Starting over 2017

Shuffled some more money around and done some planning ahead for the next few months. Trying to use up as little of the savings to get us through the bills over summer as one contract will end in July and the new one won't start till September, doubt I will get anything over summer. Been looking up student finance stuff too as the teen plans to go next September, so complicated to understand, with the added complication that my wages have been up and down the last few years.

Enjoyed lots of lazing around and family time this week and have another week off next week when they're all back so I can really knuckle down to some school work and finally get all the household papers sorted. Want to see if we'd be better off re-arranging the Tesco loan with the bank at a much cheaper rate but not sure we'll be accepted because I'm on a temp contract.

Had a look at the figures and it should be possible to re-arrange it from when I get paid in September, don't want to change it before then if I can avoid it as it means we'd owe a lot more in the months when I'm going to be on less or no pay if that makes sense. Plus the overall total will have gone down a bit by September. If they can't do it then at least we will have some sat in the three month pot still and can re-build it in case there is another job break next summer. So complicated but at least we have cleared a lot of the debts, so all good.

Back to frugal eating next week too as we've had too many takeaways and eaten out way too much recently, which is bad for our budget and our waistlines!

Tried to pay off bank loan but if we keep it as it is and pay it off as planned we get £60 cashback, so decided to do just that as we'd gain nothing by repaying early. Also managed to negotiate phone/TV/broadband down a bit for same package so that's a bit more we can hang on to each month.

Had the decorating and fixing work done in the house and it looks loads better, just got to a quick clean and put the furniture back in place now. After a week of having everything 'away' elsewhere around the house and in the garage am reluctant to clutter the place up again. Already decluttered about 50 books and seeing if we can cut right back on ornaments next.

Need to do a list of foods, menu plan and shop tomorrow especially as in-laws are coming for their birthday teas on Sunday.

Checked and we just have enough to squeeze through this week as long as we don't do any lavish, fed up of hubby and his PS4 and Paypal purchases though as they aren't budgeted for and have made things a lot tighter than they need to be. Hate that we have nothing to show for our hard earned money.