Tales from the Avenue

[Deleted User]

Hugs to you lovely xxx Rant away, it's your diary.

You really are going through the mill at the moment, especially with your dad, hope he's getting better? xx

hugglemonster

Sorry things are such a struggled and you have lots on your mind at the minute, are there any other areas of your budget that we can look at and see if we can save you a bit of money? Do you have time to batch cook some meals which would bring down the cost or add a tin of beans to a mince stew to stretch it out and reduce the amount of meat?

I find Home Bargains better for buying toiletries and household cleaning products, a lot of their tinned stuff and lots of other things are much cheaper than the supermarkets.

H x

TalesfromtheAvenue

Thank you both, unfortunately no great news on my Dad, in fact, a bit more bad news last week, but he does seem to be getting thoroughly checked out and monitored, so that's a positive I guess.

Thank HM, great Idea. I will try and post an SOA at some point and if anyone can suggest some cutbacks that would be great. A fresh pair of eyes and all that.

Still feeling really blue but I've forced myself to get a few things done today.
I stripped DS's bed and did two loads of washing which has all been line-dried today. I hoovered through the house; cut the grass and finally did an inventory of the freezer. I've also listed an item on Gumtree which, if sold, will bring in £120. It's a nice piece of furniture, but is just too big for the room it's in, so hopefully I can replace it with a smaller (and cheaper) version and have some money left over. I've sorted a few more charity shop items and put some other bits in the ebay pile which I may try and list tomorrow if I feel in the mood to do so.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a bit of painting, I already have the paint so it won't cost me anything.

Oh, today was a NSD, I didn't go out except for a walk over to OH's and to the park with DS, so no money spent.

TalesfromtheAvenue

Old habits die hard as they say, and, feeling a bit miserable at the weekend I spent some money I could have done with saving on plants and compost for the garden, as well as a few other bits and bobs in Home Bargains. No huge value spends, but I just need to remind myself that I really can't afford to be spending any money. I'm already over budget in my grocery and 'everything else' budgets and have had to transfer £100 from the savings pot to cover this and add a bit more in to get me to the end of the month. It's all been updated in YNAB though, so at least that's something I guess.

I have had lots of interest in the piece of furniture I'm selling and it's likely it will be sold today. Looking around, I don't think I'll get much change back on replacing it with something smaller though as everything seems to be quite expensive. There's no rush though, so I can hold on until I spy a bargain. In fact, I might even put the £120 towards the holiday deposit I need to find and then replace the furniture later in the year. My small business I run from home picks up from July/August onwards normally, so I could use some funds from that.

I still haven't got round to ebaying stuff, but I have sorted a couple of other things to sell.

I'm pleased with my progress with surveys. I have around £15 in one survey account and £10 in another. I will look at cashing them out and sticking them in a savings pot soon.

I need two tyres on my car, so I'm going to try and book that in for the weekend as I will need to drive to my parents' house soon which is a 3.5 hour drive and I need to get them done before then. I have the money saved in the car account, but it will reduce that fund by around £100 - £140 so I will need to build that up rapidly again.

Think I need to look at my budgets asap and see what I can jiggle to make them a bit more realistic. I'm really struggling to stick to them as they are presently.

TalesfromtheAvenue

Quite a pro-active night, even if I do say so myself... 😬

I got a load of washing done and line dried; Cooked dinner for DS, OH and myself from the freezer, used up some bits, just need to cross them off my freezer inventory now. I watered all of my fruit and veg seedlings, they're coming on nicely in the makeshift greenhouse aka the conservatory. 😉 The tomato plants will be ready to be planted out soon and then I'll have space to sow some of my bean seeds and the beetroot.👍

And, news of the night, I finally got round to listing the pile of eBay stuff! One bundle was too heavy to post, so I've popped that on gumtree in the hope that it will sell. The other 7 items are all on eBay, mostly as BINs, so hopefully they sell soon.
I've weighed it all and calculated the postage too so I don't get any nasty shocks when posting them off.

Oh, and the item of furniture didn't sell tonight because it was cream - even though I advertised it as a 'cream' item of furniture... the mind boggles with some people. Someone else is interested in it, I just need to decide whether I can be &arsed to go through the process of selling it again...

Now bed and a bit of reading beckons.

Night all x

TalesfromtheAvenue

Forgot to add, was a NSD today too

TalesfromtheAvenue

One BIN has sold for £20 already and one item sold locally for £18. I have someone else coming to look at the item of furniture today too. One item on ebay has a bid on it too, so that will sell.

Another couple of surveys completed this morning, am enjoying seeing those mount up. I will build one up to £25 and redeem my points, the other I will get to £15 soon, hopefully.

Today won't be a NSD as we have almost run out on a few essentials, so we have to pop out and stock up. Determined to stick to the list though!

TalesfromtheAvenue

Another two items have sold since my last update today, one for £10 which is to be picked up and paid for tomorrow and another BIN on ebay for £12.
The item of furniture has also been sold for £120, but I just need to replace that now with something smaller. It's a shame I can't find any real bargains presently though.

I have had news that some new external fittings needed for the house and ordered months ago when I moved in, will be done within the month, plus, I have a couple more windows to get sorted as the sealed units have also blown quite badly. I have just over £2000 in my Isa, saved for this purpose, but it will leave me with nothing and the bathroom still needs to be finished. I have a builder coming out at the weekend to quote for the remaining work in the bathroom, but I need to factor in more tiles, a shower and flooring on top of that yet. Oh, and how to pay for the holiday.


Think I'll be saving that £120 and forgoing the furniture replacement for now... I hear beanbags are 'in'.

TalesfromtheAvenue

So, I've made the decision to cancel the holiday at the end of August. I will lose the deposit of £150 plus £50 ferry crossing deposit I've already paid for, but I think I will have to chalk that one down to experience.
It means I don't have to find the £353 remaining balance, plus, realistically, it's going to cost at least another £200 on top of that catering it and for diesel, if not more.
Plus, tbh, I wasn't really looking forward to putting up with a week's behaviour from one of the children who's going and their associated parents. The child is a nightmare and the parent does little about it.

That's it now. No more holidays for us for some time. DS is going away with his Dad a few times over the summer anyway so he won't be missing out and I'll save vouchers for some fun day trips for him and I.

So, the holiday pot, which had only £30 in it, plus the £36 odd I transferred from PayPal tonight, has been slushed into the ISA to help build up funds in there for the work needed on the house.

I'm feeling a bit sad we won't be going on holiday as we've been there once before and it is a lovely place, but, I feel more at ease knowing I won't have to find that money.

Honeysucklelou2

That is a tough decision but at least you won't have the pressure of trying to find the extra money. Fun days out can make lots of memories.