Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

redofromstart

ooh that Victoria Sponge sounds good. Does your DH just get to look at it from a distance? He's doing really well.

apple_muncher

Well done to dh on losing that weight. It only seems it was the other week that he started!

XSpender

Luckily DH doesn't have a sweet tooth so wasn't interested in the cake but has been drooling over the last slice of chicken pie.

My Mum made it up but the weather wasn't great as the rain was very heavy. Next year we will be picking them up and bringing them here as this will be the last year my Mum drives long distances. They do live on a direct train line to us but in a village about 25-30 mins from the station at their end.

My fitbit strap broke last week and is beyond repair. DH bought a brand new replacement for himself for less than half price today with lots of extras thrown in off a local selling page. I have inherited his old one (which is a model up from my broken one) but the strap is too big. I will cash in some of my shop and scan points tomorrow for amazon vouchers and buy myself a new smaller strap and a manly strap for DH as all but one of the straps he got included are a bit girly.

Electrician was here for hours this morning as the wiring was a nightmare. At one point we thought he was going to have to lift the floorboards in the bedroom above :eek: It cost us £80 but I had just over a £100 in the 'house' pot.

Mum will leave after breakfast tomorrow (with 2 slices of cake ) and we will be going to a local NT place for an Easter egg hunt if the weather isn't too bad. DS also wants to do one in the house.

XSpender

The weather has put the kibosh on our plans for a bike ride this afternoon as it is snowing :eek: We are off until Thursday and the weather forecast is pants so the Lakeland walk will also not happen. DH has to go into work for half a day too which is very annoying as he has booked the time off and DS and I will be sat around waiting for him to come home :mad:

DH has a gym class at lunchtime so we will pop and see some friends for an hour or 2 after that and then we are going to the cinema. DH and I have free tickets (bank account freebie) so will only need to pay for DS and DS and I have plenty of sweet treats to take from home.

We still haven't done anything about a holiday, we haven't even booked the dates we want at work yet! We do need a break away though but money will dictate where we go and for how long. It is shocking that 2 weeks on a H@ven site in Cornwall in a mobile home would cost us slightly more than 2 weeks half board in Italy in a 4 star hotel :eek: I refuse to put anything on credit so we will need to save and sell what we can and go from there. We won't do anything until the mortgage is sorted so we will have to see how much money we have and what is available then.

brizzlegirl

Hi XSpender :wave:

Just read your diary from start to finish and really enjoyed it....you are doing great and know where your slippages are. We all have them..my weaknessss are food and holidays. As I am FL this also affects my income.

One thing I wanted to check can you use TCB for work expenses like hotels? Often quite good deals and every little helps? Or do they have a separate corporate deal?

Have a great Easter. Suffolklass is spot on I would say with her observation...we who are like that can spot it in others .... so find time to breathe and relax

Brizzle x

XSpender

Hi brizzlegirl Thanks for reading. I always go via TCB and H0t3ls.com for work as I get the cash back and build up free nights away too.

Picked up a couple of holiday brochures yesterday but no decisions have been made. The brochures for 2019 come out this week so we may look at next year's holiday too. I am better if I have something to pay for rather than have something to save for if that makes sense.

DH has gone into work for a few hours this morning, DS feels a bit under the weather and the dog has a poorly eye so I have booked him into the vets this afternoon. I have no savings pot for the dog so will start a new pot in YNAB. This will be the second time he has been to the vets in the last few months after never having to go in the last 13 years!

The weather is awful again today. We are going to call in to a couple of bike shops to have a look, price up some bikes and get DS measured up. DH will also clean up DS old bike and put it on a local selling page.

redofromstart

XSpender, I feel your pain on the holidays. We used to do a cottage in Wales every year but then realised that driving to France and renting a gite was actually cheaper. If you look on bookings.com at French sites you can do the static caravan site with kids stuff/ swimming pool very reasonably, we often go in May half term.

XSpender

redofromstart wrote: »

XSpender, I feel your pain on the holidays. We used to do a cottage in Wales every year but then realised that driving to France and renting a gite was actually cheaper. If you look on bookings.com at French sites you can do the static caravan site with kids stuff/ swimming pool very reasonably, we often go in May half term.

We don't even use the facilities like the entertainment at H@v3n so we are paying way more than we need to. My Dad lives in France and there is a great eurocamp site near them but it is small and fully booked this year. I think France will definitely be on the short list for next year.

We are thinking either Sorrento or Dubrovnik for this year if we can afford it. Warm, a pool for DS and lots to see and do that we can achieve under our own steam so the best of both worlds.

Holidays/travel is something I want to be able to spend money on when we are debt free.


Vet trip cost £50. DS has been asleep a lot of the day but has perked up a bit now although still doesn't want to eat anything. DS is like the dog and never ill.:(

ETA: I've withdrawn £26 from TCB to go towards the vet bill and have taken the remainder from the family fun pot as I had increased this for our few days off but due to the weather and DH having to go to work today and Friday we haven't spent as much as anticipated.

I've set up a category in YNAB for the dog and will budget a small amount to this each month from now on.

apple_muncher

Aww, hope ds perks up soon.

mumofthetwins

Hi just wanted to say great diary ... I've just read from the start and feeling really inspired .. enough to do my own
I completely get where you are coming from with the houses.. my last house was huge and took ages to do, when we eventually did do it we decided to sell and downsize lol

Hope DS is feeling better soon Hun .. keep up the great diary :T:T

Lisa x