My Spending Diary

calleyw

jessicamb wrote:

I'm downhearted at the minute but I'll have to try and make the best of it - try and make as many meals as possible that i can freeze and hopefully make it stretch further.

Jessica,

It does take time to get meal planning and supermarket shopping honed to an art.

Even the best of us still over spend on budgets:whistle: mention no names.


All the best. It is all about baby steps.


Yours


Calley

jessicamb

Hi All

Well a much better week this week on the whole.

Been watching what I spend - so spending much less and asking myself do I really need it? Very MSE :money: so not much to report spend wise. I check the internet banking daily though and know to the penny whats in or out of my accounts. Going for a £250 overdraft on the current account this month (down from £550) and minimal amounts on the egg card. Will see how it pans out on the 20th.

This weeks grocery shopping - under £15 including some wine so a definite plus there. Also nothing wasted from last weeks shop which is a real first for me. Only thing to throw out is the end of a pint of milk. Really proud of myself for this - I used to empty all the !!!!!! out of the fridge and refill it with the same stuff. I gave the meal planning a go but had such a busy week at work that I didnt really stick to it - but I didnt reach for the takeaways either (think I was living off toast). Spent a bit more than I wanted to buying lunch at work but hopefully this will reduce - I just need to get back in the habit of making lunches.

Only other things I've been spending on are a new washing line (the one that came with the house was all corroded and icky) and a massive extension cable so I can hoover the car (in terms of extreme money saving I've been putting it off for a year now and really should do something about it).

My two 'mortgage' pigs are now in situ and have approx £10 in them (was a bit more but I raided them for lunches so I didnt have to get cash out of the bank all week). Looking forward to imposing taxes on all visitors (this will net me about 20p a year but hey!).

Cleaning rocks! Cant spend when cleaning. This worked last week and I made sure my house is really messy again now so I can clean it again today (well thats the story I'll stick to - not that I'm a messy pup or anything) :rotfl:

And to top it all, freebies received this week:
Bubble bath
now got 580 pigsback points - half way to a boots voucher without spending a penny.

So this weeks report card:

much more :T than :eek: but still on the way to :A



Only 15 more days til payday :eek:

LOL

CosmoCat

get out some of that cleaning polish to shine your halo!

well done!

jessicamb

I've had a really good (well reasonable) week this week. Havent spent too much money. I'm bored today though and feeling the urge to spend some money - I dont need anything its purely a psychological thing that I want something to do I think. So I thought I'd post and give myself a reminder of where I am.

Position at the mo is as follows:

Egg card £70 approx
Current Account -£220
Credit Card -£130

Payday is a week on Tuesday.

Expect to end the month as follows:

Current Account -£260 is (still got car insurance to come out)
Credit Card - as is except HSBC will probably take another £5 minimum payment. Paid off £120 this month though so :T
Egg Card -£100

Have got to pay car tax this month though could be more depending on timing.

Ended last month approx £550 in the red on c/a with £250 on cc so not looking too bad at the mo.

Thanks to other boards on here I've managed to get £5 vouchers for cd-wow and some gadgety website. Ordered a dvd for fathers day because they didnt have anything I wanted and I might get something from the other site too - this would be the cheapest pressie I've given anybody since I was a kid.

Freebies haul this week isn't huge but the quality makes up for the quantity - a free luch bath ballistic from yummy mummy! A couple of months ago I would have used one of these almost every day (complete waste of money but so nice). Now I'm thinking do I use it or save it for a special occasion? I would never have thought like this previously!

Also got a recipie book for golden syrup, the vouchers described above and am up to 680 piggypoints.

Actually I feel much better now I've posted the above. I've cut a fair chunk off things without too much hardship and am starting to get into the DFW way of thinking. Except for a funny old blip yesterday - I was in the supermarket looking at beer and saw an offer £3.40 ish each or 2 for £6. I think my brain short-circuited because I read this as being almost a bogof - until I got to the till and saw £0.78 multisave - !!!!!!? Evil marketing geniuses strike again.

Ok - another hot day so more time in the garden methinks. Will not go into town shopping :mad:

jessicamb

A proactive day from me:

Listed some books on Amazon, finger crossed for a nibble or two.
Listed some more books on ebay - what a pain in the @rse - hope they sell for a reasonable amount otherwise I'm less than minimum wage with that one.

Didnt get my hair cut = £20 not spent (wahey!) Look a dogs dinner but what the heck. Might cry the poor tale and see if yummy mummy will trim it for me at the weekend.

Booked an opticians appointment while they have decent special offers on - £5 eye test and bogof glasses. Didnt really want to pay that until later in the month when I'd been paid but its all timing.

Bought a fan off the t'internet which should have been £25 + delivery for £8.99 all in thanks to some crafty person on the discounts board and multiple promotion codes.

Thanks to the World Cup rendering my TV next to useless for the next month I sat down last night and worked out my spending for the last month - every bloody line from the supermarket receipts - and came up with the following guesstimate for this month (well until 20th when I'll be rich again (yeah right!)

