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

Honeysucklelou2

That must be a very useful skill to be able to read and understand the promotional labels!

Spendless

Payday for both yesterday. We ended the month with surplus income but tbh if we'd still had a mortgage and debt repayment then we wouldn't have. Amazing what a difference it makes when your income minus standard bills is your own. 

My car failed its MOT yesterday. It's going to cost £230 to put right just to give me time to look for a replacement. The car owes me nothing,  it's nearly 19 years old and I've had it for 9.5 years. If its replacement lasts as long it'll take me to retirement age.  We did get told by the mechanic/garage owner to start looking earlier this year but 'life events' took over and we put it on the back burner. I received a small inheritance from my Grandmother last year which will pay for it. Frustrating that what I bought way back in 2015 won't get me the same today (2K for a 9yo car, 1 prev owner, 26,000 on the clock) but nothing I can do about that. I suspect many 'old car' owners feels the same way so they hang on to their current car longer so there's also fewer around for sale  which in turns pushes the 2nd hand market price up.

November is the month to sort Christmas purchases out. I have some already as I buy throughout the year but I like everything finalised by Dec 1st.

Yesterday we could go in Halloween costumes to work as they do a charity fund raiser each year and everyone fetches a dish for a lunchtime buffet. I kept my costume on and answered the door to trick  and treaters dressed up.  We had plenty of sweets to give out, Mr S had visited a sweet factory only the day before and bought  in the factory shop, just wish he'd sent me a message before I bought stuff at the grocery store! I also from a recent declutter had a few  clean toiletry bags I no longer wanted so put a handful of sweets in them and gave to the older ones that called. I remember my own daughter was thrilled one year  whilst trick or treating when she got asked if she wanted a little coin purse instead and she had it for years

Spendless

I have my car back.  The search is on for a replacement but relistically we're going to be unable to search properly until the NY due to already having things booked on w/ends and lack of AL left to search. 

We go away at the end of the month reinstating an annual Xmas time trip we used to make with friends. Last went in 2017. We've also been asked if we can make another over night trip with them in Dec in the UK, but I'm going to have to see if I can get the time off.

The weekend was spendy due to daughter coming home for the w/end. Last week had been her reading week and she'd stayed behind for most of it to do some optional work but came home Thurs night. We bought her some new needed  clothes for college classes and took her to Nandos. 

I have looked in our main acc to see where we were at this time last month compared to now and we're £300 down, considering £230 of that is the car repair I don't think we're doing too badly.   

Yankee24

You ok?   Miss your diary…Hope you are enjoying the holidays 

Spendless

Hi, yes Im fine thanks. We finished last month with money left over from both wages again, not quite as much as the previous month but we'd had extra expenditure.

Last weekend we resurrected a trip to Belgium that we used to do with friends each December but havent done since before the pandemic. Enjoyed it but found the drive to the ferry long as we got diverted off the motorway due to delays and down long narrow roads instead not what you want to do in the dark! In future we may have to reconsider doing this trip by flying instead. We are at another Christmas market this weekend but a UK one this time. 

A lot but not all Christmas presents are bought, extended family are sorted, immediate relatives I still need to get. Our tree is up but not decorated and that might have to wait till daughter is home mid December as me and Mr S are barely at home each weekend. 

I still tip loose money found into a coin purse, though I am one of the purses down cos the dog got hold of it and chewed it. I had just found a £5 note plus some change in there though so not all is lost - lol. 

Spendless

Interest will be paid tomorrow on 2 savings accounts. One of them.I move my daughter's student rent weekly to it out of the acc that my wages go into. Ive just realised this is a daft idea, since I get interest on the savings, and what might be a better idea is on payday work out how many Thursdays there are in the month, as rent is paid then and transfer the whole lot into savings and just move it back one week at a time when the rent is due.

Xmas presents are pretty much all bought, might still pick the odd item up but no issue if I don't manage to. I went into Lush with all my old containers and got money knocked off my purchases for returning them. That knocked down the price of a bath bomb from how much to dear but not too bad - lol.

Tomorrow a day of final wrapping and card buying and writing out beckons. 

Spendless

Merry Christmas and thank you to  everyone who joined me on my debt free jouney. 

Sarahwithlove

Merry Christmas! 

Honeysucklelou2

Merry Christmas 

Spendless

Payday for us both. Neither of us get paid early in Dec, which makes for a pretty easy Jan but a tough 7-10 days at the end of Dec. In recent previous months we've had 4 figures left over from our prev pay packet, this month we barely made 2 figures to transfer to savings. We're through it now though.
Next on our to do list is to plan for 2025, budgeting, saving and also some home refurbishment that has been on hold for a few years.

Happy New Year