Floozie does Frugal 2010

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 28
Money in housekeeping purse: £49.15
Money in Personal Purse: £52.00
Money in Bank: £358.07
Grand Total: £459.22
Plus 'non everyday money' in bank: £256.84

Spends: (bright blue means the purchase has been made from my non-everyday spends account, ie the one that I had put £278 away into)
£12.00 - Pair of new school shoes for DS1 - he arrived home from school with his sole hanging off yesterday so I had no choice. Thankfully he liked some cheapie ones so I didn't have to shell out for Nick Deakins or Kickers.
£9.99 - Aftershave for FIL's birthday
£2.00 - DS1 came home with TWO more merits yesterday. I told him we might have to rethink the £1 per merit, but he claims the teachers are just throwing them at him of late and he doesn't normally get that many.
£0.85 - bottle of pop and packet of sweeties for DS2
£2.00 - new purse - now known as my 'personal spends purse' as I couldn't fit any cards in the old one.

Groceries: £280.00 / £263.57 left
Petrol: £130.00 / £74.50 left
Everything Else: £60.00 / £49.15 left
Personal Spends: £80.00 / £72.00 left

I've been having bad, bad thoughts today. Unfortunately in one of my magazines I found a 20% off code for a shoe shop which is an authorised stockist of Ugg Boots and I've been coveting Ugg Cardi boots for ages. They're £119 but with the Discount and Cashback from Quidco they'd "only" come to £89!! I don't know what to do. I do have the money to buy them, but to spend that much on a pair of boots seems crazy to me. I do also have some classic tall uggs that I bought second hand for £50 and I have worn them to death so I know I would wear them, and as I have been after them for ages, they're not an impulse buy. I've also got the chance of 4 hours overtime this weekend, and I'm also working good Friday for 6 hours, so that would be netting me £101 after tax....Any thoughts? I could always buy some cheaper ones as I saw some in Next that I liked for £20?

Olliegami

I love the idea of colour coding your spends! Visuals are fantastic!

With regards to the boots though, I think perhaps you should have a scout on ebay for some? It's so tempting to buy online because you have a discount code or something, but you still end up spending more! The problem with the next boots it's probably the quality of them, too!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Bloody hell Oli, you are a genius! I really hadn't realised that they would be so much cheaper on e-bay, but there seems to be plenty on BIN at around £60, plus I can still get cashback from Quidco too! Thanks.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 26 (Didn't get chance to post yesterday)
Money in housekeeping purse: £41.65
Money in Personal Purse: £50.81
Money in Bank: £333.55
Grand Total: £426.01

Spends:
£24.52 - frozen discount shop
£1.50 - Breakfast Club (DS2)
£6.00 - DS1 - came home with SIX Merits!!!
£1.99 - Shop bought sandwich (Friday lunch)

Groceries: £280.00 / £239.05 left
Petrol: £130.00 / £74.50 left
Everything Else: £60.00 / £41.65 left
Personal Spends: £80.00 / £70.81 left

Hmmm.....I seem to have 80p more than I should in my purse! No idea where that has come from. Never mind, better up than down...

What a performance this morning was. We were told there was £500 available for overtime which needed to be used by 31st march, so divvied up between all who wanted it, equated to 4.5 hours. I went in this morning to do it, all psyched up, got there for 6am and then at 8:20am all the computer systems crashed and a tannoy went out a few moments later to say there was a network issue and it would be off at least half an hour. I left it until 9am (and I could do nothing without a computer, married up some paperwork and tidied my desk up) but by 9am it still wasn't back up so I admitted defeat and went home. I could hardly sit there infinitely at overtime rates until they computers cam back on could I? So now I'll have to try and do the other 1.5 hours through the week, which is awkward as I need to make time up for the school holidays - BAH!!

Had 4 more lightspeed surveys offered to me but when I clicked through I was screened out of two straightaway however the other two I was accepted for, so in total I now have 795 points, which is £6 cash and 105 towards the next £3. (cant face doing any Toluna though.....) and there's been NO mystery shopping assignments available to me for ages now, and I check each morning.

Also managed to forget to pay for DS2 at footy last night and seem to get away with it. It's only £3 but it can go towards xmas. I think I need to separate 10p's and above, and take the 5p's and below to to the coinstar machine, use the voucher for shopping, and then transfer the equivalent into my bank account.

DS2 came home with another 6 merits from school last night. Even he is baffled as to why he's suddenly getting so many! Between september and last Monday he's had 72, which is roughly 12 per month yet in one week he's had about 11! I think I'll have to cap it at £20 per month although saying that with no school and no footy in August he wont be getting any money from me then mwahahahahahah.

Managed to talk myself out of the Ugg boots. I simply cannot justify paying out anywhere near that sort of money. I might get the £20 pair from Next. Hopefully it will be sandal weather soon and I can buy some gladiators YAY!!!

DH also has 3 hours overtime today which he will get in his end of April wage.

I think this giving myself pocket money is really helping me with my spending. I decided I would treat myself to a shop bought lunch yesterday so toddled off to Subway and my friend said: "what are you having?" so I said I might have a steak and cheese. She said; "Oh the most expensive one" (£3.58, I think it was) so I paled and quickly decided to have sub of the day, which was only £1.99. I've also taken DS2 to footy practice today and usually I'd have a hot chocolate and a bacon butty, which sets me back about £3.50, but I couldn't bring myself to spend 'MY' money LOL. I told you I hate handing cash over. In fact, at this rate, I might have some money left at the end of the month however admittedly I am coveting a bracelet my friend got from M&S at £9.50. All attempts to persuade her it looks crap on her so she should give it to me have failed.

