SmlSave MFW diary - where to start?

thriftyscotslass

£55 - fantastic :j

I can remember my wedding dress cost £350 18 years ago :rolleyes:

setmefree2

The dress sounds beautiful

SmlSave

Actually, if I'm allowed to make comment (or is it restricted to the ladies?), it sounds extremely attractive but it will be beautiful with you in it :A

Ahhhhhhhh thanks Stuart

Unfortunatly the dress has been returned as I was the only one who liked it! :wall:After much shopping ...whew ...I found a dress I loved head-over-heels but it was £700:eek: so I kept shopping... and have bought a dress for £145. I already have the shoes and work bought me my tiara, I now refuse to do any more shopping.

Also bought the bridesmaid dresses, £162 for two very dark purple dresses. And :rolleyes: four suits for £356, so at least that's the clothes done.

As usual I didn't get as much done round the house as I wanted but the feezer is now full of lasagne, beef stew, steak and pork chops at least.

I've gone back up to 11st 1.5lb so thats a stone to lose this year :cool: . I enjoyed putting on every lb though Our first Christmas together was lovely and the New Year Murder Mystery party went very well too. :T

Back to work as normal now though there was some bad news yesterday. OH was told that his company is planning to make redundancies next month and so this sparked off him talking bout postponing the wedding ( I said no way), losing the house etc. I went over my spreadsheet and worked out that if he lost his job we could manage on my wage as long as jobseekers benefits were about £200 cause that's what we would be short. He does tend to look at the worst case scenarios straight away :rolleyes:

I'm feeling optomistic even with a poorly back

P.S Sorry EssexH, the rest of the soup is planned for diinner tonight

Lynn11

Hopefully your hubbie to be will survive ok but if it comes to the worse case scenerio he is entitled to at least £60.50 per week to seek employment - more if you are income based. Try to enjoy yourself before the final news is announced.

SmlSave

Thanks Lynn11 that should cover the £200 then - I'll tell him not to worry.

We're having an interesting meal of omlette, hotdogs and baked beans tonight. :rolleyes: I'm just being lazy really - even too lazy to defrost a meal - but I went swimming last night and am aching a bit now, only did 16 laps too!

I have finally finalised my budget for the live on £4000 a year challagne but I'm going for £5000. Here be the challenge budget:

Supermarket Shopping – 2400 - I am going to try and reduce this!
Electric – 384 – Currently overpaying
Gas – 300 – Currently overpaying
Sky – 324 – broadband, TV and phone package
BT - 144
Life Insurance – 350.16
House Insurance – 277.80
Presents – 240
Enjoy – 240
Travel – 240
TV - 140

Total = £ 5 039.96
Years Budget = £5000.00

Not included:

Mortgage – As unable to change it
Council Tax – As above, I wonder what it’ll go up to?
Water – Definitely a need
Car – Need for travel to work
DIY – More a want than a need but paid for out of money saved by doing challenge
Wedding – As above with DIY

The above is basically our joint account for the house.

I have done the budget for my personal account, which is where the OP money comes from. I haven't got the figures on me now but will post them soon.

setmefree2

with your £5k challenge

SmlSave

Spent since Thursday : -

Met friend for lunch - £14.50 (My treat)
Friends Birthday card - £1 (£10 M&S voucher was from Pigsback)
Alcohol - £15
Boots Lunch - £3

Lunch on Friday was gorgeous being a three course Chinese meal and it was his birthday so the treat was justified.

We saw five wedding venues this weekend and have one ‘winner’ and two ‘runner ups’. A further nine to see this weekend, my idea is to see them as quick as possible so we get it out the way – it is very similar to house hunting!

I’m finding it hard, already, to keep the wedding in budget just trying to work the budget out! I think that at the moment the deciding factors I have to wait for is the venue price and photographer’s price to be set. Apparently there’s a good flower shop nearby that all the florists use so I’m going to try and find time to visit it to get some quotes and a nice cake shop on the corner that might have cake boxes, again I have to go and have a look. I’ve also found a lady who hires cake stands, has the one I want for £20 but is a bit of a drive away…going to have to look further into this too.

Also on the wedding front it looks like we’ve almost finalised the guest list, there was a discussion with his parents and mine and we’ve decided not to invite the aunts and uncles to the wedding ceremony just the reception, apart from one couple who we stay with on holiday frequently.

I got hold of my personal budget (c.below) and I was thinking…where does the cash go? £24 goes on dancing lessons, £15 on a meal with friends; ummm…I’m going to have to start a spending diary! I had one a couple of years ago but got out of the habit so its time to start again.

My personal Budget for this year looks something like this:

Paid in £1050.00

Paid out - £1009.00

House - £610
Pension - £26
Cash - £120
Presents - £20
Cinema - £13
JJB - £36
Savings - £130 (OP is in there)
Mobile - £12
Bus - £42

Difference = £41

Aim is to…

• Have a float of £100 on each account for just in case.
• Start a spending diary
• Go to the gym twice a week for the next two months

P.S. just got a really good quote from one of the runner up venues

StuartGMC

SmlSave
Good luck with the spending diary, I have never attempted it because I think I'd fail, but more importantly, OH does most of the cash spending as I work out in the countryside remote from shops but she works in a town centre so it is obviously easier for her to pick up things.

Is £26 a month (only 2.5% net income) enough for the pension? My company one deducts 10% gross at source and I'm lucky it is still final salary and they match at some 25% of my gross. Perhaps you intend to increase pension contributions in future?

Glad to hear the wedding arrangements are coming together well. Regarding flowers, have you any contacts with people who could decorate the venue with flowers (like those who do arrangements at church etc), may be cheaper than a florist?

SparkleBlack

Hi SmlSave,

I've been reading your diary for a while and wanted to say good luck with your 5K challenge!

I'm getting married later in the year, and to keep costs down I went for flowers that are in season and handmade the invites. The invites were incredibly hard work, but it was really worth it as we've had some lovely comments about them and it saved us lots of money Good luck with all the preparations!

SB

SmlSave

Back from lunch! Don't worry - I brought my own from home, smoked salmon and philli bagel - yum.

Stuart, I'm planning to increase my pension payment one day, not sure when thou I started it when I got a pay rise of £25 a month, I'm happy I'm paying into it but its not one of my high piorities at the mo.

Regarding the flowers, my nan is quite good at doing them but doesn't want the responsibility of getting them sorted for the wedding. On the Wedding forum there's a thread about doing your own, I'm hoping that I can 'get away' with DIY :rolleyes: But I still need a quote for the flowers I want and I'm also going to get a quote for how much it would be to have them made - just to see.

I'll also have a word with MIL to see if she knows who does the flowers at her church, I never thought of that. Thinking about it... my Mum heard about the good florist from a neighbour who does flower arranging as a hobby - might be worth asking her too

Hello and thank you SparkleBlack, what a cool name - does it stand for something in particular?

I'm pretty sure that calla lillies are in season in the summer but are generally more expensive than other flowers you can get - but I've got my heart set on them :smileyhea

Was hoping for a NSD today but had to pay £2 twoards my overdue book at the libary