Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

DancingInTheRain

Spendy day today getting the boys ready for their football based holiday camp this week.

I've been really unorganised at getting ready for this, to our financial detriment, as both boys have outgrown their shin pads and football boots resulting in a £65 spend today to replace 🙈

It's so annoying as DH and I said about checking these items while we're on holiday to give us time to checkout V!nted etc but we've both forgotten.

In an attempt to recoup costs, I have listed their old shin pads and football boots on V.

Not much else happening today although I have managed to persuade both children to tidy their bedroom floors to mitigate chance of injuries from all the carp they leave lying around!

Today's PAD £2

Debt Total £3667 (BCard £897)

DancingInTheRain

Busy few days with running the kids back and forth to holiday camp, work, DH being field base all week, DS2's birthday and having a migraine. What a combination!

DS enjoyed his gifts (especially his 'big' gift which may or may not have been a gift that was accidentally left on the loft last Xmas 😆) he has been very spoiled by family and friends so he's feeling all the good birthday feels right now 💙

As a result of his birthdays we have had visitors every day after work resulting in not enough down time so all 4 of us have very depleted social batteries and are looking forward to a day of doing nothing tomorrow.

On the money front, I have maintained the daily PADs and had a small payout from V!nted.

Need to get the boys to try on their school uniform over the weekend to see what needs replaced and then hopefully get that organised Sunday or Monday.

Debt Total £3634 (BCard £884) 

beanielou

Well done on pads. Glad DS enjoyed his birthday. I closed my barclaycard today.

DancingInTheRain

Thanks @beanielou & I'm pleased you got the card closed after so many issues.

In fairness, we've not had any issues with ours & it may need to hang around for a while as I don't think the Tesco CC will be cleared before the 0% runs out so current thinking is we will transfer the balance to the Barclaycard as we won't want to open any new accounts next year as we're due to remortgage in the summer.

Cashed out a £10 Ama3on voucher from SnapMy3ats this morning so that takes the total of free vouchers up to £115 set aside for Xmas.

Got a great bargain the other day when I managed to get a pair of slippers for both boys for 75p each 😮 from the A$da sale rail earlier this week, which will be a practical stocking filler for them.

The boys invited themselves to Mums for a sleepover last night so after dropping them off, DH and I enjoyed a peaceful evening meal before he spent some time practice for a gig he has tonight and I had a long soak in the bath and an early night to shake off the remnants of my migraine. I still feel a bit fuzzy this morning but significantly better than I was so we're just about to head out for breakfast before picking the boys up and then it will be the battle of trying to persuade them to try on their uniforms 😂

DancingInTheRain

Hello

Well the boys surprised me and did a full uniform/shoes/trainers try on yesterday and oh my, how much they've both grown over summer 😮

Have had to order new trousers, jumpers, shorts & PE Kit for DS2 and trousers & jumpers and for DS1. All ordered from G3orge and went via TCB and paid using vouchers generated through Jam Donut so at least will get a bit of cashback.

DS1 also needed trainers and DS2 needed schools shoes so we had a drive to a bigger town and managed to get both of these sorted.

DS2 also needs a new bag as his is dropping to bits and is moving up to Cubs so will need new uniform for that too, will be ordering the biggest sized jumper as he's already wearing age 10-11 having just turned 8 last week! Hoping to pick up a bargain on V!nted 🤞

Today I've listed some of the old uniform and a few other bits the kids have outgrown on V!nted so hopefully can recoup a few £s there too.

Tomorrow is also likely to be spendy as DH's car is booked in for it's MOT. After picking DH up from the garage I'll be taking the boys for their 6 monthly check up at the dentist and also hoping to get them into the barbers to get their hair cut, DS1's hair is looking particularly wild, not that he cares 😂

Today's PAD £2

Debt Total £3630 (BCard £880)

beanielou

You will be glad that’s done.

