£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Apple muncher annoyingly most of my train trips are done solo for work (or with other adults who are paying), so no railcard option. It's usually more financially viable to drive than to catch the train as a family, even with a railcard, sadly (my DCs love the train). We used to have one but didn't bother renewing when it last expired.

Arsenalbarnie I'm using the amla and coconut milk one, to help my scalp recover from the effects of the too harsh cheap one, but I also have apricot kernal hair and body bar (how convenient?!) and moringa to try. Takes so long to get through a bar that you could be waiting weeks and weeks for me to report back on those though!

mfmaybe I bought a cheap soap dish off ebay. Most soap dishes don't drain properly but this one is pretty good. My shelf is a couple of feet away from the shower head though, so it's not under water the whole time I'm in there.

Let's all take a moment to admire my MS win today: our kettle died a week ago. We used a saucepan for a couple of days, because we'll buy a stovetop kettle when we get our new kitchen, and we thought maybe we'd limp on using a pan, but actually it's incredibly irritating (and presumably inefficient) as we have an electric hob which takes ages to heat each time, so a new kettle was needed. First, DH phoned John Lewis and complained, as the kettle was only 2.5 years old and was really expensive, so achieved a £40 refund (it was £60 new, but out of warranty). Then I went on Amazon and found a kettle for £35.

Then I had a burst of inspiration - I have had two tea infusers sitting in my basket for weeks, because we are drinking more loose leaf tea (plastic-avoidance), but haven't been able to justify them (have been using the infuser from the teapot and taking turns, which makes a round of tea abominably slow by the time you've boiled the water on the electric hob too :mad: ). I swapped the £35 kettle for a £28 one with brilliant reviews and the same wattage and noise level as the £35 one (needs to be quiet due to small house and 4:30am tea brewing!). It's not as a pretty, but I dealt with it, so I could get the tea infusers as well. And then I remembered I had a topcashback payout available, and it turned out I had £38 available, so we ended up with £40 in our pockets and I have just ordered the kettle and two tea infusers for the princely sum of £1.64. I'm quite pleased with that - we were inches away from adding another £30 to the £40 refund and buying another beautiful (but probably equally short lived) kettle, but instead have ended up almost £40 up.

Had a lovely train adventure with the DCs today too. Spend £30 in total on train and cake in a cafe - met a friend who was having lunch, but we just had pudding. All the spends were budgeted in the entertainment kitty. Got overcharged by £60 in the cafe :eek: but luckily noticed immediately and got it refunded! That's why it pays to check the amount before you enter your pin.

To do today
1. Make a packed lunch to eat on the train.
2. Clear the ironing before it becomes mountainous again. Well we know what I'm going to be doing when I get up from typing this.
3. Finish next week's contract work this evening. Didn't finish, but made good headway.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 60: Day 4

Morning! We have (hopefully) a NSD ahead as we're going to a friend's for a playdate. Feel like the easter holiday is racing away quite quickly, as we now have something to do pretty much every day, but most of them are cheap/free.

We think DC3 has a minor wheat intolerance, which is tedious. We have been keeping a rough food diary for a month or so now, and it does seem to be the thing that sets off a big bloated tummy and, ahem, toilet unpleasantness. Think we might try cutting it out for her and see whether it makes a difference.

Nothing much to report, the budget is ticking along, no alarming expenses have appeared, no hitherto unheard of relatives have died and left me £1,000,000 in their will, no cars have needed maintenance for two whole weeks now. Bit boring really.

To do today
1. Bake biscuits to take on playdate.
2. Finish the ironing.
3. Email pictures to customer services of a shirt I bought a few weeks back which has split at the seams.
4. Do a freezer/cupboard dive for dinner.
5. Help DC1 make a start on his holiday homework.

Debt repayment:
- £16.33/30 April rounding down pot.
- £1,623.31/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

Sea_Shell

Just noticed your signature....you're down to £34,422 from £67,031. What did I miss...as it's almost halved somewhere in the last 146 pages of posts!!

Honeysucklelou2

Well done TOPM ...the kettle and infusers for £1.64 - brilliant!

warby68

Kettlegate - what a win there from all angles

I've had expensive kettle disappointments too

Treadingonplaymobil

Sea_Shell wrote: »

Just noticed your signature....you're down to £34,422 from £67,031. What did I miss...as it's almost halved somewhere in the last 146 pages of posts!!

