Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

apple_muncher wrote: »

You do sound very much in control and non-stressed nowadays. Long may it continue!

Thanks apple, I feel a lot less stressed and will be even more horizontal when I get the emergency fund back to where it was before the roof repairs.

To that end I have cleared the pot I had built up to repay the carpets early and paid half off a credit card and half to the emergency fund. There is a nice 10% in there now.

lindez

Great up date X-spender You are doing great with money still left in your ynab pots. wish mine were were looking the same I need to join ynab.

XSpender

lindez wrote: »

Great up date X-spender You are doing great with money still left in your ynab pots. wish mine were were looking the same I need to join ynab.

I love YNAB. It takes some getting your head round at first but I haven't found anything as effective for budgeting and managing and tracking our money.

Now we are in a better place financially I am enjoying seeing the pots with money still in them at the end of the month. It is tempting to sweep them all into the EF which needs rebuilding but I know I will need that money for what it is budgeted for later on like birthdays and school shoes etc. so in the pots it stays.

XSpender

Lovely weekend with DH and DS. I cleaned the house top to bottom, caught up with the washing and DH did most of the ironing as well as cleaning the cars, part of the drive and fixing a door handle. We had a family cinema visit yesterday afternoon taking sweets and drinks from home.

DH took DS to his training and he did really well and got praised by his coach He was a bit of a nightmare when we were doing his homework so DH took over (first time ever DH has got involved with it I might add) and it got done without the drama. I don't know why DS makes such a fuss, he is a bright boy and can do the work quite easily. I think he just likes winding me up. DH said he would do homework duty from now on which was good to hear when I had picked myself up off the floor from the shock!:eek::)

The ironing board has had to be replaced, DH is picking up a new one today, as it has sort of warped and has a big bump making it difficult to iron flat on it. I used vouchers I got from work and £2.50 to buy one reduced from £40 to £22.50. DH can finish ironing his posh T shirts now.

We have decided to purchase a new pressure washer although ideally not straight away. The one we have is OK for small jobs but our drive needs cleaning, weeding and resealing. It cost us £160 for a professional clean 2 years ago (without the sealing) and it needs doing again. As we can't afford to replace the hard landscaping in the garden this year, we are going to clean the existing paths and patio and move them about if necessary. We also want to be able to clean our conservatory roof.

DH did see the exact one we wanted on a local selling page, brand new in it's box with all the accessories we need and half price, but the seller has been a bit hitty missy with contact so we are still on the look out unless he comes back to us sharpish.

I am going to try and have a very low food spend this week as I want to come in as close as possible to my budget, just a little fruit, milk, beer for DH and some snacks so DH/DS can't tell I haven't done a full shop :rotfl: I am going to make cheese scones and a chocolate puddle pudding at the weekend in case they feel deprived :rotfl:

DH is on a course for 3 days this week so will get fed his lunch so there will be plenty of bits for his lunches next week and there is plenty of food in for dinner if I can get a bit creative and use up the veg from the last veg box. I do have a veg box coming but a smaller one than last time.

Better get a meal plan sorted and decide what DH and I are having for dinner!

XSpender

Oops I haven't posted for nearly a week!

The roof work has almost been completed, with one part to be done when the scaffolding is down:) Talk about efficient, the scaffolding went up on Tuesday instead of Saturday and they did the work Friday instead of tomorrow! It looks great. However, they have pointed out that our roof (original 1930s) needs replacing. They replaced a load of the most damaged tiles FOC but it is in a worse condition than we thought It will cost £5k - £10k depending on the size of tile we choose, it's more expensive if we replace with the existing small tiles rather than bigger ones.

We did end up buying the bargain jet washer and DH is chomping at the bit to do the drive but will have to wait until the scaffolding is down.

Finally got the revised version of my new CV sorted and just need to confirm that I am happy with it (still got a spelling mistake!).

The furniture people have been in touch again chasing up the non existent finance agreement. I have replied again and will wait and see if it turns up. This sum will need to be added to the debt total when it is finally in place.

