Smart Mart - Health, wealth and happiness

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Hi Smart, to do lists are always a good idea. Im sure you will do well today ticking things off as you do them. Trust all is well! Take care

Smart_Mart

Smart_Mart wrote: »

Time to make a list today, I think. So much to do, I'd be happy with completing 75% of it, I think....:p

Morning courier job DONE
Evening courier job
Drop badge back to twins house DONE
Do the weekly shop DONE
Buy some gas on card DONE
Two loads of washing ONE LOAD ON
Pick shelving unit up (11am) DONE
Update boys' football site
Write preview of tomorrow night's game DONE
Finish Lesson 3 in French project
Set up interview with ex-player (and actually do the interview if available) SET UP FOR 10.30AM TUESDAY
Pay rent to landlord
Pay a debt to creditor
Write 1,000 word article for programme
Proof-read the pages already sent for programme
Clean football boots x 3 pairs
Check emails and act upon them.

Getting on well with the jobs now, feel energised. The unit is sat up in my hallway waiting to be told where to go.

Shopping for the week came to £42.13, put £12.00 of gas on the card, a tenner in petrol too.

Staying in this afternoon to get the articles done before doing the evening courier job at 5.00pm.

SuziQ

Hi Mart,
have just spent about an hour reading your diary from the beginning! I really think you sound like a great guy-and your kids are very lucky to have such a great dad (on top of what you do for them,you support their mum's too-such a great example for kids imo.)

Reading through,I am a bit shocked by what you spend on food. I stick to around £130-140 for myself,2kids full time, 2 cats-plus I put a couple of bags of shopping togther for my DD every month (pasta,rice,tuna,milk,tins toms, sauce for pasta and curry,toilet rolls,fruit veg and a bit of frozen etc.)
If I go out for the day,I always take a packed lunch-which doesn't have to be boring!- and I do think you would be better to try to get into a routine of doing a bigger shop and going in less often. I also think your choices some times are a bit off-I bought myself a perfectly good page-to-day diary from the poundshop for -duh!- a pound. I am lucky in that I had a really well stocked freezer and cupboards when my life hit the skids,stockpiles of cleaning stuff,toiletries etc so I accept that made it easier for me,as I just now replenish and get to shop 'free' from my stores. You will get there-I know that you are only just getting by every month,which gives very little scope for changing the way you do things. But you will get there,if you keep at it!

I got my spending down drastically by doing the grocery challenge on here. That made me really plan my meals out for the week,shop appropriately and it also got me into the habit of making a few meals a month out of leftovers, as I have pledged for the last 18 months to not throw food away.It takes some planning and imagination, but do you know what? We eat better than we ever have. You have a busy old life there with all the different jobs you do so just see whether you can schedule in a couple of planning sessions-half an hour a couple of times a week? That's all it really takes me. I actually managed to pay off a credit card debt last year entirely by cutting back on groceries and having set nsd every week. That gives me a little extra money that I can put aside-I managed to give the kids a really great christmas this year as I saved all year. As you say,just a little increase in your income would give you more choices-as long as it doesn't get spent elsewhere! I started putting all my spending on excel last year and it does focus my mind as I update it daily.

All in all you have a great positive attitude and I really hope 2010 will be a very productive year for you.

Living on benefits is no joke,my aim this year is to get the go ahead to try to get onto a refresher course and look into getting back to work (nursing)-I have my MRI scan next week and see the oncologist mid Feb so I hope he has some good news for me!

Smart_Mart

Hi Suzi, thanks again for taking the time and trouble in responding in such detail.....:T. Nice to see you again!!

Re your idea of going in and doing a big shop less often. I could only really do this after I got a freezer which I only got a few weeks ago (poor excuse, I know, I'm sorry). I was determined not to pay for a freezer when I knew one was coming up on Gumtree.com at some point but I can now see the point of spending £30-£40 on a decent second hand one as I probably spent more than that on mini-shops in between the main shops. If you look back through last week's posts in particular you will see that I pretty much stuck to the main shop. I'm doing the January totals on Monday so I'll see if things have gone down from November and December then the plan is to go through February the same but set my first lot of budgets for March. I will have had four months in order to get some idea about what I'm spending under which categories.

