Not Tiny, Not Courageous, but definitely in debt

tiny_courageous

Ordered three maternity dresses. This heat is ridiculous! Two are from the H&M sale though and the length of time they take to deliver it'll probably be cold again by the time they arrive.

tiny_courageous

Payday monday, have managed to save about £400 this month which I'm really pleased with. Just ordered some storage units for baby's room at a bargain price, but also got some dresses from asda yesterday as this heat is getting unbearable now.

Debt wise it's slow and steady. Haven't used the lloyds credit card since I paid it off, and that's how it's going to stay (this is the longest I've ever been not using it, mostly because I'm not booking gig tickets as I can't go to them any more!). Lloyds and Barclaycard both keep offering me 0% balance transfers but as I'm on a Life of balance deal on the barclaycard I'm keeping that as the balance transfers are generally 6 months. I suppose I could keep transferring the balance between the two but there's always a fee and of course no guarantee that the offers will keep on coming. Lloyds also offered me another 10k on my loan! Ridiculous, it's an encouragement to get into more debt.

I've been given 4k by my mum as part of an inheritence. This will allow me to stay off work for longer and do lots of repairs that need doing around the house. While I could pay this straight off the debt, realistically it makes more sense to have the cash to live on while on mat leave. I'm feeling a lot more confident about financial matters now.

tiny_courageous

So I went to argos to pay for the storage units and pick them up, and remembered I'd got some love to shop vouchers in my purse. Result! Only had to pay £4.99 cash. Then found a boots voucher so went to boots next door, got some new eyeliner and mascara (needed, both are nearly run out) so got a no7 gift set for free, 250 points from the card machine and finally remembered to pick up my bounty and emma's diary packs. Total cost in boots was just over £10 after the gift voucher. Couldn't find anything in Asda I wanted so still have £20 asda vouchers in my purse and then got a few things for later in M&S (going to an evening picnic) with another gift voucher.

I do not understand clothes shops. Went in Asda, H&M, Mamas and papas, Outfit, TK Maxx and Next and where were the summer clothes? Have they not noticed there's a heatwave? Do they not want my money?

Quite pleased with the bounty and emmas diary packs. lots of free samples I'll actually use, which was very good.

tiny_courageous

Had a very lazy day today but did tidy out a couple of kitchen cupboards so I know how much stock of couscous/bulgar wheat/rice/etc I have. Need to start using them up a bit more instead of having sandwiches all the time.

had a voucher for £20 off a £80 shop on Ocado, but their prices are substantially higher for the stuff we buy (tend to buy value stuff) so even with the voucher it wouldn't work out financially sensible to order.

Not spent anything today as I've been lazy and didn't even leave the house. Tentatively mealplanning in my head for the week:
Breakfasts: Porridge
Lunch: soup and bread, or pasta/noodle meal/couscous (as have lots of these that need using up
Tea: mon: chinese chicken thighs; tues: pasta salad with mackerel; wed: lasagne; thurs: bulgar wheat salad with tuna; fri: stir fried soya chunks in hoi sin sauce with noodles.
If I can keep to nearly that, I'll be happy, and I won't need to buy much from the supermarket.

tiny_courageous

Payday! Happy to see that. £200 straight to the savings, £130 to the barclaycard, and all the direct debits go out tomorrow.
Went to the supermarket on the way home for bread, cheese and veg/fruit. Spent £7 but went to the self service checkout and emptied my purse of all the change (coppers and 5ps) which came to about £3worth. I try to do this regularly as it means I can avoid breaking into a note most of the time (which means I take less out of the bank).

Car needs 2 new tyres, and MOT is due next month. It's had a fair bit of work on it this year so fingers crossed that won't be too bad.

tiny_courageous

Haven't had to buy much this week. Think I've spent about £2 since going to the supermarket on Monday. This is good.
No plans for the weekend. Need to buy some paint so we can get the baby's room finished (and if we're lucky OH will paint our bedroom as well).

Have mostly stuck to the meal plan, with a few variations in evening meals (but fortunately they haven't meant buying anything new). Planning for the week ahead makes it so much easier not to just nip into the supermarket on the way home.

I even got all my ironing done this week! It had been there for ages so there was no excuse really.
I think I'll try to declutter the front room this weekend.

tiny_courageous

Spent about £100 today, on a baby monitor (half price on amazon), paint and things for the spare room in B&Q, and a few bits in tesco (mostly soft drinks). Not too bad though.
Also had a clear out of bedding (was quite ruthless but could have been more so), so now have a big bag of clothes and a bag of bedding for the charity shop. OH's phone broke but managed to fix it so that saved a bit of cash as well.
Have been exhausted recently, but had blood tests which said low in iron, since starting iron tablets have had much more energy. Feeling quite motivated now.

tiny_courageous

By the end of the week will need petrol, to pay for carpet fitting in baby's room, and some money for OH's birthday night out. Got OH's present using some Hotdiamond credits and their sale, just waiting for it to arrive now. Shouldn't need anything else this week, maybe some veg and fruit from the market but I'll use up what's in the fridge first.

Just made a big lasagne (small whoopsied packet of mince out the freezer, lots of veg to bulk it out) which is enough for today and tomorrow's tea. OH isn't in til later but I couldn't wait, I was starving!

Although it's Monday, I'll do a meal plan for this week.
Breakfasts: porridge
Lunches: Mon and Tues, carrot sticks with whoopsied Hummous and babybel; Wed-Fri pasta meals or couscous (approved food specials).
Tea: Mon and Tues, lasagne; Wed chicken casserole and veg; Thurs, Pasta salad; Fri, curry, rice and naan.

tiny_courageous

Getting a new carpet for baby's room tomorrow - have managed to pay for that out of wages so savings are still intact. Am hoping I can drag out the dregs of petrol until maybe Thursday or Friday.

Stuck to the meal plan so far, 2 servings of lasagne in the freezer as well! MIL sent us some chilli today (she thinks we can't look after ourselves) so will have that tomorrow instead of getting some chicken out.

tiny_courageous

Well the petrol didn't last, filled up yesterday, but that will do a trip to family in a couple of weeks as well as driving to work and back. Not so bad really. Might have to do a few tip runs this weekend as well as there's so much rubbish to get rid of in this house!

Payday is exactly three weeks today. I was going to go to Asda tomorrow to pick up some bits but thinking about it, all we need is bread and cheese, and I work next to a poundland, so I'll just get them from there, some fruit and veg off the market, and avoid the temptations of the supermarket.
I do want to raid some of the second hand shops this weekend for a chest of drawers though.