New plan...time to see some movement!

jwil

savingholmes wrote: »

I only made about £20 on my first and only car boot sale so sympathise. I too now tend to donate to charity and treat it as part of my 'giving'

This is what I am going to do now too.

brizzlegirl wrote: »

Hope you're having a lovely weekend in the sun

Thank you

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

I'm glad you enjoyed your holiday in Scotland Jwil . You seem to have come back in a very motivated mood so good luck with all your plans.

Thank you

jwil

Having a bit of a 'fed up' week this week. SW is not going well, work is crazy busy yet again (my new boss is already leaving as it's too much!) my budget is already blown - there was an offer for swimming lessons so I've signed up both kids as it's something we've wanted to do for years but couldn't afford it, and little jwil came home asking to go on a football course.

The swimming is £22.50 a month each, but I had to pay the first two months up front, so that was £90 gone. It's good though as it's just ongoing lessons and there are no cancellation issues, just need to cancel by a certain date in the month to ensure the next month's payment is not taken. They just move up into the next group as they progress. I've told the kids that they need to learn to swim and then once they can swim, they can decide whether they carry on or not.
We do get 'free' swimming as well with the lessons so that can be used any other time.

I had to buy both kids new swimming costumes as little miss's didn't fit and little jwil's wasn't what they prefer them to use. Both wanted goggles as well.

The football course is also £6 a week, but I would like little jwil to be more active (he's a home bird) so I'm not going to refuse him. It's only 12 weeks and I've told him he's got to go to all 12.

I've had to book two extra days of childcare as work need me to go in. That's an extra £46 a day.

I've used over half my grocery budget and it's only 5th :eek:

It shows I've still got work to do on my budget and spending. Will readjust it to take into account the new spends, and perhaps add something for 'classes' as I would like them to do stuff where possible.

I'm starting to think about next year when little miss starts school. I am trying to plan what holiday leave we will need. DH is saying they are restricting leave during the summer where he works which is not helpful, and I think I'm going to have to purchase some extra leave to cover holidays and also little miss's part time hours when she starts. However, we are going to be smack in the middle of a huge project at work and so I don't know if I will get the extra leave approved. I feel so awful about having to put little jwil in childcare for much of the holidays, but think it's going to be needed He doesn't moan and I think he enjoys it in the main, but it makes me feel sad when his friends are all doing other stuff. We've got no chance of a holiday next year because of the leave issues, so will have to do some fun stuff on whatever I do manage to take off. I'll try and take the last week so that little miss can leave nursery and won't have to go straight to school!

Anyway, enough moaning.

jwil

DH decided to do two car boots in a different area last weekend by himself. He took most of our stuff and did clear a fair amount. He has agreed that we can clear much of what's left so we plan to get rid of a lot this weekend :T

I've bought in my box of books from the car boot. We have been 'hiding' the children's books around the area as there is a book sharing group here. It's a nice way of passing them on. I'm going to have a look at the book selling sites for the adult ones, and if not I will share them too or donate to charity.

I'm going to sit down and prepare a proper plan for SW for next week and a meal plan to ensure grocery spend can be reduced.

I've got my new Monzo card after kitten recommended me. Best transfer some money to that for spends so I can get my 'free' £5.

All bedding stripped and in the wash today. I've cleaned the bathroom and kitchen first thing too. Will try and catch up on surveys tonight too and do some listing for DH and a couple of bits I found for me too.

Kitten868

Ugh! What a pain about DHs work. My work are similar - you can only have two weeks off may-September and they usually make you take it all in one go. Plus you have to negotiate with the other parents as its 1 off at a time. Have to be super organised and get what you need. I've got my busy bee diary now, just need to get it all written out and worked out. Doesn't help that people at my work are booking holidays 3 years in advance even though you can't officially book til december for just the year ahead.

Sorry work is ramping up. The school my youngest is going to does 5 weeks for settling in. Totally ridiculous. Never heard of it anywhere else. I've booked 3 weeks of it.

Fantastic news about hubby shifting so much stuff! Its brilliant. I think you're at the point where you just want it gone. Slogging for the 10p you'll make has no appeal. Great idea on the books.

I'm loving my monzo. Even if it does tell me I'm running out of money. I'm the same as you having to fork out for the clubs and shoes and boots and whatever else up front. It's worked out to be an expensive month when it was supposed to be a cheap one.

Keep going!! Xxx

Robin09

Swimming lessons are never a waste of money, shame you had to pay upfront, that sort of money must put some people off. My DD loves her swimming lessons, and we go more often now she gets free swimming throughout the year too.

I feel guilty in the holidays too. I take DD with me and she seems to spend most of her holidays at work with me. I feel bad when I send her somewhere too though. I am lucky that I can take her though, missing her now she's back at school :rotfl:

Slimming isn't going well for me either, haven't been able to go for the last 2 weeks and haven't really stuck to the plan

I'm been looking up about monzo, would love to know what you think about it. Have a good weekend

retiredandskint

I'm another one with high expenses so far this month. Nearly £300 for the dentist, £60 for washing machine repair and my car insurance needed renewing. I hope that's it as I'm going on holiday soon. I struggled when it would have been Mr Retired's birthday so I decided to go away for what would have been our wedding anniversary.

