DD's accountability thread

DD265

Yesterday I got some free carrots from Sainsburys - I was using the scan-as-you-shop thing, and both weighscales were broken. When I asked for assistance she said just to take them. Two carrots, probably worth 15p - bargain! I was also treated to lunch by my mother, and then I flogged her some shoes I bought on eBay that didn't fit me that she loves so I did quite well on the whole.

Got some new trainers today. I'd worn out my old ones (I always manage to poke a hole above the big toe) and we get a 50% discount through Vitality which expires at the end of August. I used mine last year when the policy renewed, so I used OH's and got a pair of 2017-season Nike trainers for £26 inc postage. Can't complain!

I've just been looking up how to revive old nail polish because some of mine has gone really thick and lumpy. I'm going to try that before I replace it, as Vinylux is about £6 a bottle. At the minute I'm wearing a thermal polish which I love - when I'm warm it's blood red, then when I'm cold it goes a dark oxblood. Often the tips of my nails are cooler so it has a gradient effect which I just adore. I thought I'd best practise putting polish on again as I'll be DIYing it for our honeymoon, and I'd forgotten how much I like having colour on my nails; it makes me feel so 'put together' even in jeans and a hoody, with hair that I let air dry this morning. :rotfl:

I went to Pets At Home for more cat biscuits and they've stopped doing the big bags of AATU instore. The small ones were on offer so I managed to get the same weight for only a few pence more, and the lovely guy on the till naughtily gave me my £4-off VIP vouchers back so I can use them online as well to order a 3kg bag. Will have to watch the dates on those! The biscuits work out to £16 a month, it's just unfortunate that we always run out of litter and biscuits in the same month! I'm looking at one of the boys curled up on the floor next to me though and they're so worth it. :heart2:

In other news.. not that much going on. Decided that I am probably not washing any more ponies and will settle for wiping and brushing. Been to the tip with some cardboard which means we can use the downstairs loo again, I've had a bit of a tidy up but have some cleaning to do. Our visitors are not coming next weekend so that pressure is off, but it would've been great to see them.

Due to needing litter, cat biscuits and toilet rolls all in the same month the food budget is looking a little stretched. We'll be having a lot of pasta for a couple of weeks, as we have loads of the Italian sausages in the freezer from the butchers! I need to find some other recipes to try with them; I think a stew could be lovely but it's not really stew weather.

beanielou

Our furry friends cost a lot but are worth it indeed

DD265

Tonight I am a bit grumpy and tired after a tough work day, so we had a takeaway. I will cook the curry tomorrow, and just move the meal plan along a day.

I love my job and the company I work for, but there are definitely peaks and troughs in the workload, both in terms of volume and also complexity. I work in software support, in it's most basic terms, though the software is huge and my role is not limited to support. With it being holiday season there isn't a lot of wriggle room in the team, and as key users at our customers are also on holiday they can end up logging more cases. In the four years that I've worked at the company, the trend has been towards more complex more time consuming cases that can really test you. Personally I get frustrated when I feel like I have cases in my queue that aren't progressing (and should be), and the call I had this afternoon was on a topic that's well outside of my comfort zone so very draining.

I did however put a call in to NS&I about an old premium bond card that Mom dug out with my name on it. We haven't lived at that address since 2003! I've found out what I need to do to get the details up to date and gain control of the account so I'll do that this week. Not sure if there's anything in the account; it'd be awesome (and feel like free money) if there is!

I also got an email from E.On that our tariff ends at the end of September. OH looked into leccy costs recently but reckoned we were getting a good deal - I wasn't convinced so now I have an excuse to do it myself.

DD265

Another stressful day at work - the whole week is set to pan out that way unfortunately and I wouldn't be surprised if it's the theme for the month. However! 31st August is my last working day before we head off on our honeymoon and I CANNOT WAIT.

I need to book the taxi to pick us up from the airport, and confirm the cat sitter. I think we have a couple of last minute bits of clothes shopping to do, and we need to decide whether we're taking hand luggage - in which case we'll buy sun cream at the airport - or putting a suitcase in the hold. We're flying with EasyJet and we have speedy boarding so we're guaranteed cabin luggage space and it saves waiting around... We need to test-pack I think.

