & S yesterday for £88.35, which I really didn't expect! I expected to get about 3 for the £80 I had loaded on my M & S giftcard from the voucher scheme I pay in to through my employer flexible benefits scheme. I didn't realise M & S had a 30% off selected lingerie promotion on due to Black Friday. 4 of the 6 lingerie items I picked up had 30% off (I didn't realise this until I went through the checkout, the signage in M & S as to what was in the offer wasn't great), I saved a huge £24.15, which I was chuffed to bits with. Only one of the bras with 30% off had the ticket indicating it was in the offer, so I expected the total to be £104-ish. One of those fab moments at the till!!! Chuffed to bits. Unfortunately I am returning one of the bras as it doesn't fit me at all well, but I am just going to exchange it for another one of the 2 pack bras I picked up but in a different colour, so I should end up with 8 bras for £88, which is great. I don't mind shopping in cheaper places for general clothes, but I will never give up M & S bras, you just can't beat them.

Regarding Christmas presents, which I have been feeling the pressure of due to the sheer amount we have to buy, we have had a bit of a breakthrough this week. We have managed to reach an agreement with HF's family that from now on we are only going to buy for the children under the age of 18 in the family. This has instantly slashed our present list by 8, at the moment it will just be our great nephew we buy for, our great niece is due in February, so next year it will be 2 people in HF's family we buy for. When we get in to January and the festive season is firmly behind us, we are going to speak to two of our good friends and our oldest bridesmaid about Christmas, specifically that we stop buying for the adults, and just the children up to the age of 18. That will trim another 4 presents from the list. I am already feeling much better and less daunted by present buying for Christmas 2016. The funniest part of all of this, is that we had already bought for a few of HF's family, so now have a few gifts "going spare" that we bought a while ago!!!! Thankfully they are quite generic gifts, perfumes/aftershaves etc, and we are going to reuse them for 2 friends who we have yet to buy for. Again, these are 2 friends who we are going to broach the subject of no longer buying for each other from Christmas 2016. I haven't checked yet, but I suspect that I now have quite a few gifts "going spare" this year, I will simply put them aside as birthday gifts for next year. Quite a result really!

As mentioned above, we now have one of the 4 joints of meat we need for Christmas and New Year. While £14.99 is a great price for a 2.1kg leg of lamb, I was gutted to miss out on the amazing deal of £9 for a 2.25kg leg of lamb at Morrisons this week. I tried a few Morrisons branches near us, but all were sold out, not surprising really. If we had managed to find any, we were going to buy 2 and use our £5 Morrisons voucher towards them, bringing it down to £13 for them both. Hey-ho, it wasn't meant to be I suppose! I just need to buy a Turkey now (we think we are going to get the frozen medium turkey from Aldi at £10.99, but I will look around to make sure it is a good deal before I go ahead), a joint of beef for just the two of us for Boxing day, and possibly another leg of lamb for New Year's Day (depending on if we are cooking for our guests, or if they are heading back to Newcastle early).

I am supposed to be starting wrapping of Christmas presents tonight, but frankly I just can't be bothered!!! While this weekend has been lovely, we have had two late nights (HF at a dog racing night laid on by his work on Friday, me at my mum and dad's Friday; and then we were both watching an Agatha Christie play last night). As a result, we just want to enjoy our Sunday and haven't really done a lot other than do the laundry and cook lovely food (slimming world friendly, obviously!!!).

Following on from my deflated post above, I am not back feeling better. We have discussed everything, and I am happy to report that the £400 loan overpayment is going ahead this month, woohoo! I am over the moon about this!!! A £250 payment off my shoe spend on my credit card too. Obviously I am not happy that I am having to make payments off my Nationwide credit card again, but I am happy that even though it is Christmas, we are managing to reduce a whopping £650 from our debt, and HF should be able to reduce his overdraft again this month. Our goal for his overdraft is that it is clear by the end of January 2016, so he can remove the facility from his account.

I think that is about it from me for now! Epic diary entry!!!

Oh, actually, one more thing! We had a bit of a scary moment last Friday, no hot water coming out of our tap, it would sort of sputter and come out and then slow to nothing. We have no emergency fund at all, so it was a bit stressful. Thankfully it resolved itself so no spends needed. But we are now aiming to get an emergency fund of £1000 together. I have started it off by putting over the £22ish I had left in my petrol account from November. It isn't much, but we have started, and that is good. I will add out emergency fund to my signature to spur us on.

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

OK, so I have updated all of the totals for this month in my signature, and we have managed to reduce our debt levels by 13.25% in just 2 paydays. While I would love us to have paid off more, 13.25% reduction is no small achievement in 2 paydays, and I am feeling quite proud of us for that, especially at this time of year which is notorious for "spend, spend, spend". I am happy that the Co-Op loan has dropped down to a figure that begins with 4, rather than 5 as it stood last month. Halifax CC is now fully paid off, so I have removed it from my signature, glad to see that gone! As soon as I get my next statement showing a zero balance I will be calling to close the account. It was only opened for the zero percent balance transfer deal, so it has served it's purpose (I have only had this account open for around 8 months).

Unfortunately I am unable to update my signature as I have too many lines in my signature (I can't get rid of that blank line in my signature for some reason!). So I will add it here for now, and keep it updated until I can fit it in my signature.

Emergency fund: £22.41 / £1,000.

LittleMissDetermined

Wow you're doing fabulously, 13.25% is massive! I'm currently shifting about 4.25% a month of the remaining debt so you're doing far far better than I am

Keep it up

LMD x

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

Thanks LMD, you are doing fab too, 4.25% a month is a great achievement, and as you clear each debt, your percentage reduction can only increase. How good is that going to feel!

