Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

I hope everyone has had a good weekend.

We have had a good weekend; DH has had a rare weekend off, we have visited our favourite NT place and managed to avoid any rain showers.

The have been a couple of down points as some close neighbours have done something which has caused some issues in our garden. I wont say more than that but it is costing us £300 to return it to what it was. Oh and about 2 years in time :mad:

I tried to sell my 2 I-phones yesterday but have been told both are faulty and I wont be getting the £80 I was expecting I will have to go and pick the one I left to be checked up at some point. I could have really done with that money

DH has had a few small spends on himself this weekend and we have bought 2 more plants than budgeted for.

I resisted buying 2 beautiful dresses yesterday but I don't go out enough to wear them especially when they were £350 for the 2 :eek:

Positives this Week

I have actioned the energy transfer so DD will be £143 from June
House Insurance renewal quote requested approx. £187
Have re-used bread bags for sandwich bags
I have recorded every penny we have spent
DH and I have both been accepted for 0% zero free CCs to clear almost all our balances which go interest bearing this summer
Used 2 birthday cards and a note card I already had in
Baked 2 quiches and a batch of cookies from what we had in and batch cooked chilli
I haven't used the TD for 3 weeks which has saved us about £10
I have used the crusts of the loaf to make sandwiches (embarrassingly these used to go in the bin) and DH hasn't complained
I have meal planned until the end of the month and shopped accordingly
Got given an electric heater for use in the conservatory (no radiator)
Avoided purchasing 2 dresses and new conservatory furniture (no wonder I keep out of the shops to avoid temptation!)

Hiddenidenity

I love all the smiles that's a whole lot of good points!

Bobarella

The whole crust thing is a funny one. I always see these as just bread but loads of people didn't want a crust when I had the cafe, and also in my opinion more odd, didn't like the first slice of cake in a loaf cake either! It's cake! It has to start somewhere.

XSpender

Hiddenidenity wrote: »

I love all the smiles that's a whole lot of good points!

Hi HI! It keeps me focussed when I haven't got any more money this month to pay off the debt. I forgot to add one for when I reused a teabag this morning

Bobarella wrote: »

The whole crust thing is a funny one. I always see these as just bread but loads of people didn't want a crust when I had the cafe, and also in my opinion more odd, didn't like the first slice of cake in a loaf cake either! It's cake! It has to start somewhere.

I never used to eat crusts but now I have to buy GF bread I refuse to waste any. I agree with you about cake though, it's cake!


Operation Frozen Sandwiches has begun. I have made DH corned beef and mustard for tomorrow and put them in the fridge and another 2 days worth with some corned beef and some ham and froze them. I will probably defrost them the night before as at the minute he has to eat them when he can as he is so short staffed and if they are still a bit frozen he won't get any lunch.

XSpender

Woke up to the terrible news from Manchester this morning. I feel upset but also very angry that women and children were targeted. My thoughts are with those people who have lost loved ones and whose loved ones have been hurt or are still missing.

Hiddenidenity

Got to admit I don't like crusts I feed them to the kids as toast though :rotfl:

Town incident is just heartbreaking, total shock and sadness at this world and whats happening

XSpender

DH has taken the defrosted sandwiches to work today, will see if he mentions anything about them later.;)

I somehow managed to gluten myself on Sunday so was not too well yesterday and still have an upset stomach today. I can only put it down to a packet of crisps I ate which were ‘produced in a factory that handles gluten’. I should be more careful.:o

I feel a bit flat after the progress I have made earlier this month probably because the impact of the savings won’t be felt until July in real terms as I have the home insurance premium to pay and a double energy company payment to cover in June for the old and new companies. This is because the new company takes the DD in advance. At least it’s not long to wait until payday when the monthly payments will start to go out again.

I paid the window cleaner £10 yesterday and my friend £10 for a deposit for a doo at Christmas. Today I am hoping for a NSD.

We have had to use the £91.31 of savings I had put aside for Christmas (and added to the EF figure) to top the account up and £290 has gone on the CC to purchase items to resolve the issue caused by our neighbours. We are in one of very few pockets of land not part of the conservation area that just about encompasses our entire town so we cannot do anything about it and we and our other neighbours are still smarting from the way in which the other neighbours have gone about it. :mad:

I am pleased with the progress on reducing our food spends this month so far. Since February we have been averaging £154/week on food and booze and this month we are averaging £114 with only a top up needed to take us through to the end of the month. This includes a 3-course meal for 7 and a party tea for DS. The booze part of this is too much and I need to speak to DH about him drinking less. It’s not good for him, his waistline or our budget. Some of the spend is on a bottle of nice gin and some is booze for me but the majority of it is for DH who uses a few cans as stress relief.

