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Original poster

Frugal January, part two.

786 replies

Fluffycloudland77 · 15/01/2015 21:57

Everybody is welcome.

OP posts:
Original poster
Fluffycloudland77 · 28/01/2015 17:53

North, would the engineer write a report to that effect?. I'd want to fight it too but it's not worth the original company going to court if you don't have any expert evidence/admission of shoddy work.

OP posts:
bantamgirl · 28/01/2015 18:15

Afternoon all - it's snowing here in Bradford, terrible gridlock on the roads, not a gritter in sight. Thankfully I am currently sat at home where it is warm. Hope the weather is better where you are.

Bank: £589.22 (was £589.22)
Purse: £8.75 (was £9.39)
Jar: £45.65 (was £46.20)
Grand Total: £643.62
Reduced by: £1.19
Days to payday: 16
Incidental spends remaining: £266.34 + £120 + £15 (£401.34 - wooh)

Spends:

£0.55 – gone from bus fare jar – DS2 had built up an impressive collection of 5p pieces from bus fare change in his school bag
£0.64 – stamp.

SpottyTeacakes · 28/01/2015 18:28

No snow forecast here Sad

needastrongone · 28/01/2015 18:30

north I would feel it very unlikely that the company would take a claim further. We have just gone a bit further than we normally do at work chasing some bad debt with a very strong case. The person concerned issued a laughable counter-claim, which we applied to strike out, but the judge chucked over to the small claims court. Costs so far approx £2k for a £1.5k debt and would have been significantly more had we gone further. The court in question is hundreds of miles away, we would need to give up two of our guys for two days as witnesses, further court fees, overnight stays, petrol etc. So we settled, even though that stuck in our throats as the guy was an arse, who refused to pay for training initially, then blamed us when he couldn't work the equipment. And wouldn't even pay the costs awarded to us initially by the court, which the court couldn't enforce either ffs.

Moral of the story. I feel it's really hard for businesses to actually go the distance and go to court. The costs are prohibitive. See if you can get an engineers report. Document the issues. Possibly at least place the invoice in dispute too. Not sure how efficient the accounts dept are if they have only now issued an invoice.

northender · 28/01/2015 18:36

Yes I'm sure that's right fluffy. I think we'll email the company documenting the issues as we see them and with an offer of most of the money. I took a copy of the engineers report so I do have some back up. At the end of the day, I'm happy that we've finally got draught free doors, eventually.

On a brighter note, we got a reward voucher for Debenhams today £15 to add to a £5 one we already have. This is from dh's credit card which we pay off every month.

babsmam · 28/01/2015 18:39

Yes I would definitely negotiate. Did the engineer give you any kind of report or would be willing to?

babsmam · 28/01/2015 18:41

Sorry didn't see updated posts ahem Blush

clippityclop · 28/01/2015 19:19

Knocked a couple of hundred off the overdraft compared with this time last month not helped by annual AA fee coming out yesterday, feel we're getting there. Chicken soup for dinner tonight, Bolognese from the freezer tomorrow, sausage and chips on Friday and should only need bread and perhaps some fruit from the shops at the weekend.

RobinEllacott · 28/01/2015 19:19

Grr. Forgot my packed lunch, having made it last night, so spent £8 on food when it should have been an NSD. Kicking self. At least it was something that keeps so should be fine tomorrow.

SpottyTeacakes · 28/01/2015 19:22

clippity! My aa renewal was £260 but I got a new policy with the rac for £120 plus £50 cashback. I alternate between them each year. Loyalty gets you nowhere.

Ememem84 · 28/01/2015 19:34

total NSD today. DH still whinging about no holidays. Have told him he can go on his own if he wants.

I had the "but I've always had a proper holiday...it IS a necessity for me" I've asked him to price up a trip to San Fransicso as he would like to do it and factor in everything we'd need. Then will work out what this equates to in "house money" (i.e. will this cover legal costs, would it pay for a new kitchen/bathroom etc) and let him prioritise.

Original poster
Fluffycloudland77 · 28/01/2015 19:43

Would he consider male prostitution? Unless he starts shitting money it's no go isn't it?.

OP posts:
Ememem84 · 28/01/2015 19:47

ha ha ha - I'll suggest it Fluffy

I'm annoyed for a number of reasons a) we are saving and this was his idea, b)we are going away, just nowhere fancy - parents have a house in france and we will be going there for a few days (free accommodation and food etc) AND have a weekend in London booked because i've got Rugby tickets for the world cup; c) I'm having to go without things because we are serious about saving (trip to Ibiza with the girls has been put off...this and one of the girls is pregnant now...) and d) I REALLY HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO SAN FRAN. He's never wanted to. UNTIL NOW!! AHHHHH RANT OVER. Promise.

AuditAngel · 28/01/2015 20:16

£26.25 in Tesco. I had forgotten my lunch, I had a £3 off £12 spend, I bought a twin pack of opaque tights £7, a twin pack of tights for the funeral £4, two spray cans of factor 50 sun cream each reduced from £10 to £5, 2 packs of butter, plus £3 meal deal lunch, three bottles of half price shower gel.

Also £40 for MOT, and £54 for diesel and screen wash which can all be reclaimed from work.

£5 for DD1's karate class.

Laska42 · 28/01/2015 20:18

NSD Grin and I got notification of my Hush refund ! (hasnt hit the bank yet..)

