Carry on Questing

Lula-Hula

Hello lovely people,

I'm back in rythm with the universe & flowing with rather than against the tide :T

Salary appeared in my account

Dixons payment removed from Virgin CC

Correct Balance transfer appeared on Virgin CC

New laptop ordered & paid for with no drama

New Barclaycard arrived ... and about to be returned

I do feel slightly uneasy about losing it, but deep down I know that if I dont do this, I will never break free .

I have also transferred £150 to my savings funds, new totals below :

Electricity = £ 200
Gas = £ 128
Car Tax = £ 50
Car service etc = £ 60
Car Ins (next yr.) = £ 40

I've also paid £166.82 to the Virgin CC to 'tidy up' the balance.

Total debt now = £ 4,200

£3650 at 0% until April 2011
£ 550 at 0% until Oct 2011

I've got my fixed monthly payments reconciled in my head & budget, now just need to work on the variable ones & come up with a plan that will ensure I do NOT exceed the maximum amounts I am allowing.

Yes, grocery budget, I'm talking about YOU

And on that note, I must now shoot to Waitrose ...

back later
xx

taxi73

Now all that sounds much more positive.

[Deleted User]

Hi Lula,

Just caught up with your diary, what a busy couple of days you have had! Glad that you managed to get your laptop sorted in the end.

Hope that you are having a good first day off and that Waitrose wasn't too bad.

Tea
x

Karmacat

Oh that sounds goooooood! It does also sound like you need to take a long hard look at each grocery spend - they're so little individually, we don't realise how they creep up - I kept every bill when I moved a few months ago, because I just couldn't think about what was claimable, what wasn't, and it was *very* interesting to see what went where ....



In the meantime................ A NEW LAPTOP

**bellows** pardon me for bellowing

fantastic!

Lula-Hula

Thank you ladies :A

I wont get the new lappie for a few days - as I decided to let them install necessary software rather than do it myself.

I've just looked out of the window & am relieved to see it's raining - I'd told DD that it would so we shouldnt go to Chessington until tomorrow; which was an excuse as she looked so tired but she would never had admitted it herself .

I left her lying on the sofa while I whizzed to Waitrose which probably saved me a fortune in Halloween bits (eg little pumpkin shaped fairy lights for £6, spiders web tealights for £4 etc etc ) & emerged having spent £ 27.92p.

I'm determined to stick with £150 for the monthly grocery/household budget. I have managed to do it a couple of times & am just going to have to learn to stick to a weekly meal plan & not be swayed by DD or my own laziness to nip to the co op for convenience food .

I'll be ok for household & cleaning stuff for a while - my store cupboard boasts 3 x 1itre bottles of eco washing up liquid, a full 1litre bottle of eco multi purpose liquid + 3/4 of one, 1 x bottle of eco limescale spray ( hardwater area) 2 x large boxes of washing powder, 4.5 litres of fabric softener, plenty of scrubbies & cleaning cloths, about 20 loo rolls & a can of spray polish I've had for years as I so rarely use it since discovering the wonders of the e-cloth & good old water

I'm well stocked with jars of pasta & sauce ( staple diet in this house ) & for once I thought really hard about just how much fruit we could eat in a week & only bought 3 types; fairtrade bananas & grapes for DD & some lovely english cox apples for me.

I also had to use up a Boots £5 off voucher so whizzed in there & as I'm also fully stocked up with skincare & makeup I bought some gorgeous nail polish. I like to wear it on my toes in summer when going barefoot, but usually just use clear or french manicure stuff on my fingers but just fell in love with this deliciously dark gothic shade called 'Blackberry' ... & it only cost £1.75 ...

... Apologies, I keep getting distracted by a programme about people going on a silent retreat for 8 days. Some are struggling but I think it sounds wonderful. No concerns about money, food or work & just beautiful countryside to accompany my thoughts. I often long for my world to just 'stop' so I can just catch up with my thoughts & who I am. I wouldnt mind the silence as long as I could have the company of other retreaters at times. Imagine how lovely to be able to greet people with a smile or hug & just share & enjoy their company without having to explain anything about who you are, what you do etc ...

