The end is in sight

Porridgecat

Well Mr Porridge spent £67 on the shopping, just £3 short of the weekly budget, I'm still not completely sure what on. It was £14 at the market on fruit and veg which was most of what was needed and then £53 in Lidl, I'll have to look at the receipt to work it out. 
Unsurprisingly, we've gone nowhere except for a walk, done nothing and spent nothing this weekend apart from the food shopping.

Porridgecat

Oh dear, I seem t have been AWOL from my own thread. Its been a long long week. On the plus side, one more teams meeting and then half term.  Its been a very low spend week, apart from a really can't be bothered stint on Tuesday which led to a £8.50 spend on fried chicken weakness, but again on the plus side it was there Tuesday special so much cheaper than normal and less than fish and chips would have been. First takeaway type meal since Christmas. 
Going to do Pizza today, sourdough starter out the fridge and been fed, a tub of frozen mini mozzarella balls found and everything else from the fridge so low cost meal. 

Ami-Rose

I don't blame you for giving in to fried chicken! We've been in our new house for 2 weeks today and I think we have eaten more takeaway than regular food. 😂 I keep swearing I'm going to start batch cooking in the slow cooker, but I always find an excuse not to.

It sucks that you've been stuck with a high rate, but at least you're on the home stretch to seeing the back of it. Looking forward to seeing you reach your goal! 

Porridgecat

It sucks that you've been stuck with a high rate, but at least you're on the home stretch to seeing the back of it. Looking forward to seeing you reach your goal! 

I get really angry about it as whenever its in the media they make it sound like it was all the people in arrears or with bad payment records who ended up in NRAM but we had just bought a product they had sold us. Never missed or were late with a payment, we did have other debt as well but were and always did make those payments. 

Well I've ended up having to spend money as the cat needed a vet's visit for a skin allergy condition £57, still fortunately we have a savings pot for vet's bills and this is the first one we've had for this cat, apart from deknackering and micro chipping

Ami-Rose

Porridgecat said:

It sucks that you've been stuck with a high rate, but at least you're on the home stretch to seeing the back of it. Looking forward to seeing you reach your goal! 

I get really angry about it as whenever its in the media they make it sound like it was all the people in arrears or with bad payment records who ended up in NRAM but we had just bought a product they had sold us. Never missed or were late with a payment, we did have other debt as well but were and always did make those payments. 

Well I've ended up having to spend money as the cat needed a vet's visit for a skin allergy condition £57, still fortunately we have a savings pot for vet's bills and this is the first one we've had for this cat, apart from deknackering and micro chipping

If it wasn't already obvious before the pandemic, it's only become clearer since that the media is only interested in a dramatic story. As the saying goes, 'why let the truth get in the way of a good story?'

I love the way you phrased that. 😂 Hope the allergy isn't serious. A friends' cat was in a cone for months because nothing would stop her licking all of her fur off.

Porridgecat

We're hoping the allergy isn't serious as well. Long haired fluffy cats do seem to be prone to them. All our cats are strays, this one belonged to a family in our street who kept getting kittens for the children and then stopping looking after them when they got to adult size. When they moved out they left three cats behind, we got this one, other people took in the others but we've had another that we think came from them and the neighbour has one of their earlier discards as well. 
Mr Porridge had to research broadband for his mum as hers was set to go up drastically, he's changed hers but also managed to get ours changed and saved £16.20 a month while getting better speeds so that'll be £4.05 a month each for the three saving pots and the mortgage overpayment. 
I feel no embarrassment paying small sums over to the mortgage as firstly its all computerised and secondly we're paying over the odds for every pound left in it.

caeler

I think these broadband companies are the worst. I had to help my mum this week as she’d been paying a lot of money for a very basic broadband package. She called up and they sold her the top package which is way outside her needs, she doesn’t even stream TV but was sold ultra fast fibre. It made me so angry as I hate overpaying for utility type bills. She cancelled the order, called up again using the guidance I gave her, got something much more suitable and is now saving £16 per month. Phew.

Porridgecat

caeler, my MIL was with BT, they told her it was increasing from £27 a month to £59 a month, no change in service, just end of deal. I think its disgraceful, I think they should ban introductory deals as no-one should have to research and change every year or eighteen months just to be treated fairly. 
Just had a little win, checked YNAB and found I had budgeted £4.80 more than we needed for the phone line this month and then found a few more savings bringing it to £10.62, so £2.65 to the holiday and emergency savings and £2.66 each to long term savings and the mortgage. Small wins eventually add up to big savings.

caeler

That makes me mad. I’ve had a similar conversation with my sister and she’s paying £47 to BT for fibre and a call package. She could cut that in half easily and I’ve told her to call them now! 

savingholmes

Could you do a money transfer on to a CC to get a better rate? Check the credit club. Alternatively could you get a loan from you bank at a cheaper rate? Sounds like you have the wrong 'product' for the stage you are at.