Ruby's "Stop Spending, Start Saving" Diary

ruby_eskimo

InaPickle wrote: »

Well, if it helps you save in the long term. :rotfl:

TO be fair, you've been raelly disciplined for a logn time now, so perhaps having a bit of a spend will encourage you to be frugal again.

*Nosies* Did you get anything nice? *Subtracts nose from Ruby's business*

Yeah I think it has to be honest! I treated myself to a lot of books (to be fair I hadn't bought any for a long while and they were all cheap on Amazon), some Bobbi Brown makeup (from ebay) and a flip hd camera (again a steal at less than half price brand new on ebay). So a lot of treats really hehe.

Also I have decided to save 10% of my wages as an emergency fund for little bits a pieces like car tax and insurance etc.

Hope your ok Miss Pickle!

InaPickle

ruby_eskimo wrote: »

Yeah I think it has to be honest! I treated myself to a lot of books (to be fair I hadn't bought any for a long while and they were all cheap on Amazon), some Bobbi Brown makeup (from ebay) and a flip hd camera (again a steal at less than half price brand new on ebay). So a lot of treats really hehe.

Also I have decided to save 10% of my wages as an emergency fund for little bits a pieces like car tax and insurance etc.

Hope your ok Miss Pickle!

Sounds good - and I like your shiny new things!

As for me, I get paid tomorrow (woo!), but I have my car insurance due next month so I'm bricking it as I'm not sure how much it will have gone up due to the Eu ruling about sex discrimination (the only time it goes in our favour!). I also accidentally managed to realise that my overdraft was interest free ad infinitum and go over it by £1 the day before I got last month, meaning that I now owe my bank £35.50 in fees (the barstewards - will be paying the overdraft back tomorrow), and I have a car firm chasing me for £50 for one of two reasons (haven't figured out which yet).

Other than that - dandy! :rotfl:

ruby_eskimo

I am a bad MSE forumer aren't I?

Well it's June now and well...there isn't much to show for it. The only big thing is that I've been diagnosed with depression again and well this time it's a little more difficult to get over. I don't take anti-depressants because they don't agree with me at all. This lead to me having a breakdown at work last week and being sent home. I've had this week off and feel a lot better for it. It's the pressure of the place getting to me and the constant rejection from job applications isn't helping. I was advised that maybe to book a short break/holiday so I had something to look forward to. However this has proved the icing on the cake today: found a really cheap deal away to Prague at Christmas to celebrate a year engaged with le fiance. But he turns round and says he can't afford it. Even when I say to pay and let him have it as his Christmas present he got the hump. This has now lead to a massive argument about money and how I have some and he never does. He's a member on here but wont listen to the advice given about snowballing debt (he has 2 maxed out credit cards and would rather use his extra cash for cricket test match tickets) and generally trying to save money.

Now I'm sitting here in near tears while he has the hump. He's acknowledged that I need a holiday and it would do me good yet doesn't want to go. None of my friends can get the time off to go with me and to be honest I think it might be a little weird if it was just me and one of them. Sorry for being a moaning minnie here but I didn't know where else to vent all this out to!

InaPickle

ruby_eskimo wrote: »

I am a bad MSE forumer aren't I?

Well it's June now and well...there isn't much to show for it. The only big thing is that I've been diagnosed with depression again and well this time it's a little more difficult to get over. I don't take anti-depressants because they don't agree with me at all. This lead to me having a breakdown at work last week and being sent home. I've had this week off and feel a lot better for it. It's the pressure of the place getting to me and the constant rejection from job applications isn't helping. I was advised that maybe to book a short break/holiday so I had something to look forward to. However this has proved the icing on the cake today: found a really cheap deal away to Prague at Christmas to celebrate a year engaged with le fiance. But he turns round and says he can't afford it. Even when I say to pay and let him have it as his Christmas present he got the hump. This has now lead to a massive argument about money and how I have some and he never does. He's a member on here but wont listen to the advice given about snowballing debt (he has 2 maxed out credit cards and would rather use his extra cash for cricket test match tickets) and generally trying to save money.

Now I'm sitting here in near tears while he has the hump. He's acknowledged that I need a holiday and it would do me good yet doesn't want to go. None of my friends can get the time off to go with me and to be honest I think it might be a little weird if it was just me and one of them. Sorry for being a moaning minnie here but I didn't know where else to vent all this out to!

I just wrote you a HUGE message and the computer ate it! :mad:

I'll write back after work, but *HUGS* in the meantime! x

ruby_eskimo

Ok, so I'm back.

I know, I know, I say that a lot. But this time things are different.

I had some time off work and it made me realise I need a kick up the bum to find a new job. Plus my Masters finishes soon and I really muct get cracking on the dissertation (I have 27 days to write it in! HELP!)

Apart from that things haven't changed much around here. Well we've made a decision about the wedding. We're going to get married in Prague! I never thought I would have a destination wedding but there we go. Basically, we were at a family members wedding a couple of weeks ago and we didn't like it. The tension was unbelievable and people were just making idiots of themselves. I know you get that at any wedding and having it in a different country isn't going to change that, but there is less chance of the people who were creating problems being at our wedding. Plus we want to keep the costs down and we've found a package that costs about £4,500 for everything apart from flights and of course accommodation for guests, but we know somewhere that could do us a deal. Again, it isn't that expensive over there so people shouldn't balk at the price. I'm trying to save £6,000 to cover it plus the cost of my dress, but of course the fiance will also be making contributions as will my folks and his folks too, but I want them to enjoy the day and not worry about the cost.

Sorry if this post makes no sense, it is 1:30 am here!

InaPickle

That makes complete sense - I can understand why you would want to do that.

Plus, it will make for one hell of a tale for the grandkids!

Best of luck with the dissertation: just sit down and get on with it, and tell yourself that in less than a month it will all be OVER!

ruby_eskimo

Thanks Pickle!

Got paid today and well...its pretty dismal to be honest. We have switched from a 4 week rota to a 6 week rota which means I only do nights once every 6 weeks. Which in turn means that there will be some months when I won't do nights at all. Which means some months I will be getting £200 less than I usually do. This month is one of those months.

Then on the other hand I will sometimes get a month when I do 3 weeks of nights and 1 week of days which will be good but also means that I get taxed way more than I usually would and it won't really make a difference in the end. I really don't understand how these things work.

Plan for today is:

• Apply for new job
• "Run" C25K Week 2 Day 2
• Sort out budget for August
• Arrange driving lesson
• Write 1000 words of dissertation

Not too much to do really :rotfl:

The_Dragon

Picked up on this after you joined the 7lb club - hope everything is going okay hun

ruby_eskimo

So last night I finished my epic number of night shifts, and the time was not spent in vain. I applied for about 30 different jobs over 2 weeks that I fulfil all items on the person specification, with evidence, but here's to not hearing anything like always. I really hope I get a new job soon as I'm looking to move in with le fianc! asap. Found a really nice flat near him that is right on budget, part furnished (which cuts down on costs) and well it's just really nice. It's not available till October, when le fiance's current contract finishes so I'm hoping I get a job before then and we can put in an application. Also spent a lot of time working out costing and stuff for a flat like this one and it's really doable for both of us. Then went on to working out that if I keep on saving at the same rate I am now, when would we be able to buy a house and afford a wedding. Well the wedding fund will be done by February 2013 (we're looking at 2013 as a possible date) and the house fund will be ready August 2014! Plus looking at the co-operative's mortgage calculator, we could be looking at houses around £200,000 which for the area we're looking at is good!

Feel more positive about things now, knowing that things aren't that far away.

The_Dragon

Best of luck with all that Ruby - keep us posted