Want to be a mfw but worried?

ally18

Hi all,

Well, I haven't posted hardly at all over the last year so I plan to change that and make sure I keep a proper diary if I can and when I have something interesting to say.

To start off, I seem to have made a little error in my m2 balance but have corrected it now on my sig. My new target for this year is to try and o/p £3k instead of reaching a specific amount. I already know things are going to be much tighter for me this year so I may not reach the £3k anyway. However, I will try.

Right, to begin. I have decided not to have little accounts all over the place this year for my different bills, xmas savings etc. Instead the money is all going in a monthly savings account to get the better interest. My little red book is set up so I know what amount is for what and so on, so will keep track that way.

My first action this month was to pay the £100 I saved on grocery over Dec straight into the xmas saver fund with Mr T so that is ready for this years big day and I've made an extra £6 already to boot. :j
New goal has been set for me personally. I will not buy any clothes/shoes this quarter at all. When I looked at everything I had, it just seemed a waste of money buying new stuff so this will be a def no no for Jan/Feb & March. I'll review it later again .

Ok, think that is it for now.

ally18

Morning all,

Well, last day at work for the weekend for me now. I managed nsds all week I'm glad to say as I have been determind and brought in lunch from home each day.

Grocery budget stands at £89/£150 so £61 left for the rest of the month. I am splitting my shopping between Mr T and FF from now on as some things are just better value from each place and I'm using my vouchers for FF which helps.

I signed up to a new fixed tariff on gas at the end of Dec so that is sorted until April 2013. My electric fixed rate comes to an end in March so will see what I can do about that to better the tariff or at least equal it in some way. I'm currently paying £30 pm for gas and £37 pm for electric and both accts are in credit so happy with that too at the moment.

I'm still using the dongle for internet and we manage to last two-three months on the 3gb so will carry on with that too. I did give in over xmas and signed back up to V**n for the small tv package because we keep losing freeview, that is £12.50 pm but already on the first bill, they tried to overcharge me by £20 :mad:. After an irrate telecon yesterday, this will now be sorted by March time. Its so annoying when they deny what was originally said but I was adament I wasn't paying it as it wasn't agreed.

I have my final xmas bill to pay at the end of this month and I think I may have saved a bit extra so will double check this and if so, it will be another payment on to the m2.

Plans for the weekend - cleaning, washing, ironing and starting to declutter a bit.

Have a good weekend all.

ally18

Hello All,

Right, I managed to get a few jobs done over the weekend. I made two sets of curtains out of some spare voile to put up at some bedroom windows that didn’t cost me any money which was good. I made a new voile curtain for my dd’s wardrobe which looks a lot better now too and all from spare bits I found in an old drawer.

Grocery shopping now stands at £143/£150 so only £7 left for this coming Friday. However, the freezer and cupboards are now full so I will only have milk and fruit to get I think. I was hoping to have some left over to make an op but that’s not going to happen this time, never mind.

My scratch card came to nothing this weekend so that is a disappointment but from the ones bought so far this year, I am £11 pounds up so that will go into the treat pot. (I have decided this year, to allow myself £1 per weekend to spend on a scratch card, any winnings go into the treat pot unless it’s a big one).

At work all this week, so all four days will be nsds as I bring in my lunch from home. I’m trying to cut back and thought I was doing really good as I only have soup and yoghurt for lunch but the pounds seem to be piling on and I don’t know where they are coming from! I’ve brought in my old sw book to help me out and I can’t remember how many sins I was allowed so I’ve decided to have all 15 to start off with. :rotfl:

My old bird table decided to go flying in the winds yesterday so will need to fix that next weekend from what I can find lying about. I’m def not buying a new one, that’s for sure.

Nothing else to report as yet, I don’t have any other bills or such this week to sort and it’s payday next week, finally. I’m hoping to make an op of around £350 then.:)

Bye for now.

ally18

Feeling a bit down today after having an argument with my 15 yr old last night. It was parents evening so I went along with her dad only to find out that she is not doing well in nearly all her studies, mainly due to not putting enough effort into both course work and homework etc. Basically it seems she has decided to just coast along. This is really disappointing for me as she wants to be an infant school teacher so had planned to go to college and uni and I said I would back her to the hilt hence trying to get rid of m2 now. I spoke to her whilst at school and tried to say that she needs to seriously think of what she wants to do and have given her 6 weeks to try and pull things around for the better, together with her teacher's agreements. So what I have said, is that during the week now for the next 6 weeks, she can't go out to friends houses or have anyone round because she has been doing this quite a lot in the past months (I allowed it because she said that homework was always done and everything was ok schoolwise). Well obviously it isn't and I now know about it! Weekends will still be free for her to go out but weekdays are now a no go. Well, this went down like a lead balloon and she is now not speaking to me! I have been accused of ruining her social life, she cannot live without seeing her friends and esp the boyfriend and she is determind that she won't agree to this. I've tried to explain how I only want the best for her and she will regret not doing her all in these last few months. All her teachers have said she can achieve high grades if she put her mind to it but she seems to be not bothered now and I don't know what to do. The end result last night was, that I lost my temper due to her screaming at me and I said fine, do as you wish. She can go out during the week but no friends are coming back to my house and I won't mention the subject again. I won't support her at college in Sept and she can sort uni out herself. (Not the best answer to the problem but she has got to want this herself). I personally don't think I was being too hard on her. She wants to be out every night during school time and it is this (and the bf) which has stopped her working! Kids!!!

