Our £20,000 Life

clearmydebts

Belated Happy Christmas Cinny! You sound very focussed. I'm another one that goes in all guns blazing and then loses interest. I am determined to keep going this time though!

Cinny91

I'll be your cheerleader CMD! DH is fully on board this time which helps, as normally I go in with big schemes and drag him along behind me. Merry Christmas to you too

Home day today. Bookcases have been built and organised, O's changing table which has lived many lives since it was built for his nursery, is back in his room again. I've also taken down a few decorations as I organised, mostly the ones that O tries to faff with the most!

Returned a kindle book for £2.49 and DH insisted we split the voucher we were given, so I bought 3 cheap books off my wishlist and signed up for the 99p kindle unlimited offer. Should keep me entertained while our local library is closed until spring.

Also had an email to say I'm getting a refund for a sofa cover I didnt return. I returned 2 cover slips as the zips where broken, but kept the cover itself. More so returned them so I didnt have them laying about more than anything else. If we do get the refund it'll be on my credit card so I'll just do a little food shop to clear the balance.

Another home day tomorrow, enjoying this peace between Christmas and New Years! Only thing really weighing on my mind atm is needing to get a birthday gift for one of O's school friends. Will do my usual of a book from Smith's complete with a gift receipt, I think. Need to remember that we're actually throwing a party for O this year. Nothing huge, village hall with party games and some food kind of affair. Its tricky as I know O will want to invite his friends from his singing group.. who are 80+ years old :rotfl: Never one to make things straight forward for myself, so I'm going to see what I can do to make it work.

Cinny91

Morning!

Today would be a TT of £4.76 but my banking app wont let me transfer at the moment. Hope it's fixed soon as we keep our bill money separate, and will need to transfer some back in the NY.

Been out with O on his bike, returned some borrowed craft supplies and collected a shopping basket from a vintage shop. That was £16 spent, I've been searching for the "perfect" one for years. My budget only fit second hand so its taken a while. Now O is out if his pushchair it'll help massively because I feel at such a loss without something to properly hold my shopping :rotfl:

This morning O decided he'd like a knight themed party, but the reality is he hates being the centre of attention and I feel like it will just be a bit of a (k)nightmare. I think we'll probably just do a small party at home, pick 3 or 4 friends to come over and they can have a play in his room. Plus theres the bonus of the parents dont have to hang around, and get a few hours peace ��

Cinny91

Bit cheeky on my NYR, but while I could I ordered the bits for O's party now we've settled on doing it at home with a few friends. Just need to budget £20 in February for things to make the cake/party food and we're sorted.

A neighbour gifted Oscar their unwanted silly secret santa gifts, so we've spent this afternoon making new drawings for picture frames around the house. Mostly the bathroom as after 2 and a half years we've finally bought a blind whales on it, so we drew some whales for that.

Eventual TT of £6.92

Aiming for a NSD day tomorrow, budgeted spend on NYE for our tradition of a curry takeaway but I'm going to see if I cant sway DH to a takeaway bag from the supermarket instead.

Cinny91

Change saver is now at £17.95 as I had a refund from our milkman for some things that didn't get delivered before Christmas.

Signed up to airtime rewards this morning, will get DH to do the same. Didnt realise Morrisons were in their higher tier of cashback and that's where we do our food shop. It's all money that's spent anyhow so it all helps!

Boiler is on the blink again, so that will be another fun mystery task for me until it fires back into life. Never quite know what does it but it tends to stay happy for a week before I have to do it again :rotfl:

Taking O to the park today. DH has agreed to making our own curry NYE so I just need to pick up some chicken and a few other bits. I dont know if I'm going to go today, shifting my NSD to tomorrow, or brave the NYE shoppers 😬

Today is the first official day of me trying TOM cleaning method, excited to see if it works for us!

rubywhatashmoo

Nice to see you posting again Cinny I’ve been away from these forums for a while but new year new start and all that so I’m back hopefully with a vengeance, just need to get organised with a plan! My little boy turned 3 in nov (similar age to yours I think?) and he’s in nursery full-time normally but it’s closed over Christmas so haven’t had any time for sitting down and sorting things out for the last week! I’ve been doing TOMM for ages and find it definitely helps cut down the time I spend cleaning while still leaving the house clean so good luck with it!

Cinny91

Hey Ruby.

Oscar is 3 too, well hes 4 in 2 months time. Its manic out of term time isnt it :rotfl: it's been none stop here too, obviously lots of fun but it will feel very weird when hes back at nursery and I'm having my morning tea without a buddy!

Brilliant to hear TOMM works long term. So far so good I must say, just a little unsure as where to start the Friday focus as we had a toy and clothes clear out before Christmas so starting week 1 it seems a little pointless to start there?

Nipped to the shops to get some fruit and get a few food staples. Paid mostly change but left some to pay on my card for the airtime sign up bonus. Want to see how long we can go into the new year without going to the shops. 2 days? :rotfl:

Made flapjacks this morning, and made time to exercise and drink something other than juice. Nice to get back to a bit of normality!

TT of £2.49, almost at £25!

Cinny91

Happy New Year! Hope everyone reaches their financial goals this year. Fresh decade, fresh start! :beer:

Breaking from my tradition of staying up until 00:01 before heading to bed, I was quietly tucked up by 10:30.

TT of £2.64 this morning. As the bills come out at the start of the month I imagine, with the no spend year, my TTs will cease. But! With not spending anything my plan is to save every Friday when I get paid. January will be like a financial reset.

My CC is also £26.99 in credit. So I'll link this up to my airtime rewards to use when we do finally return to the shops, then I can spend that instead of from the bank.

No huge plans today. Made gingerbread dough last night to make some ginger~*people (wheres that old roly eyes face when you need it!) today as they are O's favourite. And then we're off on a New Years walk at a local NT park. Will pack us some snacks and a drink.

Cinny91

First NSD of the year is in the bag. 365 to go! Its very easy to keep track of leap years now as Oscar was very close to being a leap baby

Had a lovely walk, was out exploring for about an hour and a half which was much longer than I expected with how cold it is. O enjoyed us carrying a picnic, and I've got to say carrying a basket is a lot more comfortable than a back pack.

Its HM pizza for tea tonight and I've but a loaf in the bread maker too. O is currently enjoying his and I'll make one for DH and myself when he reappears from football. Had a lovely day but feel ready for bed :rotfl:

Cinny91

Morning!

Pie out of the freezer for tea, some YS stuffing and veggies to go with.

Paid a day early so we now have £88.27 to one side for saving. DH has also withdrawn some money from Quidco that will push us over £100 whenever it comes through.

Also paid £92 off DH's credit card. This is expenses from work mostly, but his interest free period ends a couple days before he gets paid so we're trying to work this down through January as much as we can. Re-did the maths and we have 15 big pay days left between now and my 30th birthday, £1000 a month to save so we are on track. Any extra we can save each month, like the £100 minimum this month, will just get us there sooner. May is our big month for insurance etc so we'll have to sit down and factor that in to our budgets too.

Off out for another walk today, take another little picnic with us. Another no spend day! Caught myself looking at tin carousel toys for O for his birthday but hes got his party, and he's also got a wooden castle with knights hidden up in the loft (£13.50 bargain before Christmas) AND no online purchases this year!!! So easy to slip without noticing when you're so used to instant access to everything.