Pointlessfan · 28/01/2015 20:22

Bugger, the window cleaner came today and I had to pay him 8 quid. I think our windows only really need cleaning maybe every 3-4 months but he comes every month and I haven't got the heart to tell him to come less often!

babsmam · 28/01/2015 20:23

Those with car breakdown look up auto aid. Martin money saver has a bit about it on his site. It's about £40 a year. The catch being when you need help They send out a recovery truck or whatever, you pay the truck/ garage etc and claim the money back from auto aid. It's a big saving and ok if you have a reliable car and/ or can afford the upfront fees.

Passthecake30 · 28/01/2015 20:27

Finally received my replacement tumble dryer 3 weeks after the first was delivered and didn't work. Very excited at the thought of washing every towel in the house tomorrow Grin

north we had something very similar with a window company they ruined a pier (dp had to rebuild), lead cladding wasn't lined up, windows were drafts/too big for the gaps etc etc. I'm pretty sure that the window fitters were very intimidating to dp who refused to pay them there and then, and after lots of complaining we got bricks, sand, replacement windows, proper fitting, and some money off for Dp's time in rebuilding what they'd wrecked (about £200 maybe?), but not enough imo

NSD, still ill but no high temp today.

AuditAngel · 28/01/2015 20:39

Someone was asking about life cover. I have one policy for £240k we took out when we got the mortgage (which is now £170k), plus death in service through work of £232k.

DH has £400k, I tried to get him £500k, but they seemed suspicious why I wanted do much when he warnssdo little Grin , he's definitely worth more dead!

Need to do my Tesco online shop which I have put off since the weekend already.

Passthecake30 · 28/01/2015 20:51

Wow audit that's alot! I was talking about it, realised now that dp has £215k, I have £80k that will disappear with my redundancy pay. Will get sorted.

Laska42 · 28/01/2015 20:53

Who else is using YNAB? Im a reformed woman since I got it.

Do you know I hardly looked at my bank account and credit card statements and ended up spending about £3000 over my income every year for about the last ten years Shock. I am f/t employed public sector though but not managerial , so ok and regular money but not loads by any means ( so yes I was v. bad, but i would always rely on my half of DHs christmas bonus to pay it off. ).

However he announced that he will be retiring early, sometime this year,(when we will have no mortgage left ) He'll have some £ coming in as we have the flat he currently lives in all week we to rent out in the town he currently works in , but it wont be that much and so ill need to stay within my income.. .

It seems strange that probably for the first time in years (thanks to YNAB and this thread!) , ive actually become totally aware of the money i have and my expenses down to the last penny. Also that ive paid my credit card not put any back on idont pay each month and actually have a little in savings (Savings?? Me??) .

Anyway....

I really really do recommend YNAB, especially if like me youve been a bit of a head in the sand type..its $60 (you can get a month free to try it out) but I got mine on a half price offer, Steam also have it on offer sometimes and its half price for students also .

I want to retire in 3 years which wil be six years early ( assuming i can keep my job, like i say , public sector - massive cuts Sad .. ). I also want to buy a campervan .. (actually i have been paying additional contributions on my pension fund for this for several years and I have confirmed t hat i can take it out early and its going to be tax free)

So thats my plan.. and this is why ive cut down dreastically on internet shopping.. have now unsubscribed to everything except Amazon

CremeEggThief · 28/01/2015 21:18

My first spendy day in almost a week, and it was goodSmile . £5.10 on bus fares, £7.50 with the soon - to - go Orange 2 for 1 cinema tickets, £4.70 on water and a large popcorn, 56p on a mushroom and spring onions that DS needs for an art lesson tomorrowConfused, £2.50 on a nice pen and £5.90 on a chippy tea, as we only got in a few minutes ago. Total: £ 26.26 (I think!)

fuzzpig · 28/01/2015 22:03

Wow this thread has run away from me again! My last two days:

27/1
£3.85 bus
£3.29 me in coop
£6.93 DH coop
£6.38 DH in pub with his DS (football)

28/1
£152 DSD quarterly bus pass

So today wasn't an NSD exactly, but in terms of no random spends it was good...

AuditAngel · 28/01/2015 22:09

Pass it is a lot, but one policy was for the amount we initially had on our mortgage. DH had a policy for the same amount, we had separate policies as it was cheaper, and it meant that if we both died, the insurance would pay out for each of us, which may not always be the case with a joint policy (according to our IFA at least).

After DH stopped smoking, I managed to change his cover from £240k to £400k for more or less the same premium.

The death in service is a work benefit, so doesn't cost us anything.

needastrongone · 28/01/2015 23:03

What is YNAB please?

Our total life cover is a lot too. £250k life cover joint. £100k joint from years ago. £200k reducing with the mortgage. Then a big one that is linked to the business, but that's more complicated as it buys my right to the shares in the business, and protects it from me forcing a sale in the event of DH's death, but pays me anyway.

Essentially and practically, DH has the earning capacity, I don't so much. DC are teenagers so will 'cost' little if I died therefore DH is well insured and me, less so.

Plus, I know it sounds macabre, but if DH died at 53, that's a lot of years to cover in income.

Grin at 'a mushroom'!! Just one!!

laska This is why I am on this thread. I need to prove that we can live on our income and not income plus dividend, which is variable. At that includes budgeting for all expenses we have and planning for these within that income. I cannot claim to be on the breadline as some are, but it's important to me. Had a brilliant and fantastic month last month, put money in many notional 'pots', then DH, who isn't buying into this so much, had a spending spree. Half of which was on my birthday pressies, which is lovely, but I didn't need them!!