No More!

hamiltoes

Thanks Rawr I see you have one too, I'll pop over and sub we can cheer eachother on :-D

Well today was a NSD thankfully but will be unavoidable tomorrow as washing is piling up and running low on milk. Cooked slow cooker ham in cola, was delicious and plenty of leftovers for tomorrows dinner.

So, in prep for new year I went through bills to see what I could bring down. In Oct post LBM I cancelled virgin TV sub, which started when I was with ex who needed Sky sports, movies, H-blooming-D, XXXL and also extra boxes in every room. He'd have had it in the cupboard if I'd let him, for the eye watering price of about £130 per month :mad:

We now only have basic internet at £25, and only use the amazon firestick for TV and films on-demand so no TV Licence needed. I still have a valid one until March so this was sort of a trial, and can honestly say we have coped just fine so that will definitely be staying.

For anyone with kids I highly recommend a firestick with the kodi app. Makes me feel a bit sick thinking about how much I was paying for what was ultimately back ground noise. I do miss flicking sometimes but not at the cost of £100 per month!

So, got on the phone to Orange today about an Ipad I've paying for elderly relative since day dot and got a huge shock. I currently pay £25/£26 pm for 2GB of data that barely gets used. I also had an Orange contract for ex as he couldn't get credit (what does that tell you) but he stopped paying when we split up. So i remember calling up at the beginning of the year to cancel when the contract ended. All good or so I thought.

It turns out the IPAD was actually only £15 a month and the extra has come from a gaming scam subscription that has been charging £1.99 per week since Feb!!!! :mad: I don't even have the account details to check the bills I just assumed the £26 was what the contract price was (I'd had the 1 bill of around £55/60pm for two years prior due to ex's phone). So needless to say that was cancelled and switched to EE! Added up to almost £90.

That will teach me to be so lax with bills and not paying attention. The new contact is only £10.80 a month so at least from now on I'll be saving money and Orange are crediting my account £25 so hopefully I don't get a final bill from them.

I phoned the game place and call center offered refund of..... £15! Gave me an email address if I wish to push for further refund. Yes i do!! So will be emailing them tonight to see if I can claim some of this back. Feel so silly.

BUT... it's money I already spent and didn't realise so I can't let it bring me down. Had ordered 2 dressing up costumes for D2s xmas but she went off them before the day, so Asda are refunding me £26 which is money in my pocket. Onwards and upwards eh!

Bobarella

What a great idea about the slow cooker, everyone raves about them.

hamiltoes

Yes I'm really liking the slow cooker. Living youself its so easy to just buy expensive ready meals or call takeaway rather than cooking a meal for just you. I'm hoping having a stash of pre-cooked "proper" food will help me combat this.

Heres the stats for January, they won't change between now and January so may as well

1ST JANUARY 2017

TSB: £470
SAVINGS: £100
RBS: £90
ISA: £440
BONDS: £100
HOUSE: £9150
TSBCC: -£750
FRIDGE: -£400
TSBL: -£3715
CAR: -£1500
CC: -£5800
VERY: -£350

TOTAL NET WORTH -£2165

SAVED FROM DEC: £780

DEBT: £12,515

Not as great progress as I managed the first month, I definitely took my eye of the ball a bit over christmas BUT the debt didn't go up at least as it has in years gone by. I'm happy with that and I'm going to do everything possible to beat that in January and really focus on the debt.

I'm saving £50 every 4 weeks for xmas and birthdays, and £50 every 4 weeks for an emergency fund. I then have about £70 a week that can go to either of these pots so I'm thinking £50 to TSB CC and £20 to Emergency fund. I really want to clear this credit card as its the only one I have to pay interest on, it's around 20%.

My plan is to then overpay on the loan to free up the £125 per month payment, except the 1 month before the very 0% runs out. Then I can throw everything at the big CC with £5k on it before the 0% runs out Summer 2019.

I'd like to get emergancy fund to about £500 and then re-evaluate what I'll save towards next. I'm trying to imagine my life where I can save £500+ a month and not have to throw it all towards debt! I just need to get there.

hamiltoes

So... planned spend day today but there is money in my purse for that. D1 is having a friend stay over tonight so will get them a pizza, planning to pop to cheap L once youngest is off to her dads.

Also need to visit my gran this morning, its 15miles each way so not a massive distance but I may need to put petrol in the car. Might stick £20 which should do the weekend and next week to as its my week off the driving.

In other MSE news games company will refind 6 months so I work that to be about £50. Not the £90 it should be but better than the £15 they tried to buy me off with. Oh well, lesson learned to stay on top of these things! EE conteact runs out in July so will be moving to Sim only as soon as I can, the iphone6 with it broke months ago and wouldn't hold a charge so I bought a new one (on the CC!!!) which I am probably still paying off in some shape or form.

Note to self: an iPhone is not an emergency!!

Off to make another coffee while the house is still relatively quiet. Have a lovely day x

hamiltoes

Home now for the night and didn't have to get petrol, better the money in my account earning pennies of interest :-)

Got £50 xmas gift from my gran which was totally unexpected and I'm very greatful!