DancingInTheRain

Productive day today -

Followed DH to the garage and brought him home then had a late breakfast before taking the boys for their dental check up, all good. Got them both in with a barber so both looking very smart now. Also went to drop off the V!nted parcel, returned our books to the library and we bagged up some loose change and paid that in at the bank. The dentist is around 1.5 miles from our house so, as the weather was nice, the boys brought their scooters and I walked. I made us a packed lunch and we stopped off at a park on our way home to eat. Quite a pleasant couple of hours.

We got home to discover the new uniform bits had been delivered. DS1 is now fully kitted out but DS2's trousers and shorts weren't a good fit so they'll need returned and we'll need to try again with these, may go to the bigger town on my next day off on Thursday and he can try a range of styles on in-store.

Then took DH back to pick his car up, as expected it had needed a few repairs but they've been done and it's got through it's MOT. A lovely £375 bill to go with it 🤨

I was feeling motivated so I labelled the new bits of uniform and gave them a quick wash to freshen them up and they're all hanging neatly on the washing line. Still can't quite believe there's only a week left of the holidays, the last 5 weeks have gone in really quickly.

Today's PAD £18 (from the change paid into the bank)

Debt Total £3612 (BCard £862)

EssexHebridean

All sounding very organised and on top of things at your end - I can sympathise on the car related bill but as you say at least that's the MOT done for another year!

DancingInTheRain

Thanks EH, DH was worried he might need a new car so I'll take the cost of the repair bill over a new car!

I thought I was doing reasonably well being organised until we got a notification yesterday that my car insurance policy from last year had auto renewed 😐️ I'm normally quite good at switching off auto renewal so didn't even think about it among the busy summer holidays. Luckily I managed to get on a live chat while at work and after a bit of backwards and forwards with the insurers I managed to get the auto renewal cancelled and a full refund agreed.

Lesson learned and will be more thorough when we come to renew DH's insurance in the next few days!

it's been a busy couple of days at work for DH and I, so the boys have enjoyed a couple of lazy days with Mum. We went to their swimming lesson last night, it's in the next town to us so while we were there we went to Mata!an and managed to get DS2 his remaining uniform items. Took the uniform items to be returned to A$da too so I believe we are now all set for the new school year 🤞

We've also booked a short caravan break with DH's Brother, Sis-in-law and kids for the end of next half term. £250 for all 9 of us for 3 nights which we thought was a decent price. We did something similar a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it so we're looking forward to this, the kids are beyond excited as they're all great friends and love being with each other 😍

DS1 has been struggling to get to sleep this week so he's currently still in bed 😲 but once he's awake & fed I'm hoping to take both boys out somewhere as I'm off today and then working the next 4 days so I'd like to make the most of us all being off together. It's currently dry but we're due heavy rain this afternoon so I'm thinking possibly a cinema date. In the meantime I'm getting a few of the never ending chores done.

DH is out for work today so I've already cleaned and aired his home office while he's not under my feet 😂 I've got washing on the line too, hopefully it will be mostly dry before the rain comes. I've also signed up to a 2 year fix with our energy supplier as our contract was due to end soon, so that's another life admin task off the list.

Daily PADs have continued but no extra payments made, too busy spending money at the moment!

Debt Total £3606 (BCard £856)

DancingInTheRain

Hello 👋 Happy September!

Lots going on so not been very active on the boards. Officially into counting the hours until the boys return to school tomorrow and some sense of normality can return.

Also looking forward to my hair/facial appointment tomorrow, the grey hairs have been coming in thick and fast the last 6 weeks.

Just wanted to do a quick money update with the first of the month standing orders going out. Have maintained daily PADs and a few extra £'s have been claimed from V1nted in the last few days

Debt Total - £5345 1 May. Debt Total Today - £3442 

All 0% and made up of:

Barclaycard: £1075 1 May - Now £742 (0% ends Oct 27)

Tesco CC: £2950 1 May - Now £2700 (0% ends Jun 27)

PayPal: £20 1 May - Now £0 

M&S: £600 1 May - Now £0

V12 Finance £700 1 May - Now £0