Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Homegrown0

I definitely need to get onto Qmee and all the better if it's on the phone!

Just logged onto PA for the first time in weeks and did £12.65 worth of surveys! That takes me up to a total of £16.96 so not long to go until i can cash out my next £20.

Once i cash out this next VO voucher i think i'm going to give it a miss. It's always the same bloomin surveys too, about sky tv!

Homegrown0

Well Scott, Joined qmee tonight and on 35p already thanks for the tip, let's hope the surveys come sweeping in soon!

Thinking about using a new strategy that anything I make from surveys gets paid straight into the credit card on top of normal payments to help drive the balance down a wee bit. Right now I put it into an account linked to my main account and it always ends up being used for something.

Not a very productive use of money so I'm going to give that a go. Need a new column to keep track of it monthly.

Scott-Weiland

Excellant news re qmee lol Keep building it up i drop 8 quid in my first three days on there. Yeah i have found that certain companies use certain sites for market research.

ie watermelon do alot for asda
etc etc

Homegrown0

I think i'm already on about £2 Scott which is good of course, but some of them are so time consuming and as I'm trying to do them around working it's not ideal. A lot of the ones that state 10 minutes are WAY longer! But it's good to be getting regular surveys and adding some pennies to the pot.

Got another £1.20 for 10 minutes work on PA so once they've cleared should be just over £18 Looking forward to firing that into one of my credit cards and making a mark on my spreadsheet.

Last night i spent some time in a new page in my spreadsheet for 2019 mapping out my commitments and budget, trying to figure out where we can make some savings.

My husband also hasn't been paid yet for a job he did last weekend (which i thought he'd been paid for already) so i'm hoping he'll have a nice amount of money to put into the savings account. He's going to his friend's stag do in February (on the verge of being booked) so it might be useful to keep that aside for that.

Homegrown0

Good morning all!

I have never been so glad to see Friday arrive... It's been a busy week all round and the weekend isn't going to be much better but at least I'll be able to keep up with our busyness without juggling work at the same time.

It's my son's birthday party this weekend so i need to get organised with party bags, decorations for back at the house, clearing up the conservatory which will be where they'll play after lunch and just generally clean the place.

I haven't spent much this week at all - I've worked from home all week so no train fares, we've eaten a couple of meat free meals and just eaten out the fridge/ freezer and just generally taken it easy. Because my husband has been on night shift, he hasn't been spending out on lunch etc, as he hasn't felt like eating during the night so has just had lunch and dinner at home.

I really need to make a plan for Christmas dinner. It's just us, the kids and my MIL so i really want to avoid going mad and spending a fortune when we don't need to. I need a list to stop going wild stocking up on Christmas snacks. I'm hoping to keep it to not much more than a normal weekly shop...we'll see.

Days until pay day: 21
Days until i finish work for 2 weeks:14

Homegrown0

Hope everyone has had a nice Sunday?

Mine hasn't been relaxing (son's birthday party) but has been fun - the kids were all great, had a blast and managed to behave themselves. Both of mine were tucked up in bed at 7pm on the dot (knackered). I managed to get the house back into shape pretty quickly thankfully - all toys away, hoovered around and cleaned up the kitchen.

I haven't had the bravery to check the bank account yet after a snack shop last night (for the party, in which I also bought 2x slippers for the kids Xmas, a Christmas jug and some toiletries).

I didn't get to the supermarket today, so that's a job for tomorrow after work sadly. I'll need to make this week's shop a frugal one! Meal plan is:
- Fajitas
- Beef stew, potatoes and veg
- Chicken curry and rice
- Breaded fish, home made chips and peas
- Mac and cheese
- ??.

Days until pay day: 19
Days until i finish work for 2 weeks: 12

Homegrown0

Monday again, but into the second last week of work before the Christmas break and I couldn’t be any more happy about the impending break. It’s MUCH, MUCH needed.

I have had news of my bonus today and I’m delighted! It’s maybe not much by other people’s standards but it’s 83% of one month’s salary (before tax) so I’m super happy! I got some great praise for my work from my boss too so a nice feel good day for me today. It should be paid in my December salary so I’m planning to keep it aside for our summer holiday in 2019. I’ll need to speak to my husband about what to do with it – we could either put 50% away for holiday (and keep saving for the rest) and use the other 50% to do up our downstairs toilet which is falling apart (literally) or put 100% of it away for holidays (and then we’d just need spending money). No rush, we’ll figure out what’s best.

Spending for today
- £7 for return train ticket to my office
- Will be spending on groceries later but hoping to keep it to £40 if possible
- Getting £10 back from a colleague as we are stopping our office lottery sweepstake and I have already paid in for the month.

Days until pay day: 18
Days until I finish up for 2 weeks off: 11

doingitanyway

Congratulations on your bonus. Enjoy planning how to spend it. You work hard so it is well deserved. Not long to go until the holidays

Homegrown0

Thank you DIA - i think we have already decided against using it to do up the downstairs toilet. Although it is completely and utterly falling apart, it is still functional and we are talking about doing a massive refurbishment of the ground floor of our house (in which there's potential for moving the downstairs toilet to the other side of the house) so it seems like a false economy to do this now to potentially redo it in less than 2 years time. For now, it still remains unclear what the money will go towards. In the mean time, it'll sit sensibly in a separate account and await our judgement.

I finally managed to get to the shops for my weekly shop - spent £52 but that included four birthday cards for family whos birthdays are in the coming week. Presents are sorted for these people.

Nothing much else to note today. I need to reconcile my banking spreadsheet as money has come in and gone out so need to figure out where we stand. I'm hoping it's not looking too bad for this point in the month.

I have decided to join a DFD challenge for 2019 and have set myself a target of £10k to pay off in 2019. Beyond the payments that we are making as standard at the moment, I need to overpay by £2,300 across the year which is just under £200 per month. I'm not sure quite how i'll do as the year progresses but i have the drive to do it and i think as long as i have a goal in mind, i'll strive towards it so even if i can't quite tip the £10k, it's all in the right direction. I have asked for a number for the challenge.

I'm working late tonight but listening to a podcast featuring a woman who has been battling terminal cancer since 23 (for the last 10 years) and it's very inspiring and humbling. It has made me believe I can do more than I think i can do and feeling majorly thankful for the life that I have.

Days until pay day: 16
Days until i finish work for 2 weeks: 10

Homegrown0

Got another little survey on PA tonight for £1. I've got £17.11 cleared and £3 pending so as soon as those pending ones clear, i'll cash out to my bank and pay it into the credit card.

I need to start a new column or new page in my spreadsheet to track these overpayments.