2020: Becoming a Saver, Not a Spender

[Deleted User]

Morning everyone
Sat in my car outside the blood donation place as they sent a text asking people not to come in early, so just killing some time before heading in. Masks are mandatory today which is fine I just forget people can’t see my mouth when I’m smiling at them 😂
2 bids on my eBay item and 10 watchers so should get a good sale from that today. 

Also managed to find the box for our faulty iron thanks to OH being a hoarder when it comes to boxes of things we have purchased. 

Plan of action after donating is picking something up in Asda which is next door, then swinging by the little Argos inside Sainsburys on my way home. 

[Deleted User]

Happy Monday everyone!!

Busy busy weekend, didn't get round to doing masks or scrunchies as I enjoyed a nice long snooze on the sofa late Saturday afternoon for a few hours then struggled to get up and get going again lol.

Gave blood, popped to see my nan and ended up accompanying her shopping as I could see she wanted some company. Ended up getting some of the bits on my food shop list cheaper where we went that I would near my house. Then stopped into Argos/Sains as planned and returned the iron, absolutely no issues there and the refund hit my account this morning so that was fab, that makes up some of the deficit from not many SE hours work last month. Got home and wired up the front dash cam which made me very happy, just need a tool to work on the rear one...

Sunday I got up and got my hair done, then we had two viewings on the house. Chatted to my parents in Oz briefly, then we walked over to Wilko to get some bits to finish cleaning the cars. Whilst I was working on mine I hoovered out all of the inside of mine, stuck down my magnetic phone holder that had come loose, changed the pollen filter and air filter for the car, checked all of the levels under the bonnet, checked my tyre pressures and checked OH's tyre pressures too the two filters were easy peasy to change and I would have done the oil change and filter change as well, except I left the oil at work  so, that will be a job for next weekend.

Whilst I was already having a spendy day due to the hair appointment, I ordered a few bits from Amazon. I got a tyre tread gauge, a headlight restoration kit and.... a cordless drill we don't own one, and I need to drill two small holes to fit the rear dash camera on my car, plus the headlight restoration kit needs a drill to do part of the buffing, so I figured I may as well invest in one whilst I needed it for a couple of car jobs and then we've got one if we ever need it around the house, too. 

Oh, and I got all of the washing and ironing done!

I think that's enough waffling for now, will attempt some scrunchies or masks this evening as OH will be on the PS4 for a bit whilst his favourite streamer plays games with the people in his supporter group, so will have some time to kill

[Deleted User]

Hullo world

I finally made a scrunchie! And another mask will make a few more test ones before SC2 comes to stay again as she's already excited to make them after I sent her the photo of the one I made. I will have a hunt around for some nice fabric for her. On the plus side, my mask and scrunchie match (white cotton with navy polka dots!) Just in time with the announcement about face masks being mandatory in shops, too. Will have to whip one up for my OH, methinks. 

Got a few extra hours of work in today and will try for some more this evening as it's OH's AFD today. I need to pick up some more food for the kitten on my way home but they're on offer at a shop on my drive home, and it's all factored into our food budget. 

Not much else to report, really in the habit now of checking my accounts with my morning coffee and updating YNAB, really think I have cracked it this time with the budget as I'm not coming up short in any categories. Though, setting a more realistic grocery budget has definitely helped there.

I need one extra pot come payday which is for my share of an end of tenancy clean we will get done when we have to move house. We've DIY'd it a few times before to (in my opinion) a very good standard but there always seems to be something which we can't argue without a receipt, so just doing the easier option this time round to ensure we get the full deposit back.

Lookafterthepennies2020

Just checking in you seem to be doing well with your pots and Ynab.  I have decided to close all my extra pots accounts and just have one savings acc with my lists on ynab as I was starting to get confused with them all... I was also becoming slightly concerned I was going to get charged with type of money laundering lol with all the switching and swapping I was doing    any tips on the masks? I'm going to give it a go tomorrow as I found some lovely ones on etsy for me and the boys which came to £30  don't get me wrong they were hand made and lovely but they will be lost in no time so I'm going to give it a go myself first lol xx 

[Deleted User]

Lookafterthepennies2020 said:

