Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

Drawingaline

We are having a tight summer after two brilliant ones. Downside of trying to move house.

I understand what you mean about when he is home. Maybe try and plan the spending a bit more though. So if he wants something expensive, rather than impulse buying take 24/48hrs to do some proper research and maybe buy it a little cheaper. Or if he fancies nice alcohol/non perishable food look and see if buying in bulk works out better. Just stuff like that will probably help you feel better and maybe let him see how a couple of changes, won't deprive him, but may help out of n the long run.

shoppingobsessed2020

thanks @Drawingaline, the cocktail cupboard is rather well stocked as is the nibble cupboard as I did a Costco shop last week in preparation for him hopefully being home early next month.  Email yesterday said nope, no idea when home so the nibbles will keep thankfully as will the cocktail ingredients.  I also have £500 in supermarket vouchers coming in imminently so that will cover a lot of his treat shops for nice food, just means he has to drive to the supermarket rather than walk to the local shop.

he has got £400 in a fun money account and another £200 now goes into that every month,  I messed my new soa but that’s ok, I put £250 for medical, when in reality I put in £25 and I didn’t add dh fun money so my soa balance is still correct.  I believe there is a new Xbox console coming out this year which I know he is wanting, so if he wants to blow some cash on that it doesn’t bother me.  Ive got it in my head that he can have around a grand plus what’s in his fun money account without me getting antsy over the budget.  

rambling as usual but putting it onto paper so to speak helps get it straight in my head.

GeorgianaCavendish

He should be able to get some cashback on the console and maybe some of the other fun spending too. I use quidco or topcashback for everything I can and got DH to sign up too (though I do most of the online shopping in our house) but I've made £900 over the last 3.5 years (!!! - so much now I think about it, I don't want to know how much I spent) and DH had a cash out of £70 a couple of months ago. Cash back bonuses on things like insurance policies, credit card applications and holidays has been a big earner for me. 

shoppingobsessed2020

I love top cash back.  I’ve got £56 payable at the moment so keeping that for Christmas, like you’ve said it’s amazing how quickly it mounts up.  I’ve not had as much as you over the last couple of years but I’ve had a couple of hundred which is not to be sniffed at.

shoppingobsessed2020

Yesterday was a spendy day.  We did go out for breakfast but at £4.50 for 3of us (I paid for a friends child as it was a premier inn breakfast) I can’t complain at that price - that was one of our paid activities and he wants to do it again next week which I am happy to do.

other than that my grand total for yesterday was £85 out of my £400 extra money budget. School shoes and fruit,  monkey boy eats tons of the stuff which I don’t mind but I forgot the volume that he eats.  Will need to restart getting my weekly fruit delivery from a local man with a van as he is much cheaper and better quality.

Today is not going to be a cheap day either, boiler service at £50 then whatever the handyman ends up costing me the next few days.  I need monkey boy to try on the rest of his uniform today as I may need to order new.  I know I already need to order new pe T-shirt’s, but whatever I order will just get added to my next account.  I know that’s increasing the debt but it’s convenient and that’s the only thing I’ve put on my account in ages.

i think I might as well write this week off,  his car in the garage tomorrow for a new bulb (I’m not confident changing it myself) then lunch out and Costco as I said we could get a tray of croissants and I need wrapping paper.  I won’t write this week off and will keep track of what I spend, but thankfully his lordship gets paid next week as that £400 doesn’t feel it will last.  

Drawingaline

I am the same for bulbs and wipers, but generally find h@lfords is great for that sort of stuff, normally under a tenner for fitting it. 

shoppingobsessed2020

My parents friends own a garage so I always take the cars to them and they look after me.  I can change a tyre, check my oil and air in my tyres, but bulbs are beyond me.  

Today was supposed to be a good day but the washing machine has just stopped working with a load of washing in it.  The handyman thankfully managed to get my bedding out and is going to look at my washer tomorrow.  It’s a Samsung so has a 10yr warranty on the motor thankfully.  Had it 7 years almost with no issues which is good going as it does a couple of loads a day.  Thankfully if the worst happens I have a little bit of an emergency fund built up to cover a new one. 

It really does feel like we start to get somewhere and then bam something comes along and needs doing/replacing/ill so wages reduce etc which means no additional debt paid off.

pity party over and back to the ironing.

Drawingaline

Knowing tradespeople is such a godsend sometimes! I trust my garage too.

Washing machines are such trouble when they go wrong, we had a right saga back in Oct/Nov. 

shoppingobsessed2020

Ok today is a better day.  Amazing what a decent nights sleep does!

so I have £280 left out of the £400.  That is spread between 2 bank accounts and £120 cash in my purse.  The money for the handyman is to one side so that’s good, I’ve also bought another Christmas/birthday present which has come out the joint account and should be here this week.  I did put £102 on my food credit card last night in buying school uniform and a couple of Christmas/birthday presents so once ive paid that off my card in the next few minutes I am left with the cash in my purse to pay for the fun activities, garage and Costco shop plus any food for the next week.  We are having an eat your freezer up week so bar fruit we don’t need anything apart from the couple of bits I have to get from Costco today and a planned lunch out.

my car needs fuel but due to the electrical hiccups it keeps having I’m not topping it up, I will be using dh car for the next few weeks till I get my new one.  We have an issue with dh car as I used it yesterday, even with the front seat fully forward monkey boy cannot sit in the back much longer.  He has shot up the past 3 months and is rather tall, so tall that he was complaining he was cramped in the back ( his knees were red after a 5 minute journey), so he had to go in the front which is not ideal but it was a local journey so I felt the risk was low.  Today he will have to be in the front which I’m not overly happy with but I need to go to the garage.  Just another reason why we need my car and not dh car, I emailed him last night and his response was great I can get a 2 seater jaguar and you can take him to school. Not the response I was hoping for, was trying to use it as ammunition for getting rid of his car and keeping mine but nope.  

This is going to come to a head as dh will not let monkey boy sit in the front when he is driving, but he does more of the school drop off and pick ups when he is home so it will cost me more to send him to breakfast club and tea club when dh is home from sea and dh will only be using his car for driving himself round which he doesn’t do much of anyway, so we are paying approx 4K a year for him to drive himself literally a handful of places over the year.  I am not letting him trade his car for a fun toy just yet, when we are clear and mortgage free absolutely but not now!  I can feel the argument coming so perhaps it’s better he’s still away as who wants to buy a sports car in the autumn/winter.

Positive pants on as aside the car issue we are back on track, few months ago I never would have paid the credit card off if I used it so progress

Drawingaline

The car issue would be a massive argument from me, but I have family members who love their cars and always have two (which they seem to change yearly?!) And then at least one project car, so I do realise that it is a passion with some people. To me it is a way of getting from A to B and that is it!