Simple doesn’t mean easy

CaroleM_3

Hello, poor neglected little diary, I'm sorry for not writing in you more often - must try harder!

Weekly Budget Update:
Well, my plan of staying £15 under budget didnt happen - I am currently £1.46 under my £100 budget - whoops!

This breaks down to:
£4.91 work food
£40 social life
£44.5 Treats (hair cut, magazine, sunglasses)
£9.13 Toilettries (moisturiser and toothpaste)

Basically, I overspent on Saturday, but I had an AMAZING night and I dont care one little bit!

Next weeks budget (starting tomorrow) is £70 and staying within it should be interesting as I will need a train ticket to London and money for food, drinks etc while I am there. But its all in a good cause as I am going to see an episode of Genius be filmed

And in random waffliings about non MSE stuff:

The walking is going quite well, the target for this weekend is 14 miles, which I'm planning to do Saturday morning before it has had a chance to get really hot.

And my boyfriend loves me - he told me on Saturday and I love him too - this convo has left me with a permanant soppy grin on my face that only a very snotty cold has managed to wipe off.

So, all in all, its been a bl**dy fantastic week hope everyone in MSE land had a wicked one too

Oh - and one final thing (if anyone is reading this) - I apologise for not posting on peoples diarys, work has been super busy, I've been trying to read and press the thanks button, but have been too brain dead to comment/ be sociable - will try to get properly caught up next week.

rainbow81

Hi
I just read your diary and although we have different lifestyles (I'm a single mum) I can completely understand where you were with buying clothes on impulse and then having to "stinge" for the rest of the month. I found that before I had a budget to stick to every spend felt "guilty" and I'm starting to wonder if this was part of the (weird) shopping thrill??

I liked your sayings that help you. I can't remember where I heard it (probably Flylady! :rotfl:) but as a very undisciplined person this has helped:

"Self-discipline is just remembering what you REALLY want". (Or something like that.)

It stops me thinking of giving up things (like magazines) as a sacrifice and more of a help to get what I'm really after.

Sorry about the essay, I'm not in debt but never have any money and your diary has made me think about a few things.

Oh, and well done on the swimming :j and the reasons for the soppy grin, how lovely.

CaroleM_3

Hi Rainbow81 – nice to meet you! :hello:You really ought to get a medal for reading all this waffle – especially the first few posts, I don’t talk this much in real life honest! Also, love the quote – will add it to the pad

You’re so right about the guilt/thrill of shopping – it’s like being a kid and not doing your homework – terrible idea but you feel like a right rebel doing it :cool:, like your sticking 2 fingers up to ‘the man’ or something. Course, with shopping I’m effectively sticking 2 fingers up to myself.....making it really pointless and extra stupid.....this train of thought is going somewhere but I have no idea where, am giving up now!

Anyways.... I made it a full 7 days after payday before I bought clothes - Go Me!
I got a dark blue casual summery jacket (£5 from the cancer research shop) and a patterned summer skirt (£4.30 from the British Heart Foundation shop). The jacket was actually on the list of things I need – progress has been made! :T Although, point worth noting – some charity shops you get total bargains in and some you don’t – a thin cotton skirt in one costs almost the same amount as a jacket in another – but I know which one I would be spending more on if I was buying them new in a proper shop.

And, I had a moment of madness last night – I unplugged my freeview box and put it in the cupboard – I now have only 4 channels and a DVD player. I’ve had the box for 11 months now and it’s turned me into a total telly addict, I can’t get all the channels tuned in so I never watch anything good, just masses of repeats on E4 and Dave. I never enjoy what I watch cause it’s always rubbish repeats but for some reason I watch it anyway, and I never get anything useful done. So, anyway, it’s been banished and the plan is working already - last night I did an exercise DVD, did some knitting and listened to Plan B. And this morning, getting ready without the TV for ‘background noise’ I was ready for work an hour earlier than normal, can’t believe how much of a time suck it was and I didn’t even realise – I ended up having a tidy up and sorting out a bag of stuff to take to the charity shop.

Since I won’t be watching TV tonight I might spend the evening on DooYoo reviews as I think I have points that are about to expire.....how rock and roll is my life?! Bet you're all jealous :rotfl:

CaroleM_3

Well, a successful weekend all in all – I got one whole Dooyoo review done – go me! :T Sarcasm aside, I am actually pleased with that, I haven’t done any for months so it’s good that I’ve started again.