Just checking in you seem to be doing well with your pots and Ynab.  I have decided to close all my extra pots accounts and just have one savings acc with my lists on ynab as I was starting to get confused with them all... I was also becoming slightly concerned I was going to get charged with type of money laundering lol with all the switching and swapping I was doing    any tips on the masks? I'm going to give it a go tomorrow as I found some lovely ones on etsy for me and the boys which came to £30  don't get me wrong they were hand made and lovely but they will be lost in no time so I'm going to give it a go myself first lol xx 

Haha, whatever works for you! It only helps me as I can't see it straight away to want to spend it

This is the one I have used so far (style 2) as it's relatively straight forwards! X

https://blog.treasurie.com/diy-mask/

joedenise

I've been making the pleated masks which are really easy, although I found I needed to make DH's longer than the pattern as he is very tall and his face is longer than average!  I'm assuming it's because of his height as it definitely doesn't look out of proportion.  I've made 6 for me and 4 so far for DH with 2 partially made, just need to finish them off.  I've made them with ties rather than elastic mainly because I have plenty of fabric but not enough elastic.  I've made DH's masks in a plain dark blue and mine with flowery fabric.  This means that it'll be practical to wash them regularly without running out of masks if we need to go out!

[Deleted User]

joedenise said:

I've been making the pleated masks which are really easy, although I found I needed to make DH's longer than the pattern as he is very tall and his face is longer than average!  I'm assuming it's because of his height as it definitely doesn't look out of proportion.  I've made 6 for me and 4 so far for DH with 2 partially made, just need to finish them off.  I've made them with ties rather than elastic mainly because I have plenty of fabric but not enough elastic.  I've made DH's masks in a plain dark blue and mine with flowery fabric.  This means that it'll be practical to wash them regularly without running out of masks if we need to go out!

Yes I'm going to try the pleated ones again this weekend now that I've got to grips with using a sewing machine again  

[Deleted User]

Hey forumites

Checking in from the desk in the kitchen again as OH will not be home for another couple of hours yet. Always seems to be the way that when I have the time and the means to do any kind of user tests or surveys that need a webcam or microphone, and I can do it uninterrupted, there never are any

Not much else to report today, spent on some pretty fabric to make scrunchies with SC2 but that's about it. I did pop round to my nans to help her order some flowers in Oz for my mum, so had a quick catch up with her.

Kitten is all over the place at the moment, freaked out last night at the sight of his harness which he knows means he can go out in the garden, pretty much attacked me when I tried to pop it on and then hid under the sofa, but was chirping at the back door the whole time I was outside gardening. Complete opposite this morning, barely touched his food and then curled up on my chest for a nap like he used to when we first brought him home, then curled behind my shoulders and neck to sleep instead. In from work, and he had barely touched his dry food at all then wolfed it all down when I got home. Hopefully it's just something to do with his hormones phasing out after his op, but will keep an eye on him anyways.

Got time to work/chill/both for a bit before OH gets home and I make dinner. 

Got a cashout from PA today and got a small payment from Intellizoom so I've popped those into the EF pot in Monzo. Just regular bills to go out for the rest of the month now, still holding out hope my £130 from TCB will go from confirmed to payable this month. A girl can dream!

beanielou

Treasure your wee kitten 

Lookafterthepennies2020

SSDD23 said:

Lookafterthepennies2020 said:

Just checking in you seem to be doing well with your pots and Ynab.  I have decided to close all my extra pots accounts and just have one savings acc with my lists on ynab as I was starting to get confused with them all... I was also becoming slightly concerned I was going to get charged with type of money laundering lol with all the switching and swapping I was doing    any tips on the masks? I'm going to give it a go tomorrow as I found some lovely ones on etsy for me and the boys which came to £30  don't get me wrong they were hand made and lovely but they will be lost in no time so I'm going to give it a go myself first lol xx 

Haha, whatever works for you! It only helps me as I can't see it straight away to want to spend it

This is the one I have used so far (style 2) as it's relatively straight forwards! X

https://blog.treasurie.com/diy-mask/

Thankyou I gave the pleated ones a go I think the material I chose was too soft though as the pleats don't seem to hold lol! It wasn't bad for a first attempt, had to hand sow as the machine wasn't working right and after 3 YouTube videos and taking it all apart I coudnt figure out where I was going wrong lol xxx