Thrifty MummyHen

Back in my own bed

After a week of sleep deprivation in the Netherlands I had the best night sleep last night ever and I do mean EVER.  This is the photo of the bathroom that I couldn’t post the other day – it’s not a great but you can see there’s no roof and the glass ‘walls’.

I do enjoy going away especially for holidays but on business it’s different – it's jolly hard work, it’s always good to connected with colleagues that you only hear their voice.  But is nice to be home; except the jobs I had hoped that would complete are still far from complete – well a start has been made but not much else.  DH informed me that money would be needed as:

1.    The lights had gone in the kitchen

2.    The boiler is leaking

3.    The door on the dishwasher is hanging off

4.    The washing machines sounds like a cement mixer

5.    Cooker hood is blowing not sucking

And there’s me eager to not spend anything, other than household bills, from January until end of March – I want to get back on track with paying down our debts.

The week before I went away I received my annual statement for the car loan – the monthly credit amount didn’t look right, it was £12 lower than the amount that was leaving my bank each month.  I phoned to query and was reminded that I took out a ‘return to invoice’ insurance but now that there are only 10 more payments left of the loan and the car value is far higher than the amount owing I cancelled this insurance.  I remember us deliberating if we needed the insurance when we bought the car.  Which was the best thing as six months after we had the car we were burgled, and the car was taken – after nearly four weeks the insurance company was on the verge of paying-out when the car was found in a container at Felixstowe ready to be shipped to Mombasa.  Now, if the car had not been found there would have been a difference between the amount the insurance company paid out and the amount remaining of the car loan.  Anyway, this £12 will go towards paying off a credit card.

We’ve not used our credit cards at all since beginning of July – everything has been debit card or cash – and we are seeing a difference.  The first card is nearly paid off – should will be gone by end December it will be tight we will have to keep close eye on spending over Christmas.

All of the Christmas shopping is done – just food shopping to do and we are NOT going to go mad – why does the population think that a famine is coming and clear the shelves; The shops are only closed for 1 day.

MummyHen X