Floozie does Frugal 2010

Intergalactic_Floozie

Daysto Payday = 3

Grocery Budget: £300 / £119.29 spent / £-10.19
Petrol Budget: £130 / £12.30 left
Everything Else Budget: £317.74 / £243.09 spent / £-108.66 left
Grand Total: £747.74 / £106.55dr

Well the other kids parents must have more money than sense, as DS1 came back with £18 explaining all he'd spent his money on was 2 cans of pop whilst the birthday boys parents bought all the ammunition. He reckons they must have spent around £600 all in!!!! Car has still only got about 30 miles left in it though. Unfortunately we had left it too late to ask him to get phone numbers of other parents to see if we could share driving as he only sprang it on me on Saturday and he hadn't been at school.

....and what did we do while he was out paintballing? Yes, we went to the pub when we are over £100 overdrawn, bravo, well done!!!! "only" spent a tenner, but that is £10 more in the red we are now.

DH has ran out of money now and he understands there is no more money to be conjoured up so he can smoke and drink.

My shoes broke today, I'm really annoyed as I have only had them for about two months (threw the receipt away) and within three weeks had to pay £11 to get them re-soled. Well somehow the sole on one of them has come off completely so walking home from school was fun (not!). Had to sling them in the bin when I got to my mums and she lent me a pair of sandals to get home in, unfortunatelyy I am a size 6 and she is a 5, and I've never had a pair of shoes pinch like it before OUCH. My house was like an Oasis in the desert, getting farther and farther away, the closer I got to it. I don't need new shoes however I'm gutted more than anything because I really liked them, they were flat and comfy without making me feel frumpy, or cause my unstable double-joined ankles to give way.

DS1's school shoes are also broke. He's only allowed to wear shoes for school, no trainers or black canvas pumps and unbeknown to me he had a massive hole in the sole, he came home today with his socks sodden. He's only got 5.5 full days left at school before he finishes so it's pointless me buying him any school shoes before then, so I am gonna have to write a letter and ask the school to turn a blind eye to his canvas pumps. I had bought him some a few weeks ago to wear to the social events we have coming up, and he chose them (£24) but the first time he wore them to school, he had the rip took out of them, and now wont wear them again. Bloody kids! Apparently the black shoes broke because they are cheap and nasty, and if I'd bought him Nick Deakins they'd be still going strong. Not if you persist in playing football in them they wont matey.

DS2's trainers have given up the ghost too (it all happens at once doesn't it). He does have some school shoes, wellies and canvas pumps but needs trainers for football practice, which resumes some time before August pay day.

To add insult to injury my house insurance renewal forms came today. Last year it was £192. This year - 6 years claim free now - £258 which is with Churchill who are generally cheapest! Not very pleased. Will have to shop around tonight on the comparison sites. I HATE INSURANCE!!!!

Oh and car tax is due out of next pay day too, I'm getting £110's worth (6 months) so that it doesn't co-incide with the MOT and Service (August).

I missed the gas man today so have read my meter and dug out my gas bill. Last reading was 3922 (estimated) and reading today was 4030, which is 108 units. Add on the £48 in debit from last bill, I'm reckoning this one will be around £174. I will have made 2 payments of £110 since then so by my reckoning I am £46 in credit, although I do think I was also in credit on my last electricity bill too.

Ugh, have to go to Morrisons tonight to get enough evening meals to last til Thursday big shop but don't really know what I fancy. Off to some meal planning threads for inspiration,

Intergalactic_Floozie

Insurance update - cheapest I managed to get it was through Compare the Market with Churchill(!) at £201 excluding legal protection.

So I phoned them to see if they could reduce my through-the-post premium which they promptly did by an astounding £58 down to £200.55. I've had to pay in a lump sum so it's come out of my car repair fund, which I would like to try and keep topped up around the £1k mark, but unlikely to be at that for a while (gulp).

Not going to Morrisons today, found some frozen fish in a sauce lurking in the freezer so DH can have that with new potatoes and veg, whilst I have a burger from leftover BBQ food.

If I get my act together tomorrow, we could have stew and dumplings too,

Verbatim

well done Floozie on both the insurance and finding dinners in the further reaches of the freezer!
Does your signature re loan payments refer to the new loan you took out recently?

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to Payday = 2

Grocery Budget: £300 / £119.29 spent / £-14.76
Petrol Budget: £130 / £0.20 left
Everything Else Budget: £317.74 / £243.09 spent / £-114.53 left
Grand Total: £747.74 / £129.49dr

Very annoyed with husband today. I suddenly realised yesterday that he had a packet of 20 cigs and a bottle of wine despite having spent all his money on Sunday. I asked him where he'd got the money from, and he's only gone and borrowed £20 off his mother! She's a kind and generous lady and helped us out a lot when we were first starting out and she's only on disbility benefits so he shouldn't be cadging money off her. The thing is that I do HAVE plenty of money in the bank so I'm really annoyed he went begging off his mum. I was trying to show him that he needs to try and budget better.

Spends today:
£1.50 - DS2 had to go to breakfast club as DH had to be in early for a meeting
£4.57 - groceries (I cashed in my coin stash in the coin star machine and got £7.43 back but still had to put some money to it)
£2.00 - sausage and egg butty

My lovely dad has given DS1 some money to take on his school trip tomorrow meaning I don't have to give him any money as he has more than enough

Intergalactic_Floozie

Verbatim wrote: »

well done Floozie on both the insurance and finding dinners in the further reaches of the freezer!
Does your signature re loan payments refer to the new loan you took out recently?

