MeandO's money-shuffling

Chrystal

Four_Seasons said:

Oh how lovely that the clothes are too big such a nice feeling shows how well you are doing with your weight loss. Love to see your Joe Brown's xx

Agree with what @Four_Seasons said....
and also feeling really guilty that you've been so  quick to sort out your returns and I'm so useless! X

MeandO

Thank you four_seasons & Chrystal xx

Two sales made on vinted today which will bring in £15, so they’ve both been wrapped and sent.
Someone is collected a FB sale later today for another £15, but that belongs to DS so will go in his money box.
£65 spent on back to school stuff & underwear for DS this morning. Still trying to get the ex to contribute to the uniform but he conveniently ignores those messages every time. Funny that…

MeandO

£5 has reached my bank account from Vinted and the other £10 is on its way. I also have an extra £10 in my purse thanks to a FB sale. There is very little left in the bank account until I get paid but I have enough for fuel to get us home again to my parents house this weekend and around £60 to cover everything else such as any groceries (we shouldn't need much, if anything) and any other spends. I only have one more bill to pay before payday in a week but that's covered. I realised I'd overestimated another bill by £16, so I've transferred that £16 to the credit card as I have a balance to clear on that once I get paid. I used it to buy myself some much needed new clothes and also put a couple of bits on it from our London trip.
I've renewed my car breakdown cover today at a cost of just under £42 and transferred funds from the car pot to cover that.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Your doing so well. I know it probably doesn’t feel like it at times.Have a lovely time at your parents xx

MeandO

Hello all, long time, no write...

The summer hols are always really hectic and busy for me and I rarely spend more than a week in the same county as I try to get 'home' a lot, so updating the diary has taken a bit of a back seat. OH and I also went away for a last minute break for 5 days too which was much needed even though I probably could have done with saving the money instead. We did it fairly cheaply and barely spent a thing whilst away so I'm trying not to feel too bad about it.
Now back into the normal routine and remembering why I hate the drudgery of routine and WFH every day, but needs must. I finished the holidays with a credit card bill of just over £300 to pay off when I get paid (or before if I can make some extra money). I'm already having to be careful with the grocery budget with two weeks until payday, but I'll make it stretch. There's also the tax credits of around £67 to come in on Wednesday but I was hoping to use some of that as a payment towards the CC. There will hopefully be a £15 FB sale collected tonight which will also go towards the card.

The bad news is that it's crunch time for my car. It had to go in for repairs twice over the Summer at a cost of around £500 and now around £1300 worth of work needs doing. I've known it's been on the cards for a while but now it probably needs doing to pass the MOT in November. Also, there are other 'non essential' issues with the car that will cost around £600 to fix - a problem with a window. It's almost 10 years old and probably worth around £4k-£4.5K and a mechanic friend of the family (who did the work in the summer) has told me it's not worth throwing any more money at it, so now I have to try and figure out how to afford a new (to me) one. I have around £5K in cash saved but really didn't want to leave myself with no savings, so I guess it's a case of borrowing more on the mortgage or trying to find a reasonable loan. Am gutted and have been a bit down about it all. It feels as soon as I make headway saving some money and getting the mortgage down, something else majorly expensive comes along and I have to start again.
I'm trying to decide what to do at the moment.

I did a freezer inventory again yesterday and have made a big batch of lasagne for DS and OH today with some mince that needed using up, throwing in lots of mushrooms I had in a m0rrisons magic bag at the weekend. There's enough for two of them tonight and hopefully two more portions for the freezer. I'm back doing SW (I didn't do it over the summer), so am having leftovers from a SW friendly meal I cooked the other night. I picked up some YS meatballs and prawns for DS whilst popping to the supermarket today, so both of those have gone into the freezer for a later date.

Tomorrow I need to get the school logo put on two pairs of school shorts for DS. I thought they were going to do away with this logo on everything nonsense and make it more affordable for parents, no sign of that yet though!

enthusiasticsaver

Pain in the neck about the car.  Personally I would use a 0% money transfer card or a personal loan rather than stick it on your mortgage.  Assuming you get £4k for your old car plus  maybe half your savings how much would  you need to find to get a 3 year old  car of the same spec as your current one?  

MeandO

Thanks enthusiastic saver, I'll look into those options. I don't have a fancy car and I'm really not bothered about spec as long as it's reliable, fuel efficient and relatively low mileage. The only issue is that I can't have a very tiny car as I'm really tall and struggle to drive them, but looking at 3 year old cars the same as mine or equivalent, they're around £15K+!  When did 2nd hand cars get so expensive 

MeandO

The FB buyer has messed me around as expected, so back in the shed with those items! 

badmemory

They got really expensive when so many people needed compliant cars.  Also workmen buying cars & hiring vans for the one day they need them as it is cheaper.

MeandO

I worked a few hours of overtime last night to bring in some more £'s in October's salary. I'll try and do as many as I can this month now but it's difficult to fit in sometimes.

I have another load of washing to do today, hopefully the rain stays away so I can get it dried on the line.
I didn't get the uniform done yesterday, will attempt to drop it off today.

I'm trying to have a day off from worrying about money and how to pay and save for everything. It's making me feel a bit ill lately and I've had a few tears this week about how my life has turned out. I haven't felt like that for a long time so I'm sure money worries are the catalyst in reminding me how I have to deal with everything alone. That was never how I envisaged my life. DS and I watched a documentary about a young sports person last night too (a star in the sports DS plays) and they focused a lot on his big happy family life with both parents and siblings, how close they are and how they did so much together and supported each other. That's what I wanted for DS and I can't give it to him, me too I guess. It just hit home a bit I suppose. 

So, back to real life... the washing's not going to do itself and I have work to do. 
Have a good day all xx