LittleMissDetermined

I'm sure it will feel a-ma-ZING!

Newlywed_Saving_Ninja

It is time for my boring post of the week! It is essential for me though, to keep me focused, on-track, and "eyes on the prize".

So, meal plan for the week is all done, we have come to realise that we have got stuck in a rut with our food, which is a lethal thing for us on slimming world, boredom = falling off the diet wagon! So we have tried to pick mainly new recipes from our SW cookbooks. Fingers crossed we enjoy them all!!!

Sat - SW burger in a bowl, SW chips
Sun - Low Fat Sausages, mash and vegetables
Mon - Teriyaki chicken and vegetable stir fry
Tue - Chilli beef with noodles
Wed - Pork and mango noodles
Thur - Bacon & mushroom omelette, SW chips and salad
Fri - SW chicken nuggets, SW chips and salad

We are really looking forward to trying some new things out, and seeing which we love and which we will never make again!!!

HF completed the grocery shopping today, as I met up with Dad to go Christmas shopping with him while mum was having her hair done. I got the sack of dog food from the wholesalers today, it is huge, and as our dog is only small, it lasts her around 6 months. I also bought a few things in Iceland while in there with mum and dad while they shopped.

Iceland - 2 x 4 packs of John West tuna £5. A tub of twiglets and a tub of Jacobs cheese footballs, both for Christmas, £3. Total, £8.

Wholesalers - Sack of dog food, 12 pack of kitchen towel, £12.08.

Greengrocers - 4 large flat mushrooms, 1 large mango, 2 carrots, 6 large oranges, 6 apples, 1 lettuce, 1 cucumber, 6 tomatoes, bunch of spring onions. £7.50

Tesco - 3 red chillies, 2 x 4pt bottles of milk, 12 free range eggs, 600g strong cheddar. £8.11

Butchers - 1kg steak mince, 300g pork mince, 1kg chicken pieces. £15.45

Sainsbury's - Sharwoods noodles, pack of mange tout, bottle of light soy sauce, bottle of dark soy sauce, bottle of teriyaki sauce, black pepper, 8cm piece of ginger, 1kg frozen green beans, 1kg petit pois, 2 650g packs of stir fry vegetables, warburtons wholemeal bread. £13.93

Total spend this week is £65.07. A bit higher than I would have liked, but it is what it is! The dog food, and the various soy sauces, teriyaki sauce etc have bumped it up a bit.


I also had Christmas spends today, as mentioned before, I was out with Dad Christmas shopping, he wanted a jumper from Sainsbury's. It was 25% off this week, it wasn't planned out that way, but I am always happy with a discount! The jumper was less than I budgeted for Dad for Christmas, so I managed to persuade him to let me buy him a shirt too, it took a lot of arm twisting but I got there in the end! We had to visit a couple of Sainsbury's stores to find them in his size, but got there in the end.

While out with Dad, I also spoke to him about Mum's present, she wants a record player so she can listen to all her old vinyl. I was horrified to hear her talk about going to a VERY expensive shop to buy it, so I did a bit of online research and have found her a lovely vintage style record player for £70 delivered. I spoke to Dad and he knew nothing about the fact mum wanted one of these for Christmas! Mum never talks to Dad and it drives me potty! It is a good job I mentioned it to Dad, as he was going to sell all of their vinyl at Christmas!!!! Anyway, we are going to go halves on the record player, so I will be ordering it tonight or tomorrow so it gets here in time for Christmas. I am happy about this, mum is just expecting money towards her record player on Christmas Day, so to have it here for her to open when she doesn't know anything about it is going to be great, I can't wait to see her reaction! Also, I am happy to have avoided mum being ripped off, I feel so protective of my parents now they are getting older, I don't ever want anyone taking advantage of them.

Once the record player is ordered, that is our Christmas present shopping pretty much done. I will get dad his obligatory large bar of fruit and nut, and box of wine gums, and box of Toffifee that he gets every year. But that is it, we are done, phew! Christmas shopping done for another year, oh the relief!!!

That is it for me now, nothing much else to report. I don't think there will be much in the way of debt busting to report until my next payday. I am building up some earnings on prolific academic, £6-ish at the moment, that is just in a few weeks, so I think we will end up with a nice lump sum in there before long. I have also managed to accrue some bonus nectar points through Nectar canvass. I am not really getting on with swagbucks to be honest! But I will stick at it. I am getting closer to £50 in Yougov, so not long until I can draw that out.

In non-debt busting news, I am on track for my mini target I have set myself at SW, I only need another 3.5 pounds off before my last SW weigh in on 23 December. Dad did take me out for lunch today, a fab little pub in a village near the city we were shopping in. Ham, egg and chips, proper non-processed ham, huge chunky homemade chips,fried, double fried egg. Totally NOT slimming world friendly, but O-M-G, it was SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!

I also have a work Christmas lunch to attend Monday lunchtime, I have ordered the seabass fillets, with vegetables and pesto mash. I am going with the intention of not eating any/much of the pesto mash, but I suspect my willpower will falter as two of my favourite things in life are a)potatoes, & b) pesto!!! I am going to try though, I really want to achieve another 3.5 pounds off by Christmas.

Then next Friday it is our wedding anniversary, HF is taking me out to celebrate at one of our favourite restaurants, I am going to try and make sensible choices, to be honest dessert doesn't really bother me, HF has the sweet tooth out of the two of us. Starters however, I won't be able to resist! I L-O-V-E starters! Oh lordy, I can feel the pounds going on all ready. That is without the few glasses of wine I will be quaffing during the meal, eek!!!