This time I'm sticking to it!

rdone

WinterWarrior said:

I do! I love updating my signature (but it took me much longer that it should have to work out how to do it in the first place 😬) 

I agree, it's not in the easiest of place to find!

Just spent £63.89 on two new dog harnesses.  They are the one's that kept coming out the top on all reviews and I manged to shop around and paid £14.09 less than what's on the main sellers website so yay.

rdone

We have oil!  And therefore heating and hot water!  When they turned up and filled the tank I was told that the system would probably need to be drained first as it'll have air in it and to book with an engineer for an emergency call out.  DH took to u tube, watched how to do it and we have heating and hot water - feel very MSE as the emergency call out is £65 to start.  Obviously we wouldn't have done it ourselves with gas, some things need leaving to the professionals.

DH has also been to the osteopath this morning which was £10, it's in our local university and is student ran (hence the price) but he's found it really good.  Better than the £60 a session he was quoted elsewhere!

I'm off for my monthly sports massage this afternoon which will be £30 (discounted because we're in the same triathlon club) and then off to get new dog her name tag.

Ooo I also rejoined the tri club yesterday which was £25.  DH gets his membership for free because he's the treasurer. 

rdone

Spent quite a bit of money yesterday but I also managed to control myself.

Went to matala* and saw some really nice side table type things that were reduced to £15 each.  I really like them and they fit with the style of my house only I wasn't sure where to put them.  I considered buying them anyway because after we do the renovations I'll have space but was very sensible and did not buy.  I have no idea if I'll really want them once the work has been done and just because they're a good price and pretty does not mean I should buy!

Spent £51.83 there though.  Bought a reduced bra, dog food box, dog shelf thing (totally unnecessary), a present for our new baby niece and a birthday present for our nephew.  The present for our nephew was reduced from £25 to £13.33, we usually budget £25 per niece/nephew so we're winning here!  Sometimes I'd top up if we get a bargain but after seeing the Christmas present (that we got told to purchase) left at my in laws a week after Christmas and not taken home I'm not feeling very generous.

Next went to B*M and here I was really controlled!  Spent £37.57 and only bought what was on my list - a few food items and some bits for Norma.  Managed to bring myself to walk to the checkouts after the first two aisles and didn't look around, this is a huge step for me!

Then visited good old Mr T to get Norma a name tag however they didn't have the style I wanted so still need to find one of them.  Went in and only purchased milk (the brand of oat that we drink we can't get in our local shop).  Again feeling like a win and had money off for my clubcard use - £17.40.

Mr T, take away (I know, really bad) £8.80, and Norma's collar (£22.50, yes it's expensive but they're good quality, local and woman owned business) all went on the amex which is still in credit after the Christmas return spree.  So even though it's money spent it's out of last months budget.  Not that I'm justifying it or going to keep spending on this card as I am well aware the credit will carry on for next month too!

So quite a spendy day yesterday.

rdone

Just did a bad thing.  Spent £28.47 on craft supplies.  It was the sale and I did search out a 20% discount code so it was down from £87.96 (which I would never have spent) but it was still something I'm trying to cut down on.  It's all stuff I use regularly, just didn't need it right now.

Made instead of bought our Newphew a birthday card last night so I suppose that's some saving

Need to get dog food and hopefully name tag for Norma today, gonna pop out at lunch.  My mum is coming over for a cup of tea and a craft this afternoon so that'll be fun!

rdone

Okay so this weekend wasn't as bad as I think it could have been - DH wanted to go to the pub for food on Friday night but I managed to convince him to stay in so that was good.  We adopted our new dog and she is a delight!  They're both pretty good together even though the new one is a slight bully at times - think they're just working things out.

We had a few lunch time take aways from mcDs and greg.  Although looking at the CC statement (the one we buy everything on and pay off in FULL each month) that's all next months budget anyway - where are the days going?

Petrol is also incredibly expensive still I'm finding.  We only have one car and as we both WFH it doesn't get used much thankfully.  To fill the tank now is incredible.  I've made a note of when we've filled up so that I can see how long it lasts.

Yesterday I sold one of my old running watches to a friend of mine so that saved listing it on the bay of e and paying fee's and all that nonsense.  She's already sent the money and I've popped it in the post (she lives about 300 miles away!) so that's good.  House is a bit lighter and bank account heavier.

WinterWarrior

Happy new dog 🐶 
well done on the sale too! 

rdone

Work has been so busy and what with marathon training I've been so tired I haven't been posting here.

We've both now been paid for the month and our savings and CC DDs have gone out.  The rest will go out on Tuesday.  After that I'm going to see what we have left and really try and budget through Feb.  Although we are going on holiday for 4 nights so that might eat into it a bit - we do have a holiday savings account with quite a bit in though.

Have been very good on the not spending front though, or at least been very conscious about what we spend on - haven't had a take away all week!  Plus home cooked food is nicer.

Also just down to 1 CC again which is nice, just need to decide what the DD is going to be on it.

rdone

Decided on the DD - we're going to pay £95 a month.  Which is upsetting but we decided that as it's on 0 interest and not causing us any issues by having it the money that we were putting towards CC would be better off going towards our house renovations.  So we probably won't be debt free by the end of the year unless we win the lottery.
Once the building work has been done this year any money left in the house fun will go to the CC.  Hopefully it'll make a good dent at some point...

I'm not sure I'll ever feel comfortable with the decision but I do know it's the best one for now.

Other than that we've been very good on spending, I have no idea how much we spent on holiday as it is on DH holiday CC (full DD set up) and I don't have access to the app (and neither does he) so we'll just wait for the DD!  As I say we do have a good amount in our holiday savings pot so I'm hoping that'll be a good chunk of it.

DH also had a pay rise from 1st Feb which was useful, think it was about £250 so that's nice.  I'm waiting to hear what my payrise will be.  Before we went away my manager said I should know by the middle of last week but here we are... still waiting!

rdone

Two exciting things this morning:

1. I just ordered the new boiler.  Considering our current one was put in around 1999 and it has one temperature and you have to heat every single room if you want the heating on I feel this is very MSE.  Because the new one will be much more efficient, we can control it by thermostat and all rads will have new valves so we can turn them off in the rooms we don't use often.  Exciting!

2. Work has awarded us a 3% cost of living increase.  I'm still waiting to know what my new salary will be come April 1st but every little helps at the moment.  Plus my pension is going down as they're moving us from a final salary to a DC so my contribution is less but theirs is higher.

We're off to see my brother this weekend and will be eating in his quite a bit so it won't be an expensive weekend away.  I'm also running a half marathon on Sunday so there will be no wandering aimlessly around shops!

WinterWarrior

Oh happy new boiler! Your old one sounds like mine, it’s on or off and takes about 5 hours to really heat the house 😖

Don’t forget there’s the national insurance increase in April….I fear any pay rise I get may be cancelled out!