I have been thinking about ways to earn a few extra pounds as we don’t have much to sell as our debt is more from buying the house, work carried out or items needed for the house and 2 holidays. We both work long hours, DH 6 days a week and 12 hour days currently, and I am often away with work so a 2nd job isn’t feasible.

I have £40 of vouchers in my shop n scan rewards, just from the scanning side. If I start to send the receipts off as well I will be able to double that by the end of the year, just in time for Christmas. Now I have a scanning app on my phone it will be easy to do and only take a few minutes once a week.

I am also going to start doing some surveys as I spend ages on the laptop anyway I might as well earn something from it too. Any recommendations for who to sign up with?

I have a few small items to sell but will be amazed if this raises £80.

I do have a diamond and white gold necklace from a prestigious jewellery brand that I never wear. I am contemplating selling it as the chain is a little short and I am not keen on where it sits on my neck and I always worry I will lose it if I wear it out. The only issue is it was my wedding present from DH and we wouldn’t get anywhere the £1500 it cost. I still have all the original papers and box.

joedenise

I do Populus Surveys which pay quite well. I regularly get surveys for £1; £2 or £3 at a time. Biggest problem I've found is that quite often you'll spend 5 minutes or so doing some questions and then get thrown out as "they have enough of your demographic for this survey!" which is quite annoying. They pay out once you reach £50 and send you a cheque but you don't get it until the end of the month in which you reach the £50 and I find I usually reach the £50 in the first couple of days of the month and have to wait most of the month before the cheque is sent out.

Have to say I've given up most of the survey sites now.

Another thing which might be worthwhile signing up for is Tesco Home Panels. Just go to their website and there is a box to click if you are interested in joining the panel. Sometimes it takes a while before you actually get anything to trial but I've found it worthwhile.

You get various things to test from soap, shampoo, toothpaste to underwear, tops, jackets. Both DH and I have had good quality jackets to test in the past and in fact we are both still using them regularly - they are padded and warm so usable most of the year apart from when the weather is very warm.

Denise

XSpender

Thanks joedenise - I will have a look at Populus. I am hoping that having moved areas last year I will qualify for more surveys and polls. I tried for years to join shop and scan and was always rejected as they had enough people but as soon as I moved here and applied I was accepted immediately. It is quite an affluent town and there mustn't be as many MSErs here as there was in my last area;)

We were supposed to be going to friends on Monday but DH has postponed it as it is my last weekend at home before my holiday and we have so much work to be done in the garden we cant afford to lose a day.

Green Thumb are here as we speak and I normally pay the bill immediately but it is not due until early June so will pay it when I get paid on Wednesday. I have enough in the account to cover the 2 phone bills that are due out and the free and 99p books I ordered from amazon last night for my holiday but nothing else. I may have to take out the £25 I added to the EF this month to cover a very small top up shop. The rest of the garden stuff I need to fix the problem will have to go on the card.

I have done a new SOA for the budget from July and if I can avoid adding to the debt, find an extra £85/mth and use my next 3 annual bonuses we would be debt free before DH's 50th birthday in Feb 2020. This would mean paying £1000 a month of our debt:eek: and paying my bank loan first which is the right thing to do I just hate having CC balances after promising myself we would never have them again.

The good thing about paying the loan off is that is on my internet banking as with my main bank so I can PAD often as long as it is for £1 or more.

In 19 months I will have cleared 2 loans and the BNPL, in 21 months cleared 1 card and in 33 months cleared the last 2 cards.

I then started to look at OPing the mortgage but got depressed when I worked out how old I was going to be so left it alone. Neither of us have good private pensions so it is always a toss up between OPing the mortgage and saving for retirement and it worries me if either of us was unable to work for the next 25-20 years especially as we had DS later in life.:( I will concentrate on the debt and cross that bridge when I come to it.

XSpender

Panic over, I have just rembered the child benefit goes in to the account on Friday so no need to take anything out of the savings