Yes, that's right - the five year loan I took out in March

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to Payday = 1

Grocery Budget: £300 / £119.29 spent / £-14.76
Petrol Budget: £130 / £0.20 left
Everything Else Budget: £317.74 / £243.09 spent / £-115.28 left
Grand Total: £747.74 / £129.49dr

Hooray - payday tomorrow!!!! I puzzlingly got my wage slip today and it is £6 lighter than it was last month, can't understand why, unless I had some mileage claim last time, but I can't find last month's wage slips to compare.

No spend day today although I forgot to mention yesterday that we needed petrol AGAIN so the rest of the petrol budget was spent. I hate that car! It gets more spent on it than I do.

So, grand total is £129.49 overdrawn, which is quite bad, but not too bad given how much of an unusually busy month we have had.

DH completed a full house of knackered shoes by showing me his one-and-only pair of shoes have developed a whopping great hole in the soles! What are the chances of that, four people in the same household's shoes giving up the ghost all in the same week?? Luckily he is cheap enough to shoe. No demands of Nick Deakins from him.

Been adding up my income /expenditure for next month and it looks something like this:

Groceries: £300.00
Petrol: £130.00
Everything Else: £355.76 (would have been £485.46 but had to pay back last month's debit figure).

July / August forecasted expenses:
1. Road Tax - £110
2. MOT - ???
3. Friend's birthday - possibly zero, as I have a bottle of Sarah Jessica Parker perfume in my gift cupboard.
4. Lightwater Valley on 24th July (£56 thanks to some vouchers saving us £5.49 per person).
5. School holiday "things to do".

My Tesco CC came today and it's £12 less than it was last month at £2559.14. Now I have had both statements in, I will do the balance transfer to MBNA where it will be on interest free until the April statement, when I should have been able to pay around £900 off what I owe.

Had some news from the people who are reviewing our department (which will be completed in November) and the news is that "some processes will be centralised". This has struck the fear of God into me, as it's the job I do, which could easily be centralised although no one has said that out loud, and if they decide to move us to the centre of the universe (ie head office) with public transport it will add on at least 3 hours to my working day with commuting so I am not sure whether I would want to move, or go for redeployment or redundancy. Better get that mortgage cover bought quick smart!

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 29
Groceries: £300.00 // £277
Petrol: £130.00 // £130
Everything Else: £355.76 // £343.91

Spends:
£2.00 - breakfast butty.
£2.85 - Smoothie from smoothie bar
£3.00 - sunglasses (yep, the sun briefly came out today and I didn't have any with me)
£4.00 - 2 of those lovely M&S Mini Bites tubs (om nom)
£3.00 - 2 x tubs of salad from M&S

Come on, a girl is allowed a couple of treats on payday??

EDF wrote to me today to say my fixed term on the online V5 tarrif had ended and they were kindly putting me onto their standard tarrif (eek). Anyway a quick phone call has got me onto a new one, which seems slightly cheaper than the V5, only catch is I am tied in for 12 months and have to pay £50 to leave early.

New tarrif is

Elec: 0.22p per day standing charge / 6.08p per unit
Standard Tarrif: 19.91 p for first 225 / 9.84 per unit thereafter

Gas: 0.238p per day standing charge / 2.45p per unit
Standard: 7.35p for first 670 / 3.036 thereafter.

Cant find last leccy bill but V5 tarrif was:first 521 units at 0.5788p then 0.283p thereafter.

Am I being simple. It looks cheaper?

Intergalactic_Floozie

Days to payday: 28 (this is yesterday's update)
Groceries: £300.00 // £277
Petrol: £130.00 // £130
Everything Else: £361.76 // £334.38

Spends:
£2.00- 50th birthday collection at work
£5.20- Lunch (yes, I know, I know).
£2.00 - Teacher's retirement collection (she taught me!)
£5.33 - groceries.
£1.00 - DS2 icecream for bringing home a certificate

In my defence my Virgin Media bill came today, and I had budgeted £66 for it, but it's only £59+, so that paid for my lunch (ahem). I'm just so bloody stalled of taking lunch in to work.

Had a 'disagreement' with DH last night. He informed me he had to go over to his bosses house today (40 mile round trip) and he has another 40 mile round trip to do on Wednesday. I asked what was happening about mileage (bearing in mind we only get 300 miles out of a £60 tank) and he went off on one saying I was obsessed with money and it was all I talked about!!!! So annoying. So that's at least £20 (cost price) of fuel that he will be using but he doesn't feel able to bring up mileage with his boss. !!!!!!???

Verbatim

Easy to say when you're the one budgetting, worrying, and oh yes forking out so that he can drink 2 bottles of wine, smoke, go out and fund IT courses etc....

I think I'd suggest a joint account for all bills and essentials and separate accounts each and then see who's obsessed with money.

i don't suppose asking for a sub every 5 mins counts as being obsessed?

Intergalactic_Floozie

LOL - I'm going to say that to him when he runs out of money in approximately two weeks!!!!

Days to payday: 27 (this is yesterday's update)
Groceries: £300.00 // £269.01
Petrol: £130.00 // £70.40
Everything Else: £361.76 // £310.94

Spends:
£10.00 - went to the pub for an hour.
£3.00 - took kids to a police station open day and for them the most exciting thing was not the cars, riot vans, motorbikes or cells, but the chocolate vending machine!!!
£8.94 - 4 magazines (EEEEK) - they were slimming magazines to try and get some inspiration for thin food.
£1.40 - 2 newspapers (took DS2 to footy practice which is dead boring so took two papers to read to pass the time).

Ugh, have to go shopping today and really don't want to. Need to shift some weight but am feeling so uninspired by every food other than junk at the moment.Might try the farm shop and Tesco rather than boring old Morrisons,