My lose lbs save £'s diary

missylaney

I have to say I'm not looking forward to the weigh in this morning. I've stuck to the diet fairly well for the last 4 or 5 day but Monday and Tuesday were pretty bad. Lets hope all the running about I've been doing has helped. Going to power walk to SW with the buggy this morning to try and boost my chances a bit more.

Yesterday would have been an NSD but had a mini-drama with my youngest. She'd cut her knee on Saturday afternoon and it bled quite dramatically but seemed ok and was fine by bedtime. When I got her dressed yesterday morning I noticed that the leg with the cut was very swollen from the knee down and a bit hot to the touch. I took her to our local minor injuries unit and luckily it wasn't infected but there was what looked like an insect bite on her lower leg, so she's had an allergic reaction to that - nothing to do with the cut at all. I was very relieved as I thought the cut had infected because I hadn't cleaned it properly. Anyway, the upshot of all that was I had to go to Asda to get some piriton syrup (£3) and ended up spending another £10 while I was in there!

My financial forecast (haha, I love calling it that - makes me feel important!) is not quite as grim as it was, but have had to use my wages for May to sort it out instead of saving them as originally planned. No money due back from the tax credits people unfortunately, instead I owe them £1.96! Also our monthly payments from them have gone down by £50 per month so thats a bit of a blow.

Business Account Balance 359
Business Account Outgoings pending 1195
Personal Account Balance -729
Personal Account Outgoings pending 1424
Personal Account incoming pending 905
Invoices Pending 1735
Invoices Overdue 290
Total Incoming 2560
Total Outgoing 2619
Leftover -59

Money owed that we'll get eventually £670


I'm hoping that Saturday was my last day as a parcel courier, there's a new lady being trained up today and tomorrow so hopefully she'll take it on from Friday :j

missylaney

:j:jLost 1lb:j:j Definitely due to the running around, must keep very busy this week indeed, would like to lose 2lb more to get under 11st for the first time in 5 years!

missylaney

Such a mixed bag of financial fortunes for me today!

On the plus side, I have been able to reduce DH's tax bill quite considerably - we had a large invoice that I had mislaid when doing the original calculations, plus I had left off some other allowable expenses (phone, use of home as office etc). We now don't have a shortfall on this as his bill will be less than my rebate :j:j The only thing is, I haven't told DH yet - I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I'd left them off in the first place so will have to think of a "spin" so i look like the heroine of the story rather than the bumbling fool!

On the minus side, the saga of the ride-on mower is rumbling on. Basically, the football pitches DH mows are taking too much of a toll on the mower. We've had it just over a year but according to the manufacturers its done the equivalent of 6/7 years mileage. We need to get it fixed asap, so obviously that's going to be a big expense, up to £1k if it needs a new engine :eek:

On top of that we have to seriously consider giving up the football pitch job. It pays well and has repaid the cost of buying the mower in the first place, but once we add up our expenses for the job - £25 a week in petrol for the mower plus the cost of the wear and tear - we don't think its going to be worthwhile. This is 1 to 1.5 days work a week during the growing season, but tbh he's been turning work down and is always booked up a few weeks in advance so that's not a major concern.

Finally - our toilet has broken! Poxy thing, the flush has always been a bit dodgy since bought new about 7 years ago and its finally given up the ghost. Luckily we have an outside loo (not quite as grim as it sounds) so using that until DH gets time to have a proper look at it and pronounce it fixeable or not. Personally I think we should just get a new one, but obviously thats hassle/expense we could do without.

Just realised its time to wake the kids up. Sins yesterday, 3 fab lollies:o, spends paper bill £4.85 and groceries £111.

missylaney

Here is my confession

Spent £80ish on Costco yesterday - some of it was justified (£24 on rubbish bags, a business expense) & some of it wasn't (£10 on a quicksilver t-shirt for DS)

Came home and ordered a new toilet £84. Bit of a bargain actually, so am not too repentant about that.

Ordered a jacket for DS from ebay, total inc postage £17. He's needed one for ages though so it had to be done.

Went to a craft fair this afternoon and spent £13, mostly on rubbish. Did get a jar of fathers day sweets each for DH and FIL though.

I feel like I've lost my grip on spending a bit and it needs to stop. I think its mostly because I've been a bit bored the last few days and I have always spent money out of boredom. I've decided to paint my kitchen and breakfast rooms in the next few weeks, so although that'll mean spending some money on paint initially I'm hoping it'll keep me occupied and stop me spending for a while! Just need to work out how to keep the children out of the way while I do it....

missylaney

Finally managed an NSD yesterday, though not before adding some fake tan & £13 groceries to Thursdays list of shame!

