MeandO's money-shuffling

Mrs_Money_Penny

So pleased your Mum is recovering. Take care xx

MeandO

Thank you Mrs_Money_Penny xx

The weekend was really difficult and there were lots of tears (from me) yesterday and everything felt like too much to bear. 

I tried to keep us busy and took DS to the cinema which was £10 for us both and chose the one with free parking. I felt quite ill on Saturday afternoon/evening and could barely move off the sofa, I just wanted to lie down, so ended up ordering a takeaway for delivery which I do once or twice a year at the most. I was annoyed with myself afterwards as it's money I can ill afford to spend and really wasn't worth the cost. Today's not going much better tbh and I am finding that I am having real down days on Mondays these past few months, I need to snap out of it somehow.

I had to buy petrol yesterday which cost £51 I hadn't budgeted for and I need to buy groceries tonight and PE shorts for DS as he lost his others. I think I'm going to have to either use the CC or transfer money from a different savings pot as I won't have enough left in the main account otherwise. I've put a few purchases on the CC lately too which is on my mind - DS's sports boots broke (less than two months old but I don't have the receipt) so I've had to buy more. Plus he needed some wet weather kit for his sports club. I watched him play at the weekend and he was the only kid not in a weatherproof top - he insisted he was fine in a (gifted to us) primark hoody  but I felt awful as he was drenched through. I found one one ebay for £15 so at least he'll be a bit drier next time. Mum guilt is at high levels this past week.   A couple more Christmas gifts have also been paid for using it and the gifts account is now empty as I didn't save enough over the year, so I need to work on that one next year.

Another item sold on vinted and I've listed one more thing too, so that's £21 made so far and £6.80 made from a little sale on etsy. They're all wrapped and ready to post, hopefully later today. The vinted money takes a while to clear but hopefully it will do so before Payday which is just under two weeks away.  

In good news, I'm due a payrise at work. I think it's an extra £1925 a year which will be backpaid from April, so I'm hoping I will receive enough extra this month to pay the credit card off which has around £350 on it, possibly more by tonight. If there's any left over, it would be a bonus.

Honeysucklelou2

Hope you are feeling better soon.

MeandO

Thank you HSL2 xx

MeandO

Just over £40 spent on groceries tonight and £7.50 on DS’s new shorts for school. We shouldn’t need anything else for a week or so now. 

I’ve got two loads of washing done today, dried (TD unfortunately) and have just put it all away, sorting a few T shirts DS doesn’t wear anymore after taking everything out and refolding it as his drawerslooked like a bomb had hit them!
DS and I have had a chicken (thighs) roast for tea, everything’s cleared away and the dishwasher’s on. There’s a little bit of veg left over for my lunch tomorrow and I’ve planned food for tomorrow. I’ve ironed some shirts for OH and have now just collapsed in a heap on the sofa, that’s my lot of housework for the night, hopefully. 

I managed to post two of the parcels before picking DS up today, two more to go tomorrow but have to sent from a different shop than today which is a little less convenient. Hopefully some more things will be sold soon to make a few extra £’s. 

I need to update YNAB now, that’s the next job on my list. 

MeandO

A refund of £7.50 was processed today for the first pair of replacement shorts I bought DS (that didn’t fit) and I posted the remaining two vinted parcels so hopefully funds will be received soon.

DS’s replacement sports boots arrived today so at least he has those to wear tomorrow. A 2nd hand book I bought myself also arrived today so I’m looking forward to reading that. It was around £3 inc postage so didn’t break the bank but I still feel guilty for spending money on myself. I usually buy books from the charity shop but haven’t been able to get there for a long time so resorted to Amazon marketplace.

It’s a busy evening tomorrow as DS has two sports clubs, pretty much back to back, Wednesday is a quick and easy ‘fresh pasta and sauce’ tea for him tomorrow and I’ll find something from the freezer for me. Tonight we had prawn stir fry and noodles - DS’s favourite. 

Not much else to report, it’s that ‘waiting for payday’ stage of the month which is never much fun. 

MeandO

Another little Vinted sale of £3 made overnight so I'll wrap and post that today. That brings the total up to £24 made this week which I'll be grateful for when it all clears. 

The first load of washing of today is done and I've just pegged it out on the washing line as it's sunny but chilly today. Hopefully it dries as there's another load in the machine to join it outside later.

