Money Saving Mojo 2

a_silver_lining

2/3NSD.

Boo. Bit of a spendy one today, but no other spends planned so checking in.

I pulled out of the work lottery last month, but was told today that I needed to pay one more £10 due to timing, so £10 down.

I bought a Disney baby photo frame in the Work sale. Got extra discount on top so £7.20. Am going to use my boots voucher to print some pictures and then have a beautiful baby gift bag I bought for 40p in the sale last year and some lovely wrapping bits so will give it to my partners sister when we visit in a few weeks.

£1.50 and £1.30 spent in the work coffee shop impulsively. So at £20.

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On the plus side I went through another drawer of scalable things last night and decided to let go of a lot of art stuff I have carried around with me for years. Will put it online for £20 or so as a job lot I think.

Waiting for some quidco bits to clear so I can remove money.

a_silver_lining

Just checking in to say 2/6 NSD.

No money making to report as been focused on an exam I sat yesterday (and passed! yay). Gym today and I think an early night as gyming after work tomorrow too.

We have decided to forgo Brighton Pride this weekend and my partner has booked a day out instead. We will be bringing packed lunch and I am going to try limiting my spending, so aiming for NSD Thursday and Friday at least!

a_silver_lining

Realied this time I've been counting NSD the wrong way around, so actually at 5/7 NSD this month :P

Today is due to be a NSD also as I'm bringing in lunch and working until 8pm! Phew. so if I don't check back in I am at 6/8 NSD.

I've been getting wobbles to spend money, mostly lottery tickets and junk food at work. I crashed yesterday food wise and ended up eating melted chocolate from the work fridge which is written off at work. Balanced it out with a gym session after.

Today I need to chase up about my training course for next year. Work kindly, very kindly, offered to pay for it... but I've had an email through from the college and it's £700 more then I had read on their website. I've no idea how I've got that confused. I recon that they will ask me to pay the difference, which is fine, but will take me further away from my debt saving goal.

a_silver_lining

So it will be 5/8 NSD.

I've found evidence that they misadvertised the course price and have raised this issue with the college, but I have looked up legal rights and I think they will charge me the full £682 difference. Work will not pay for it. I'm weighing up if it's worth doing the course now as it's a huge amount of money, and whether it will make enough of a difference career wise.

I felt low and so spent £1.50 on a panini at work and left my salad in the fridge.

a_silver_lining

Isn't life just full of ups and downs?

So my boss has said that he will pay the full course fee for me. I'm gobsmacked as it is almost £1300. He has said as long as I stay, so I imagine I will be asked to sign something for x amount of years. This is amazing, utterly, as it's beneficial for the role in the sense of increasing my knowledge base, but not necessary for the role. He could have just asked me to try and read and increase my knowledge in my own time.

My next concern is that he will use this course as a way to under pay me, not in a bad way, but that he will see it as negating the need for a payrise.

I have been working in my promotion underpaid, which was agreed, as he said he would like to see me survive the busy season and then review pay in late autumn. I think this was fair as I came from a completely different career and was promoted very quickly and unexpectedly, so he was rightly unsure if I would do well in the role. I have, and I'm so proud of my team and the statistics we have met. I've already picked up more increased responsibilities since then, which would be the next level of promotion, though on a casual basis.

The company has a no talk clause and no indication of wage brackets, but my research shows that I should be on 1.5k more in my present role, and possibly another 1k for the increased responsibilities. I actually think that it should be more, but this is based on the lowest end of advertised roles. I'd be happy with the 1.5k if I knew others were being paid the same.

Anyway, I'm not complaining! They have been fantastic in giving my promotions and letting me have time off to study last year and now a day off a fortnight to study and paying for my course. If they factor in fair pay in a few months I'll definitely stay long term

Off topic of my job, but linked, is that I want to set some more goals to focus on. My training isn't until late September, so I have some time to learn something new. I'll have a think on that.

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Spending wise is has been a little spendy, but not massively. Friday 60P spent on the lottery. I withdrew the rest of my money and need to go back to avoiding buying tickets.

Yesterday we went out to a festival. £3.70 on food to bring with us so we spent none there. £9.28 on some makeup as I forgot to bring mine. It's much cheaper mascara and eyebrow pencil then I normally buy. I'm loving the mascara, but not sure about the colour of the eyebrow pensil. Will try to use up as I was almost out of my current brands and will save a bit of money. About £20 saved probably. £7.02 given to my partner to cover part of the day out.

