Floozie's Lightbulb Diary

moo2moo

Gosh, I'm surprised I didn't bump into you there Floozie. I'd convinced myself a family of four could live on £1K a month. Clearly they can. Just not my family. Even when being frugal we seem to blow double that without trying.

Don't be ashamed about it. Be positive. You've realised what going on and you can and will do something about it. In two years time the first of the loans will be cleared which will free up a chunk of cash each month. Meanwhile you're all happy and healthy.

Off to see if the solution is lurking in a bottle of the Co-ops Australian vin rouge. Had a bargantastic time there earlier with 29p bread and 50p cheese, filled my basket with bargains and then splurged on a treat. Me thinks its the easy justification of the spurging that is the root of all evil.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Gas and electricity bills arrived today, cue much sinking of heart! However have a Mexican wave instead! That new tarrif they put me on seems to have worked wonders along with them overestimating my useage! From owing £304.58 at last bill time in July, I now owe £19.97 for gas, and from owing £74.86 for electricity, I now owe them £57.35 - yippee!!!! However they'll probably get run right up again over the next six months despite paying £131 for gas each month and £55 for electricity.

Days to get through until payday: 13
Money in bank: £ 174.55
Money in purse: £17.70
Grand Total: £192.25

Projected Spends:
1 x week's grocery shop @ £65.
2 x week's petrol @ £55.
1 x night out the day before payday: £25.00.
£8.00+ still to leave bank account from visit to co-op on Saturday
Leaves £39.00 remaining for 'everything else'

Spends from 1800 Sunday to 1800 Monday = £3.69 (£1.50 tea fund, £1.00 lotto, £1.19 cordial)

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to get through until payday: 10 (I appear to have miscalculated yesterday - DUH, what hope have I got if I can't even add up time!!). Still ten days to wait is waaaay better than 13.

Money in Bank: £154.16 (ARRGGHH not only did co-op money come out, but I chuffing well forgot I'd spent £12 in Boots on Friday boo hoo).
Money in purse: £13.81
Grand Total: £167.97

Spends from 1800 Monday to 1800 Tuesday = £2.70 (sandwich spread and salad leaves)

Projected Spends:
Grocery budget: was £65.00 is now: £61.11
Petrol Budget: was £55.00. is now: £55.00 (we need it tonight though).
Entertainment budget: was £25.00. is now: £25.00.
Everything else budget: was £39.25. is now: £26.86

Things also get worse by the realisation that when I get paid on 13th November, it's a five week month until the next pay day - ARRGGHHH.

Also discovered I may not owe the gas company £20 after all, cos I forgot to do that fiddly conversion to Kwhs and looking at it, they underestimated me by 48 units and compared to last Quarter's bill (120 units) = 3868kwh, so 48 should be around 1/3rd of that multiplied by 3.5p per kwh should mean I'm ummmm....about £14 in credit. Woopwoop!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to get through until payday = 9.
Money in bank = £99.16.
Money in purse = £9.81
Grand Total = £108.97.

Spends from 1800 Tuesday to 1800 Wednesday: £3.00 to eldest DS for DT project. £1.00 for a pair of gloves for 'operation Xmas child'

Grocery Budget: Was £65.00. is now £61.11
Petrol Budget: Was £55.00 is now £0.00
Entertainment Budget: Was £25.00. is now £25.00
Everything Else Budget: Was £26.86. Is now £22.86

I've got some Luncheon Vouchers, some Tesco vouchers, and my penny pint-pot now spends at over £7, so I'll go shopping with that lot at the weekend and however much is there, I can transfer from the grocery budget over to the everything else budget.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to get through until payday = 8
Money in bank = £91.16.
Money in purse = £9.46
Grand Total = £100.62

Spends from 1800 Wednesday to 1800 Thursday
£0.35 (tin of beans)
£1.00 (youngest DS, burgers & sweets on sale at school for fundraising)
£6.00 pair of wellies for youngest DS from Tesco. Used Tesco Vouchers.
£8.00 on groceries. We are going to a bonfire party tonight and the hostess just asked me to bring 'nibbles', which have come to £3.16 and the rest is 'bits' for groceries.

