A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim

Almost through the first week of half term, helped by it being DD's 11th birthday so we have been busy.  We had an afternoon at Legoland with our Merlin passes, yesterday we took DD and three friends to a trampoline park where DD has left her phone behind 🤦‍♀️ so this will be a two hour round trip to collect it. I've told her she has to wait until Sunday as we're at Chessington World of Adventures for all of Saturday with the Merlin Passes.   I need to get in touch with Tesco Clubcard regarding these as I usually buy my passes with my vouchers. I ordered the vouchers way back when with Clubcard, then Merlin extended the passes as the attractions were closed for months. Tesco extended the vouchers but now Merlin have stopped the sales of new passes so I can't use them.  I can renew but not using Clubcard vouchers.  

No financial movement. Shopping came in at £78 this week so I'm very happy with that.  I need to pop out and get more dog food and some Greggs sausage rolls from Iceland to take to Chessington with us tomorrow.  I've ordered a food flask from Amazon so hopefully I'll be able to cook them in the morning, wrap in foil and keep hot in the flask for lunch time.  

Naomim

Naomim

10 days since I last posted. Time flies so fast 😁

I had a birthday in lockdown. The first day so it was a bit meh. We had planned to go out for a meal at Harvester as they had sent me a £10 off voucher but at the beginning of the week I came down with an awful cold and felt terrible for two days. by the time I wanted to book for Wednesday it was all booked up so we ended up having a takeaway instead.  I was given a teasmade for my birthday. I've gone 70's retro and was so happy.  Nothing like a cup of tea in bed first thing in the morning without having to traipse down to the cold kitchen 😁  I just need to order some small milk cartons as don't want to leave milk in a cup overnight.

Thoughts have turned to Christmas in this house.  MrM wants the decorations up early as it looks likely this may be the first Christmas we will be having at home. We usually go to the in-laws but I think the rule of 6 will probably still apply for Christmas and there's usually about 11-12 of us there. My MiL is a complete worrier so I don't want her getting ill with stress.   I've already bought a frozen turkey crown and some chocolates. Yesterday I wrote a massive list for shopping so will start adding bits to each weeks shop from now on until I get to the fresh stuff. As I have delivery saver with Tesco I should be able to book a Christmas slot. They say they have added 5,000 extra slots so fingers crossed.

Also started buying a few presents for Christmas. In-laws are done.  A hamper from Aldi, a jigsaw for FiL and 3xbooks for MiL from The Works.   11yo wants a gaming pc which generally are very expensive.  Her friends Dad builds them for a living so she has saved and saved and I have said I will put in £100 but it will work out much, much cheaper than buying off the shelf.  15yo wants the new PS5. Again I have told him I can't afford it so he too has saved a lot of pocket money, the in-laws have given me £50 to go towards it and I will put in £100 also.  Then I just need to get bits and pieces for the kids.  Already ordered some craft kits for 11yo and some aftershave and a sweater for 15yo.   I have all the money saved but need to go through the joint bank account and transfer it over from my Monzo account.

Sadly the joint account has been neglected and I've been so busy with work I haven't had a chance to update it. I usually do it in my lunch hour but today I need to do my online shop.  I'll need to find some time soon!

Was a slow month on prolific for me last month, £12 overpaid to the Barclaycard though.  I've hardly done anything this month as so busy I don't really have time to do many.   My gas & electricity tariff ends at the end of December. I have an early exit fee so am waiting until the beginning of December before going onto the Cheap Energy Club and see what offers there are. Last year I switched via Quidco and got £75 cashback so will be looking at all deals again.  This year I have taken meter readings monthly and paid only what I used so there are no debit or credit amounts on the account.  

Was just about to sign off commenting on lockdown when I remembered. The company I work for have announced we wont be returning to the offices until June 2021 😮 but who knows? If this vaccine works and is available, we may all be in a better position next summer.  Although I have really enjoyed working from home - no commuting.  

Hope everyone is keeping well and safe.

Naomim

GeorgianaCavendish

Wow, June 2021 seems so far away! But honestly, I can see things going that way at my workplace as well. The latest update is that it "won't be before March 2021" and this hasn't changed with the vaccine news as it's such early days. 

You sound like you've got Christmas shopping under control. I've been getting some bits sorted this month, it's the first month of my latest attempt with YNAB and I'm really enjoying the novelty of the money already being in a designated pot instead of feeling vaguely guilty about my spending I've got about 1/3rd left to do, but I'm trying to hang on for Black Friday offers. 

I love the idea of a teasmade, I'm really jealous you've got one! 