I had such a nice weekend, I got a 10 mile walk in on Saturday morning: 14 miles just wasn’t going to happen, it was far to hot to carry on, I got home at 8.50am and I was already roasting hot and sweaty. After a quick nap and a shower it was off to my bf’s to laugh at him trying to build a BBQ and play Lego Batman on the Wii with his son. And after that I went to my best mates to eat fajitas and watch horror films – making it officially the busiest Saturday in recorded history. I made up for it Sunday afternoon by doing absolutely nothing other than lie around reading a book.

Having said that though, I did get rather productive Sunday evening and managed to make a favourite old summer skirt small enough for me to wear again – it took nearly 3 hours because my sowing skills aren’t up to much, but it fits and it looks good – so I’m a very happy bunny.

Money stuff is ok-ish - this week will be a little tight, I have £35 left of my weekly budget and I will defo be using all of that, and could really do will another fiver magically appearing out of thin air....will see how it goes....

CaroleM_3

Another Dooyoo review done, feeling rather pleased with myself

And a rummage through the draws yesterday revealed a severely damaged skirt that with a mere 3 or 4 hours of sewing could make a beautiful (yet short) summer skirt....of course, if I do that the summer will mysteriously disappear and I will never get a chance to wear it...:rotfl:

Swimming tonight, not looking forward to it at all to be honest, but I don’t really know why, I think I’m just feeling lazy, still, I will go and just do an hour if I still feel the same once I’m there. My best friend has just text me to say she is in a funny mood and doesn’t know why – at least I’m not the only one.

SmlSave

Hi Carole,

just poping on to say how much I'm enjoying your diary. Keep up the swimming! I only manage half an hour normally - you must be super fit!

Or I'm just lazy.......

CaroleM_3

SmlSave wrote: »

Hi Carole,

just poping on to say how much I'm enjoying your diary. Keep up the swimming! I only manage half an hour normally - you must be super fit!

Or I'm just lazy.......

Thanks Smlsave, that’s such a lovely compliment! And you’re not lazy with the swimming – if I go by myself I only do half an hour or 45 mins, but Tuesdays is my lesson and it can be anything up to an hour and 45 mins!


I was a bit rubbish last night – I spent 16 quid in the pub after swimming, I had an amazing night though so I ‘m finding it really hard to care.

The problem I’ve got is that that has put me over budget for the week (I still need a train ticket to London etc tomorrow) and it’s so tempting to go ‘oh sod it’ and buy the pretty dress that I really want:

http://www.dorothyperkins.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=20552&storeId=12552&categoryId=155424&parent_category_rn=49448&productId=1693823&langId=-1&cmpid=Lynku

(if the link doesn’t work it’s the black butterfly shift dress on the Dorothy Perkins website – its stunning!)

So I’m trying really hard to remind myself that
a) £38 is a lot of money, specifically it’s a lot of money that I don’t have
b) I have nowhere to wear something that classy – my local pub is the official grunger/goth/meteller haunt, I’m always overdressed when I’m in there but that would be taking it to the extreme
c) The chance of my boobs fitting into that bodice is slim to none, and it would ruin the dress to have squished booby all over the place
d) My Mum has bought me a really lovely dress for my birthday, so I will be getting that in a couple of weeks
e) I have a lot of dresses already – I really don’t need another one
f) If its meant to be I will find it in the sale at some point at a price I can afford
g) If I’m going to spend vast amounts of money on a single item I could really do with a new swim suit and should prioritise that

So, I have £3.96 in my purse, I’m thinking a trip to the charity shop is in order to see if I can find myself a little treat – I will still get the shopping kick but at 10% of the price.

d3mon4ngel

Just a quick one to say hi, and to keep it up! I noticed that you'd dropped in on mine, and thought I'd return the favour

I've enjoyed having a read through your diary today, and it's actually cheered me up a bit strangely.

*subscribes*

CaroleM_3

Thanks d3mon4ngel - am glad I made you feel better, writting this drivel makes me feel better about things so its good to know its not going to waste :rotfl:

My £3.96 lived to fight another day, there wasnt anything that I liked, although I did see some nice jeans for a fiver that I may go back for on Friday - I need some for Peru and they looked ideal.

CaroleM_3

Super speedy diary update - Dave Gorman was amazing! London was expensive! the £5 jeans didnt fit but there was a £2.99 pair that did - woohoo! I am very sleepy!

Have a good weekend everyone, will update properly on Monday