Striving to save and stay solvent!

MeandO

Thanks for your posts of support all, it's much appreciated.

The oven is still broken but I've received a new part for it today that I am hoping will revive it for a while longer. Not entirely sure if it will work, but it's worth a try as it cost £16 as opposed to around £600 for a replacement. :eek:

It's been a draining few days, dealign with things in 'real life.' DS had an accident at school which resulted in a trip to A& E with a head injury, but thankfully he seems ok now, albeit badly bruised and grazed.
Also a court trip to support OH with a nasty situation he is going through regarding his children. That's all I'll say on here, but it's very draining and emotionally charged and no signing of ending soon. Then, today, supporting and 'talking down' a colleague and who is going through some tough things and battling mental illness.

After all that, I think I need to add some good news!
I've been able to build up the savings, it now stands at £1545.87. I'm still concentrating on building this up as quickly as possible as I'm very aware it will all but go once the bathroom, house insurance, car insurance and MOT are paid for in the next two months!

Business orders are still trickling in, but it will slow down soon as I have now sold out of my best selling product and won't be able to make any more due to the costs involved. Will be wrapping it all up soon which will be quite sad. The result being that I won't be able to make such large payments to the savings soon, if much at all, but I'll try my best to make extra bits here and then when I can.

I've completed a few more surveys, well on the way to another voucher soon.

Feeling drained, worn out and so glad it's Friday.

Happy weekend all
X

MeandO

The savings are now up to £1700 :T, but not for long as the building work is now supposed to be commencing in two weeks, so that's £1000 gone. The car's MOT is booked for the 11th, then the house insurance is due two weeks after, followed by the car insurance next month! The oven is still broken, but hopefully I have a guy on the case to fix it, I'm estimating £100 for that. I have a surveyor coming today to look at the house and damp/water problems, which is costing me £60 for the survey, then I hate to think what the estimate will be for the work needed..._pale_ so, I am attempting to save every penny I have presently.

The business taking have now slowed down dratsically as expected, but there are still little bits trickling in. I'm putting it all over to the savings once costs are accounted for.

This morning I've updated YNAB as it had been neglected for the best part of a week as we've been away to see my parents for a few days. They very kindly sent us back with a car full of goodies and new clothes and Pjs for DS. They really are wonderful, I so wish they lived closer. My Mum's health is still very poor, but we're trying to make the best of the situation.

I got loads of things ticked off my 'to-do' list yesterday, so felt quite pleased. I managed to get the house sorted a bit, did most of the washing and we took a car loads of stuff to the charity shop. We picked up some essentials - bread, milk, eggs etc from B&M whilst we were there and also spent £10 on some Christmas bits.

I took DS out for some hot food at lunchtime (as our oven is still out of action) and we had a nice walk round a nature reserve with it too, in total, it cost around £12, but I paid for this with money in my purse so nothing spent from the bank account. We popped into sainsburys on the way back and spent £4.25 on some reduced items, was a saving of 50%.

I see I have some surveys in my inbox, so am off to do those, I've neglected them for a few days whislt I was away as I had no internet connection.

x

MeandO

Lots of surveys completed, I'm only 20 points or one more survey away from another £5 voucher on one site and probably 2 or 3 surveys away on the other. :T
I've ordered some more Christmas gifts today, using the stash of Amazon vouchers already built up which gave me over £27 off.
One item is very rarely discounted and actually had £5 off today, so I went for it.

MeandO

YNAB updated for the second time today and a 'spare' £4.82 sent to the mortgage as a little overpayment. It wasn't a round number, so I couldn't put it in the savings account...

Both CB and CTC will be paid into the account next week, so I'll be able to top up some of the YNAB categories a little as some are looking a bit sparse presently.

I've just topped up DS's school dinner money account by £40, ready for back to school next week. He doesn't have dinners every day, so this should cover them until Christmas, unless I've mis-counted.

I've also cancelled the grocery delivery saver as I haven't been using it enough to justify the £3.99 a month. I'm averaging only one online big shop a month, sometimes not even that, so I can get the delivery cheaper if it's just the one order.
The payment was taken out today but they have promised to refund, so at least that will be £3.99 back in my pocket.

MeandO

An old pending Quidco cashback claim for £16.50 I'd all but given up on has been confirmed in the last couple of days, so I've just requested a withdrawal to the bank account.

MeandO

Grrrrrrr, just logged onto the credit card account and was shocked to see a balance of £128.28 on there - I was expect a minor £16.80 pending on it. It seems some accommodation I booked for February, using the card as a guarantee card, has been taken already.

Oh well, saves paying for it in February I suppose, but it bothers me to have any debt on it now, so I've transferred £100 from the savings and mopped up the £28.28 from jiggling a few bits around in YNAB.

Hurumph.

Honeysucklelou2

It is great that you have been able to juggle amounts round to keep the cc clear and fantastic progress to have £1700 in savings.

Enjoy the last few days of your Half term.

MeandO

Thank you HSL x

So, the surveyor came out last night and whilst it's not horrendous news, it wasn't good. I'm guessing there'll be a few thousand pounds worth of work required at least and then a few thousand more of 'recommended' measures to prevent condenstaion and moisture build up in the future. I'll just await the quote and go from there, no point worrying about it at the moment.

Not planning any spends today. Am working a long day at work so will be glad to get home tonight. Happy it's Friday!

MeandO

Just paid the house insurance, renewal came this morning for £225, but shopped around and got a new policy for £144 + a meerkat!
£140 taken out of savings to cover it. The savings are dwindling quickly.

MeandO

£50 paid into the savings, £3.18 sent to the mortgage as an overpayment. Chipping away at it slowly!

Savings now: £1410
Mortgage: £78,789.15

Shame it's not the other way round! :rotfl: