We will get this debt down & the savings up

Makingabobor2

So today I redeemed my first 2500 points from On*Po*l. That's £25 which has taken me about 3 months to accumulate, so not too unhappy about that.  Will see how long it takes to appear in PP.   Have quite a bit waiting to be approved in P/fc, so hoping that gets a crack on.  SB is low as only recently cashed out there and Qm/e is still giving me about £1-2 ish a day, sometimes a bit more.  C/d*l*gy still a bit slow and I've just about given up with CC & O/Opst.   Really must try some of these receipt scanning apps/websites, I keep looking but a lot of the reviews of them are pretty bad and I've not bothered so far, but I will get off my backside and try some.   Nothing on the mystery shopping front at the moment. They all seem to be in the nearest city, which is about 12 miles away and we never, ever go there so not going there & paying to park just for a few ££, seems a waste of time. Was hoping for some in one of the more local towns. Fingers crossed some might pop up soon.

I did send off a parcel of books and CDs/DVDs today to Z/f*t, only a few ££, but anything is better than nothing.  Well actually I haven't physically sent it yet. I put the label on and walked down to the Collect+ shop where a not very customer service focused woman, who was on her phone when I walked in....told me "The machine's down darling, can't take it"!  When I asked if she knew when it would be up and running again, she just carried on talking into her phone and shrugged her shoulders!  I walked out and politely said...."well, thanks for your excellent customer service"!  I'll have to take it to the place in the next village when I go grocery shopping tomorrow.  If there's one thing I can't stand its bad customer service. 

Well dinner tonight is come chilli that I froze last time we had it. Dh tells me he wants Nann bread with it!  Don't ask...lol.  Nann bread and chilli?? He does have some odd combinations. The other day he made his sandwiches for work. Bearing in mind I am trying to save us money and stretch the food a long way. So he had tuna/mayo with cucumber. But then added mustard and pickled beetroot!!!  I told him he didn't need that many ingredients for 3 slices of bread, to which he replied he'll eat what he wants!!  Oops...lol

Anyway, have a good evening everybody. Hoping to make some bigger dents in debts and savings soon. Still feel like I need to get a bit more "with it". 


 

foxgloves

I stopped doing 'Onep*ll' because it had started to feel like No poll, but as I'm kicking up my survey activity this month, I might resume it. I'll see.
F x

Makingabobor2

I think its just the luck of the draw FG. Someone I know is signed up to them, but hardly qualifies for any at all. Suppose it all depends what they are looking for in each one.  But as this is my first cash out with them, who knows what it will be like from now on??

LittleMissDetermined

£25 every 3 months is good going, £100 over the year, plus £1-2 on Qmee/ccats each day means £365-730 a year there.

It all adds up over time

Sun_Addict

Might sound crazy but naan bread makes a great pizza base. 

Makingabobor2

Yes indeed @LittleMissDetermined, it certainly does. Pf/fc is the one I concentate on the most I must admit, but this year it has definitely slowed down. 

@Sun_Addict, what a brilliant idea. Individual pizzas...never thought of it. Cheap dinner...that's Saturday sorted. X

Makingabobor2

Thought it was time for an update as I really do seem to have taken my eye off the ball the last few weeks. It just seems that the little I have made from surveys, has had to be swallowed up by more every day living expenses and not been able to put so much in savings or debt busting, so felt a bit deflated.   

But today I sat down at the computer for the first of a few financial missions!   Checked where we are at the moment, so far we have the new Water DD details, (up another £6) latest rise in mortgage (up another £6 and this is now over £40 more than it was in April last year), new car ins details...(which luckily had actually gone down by (£7), and I am still waiting on the new council tax.  So I'm starting to look at what savings pots should be changed, scrapped, increased or what ever. Went through all the paper files and shredded loads!! Over the next few days, I will attempt to start on the spread sheets from April onwards.  DH may or may not get a pay rise in April. They are supposed to get a review every year, but sometimes they can go 3 years without one. But last year they were taken over by a bigger company (been a small family business up till then), so hoping that bodes well for the future. If all the bills are going up, I'm not sure how they expect people to survive with no rise in wages.  Quite clearly I need to do something about my grocery budget as that is not working so well now with everything going up.  
My small private pension will go up a bit in June, but not sure how much, tends to be just about £3ish a month normally.  Then in July...state pension kicks in...yay!!!  And as DH still has a few years to work, we can concentrate on getting everything paid off and even more money saved and once the mortgage is done with, we will be fine. I'm practically counting down the weeks to pension and the months to being MF now. 

So that's where we are at. Actually its not nearly as bad as it seemed to me yesterday. I think I was a bit miffed as DH got his motorbike MOTd and when he discovered it needed something doing to it, that he couldn't do himself....he does most things. He started moaning about how there wasn't enough in the car/bike account as he had recently had to pay out to get stuff done on the car as well.  He thought I was magically going to find some spare cash to send him, and when I refused to take it from any of our savings accounts he wasn't happy. But....he recently sold a few things on FBMP so I knew he had a bit if spare cash and could easily pay for it from that if there wasn't enough in the account. I don't actually know what is/was in that account as that is the one savings pot that DH is in charge of. I make sure the money is transferred from his wages in the joint account every week. 

On the survey front. Yesterday I was about 32p away from cashing out on Cwd/lgy.   Logged in today to find all my money has disappeared and it says I am back at zero and need another £4 to cash out!!!   So I have messaged them to see what's going on.   P/fc has been a bit slow still, although I did get 1 survey earlier, but still waiting for a total of over £14 to be approved and nothing in the balance to cash out at the moment.  There were about 5 surveys popped up today, but all had only a few places available and I couldn't get on any of them.  All the others are still plodding along slowly and still waiting for the £25 from On/Pll to drop into my PP account, along with the money from Z/ft for the CDs etc that I sent them.  Still no mystery shops in this area, but still looking. 

So dinner tonight is some mince pork I had in the freezer with yesterdays left over veggies and DH will have some crusty bread with it. I had a Mr S delivery today, so need to split up the turkey steaks and the chicken fillets and get them in the freezer. Then need to make a meal plan and possibly do a shepherds pie batch cook with todays delivery of mince. If I do it tomorrow or Saturday, DH can have his favourite pie & chips.....I refuse to put the oven on for him if I'm not doing anything else now. Might even make a cake at the same time for the GKids.

BTW, @Sun_Addict, I tried the Nann bread pizza idea last Saturday. They were really nice and so cheap. 

Another thing I need to get on with is getting a list together about what I am going to grow in the garden this year. Last year was my first time of doing it, and I loved it, so want to do it even better this year, but without spending too much. It all has to be in pots or troughs as we have no other room. 

Anyway, hope you all have a good evening. 

foxgloves

Sounds like you've really got back in the driving seat there with your finances @makingabobor2 Sometimes I think we just need to sit down & get with the programme, don't we? I had the same experience of PA today...I think I did one survey, but all the others were already full. I'm at over £31 this month & I shall keep on at it because I've pledged whatever I earn from it this month will be paid into a savings pot.
Still no water rates bill appeared here & a bit longer to wait for Council Tax bill. Car insurance up £5 per month, pet insurance up about the same (for 2 policies), broadband down by £19 (actually down by £26 on what it was about to go up to before Mr F complained). I don't think there'll be any more bills going down this year, that's for sure!
If I hadn't lost my Mum 4 years ago & unexpectedly found myself in a position to pay off our remaining mortgage, we'd still have about 5 years to go on it. Like you, I know I'd have been absolutely counting down the months to get rid of it. It does make a difference.....for us, mainly it's been security (as public sector jobs are very vulnerable to government cuts) & being able to build some savings.
Well you're back on the ball with it now, m'dear! Let's see if we can get on some surveys tomorrow. 
F x

Makingabobor2

Thanks for the lovely reply @foxgloves. x We have just less than 3 1/2 years left on mortgage. But I intend to get it down to at least 2, if I can.  We know we will inherit eventually from parents, my dad is 90 (mum already passed in 2020), but with DH being 12 years younger than me, his parents are only 76 & 85.  We've already been told half of everything is ours, I have one sister, as does DH. But it could take a while and I intend to get things paid before that.  But its nice to know it will be there eventually.....barring them having to sell the house to go into care obviously.  
DH is not my first husband, so I was 40 when we married and we both came to the relationship with financial baggage....DH more than me, but at the time I was earning a lot more than him and thought all would be fine and we could pay CC's off easily. But you know what its like? We bought our first house, then started taking holidays, etc etc, thinking all would be fine and we'd pay it off....... I think because I had come from such a bad marriage previously, we were making up for things, but if only we'd realised what a silly idea it was. 
Anyway, we are where we are and all is well with the world. So onwards and upwards I say. 

Oh and BTW @foxgloves, you would be so proud of my resourcefulness today.....I was shredding a load of old documents and I checked all the stuff that had no personal data on and cut it up to make shopping lists and meal plans etc. Got enough to make a massive notebook.....lol. 

Sun_Addict

Glad you enjoyed the naan bread pizzas. I often buy the giant ones from international stores and they make brilliant pizzas. You get 3 for around £2 then just need to add passata, cheese and toppings.