Money added to purse: £1.00 as DS1 didn't have to get bus home from school.

Grocery Budget: Was £65.00. is now £52.76
Petrol budget: Was £55.00 is now £0.00
Entertainment Budget: Was £25.00. is now £25.00
Everything else budget: Was £26.86. Is now £22.86

I was planning on using my Tesco vouchers (£34 worth) to spend on groceries to try and save my grocery budget, but when I handed over £14 the man at the checkout nearly had a fit, and begged me to go home and look on the internet at the deals I could get. When I said there was nothing that interested me, he said he didn't believe that and I should check again as new stuff gets added all the time. The lady at the next checkout joined in too saying I should never waste them as money off shopping as they were worth more than that in deals. In the end I compromised and bought DS2's wellies with them, as I was getting embarrassed.

moo2moo

How about using the Tesco vouchers to feed your magazine addiction or to buy Christmas gifts? Or exchanging them for next years RAC membership or restaurant vouchers or cinema tickets or ten pin bowling. Even if you sell them on E-bay you'd get double the face value less E-bay fees and postage.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Didn't get chance to update yesterday, Friday's are rush, rush, rush!

Days to get through til payday: 6
Money in bank: £81.16
Money in purse: £7.26
Grand Total: £88.42

Spends from 1800 Thursday to 1100 Saturday £12.00
£1.00 into a collection at a Funeral.
£6.00 football subs (Friday)
£5.00 football subs (Saturday)

Was horrified to discover I had misbudgeted this month and I had actually missed an entire week off the kids activities, all I have left in the 'money to oneside bag' is bus fare money, and I didn't have enough for football, so that will have to come out of my everything else money!

I'm going shopping either today or tomorrow, but I don't need a vast amount so I am sure I wont spend £50 so whatever is leftover can go towards everyday money. My friend is giving me a £5 off £30 spend voucher for Morrisons but it has to be used by tomorrow.

Grocery budget: Was £65.00. Is £52.76
Petrol Money: Was £55.00. Is £0.00
Entertainment Budget: Was £25.00. Is £25.00.
Everything else Budget: Was £22.86. Is £10.66

Also need to start thinking about next month's budget which is a scary five-weeker!

Intergalactic_Floozie

moo2moo wrote: »

How about using the Tesco vouchers to feed your magazine addiction or to buy Christmas gifts? Or exchanging them for next years RAC membership or restaurant vouchers or cinema tickets or ten pin bowling. Even if you sell them on E-bay you'd get double the face value less E-bay fees and postage.

Although I am happy to sell on e-bay I've heard too many horror stories about selling vouchers on there so I'm not happy to do that.

Magazines: I've had a look and I'm not into the glamour/fashion magazines such as company, she, elle etc.. I like celebrity gossip and the only one they have is Heat, which isn't actually one that I buy. However the boys like football magazines, and I note they sell Match of the Day magazine for £12.50, which I think is really worth it, or Match magazine for £24.50 which is maybe a bit expensive! They also have The Simpson's Comic for £8, which again I think is a good deal! Top Gear Magazine is available for £14! Viz is available for £7.50 - another good one! So that has definitely given me food for thought. I've got £32 worth of vouchers now (£4 arrived today) so could possibly get three presents out of that!

Lurker1972

We're almost at the end of our 5 week month - its been a rough ride, but I think we'll survive!

We tend to convert our clubcard vouchers to airmiles, now have enough to get to New York...or we could have weekend away in Europe including hotel so would just need spending money...some time next year I hope for that.
We've kept this lot though, intend to take his kids bowling before Xmas - assuming they want to go -middle one being a right pain the ****!!

3 presents is good !

Fire_Fox

I'm afraid I spent all my Clubcard vouchers on the double-up wine promotion.