Smart Mart - Health, wealth and happiness

Smart_Mart

Ought to add that I accidentally managed to get myself a much better deal on my mobile phone today...:D

I'm currently on a sim-only deal with Virgin that gives me 200 minutes and 200 texts for a tenner. O2 rang me up out of the blue today and after 45 minutes, I am now an O2 customer pretty much anyway. They have offered me 300 cross-network minutes plus unlimited texts and unlimited calls to landlines for the same price. Makes my current deal look sick.

Just need to ring up and get my PAC code from Virgin when the sim card arrives later in the week.:T

Smart_Mart

Missed another update yesterday...:(

Wednesday - delivered two paper rounds and picked the boys up from school. Paid a creditor off (£40) and paid the training fees (£45).

Today went down to the club, bought lunch (£2.60) then went over to Dorset to see my older two children, bought tea and got home after ten tonight.

Better updates coming soon.

Smart_Mart

Finished the papers off just in time before the showers this morning then went shopping and spent £29.96 in Asda on the shopping but forgot fruit and vegetables for the new plan starting tomorrow.

Picked the boys up from school and we've not gone out since we got home. They are coming with me to the last football match of the season tomorrow and we might go to golf on Sunday if the weather holds off.

Oh and its my birthday tomorrow....:beer:. I'll try to do a spending diary for April tomorrow sometime but I'm off to bed soon as I'm hanging. Brought the exercise bike downstairs in an attempt to kick start things off this weekend....:eek::D

Smart_Mart

Got up and chilled out on the sofa for most of the morning after breakfast. Well, t'is my birthday after all...:p

Had a pasta salad for lunch, missed my toast for breakfast and just had cereal (semi-skimmed milk, no sugar) and tonight treated the boys to a Happy Meal (the team won hence I promised them a McD) but didn't get anything myself, preferring a tuna pasta bake instead.:A

Spending wise, bought some squash, a loaf and some washing up liquid (£3.77), at football bought a golden gamble ticket and the Happy Meals cost £3.98.

Day's gone really well and will hope to keep it going tomorrow. If its sunny, we might try a spot of golf. If not then it'll be indoor sports, I'm afraid.

Eager_Elephant

Happy Birthday for yesterday SmartMart!! :beer:

EE (long time lurker!)

Smart_Mart

Thanks EE.... :T

Rained for much of last night and this morning so golf was postponed. Stayed in all day until I took them home at 5pm and in fact they were still in their jarmies till gone 3pm...:eek:

After I took them home, I walked to the local shop to get some exercise (and a newspaper and some gas too). It's a round trip of around a mile so doing that two or three times a week should help. Ate pretty well today too so hoping that things might turn around now.

Nothing planned for tomorrow except two paper rounds so an early night and lie-in is on the cards, hopefully anyway!

Also managed to go through my email inbox and get rid of 750 out of 800 emails that had been clogging the system up. Dead pleased about that as it was a job I've been putting off for ages.

Smart_Mart

Been a great Bank Holiday, have really enjoyed myself today.:D

Had a lie in until 8.30am then was up and out delivering papers by ten. Finished by 11.30am and went home for dinner. Rang my little men up and asked if they fancied a game of golf while the weather was good. An hour later we were on our way to the course...:D

Dropped them home for tea and then caught up with the missed episodes of Ashes to Ashes so now up to date having watched four in the past 24 hours.:eek:

Just chilled out tonight and making plans for tomorrow which include work, shopping and making a concerted effort to get a washing machine from somewhere. I also have to sort out a few bills that are nagging away.

Today's spends were £1.60 on toilet rolls, £20.00 on diesel (20 Nectar points) and £10.55 at golf.

Smart_Mart

Money went in this morning and a fair bit of it has already gone out....:eek:

Paid the rent, the car insurance and the Virgin bill (£102.71) and while I was on to Virgin, I reduced my phone service to the very basic package, just line rental + free weekend calls. This has saved me around £8 a month and I've also signed up for the direct debit payment which I've worked out would come out two or three days after the football club pay me, i.e. there should always be enough money to cover it.

I don't really need free landline daytime calls anyway as (a) I don't use the phone too much at those times and (b) the new O2 package for my mobile phone kicks in on Thursday with unlimited free calls to landlines and 300 minutes to cross-network mobiles included for a tenner a month.

Finally getting my act together and trying to organise my finances. Fed up with being fat (taking steps to help this) and fed up with being financially thin so need to take steps for this too. Today, I should have saved c. £13 a month plus by making those changes.

Went to do the week's shopping this morning and spent £38.78, saving £3.84 on multi-buy savings.

Smart_Mart

Bright day again down here today. Washing piled up at home so went to spend the first hour and a bit of the day in the local laundry. Got away with a big wash for £8.00 (ordinarily I'd leave it for a service wash but they're almost twice the price) so I invested 90p in two papers and made myself comfortable.

Home then straight back out for two paper rounds before lunchtime. Picked the boys up from school but DS2 (the one who didn't fracture his wrist) was so shattered from cricket, he couldn't get himself motivated enough to go to football training...:eek:

Only spend today was the £8.00 in the laundry.

Tomorrow is the day at the football club and maybe a visit to an old friend in the evening that I haven't seen for a couple of years.

Smart_Mart

Three more days without an update - good job there's no-one reading this, isn't it?

Thursday - went to the club all day and worked till 6pm handling the press conference as the media manager was away. Took my lunch with me which saved about £3.00 on lunch which it normally costs. Friend was ill so didn't visit in the evening.

Friday - found myself out of a lot of shopping stuff and ended up going to Asda and being relieved of £30.78 in total. Delivered two lots of paper rounds then collected boys for the weekend.

Saturday - had a football tournament this morning which meant an early start. Blooming cold today and treated me and Ryan (DS3) to a bacon roll each when we got. Harry (DS2) was playing so couldn't partake. Anyway the team only went and won it!! :T:j. They were outstanding, fought for each other and despite hitting the post/bar six times, they battled to the win and thoroughly deserved the trophy and medals they received.

Couldn't go to the last away game today as was otherwise engaged so had to do the match report from the radio commentary. Boys were knackered so chilled out at home until bedtime.

Tomorrow they're going back four hours early as I'm off to Dorset to collect DD1 and take her and a pal to a concert in Bristol tomorrow night. They're staying over and going back on Monday after work and before the paper rounds.

Today's spend was £9.50 on hot food, £2.00 on a tournament programme and £20.00 on diesel.