I can't beleive how easy it can be

Bonglecat

:eek: Thanks for letting me know. At least I've only used it once phew!!! Although I've seen no evidence that it has worked as they are all constantly nagging for food.

I've been to the MedicAnimal site since and got an order for Drontal and Advantage.

Betty_Crumble

hello bc, happy that your are still at it with gusto. And how addictive is couponing!, i luuuurve it. Sign up to L'oreal insider and you'll get a few decent coupons to print off and add to your stash :beer:

Bonglecat

Hi there diary readers. :wave:

So payday again today, which means another set of repayments this time including the new big joint loan but without hubbies horrid credit cards. :j I've also removed the catalogue from my signature as I have now closed the account and got a refund of £1.70 overpayment.

My personal loan is down to 2 payments, M&S Visa I've paid off another £300 which makes the total tantalisingly close to the £6k mark. So what the heck I'm going to make an extra payment of £32 which will take it to £5999.62 :beer:

Savings have only gone up by £60 because I had to borrow £200 from it last week to stop the current account going overdrawn. My extreme couponing got a bit carried away and whilst I saved about £70 it total I also spent an extra £160 and created something of a stock pile

But if anyone has got picky cats Asda have the whole Felix range (with the exception of Sensations) on for £3 a box including the As Good As It Looks, which is the only thing my troop of fur balls will eat. Saving of £1.49 per box but when you by 9 it still adds up. :doh:

I also bought tickets for Phantom of the Opera when it tours next year so that was £118, but I do love it so I'm willing to go without something for that.

On the whole though we've been good with food and starting to clear some of the cupboards and freezer and so far without making up any weird combinations. I found a tub of homemade chili in the freezer (only a couple of weeks old) but it was only one portion, so I defrosted it and added a can of tomatoes and one of kidney beans. I prepared to get complaints from DH on the weak chili but he didn't even notice :think: Means I can half the meat content in future and up the beans without any detriment, I've also seen on one of the forums adding lentils into things with mince bulks it up defo going to try that. I've also joined the Grocery Challenge starting today and my budget is £250 for the month :A

So quiet weekend I think, except taking the out-laws to the garden centre as they have given up their car, a very MSE couple but that might mean hubby tries to get some stuff himself V bad!!

I'm off on my travels again, so I'll be in the seaside town of Worthing for the week. Hotel and meals will be covered by expenses, seaside hotel with no mini-bar or extras so no spending there and I will not have any alcohol as we can't claim that back. Just means I have to buy lunch instead of making and DH back home won't be making his own lunch either. Let's just hope he doesn't order takeaways everynight to. There are pizzas in the freezer so......

Bonglecat

This is my first week on the Grocery Challenge. Went out yesterday to Ald! and Asba £17.38 and £14.18 respectively But this did include £2 on dry cat food and £3.80 on cat treats (that they go crackers for) the rest from Ald! was mostly biscuits and DHs favourite Chicken encroutes. I'm away on business all week and if I don't make sure he has things to slam in the oven he just orders takeaways :eek: Asba included McCains Wedges reduced to £1 and I had a 50p coupon and Finish dishwasher cleaner £3 with a £1 coupon, I also spent £5.50 on birthday cards as I have quite a few coming up. Only really baddie was getting a mini tube of Colgate for my trip £1.12 (you can get a full size Aquafresh at Tescos for £1, what was I thinking?!??!?) and then coming home to fine my free sample of Oral B had arrived and I could have just used that. Poo!!!

In the afternoon I finally dragged my charity bags to the village with the intention of dropping and running. But when I got to the car park a nice lady gave me her ticket, so I ended up having a wander around going into M&$ and doing the £10 meal deal, oops!!

So weekly shopping total was £51.13 which is great considering I used to spend £80 to £100 per week at Mr T's.

Garden centre trip went well but we did end of spending £37 on plants and a bag of sand for the BBQ drip tray (perhaps wishful thinking!) I got 3 new herb plants for my containers so that could be considered MSE as I have a renewable source of Rosemary and Sage now.

I'm away next week so will have to buy my lunches but my challenge to myself will be to keep then under £4 as we can claim a £3.75 incidentals allowance for each day and that can off set.

