A new chapter, An empty nest, Drama school & Last year of Uni

Spendless

NSD yesterday for the first and only  time this week. Annoyed myself by going to the vending machine on Monday due to feeling a little light headed and needing to eat and then bought a snack on Tuesday that I didn't need to, when walking to my parents after work to pick up the dog. Ok only £1.69 spent, but that's not the point. Today could have been another but when I got a message from DH mid afternoon saying he was unexpectedly delayed at work, I didn't remember that I was locked out of the house and needed to go to my parents, get the other key and pick up the dog so I bought food en-route. If DH had been home at his original time we were considering going to a local pub that has got a 'food shack' on tonight so would have been buying out anyway


Made plans to go out for the day with DS and DiL at the weekend. We are all looking forward to this. Going to do an Aldi shop tomorrow and take a picnic with us. DS & DIL get in to our chosen attraction at a reduced fee due to their ages.

Spendless

At the w/end me and DH took the dog plus DS & DIL to a sculpture park. We all enjoyed it and it give DH some much needed 'downtime' and when he took a phone call part way round  from one of the family members who has (IMO) been putting him under pressure I was so glad that he could answer that we were on a day out miles away.

DD's final rent instalment for this academic year is due a week today. It was thankfully less than the prev 2 instalments had been being just under £2K that is due. I used my final salary wages from prev job, a tax refund, cb for the CC that we took out last year that has just paid out, some  cash DH told me to keep instead of paying back into our joint account, interest from any savings accounts and lastly not forgetting the coin purse with it's random findings and...ta da...I am exactly £40 short. Yeah bit disappointing that I didn't quite get every penny this time. Strictly speaking there is around £25 saved by DH in 20ps and $50USD that I could change and use for the final amount , but not worth it I think when I can either take from savings or just borrow from them until payday at the end of the month.

Next step now to concentrate on the remaining debt. Will do a round up late April as usual but can tell you it's now <£3K.  

dawnybabes

£40 short is sooo much better than you first thought !

I love locally to a big sculpture park so we go quite often but just go for an hour or two

Honeysucklelou2

You are done amazingly well to meet these rent payments through the year. Reading about your coin wins has certainly made me think about the loose change I find and have now been saving it.

Spendless

Thank you. Yes that's a good point, it's only a few posts ago I said I was £400 short of the target, I should be celebrating finding 90% of it, not the 10% I haven't managed. Mostly it came from the cashback on the CC we took out 12 months ago when we needed one to put certain spends on. The initial offer was for a greater % CB for the first few months. During this time we had some big ticket items we bought on it, but because they were mostly DH flight tickets which were reimbursed - this literally has been 'money for nothing' 

Glad I've inspired you to save up any loose change found HSL

Spendless

DD's rent has been paid. I have borrowed the last £40 from savings to be paid back on payday at the end of the month. Realised yesterday though that I still have £80 in an old ISA I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I'd intended closing it, but because you need an appt I'd not got round to doing it due to returning to work. DH pointed out I could have just withdrawn the money  - of course, I'm a muppet!

Finding  the money for student rent has been about not taking from our savings though  and instead from earnings, savings interest and other sources. The whole of this academic year's rent has now been paid in full by doing this.

Next step is for payday in 9 days time. 

Honeysucklelou2

That is a huge achievement Spendless 🥳. The rent is all paid for the academic year…does your DD’s course have longer to run?

Spendless

Thank you HSL. This is yr1 of degree, so a further 2 years to go. She breaks up in around a month's time. As me and DH will be away she either needs to catch the train home with some of her stuff, or wait a few days and we can fetch her back as the airport is not too far from her digs.

I am accompanying DH on another work trip, as DH is doing a sideways shuffle into a different role, this means that this trip may be the last one (possibility that we'll catch one more but that's currently not known). I am looking forward to it. There's some complimentary  treats been put in place for me/us. One is a beer spa for me and DH. I believe you take a 60 min soak in a converted beer barrel as a hot tub with beer on tap (or can upgrade to wine). Something like this I'm expecting.   https://www.beerspa.com/en/original-procedure/

Then whilst DH works I get a complimentary spa treatment. I could choose from facial, massage, manicure or pedicure. I'm not really one for my nails, plus DIL used  her Christmas money to buy herself the whole set up so she can do gel nails herself (plus she's artistic and I'm not) and said she'd do mine. The chiropodist I've had years does a superb job of my feet so not interested in a pedicure, which leaves facial or massage. 5 days after we get back to the UK  I'm at a hen party overnight with DD and DIL and the same 4 treatments are part of the package we've booked, which gave me a dilemma on what to have done where. Then I looked up the website of the US hotel spa and discovered that their facials start at $225 (approx £175)! There is no other time in my life I'd have an expensive facial, so going for that in the States and the massage at the hen party. 

De-cluttering - the other week we did the food cupboard and discovered a bar of choc. I put it in the fridge and later had some squares of it and subsequently lost part of my tooth. I finished work early to go to the dentist and upshot is I'll need a crown and cost is £319 (still NHS thankfully). That choc used to cost 30p a bar and probably did at the time bought, so it's now cost over 100x it's initial price. Means a chunk of my wages next week already accounted for but this is a health issue. Glad I have got wages coming rather than take from savings - just annoying though!  

Spendless

Monday will be the penultimate day of the month and the day before we both get paid (wages for me at last - hurrrah) and normally I'd do my monthly round up then, but since I'll be at work and DD is coming home for the weekend as she has no classes on Monday, I've decided to do it earlier.

Today the debt stands at CC outstanding amount £8205 with £6000 of savings towards this so £2205

There are still  4 x £80  to go out  as monthly SO into my savings (repaying back what couldn't be 0% BT to the CC)  = £320

There are also 4 x £67 SO payments to go out which was similar and to pay back money taken from savings for DH's clothing account that was attracting high interest = £268

2205 + 320 + 268 = 2793 outstanding debt. 

That is starting to feel better, but still think it's quite high at just under £3K  but I have long maintained that I  feel May is the month when I'd begin to think this is within reach and I do still think this way. 

I used to dislike Mondays as paydays with the w/end to get through first but that's before I knew my bank only deducts the following working day, so now I find Tuesdays annoying, though I suppose money spent on the weekend only gets deducted on Monday evening and wages are paid in on Tuesday morning, probably Wednesday paydays are more irritating in that regard. Once the debt has gone we will take a fresh look at the budget.

Food in the fridge running low but I  had a tidy up of it yesterday evening think I can see where we have stuff in to make meals with some top ups. We have bacon, mushrooms  and some squishy tomatoes so think I'll get some small baguettes and have sandwiches. Later DH has offered to take DS and DIL to their holiday cottage. Long story but they were invited by DIL's relatives to tag  along but they were unable to offer them a lift  to get there and looking into the logistics of public transport discovered the nearest they could get to via that way (and several changes)  was still 20 miles short and added further complications.. In the end so they could still go DH stepped in to help out. We don't pay for petrol in his car. This is a company perk, but he's taxed on it and it counts as income for student finance, so since it causes us problems in other areas, sometimes it helps us too, this is one of the occasions. He's asked for a picnic and will take his car fridge as he said he would prefer not to spend money. I have mini pork pies and chicken skewers left over unopened from my work packed lunches this week, so will give him them to take to use them up

Spendless

Yesterday my payslip came through the post (very old fashioned, they are moving to online soon). I didn't get a full pay-packet as I started 2 days into the new months, however I still earnt more than I did at my prev job! I then number crunched and discovered my old job could have left me on my starting wage - just  - despite the min wage increase and quite likely would have done. When I worked the prev job, I always felt this is nice having one of the least f-time hours making up the working week, now I realise this was just due to a totally inflexible imposed 1 hour lunch break where you had nowhere to eat it. Now I have a longer working week, but a shorter lunch break, a (slightly)  flexible working pattern -only within 30 mins but still a help.

DD came home but tired from her 3.5 hr train  trip back she decided to go home first freshen up and say hi to the dog. This meant when she was ready to go eat out - something I offered straight away, a lot of eateries in the centre were close to closing and I couldn't find a parking space either! So, I drove out of town and we ended up at Nandos. DD ordered on the app and managed to make herself a 'cheesy chip wrap' with the items she got - some of which didn't even appear on the hard copy menu we received. She said this is a thing only her fellow Northern students understand the craving for as something she's never found available elsewhere. I didn't care as the cost for her meal made up of  just sides and extras was very cheap -lol. Afterwards we went to an outlet village, she picked up a pair of cargo pants and I found 2 bottles of a discontinued Bodyshop shower gel in a fragrance she loves at a reduced price, said she can have one to take back  and I'll keep the other. Later still she wanted to go to a gym to keep up a routine she has started at the one near her student digs. She went in and asked if they offered a few days membership explaining she was a student just home for a few days - they didn't but she was given a handful of day passes instead with no expiry date on them. She counted them up when she got back home and them plus using the gym yesterday meant almost £200 worth of freebies.

The car fridge kept DH going on his round trip to take DS & DIL home, he just needed to grab a coffee and snack to break up his journey back. Today he is taking DD to see some relatives to pick up some belated 21st birthday cards. I'm toying between going and getting a full shop we need, or just doing a minimal top up and buying the rest after our paydays.   .