£2.60 today on going to a carbootsale and buying a lovely Monsoon dress.

5/10 NSD as all spendy days. At £64.70.

Aiming for NSD galore the next few weeks before our holiday. We have euros put aside for it as we were gifted them previously. I have given i and booked a nice haircut... it is £85 for a cut and colour and I have it done about three times a year... hmms....

a_silver_lining

Super roller coaster. I think I must have been due some major positive karma as the college have decided that they will not charge the £700 difference. Amazed by this as they very easily could have stuck to their guns. Big saving for my employer and leaves me in a massively better position.

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Tried out Shopmum. Very impressed. Free nutella and someone used my referral code kindly so £4 off my shop. They have already refunded me by paypal so meant a £10 shop came to 20p. I'm recording it as 10 spent in my daily spend tracker and moving £9.80 to my debt repayments! Nutella will be saved for some baking treats I think.

Transferred money from mini ebay sale also.

Unexpected cat vet bill and he is booked in thursday for a mini op. I'm unsure whether to pay for blood tests as he is a bit older now. I'm going to check with insurance to see what they will cover.

a_silver_lining

6/13 NSD I think. Lost track there but a NSD today. At £108.53 this month and tomorrow will be a spend with the cat at the vet. Decided not to claim on the insurance as the increase of cost will not be worth the small amount.

a_silver_lining

Lost a post so will summarise. Finding I'm fixating a bit too much on money, property, deadlines, plans for the future. Ended up taking today off work as feeling rather low.

In an attempt to readjust my mental health I've decided to set some goals and plans for other part of my life to shift the focus. I've got so e time for this as I'm away on holiday for two weeks visiting my partners family, staying in a cottage away and then a couple of days at home.

I'm going to go back to exercising four times a week as right now I am managing once, if that.

I'm going to start studying towards my February exams as the more I can learn now the better.

I'm going to start planning a book I had an idea for quite a few months ago.

I'm going to get back into art. This is an ongoing battle with myself, but I think my holiday is the time to start.

Will check in in a few weeks

a_silver_lining

Mini check in as paid.

£250 added to debt repayment account.

I was paid £230ish by cat insurance so moved that plus an extra £8ish leftover from last month into debt saver to make it a round number. Now at 6500/10k.

£300 put into savings account. Now at £2400.

Holiday was paid for by gifted money and we kept in budget by only eating out once. I did buy a nice metal water bottle, which I have wanted for ages to cut down on plastic. Bought a vintage dress in a charity shop for £10 and also treated myself to a little plant and a magazine, but good all together.

Came back and did a food shop. Pending £5.39 cashback for items I would have bought anyway. I will move repayment to debt repayment when done.

Found a several year old MandS voucher and it worked. Used 10% off Sparks code so £20 needed item cost £8. Will move £12 to debt repayment.

My only planned spending this month is a visit to a friends for her birthday/ moving in party, which I will bring several bottles of wine from my store (Partner is often given wine by parents, which we don't drink.) and a trip to London which will cost travel, but I will bring some food and make us dinner to save money.

I am off work for the next three days so money saving plans are to pick berries, to cycle to another town to pick up jam jars (the cheapest I could find), make jam, make a massive curry to last the week, wash and dry laundry outside, list some items on gumtree and ebay, free activities by gym membership and study and lastly switch gas and elec as near end of tarrif.

a_silver_lining

Yesterday I decided to pay £100 directly off my debt. I also sent over the £12 I saved buying some clothes straight to the debt.

I spent an hour or so comparing on loads of sites and have 3 bags of books and technology to send off to webuybooks, CEX and ziffit. I split the lots to get the best prices. I should get about £68ish to pay off the debt.

Today I used the MSE :money: energy switcher as my two year fix was sadly at an end. It will go up by £6pm but I compared elsewhere and seems the best switch. £25 cashback will be paid so I will pay that off the debt also.

Plan today is a bike ride and pick up the clothes I bought, jars I found cheapest and maybe try trading in my items directly to CEX.

I'm going to tackle my old redundant technology tonight. I need to try and find chargers but have old phones, ipod, kindle etc I could flog.

Also have a party which we are going to pop into for a few hours. I have a pressie pulled from my stash so no spend there