MeandO

Another £3 vinted sale made this evening so I’ll wrap and send that tomorrow. Unfortunately it has to be dropped off at a different location to the other one I need to send, so it’s two trips instead of one but will try and do them both in the morning. The £7.50 refund also hit the account today and I read the gas meter and submitted the reading so that the bill is accurate. 

The eBay sports kit items I ordered for DS arrived today but one doesn’t fit and the other he’s not keen on so will be a waste of money as he won’t wear it 🙄 so they’ll both have to be returned. They were bought from shops so can be returned, but I think I’ll lose some money on having to pay return postage.  

DS casually remarked at 7pm tonight 🙄 that he needed a packed lunch for a sporting event at school tomorrow, so we had to pop to the supermarket to pick up supplies as I had nothing ‘pack lunch worthy’ in. I also picked up some fruit and veg whilst there as I was running low/had run out of a few things and needed some extras for some recipes I’m planning on making. I spent just under £19.

There has been a huge pack of chicken breasts in my freezer for some time now which froze together in a ‘lump’ and so I haven’t been able to use them in smaller portions. I’ve taken that out of the freezer tonight with the view of making about 3 or 4 different batch cooked chicken dishes tomorrow to freeze for future use and to make sure I have some healthy meals readily available. I haven’t been doing well with SW this week since I changed it to an online only membership, I just don’t feel like the support or the motivation is there, but I’ve had a bit of a wake up call with regards to losing weight and getting healthy today… Yesterday I found out that bloods taken in July were abnormal and I should have been contacted to arrange a Dr’s appointment - I wasn’t contacted. I finally got to speak to a doctor tonight and it seems that I don’t have pernicious anemia as I was told at the start of the year, but it’s very likely that I have an autoimmune and/or connective tissues disease/disorder. Alarm bells seemed to ring with the Dr once I started sharing my family history (specifically, my Mum and Sister) and some symptoms I’ve been having, so I’ve been referred to immunologists and rheumatologists. In the meantime, I’ve been told to keep losing weight and exercising to get myself as fit and healthy as possible. Tonight, I’ve written some meal plans for the week and as I said, am batch cooking big style tomorrow. I have to be around for DS, so I have to do this for him and for me. I’m feeling a bit fed up about everything to be honest, it seems there’s always mountains to climb and I always feel like I’m right at the bottom, looking up.  

With regards to the recent payrise, it looks like I definitely won’t be entitled to any UC now including the protected allowance from changing from child tax credits. In fact, I may completely withdraw the claim for it now so I don’t have to deal with them every month. I do need to re-do my budget based on the loss of child tax credits and recent payrise but I’m not sure how much extra it will equate to monthly yet so will likely wait until I have that info. I’m just hoping it will cover the CTC I’m no longer receiving which was just under £70 a month. 

MeandO

One vinted sale was posted this morning and I've wrapped the other one, ready to send later today when I pass that particular shop. I've also wrapped the two ebay parcels for return and will walk to the post office shortly to send those back.

Yesterday I made use of the dry weather and tidied the garden up for the winter. I cut the grass (was just dry enough), cleared out some of the last summer pots, cut back lots of plants and filled two bags for the garden recycling collection this week. They don't collect it after 1st December for a couple of months so I wanted to make sure I got rid of it all. DS helped me put all of the garden furniture in the shed for the winter too so the garden is looking sparse but tidy. I'm pleased to have got that done.

Today I've batch cooked two huge pans of chicken curry - one indian, one chinese curry. We'll have the chinese one for tea tonight as I think the other may be a bit hot for DS. There will be plenty over to freeze and I've already portioned the other one up for the freezer, it's currently cooling.

MeandO

I've just posted the last remaining vinted parcel and an amazon return of something that I'd ordered as a Christmas present but was awful quality when it arrived. There should be a few refunds hitting the CC over the next week or so and the money from vinted should start to come in too.

This morning I've wrapped all of the Christmas gifts I have bought so far and written them in a little book so I know what I have for who. DS was starting to nosey around at my usual hiding spots so I've wrapped things so he can't see them! I've sorted a few more bits for charity and half half a bin bag full so will look to drop that off somewhere soon to get it out of the way. We only have a little house now and there's no real room to store such stuff.

I renewed my car insurance last night with the current provider being the cheapest again by around £25, so I've gone with them again. £275 for that has been transferred out of the car/house pot to cover that.