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Archive for December, 2013

Unexpected Surgery

December 27th, 2013 at 04:36 pm

This is a short entry as I am still in pain. I ended up in hospital on 19/12. I had to have a laparotomy in the early hours the next morning. I finally got out dinner time on Christmas Eve. I had an infection, but they weren't able to find out the cause.

Baby is fine. Due 22nd June.

Payday Post

December 13th, 2013 at 07:58 pm

Another post for today but thought I would just give a quick update.

Today was payday. Nothing particularly exciting since I knew my pay would be the same as usual.

I paid my catalogue bill. This is the first payment with a BNPL item added to my minimum payment because I didn't manage to pay it off (a carpet). I am a platinum customer so I get 10% of my minimum payment back as rewards to spend, however, BNPL items are not included in this. I only received £6.xx rewards for a £127 payment. It's better than nothing but I'm used to getting 10% of my minimum payment back.

I'm waiting on my credit cards updating. CC2 is first then it's cc1. I always count down the days until my statement updates so I can make a payment straight away - less interest, right? If I had extra money I would make the equivalent of two payments but I don't...

I need to buy a wedding present - gift vouchers from John Lewis - this pay period. The wedding is in a few weeks, but only hubby is going. It's at an expensive hotel and I can't drink anyway, plus I will be at home with SG. That reminds me, I need to buy their card in too.

I'll be posting some Christmas presents next week. I'll post them second class so it's cheaper.

I introduced hubby to Swagbucks, I sent him a referral. I've been watching a lot of videos but hubby likes to search. I'm not completely sure how that works so I've rarely used it. I now have 1162SB so slowly getting there.

Hubby and I have agreed to save our catalogue rewards for presents next year, like we did for a while this year.

Tomorrow my automatic deposit of £10 will be transferred to savings. It's not much but it's something. I was thinking about increasing it by a few percent next year but when I look at my credit card I change my mind.

Apart from paying bills, today was a NSD.

I think that's all for now.

Meal Planning

December 13th, 2013 at 03:47 pm

I've spent a while today looking through the cupboards deciding what to have. I'm going for a bit of shopping early tomorrow so I'll start my meal plan from then.

- Tacos
- Leftover mince from tacos, need to find inspiration
- Gnocchi pasta grill
- Potato and brocolli bake

The Numbers for CC1

December 13th, 2013 at 02:08 pm

At the beginning of the year I decided to focus more on credit card one rather than credit card 2. My reasoning was that it was the smaller balance so would be easier to tackle and it would make me feel better seeing the balance going down.

I put snowflakes towards this credit card for some of the year, not the whole year as I had planned.

Well, I totaled up the total interest that I have paid on credit card one this year. I also totaled up the PPI payments that I'm also getting charged on it. I remember having Payment Protection Insurance for credit card two and I cancelled it, so i think I will be doing the same soon. Anyway, here's the numbers:

Total interest: £457.65
Total PPI: £134.62

At the beginning of the year my balance on this card was £1679.16 and my minimum payment was £83.96. Now it is £1323.30 and £66.17

I've reduced the balance by £355.86.

In total, I've paid £592.27 in interest and PPI.

Ouch. All I can say I will never use this card again.

More Thinking & Planning

December 12th, 2013 at 08:40 am

Just a few thoughts...

I'm going to get back into the habit of meal planning again. I haven't done a proper meal plan in weeks, and even hubby has noticed! Back to planning meals again, it's good for the budget.

Another thing I'm going to do before this year is over is to total up the amount of interest I have been paying on credit cards and catalogue. This was a suggestion from snafu and I think it's a brilliant idea. There's nothing like seeing it all in black and white for motivation.

I need to think of goals for 2014.

Musings

December 9th, 2013 at 03:07 pm

Last night hubby and I had a conversation about saving vs paying down debt. He said that because we only work part-time, it's only possible for us to either save or pay down debt - we can't do both. Ideally I'd like to increase my automatic savings deposit to £20, which isn't a lot but right now it's only at £10

I've been thinking a lot about next year. At some point, I will be on maternity leave again. The first time I was on maternity leave I used my credit card a lot whether it was for car repairs, petrol or shopping. I refuse to let it happen again. Hubby said he will do a lot of overtime while I'm off to make up for the money I will be losing (roughly £100 less than what I take home now) While I would like hubby to do some overtime, I know that if I can decrease my credit card and catalogue minimum payments life will be a bit easier. Right now, my catalogue payment is £127 and I pay £90 to both credit cards. I just realised that is £307. That's one of the reasons why I'm trying to pay off any BNPL items that I have on my catalogue so that they don't get added to my bill.

This post is all over the place. If you got this far, thanks for reading.

Thinking about 2014

December 6th, 2013 at 07:35 pm

On 18th January our utilities will increase by 3.7%. I just read this news today. I switched to this company a few months ago because I thought it would save us money. According to the news, the big six energy companies are hiking prices.

In April our rent will increase by 3%.

This year we each saved £10 every four weeks towards Christmas. Next year we're going to double that and save £20 each.

I need to increase the amount automatically deposited into savings. Right now it is £10 every four weeks. After years of blogging, it should be more.

One of my Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) items is due to be paid by 30th May. It's £199. When I get paid I will make the first payment of £40 towards it. I will factor this into next year's budget.

Checking In

December 6th, 2013 at 05:06 pm

My statement for CC1 updated. My minimum payment is 66.17. One of my goals for this year was to get this payment to £60 - so close. I'm going to pay it today. I need to update my sidebar, my new balance is 1323.30. Looking at my sidebar, it was 1679.16 at the beginning of the year. I've reduced my balance by £355.86. It would have been more if I had kept putting snowflakes towards it.

I've been trying to go onto swagbucks daily. I now have 823SB. I put a £25 Amazon gift card on my wishlist.

I've been trying to think of some goals for next year. I've got nothing specific yet but tackling credit card debt will of course be one goal. I'm going to try to make realistic goals for next year, especially since baby number 2 is due. I found when I had SG that my goals went downhill.

Update

December 5th, 2013 at 09:50 am

I need to blog more often. When I post often, I'm more aware of my finances. This pay period I have spent £30 on takeaways - yet I said at the start that the takeaway that was £9 was my only splurge. Well, it was until Sunday after work when I was exhausted and a takeaway looked good. £21 later... We finished it the next night but I've been feeling bad all week.