Sass' 2008 DFW ramble thread

Sassamac

How much does school uniform cost?

I find out tomorrow (fingers crossed please) if DS has got into the school we want, in which case he will go full-time in Sept. Then next month we find out if he has got a place in that nursery where he would go part-time for the summer term. Which means potentially only a month to get the uniform together as they wear it in the nursery too. Ive been looking in charity shops but a) not found anything in his size and b) dont want to jinx myself until I know which school hes going to. I dont know their policy in terms of wearing grey or black trousers, shirts or polo shirts etc.

Do most schools have a second hand uniform shop / sale? I know my secondary school did but pretty sure my primary didn't. Can I get most of it in Asda, Woolworths etc. (presumably cheaper) and just get the jumper with the logo from school?

Just had another read through of Martins articles about credit cards, balance transfers, credit checks etc. Citibank is mentioned as being one of the best low rate LOB deals, but thats not what theyve offered, so think I will leave it. I just hate the thought of a debt accruing so much interest. I just worked out that after a year it will have cost us about £1100 (£1200 with the BT fee) but the balance will have only reduced by £400!
Really want to chat to hubby about it but hes still not home from his night out and he replied to my text at 9am saying he was still drunk and hungover! So I dont think I'll be getting much sense out of him today!
Might call the CAB advisor and see if I can get an appt to go through everything. I could do with some help with utility bills and the tax credits fiasco too.

Sassamac

yay Happy Friday!

Its payday today, a welcome relief after last Friday being the no payday. Unfortunately its a day shorter than usual because of DH having the day off on Dr's orders last week.
The internal bank transfers have gone though - some to one savings account to accumulate for the mortgage, and some more to the other savings account to cover the no payday in 4 weeks time, which leaves us with next to nothing.
We have about £100 left before hit the OD limit, but I think this a quiet week for DD's etc. so hopefully we can survive on the £15 left in the food budget and £11 left in the non-food budget and not a lot else. DH is off for a week now so no more petrol costs and I think I'll skip my usual Friday rummage in the charity shops for the kids stuff. I dont need anything from the market so its probably safest to stay away.

Sassamac

Oh and DS did get the school we applied for, got the e-mail through this morning. Really chuffed as we applied out of catchment. So my little man will start full-time school in Sept, aged 4 and a bit which frees up a few more options for me going to back to work and only needing to find one lot of childcare.

Sassamac

Done my weekly shop today and got less than £1.50 left for the week, which hopefully is enough for last minute bread and milk emergencies. Managed to save a bit on a few things like juice and yogurts that we havent used up last weeks quota of. Still have over £5 worth of non-food budget, so will make sure to put that to good use - use it or lose it and all that!

Had DS' feet measured again and again they havent grown so thats delayed that spending for a bit. Just realised hes going to have to have school shoes as well as normal shoes and doodles for summer. I dont think I can get away with him wearing his school shoes for normal use too or they'll look scruffy pretty quickly.

Sassamac

Things are better than I thought!
Just looked at my bank statement for my secondary account (OD) and I paid £195 towards it throughout the end of Jan, which I had forgotten about / not accounted for.
Having plugged these figures into my snowball has knocked another 2 months off, bringing it down to 58 months, Dec 2012 (just in time for the London Olympics lol!).
However Im not sure the figures will look that rosy come the end of the month when I add in my current acc OD figures. Will have to see as theres another payday to go yet.
Its hard work keeping track as the snowball only accounts for the debts, including the overdrafts, but doesnt account for the credits, i.e. the amounts Im squirrelling away into the two savings accounts. Only my spreadsheet accounts for those.

Im contemplating cancelleing my car insurance and taking out a new policy based on the quotes I got my comparison searches after watching Martin on IPTW a few weeks back. Trouble is the cheapest one is extortionate to pay in monthly installments (about 23% from memory), and many of the others are nearly as bad, so if I go for it (keeps coming up with different quotes). Im thinking of paying it off with the secondary OD, which will effectively increase the debt, but will free up £37 per month that Im currently paying, and given how much cheaper the new quotes are, it will be saved back in a lot less than a year.

Going to have a sort out of the freezer today as we need to live off leftovers this week, until Friday payday and the new monthly grocery budget. Ive got two chicken breasts and 16 sausages and thats it in terms of ingredients for cooking something fresh. But loads of miscellaneous tubs which will make dinner times fun this week.

Sassamac

Well having done the freezer inventory I am pleased to report good news. Theres 16 days worth of meals in there, (starting tonight and ending 9th Mar) which involve little to no cooking to be turned into dinners.
Thats in addition to 6 miscellaneous meals, which is bags of leftovers that I dont remember or recognise, so we'll get to those when we've dealt with the rest.
Theres also 6 dinners for DH to take to work which will actually last him as far as 9th March as well, as hes in the quiet part of the rota now.
And that still leaves several mismatched items, e.g. loads of sausages and things like stir fry, and korma, which need chicken.
Im planning on eating everything in the order of that which takes up the most space first. So tonight is chicken risotto leftover from last month, because it was in the biggest tub.

Ive just made vegetable soup out of the manky looking veg. It worked out really well as I took 2 tubs out of the freezer, one containing tinned soup that I didnt like, and one of veg stock saved from last time we did veggies with a roast.
So I used both of those to make the soup, then condensed the soup down so that it fits back in the same two tubs to put back in the freezer. So Ive made something from nothing (things that would have previously been thrown away) and it doesnt take up any extra freezer space.

lauradora

I love it when that happens. hooray for soup and freezers!!:j

Sassamac

No spends this w/e for me although theres only 2 slices of bread left so may dash to Mr T if I can be bothered, i.e. if we go out and it happens to be en-route.

I spent most of this morning doing a monthly grocery list. I think Im in budget every month becuase I am in terms of what I spend, but its hard to account for everything when some items I buy a weeks worth, some a months, some even last 3 - 6 months. So I have done a spreadsheet and ratio'd (sp) everything out to 4 weeks worth, as my budget is every 4 weeks. Its add up £100 for food and £25 for non-food which is pretty close to what my budget is for Feb (£105 and £20), but I was hoping it nudge it down over the next few months. Doesnt look like theres any more savings to made though from my list as I dont see how I can stretch anything any further. Still £125 isn't bad for a family of four, especially as we all have a healthy appetite. We usually dont eat anywhere near as much in the summer so hopefully that will help.

Keeping_Positive

Hi Sassamac,

Just found your diary although you have it tough you are doing so well. Congratulations on your son getting in to the school you wanted.

Sassamac

Thanks Wendy, some days I feel like Im making huge progress, some days I wonder why Im bothering, but it'll all be worth it in the end.

Had a NSD today. Spent the afternoon at the garden centre which is free entertainment for the kids. Popped into Tesco on the way out but they had no reduced bread so walked away empty handed, will try in town tomorrow.

Kids are going to bed in a few mins then half term is effectively over. Im spending this evening baking an apple traybake (I have a glut of apples from when I bought 24 for £1.60) and hobnobs / oaty cookies as we've just run out of biscuits. Tonights beef casserole dinner (leftovers from the freezer) turned out to be huge and despite DD having third helpings, me and DS having seconds, and DH having some there is still enough left to make a cottage pie tomorrow if I pad it out with carrots and baked beans. So I effectively have a free dinner. Doing really well with food at the mo.