Bills £564.03
Food £79.73 :eek:
Alcohol £47.75 :eek:
Debt Repayment £228 :A
'Luxury' Items - well I wouldnt have died without them: £83.40 :mad:
Other/Unknown: £89.30 (mainly lunches & other small bits and pieces - will have to track better next month). :eek:

(and got to add on likely cost of new specs - £120

So I hang my head in shame - thought I was doing so well and then it all adds up - there for all to see. But before you all tell me off for spending so much on rubbish, for probably the first time this year I've spent less than I've earnt & will manage to knock the OD down a bit.

I still think that there is substantial room to go though based on the above so next months objectives to look at cutting some of those back. I'll have to start tracking them earlier in the month too as I was really surprised at seeing some of the totals - Lord knows what they were when I wasn't thinking about it. No wonder i was getting into a mess.

babyruth_2

HI

Sometimes i find it easier to track the money I have left after all my normal outgoings have gone out is to take for eg £50 out the cash point and buy what I want as apposed to spending little amounts on my cash card which are harder to track and remember, and wandering where all the money has gone! Only something little.....:j

jessicamb

Yippee - made £6.70 on Amazon selling two books :j

Got some more books on e-bay, no bidders yet but fingers crossed! Also found a couple of bits of clothing to try sell that should go.

Got £5.70 tracked from Quidco (and another £25 to come but had to spend £10)

& Theres a £10 refund on my credit card that I havent a clue where its come from - "Adjustment TC 280" whoever that is?

Edit: Duh! Its the £10 money manager incentive

Yay!

Love this making money lark - this time next year I'll be a millionaire!!!!

jessicamb

woohoo - another book sold, didnt sell stuff on ebay though. Amazon earnings up to £10! Staight off the cc - should be able to clear it next month.

Only 4 days til payday.

jessicamb

And it all came crumbling down....

Forgive me Martin :A for I have sinned -

Todays expenditure is a whopping £290 :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

New Glasses £120 (+£5 eye test). The sales assistant saw me coming and immediately priced me up at the top end. Now I'm so indecisive when it comes to things like that that I'm normally greatful for all the help I can get - I dont want to be stuck with something for 2 years if I look like a burk - so I'm really wary of online buying and dont even trust my own opinions in this case. Should have had a bit more pluckiness and dragged the SA round the cheaper section but I wimped out. Did try to redeem myself and looked online as soon as I got home for the same thing but cheaper but couldnt find it - oh well. Its only once every couple of years. Would have been appreciative but it turned out that the SA didnt even know what she was on about anyway - and kept giving me specs to try that maked me look like Joe 90 :eek: .

Car Tax £100 - expected but still not nice. Saved £10 by paying annually - wanted to slap it on the CC for cashback but since it was a £2.50 premium no chance. If they fixed the potholes in the road it might not be so bad but I think Gordon Brown is drinking champagne at my expense (he sure aint fixing the roads up).

BT - £37 since the trolls that work there have still not managed to switch my account over to the post office I will have to pay them another quarters line rental. Rang and chased it up but I just know they will cut me off if I dont pay.

No decent freebies this week. Tried to get the hang of the online gambling loophole through quidco where you open an account and get cashback this week - picked an easy looking target, deposited my £10 as per T&Cs, paid the cheapest game I could find - 20p online bingo (yawn!) subsequently lost - tried to withdraw remaining funds and then got a message £10 min withdrawl :mad: (definitely did not say this beforehand). I know in the grand scheme of things I'm £15 up overall - but it had better track or bodies will be involved.

Apologies for the rant - and I havent even been to the supermarket yet (although it is a moot point as I am now on bread and water in an attempt to save something today!) Next week I will be undertaking the pepsi challenge using nothing other than my imagination of what real diet coke (my vice!) tasted of and the rola cola I am now forcing myself to drink as I cant bear to give the stuff up.

I'm now off to clean the kitchen before environmental health come round and I'm suddenly featured on a Life of Grime

jessicamb

Good news first:

Spend so far this month (since 20th)

duty free cigs £22.50
Choc bar £0.35
Lunch today £1.25
Amazon postage £3.42

Income generated:

Amazon sales £36
E-bay sales £3.75
Phone sales £17 (still to claim)

Finally earned enough piggypoints for a £10 boots voucher so theres either a treat for me or grandmas birthday pressie (really tempted to get the pressie with it in true DFW style)

Started a true spending diary so I can track all the little bits and pieces.

HSBC credit card paid off - woohoo :A It will be a stretch this month because of it but I'm just glad there's one less thing hanging over me.


However, thieving bank wont extend interest free overdraft time period until payday - so looks like I'll get hit with bank charges as there are still some direct debits to go out and theres only about £30 left in there at the moment (until next pay day). I'm desperately listing as much as I can bear to part with on Amazon to get as much cash in as possible - I refuse to pay them a penny more than absolutely necessary. If anybody needs second hand accounting textbooks you know where to go (being especially kind I've even highlighted the important parts in some - listed as a unique selling point in the condition in the hopes that some time-strapped student will be interested.

In hopes of getting back in the black I'll be on a grocery challenge this month. Need to do some planning at the weekend and decide just how little I can get away with. :money: