Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

smallholdingsister

Great moneysaving!

You can buy insulation ready formed, you literally lay it down. Like a loft duvet. Not the cheapest but cheaper than paying an installer.

Have you got floor length curtains in your bedroom? The oldstylers safety pin fleeces to the wrong side in winter.

glass_half_full

Hi XSpender,

On the loft insulation, can you get it paid for? Some time ago I was able to get mine done for free by British Gas. Just a thought,

XSpender

Stuff I need to get done this weekend

Help DH complete the garden work that needs doing
[STRIKE]Buy planting stuff, leaky hose, sand and weekiller for garden[/STRIKE] DONE
Weeding, lots and lots and lots of weeding
Clear the bl00dy ironing pile once and for all
Get suitcase and holiday clothes out of loft and put other boxes in loft
Wash holiday clothes I am taking with me
Book spray tan [STRIKE]and gel nails for next week and see if still do offer on a Thursday for 3 treatments for £10 [/STRIKE] CLOSED TIL TUESDAY NOW
[STRIKE]Small top up shop[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Cancel NY trip (still haven't done this)[/STRIKE] DONE
Book a dentist appointment for DS in half term or week after if full CLOSED TIL TUESDAY NOW
Clean the house, especially upstairs
Vac and re hang bedroom curtains
Put DS picture and planets up
Batch cook 2 meals for DH when I am away
Bake a cake (carrot?), cheese scones x 2 and an apple crumble to use up stuff in fridge
Pop in to see friends with DS
Jet wash paths, steps and patio area
[STRIKE]2nd coat of paint on arbour[/STRIKE] DONE WITH HELP FROM DS

Crazy weather here today with hailstones as big as golf balls :eek:

XSpender

glass_half_full wrote: »

Hi XSpender,

On the loft insulation, can you get it paid for? Some time ago I was able to get mine done for free by British Gas. Just a thought,

I don't think so as we don't receive any benefits except child benefit. We did get it free a few years ago at our last house at the end of old scheme when it was free to anyone but I don't think we would qualify now.

smallholdingsister

Yeah I think they have knocked that green deal stuff on the head.

XSpender

XSpender wrote: »

Stuff I need to get done this weekend

[STRIKE]Help DH complete the garden work that needs doing[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Buy planting stuff, leaky hose, sand and weekiller for garden[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Weeding, lots and lots and lots of weeding[/STRIKE] DONE
Clear the bl00dy ironing pile once and for all
Get suitcase and holiday clothes out of loft and put other boxes in loft
Wash holiday clothes I am taking with me
Book spray tan [STRIKE]and gel nails for next week and see if still do offer on a Thursday for 3 treatments for £10 [/STRIKE] CLOSED TIL TUESDAY NOW
[STRIKE]Small top up shop[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Cancel NY trip (still haven't done this)[/STRIKE] DONE
Book a dentist appointment for DS in half term or week after if full CLOSED TIL TUESDAY NOW
Clean the house, especially upstairs
Vac and re hang bedroom curtains
Put DS picture and planets up
Batch cook 2 meals for DH when I am away
Bake a cake (carrot?), cheese scones x 2 and an apple crumble to use up stuff in fridge
[STRIKE]Pop in to see friends with DS [/STRIKE]DONE
Jet wash paths, steps and patio area
[STRIKE]2nd coat of paint on arbour[/STRIKE] DONE WITH HELP FROM DS

Crazy weather here today with hailstones as big as golf balls :eek:

DH got almost all the work done yesterday but will need to finish it in the rain this morning. It is looking fabulous at that end of the garden now, we have made real progress We even managed our first Barbie of the year

We were sitting in the conservatory last night, whilst on the phone, and I noticed what I thought were blossom petals on the roof. It took me a moment to realise they were circles punched out of the top layer of the plastic by the hail and sitting on the bottom layer:eek: It looks like I will have to make a claim on the insurance as at least 10 separate panels are damaged. I change my insurance company next week so will have to get the claim in quick. If it's not one thing it's another

BD rang last night and is popping for a visit and possibly lunch so that will give me the motivation to clean the house and get the baking done.

XSpender

Back to work tomorrow. DH and I are worn out after this weekend.

Stuff I need to get done this weekend

[STRIKE]Help DH complete the garden work that needs doing[/STRIKE] DONE
[STRIKE]Buy planting stuff, leaky hose, sand and weekiller for garden [/STRIKE]DONE
[STRIKE]Weeding, lots and lots and lots of weeding[/STRIKE]DONE
Clear the bl00dy ironing pile once and for all
Get suitcase and holiday clothes out of loft and put other boxes in loft
Wash holiday clothes I am taking with me
Book spray tan [STRIKE]and gel nails for next week and see if still do offer on a Thursday for 3 treatments for [/STRIKE]£10 CLOSED TIL TUESDAY NOW
[STRIKE]Small top up shop [/STRIKE]DONE
[STRIKE]Cancel NY trip (still haven't done this)[/STRIKE] DONE
Book a dentist appointment for DS in half term or week after if full CLOSED TIL TUESDAY NOW
[STRIKE]Clean the house, especially upstairs[/STRIKE] DONE
Vac and re hang bedroom curtains
Put DS picture and planets up
Batch cook 2 meals for DH when I am away
[STRIKE]Bake a cake (carrot?), cheese scones x 2 [/STRIKE]and an apple crumble to use up stuff in fridge CAKE AND SCONES MADE
[STRIKE]Pop in to see friends with DS[/STRIKE]DONE
Jet wash paths, steps and patio area
[STRIKE]2nd coat of paint on arbour[/STRIKE] DONE WITH HELP FROM DS

We have ended up spending more on the garden this weekend than planned and I will do an end of month debt reduction figure on the 31st.

