Amatheya's £4,000 in 2011 Diary

Amatheya81

I'll have a look into the Galexy gift set that's a brilliant idea

Well, I've been having a rubish day. I helped my friend do her taxes last night but the website was playing up so what should have only taken a hour or two took me to 11pm, then I got woken up at 1am when my hot waterbottle sprung a rather epic leak!
This morning I'm shatteredand the next 3 days are all early mornings and late nights so there's no chance I'll be able to catch up with myself.

It's shopping day today and I'm looking forward to buying lots of lovely fresh fruit, veg and meat... after a diet of beans and jacket potatoes for a week I can't wait

Amatheya81

I don't appear to be having a very good week Yesterday I managed to lose £5 from my wallet somewhere and my shopping was really expencive too. Granted I needed to stock up the freezer and buy shampoo but I've already spent/lost £35 of my £100 budget and I've only just been paid!

Oh well, it least there's no housing tax this month and I should get money from selling 5 days of holiday in my next pay. Does anyone know if I need to send off another request for single occupancy tax benifit for next year? Or do they just assume that you live alone until you tell them otherwise?

I'm definately feeling like a bit of a Eeyore today. Oh well it's off to the pub for a charity quiz with my friends tonight so that will chear me up

Happy Friday everyone

loumac

Morning!!

Hope you're feeling more tigger and less eeyore today! How was the quiz? Did you win?

Don't beat yourself up about the shopping, you needed to get staples in and I'm sure you'll organise what you eat wisely!

As for single occupancy it keeps going until you tell them otherwise, I got the discount for 5 years in a row without ever doing anything!

Have a good day. xx

Amatheya81

Hi Loumac, yep feeling much better today (although I'm also feeling much tireder)

The quiz was brill! We were the naughty children at the back of the class but came a respectable 6th out of 12 and started a new cult (all hail the Balloon of Dooooom!!!)

Today was spent at my moms. The handy men my friend recomended (because one of them was her dad) came round to fit some new taps. It was a right palava and what should have taken 2 hours actually took 5!!!!!!!!! Plus I'm now going to have to make a new bespoke cover for the front of the bath because the one we had was mangled when they removed it... *Sigh* Oh well, I'll add that job to the tileing, painting and flooring that I already have to do.

Hope your having a good weekend

Amatheya81

Gah! I have a cold!

I spent all Sunday curled up on the sofa with a nice warm wheat pack (shaped like a horse ) But I'm back at work today and fit to drop. I've also got a busy evening. First I've got to go to my moms and re-hand her shower rail which fell down (I have a nice new one to put up after I've done the tiling next week) then I've got to go to the Swindon Art Association monthly meeting but after that I can go home to bed.

I managed to refrain from buying anything over the weekend and the only thing I plan to buy before shopping day this week is cerial from the £ shop. I still haven't heard anything about the money from selling my holiday. I hope it gors through as I'm really looking forward to the extra cash.

Diet wise I haven't been the most well behaved person in the world. Firstly because I didn't have any healthy food and secondly because I feel so cold and tired all I want to do is munch things that are easy to throw together. I have managed to lose 1lb this week though so that makes 8lb this year... Only 20lb to go

Have a good week everyone, hope your Monday is a short one!!

BTW only 10 months until the Christmas Trees got back up

Amatheya81

I'm feeling a little less coldy today. I was supposed to go to a Artist Forum meeting yesterday but my mom called to say that her shower curtain pole had fallen down and could I come round to put it back up. By the time I'd had lunch and put the pole up for her it was just too late to go to the meeting so instead I went home and curled up in the warm.

Tonight I'm off to watch Harry Potter with a friend. I don't normally go to the cinema but it's cheap night and I haven't been since Avatar last summer. I've bough some sweets from the 99p store though as the pick and mix at the cinema is ridiculessly priced.

I'm really surprised at how much the price of things like food and petrol cost now compared to the begining of last year. The begining of last year I found myself capable of doing my food shopping for £10 and running my car for a month on £20 (I don't use it that much appart from carting my mom around) recently I've found it difficult to do my weekly shopping for less than £20 and I put £10 in my car last week and it's already gone. Is this my imagination or have things really gone up in price so much?

loumac

Glad you're feeling better! Cinema sounds like a nice treat, I think you have to do it every now and then. But NEVER pay for the scandalous sweet prices.

I agree with the changing cost of things, particularly the car. I've owned my car for 7 years and in that time I've watched a tank of fuel rise from about £30 to filling up last week and it costing £50. This time last year out weekly food budget was £35 and we've now made it £40 just to try and cover everything we want! Scary really. :eek:

Amatheya81

So it's only taken me two days to realise that it's Feb! lol I'm starting the month with one of those I've got a cold but I haven't things. Not fun!!

Seeing as the first month of the year is over (only 11 more to go) I thought I'd do a goal update.