Naomim

GeorgianaCavendish said:

Wow, June 2021 seems so far away! But honestly, I can see things going that way at my workplace as well. The latest update is that it "won't be before March 2021" and this hasn't changed with the vaccine news as it's such early days. 

You sound like you've got Christmas shopping under control. I've been getting some bits sorted this month, it's the first month of my latest attempt with YNAB and I'm really enjoying the novelty of the money already being in a designated pot instead of feeling vaguely guilty about my spending I've got about 1/3rd left to do, but I'm trying to hang on for Black Friday offers. 

I love the idea of a teasmade, I'm really jealous you've got one! 

I had my first cuppa from the teasmade today! It was lush! 11yo thought I was mad as I was so excited to be lying in bed with a cuppa at 7.30am.

Christmas is one place where I have always been very organised with savings except for last year because I had to keep dipping in the pot to pay money to the overdraft so ended up spending about £500 on the credit card.  This year I have been so, so good. the pot has a healthy £660 in and as and when I am buying I am transferring the money over. 

June 2021 does seem far away but it will come round quickly I'm sure.  I'm in a very privileged position in that MrM is also working from home so we have company, and we are still working full time on full pay.  One of my work colleagues lives in a bedsit on her own and is climbing the walls working, eating and sleeping in the same place all the time. Having said that, my company are very good in lots of ways, including making sure we look after our mental health.  My line manager checks in on us all regularly and we know he means what he says, not just paying lip service.

Will try and update the banking spreadsheet later today but need to go and get dog food in my lunch hour. 

Tesco has just delivered. Was a really expensive shop this week @ £119 and that was after £13 in promotional savings! There were no Christmas bits in there either so not sure exactly how it's so much.  Although the fridge was empty and we'd used all the soups etc from the cupboards so there was quite a bit of stocking up lunch things, salad stuff and I bought steaks as a treat.  I guess what we are saving in spending on lunches and coffees is shown in the weekly food shop.

This weeks meal plan is:

Egg fried rice with left over chicken
Burritos
Steak with parmentier potatoes
Roast - chicken
Salmon one pot
Hunters chicken
Beef Stew

Off to the pet store now.

Stay safe and well

Naomim

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

Belated happy birthday. That is also DDs birthday. Alas no fireworks display for her this year.

Naomim

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster said:

Belated happy birthday. That is also DDs birthday. Alas no fireworks display for her this year.

no, sadly not this year 😢  it's a good day to have a birthday though as usually there's something on somewhere. 

Naomim

I have managed to finally update my bank account spreadsheet. It doesn't make for too pretty reading 😕    

This month marks a year since I really had my LBM / financial epiphany.  When I think back to this time last year, I was refused credit when I wanted to buy the kids bikes for Christmas so had to put it on a credit card, I was constantly worrying if I could withdraw any cash out of the bank account and receiving texts from the bank telling me I'd gone over the overdraft and to put money in the account. The only money I had was what I had put by for Christmas so that was constantly dipped into. The worry stopped me sleeping properly.   This year I have paid off £4.6k on the credit cards and got them all onto 0% and £2.7k on the overdraft.  Just over £7k. It might not be as much as some and as fast as others but I have also managed to budget. My Monzo account currently has a balance of £2794 which is set aside in for future purchases - Christmas, car repairs, insurances etc. Obviously the Christmas pot will empty as I purchase things, but nothing this year will be bought on credit.

I've even managed to get the children to save up towards the game consoles they want for Christmas!  Go me!

I checked my Quidco and Topcashback accounts.  I have £90 in TCB and £32 in Quidco so I'll probably cash them out at the end of the year and put as an overpayment to one of the cards.

Everything is jogging along nicely, I just need to remember to enjoy the scenery along the way 😊

Naomim

astrocytic_kitten

That’s fantastic progress in just a year, you’re doing brilliantly - what a turnaround!

GeorgianaCavendish

Brilliant progress Naomi! You are an inspiration with the Monzo pots, I aspire to that level of organisation. 
Do you use the savings goals on the pots, and if so, do you have a mix of long and short term goals on the pots? I've set different goals on the monthly ; quarterly and annual pots (e.g. groceries is per month; haircuts per quarter; insurance per year) roughly based on how frequently I think I'll be spending from the pots. I get demotivated if I have too many high targets, I have to feel like I'm winning somewhere  

FootyFanDan

Wow, that is amazing progress you have made 😀, the fact you have learned how to better budget is what will help u keep up and not keep falling back into the debt trap. Super impressed by the monzo pots too. Keep up the fab work