Tea's 'Where has it gone' diary

shopaholic2008

Well done sounds like you are doing a great job budgeting and keeping spends to a minimum :T

[Deleted User]

Thanks Shopaholic2008 getting there slowly, I did at one time fret and wanted to put everything possible into getting solvent but now realise that it doesn’t happen that way so I am now happy in plodding along and anything saved that week is a bonus

Update time:

Shopping has been delivered and cost £55.04, not as bad as I first predicted :T ; we are averaging about £65 per week with alcohol included and eating and living reasonably well for it. It has helped finding that Asda shopping is much, much cheaper then Tesco’s I tend to use Tesco’s now for top up stuff that got forgotten to be ordered, okay it might not help the points side of things but I’m reasonably happy.

DH is keeping up with the surveys, he tends to try and get them done whilst he is at work and I have taken over doing his piggy points as he doesn’t get time to do that; at least he’s trying…he’s got 1010 points on Lightspeed now :eek: and he decided that he will use them towards a voucher for Christmas for the family, so no more money spent there. Money already in seperate savings account for Christmas not to be touched, so if we do not need to break into it, at Christmas we can do an overpayment to DH’s family and relax a bit.

Had hoped to take DD swimming from Monday but not likely now but DS is definitely up for going on Sunday, when we go I am going to do an annual pass as I think that will save us some money in the long run and will help to keep me fit too as I will not want to lapse as I have already spent the money.

[Deleted User]

Yippeeeee, it’s Friday today and the day of the wedding.

DH is at work this morning but will be back in time to get ready for the wedding and to take DS, just have to iron some clothes for them both.

I bought one of the ready made curry meal bags from Asda to try and we are going to have that tonight once the boys get back; I feel it will be too late then to try and concoct something as I don’t know when they’ll get home.

Apart from that I have a couple of surveys to complete and housework to do…does it never end???

I am planning on a no spend day today and will update later.

[Deleted User]

It’s Saturday and officially the weekend :j

Didn't get chance to update last night as I was having too much fun with DD, I think that she relished that her big brother wasn’t about.

Anyway, I did do some spending yesterday but it wasn’t my money well it was sort of. I used some of the money that my mum sent down and bought two bottles of wine, I only had a glass out of mine and DH and DS got in way too late so DH never opened his; we didn’t even have the curry.

Today DH is working at the flying club and the kids and I are going to see him after lunch; I am aiming not to spend anything today and we will have the curry tonight as I don’t want to waste it.

My plan for this coming week is as follows:

• Surveys and clicks
• E-bay and Amazon – must do E-bay as been really lazy on that lately
• Meal plan for the week
• Lunches for DH
• NSD – Playgroups start this week again, but as DD has chicken pox this might be on the back burner for this week.
• Hunt for something for DS for his birthday at the end of the month – Quidco?
• Hunt for something for DH for Father’s Day – Quidco?
• Housework
• Charity shop to get rid of stuff unable to sell
• Order food shopping online and hunt for deals – partly done list online already
• No unnecessary spending

Spoke to my mum and she has informed me that she has four brand new pillows that she bought in error and they are ours if we want them, so I have said yes DD will be in a proper bed soon and will need a pillow and I need two new ones and the other one can be a spare. She will bring down the next time she comes.

[Deleted User]

It’s Monday!!!!

Had a fairly eventful morning already today, DH’s courtesy car wouldn’t start this morning so the kids and I dropped Daddy off at work; DH rang the garage and they have agreed to come at some point today and replace the car with another one and confirmed that they STILL haven’t had authorisation to repair his car :mad: . DH has politely gone ape at More Than’s engineering department and has told them that if the car is not authorised today then they will lose any policy that we hold with them. The woman is supposed to be getting the engineer to call DH, so we will see.

On the up side, I have just got through the post some more vouchers from Tesco’s wine club so we can get some points added to the card the next time we buy some wine and a 20% off voucher came for ELC if you purchase any toy or game, no set amount from what I could see and as it is DS’s birthday at the end of June I can see that being used

From my list, I have so far managed to get the meal plan for the week sorted and DD and I aren’t going to playgroups this week as DD still has chicken pox and gets a new spot every day, hopefully she won’t get any more and we can go back again next week.

No house work done as yet :rotfl:

I took DS swimming yesterday and signed up for the swimming membership £25 per month, so in my mind I need to try and get that back some how each month so that it doesn’t upset the bank balance too much….will work on this.

Nothing spent today so far and I am planning to walk to pick DS up from pre-school later, providing that it doesn’t rain.

[Deleted User]

What a dreary day, I had planned to walk this morning to take Ds to pre-school but that is now on the back burner whilst it wants to rain.