- Pay £4,000 debt in 2011. Well I've only made £27.41 in over payments so far but looking at the bigger picture I've reduced my debts by £636.33. Most of that has been paid on my loan which now only has 25 payments left, I can wait until next month payment when I can start counting down to only 1 year left... Sad the little things that keep you going but every time I'm out with my friends and want to buy something I just say "2 years left" they all know what it means but it will be nice to start counting down now as I've been saying it since I had just under 3 years left (just because it sounds better lol) It's the thought of being without my loan which keeps me going after all £350 per month is such a huge chunk of my wages... Sometimes I wonder how I've got through the past 3 years without everything falling appart!! Next month will also see the mid way point money wise on my loan when I can finally look at it ans see that I've paid off more than I have left to pay I love milestones!!! Another milestine comming up is seeing my lower rate loan dip under the £3k bar for the first time in forever... I've got a few months before I'll see my higher rate card dip below £4k but I'm hopefull I'll be able to sell some stuff on ebay over the next few weeks to help it allong. I've even decided to sell my huge Ikea wardrobe... it really is too big for my bedroom and I was only keeping it becuse I couldn't afford to replace it but last weekend when I was poking about in my mothers hall cupbard I found my old frame rail (one of the ones that you cover in fabric) It's not pretty or that sturdy but it will do untill I can find something cheap in the second had furniture store that I can restor and in the mean time the money from the old wardrobe can be saving me from some interest

- Lose 2st. Now this is a target I'm doing well at I've already lost 8lbs which means I'm over 1/4 of the way there already. I know the last stone will take me forever as I've been trying to lose that one for as long as I can remember but so far my calory counting appears to be far more effective than any method I've used before So I'm feeling confident... Unfortunately I've had an appauling week diet wise fo far what with having sweeties at the cinema yesterday and there was a birthday lunch at work today, tomorrow is my free meal out with my mom and this weekend I have been informed by my mother that while I'm tileing her bathroom she will buy me a McD's because she want's me to have something I can eat quickly so I can get on with the job... Charming!!! I think I may have slipped on a couple of lbs by weigh in day... Ooops!

Make money at my art business - Well this one isn't going too well right now but it's all my own fault. I find it very difficult to paint when it's cold and as a result I haven't been doing any work... you can't earn if you haven't been working and although I suppose I could leave the heating on all day so that the flat's nice and toasty but that would seem to defeat the object. People don't believe me when I say I'd rather it was warm and raining than cold and sunny but it really is true!!!

So that's where I am with my goals after 1 month. I'll try to remember to do a similare update every month.

BTW I forgot to mention I didn't think much of the new Harry Potter movie. I thought the point of splitting it in two was to give them a chance to really bring out the detail of the books... on the contrary it just felt as if they were rushing from one action scene to another. Hopefully the final installment will fix that... oh and there definately wasn't enough Snape lol.

Amatheya81

Happy Friday everyone!

My dieat appears to have gone out of the window. I'm not very good at will power when I have a cold and it was the birthday of one of the girls at work yeaterday. I think I may have eaten my own weight in cookies followed by a mixed grill when I went out with my mom.

Oh well, never mind.

On the bright side I've had confirmation that my holiday sale has gone through so I should get a extra few quid in my pay packet each month. Also as they're running a little late and should have done it for Jan's pay I will get two lots this month I'd also forgotten that I don't pay council tax this month so I was worrying that my cc bill being higher than expected would leave me skint but in fact I've got a fair bit left in the bank after bills. I'm going to take an extra £10 out for myself as my first shopping trip of the month was way more than usual because of how run down my supplies got in Dec but the rest of it is going to go to my credit card

As I mentioned before I have a cold which is one of those non sniffily, achey, headachey deals so I'm going to take it easy this weekend for the most part but I do want to spend some time working on my artist stuff and getting stuff on eBay... I've only been saying I'll do that for a few weeks so no rush or anything lol

Amatheya81

I aint Dead!

But I did feel like it for a few days.

I haven't been posting because I've been pawly to the degree where I've been sleeping every minute I can. I'm starting to feel better now though and I've got a lot of ground to make up on my diet.

Money isn't looking too good either. I'm starting the doubt that I will be able to manage of a budget of only £100 a month which has been a bit of a shock as I've lived on much less than that before and even more worrying it all seems to be going on food Oh well, at least I've had confirmation of the sale of my holiday now so I'll have atleast £20 extra every month to use as a buffer.

In only 2 weeks time I will hit the 2 years left mark on my loan which is really exciting and I've started to think of all the things I've been putting off or denighing myself that I will now be able to do again.

The first thing I will do is join the gym again and make planns to take some more aerial acrobatics lessons (once I've got my fitness and flexability levels back up). I will also buy myself a dishwasher which is in my oppinion the holy grail of household appliences lol
I also want to save up a deposite so that I can buy a house, I currently live in a part buy 1 bed appartment which I love but when I add up what I'm paying in rent, mortgage and service charges I'm paying out as much for that one bed flat as I would for a 2 bed house... and atleast if I have a 2 bed house I can rent a room out if I get desperate. I also want a garden so that I can grow my own veg and put the laundry out on the line. It has occured to me that as I'm pretty handy I could buy a house that needs modernisation and do the work myself... It's something I really need to think about when I'm at the stage to do it.

I know it probably sounds like I'm planning to spend every penny I have the moment I'm out of debt but dreaming of the things I want in my life are the best way I can think of to stay motivated

Happy Friday