New Year New Diary :)

[Deleted User] · 25 March 2019 at 1:42PM

Is it just me, or do things just seem better when the sun is shining?!

On the home stretch to payday now, and the budget is completely sorted for next month. If I get invited to do things that are outside of that budget, I will simply say no!

No more lbs off this week, maintained the same weight from last week but I'm still happy with that

OH and I had some more bickering, but then did some proper talking about our respective issues, so things should be much better going forwards.

My next payment to my car insurance is my last scheduled payment with my current provider. I have done dummy quotes with direct line showing I could get much better cover for around £50 per month less, so the renewal quote to stay with my current company (with a black box) needs to be even cheaper than that for me to bother staying. I have it bookmarked in my diary for the day to gather quotes. Having a black box doesn't really bother me unless I check it, so I am happy to stick with it if the quote is cheap enough! I will of course try and get some cashback when I do the renewal, too

[Deleted User] · 27 March 2019 at 10:22AM

I am exhausted today...

I've been trying to be a bit "Fly Lady" at home to avoid a mountain of chores over the weekend, so last night I decided to run the hoover round the areas that looked like they needed it. I picked up a games case from upstairs where OH's boy spends his time, and found bright pink putty pancaked into our (rented house's) beige carpet. So I spent nearly two hours picking out putty and trying to get rid of a bright pink stain.

A conversation with OH was had about it, and as it always seems to do lately he mentioned his ex as he'd spoken to her about it, and I just spiralled from there. I will admit I hate hearing her name, she's always unpleasant about me, never passes on a thanks if I help out solo with their childcare, quick to lose her rag if OH ever says we aren't able to help out due to work etc, and is generally unpleasant to OH and talks down to hi, unless she wants something. Thus, we had a huge fight AGAIN which resulted in us not really speaking when he got in from work and thus I barely slept.

It's my fault, I'm always the one to start with the snarky comments whenever she comes into a conversation, and I need to find a coping mechanism. I'm not sure if our relationship can handle another blowout because of my insecurities and temper. It would be something so stupid to lose the love of my life over, I just can't seem to stop until I've pushed him away. If any sage MSE'rs have some advice for how to calm down my aforementioned craziness, that would be much appreciated! :embarasse

Back on MSE topics, only a couple of days to go until payday, then the next round of DD's and OP's can begin. I overpaid £75 to a CC this month, it's just a shame that I had to put a week's worth of groceries on it down to my own poor management. Alas, steps are in place to prevent that. So, hopefully, another £75 of OP's this month, without having to use the CC!

beanielou · 27 March 2019 at 10:48AM

It is really difficult having a so called blended family.
There are no easy answers.
No suggestions for the best way to deal with it I am afraid.
Keep plodding.

[Deleted User] · 27 March 2019 at 3:08PM

beanielou wrote: »

It is really difficult having a so called blended family.
There are no easy answers.
No suggestions for the best way to deal with it I am afraid.
Keep plodding.

I am good at plodding :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Deleted User] · 28 March 2019 at 9:21AM

I now pay a household bill in my name for the first time in my life :rotfl:

We got home last night to find no internet, not unusual from our provider. OH was on the phone for an hour to get through, to find out they had terminated our service. No reason given, just that it was done their end in error but as they were at fault and not us, we could choose to keep our service with them cancelled. I suggested to OH this might be a chance to go with a better provider whilst it wasn't going to cost us to cancel. He agreed, so I was searching for people who would cover us (we're on the outskirts of a small town) and finally found one and offered to take it out in my name, and just adjust my standing order for my share of everything to factor in the bill that I now pay.

In other news, OH grumbling this morning as he got stung for £35 for data charges at our stop over airport coming back from Australia. O2 had said he had inclusive data for Australia in his package, but he must have assumed it would cover Qatar, too. I tried to explain he wasn't too much out of pocket as he had not paid for broadband this month were they had cancelled it, but it didn't help much :rotfl:

beanielou · 28 March 2019 at 2:42PM

All grown up now!

[Deleted User] · 29 March 2019 at 10:45AM

Payday has finally rolled around again...

- moved petrol money to petrol account
- moved groceries money to groceries account
- moved other money to pots

Now to just wait for all of the debt repayments to come out...

We are going to visit OH's family on Sunday as my mum is obviously too far away to visit :rotfl: I have got my Nan a nice card though

[Deleted User] · 1 April 2019 at 2:39PM

Today was a fine example of "you don't ask, you don't get"

I chased up my boss for confirmation of a day's annual leave booked for next Monday, and thought I would ask if there were any plans to alter the hourly rate of pay in line with the rise in NMW, as I now currently work 4p over that minimum wage.

Pretty promptly, he replied saying that he only had room for a little increase with the changing over the management company our contract is with, and it is only small but it means that despite the extra tax I will pay this year due to underpaying last year, I will still be circa £20 better off a month, even more so if I can get this tax repaid. I'm now off to see how the budget looks with that in mind.

Counting down the days until I can go elsewhere for my car insurance, I'm hoping to save around £60 a month there, and then going forwards after next year I aim to be able to pay it in full every year

I have started matched betting again now to make some extra income, alongside all the other bits and pieces that I am currently doing, so I should be able to make some good overpayments.

[Deleted User] · 2 April 2019 at 10:34AM

We should finally have internet at home by Friday at the latest, which will be good as I'm quite restricted to what I can and can't do to make some extra money at home without my laptop. I was using my phone's data to keep me going with the laptop at TV but I got a text yesterday to say I have used 80% of my data so I have stopped that with immediate effect as it doesn't renew until the 18th.

My goal for this month is to halve the balance of the CC I have been overpaying, so I need to take around £100 off that this month. I'm confident I can get a good chunk of that £100 off, if not the whole amount.

I am just waiting for some offer SB's to appear on Swagbucks, then I will be able to redeem a £25 voucher. I should make at least £50 this month from SB as a minimum, hopefully more!

It's very overcast here today and due to rain, a far cry from yesterday where I was driving home from work in the sunshine and playing my upbeat music in the car

I have purchased some compost, pots and seeds to have a go at growing my own things again this year. I attempted it at OH's flat last year and got some good tomatoes and chilli peppers and herbs grown, but he never used to look after them if there were weeks when I couldn't come round, so they died off. Fingers crossed, now we live together, I should have better luck. I have bought seeds for some herbs, some tomatoes, some chillies, some normal peppers, and some strawberries

[Deleted User] · 3 April 2019 at 2:58PM

I got an email this morning confirming the broadband was ready to go, which would have been great if it weren't for the fact that the router was at the post office! Our welcome email said it would fit into a letterbox, but as ours is nailed to a wall I guess it wasn't quite the right fit. The plan had simply been for OH to go and get it on Frida morning as that is his day off, and when it was due to be connected.
Anyhow, OH suggested I go and get it as the post office opens at 7am - he still seems to have a real bee in his bonnet about the fact I am happy to get to work 30 minutes early and have a coffee before I start rather than sit in traffic. I asked him where I should park as I don't ever drive into town, and his explanations weren't very clear as, again, I don't drive into town very often, so he got frustrated and said he would just have to get the kids ready earlier and they would go - let's bear in mind I got them awake this morning and made their breakfast so it's not like I didn't help

Anyway

We should have our new fibre up and running later, I imagine he will be fiddling with it before I get home from work. I would ask him to let me set it up but no doubt the kids will be nagging for it to be sorted ASAP now that they know it's ready early.

The plus side is that they should keep themselves busy tonight with their various games etc so we will have a chance to tidy the house up properly - two child size bombs have definitely hit!

New Year New Diary :)

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