Changing habits, wanting freedom

jvr

Thanks NOA we at going to see La Boheme.... need to google the story line haha

Honey_Bear

Enjoy La Boheme, JVR. Getting a rough idea of the story in your head before you go makes it very straightforward, and there's plenty of help on google. Opera's the only art form I simply can't get my head around and I have tried and tried and tried. I'm almost envious of anyone who loses themselves in it. Fortunately for us OH enjoys going with a friend of mine who always buys him a glass of champagne in the interval, so it's a win:win thing here.

jvr

I'm not convinced I will be a convert as I have a short attention span and prefer a grizzly crime drama but its exciting to go once.
I have updated my signature to show the true extent of debt on my return from SA. Luckily OH's income insurance kicked in and we got his holiday pay out so paid off the overdraft we had used while away. I have now moved half the Barclaycard balance to an empty Halifax card on 0% for a year. I have also included savings pots as I just think this will help me see how slotting £5 here and there helps build them up. They don't have specific end dates but seeing it all on my spreadsheet spurs me on.
So my debts are as follows:
Barclaycard 2678 - 0% till Dec 18
Halifax 2183.88 - 0% till Feb 19
Tesco 3082- 0% till Dec 18
Halifax 1094.28 - 0% Dec 19


So it may not be the most logical but Barclaycard is being tackled first mainly as this is the one that we built up like idiots so it would feel amazing to clear (although cheated slightly by moving half that we were being charged interest on)
Then I'm not sure which I suppose it depends on how much we have cleared as clearly won't manage them all by the end of 0% date. My temptation is the Halifax with the lowest balance next but we have two years 0% on that... hmmm will have a think

jvr

Freezing today and a huge accident in town so took me and hour to get to work instead of 20mins! frustrating. Had my lunch at work yesterday but then met my sister for a hot chocolate on my lunch break so came to £3.30 out of change in my purse. No other spends as felt rubbish and didn't go swimming. I made the chicken legs that OH bought with some roasties and about to die spinach for dinner, was lovely. Tonight will be chilli I think as have basically everything in for it although may need kidney beans... will mix it with lentils to stretch it. Hoping to scrape though till sat and will do big aldi shop then. Exactly two weeks till pay day... not that I'm counting..........

jvr

Yesterdays spends....
I brought breakfast and lunch but grabbed crisps from the vendy so 70p which is daft as should just bring snacks!
Both of us were so tired last night so the mince didn't get used but OH grabbed some pasta, burritos and chicken legs from morribobs which came to about £11 plenty left for my lunch today too much better for us and bank than takeaway. I thought I had another smoothie ready for brekkie today but didn't so grabbed the yoghurt I use to make it and an apple and that will do for brekkie.


The dog chewed OH's headset for xbox which led him to an emergency trip to arg0s.... he put it on his argos card which has nothing else on it but that's his business to pay off and sort and I don't count it in our joint debts.


So far accounts looking good.... I have my last pack of airport cigs and I said would stop after that, feel very nervous I think both about stopping and fear if I can't as its not budgeted for.


I also realised that some payments on dd that I don't think should be there. We arranged life insurance and income protection through our mortgage guy and I think he cancelled the old one to put us in a joint one but seems like old one is still being taken must call and sort feel like an idiot as prob near on £100 over the year!

Honey_Bear

It's amazing how quickly a forgotten direct debit and few things like that can add up to quite useful amounts of money when we spot them. Even though I think I keep very track of every penny I spend if I didn't reconcile my bank statement really carefully every single month I'd be paying for all sorts of things I don't actually have to.

Speaking of which, I've just had a bit of a run-in with the vet and decided to check my bills really carefully after they tried to charge me over £12 for two tablets that should have been somewhere around the £4 mark together. They've charged me more than £1.70 to text me a reminder for something! Knickers to that. They also don't give me the 15% discount on prescribed medicines every time and a number of other anomolies, so that's another few hours I'm going to have to waste writing to them. I reckon they've over-charged me at least £100 in 2017 alone and I'm missing five invoice breakdowns - and I've been with that practice for 30 years. Not a happy bunny, but at least my records show how all over the place their figures are.

jvr

I have a memory of noticing last year but I think I had so much going on I didn't deal with it so its a job for this weekend.
That's so frustrating Honey especially when you have been so loyal, fab that you have records to show I but would be nice to sometimes not have to worry and check every figure sent to you I'm sure.