Will return later

taxi73

that sounds interesting lula...I do like silence myself many a time

Lula-Hula

Back again,

I have to keep posting while I've got everything organised. It helps to fix the figures in my head.

I've worked out my definite fixed costs until April 2011 & these are made up of :

Rent, Water Rates, Tv Licence, Pet Insurance, Lenses + Solution, Lovefilm . . .

& the fixed amounts I save (either weekly or monthly) for future costs/bills eg :

Car Tax, Insurance, Servicing & Repairs, Gas & Electricity, DDs PGL Trip, Clubs & Pocket Money, presents, clothes/shoes, trips & treats & childcare.

It all seems to go a bit wrong around the variable costs :

Fuel, Groceries & Household, Virgin Media, Vodafone & of course the 'Frittering' .

'Frittering' is the most expandable & yet indefinable category & can appear as something as innocent as the window cleaners bill, cheap ebay furniture to refurb or parking, to something decidedly naughty such as new mugs, shoes, takeaway, wine, sweets, overspend on clothes blah blah blah ... you get the picture.

It can cost as little as £50 one month, & then be the best part of £300 the next :eek:.

I need to allocate a sensible amount for the Innocent Frittering & then a very very strict pocket money allowance for the rest. Clearly, I was being far too generous with myself previously as I've just run with it & lost all sense of a budget & why I'm actually here :think:.

I have a figure in mind but need to work out exactly what I will use this money for & whether it will work.

My brain aches now, so am off to bed

night night
xx

taxi73

hope your brain recovers...the frittering is always the hardest bit of budgetting.

Lula-Hula

Me & my big mouth about innocent frittering ...

There I was all cosy in bed with coffee & a book at 9 this morning when DD came in & whispered "dont get up & fling open the curtains - the window cleaners here" :eek:.

So, the purse opening began with £7 for him.

Decide to get up then & write that letter to Barclaycard, I kept it short & enclosed the 2 jigsaw-style cards :rotfl:.

DD was desperate to go to Hobbycraft so we headed off & £7.48 worth later, we trundled homewards. Stopped off at the chemist to buy nail polish remover - £1.50.

It's next door to the bakers, DD was hungry & I'd alreay said we were NOT buying any awful overpriced theme park 'food' so I treated her to sausage rolls & a cupcake & a sausage roll for me too - £3.97.

So, that's £20 gone already & it will be another £36 to get in to Chessington - we're only going as I have the bogof ticket .

I'm determined not to spend more than £4 in there & have already told DD that I'm not spending anything in November .

I've set the entertainment budget at £10 per week which should pay for the cinema once a month & something else like ice skating or a trip to London to visit museums etc. I am going to set myself a weekly pocket money limit of £15 per week & can always use that to top up days out.

I've decided that wine & choc will have to come out of my pocket money budget too :eek:. I must investigate getting a railcard as I believe that kids go for £1 or something like that & if the travel was cheaper, then we'd go into town more often.

I'm going to brace myself to do Fridays at work-job throughout November if the Boss will have me in - Gnome/Goblin always tries to make out he doesnt need me. Double bubble then if it'll annoy her too .

I'm now off to celebrate my freedom from Barclaycard by doing some hoovering the we're off out ...

bye for now
xx

Karmacat

Innocent frittering, I love it! Quick snacks when I'm out, because I feel *desperately* hungry :rotfl: they've been my weakness too, so I know how DD feels but it does end up being a lot of money ... can you not carry some emergency rations with you and then hightail it home to get some food?

And you're at Chessington on bogoff at the mo? Brilliant :j hope you haven't had any of these humongous showers and you've been whirled and thrown about to your hearts' content