Positives this week

:)Used a free sample laundry tab and unstoppable fabric softener (god that stuff stinks!) on our bedding and it made the whole bedroom smell lovely for days
:)Only used the TD for half an hour due a no-clean-uniform emergency
:)Reused the odd teabag (I drink loads of tea when working from home)
:)Used up stale YS bread to make 2 portions of GF garlic bread and popped 1 portion in the freezer
:)Made lasagne and stuck 2 portions in the freezer for when I am away as ready meals for DH
:)Re-did my SOA and snowball - £915 available for debt but £1000/month to debt plus my annual bonuses will get us DF the month DH turns 50 (you know I will be aiming for before his 50th don’t you?;))
:)Found a company on line that will give me a quote to buy my necklace (but not ready to sell it yet)
:)Confirmed insurance renewal at £222 (with a different co than one mentioned earlier but better cover)
:)Received £10 in Mr T vouchers (will swap for a restaurant voucher for use when away for LEGOLAND)
:)Found cheapest way to buy LEGOLAND tickets after considering all options (corporate discount)
:)Operation Frozen Sandwich was a success and will continue
:)Earnt 500 points for completing a shop n scan survey
:)Made £7.50 in vouchers from a survey site in 4 days!
:)Made £1.00 cash from another survey site
:)Re-used 2 pasta sauce jars from the lasagne I made to store the big bag of chilli powder I bought at half the price of the little jars
:)Stocked up on ys GF bread
:)Finally cancelled the trip to New York
:)Didn’t book beauty treatments for before my girly holiday

XSpender

Balances at 4.5.17

Bank of Mum and Dad - £4336.66 (17 payments left)
Bank Loan - £12,114.51 (49 payments left)
Bank CC - £9019.51 (1% payment to come off for May) – all at 0%
DH CC - £5500 approx. – all at 0% until August
My CC – £5782.31 – mostly 0% but some spending at standard rate
BNPL – £400 – due 21st December 2017
Owed to DS – £1296.79 – 0%
Balance of trip to New York - £1098 due October 2017

TOTAL £39,547.78

Balances at 30.5.17

Bank of Mum and Dad - £4336.66
Bank Loan - £12,114.51
Bank CC - £8919.51
DH CC - £5410.32
My CC – £6380.61
BNPL – £350
DS – £1296.79
Balance of trip to New York - £0

TOTAL £38,808.40

Not much of a reduction as cancelling NY accounts for the decrease and what we had paid off was spent on the essential work in the garden. Most of my payments had gone out on the 1st and I started my diary on the 4th so there was never going to be a dramatic change in the figure. I am expecting to be well under £38,000 by the 29th June.

We both get paid tomorrow so I decided to do the balance update today. Plus I couldn't sleep last night. I was feeling really anxious about how we were going to afford to pay the increased repayments if we took out the 2 new BT CCs. I applied for another card this morning after looking at MSE and the ones that had a lower repayment % but the credit limit offered wasn't enough to be useful.

I managed to reset the log on details for mine and DH CC and looked at all the expiry dates of the promotional offers and realised that DH CC has a much larger limit than I remembered and the expiry dates are not when I thought they were :o:o I have written them all down in my notebook and prioritised what gets paid off first based on the promotional rate expiry dates.

We do not need another 0% BT CC after all as I can transfer the big part of mine that is about to go interest bearing to DH CC for a fee but with 18 months at 0% and they are all at 1% payback.

I have redone our SOA and put back in some of the slack I had cut out and with only paying back 1% and not the forecast 2.25% off the cards, our DFD is now August 2020 but I am still aiming for 31.01.2020, just before DH 50th. The 8/20 figure includes normal payments and 3 x annual bonuses but none of DH bonuses or extra overpayments.

Plan of attack is the following promotional balances first:

£1199.17 bearing interest on my CC
£1037.25 DH 0% expires 3/18
£1560.00 Me 0% expires 3/18
£350 @ 0% BNPL due to be PIF by 21.12.17 (paying £50/month to clear it in time so won't need to overpay this)

Everything else has at least 12 months at 0% remaining.

apple_muncher

You sound on top of your figures, and have a plan - well done you. Good luck with seeing it reduce.

clearmydebts

Sounds like you have everything well in hand. My sig won't be coming down much either this month due to unexpected expenses but next month hopefully.