Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Chrystal · 26 September 2018 at 3:03PM

Definitely think it's worth the effort to find out about moving away from them - even if you only have it set up for next time! They get away with daylight robbery. :mad:

Homegrown0 · 26 September 2018 at 3:05PM

Pay day strikes a day early!
I've been paid early again - not sure what's going on with my work? They just seem to pay us whenever they feel like it, close to the end of the month! It doesn't matter to me though, it just means I can get organised today and get all the accounts balanced out. Better than being paid late, i suppose.

Homegrown0 · 26 September 2018 at 3:29PM

Just got a couple more PA studies - £19.60 cleared and £2.25 pending. I'll cash out when i tip £20.

These researchers better get a move on with approving my input!

kindofagilr · 29 September 2018 at 12:45PM

I am so pleased to see that the letting agents have agreed to not charge you as much, it's shocking they were even going to try!!! xx

Homegrown0 · 1 October 2018 at 4:18PM

October is here and there's a mighty chill in the air! I love this kind of weather - dry, but crisp.

Clothes!
The weekend was expensive, but mostly covered off by the budget pots that I've set up. I bought a bottle of gin that was on offer for SIL's Christmas, bought my BIL's birthday present (both out of the gift pot) and bought some clothes for the kids (out the clothes pot) - my eldest son needs more jeans but I'm hunting around on ebay for the ones I want first to see if I can get them cheaper. If there's none there in good condition, i'll just get them from Next. Ultimately, my youngest will inherit them so I don't mind so much spending out on them.

I also think snow boots will be required by both this year - i'll see what we have upstairs but they are growing like weeds these days, including their feet. Wellies don't always cut it.

Half term
We have a week off for half term in a couple of weeks and we couldn't decide what to do. I have some money put aside in my credit union account for nothing in particular and we found a great deal for somewhere we've been eyeing up for a while and the kids are desperate to go to! So we just booked it

We'll try to make it as simple as possible with some packed lunches and packed snacks where possible. Hoping to be away for 4 days total.

Making some extra cash\
I really need to spend some extra time going through the kids' toys (while they're not around of course). There's plenty that they have outgrown and that we can clear out. If I think we can make some money from it then i'll give it a go. If not then i'll donate it. Try to make a little extra where we can!

This month's debts
The numbers are looking strong this month, once the payments for October come out mid-month. Our loan will be into the £7ks, i'm hopefully paying an additional £250 into CC1 and our total debt should be down well into the £16ks.

Just hoping that this month goes without a hitch and we can pull it off without having to divert the CC1 overpayment money.

Homegrown0 · 2 October 2018 at 12:55PM

Today hasn't got off to a bad start - getting through work at a fair pace, got a washing done and another one in the machine, made a last minute save by booking an experience that my son got as a gift. Happened to look at the voucher this morning and it expires on 4th October! Thankfully I found it today and got it booked.

Just cashed out £11.87 from TCB - taken it in Amazon vouchers so will add that to my Amazon account once it lands in my emails. I've just been using the Amazon vouchers for Christmas gifts when something comes up so this will go towards something else. If there's nothing else from Amazon that I need right now, i might try to build it up to put towards a Garmin Vivofit Jr for my eldest. I'm hoping it comes down a bit on Black Friday or similar but will keep my eyes peeled. Don't really fancy spending £79.99 on a watch for a 6 year old!

doingitanyway · 2 October 2018 at 8:06PM

Savvy shopping with the Amazon vouchers.

Good job you checked the gift voucher. I once allowed a weekend at a health spa I received as a gift to expire and they would not honour it!

Homegrown0 · 3 October 2018 at 11:54AM

Shame about the spa voucher DIA - I suppose they have to have rules to stop people misusing vouchers and to put a limit on it somewhere but I think an exception to the rule on instances like that would be fine. I'd feel terrible if I had to turn someone away.

The £20.35 cashed out out of PA has finally hit my account so have squirreled that away into a separate place to form part of our spending money for our trip away in a couple of weeks.

Made a big batch of bolognaise last night - one portion for dinner for the kids and I (husband was footballing) and I have three in the freezer now. Vegetable stir fry for dinner tonight, which will use up some of our veggies and give us a lovely low cost meal. My eldest is really weird about noodles though, so i think i'll give him the veggies and sauce with some rice instead.

My eldest was lying on the floor last night with the Smytttths book last night so I get a feeling that there'll be some rumblings of a Christmas letter happening soon. Suits me so that I can plan a bit better!

It's 4-5 weeks until my Credit Union payout is due and I've worked out who i need to buy for and my budget for each and it seems to come in under budget (providing i use my gifts/ clothes fund for the birthdays, of which there are many in December!).

I also need to have a think about my son's birthday party - this year he'd like to go to a trampoline park with his friends but a 'party' at these places is a minimum of 10 people. Think i'll price it up for him and 5 friends to go + paying for a pizza hut after vs. a party of 10 with food included and see what works out the best cost. Just taken a look and it's £60 for 1.5 hours bouncing (which is maybe too much actually, maybe 1 hour is enough) then another £5 per head for food if we stay in there or up to £10 per head if we go to pizza hut. Still much better than £14.95 per head for a party where the minimum is 10 kids. I'll talk to the other half about it and see what he thinks. I'd like to get something booked in the next month or so, since mid-December is so busy for people with santa visits and other festive stuff.

Homegrown0 · 3 October 2018 at 1:57PM

Did a workout at lunchtime today (some cardio, resistance training and weights) and am back for an afternoon of work but thanks to my workout and my bowl of homemade soup for lunch I'm nice and warm (after spending the morning with the heating on and a blanket over my legs).

Heating is now off and I'm going to endeavour to move about more this afternoon while working. Good way to avoid mammoth heating bills! Must do this more often since I work from home quite a lot.

Done a bit of playing around with my spreadsheets this morning to make sure everything was in line, and I'm glad I did because there was a flaw in one of my formulas and I spotted something that didn't add up. Glad I noticed it or I'd be mega confused about what was happening with my finances!

As long as everything goes to plan and there's no last minute expenses that aren't accounted for, I know what the last three months of the year are going to look like and how I'm going to end the year. Will need to spend time on a plan of attack for 2019 soon so that I can get my ducks in a row and start the preparations for a year that will see us knock most of our debt into shape. I don't think i'll be debt free in 2019 (unless significant payrise/ extra earnings from somewhere) but we should be debt free in very early 2020 so I'm happy with that!

monz · 3 October 2018 at 2:24PM

There is a groupon deal for laser tag near quay for 40 for ten kids. Thats what I got my boy and burger king after

if that helps xx

Getting it together...one £ at a time!

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