Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

brizzlegirl

Just catching up. All sounds good. Enjoy the sunny weekend and hope it’s not too much of a shock when DH goes back in on Monday x

XSpender

brizzlegirl said:

Just catching up. All sounds good. Enjoy the sunny weekend and hope it’s not too much of a shock when DH goes back in on Monday x

It might be a bit later in the week now but we are looking forward to a return to some sort of work routine.  He is getting a bit irritable as he just wants to know what day he is actually going back.  The 8 weeks I still have off are stretching ahead of me like a loooooong and empty road.

DS had a nice pool party birthday in the garden.  I made a fake McDonald’s breakfast and we had a small afternoon tea later in the afternoon with homemade VE Day decs and a birthday cake.  Someone close by was playing 40s music on a PA system which we enjoyed.  A friend called round and was impressed with the work we have done in the garden which was nice. 🙂  Social distancing adhered too 👌

We haven’t tackled painting the fence yet but DH has cleared an overgrown border and a large rockery area and planted our new plants.  We have also had a sort out of our clothes, organised the drawers where we keep all our running, walking and gym gear and have a pile to bin/charity shop at some point.  All our washing is up to date and the house is relatively clean and tidy.  

The £104 refund for FPU has been received which is a relief.  We will have to pay the transaction charges of £3 odd though.  Still waiting on a further £300 of refunds.

We didn’t pick up the garden tool we ordered from Arg0s in Sainsbury’s on Thursday as the Q was round the car park so we carried on around the roundabout without stopping and went home so will have to pick it up later in the week.

I have had to bite the bullet and order some free books and some under £1 books for my kindle as I have read all my library books!! £1.32 spent and I have read 2 of them already!!!

The highlights of next week, apart from DH returning to work, are the garden waste bins finally getting emptied and my utility room blind arriving. 😂

apple_muncher

Do you have an app from your library to download their books?

XSpender

apple_muncher said:

Do you have an app from your library to download their books?

I do but have never used it and didn’t check what my PIN number was before they shut. My library is a volunteer led one but I do think I can still access the e-books if I had a PIN number.

XSpender

Renewed the home and contents insurance today with a new provider.  I have been saving a small amount every month for the last year to cover this.  The quote came in at £61 under what I had in my pot and I will also earn £26 cash back and £192 under the renewal quote from existing provider!!!!!!

YNAB and the house insurance are the only 2 sinking funds I have (and haven’t dipped into all year) but I am going to start a couple more when things are back to normal for Christmas and Gifts and National Trust membership.  I don’t need to cover car expenses.  I have one for prescriptions/dentist etc but always dip into it.  Any other useful ones?  All my bills are on DD.

Raining and windy here this morning but has cleared up a bit now so we are going to take the dog out.

DS is loving the big lego set he got for his birthday, it is really challenging him and keeping off the game console.  

I’ve cleaned the kitchen, done the dishes and made some baked oats for the next 2 days breakfasts.  I should say burnt some baked oats as I am still using my cooker that only has ‘very high’ at the temp option and the time between cooked and burnt feels like seconds.

The milk (OOD 12th May and opened yesterday) is on the turn so we may have to go to a shop.  I can’t mange without tea.

I have some ironing to do and will mop the kitchen and conservatory floor AGAIN!  We are a bit on tender hooks today waiting for Boris to address the nation and for DH to hear what is happening about work next week.

apple_muncher

Well done you on that insurance!!

findingthisdifficult

Sorry to crash in to your thread like this, I just seen you mentioned about cheap/free kindle books.  
You may have already used this as I didn't read back too far in to the thread so apologies if this is not helpful, there is a kindle unlimited trial at the moment for 2 months free..might tide you over until you can get back to the library (hopefully)

XSpender

findingthisdifficult said:

Sorry to crash in to your thread like this, I just seen you mentioned about cheap/free kindle books.  
You may have already used this as I didn't read back too far in to the thread so apologies if this is not helpful, there is a kindle unlimited trial at the moment for 2 months free..might tide you over until you can get back to the library (hopefully)

Thanks for the tip, I hadn’t thought to see if I could get a free trial.  Unfortunately it is not offering me one,  maybe because I had a 99p prime trial recently   Will keep an eye on it to see if they offer me something later on. 

XSpender

DS and the dog have had me up since 5.20am.  I feel like a zombie as I was up late reading my book.

Spent some money yesterday in B&M on coffee, milk DW tabs, biscuits, garden fence lights, a pool pump and some paints and PVA for DS school project this week and in Iceland on frozen berries, broccoli (yeah! Found some at last!!) gr33gs pasties and a chicken pie for the boys.

DS art/science project is the kind of creative activity he loves so is a good bargaining tool this week to get him to do some work in the morning so he can spend some time on it in the afternoon.

It looks like DH work has been a bit premature in telling them they are likely to go back to work this week.  It looks like it will be later this month or as late as 1st June.  Other businesses in our industry have returned to work, including the one I work with, but DH company has not re-opened all branches.

My new utility blind is now due today and the return of the other one has been processed.  The old broadband provider has taken an extra month’s payment but I cant see anywhere on the website to contact them.  Nat trust had emailed to confirm they would reduce our payment by 25% but have taken the full annual membership payment.  It is a good job I check our bank daily or we would be in a right pickle.

All in all I am waiting for over £380 back in refunds not including the Prem13r 1nn room we booked for our now cancelled concert that I keep checking to see if we can cancel.  They are only allowing non-cancellable bookings up to 26th May to cancel and our booking is for early June.  They are allowing customers to move their booking free of charge which we will do if we can’t cancel as I certainly don’t fancy a night away in the town we booked which is only 50 minutes away from us and isn’t some where you would visit for fun!

DH and I have decided to use the refunds to top up our savings to the next £500 and clear the smallest balance on our debt snowball which will be just under £200 at the end of the month and give us £50/month to put towards the next debt.  The next debt by size is Creat10n at £564 and £70/month.  We do have a 0% deal ending in June for £2520 but this will be cleared with the savings when we go back to work.  The next one is £1000 then they get much bigger after that!

Right off to hustle DS along as school opens at 10am today!

brizzlegirl

Great newsy updates. Hope you're OK, you seem to be, especially on the domestic organisation front and savings. Maybe you could plan a routine for some of your next 8 weeks out (especially if DS is back at school) and see what you can 'achieve' ? I am definitely exercising more. Making it a non-negotiable. Not losing any weight tho which I am a tad sorry about, but just hoping its all hanging on as muscle

Have a good day