DS has a ridiculous amount of homework for an 8 year old this week; a times table to learn, spellings, 3 times the usual amount of maths calculations and a grammar worksheet. Given out Thursday and to be handed in Monday! DH has said he will do it with him :A I will go for my run when they are doing it and do a bit of housework. I cleaned the kitchen yesterday and DH hoovered the living room and dining room so there isn't much to do except swipe the bathrooms and change our sheets.

I had my annual review this week which went well and have for the first time ever been told I will get my annual bonus at the end of the month. Usually I have to wait until I receive my pay to see if it is included.

I am having a final push on frogs this week and have made a list of the ones I want to complete before the 1st. We have completed a few small ones this week including DS tidying the hall cupboard and DH bathing the dog :T

Put DS calendar up
Christmas decs out of guest room and back in loft
Book holiday flights
Finalise CV
Set up SIM only on phone before PAC code runs out

apple_muncher

Great news on the roof being done so quickly, but yah boo and hiss to needing a totally new one.


Enjoy your run!

Honeysucklelou2

Chocolate puddle pudding sounds intriguing...

The homework does seem rather a lot. For times table learning the top marks website does various games that can make the process fun.

XSpender

DH was a star and did all DS homework with him while I cleaned the bathroom and bedrooms, cleaned all the downstairs floors and did laundry. The bedrooms and landing still need a whizz around with the hoover and the bathroom floor needs a mop. I will get them done today.

I made an eve's pudding with some added blackberries for pudding last night. I had asked DS if he wanted the fruit with a sponge top or a crumble top and he said sponge. He ended up in tears when he realised it wasn't crumble (his favourite), such disappointment, he thought I was making a sponge cake too as I had planned to but Azda had no oranges:( Poor boy I've some stewed fruit left and 3 pears on the turn so have promised him crumble this weekend He still ate the eve's pudding though

DH has been paid today and is disappointed he hasn't got the full benefit of his pay rise as he did not get paid for the 2 days he was off with a chest infection. It was still a good increase and has been allocated to Feb's bills in YNAB. I get paid at the end of the month so will be able to see what I can pay back to the roof loan from DPIL as I will also receive my annual bonus.

I don't understand DH pay slip. It has a deduction from the incoming bit for his pension and then a deduction on the outgoing bit (as I would expect) for pension. I'm not sure why and DH says his boss says it right but it looks odd to me. He is only in a normal works pension.

It is DH birthday next week but he has already had his main present (as have I, concert tickets for the summer) but I will get him a paperback and some chocolate from DS. We are going out for a pub lunch too as there is a local pub DH wants to try and we don't usually eat out for birthdays.

I am making a list of the special expenses this month to ensure I have budgeted correctly. There is money in the birthday pot for DH small gifts and cards and in the clothes budget for some potential new school shoes for DS, will try and last until Easter. I had started to build up the dentist/prescription pot to cover my filing but DH prescriptions for last month wiped that out so I will have to cover the full cost this month. My roots touch up also cost more than I thought so the hair pot is empty but I don't have an appointment until March so can build this back up again.

I missed 2 of my C2K sessions last week and we are due snow this week so I hope I can get back on track. DH starts event training this week too and due to his illness earlier in the month is not feeling as fit as he would have liked at this point.

I haven't made any progress on the frogs since yesterday but DH and I have agreed to put the stuff in the loft tonight. :T I have re-written/updated my frog list for February and it currently has 50 items on it :eek: Not all of them will get done, of course, but it helps order my mind to have them written down. A few of them like the CV, sorting DS CTF/ISA and booking the holiday flights are getting to be a pain/making me stress now.

I have realised that I still haven't posted my goals for 2019 other than the financial ones.:) Well I suppose it is a debt diary so these are the ones that should be on here the others are just fluff

redofromstart

Re the pension, is it on a salary sacrifice basis (to save NI?) as that can make for interesting payslips?

XSpender

redofromstart wrote: »

Re the pension, is it on a salary sacrifice basis (to save NI?) as that can make for interesting payslips?

I hadn't thought of that. We thought it was just a standard 3% off your salary kind of pension which would be the correct amount for the outgoings but then there is the additional minus figure. I will ask DH to speak to the accountant who might be better at clarifying it. I don't think DH has looked at the pension information since he started his job 6 months ago!