Today I cancelled the excess beauty appointments, so I just have waxing booked in and the false eyelashes. I was able to transfer another £80+ to savings so I'm up to a round £700. When Mom pays me for the eyelashes I'll put that £60 in too. I will do my own nails and eyebrows; I'm more than capable I just get frustrated. I need to re-do my nails from before the weekend, but I'm hesitant to clean the polish off as I caught a cuticle on one side and it's still sore. I might just stick a plaster on that one so you can't tell it's chipped and re-do the rest.

The house we liked is sold subject to contract. We hadn't even seen a floor plan never mind seen it in person! It's a bit of an 'oh, that was the one we wanted' but we don't know if we actually wanted it and so I'm only slightly disappointed. I'm refraining from doing much in the way of searching before we've put the mortgage application in anyway - and we certainly won't be viewing any before then. I do get the impression that houses are selling fairly quickly in the area we're looking which is both a good and bad thing I guess. If it's meant to be it'll be, and as my OH says, sold subject to contract can mean a lot of things!

We're making plans for this weekend to see family, with the hope of having zero plans on the bank holiday weekend. I'd really like to paint the kitchen wall then if possible - the guy the landlord got to do it before we moved in used normal emulsion so you can't wipe it down - and clean the oven. Both jobs require us to shut the cats out of the room for a while which is a faff, so long weekend is the ideal time really.

DD265

I spent a bit of time earlier this week re-listing the items I had on Sell My Wedding, as I couldn't find a way to bump them up the page. As I did that I put the same items on FB too. Had a couple of people interested across two items so we'll see if anything comes of it. I do have various things I'd like to get listed this weekend if possible. If by the time we're moving I still haven't sold everything, what's left will be donated. I am not bringing these items with us to our new home!

I'm pushing to only fill my car up twice between now and the end of the month which should be manageable and will free up about £60. Virtually all my direct debits have gone out, just a couple from the joint account outstanding, and I haven't spent anything on my card for a few days so I'm not getting the 'save the change' pennies into my savings account. If those sales come through, that'll go into savings at least.

We've just booked our flights to Dubai for November (these will be reimbursed) so now booking seats, travel insurance and parking all comes in to bump the cost up. I get cashback where possible, but you don't get much on flights unfortunately! I need to double check the paperwork for our honeymoon too; it's only a couple of weeks away now. :j

This week was very stressful and full on work wise so on the one hand I could do with catching up on some sleep, but on the other there are lots of things I'd like to get done; cleaning, decluttering, that kind of thing. Apparently, feeding the cats should be top of my priority list and I'm getting evils for being sat at my desk instead.

beanielou

Not to worry, I get the evils from my 3 all the time :eek:
I think they think I am the food lady~~cant think why :rotfl:

DD265

It has felt like an extremely long week! I am shattered and so pleased that we have a three day weekend. So far we've only made plans for Sunday, but that means tomorrow will be chores and errands day.

Unfortunately my mobile phone needs some TLC so I'm going to take it into the market tomorrow; the local phone shop was closed today. Expecting a bill around £50 for that.

I've clocked an offer on eBay for £1-max FVF and I might use it. Of the three sales I had on the go, one dropped out, one is pending collection payment but the third party (family member) hasn't been in touch, and the last they were due to pay but haven't so I've chased. I never had these problems with eBay! The only downside is we go on our honeymoon on the 3rd so the timing is bad.

Other than that it's been fairly quiet. My sister repaid me some money owed - only £25 but it's covered a new phone case and the rest has gone into the 'spends' pot as that was virtually empty. I'm on track to fill my car up this weekend, it's a partial tank and it'll cover me for next week too so mission accomplished there. Somehow - though I'm properly scraping the barrel now - I still have the money saved for this month's personal training and my beauty appointments, both of which will be paid on/after pay day!

I'm hoping we'll get the flat properly cleaned & tidied this weekend, plus I'd love to get a coat of paint on the kitchen. Tonight I need to do the meal plan and shopping list, ready for tomorrow morning. For various reasons we've not used a lot of the meat we bought this week so I will check what we have and use that up.

DD265

Phone is going to cost £35 - just a battery replacement. They think it's the battery that's swollen and is pushing the screen away. It still works fine so I'm hoping it'll be fine once the new battery is in. I'll go to pick it up shortly, and collect the Amazon parcel with my new phone case at the same time.

I did the food shop this morning - used Nectar points for most of Sainsbury's - and filled my car up for the last time this month. I've managed to spend under £150 on fuel this month which is great as I could re-allocate the remaining funds elsewhere; namely towards my phone repair.