So money yesterday... £1.50 on a amazing Jaffa cake sundae thing from [EMAIL="M@S"]M@S[/EMAIL] totally worth it even though extortionate... actually £3 but my colleague owes me for hers.


Then £14 on a takeaway with my sister. She is visiting as she has some hospital appointments and is staying at my dads while he is away. She has ME and POTS so is not well at all and often has to use a wheelchair to conserve energy, so I said would come to her (my dogs are a bit energetic and draining) ordered us a delicious curry and had a nice catch up.... think OH then spent £6 on takeaway at home so he didn't miss out! Spendy but worth it for some one on one time and I was glad I made the effort to see if she was up to a visitor.


Today will be £1.70 on my breakfast sarnie, opera tonight is already paid for just have to decide if to drive or share a taxi with mum and sis I know which I should do haha

Honey_Bear

JVR have you ever done an SOA? It might be worthwhile to see where there could be money shifted from one area to another. It certainly seems that there's a lot going on with food that might be worthwhile planning a strategy so that you can be proactive.

Florence_J

Hi JVR, just caught up, I'm sorry for your loss. I hope things get easier for you, thank you for your kind words on my diary. X

jvr

Hi Honey..... yes there has been a lot going on with food which is frustrating as we totally got out of the takeaway habit and since back from SA seem to have slipped. I finally did an aldi shop and now there is options I think we will do much better.
I have never done an SOA as to be honest aside from bills which I always get on the best possible rates the only extra we have is Netflix and amazon prime. They money is there its just we haven't stuck to the budget!


Hi Flo, thanks that's really kind. Genuinely think I'm doing okay I think taking the three weeks off and then not long after having a three week holiday let me have the time to get my head straight


So trying to remember spending since Friday...... Friday at the opera we shared a taxi in the end and had (quite a bit) of wine so I think my share all in all came to £15 which I am happy with as it was a lovely evening. It was a youth opera and they set it like it was a refugee camp, I was very grateful for the subtitles and amazed at these kids voices. I also wondered how a teenager ends up involved in opera, but this may be because my teenage years involved more boys and Smirnoff than anything cultural!


Saturday I went to my friends for brunch which was lovely, she is 20 weeks pregnant (she was 4 weeks behind me) and I haven't seen much of her and wasn't sure how I would feel seeing her but it was so nice and I'm very happy for her, I then did a Aldi shop which was £60 restocked freezer and included a bottle of wine I think aside from some veg and milk will survive till pay day on the 21st.


Sunday I went with a friend to this new trendy coffee place she had heard of, it was literally on an industrial estate but was so packed it took us 20 mins to que and we had the most amazing donuts with average coffee. There big attraction is black cappuccino but they had run out. After sipping our tiny tiny coffee and spending £6 we left and went to the local costa which my friend kindly got me another coffee.


I also got an amazing amount of house admin jobs done, sorted all our paperwork out into the filling cabinet my mum was getting rid of. We have so much as have to keep EVERYTHING in case we need it for OH's visa's. I sorted getting new pet insurance saving £10 a month with £25 hopefully coming from Top cash back. Sorted switching energy suppliers which I did through TC for £25 but then realised my friend has a referral code which gives us both £50 so I am cancelling the switch and will do again next week with her code. I just have home insurance and then car insurance to sort in the next month. We may owe on the gas bill when we switch as with OH off we have obviously used a lot more this winter think its at £90 at the moment but the next payment should bring that down. Will need to adjust budget to do it.


Last night I went and tried a kick boxing class that my sister wanted to go to, was £8 but an hour and a half and I hurt all over today but felt very therapeutic I'm not sure would go every week but its good that can pop in as we used to attend a different school and I do miss it.


Today will hopefully be no spends as I brought my smoothie breakfast, one meeting got cancelled too late to cancel the buffet so we are taking it to our team meeting which sorts out lunch. Then off to my mothers for pancake day


oooo mega long essay and I haven't touched on the smoking bit yet so will pop back later...