My bank account is looking very healthy this morning, about £1000 up on yesterday. My bank only updates the balance at the weekend though so I won't be able to see the actual transaction until Monday morning. I think it must be my tax rebate, but I can't help hoping its some other random windfall and I've still got the rebate to come :D

Had yet another diet blip yesterday

1 fab lolly
1 choc ice
Gravy on my otherwise sin-free dinner
1 blue riband bar that I found lurking at the back of the cupboard
1 very generous piece of lemon drizzle cake

Its my last day delivering parcels today :j:j:j - can't wait to sign off the little gadget for the last time.

missylaney

I'm still spending too much :eek:

Since my last post I've spent (as far as I can remember):

Saturday - NSD 4
Sunday - A kids picnic bench thing from Homebase (because we really needed some more brightly coloured plastic for the garden - I caught a glimpse of grass the other day!) £26 - was £30 but used a 20% off voucher I'd found on here
We had lunch at TFI Friday, but that doesn't really count as me spending because it was DH's idea and he paid for it from the money he'd earned on Saturday morning - it doesn't count if he hasn't handed the money over to me yet
Monday - shopping delivered from Tesco £104 but getting £11 refunded
Slimming World £4.95 - lost another 1lb :j well deserved because I resisted dessert in TFI's and stuck to the SW rules
Cards/postage to Australia £5
Paper bill £4.85
SA edition England shirt for DH for fathers day plus express postage £45

No more now though. It won't be an NSD today as I need a few groceries to replace those I rejected from the Tesco delivery, but that is all I will spend. Will make sure I've got enough to last the next few days so I can get a few NSD's in this week.

missylaney

Another £23 on groceries yesterday :eek::eek: - I was a bit shocked when I got to the till, I didn't realise I was spending so much. I will have to go back to adding things up in my head on the way round the shop, this is getting ridiculous.

It won't be an NSD for me today either as the hairdresser's coming, then tomorrow have arranged to go for lunch with my mum - won't be expensive but it won't be free either.

On the positive side DH has just picked up another regular contract that will pay through the winter and is quoting for another regular one later this week. He probably needs about another half a dozen jobs like that to give us a liveable winter income but we're going in the right direction.

Just one (full size) magnum on the sin list for yesterday, haven't got a clue how many sins they are but I doubt/hope no more than 10.

Paid £400 off my Amex yesterday :j:j but will leave updating my sig till I've got all my cc balances for the month. Am definitely back in 4 figures now so v pleased with that.

missylaney

Managed another NSD yesterday, but spent £30 on alcohol on Saturday night & about £5 on cards.

Sins went a bit haywire this weekend too, but not as bad as it could have been:

Saturday: Several vodkas (but with diet coke which is sin-free)
Two slices of toast and marmite when I got in at about 1am

Sunday: Medium-sized slice of choc cake that we made for Fathers Day
Fab lolly
Gravy & yorkshire pud with dinner
2 large glasses wine

Getting weighed this morning, was good the rest of the week so hopefully I won't have blown it with the boozy weekend. I did about an hours walking with the buggy on both Friday and Saturday too, so that should atone for the chocolate cake at least...

I've decided to pay off the balance of my Amex card (last high-interest one left) with the money that I've put aside for DH's tax bill in January. We've got a couple of outstanding invoices we're expecting from a customer so once those eventually come in I can replace the money. This makes sense as I'm paying more interest on the card than I'd earn on the savings.

missylaney

Put on 1.5lb this week :mad: there is now no way I'll get to my target by my birthday, unless my arm falls off.

Sins yesterday:

1 smallish piece choc cake (its all gone now)
1 small bit of DH's chocolate "No 1 Dad" medal

Spent:

£4.50 on groceries
£4.95 SW
£4.85 Paper bill

Today taking youngest DD to try out Tumble Tots. Its expensive but I do want to sign her up if she likes it because I think she's going to be really bored once her sister goes to big school. DS is doing a guitar concert at school this afternoon but that won't cost me anything so I'll enjoy it! Lots of expense coming up over the next few months, DS's school and DD1's pre-school seem to want money for one thing or another every other day at the moment.

missylaney

Sins yesterday: 1 fab lolly, 1 tbsp sauce + 3 low fat sausages (2 sins each)

Spends yesterday: £114 grocery shopping, £5.40 tumbletots, 99p birthday card

Got my £100 for switching bank account to Alliance & Leicester paid in today and had sort of half-forgotten it was coming so that has cheered me up We're having a (child-free!!) day out in London at the weekend + buying me a birthday present so that's the money sorted - I'd forgotten to allocate any and was contemplating postponing for a week or two, now I won't have to.

Picking up DS1 from school early today - they sent a note home saying that "in the interests of transparency and honesty" we can pick them up at 2.45pm so we can get back in time for kick-off. I think its more in the interests of the teachers wanting to watch it myself but I'm not complaining :D