I won £8 on the Euromillions last night - bought a ticket on a whim so I profited £5.50 - and treated myself to a bunch of flowers with it. I used to get flowers weekly (our local Tesco almost always has reduced ones) until we got the cats, so now it's a very rare 1/2 times a year treat.

I was checking my credit reports last night and spotted an open account on Equifax that should show as closed (from when I VT'd my car). It's showing a £0 balance and no missed payments etc so I don't think it's an issue, but I've rung the finance company and they'll correct it next week. Just bullying OH to check his too - I don't want any nasty shocks when we apply for the mortgage! If needs be we'll delay our application a bit longer.

Hoping for a quiet rest of the weekend, though I haven't got any dessert for our visitors tomorrow as I was going to check my recipe books. They will expect a dessert, so worst case I'll buy a Viennetta. :rotfl:

DD265

I picked my phone up yesterday - battery replaced and the screen appears fine. Next time I notice the battery playing up I'll get it replaced sooner. I pointed out to OH that I'd easily spend £35 a month on a contract phone if I got one so I can't complain really.

Last night I tried on all my holiday clothes, to see what I can/can't take. I have one bikini that fits, the other two are a bit small on the chest right now so I've ordered a second off eBay, hopefully it'll fit. I absolutely hate bikini shopping; often spend £200 ordering various styles in various sizes (all on sale/clearance) and then end up returning the lot. I am envious of friends who can pick up a triangle bikini from Primark and it just fit! This one will work out to about £37. If it doesn't fit I'll go shopping on Friday night, or maybe I'll suck it up and just take one, but given I'll spend most of the week in it, one never feels like enough.

I am halfway through cleaning the oven; put the stuff in last night and have done the grills this morning, just got the oven itself to finish off. You can't use the gel cleaner on the glass (though I'm sure I have in the past) so I'll use baking soda which I have in. Still got the kitchen surfaces and hob to do, as well as a once-over in the bathrooms.

I also need to send a chasing email to NCP as we still haven't had confirmation of our refund and they didn't give a timescale, will do that now. A job for tomorrow is our electricity tariff; I did have a brief browse but didn't find a good enough deal to go for it there and then, then there was confusion around the smart meter etc. It'd be so much easier if we had access to the meter room!

DD265

I've been to see the personal trainer tonight and during the session we agreed the price for the 'stuff' which is 10 sessions. I'll continue to pay for two a week and we'll call off the 10 this winter as and when we want extras. Things are going really well at the moment so I want to keep up the momentum. Plus then I don't have to worry about selling these things; I have enough to get rid of as it is!

I tried the baking soda on the oven glass and it did nothing, so I got a glass scraper for <£3 on Amazon and it's really helped. Much happier with the state of it now! Still got some cleaning/tidying to do, but I think it'll have to wait until after our honeymoon now.

I chased NCP earlier and had confirmation that we will be getting our refund, so need to wait for that to appear in the bank account. I've added it to YNAB so I know to expect it. I had to order some more cat food - we don't have quite enough to get through whilst we're away - but that should arrive on Friday. Sometimes Zooplus are really quick and other times they seem quite slow to despatch. If it doesn't arrive on Friday I'm going to have to go and pick it up from the depot so fingers crossed.

I sorted out our electricity tariff for the next 12 months as well. It wasn't the cheapest option but we've decided to stay with E.ON for a couple of reasons, mostly because they feel like a known entity and we're hoping to move sooner rather than later anyway - unfortunately during/after winter!

I sold something on Facebook this week and it was actually paid for (!) so pleased with that. Had a couple of other inquiries but nothing has come of them. I will start eBaying when we get back from our honeymoon and sod the fees, I've had enough and just want this stuff gone.

I'm looking at my budget and working out whether I can get another £50 into savings, but I might leave it as a bit of a buffer and move it on Friday. I think I might try the online version of YNAB, thanks to January2015's feedback here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5888050/ynab-good-or-bad. One of my issues with YNAB 4 (the desktop version) is that there is no 'undo' button and that usually catches me when I'm reducing one category to supplement another, so being able to do both parts of that with one button should save me some grief. Given the nature of my job which does involve system testing, I think I'll do a 'pilot' and run both systems in parallel for the duration of the trial. :rotfl: