September - a new start

Kittikins

I've just done something either v. sensible or v. daft - I've transferred today's £3.20 and also £300 into the savings pot. To explain: I didn't pay the car money last month as it was one of my months "off" as I thought I would need extra money for our holiday. Thankfully, I had saved up nearly enough to pay for everything we spent over there, so at the end of August I had a bit left in my current account, which I've now transferred, together with some tax credits and 10p interest earned on one of my accounts (woo hoo!!) into the savings pot.

The balance in there is now £409.47 or 17 leaves out of 52 or 32% (I think, maths isn't my strong point!)

It's going to mean I really have to be sensible about what I spend for the rest of the month, but hopefully having the cash out of the main accounts (but ultimately still reachable) will make me more focussed.

DD's in my bed tonight and I had nasty dreams and woke up hot, bothered and upset at 4:30 so what else to do but read, and come online! I think I'll pay for this later though

I'm stressing about work as well - it's been going on for a while, just too much to do, worrying that I'm not good enough, feeling out of control, not liking what I'm doing but feeling powerless to change my life. My main boss is being fantastic, helpful, kind all the rest of it, but it doesn't always stop the scared feelings I get. Monday morning, fresh start and all that and I just want to run away and pull the covers over my head!

So, instead, I shall force myself to go for a swim at lunchtime in the hope that fears and anxiety will melt away.........wish me luck!

It's one of the reasons I want to get myself sorted out properly financially so that ultimately I'm in a better position to work out what to do career-wise for the rest of my life.

Kittikins

Kittikins wrote: »

Update on the Plans for this weekend -

Go to the gym/swim at least once
Go to Brighton/Crawley and exchange a skirt that must have been mis-sized, I know I'm a lard but this is tiny!! :j
Look for some new winter shoes :j
Hoover the entire house :j
Re-read "Why am I so disorganised"......and put some things into practice
Have at least one NSD over Friday to Sunday :j
Update my Amazon/GM listings of books/CDs
Sort out my wardrobe
Sort out DD's wardrobe
Clean the cooker (this has been on my to do list for about 2 years!!)

Quelle surprise, the cooker didn't get cleaned.......DD's holiday clothes (clean) are still in a suitcase on the floor in my room and I didn't go to the gym.....

Today's list:

Call around tyre companies to get the best price
Put DD's clothes away
Do the ironing
Put DD's car seat back in the car
Go for a swim

Kittikins

Hoorah, I've found a cheap and friendly sounding company to do the car tyres, about £100 cheaper than the worst quote at a national chain, so I'll be off there tomorrow lunchtime - and they've promised me tea and chocolate biscuits, both milk and plain (as apparently us girls appreciate the finer things in life, lol).

Due to my cold, I'm sounding quite husky and probably a lot more alluring than I am in real life, poor chaps they're going to be so disappointed when a plump *cough*, greying woman rocks up in a filthy cobweb-ridden car with 2 car seats in the back (I always have a booster in for any unexpected friends of DDs we need to pick up!)...

Anyway, it's a virtual saving which I won't be putting into the savings fund as cars always seem to need things doing to them if you wait long enough!

Kittikins

Hmm, realised my how long can I make £100 last challenge might end quite soon as I only have £28 left and I need to fill the car up with petrol soonish. I'm going to be driving near an A$da petrol station this afternoon (cheap petrol and I get 1p off a litre as I use an old credit card of theirs which has this benefit) so may do it sooner rather than later.

Oh well, at least I've been conscious of how I've spent the money! I have 82p in my purse, and a burning desire to spend, spend, spend today, lol. My packed lunch wasn't quite satisfying enough and I was just debating raiding the choccy machine at work when a colleague offered me a slice of her oh so delicious birthday cake, so that was an unexpected delight

After work I'm going to head out and try and find the mythical perfect winter shoes/boots using my 20% off token from the magazine I naughtily bought the other day....fingers crossed as once I have them, I will not need to spend money on clothes/shoes for me all winter (so long as I stop putting weight on!)

Kittikins

£3.20 moved across and packed lunch made with scrummy home made bread rolls I've also made a delicious carrot and lentil soup for dinner tonight, hope it'll meet with DD's ultra-critical approval - I might have to chuck some kidney beans in her portion and call it "Tuscan Bean Soup", lol.

I didn't bother looking for shoes/boots in the end yesterday, I bought the world's largest bag of pasta (Mr T has a special offer, think it was 3kg for £2 for fusilli/penne), some bath stuff for DD (BOGOFF) and other bits. I did waste 30p on total rubbish food for me

I have also done a few competitions from the board on here, and was very pleased to win the ballet slippers for DD for the grand sum of £2.50 including postage. Hope they get here by Friday morning! But if not, she can muddle through the first lesson in the shoes she wore for her ballet exam!

trixiepix

I've just hooked up my own diary and have been dropping into others to see how well everyone else is doin!

I can totally sympathise with the whole car money drain, i decided a couple of months ago that i needed to be changing my car by around April next year (so set up the whole savings pot thing)but as soon as the thought hit my mind my own car started falling apart (ok, bit of an exaggeration!!) but the brakes needed addressing, then the clutch went (the first time i've ever had 2 have a clutch replaced) so at the moment my new car savings are nil due to having had to spend all that i've saved on the car i don't want to keep - arrrrrrgh - but it does still get me around, so i suppose i have to be grateful for that!

I love the debt tree idea, i'm gonna have to get my arty head on and draw one of my own!!

Well done you and keep focused xx:)

Kittikins

Hi Trixie, thanks for popping by. I share the pain about lack of savings, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pay for the car tyres as I had cleared out the account to be able to borrow less from my parents when I got the newer car in May. Thankfully as I put over £100/month into the account to pay for all the servicing/MOT/insurance etc I'm already up to £400 so can afford it!

When I remember how bad I used to be with money I shudder, but I'm currently chuckling to myself at how obsessed I am - I just found a 1p on a spare desk at work, have taken it and am seriously toying with putting the penny into my online savings pot! Yup, I'm officially insane!

Looking forward to the choccy biccies at lunchtime when I get the tyres done, they'd better be good after the mechanic's buildup, lol.

Kittikins

Well the choccy biccies were delicious, bourbons my favourite, the chaps were charming without being sleazy and the car is purring like a kitten now it has 2 new tyres

I had to pop out to buy something for work and found 6p on the floor so took that as a sign that money was flowing nicely and move 7p across online to the pot!! Nutter I know

I find inviting people you don't know particularly well to your house is a good way of ensuring the house gets a bit of a tidyup! I had my new chums over to plan the term's activity meetings as I couldn't get a babysitter tonight, and as they're both more mature with grown up children and surely have very lovely houses, I didn't want them to walk into our usual bombsite. DD and I tidied up quite a bit and she also wanted to make fairy cakes, both for school and to offer our guests.

Bless her, she was so excited at the "Bows" coming over that she changed into her best frock, what a cutie!

I'm now sitting at the kitchen table working out sums (yawn) and have drunk the best part of one of my yellow-stickered bottles of rose from the weekend oops!! I was supposed to be inviting a girly chum over to drink it at some stage......oh well, it's going down very nicely, I'm worth it (but hope I don't get a headache in the morning!!)

My flipping dishwasher now doesn't seem to be washing very well. I've done a deep wash with a cup of white vinegar in it and am keeping my fingers crossed that it will have sorted out the problem, but I think it's more likely that I need to bribe my dad to come down and pull the darned thing out from the wall and unclog pipes as I've found all sorts of yuk in the filter before - hair/matches/pennies/blutak (courtesy of DD who is obsessed with the stuff!!). Hope I won't need to get someone professional in to take a look at it.......

I'm also quite excited as I've just been accepted as a panellist on Taste Radar - basically you do an online evaluation of fruit and vegetables you buy from supermarkets, inputting info from the labels such as country of origin/size etc and then rate the taste etc of the f/v. Then you send them your receipts and they reimburse you - up to £25 a month!!

As our fruit bowl currently contains one apple, one orange and a few bananas, I'm going to get started tomorrow Being paid for essentials is going to be great There's a thread on here about it and it looks a perfectly honourable company who will pay up - yippee!!

Kittikins

Morning! My head feels suprisingly good given I drank a bottle minus one glass of wine last night!

£3.20 transferred over and my Amazon money has come through from selling a book earlier in the month. I'm a week in and have £421 in the account. Sweet!! I know I'm not always going to be able to do that, but with my new-found determination to be debt-free and savings-full, I'm hoping that I'll be able to shave bits off my monthly budget to put into the extras funds.

Kittikins

I've worked out that it costs £1,570 a month to keep our heads above water - that doesn't include the debt repayment...darn it, that's £1,820!! No wonder I always feel skint