Simple doesn’t mean easy

CaroleM_3

Can’t believe I left it this long to update – work has been stupidly busy and will be for another week I think so I can’t see me updating much for a few days more.

This week’s budget is a mess, and my plans to avoid shopping failed. So I am already up to my £35 limit for the week, with 3 nights out to go before Friday, when the new budget starts. So, I will take an extra £10 out tonight for the pub and try to spend as little as possible. Wednesday and Thursday are both having dinner at friends house’s so any money left over from the pub will go on buying something nice to take with me.

And to compensate for taking an extra tenner out tonight I won’t have any sensible money in week 4 – I will just have £10 work food and £10 social life.

At the moment I keep thinking ‘well, I’ve messed up now, I might as well take money out of my savings, go on a shopping spree, and write this month off and start saving from scratch next month’. So it’s really important that I don’t give into that particular little voice, and stick to the plan.

And in other, non mse matters, it’s my birthday at the end of June, and I’m trying to decide what I want Mum and Dad to get me. My first thoughts were a new dress, some makeup and a handbag. But I remembered last night that I’ve wanted a bike for ages, so am now trying to decide if I should ask for that for my birthday instead. I really like the idea of going on bike rides on nice summer evenings when the roads are quiet and part of me thinks cycling to work and back could be a good idea (though I would probably be too scared of the traffic on the main roads to do it).

Either way it needs some thinking about, and possibly a bit of internet time, checking out my options.....

CaroleM_3

I wrote this yesterday in word and never got time to post it properly:

Week 2 Budget Summary:
Work Food - £9.16 – under by £0.84
Social Life - £11.89 – over by £1.89
Sensible Stuff - £23.39 – over by £8.39

Overall – Over by £9.44
The reason this went so far over is spending £12 on a cardi and a pair of tights. It sounds really bad but I’m not that bothered by going over, I’m pleased that it wasn’t more, that shopping trip I found loads of stuff I liked and was really restrained only getting 2 bits. The tights were to replace a favourite pair that had developed a hole and the cardi was the perfect shade of blue, that I had been looking for for weeks – both have been worn already, so clearly weren’t wasted money.

Anyways, the new budget week started on Friday and I really doubt I will manage to stay under this week, but who knows, I will try.

To be honest, I’m so happy at the moment that I really don’t care, I will try to stick to my budget for the last 2 weeks of the month. Even if I don’t manage to stick to it I will still have spent less than I would have otherwise, and have also avoided the binge and stinge cycle, which was the point of the whole exercise.

CaroleM_3

I nearly text verbal abuse to my boyfriend at 5.20am morning – I dreamt he dumped me via face book, woke up fuming, and had my phone in my hand before I had even come to properly – it took a good couple of minutes before I realised it hadn’t been real!

My mum is taking me shopping today to get a dress and some makeup for my birthday, I decided against the bike – I think I am too chicken to cycle on the roads and with all the walking and swimming I don’t think I can face another exercise challenge. I will probably end up regretting my decision but never mind!

And on the subject of walking, I have added another tab to my money spreadsheet and will be keeping a log of my mileage – last week was 17.25 miles, longest walk was 6 miles (was aiming for 12 but there was a change of plans). I’m already up to 7.5 miles for this week, and am aiming for 12-14 miles at the weekend, so I should beat last week’s total.

moo2moo

If you're considering a bike try Decathlon they have an enormous range of just about everything including some fab walking gear (I apologise now for leading you astray... ). V. sensible prices and the stores are huge enough to go cycling round to try out the bikes to see whether you like them first. You might even find you can get a discount from a local cycle shop via the Bike2work scheme although you need to shop around and have an amenable employer.

CaroleM_3

Thanks Moo, your a star!

I went on a ride round a forest near me this time last year on a hired bike and the idea of getting one of my own has been festering at the back of my mind ever since. Part of what puts me off is living on a main road, and the thought of cycling in traffic.

CaroleM_3

Last night’s spends were £6.70 in the pub, spending the evening with my bf and bff and £2 on my 25 meter swimming badge! I’ve never had a swimming badge before so I’m ridiculously excited about it – I showed everyone in the pub last night, and got lots of high fives . I could have just had the certificate which would have been free but I really wanted the badge – it makes up for never having them when I was little like all the other kids.

I won’t get any walking in today, just a wander at lunchtime, so tomorrow I will aim to walk to work and back, which is 7.5 miles.

On payday I will probably be signing up with the local leisure centre, it’s either £19.95 for a swim only 12 month contract or £24.95 for a rolling monthly contract – this one can be cancelled at any time, with the 12 month one you’re trapped for 12 months. I think I will sing up for the £25 one for 3 months, see how much use I get out of it and then decide whether to go for the proper 12 month contract. It includes the aqua fit classes so I will try to go to those too to make the most of it. A swim costs between £4.50 and £5.50 and an aqua fit class is around a fiver, so I will only need to go 5 times a month to make it worthwhile.