I also decided to go for it on the £32 and my M&S Visa is now under £6000 :j I'll wait until the end of the month and then go onto the website and reduce the limit again :beer: My dream is that I get about £1000 for all the stuff I need to put on ebay and make a lovely lump sum reduction, but you know how fickly ebay can be :cool:

Anyway won't be able to post until next weekend but I let you know what happens when I get back.

Bonglecat

Still working on the Grocery Challenge, only added £27 this weekend :beer: and I know I have plenty in for the week now so I shouldn't spend anything else.

But it's only been 11 days since pay day and I'm down to £139 in the bank :eek:, this doesn't need to pay any bills as they go from the other account but this is food, petrol and cigarettes (DH not me). We are off work next week, so that could be expensive depending on what we decide to do. I'd rather spend the time doing house & garden jobs with maybe one day out and about we are NT members so that shouldn't cost too much.

I do have the emergency savings to fall back on and I have £13 in my expenses account with a further £15 that I can call on shortly, because they aren't needed to pay the corporate charge card. But still I didn't want to be in the position of borrowing from the savings as I already know that is a very slippery slope.

I think it's all down to the theatre tickets and some medical expenses which I wasn't expecting. I just keep thinking hold on 2 more pay days and the loan is finished then I can breath (a bit!)

Still haven't got the Wedgewood or Crystal on fleabay yet, really need to do that soon and pray it goes for a good price. _pale_

P.S. I've had a letter from the catalogue confirming the credit account is closed, so that was another door closed. Yippee!!

alioops78

Hi Bonglecat

Well done on everything so far.

Just a thought but could your DH not change to rolling his own cigarettes or cut down. I'm not going suggest quitting as i did that myself 2 1/2 years ago and was successful but only because it was the right time for me.

Good luck with fleabay, I don't use it but my DH has had a lot of success on there.

Regards
Alioops x

Bonglecat

alioops78 wrote: »

Just a thought but could your DH not change to rolling his own cigarettes or cut down. I'm not going suggest quitting as i did that myself 2 1/2 years ago and was successful but only because it was the right time for me.

Well done with quitting alioops :beer:. I'm afraid roll ups are too fiddly for him and he's in the middle of a health scare which hasn't caused him to quit so I don't think anything will. He's said he will a number of times but the best he did was a whole 3 hours driving from Birmingham to Durham. :rotfl:

Bonglecat

Where oh where do I start????

We've had loads of things happen, both DH and I have had to pay the excess on our BUPA treatments which I hadn't factored in, he's also had a crown fall out which needed more dental work and extra expenses.

We booked in the decorator to do the bedroom, finally. But DH wants it done to perfection which means moving a socket, so in the end it's looking at £680 plus we spent over £100 on paper.

So that pretty much wipes out the savings, although there will be more decorating expenses such as blinds and bed covers, but they will have to wait.

Then I found myself falling back into old behaviours, because money was getting tight I went to the big shopping centre "for a look around" and of course bought 2 jumpers and a shirt. I can only say thank goodness I took my M&S card limit right down otherwise it could have been a lot worse.

We had a day out in the Cotswolds this week and on the way back stopped off at a posh farm shop where I spent money on overpriced fancy food stuffs I shouldn't have. Then this morning I went on my usual shopping circuit but over spent on extras like a new laundry basket and jogging top which I could have lived without. So for the first time in months I handed over my card with a knot in my stomach as to whether it would be accepted. Once everything goes through on Monday I will be £400 overdrawn. :mad: And it's not pay day until the 20th.

I'm so cross with myself!!

meow5678

Don't worry too much, we all slip up!
You'll learn from this and be far less likely to spend next time, you're only human!

alioops78

There's always the possiblity of going too hard too soon. By the sounds of it the first part of your post reads as though it was all covered by savings.

Is there any chance you can take the clothes back if you're that annoyed with yourself?

At least you noticed that you've fallen into old habits and you can only learn and move one.

I should be paying more off my debts but I need spending money otherwise I'd rack up more debt whilst in Oz but I'm still paying way over the minimum payment rates. Hubby has come up with a brilliant solution to not being able to spend, he's managed to block his credit card by putting in the wrong pin number too many times and now he's lost his bank card lol. At least its making us eat what's in the house and not just buying something to be lazy.

Good luck it can only get better.

Alioops x