Weather is rubbish today, typically it has been uncharacteristically warm oop north through the week, so today when I actually have time to enjoy it, it rains! At least it will stop me going out and spending LOL. (I'm also secretly hoping DS1's footy gets called off tomorrow too so I wont have to pay him for any goals he scores)

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 25
Money in housekeeping purse: £41.65
Money in Personal Purse: £50.81
Money in Bank: £310.76
Grand Total: £403.25

Spends:
£22.76 - Groceries at Morrisons. Came home with quite a lot of whoospied frozen stuff and bakery stuff!

Groceries: £280.00 / £216.29 left
Petrol: £130.00 / £74.50 left
Everything Else: £60.00 / £41.65 left
Personal Spends: £80.00 / £70.81 left

Nothing else to report, just keeping my accounts up to date.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 24
Money in housekeeping purse: £34.65
Money in Personal Purse: £50.81
Money in Bank: £310.76
Grand Total: £396.25

Spends:
£6.00 - Window cleaner called round for his money, he must have come through the week when it was nice. I hadn't noticed!!!
£1.00 - goal from DS1 in their 10-0 win yesterday. He's hurt his hip in the process though. I also learned - with terror - that they have 7 games to play in four weeks. I could be very, very skint by the end of April!!!

Groceries: £280.00 / £216.29 left
Petrol: £130.00 / £74.50 left
Everything Else: £60.00 / £34.65 left
Personal Spends: £80.00 / £70.81 left

Somehow I don't think my everything else budget was realistic this month!

Resisted the urge to walk into town at lunchtime as I felt like buying myself a pair of shoes or some jeans.

DS1 has grown out of half of his jumpers. I will therefore have to use some non-everyday money to get him a couple more, however at least I have the satisfaction of knowing that DS1 and DH can now share tops so if he grows out of them, DH can wear them!

Have to go to Morrisons tonight, I know I only went on Saturday but although I bought lots of frozen stuff I have nothing to go with it!

honeybear_2

Floozie, re.the Ugg boots - I'd say if you have your heart set on them & no others then save, scrimp etc (all the stuff you're already doing!) just for an Ugg boot fund. Any others will seem second-rate by comparison so treat yourself to the best when you can afford it.

And beware of fakes on ebay :eek:

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 22
Money in housekeeping purse: £33.30
Money in Personal Purse: £47.81
Money in Bank: £280.09
Grand Total: £361.20
Plus 'non everyday money' in bank: £246.84

Spends:
£10.00 - Bottle of brandy for DH's grandma's birthday
£1.99 - Lunch (Tuesday)
£1.00 - packet of sweeties
£1.00 - DS1 (non uniform day)
£0.35 - cant seem to account for this loss from housekeeping purse!
£30.67 - groceries shopping (Monday)
£95.20 - pair of Cardi Uggs!!!!

Groceries: £280.00 / £185.62 left
Petrol: £130.00 / £74.50 left
Everything Else: £60.00 / £33.30 left
Personal Spends: £80.00 / £67.81 left

Well, as you can see - I bought the Uggs. I got them brand new from Shudoo as they had a 20% code off and I could guarantee that they would be genuine and I wouldn't get ripped off. They were £119 with £23.80 off, then a further 6% cashback from Quidco (£5.71), which has tracked so in total that is £89.49. I could have got them a bit cheaper from e-bay but I'd rather have peace of mind for something so expensive. I had the dispatch notice sent this afternoon (ordered yesterday) so they should be with me in next couple of days

Reason for my change of heart was that thanks to the end of year coming up and management finding a glut of unspent money after a years overtime ban (!) I'm guaranteed 20 hours overtime, plus the overtime I am working on bank holiday, if I can get it all done, then over the next two paydays (April and May) I will have an extra £285 which more than covers it. They're something I have been wanting to buy for ages, and I know I will wear them to death. Now I just have to find the energy to work the overtime!!! (5 hours done so far = £47)

Also have managed to get two tickets to see Wrestlemania on 11th April for £30 for the pair, so I'm going with DS2. That'll be coming out of my 'non everyday money'.

Clubcard statement came today, nothing monetary as I haven't been to Tesco for yonks, but they did kindly give me £5 off £25 clothes, and I could do with a new pair of jeans. Also got lots of Boots extra points vouchers too.

DH still hasn't had a letter for an interview for that job. I'm beginning to think they might not be calling him for interview after all as closing date was a week ago today.

moo2moo

Theres still hope of an interview. A week is a very short space of time in education. Even the most basic of decisions seems to take an eternity.

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 21
Money in housekeeping purse: £33.30
Money in Personal Purse: £45.81
Money in Bank: £280.09
Grand Total: £359.20
Plus 'non everyday money' in bank: £246.84

Spends:
£2.00 - breakfast butty


Groceries: £280.00 / £185.62 left
Petrol: £130.00 / £74.50 left
Everything Else: £60.00 / £33.30 left
Personal Spends: £80.00 / £65.81 left

Still no interview letter!

Poor DH has had to have three teeth out at the dentists today, I thought he was only going for fillings. I could hear him screaming in pain through the wall, the poor thing! He has to go back next week for something too, so we don't have to pay until then.

Two more hours overtime done so far, so that's (after tax) £68.60 (7 hours). Don't think I am going to get any done tomorrow however I am doing Sat & Sun. One of my colleagues came in on her day off and did ELEVEN HOURS! today.