CaroleM_3

Nothing MSE to say this morning, yesterday should have been a NSD but I bought a packet of crisps at lunchtime, today will be a NSD, I have taken all the money out of my purse to make sure of it.

And I walked to work this morning, so thats 3.75 miles on the spreadsheet, and I will walk home tonight too.

CaroleM_3

I have a pad on my desk that tends to accumulate random quotations that I find as I read around on the internet, these are my current ones. There’s a bit of a theme – they are all things that I think would help me if I could just remember them. So I thought I would write them here:

“Long term success is about persistence not perfection.”

“If you focus on the results you will never change. If you focus on the change you will get results.”

“Being an adult means saying no to yourself sometimes.”

“There will come a time when you can no longer do this. Today is not that day.”

I think I will need to remember the last one tomorrow – I’m aiming for 14 miles :eek: and I’m hoping to start by 7.15am at the latest as tomorrow is forecast to be hot and sunny. I don’t have a route in mind but I live on the edge of the weald of Kent so I’m going to just pick a direction and start walking.

Anyway, another weekly budget has come to an end,
Work Food - £6.60 (under by £3.40)
Social Life - £18.30 (over by £8.30)
Sensible Stuff - £19.25 (over by £4.25)

And I’m starting to see a pattern develop – last week I spent £44.44 and this week I have spent £44.15 – I always knew a budget of £35 would be difficult to stick to, but perhaps £45 is my ideal budget? Looking back over the last 2 weeks I don’t feel deprived at all....worth thinking about.

Epic fail on the NSD yesterday, I took the change out of my purse but not the cards – ended up getting a gorgeous shirt dress in the charity shop for £5.75. Not too upset if I’m being honest, I rejected about 7 other items and only got the one thing I really loved, it’s hard to get upset with myself when I know I was being really picky, got a really lovely item, and didn’t buy just for the sake of buying something. Anyway, it’s already been washed and is waiting to be ironed, and it will get worn tomorrow after my walk, when I go to the park with my bf and his son.

CaroleM_3

So, with only 3 days till payday, it seemed like a good time to do an end of month savings summary:
House savings increased by £44.72, taking me to 91.7% to my yearend target.
Other Stuff savings increased by £446.19, taking me to 36.9% against my end of August target (this is short of my May target by about £30, I have increased my June target to make up the short fall).

So my total savings now stands at £5471.46, not too shabby!

My June budget is ridiculously generous on spending money, as it’s my birthday month and I want to be able to have treats and nights out without worrying about how I’m going to pay for it. But I will be trying to keep some of the money back for the end of the month as there is a very slim chance I might be going to Glastonbury and I want to have the money put by just in case, and if I don’t it will all be used on birthday nights out anyway.

So June other stuff savings target - £370
House Target - £30
Weekly budget -£80 per week (hoping to have left over’s every week which will get shoved in my knicker draw in anticipation of Glastonbury/birthday treats).

I will look at how my £35 a week idea worked out on payday, but overall – Epic Fail! 4 weeks at £35 is £140 – well, glancing at my spreadsheet, I’m already at £147.49 and I still have to get work food for the next few days, and a quick trip to the pub tonight – which between the 2 will be £10.

On the bright side though, clothes spending is £29.63 for the month, down from last month’s £55.98 – really pleased that this has gone down again!
And the £29.63 breaks down to-
5 pairs of nude tights - £3, sainsburys
Skirt for walking - £6.39, H&M
Purple tights and blue cardi - £12, M&S
Burgundy Shirt dress - £5.75, charity shop
Floral summer skirt - £2.49, charity shop

So, overall, not a bad month, not bad at all.

CaroleM_3

Week 4 Budget summary:

Work Food - £4.90 – under by £5.10
Social Life - £20 – over by £10
Sensible Stuff - £4.99 – under by £10.01
Overall – spent £29.89, under by £5.11

Overall – Spending money for the month was targeted at £140 – and came in at £156.49.
£16.49 over doesn’t seem too bad to me, especially because thinking about the last few months, I would have spent A LOT more than this if I hadn’t had the budget, and hadn’t been reporting back here.

I’m so pleased that I’ve managed to stay in control for the month, I don’t feel deprived, although I am running out of some toiletries and will need to get those tomorrow (payday, and the start of a new month). So overall, the budget has been a very successful experiment and will be repeated in the future.

This week coming will be super spendy as I have a haircut booked for Tuesday (my first since February!) and a wedding to go to on Saturday (I’m my best friends plus one, so I don’t have to get a present or anything, but I will need drinks money). I’m setting myself a budget of £100 for the week (Friday to Thursday) and am hoping to come in £15 under that.

Happy payday everyone!