Fire Fox's Debt-Free in 2009 Diary

Fire_Fox

Payday!! :A Including approximately £180 overtime for April. I have already done eighteen hours overtime this month, so should be up again next payday.

Have returned the miniature Juicy Salif to Amazon for a £20 refund, but ordered some Kuhn Rikon magnetic trivets and the last Phillip Beyeler utensil from the set at £30. With the refund I will have £15 of Amazon vouchers, probably on yet more nice kitchen stuff! :rotfl:

Edited to add: I will have £25 of Amazon vouchers as I have just logged on to Valued Opinions and received my first reward! Disproportionately pleased with myself ...

Fire_Fox

Transferred an extra £250 into my instant access savings account, which will be in addition to the £250 that will go into my regular saver on Monday. I don't seem to have spent that much all in all this month and still have a lot of cash leftover.

The magnetic trivets have arrived, and I love them. Amazon have received my return and already processed the refund, so I have spent £40 (£25 vouchers, free delivery) on a full-size Juicy Salif blatently my worst splurge yet!!

At least I declined a night out yesterday with the most alcoholic of my friends, remembering that I have already spent £80 on booze this month. So the spreadsheet does work as a deterrent! At least I don't spend on clothes and shoes - just £35 so far in 2009.

Fire_Fox

End of month accounting:

Income £1880
Essential outgoings £158 (but cheque for fire escape repair £250 not cleared)
Non-essential outgoings £283

Paid into savings £absolutely loads
Overdraft still at nil!
In my purse £150

Worst sin is £80 spent on alcohol (the same as I spent on food!!) and this won't be much better next month as I want to spend all my Clubcard vouchers whilst the double-up promotion is still on. :beer:

My friend has given me £60 towards a sofa I gave her a few months ago, so I easily have enough cash to manage next month. Mr. Fire Fox is going to pay his rent into the joint account so all my food and bills for the next couple of months is covered.

MissKJ

Fantastic Firefox! How organised are you?

Fire_Fox

The spreadsheet has become a habit now! And it is working, I am putting money aside every month and I'm much more aware of the overarching effect of 'one-off' spends. :money: I have spent quite a lot on stuff for the kitchen: around £400 this year and more to come! But that includes a brand new induction hob, and it's meant that I've held back in other areas.

It's been a patchy couple of weeks for food, we have been working a good deal and neither have bothered with cooking. Chucked away a chicken carcass, some mushrooms and a pack of beansprouts earmarked for a stir fry. It could have been worse, as I asked Mr. Fire Fox to pack down a load of meat right after the last supermarket run and he left it all out on the side for over 24 hours ... :mad:

Fire_Fox

Been to IKEA and spent £41:
£29 non-stick lidded casserole
£8 large wooden chopping board
£3.50 metal box
40p two side plates (ex-display!)

The casserole cost twice as much as I wanted to spend as discovered the size I need isn't available with non-stick. :rolleyes: My Mum persuaded me by pointing out that the oval shape is perfect for roasting chicken as well as the soups and stews. However I bought a much cheaper chopping board than I had planned, and I put a couple of other items back on the shelf! :T

Fire_Fox

It's all about the wine: this morning was rudely awoken by a charming delivery man, bringing me two bottles of red wine from Barclays bank! :beer: Then been to Tesco and got another half dozen bottles of white wine (1 x 3 for a tenner, other 3 half price). Then got 5% off for buying six, used £20 of double-up vouchers, then realised I'd been overcharged and got a refund of £9 cash at customer service. So I came home with £39.50 worth of wine AND an extra £4 in my pocket!

Also completed the supermarket run with a total spend of £77, including taxi but after a £5 Morrisons and £2 Tesco vouchers were taken off.

Expensive items were
£6 on four boxes of breakfast cereal (half price)
£4 on four bottles of orange squash
£6.50 on six bars of dark chocolate
£5.70 on four multipacks of crisps
£3 on two jars of chutney
£5.40 on four bags of dried fruit
£3.20 on a bag of peas!!
£2 on six Fruit Corners (offer)
£5 on two packs of pork mince (offer)
£3.40 on two packs of ham
£3.00 on healthy cheese (offer)
£3.10 on two large blocks of cheddar (half price)
£2 on twelve free range eggs (offer)

Definitely going to have a sweet'n'sour stir fry, as I bought discount brand sauce and cheap veggies, and a ploughman's salad, as I bought discount coleslaw and Value pickled onions. Maybe a meatloaf with the pork mince and discount hash browns.

Fire_Fox

My mum persuaded me to go shopping, as I no longer have any clothes that fit. Largely a depressing experience, but perhaps one that will spur me on to get back into the gym.

Went to an outlet department store in the spirit of money saving and found a pair of brown crepe trousers for just £6. At the till I was advised that sale items were buy one get one half price so went back to the rails finding a matching jacket and skirt for £5 each! With the discount I got a three piece suit for £13.50!! :money:

Also finally sourced some energy saving halogen lamps, spending £15 on six bulbs. Also tempted by yet more kitchen bits, buying a Stellar garlic press and vegetable peeler for £9. I may yet return these, as I think I was overcharged.

Fire_Fox

Logged onto IPSOS earlier in the week to find that I had somehow built up over 500 points, and Valued Opinions to find I am up to £7.75!! :cool: So the next two tenners are in sight! Also received a £3 luncheon voucher from Pinecone which I am going to save up.

Have to confess to buying a black and white blouse for £10 (sale price), but still need some serious underwear to smooth things out a bit. Also spent £8 on copies of two records from the National Archives, as we have had a breakthrough on the branch of our family tree that we started out tracing twenty five years ago when I was just eleven years old! :eek:

Fire_Fox

Potentially costly fun and games in the Fire Fox household, with my toilet seat breaking and a massive flood in our communal reception! Looks like it is going to cost around £50 to replace the non-standard seat hinges and that the ceiling will fall in (again). :rolleyes: