Cancer, cash and carrying on

EssexHebridean

Well done on the scraping!

Do you have one of those cooling towels that you wet and can then drape round your neck? For a low-tech solution they are incredibly good! Amazon might provide one for you for tomorrow, at least, even if it can't help today.

foxgloves

Even a normal towel wrung out in cold water is better than nothing. Temperatures didn't drop much overnight & I've woken with a pounding headache....so this morning's stylish (?) look is a towel with bright orange hearts on it dripping water down my back....but it's helping & that's all that matters. Could help.in the absence of ward air-conditioning.

beanielou

Well done to scraping through. Hope chemo goes smoothly.

DancingInTheRain

Hope chemo hasn't been too awful, hurrah for Monz0 giving you your pay a day early, 22 minutes to go 😆

ohdearhowdidthathappen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82045863#Comment_82045863

Thanks for the suggestion, have ordered some off am@zon for tomorrow 😁

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82045944#Comment_82045944

I never think of these things! Glad it’s helping ☺️

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82046062#Comment_82046062

Thank you, it was ok in the end. They gave us ice creams and had loads of fans blowing. I had a handheld one too. I felt sorry for the nurses, 10 hours on their feet in uniforms 🥵

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82046419#Comment_82046419

This made me laugh, I was literally on there at 4.03 🤓

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Pay is in 🙌🏻

• pots/personal spends etc filled up
• Next and PayPal both had small balance totalling £370 so paid those too
• Food card paid off
• £1650 (half my salary put aside) as still going to try and stick with the original plan even with going back to work

Leaves us £1650 for a 4 week month, so about £400 a week. Some of that will be budgeted spends, but should be plenty. We’ll see! First whole month of watching the pennies and sticking the budget 😁

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I just looked, I started this diary on 4th June, so about a third of the way through the pay cycle.

Some things I want to look at this month:

-I want to pay PayPal and Next as I go during the month. I like using them when I order as it’s almost a ‘holding account’ until deciding what to keep/send back. Instead of waiting until next pay cheque to clear the balance, I’m going to pay the balance immediately after an item is kept.
-I double checked the statements - Next was kids clothes, PayPal was Father’s Day gifts and presents for our youngest who has a birthday early July. So I’ll mark them as budgeted items but it leaves those earmarked funds low now for the rest of the month.
-I wonder if I should stop using a CC for food shopping, we get about £250 a year in reward vouchers so I’m not sure. Maybe I should look into cash back or something 🤔 If we stick to our food budget, we spend £13000 a year on groceries 🤢

Think they’re the main things I’ve noticed this month 🤓

EssexHebridean

As long as you are budgeting for the groceries and clearing the card IN FULL (channelling my inner Martin there!) every month, then it seems to me that earning the rewards is the sensible thing to do?

There is a S@nt-And-Er CC that is paying a good chunk of cashback for an introductory period - that could be worth looking at?

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks EH… yeah, that’s what I’ve reasoned in the past, I’m just second guessing myself. I do pay it off in full each month. And it does make it easy to check what we’re spending on food.

No spend day today… it’s been 35 degrees today, so I’ve barely moved. I’ve been having regular cool showers and ice creams and carried my sh@rk fan around like a security blanket 😂

Sun_Addict

Well done on keeping a focus on finances despite going through chemotherapy. I guess it provides a welcome distraction. I bung most things on the credit card for the points but I do clear it at least once a week. As long as you’re only using it for things you would buy anyway and pay IN FULL as EH and Martin say 😆 then you may as well take advantage of the benefits.