I wish! We ended up being offered a much better remortgage rate and more manageable repayments if we wrapped the big loan (c.£20,000) up in the mortgage last time our fixed rate came to an end, which is why I've started quoting the mortgage total in the debt total figures.

MatyMoo

I worked with an Indian gentleman and he brought his son up to split any monetary gift in to thirds - one to save, one to donate and one to spend

Sea_Shell

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

I wish! We ended up being offered a much better remortgage rate and more manageable repayments if we wrapped the big loan (c.£20,000) up in the mortgage last time our fixed rate came to an end, which is why I've started quoting the mortgage total in the debt total figures.

Aha that'll do it!

Treadingonplaymobil

Woop, another mini financial win today: got paid for another booking, which took me back up to three months' expenses and salary in my business account, and it's only the 5th of the month! That's the earliest I've ever topped it back up to three months again after paying myself. More coincidence (several bookings at the end of last month/beginning of this) than design, but I'm still pleased.

Since I'm back up to that buffer I've been thinking about how I want to divide up any further income that comes in for the rest of the month. I couldn't decide between extra food money, debt repayments, saving for annual insurances (another thing I've been meaning to do, and was reminded of when reading Georgiana Cavendish's diary earlier), saving for supplies to bake my sister's wedding cake, or a few other things, so I've gone for a total 'jack of all trades' approach and am divvying any extra income between all my ideas! Helpfully, there are 10 of them, so profit for the rest of the month will go:
10% debt overpayments
10% extension savings
10% house stuff (urgent need for new pillows as my cheap replacements bought a year or two ago give me terrible neck ache, a saucepan, a couple of other smallish things that really have reached the end of their lives)
10% biz account emergency savings
10% food/household supplies
10% annual insurances
10% supplies for sister's wedding cake
10% saving towards 4 months' buffer in biz account
10% DC1 tutor (starting in Sept)
10% emergency fund
I will continue to round odd pence of change down and put that in the debt overpayment pot too.

I'm sure the net result will be about 8p extra in each pot, but I've discovered I am so much better at not spending when I divide my money up between as many pots as possible, as each pot is too small to be worth raiding , so I figure the worst case scenario is I change my mind if it's a complete waste of time! I'll note down how much extra I'm sending to those pots on here if and when it happens so I can keep track.

I know if I direct it all to debt overpayment I will end up with an off-the-rails month when I eventually decide I can't live with my pillows any longer and it starts a shopping chain reaction, or if I put it all in extension savings I'll suddenly think I have loads there and start committing to more expensive plans, and so on. At least I know I'm not to be trusted and need to hide my money in plain sight, right?

I know the debt is going away quite slowly at the moment, but I feel so much more stable and positive with the way we are managing money at the moment than I did when we were repaying twice as much a month, then needing to dip into savings pots by the end of each month. As I've said before, i know that ideally we'd be cutting down everything and anything and going hell for leather, but I also know with our debt and life stage combination, it's about keeping it going in the right direction without compromising family life completely. I've got my teaspoon, and I'm emptying my lake. And frankly, I'm not waiting another nine years for comfy pillows.

Also I notice I had a non-telling-off comment from my personal Jiminy Cricket, warby68, this morning, so I know I'm doing something right :beer: . You know I'd be lost without you warby! :cool:

To do today
1. Bake biscuits to take on playdate. Didn't need to do as I found some in the freezer I had leftover from a client! Frugal win.
2. Finish the ironing. Done
3. Email pictures to customer services of a shirt I bought a few weeks back which has split at the seams. Done, hope they refund without an argument.
4. Do a freezer/cupboard dive for dinner. Cheesy veg and tomato pasta with leftover limp veg and a broccoli stalk! :A
5. Help DC1 make a start on his holiday homework. Ahem. One for tomorrow's list.

Debt repayment:
- £16.33/30 April rounding down pot.
- £1,623.31/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

enthusiasticsaver

Good news on your financial win. Had to laugh at your 10 pots to divvy up extra income to and wonder how long it will take for you to get new pillows. Saves the indecision though I guess.