Then popped to Lidl, £8.40 and got washing liquid which should do 40 washes, baby wipes, milk, 2 baguettes for my soup, 2 pizzas and 2 packs of sausages which I've just put in the freezer. Will make a casserole with these which will do a good few dinners and lunches when I'm back to work, just needs tatties and carrots when I'm ready.

Gained an extra child for the sleepover tonight but D2 is away to her dads so theres enough beds. I really find with kids its sometimes easier to have 3 than it is one as they seem to occupy themselves and make their own entertainment!

Tomorrow have bf and his son staying over for hogmany, will have a little party with the kids. Have balloons to pop for every hour in the countdown and activities to do, mocktails, hat decorations, dancing games, party food etc. Bf usually phones on his way to see if I need anything so perhaps he will provide the party food :rotfl: if not it shouldn't be more than £6 in the cheap L.

This is the first year in a long time I'll be home for NYE, so it most definitely beats paying £60 in over-inflated drink prices and wandering around aimlessly waiting for a ££££ taxi, in an expensive new dress courtesy of CC. :eek:

I think my mindset has most definitely shifted now. I've spent so much on dresses worn once and banished to the closet, eyelashes, nails, mons*on coats for the girls which gets ruined because they are dirt magnets. Its so so wasteful!!

The only thing which probably truly brings me happiness is my house, which I did spend a lot on but its quite honestly perfect (to me) and worth every penny, and where many happy memories are made. I need to keep it clear in my mind what the true value of material things are. Will they make me happy and do I need them? If no, I'm not buying it!

rawr_

hamiltoes wrote: »

Thanks Rawr I see you have one too, I'll pop over and sub we can cheer eachother on :-D ...

For anyone with kids I highly recommend a firestick with the kodi app.

:j Hubby has just sorted Kodi out on a raspberry pi for us, and it's SO GOOD! We are going to be watching so many movies!

Sorry to hear about the charges that you weren't aware of, it really sucks when that happens. I swear by checking my accounts on my banking apps on my phone! This happened to hubby though - he bought a mobile phone online a couple of years ago, and had only noticed last month that they were charging him £27 every 6 months. It was so weird, turns out it was some kind of tech support that he didn't agree too - such a scam! The bank luckily paid the money back, but just need to be so careful!

hamiltoes

Rawr it's a revelation isn't it! And yes I have definitely learned my lesson to keep on track of everything and make sure I'm paying the lowest price. Decided tonight I'll make a list of all contracts and renewals etc and when they are up.

Had a bit of a spendy hogmany, £15 for party food and then at the last minute realised printer was out of ink so that was £19.99, although did go through TCB and it does save a fortune on birthday parties so would have been bought at some point. The kids had a ball so that's the important thing.

Yesterday £10 in the electric and then today has been a NSD. Back to work tomorrow so batch cooking some pasta for tea tonight and work lunches. Accounts are looking healthy, budget stuck to, house has been cleaned and tidied top to bottom and feeling very positive heading into 2017 :j

louby40

Hi hamiltoes

I too find Noddle really silly as it takes ages to update and is a bit rubbish.

Try Clearcsore, they're free and is a much better site. I think they're linked to one of the big ones, Experian or Equifax - defintley worth looking at although it's a pain logging all your details in!

Also big lover of our slow cooker here too! It's so handy if you work fulltime!

Louby

hamiltoes

Thank you Louby I will check that out over the weekend!

Well first week back of work done and I'm glad to say I stuck to the plan of taking lunch in every day so that was ££ saved!

Having trouble with drinks though so a good few cups of tea got written down in the book which i'll have to pay next week. Its only 30p if you have your own cup but 3 or 4 of those a day all add up. I can't bring my own as there is no fridge for milk, and I can't drink cold beverages so its all I drink. Tried switching to malted milk but I think the lack of caffeine gave me a headache. Hmmm maybe I will try green tea next week.

I didn't have to get petrol til Thursday night so that was good and another person has joined our car share!! So that will be £70/80 petrol every 3 weeks now instead of 2! Excellent.

I've felt really frugal this week but did go to Ikea and bought a big soup pot, a sieve (needed) and a huge bag of Daims (definitely not needed!!) it was only £13 and justified meatballs and chips (£3) by thinking of the £50 sains wanted for a soup pot but thats not the point.

Total spent this week £125!!!
Includes £20 printer ink and £40 petrol but my budget going forward is £100 per week so really need to work on this next week.

I've been making extra payments to interest CC which had £1000 on before xmas. Really hoping to clear this by end of Feb so will have to stay focused.

Also requested a F&F with fridge so waiting on that to come through. If I can clear it with savings I will and then the £40pm payment can stay in my bills account working up an emergency buffer.

Off to make a slow cooker sausage casserole for tonights tea then spend time catching up on the diaries.

kazwookie

Buy a flask and put the cold milk in that for tea at work, no need for a fridge, just take the amount of milk you need daily with you, and some tea bags.