I have ordered the food shopping and used a free code for delivery and that is coming on Thursday afternoon.

The garage has told DH that they are proceeding with the repairs to his car and will duly invoice More Than; they explained to DH that it has been carrying on for so long now that it is actually costing them money now, so hopefully in 5 days we will have it back, in time for our holiday too.

Got to go out this morning once I have dropped DS at pre-school and then I need to ring the bank to find out why they allowed a payment to go out after I cancelled the respective direct debit flaming Lloyds TSB! :mad:

Feeling very positive today and am aiming to get loads done.

Have a good day all and I will try to update later.

[Deleted User]

Afternoon all,

After getting rather lost at Gatwick and all in a tizz, what should have taken me 30 minutes took me and hour and a half, I managed to get back in time to feed DD and collect DS.

However, I need to go back to Gatwick this afternoon for 4pm so I am aiming to leave in a little while just in case I get lost again, which invariably happens with me; direction is not my strong point.

Off my list, I have managed to list another lot of videos on Amazon so am desperately hoping that something will be sold. Most of the videos are the lowest price so fingers crossed and all that.

I tried to ring the bank but their automated system asked for a security pin number? Heaven only knows what that is but DH doesn’t even know, so that is going to entail a trip to see them on Thursday when I go and get the veg from the market.

I have also managed to get DH something for Father’s Day from the kids via Pigsback, so that is a few points and a step closer to another voucher and again something off my list.

• Surveys and clicks - being done
• E-bay and Amazon – must do E-bay as been really lazy on that lately
• [STRIKE]Meal plan for the week [/STRIKE]
• Lunches for DH - being sorted
• NSD – Playgroups start this week again, but as DD has chicken pox this might be on the back burner for this week.
• Hunt for something for DS for his birthday at the end of the month – Quidco?
• [STRIKE]Hunt for something for DH for Father’s Day – Quidco?[/STRIKE]
• Housework - debatable
• Charity shop to get rid of stuff unable to sell
• [STRIKE]Order food shopping online and hunt for deals [/STRIKE]
• No unnecessary spending

Right better get a move on.

[Deleted User]

Morning,

Feel slightly lethargic today, have been really tired lately and I think that the lack of exercise may be the problem.

Today the kids and I are making cakes for DH for site so we need to go to Tesco’s to get some stuff so some money will be spent there but not a lot if I can help it, as it isn’t raining at the moment we will walk once we are sorted but if it is raining when we come to leave then we will go in the car.

Have also got housework to do today, not much of that is going to get done this week but next week I want to try and get all the washing and ironing done as the week after we are away, so not much housework will get done then either.

Have a good day everyone and I will update later.

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone

Hope that you don’t mind if I creep in through the door but I figured that as I haven’t been about for a while, I figured that it was probably about time that I provided an update.

Things between DH & I were very tense for a while and we nearly ended up splitting up, long story and one that I won’t go in to; suffice to say things are back to normal and are better than they were before.

The ‘family loan’ still hasn’t been paid, this is due to the stress between us and that DH and his sister had a major fall out due to her being a b!tch when things were bad at home, so now they are not talking :mad:

The holiday we went on was also !!!! and as a result we came home early :mad:

On the upside now:

DH got a pay rise approximately £100 extra per month, so very pleased with him and all his hard work, he really deserves it

DH had a word with More Than and got my premium reduced by £50, so that makes the monthly payments even cheaper than they were last year

Quidco paid out and we have had £74.71 in the bank so am very chuffed

On to other things now:

We are still using the OD but we aren’t as bad as we have been in the past and therefore I believe that we are getting somewhere.

We haven’t been very MSE lately and therefore things aren’t as great as they could be but this is now going to be back on track from this month and from 15th August when DH gets paid we are going to start and repay his sister.

I am determined that we will get on an even keel and get this paid and out of the way.

[Deleted User]

Thank you for not kicking me out yesterday.

Last night I drew up a list or should that be a plan of the way things are going to be handled in future if we are to have any chance of being debt free.

The list goes as follows:

• Do not withdraw from the cash machine more than is needed – draw a set amount out at beginning of week and make it last
• Cut down on using my mobile
• OH to keep taking lunches
• Make bought alcohol last more than one week – cut down on alcohol during week
• Keep saving change
• Cut down on the take-aways – limit to one a fortnight/month
• Limit use of car and walk were possible
• Limit use of tumble dryer and dry outside where possible
• Do free things with kids as much as possible
• Keep up with not going to Tesco’s for odds and ends – going good so far but needs improving
• Keep using Quidco for cashback
• Keep ordering weekly shopping online and try to migrate it to once a fortnight

After this month and I have some idea of what is coming out of the account, I may just post a SOA and see what else can be done to improve matters.