Anyway, rant over. I shall see what sort of a mood she is in tonight. It just makes me annoyed that I want her to do her best, I am willing to suport her financially when at uni so she can manage but I'm not doing it when she has this kind of attitude.

ally18

Happy to say have just made first op of this year, managed in total £383.34!

Knocked another year off as well, phew!

ally18

Morning all,

Well, another weekend gone and managed to do so without spending any extra money. Me and the kids had a dvd weekend which was really nice and relaxing. I’m happy to say my dd has come round to the idea I suggested about her studying. She admits she hasn’t really been concentrating as much as she could, so for the next 6 weeks she is going to knuckle down during the week. Friday, Sat and Sunday will be her socialising days.

I managed to fix the bird table with lots of nails and bits of wood I found lying around behind the shed so that is up and running until the next windy session.

Grocery budget – well I was bad with this one. I took my mum shopping Friday and she wanted to try a different store, the big freezer one! I couldn’t go round there without buying bits either so I ended up spending £15 in there and £14 in Mr Ts. So much for my £7 left for this month!!! Never mind, £22 has been marked off Feb’s total so I must be good next weekend. I ended up making two trips to Mr T’s because Mum accidently left a whole bag of shopping hanging on the handle of the trolley, it had about £10 worth of groceries in it as well! You can imagine, I was really surprised to see it had been handed in at the customer service desk as well by one of the trolley lads. Relieved wasn’t the word, I had that sick feeling at the bottom of my stomach that we had lost it all, iykwim. I did wonder if it hadn’t been the trolley lad who saw it first, whether it would have been handed in at all. Hmmm! Anyway, from now on, I will be checking the trolley fully!

Today, I have sent in my electric and gas meter readings so will see later on in the week how those are looking, I don’t think they are too bad at the moment. I ordered another 3g sim card as well so that will be the internet for the next 3 months hopefully.

I haven’t spent my £20 allowance for January, yay! I managed to stick to my guns and have not bought anything at all for me so first month’s target is achieved. I’m holding on to that for the time being though as I think I may have a bad Feb so will need it for emergencies.

The monthly savings account is now open and have transferred the funds for bills, hols and xmas already.

That’s it for now. At work so a nsd. I brought everything in from home so cup a soup, yogurt and fruit for lunch. Yuk! Would rather have a big sarnie!

ally18

Actual pay day today so have disected the bank account completely. Credit card bill has been paid, everything is now in its savings accounts as I planned.

My car insurance was due for renewal in Jan and instead of paying the renewal amount of £283, I managed to get it for £220 so have saved £60. This has now been added to the leftovers out of the bills account and I have put it straight into my ISA. A total of £150. I need to build up a savings pot now because I will have some plumbing issues to deal with in summer as well as some serious decorating including plastering which has got to be done.

Two months worth of water rates that I haven't had to pay have been spent on a couple of sofas from the charity shop for my dining room. We have to sit in there at the moment because my front room is unbelievably cold. The radiator just is not big enough and one of the walls appears to be damp (these are the summer jobs). I have bought a new television to have in there with the cable tv which is going to be paid out of the two months council tax I won't be paying soon. I got the tv on buy now pay 6 mnths so that is ok.

Now waiting to see how the gas & electric bills look. Not too worried about this because all year I have saved a little extra to go towards any excess usage over the cold times so that fund has over £400 in it at the mo.

Thats all for now.

ally18

Quick update on my gas bill.

Just had the 6 monthly bill in from my supplier and am standing at £70 in credit. Yay! They have reduced my monthly dd from £30 to £7 from now on so the remaining £23 will go straight into the gas/electric account for when they decide to put it back up again.

Should have been a nsd day again as in work however, I found £10 in my purse so went and bought milk, bread, loo roll and cooked meat for next week as I won't be doing a major shop.

ally18

Feeling demotivated today.

Not sure whether I will continue on here.

Froggy-G

ally18 wrote: »

Feeling demotivated today.

Not sure whether I will continue on here.

Aww What's up Ally? Anything we can help with?

Froggy