Smart Mart - Health, wealth and happiness

Smart_Mart

All of us decided to give the quiz a miss tonight as we're all tired...:p. Boys drew their football match 3-3 today and I refereed; all of us were caked in mud so it was showers all round when we got home.

Paid my January training fees today (£30.00) and stuck a tenner of diesel in again. I know it seems like I'm doing this daily but the car is going back imminently and there's no need to give it back with half a tank of diesel in it.

Tomorrow is a busy one. Usual morning courier job, two paper rounds then off down to the football club for an afternoon's work before an evening meeting.

I'll try to post all four month's spending tonight if I can to see if things are going in the right direction.

Tomorrow sees my healthy eating plan start. I'm going to take it very steady and lose seven stone in a year. Target date will be March 1st 2011 although if I can do it quicker, all the better. Two pounds a week would be a loss of seven stone six pounds which is good but I'd hope to keep ahead of the game by starting well.

Smart_Mart

November figures in black, December's in red, January's in green and February's in blue.

Rent - £1,200 £280 £840 £560
Housekeeping (food + other shopping + mini-shops) - £263.80 £201.60 £174.17 £180.53
Fuel - £255.00 £186.00 £197.50 £202.50
Twins presents - £144.73
Gas - £85.00 £86.00 £84.00 £45.00
Virgin bill - £49.49 £60.97 £67.26 £65.85
Football tickets - £35.00 £18.00 £37.00
Tea/lunch out - £28.65 £54.77 £35.25 £49.09
Household misc - £23.75 ( set of bedding, set of four mugs) £18.95 £4.47 (toaster)
TV Licence - £23.75 £23.75
Quiz nights - £17.40 £6.50 £15.26 £1.00
Cards/presents - £13.66 £152.38
Haircut - £12.00 £12.00
Fireworks night - £11.00
Debt repayment - £10.50 £130.00
Stationery - £10.22 £2.20
Football stickers - £8.00
Postage - £6.42 £5.58 £2.56 £6.37
Laundry - £6.00
Football programme & lottery ticket - £5.00 £3.00 £6.00
Car Wash - £4.00 £6.00
Parking - £2.00 £2.00
Advent calendars - £2.97
Bank charges - £1.85 ( withdrew money from an ATM that wasn't free) £1.75

In addition, I also spent this month...

Football training & Match fees - £30.00 £40.00 £30.00
Car Insurance - £24.00 £28.00
Round of Golf - £10.55
Boys Football Boots - £8.95
Game Memberships - £8.90 (part of Christmas prsent really).
Christmas Fayre - £6.00
Clothes - £2.00 (a pair of socks)Additional costs in January were..

School trip - £10.00
Trainers x 2 - £13.99 £6.00
Sun Holidays - £42.00
Unit for boys room - £10.00

In addition in February, I spent...

Hotel booking - £67.00. I've got two-thirds of that coming back so it will actually only cost me £22.50 or so.
New phone - £52.95. Bot of a luxury but I'll get a third of that back when I sell the old one.
Concert tickets - £45.78. Bought for my daughter, the concert ticket will only cost half as her friend is settling up shortly for her half of the cost.
USB hub for desktop - £7.17
Socks x 5 pairs - £2.00
Football stickers, lottery ticket and mufti money day at school cost a combined total of £6.20

Smart_Mart

There you go then, not too bad although the eating out column has taken a pounding this month....:(

Housekeeping, Virgin and fuel pretty steady three months running now.

Gas bill well down now it's warmed up.:D

Debt repayment went really well with a three figure reduction. Still think I'll go for a DRO when I'm ready.

Also looks like I have some extra income to come in, in March. Daughters concert tickets, hotel booking and money back on phone along with three courier jobs I'm owed for should bring in £100 or so. Football club should be settling two, maybe three bills this month which will make the world of difference if it happens.

Smart_Mart

Picked up the new car this morning in a rare moment of peace in a hectic day. Nice drive too, and another diesel which is cool as is its colour... dark green!

Up at 6am, out by 7am to do the booked courier job, home for breakfast then out at 9am to deliver 235 papers. Back home for shower, early lunch then down to the club for four hours wor and a 2.5 hour meeting afterwards. Got home at 9.30pm.

Spent £2.00 on a Tesco meal deal and £3.02 on some bread and shaving foam ( I have weird taste in sandwiches, okay?)....:eek:. Coughed up £50 for a golf day next month which hurt but there you go, its an annual event that I play in.

Done a list for tomorrow which will be a day in, I think. Need to pay a couple of bills, update the websites, do some housework, need a decent shop, two loads of washing and sort out my filing tray. A friend's football team is playing locally tomorrow night so will go and watch that if the weather is good.

Smart_Mart

Had a productive day today really. Managed to get the Virgin bill paid (£71.48), the TV Licence payment made (£23.75) and all my housework finished too. Took three large boxes of cans, bottles and papers to the recycling bank and got an evening courier job completed too. Went to a match tonight to do a report (£5.00 admission) and got back an hour ago to a chicken hotpot.

The paper rounds start again tomorrow but I have to sort the leaflets out first thing in the morning so I'm ready to go when the papers get here. Picking the boys up at 3.15pm, giving them tea then off to football training in the evening before dropping them home.

Smart_Mart

The day went pretty much to plan, even got to keep the twins an hour longer as the England game was on telly.

Did one round of papers only, as it took so long to sort the leaflets out. Back home for lunch then collected the boys for tea, training and televised football...:D

Spent £2.00 on a car air freshener, £1.00 on a vacuum, £10.00 on the gas card and £2.25 on some bread and a tube of Pringles. Need to get a full shop done on Friday sometime.

Tomorrow, I'm down at the football club from 9.30am till 2pm then over to Dorset to meet up with my older two children for the rest of the day.

Smart_Mart

Quick update today as getting tired.

Down at the club today, worked there from 9.30am till 6.00pm as ex-wife and DS1 were ill and suggested not coming down unless I caught something and passed it on to younger two.

Wrote a 900-word archive article this evening for next Saturday's programme.

Spent £3.65 on lunch, tea and a newspaper.

Tomorrow I have to do two paper rounds, the weekly shop, sort out some leaflets and write a website article.

Smart_Mart

Wrote an article, sorted the leaflets, delivered 225 newspapers, had lunch, went shopping and had packed it all away by 1.30pm....:D:T

Haven't done much since, mind you, as whacked out now. Picked the boys up from school and have just been chilling for the rest of the day.

Taking them to golf in the morning, following the game on the radio in the afternoon and then they have football on Sunday afternoon so quite a busy weekend.

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Well done Smart Mart. Enjoy your weekend. Take care

Smart_Mart

Forgot to add my "spends" yesterday - I did the weekly shop at Asda for £37.69.

Today, indulged myself in a game of golf at Bath which cost £17.20 for the three of us including a little snack afterwards from the cafe. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we're all pretty good at it if that doesn't sound too arrogant....:p

Stuck £5.00 on the gas card today. Also, eagle eyed followers of the thread will have spotted that I haven't bought diesel for a while now. That's because the chap that books me for the odd courier job filled the tank of diesel when he sorted out the new car for me which was nice. He owed me £45 or so which meant a tank of diesel made us all square. Been to the club twice this week plus all the usual running round after children and newspapers but still have almost half a tank left!! :T

Tomorrow will return to some sort of normality as there is a chill-out session in the morning before a light lunch then the twins are playing football in the afternoon, quite locally for a change. Hopefully it will be a return to quiz night in the evening.