My Ongoing Challenge - To live with my means

savingholmes

Hope you are being good

LOL

Lurker1972

savingholmes wrote: »

Hope you are being good

LOL

you know what, I am !!!
proper update tomorrow, assuming I get all my jobs done first!!

Lurker1972

spending - under control & its payday on Friday & I should get some overtime paid
eating - food diary being kept - scary eye opener!!
housework - inpsired by Intergalatic Floozie I blitzed the kitchen at the weekend & it still looks good!
Do need to attack the cupboards though

I've given myself until the end of January to have a good tidy through the hosue & then keep on top of it but thats being slightly hampered by still not feeling 100% - so much so I'm taking tomorrow off to recharge my batteries & hopefully get rid of this stupid headache

I've finally convinced Mr Lurker to part with some of his cds - its only taken a year - so that will be an enjoyable job for me ...music magpie via quidco woohoo

early night for me i think so i can make the most of tomorrows lie in!!

The_Golden_Goose

Sleep tight!!!

savingholmes

hi lurker - well done on being good! Not easy to do!

Lurker1972

ahhhh happy hump day !!

& its even better this week as I have taken the day off so I am sat in my (still) sparkly kitchen with a cup of tea watching the birdies in my garden. I think I may have found my ideal working pattern...Monday Tuesday, off Hump Day, work Thursday Friday, weekends off....one day maybe!!

I feel I ought to quantify my claims of being good a bit. Otherwise I may get complacent!!

Couldn't find anything to spend Xmas gift card on, so that is firmly tucked into purse for another day....this time last year I would have bought something for the sake of it.

MrLurker bought a couple of pre-owned games for the wii...remembered the Game reward card & used £5 of points from that - don't always have the card with me so that was a result.

Grocery shop was higher than when I go alone (as always) but included a couple of treats (cider for him, j2o for me). that was Saturday - we've not touched them yet so it will last a while.

We did make additional non-grocery purchases while at Mr T.....replacement dinner sets (2 so we'd got enough plates for when the kids are over) @ £15 each (reduced from £25). More importantly, when we got home I removed the old plates from the house...out of 8 dinner plates only 2 were unchipped & while I know they were still usuable (have been using them chipped for at least 3 years) decided that the time had come to replace. In all honesty I would have preferred a Denby set (the James Martin one) partly as you can buy the individual bits as replacements when something is broken....but the initial outlay was just too much - again this time last year I would have said sod it I work hard so if I want Denby I'll have it!!

Finally i bought 2 jumpers £7 each, 2 for £10. Money for those coming from weekly spends account.

so all in all, I think the balance is there for now....just hope it stays that way!!

savingholmes

sounds like you are making progress - well done you!

Lurker1972

Don't you just love payday???

This months was even better as I got paid for some overtime I did:j.
So its now time to check the budget fpr the next month, pay bills, etc.
I've not been touching my weekly spends money so have an extra £60 there, plus £58 in overtime. Bearing in mind there was a grocery overspend thanks to shopping with horrible Christmas cold I'm not really going to see this extra dosh, but equally i've not got to raid a savings pot or use overdraft so am a happy bunny.

I've had a nice crisp £10note in my purse since 20th December....only broke into it on Friday (payday treat of chips for lunch, yumyum) & the remainder just disappeared....work lottery, loaf of bread...ok the change is still in purse but I was suprised how long I could go without touching it &then how quickly it went once touched!!
I've replenished the purse with weekly spends money though so have another note to attempt not to touch.....but that ain't gong to happen.....

My car has been sat on the drive for weeks, under snow - even before the weather changed we'd had to jump start her a couple of times...I just assumed it was the lack of driving...once started she seemed to be fine. So Friday night was going to see my friend, jump started the car & off I drove....10 miles later am parking the car & idiot that I am, stalled it. She would NOT start.grrrr. so...Mr Lurker to the rescue (could have called RAC but they wouldnt have given me a cuddle & we get no call out discount!!) off he goes to Halfords & then zooms down with new battery, fitting it to car @ 11.30 at night...new battery was £114.99 :eek: but car is happy again.
Yesterday mum & I were going out for the day (in my car) so mr Lurker reminded me that we hadn't actually put the new road tax disc in (tax expired Dec09)......& then the game of hide & seek began. have looked for the damn ting for 3 hours & I swear it is not in the house. All I can think is that its got caught up in rubbish/recylcing & gone.
I can get replacement....but will have to pay £7 (could be worse) but am peeved for
a) being careless enough to loose it in first place
&
b) not looking arround for better deal on battery when it first started with the temperamentalness .....have I learnt nothing from MSE?!!!

Anyway, the plan is in place to get replacement, I darent drive car knowing I;ve lost the disc so am about to meal plan for (if possible) the rest of the week around whats already in cupboard & then go to shop in village on way home frm work tomorrow if there is anything that is desperately needed...also hoping that will help the grocery figures as have reduced it to £160 for the month....ok if there were 4 weeks, but its a 5 week shopping month for us.....yikes!!!

it can be done.....I like a good challenge....

savingholmes

hi lurker - sorry about the car troubles - been there!

Hope you manage to make the money last!

Intergalactic_Floozie

I cannot believe I was not subscribed to this thread!!!! I'm catching up with the last four months now....