The Three C's - Coffee, Clothes & Credit Cards

Sarahwithlove

Happy new year to you all. I started writing a response so many times this week and then would get distracted! 

Life is busy at the moment, I've made a new group of friends and we've been meeting up alot as its still the early get to know you stage. But they seem nice and its good to have people to do stuff with. Just need to start being selective with what I'm doing. 

I've arranged a games night towards end of Feb at mine with some work colleagues, so that's a good motivation to get some bits done round my flat. 

I desperately need to stop spending money though. I have been so spendy the last few weeks, including the decision to renew my annual parking permit for the beach. I put it on my 0% credit card, was £140, I'm hoping my dad will give me some money for my birthday to pay towards it. The rest I aim to make from prolific and vinted. Hoping to hear back about overtime in next few weeks as well, that would be very handy! 

lucielle

Hope the overtime comes to fruition. Can you take cash and once it’s gone that’s it?
L

Sarahwithlove

lucielle said:

Hope the overtime comes to fruition. Can you take cash and once it’s gone that’s it?
L

Other than my annual parking permit most of the spends have come from my normal spending money. Just feels like it needs to stretch a long way this month haha 

amber03

I used to pay an annual parking payment for my local forest, that had started to charge. You could have 2 cars on the permit which worked well for me and my DIL so she could take the grandkids. Didn’t mind paying as the money went towards the upkeep of the forest. First two years was £40 a year, then went to £60 a year so cancelled it as did a lot of people due to the amount of the increase. Now it is £72 and for one car only. X

Sarahwithlove

This covers the 2 beaches and country park so will get some use. Just a big expenses up front. But my dad gave me £100 for my birthday later this month so that will cover most of it 

Sarahwithlove

expensive day for me today as had two new radiators fitted and some pipe work moved around. But my flat feels so much warmer already so I know it will be worth it in the long run. I made a not so mse decision though. I decided to do a money transfer on my virgin card to pay for it, went through fine and money has come in. But then discovered when paying the bill I could pay by card, so ended up putting it on my 0% purchase credit card (natwest) and put the funds in a saver instead. The interest on saver will cover the money transfer fee at the end of the 12 months and I have an almost fully funded sinking fund. 

Plan is to pay off the 0% card by December and the virgin by Jan 26 when 0% ends. Have changed direct debit for both to make sure this happens. I will also look at others ways to pay it down quicker in that time. My sinking fund j will carry on topping up the difference so it's fully funded for May when the big expenses start. 

Im happy with being debt neutral and knowing I have savings behind me. But I also know what I'm like and probably in 6 months I may change my mind and pay one of the cards off lol

Willowtree222

Being debt neutral is a good place to be. 
I had all my radiators changed and a new boiler a few years ago. It cost a lot,but my house feels so much warmer and more efficient. I've also added reflectors behind the radiators as well and they've also made a huge difference to the warm staying in. I had a few bits left over and gave them away and they also said they felt the difference with them as well. Sometimes you have to do these things to save money in the long term especially now the price of energy is as it is. 

X

Sarahwithlove

Willowtree222 said:

Being debt neutral is a good place to be. 
I had all my radiators changed and a new boiler a few years ago. It cost a lot,but my house feels so much warmer and more efficient. I've also added reflectors behind the radiators as well and they've also made a huge difference to the warm staying in. I had a few bits left over and gave them away and they also said they felt the difference with them as well. Sometimes you have to do these things to save money in the long term especially now the price of energy is as it is. 

X

That's good to know about the reflectors. I had the one in lounge done last winter and it really helped. I'm hoping the change in bedroom will help with the damp issue as well. Gone from old single ones to double more efficient ones. So should help massively. 

Sarahwithlove

How is it only the 13th? This feels like the longest month ever. 

I went out for lunch yesterday with some friends which was really nice but £40 later and that's my weeks spending money gone. Though my dad did give me his old phone to sell and said I could keep the money so that was an extra £68 which was needed. I have booked tickets for 3 events later in the year this month already which that covered fortunately. 

I tried selling my old phone but there seems to be some kind of problem with connecting to WiFi on it. So need to live chat with Samsung at some point as that would get me another £100. 

I've sorted out my spare room a bit, taken some more bits to charity and hung up 80% of the clothes I intend to sell on vinted. I ran out of hangers for the rest. Now I just need to start taking pictures and putting them on vinted to get some pennies in. 

Having my hair cut tomorrow but already have the money put aside for this and office day on Wednesday. Gusto is being delivered today as had another £20 credit thanks to my referral code being used. So should only needed a top up shop later this week. I need to menu plan though once gusto is here and based on what's in my fridge. Hopefully shouldn't need much for main meals for a couple of weeks just be milk, fruit and snacks. My plan is to use leftovers for lunches where I can. Usually I would just put it in the freezer as another meal but I never seem to fancy sandwiches etc for lunch so just spend money. At least with leftovers I know it will fill me up. 

Justcrackingonwithit

I've been tinkering with my finances too, different variations of paying different amounts, its just a work in progress and finding what works best for me.

Sounds like you've had a productive time at home with the work being done.  I had a new boiler recently and I'm hoping it will be more efficient.  Nice that you had some time with friends, important to have some down time.