On a positive front I made £100 on eBay and reached my £50 payout on You Gov.

Have a good weekend.

jwil

Kitten868 wrote: »

Ugh! What a pain about DHs work. My work are similar - you can only have two weeks off may-September and they usually make you take it all in one go. Plus you have to negotiate with the other parents as its 1 off at a time. Have to be super organised and get what you need. I've got my busy bee diary now, just need to get it all written out and worked out. Doesn't help that people at my work are booking holidays 3 years in advance even though you can't officially book til december for just the year ahead.

Sorry work is ramping up. The school my youngest is going to does 5 weeks for settling in. Totally ridiculous. Never heard of it anywhere else. I've booked 3 weeks of it.

Fantastic news about hubby shifting so much stuff! Its brilliant. I think you're at the point where you just want it gone. Slogging for the 10p you'll make has no appeal. Great idea on the books.

I'm loving my monzo. Even if it does tell me I'm running out of money. I'm the same as you having to fork out for the clubs and shoes and boots and whatever else up front. It's worked out to be an expensive month when it was supposed to be a cheap one.

Keep going!! Xxx

It's so frustrating isn't it. I'm lucky that my work are flexible, but they have a good system for Christmas and the weeks which are likely to be in high demand, and they ask everyone to send in what they would like to take and see what can be arranged. It's very rare that leave is refused, and if it needs to be, the previous year's holidays would be looked at so it's shared out evenly.

5 weeks for settling in is insane! I'm moaning enough about 3 weeks, I couldn't manage 5. It's ridiculous!

I haven't transferred any money yet to Monzo. It did moan at me yesterday for not having any money in there :rotfl:

Robin09 wrote: »

Swimming lessons are never a waste of money, shame you had to pay upfront, that sort of money must put some people off. My DD loves her swimming lessons, and we go more often now she gets free swimming throughout the year too.

I feel guilty in the holidays too. I take DD with me and she seems to spend most of her holidays at work with me. I feel bad when I send her somewhere too though. I am lucky that I can take her though, missing her now she's back at school :rotfl:

Slimming isn't going well for me either, haven't been able to go for the last 2 weeks and haven't really stuck to the plan

I'm been looking up about monzo, would love to know what you think about it. Have a good weekend

No, I really want them to have swimming lessons. It is a lot of money upfront, and wouldn't have been possible for us even last year. I can understand why, but it's a shame you can't pay weekly any more. It does put it out of reach for a lot of people.

Sorry the slimming isn't going well, it's difficult when the routines are out. Hope you get back into it soon.

retiredandskint wrote: »

I'm another one with high expenses so far this month. Nearly £300 for the dentist, £60 for washing machine repair and my car insurance needed renewing. I hope that's it as I'm going on holiday soon. I struggled when it would have been Mr Retired's birthday so I decided to go away for what would have been our wedding anniversary.

On a positive front I made £100 on eBay and reached my £50 payout on You Gov.

Have a good weekend.

Ouch for the dentist costs! It all happens at once doesn't it.

Congratulations on the sales and reaching cashout on you gov.

I hope you have a lovely holiday, I think that's a lovely idea to go away and you can remember the happy times with Mr retired xx

jwil

We had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday we took nearly all of the car boot stuff to charity :T There's only a little bit left at the moment. We also had a wander around a food festival as well which was nice. While we were there, we were mooching around the various charity shops and I managed to pick up a nice big rug for £10.99. I've put it in the kids room (they have no carpet at the moment) and it makes such a big difference. With that, and the existing rug and playmats, there is very little bare floorboards in their room now, so should keep them warmer and keep the noise down too! There's no point doing the carpet until we get the electrics, window etc done, so it will be used for a while. It's a nice plain, hardwearing one too, so looks good.

Yesterday the kids had their swimming lessons, a mixed bag. They were both anxious, but little miss once she eventually got in (!) went for it. We decided to build their confidence a little bit and took them back in the afternoon to just go in and have a play. They loved it and we were there for 2 hours in the end. It was free for them to go in and so we just had to pay for us.

SW wasn't too bad after all last week, I lost 1/2 a lb which was not expected. However, I'm still within my gain so not ahead of myself. I've been pretty much on plan so far this week and so hoping to have a loss this week.

DH sold a lot of stuff again this weekend, it's nice to see some more going. eBay is being a PITA though. They provided the wrong address and told me if I resent the item (it was a click and collect so eBay's fault, not the buyers) they would refund the money. Now they are not refunding it and keep asking me for evidence I've already provided :mad: I really want to ditch it once and for all! I'm so over it now.

teapot2

Think it can take a while to get used to the swimming lessons, the wee ones in my family both go and love it. One didn't like being on their back in the water but is better with that now.

Thats a pain about eb@y so hope they take responsibility in the end.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Swimming lessons are so important so it's good that you've been able to start them both on them .

Well done on the clutter clearing :T it sounds like DH is starting to take it more seriously. You've done so much ebaying over the years that I don't blame you for being fed up with it. I'd much rather give my clutter to the charity shop and get rid of it quickly as it stresses me out to have it all lying around.