I take your point about the diary -I can guarantee I won't make that mistake again for eleven months at least!!;)

Re the food bill again, I have always binge eaten when either depressed or sad. I say "depressed" - I doubt it has ever got to the stage where I have been clinically depressed, just a deep, deep sadness, I guess. I still struggle now and I would make most of you weep if you saw what I ate during the course of one day...:(

Hope you're well too, Suzi, and that your recovery will be swift and as painless as possible.

Rest of today's spending? Paid my rent up now so for the first time in several months, I'm straight with my landlord. Bought the unit for the boys room for a tenner this morning, will move it upstairs tomorrow. Will do another post in a minute going through that damn list - I think I did a lot of it to be fair.

Tomorrow I'm off to Liverpool for the football. Leaving my car and cadging a lift up with the media manager as the boys can't come - four hours home after a night match with a school day following is too much for them!

Smart_Mart

Smart_Mart wrote: »

Time to make a list today, I think. So much to do, I'd be happy with completing 75% of it, I think....:p

Morning courier job DONE
Evening courier job DONE
Drop badge back to twins house DONE
Do the weekly shop DONE
Buy some gas on card DONE
Two loads of washing ONE LOAD DONE
Pick shelving unit up (11am) DONE
Update boys' football site
Write preview of tomorrow night's game DONE
Finish Lesson 3 in French project
Set up interview with ex-player (and actually do the interview if available) DONE - SET UP FOR 10.30AM TUESDAY
Pay rent to landlord DONE
Pay a debt to creditor
Write 1,000 word article for programme DONE
Proof-read the pages already sent for programme
Clean football boots x 3 pairs
Check emails and act upon them. DONE

Not bad, could do better. Off to Liverpool at 1pm tomorrow so will need to do the rest in the morning though some are more important than others.

Smart_Mart

Today seems to have gone by in a blur, it's flown by. Maybe it's because I didn't get up until nearly 10.00am this morning...:eek:

Understandable though as went to football last night in Liverpool. Got back to my car at 1.30am and by the time I got home, made a drink and put an article on the website, it was 3.00am.:eek:. Ate dinner before I went but bought tea while out (£6.99) and some sweets and supper on the way home (£3.39).

Today has been busy writing four or five articles for Saturday's programme. Picked the boys up from school and took them to football training tonight.

Tomorrow I'm off to the football club in the morning so spent £17.50 on petrol. Off to see my older two children tomorrow afternoon / evening too so another late one, I reckon.

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Hi Smart, you've been busy lately. Take care, and keep positive.

Smart_Mart

Just got back after my day travelling the world , well Somerset and Dorset in particular.....:p

Went down to the football club this morning. Wrote some articles, had a meeting with the chief executive and then went over to see my older two children who live 45 minutes up the road. Had tea with them - their mum won a tenner on the lottery last night so we shared the cost of a chinese for a treat.

Got some petrol on the way back tonight, mooching on here for an hour then bed. Tomorrow sees the delivery of 250 papers, more articles to write and picking the boys up for the weekend.

Spent £10.00 on petrol, £2.00 on lunch and £4.30 towards the meal.

Smart_Mart

Decent day today really...;)

Got up pretty late again after being out late last night and went straight out delivering the 250 papers, finishing before 11.30am. Off then to my local Asda to pick up some bits and bobs - bread, milk, rolls and crisps mainly - to the value of £7.54. That's pretty much it though I did give the boys a pound for their school cake sale this afternoon.

Haven't got another programme deadline now for around ten days so will try to go full steam ahead with the French language project. I've done two out of six lessons and I must get on and finish it asap.

Tomorrow the team are home and we'll be going down there via a trip to Specsavers to get DS2's glasses sorted first.

Smart_Mart

Bad day today, the team lost by one goal to nil and missed a penalty...:mad: . We scored a penalty in midweek but for some reason, a different player took today's one and missed....:mad:

Tired and off to bed in a moment....:(

Only spend today was petrol (£13.00).