misscousinitt's MF Diary

misscousinitt

Thanks for the encouragement Froggy :-)

Had to make some room in the loft over the weekend to store some stuff and we managed to identify and gather together a load of stuff for car booting. We are planning to do this by the end of June - life is so hectic most of the time, we don't even get weekends to ourselves.

Have a week off next Bank Holiday, so will be sorting some more stuff out for car boot - mainly my clothes - anything that isn't sold will be split between cash for rags and the charity I do work for.

Going down the town tomorrow to sort out my £150 OP. From my rough calculations this should bring us down to around the £18.2k mark.

Its been such a lovely weekend and I am really pleased that alot of my seeds I planted on Easter Sunday are now sprouting through - its really exciting - just have to make sure I don't kill them now I have got little plants (haven't got a great track record with plants!).

misscousinitt

Right, just made £150 OP!!! Now on to building the next OP....

£20 DH regular contribution
£20 My regular contribution

TOTAL: £40

Anticipate at least a £60 underspend on groceries, but this could well be much more especially with 2 x £4 vouchers for Mr T.

Got another buffet coming up later in the month too - just a small one for my Aunty & Uncle's Wedding Anniversary, but they insisted on paying me for doing it, so there is going to be a contribution towards the OP there.

Gas & Electric swap should kick in this month too, so that should lend a hand to getting up to £150 target. We have decided that anything outstanding to old supplier will be paid out of the joint savings account so it doesn't affect anything else.

Off to update signature....

Froggy-G

misscousinitt wrote: »

Right, just made £150 OP!!! Now on to building the next OP....

£20 DH regular contribution
£20 My regular contribution

TOTAL: £40

Anticipate at least a £60 underspend on groceries, but this could well be much more especially with 2 x £4 vouchers for Mr T.

Got another buffet coming up later in the month too - just a small one for my Aunty & Uncle's Wedding Anniversary, but they insisted on paying me for doing it, so there is going to be a contribution towards the OP there.

Gas & Electric swap should kick in this month too, so that should lend a hand to getting up to £150 target. We have decided that anything outstanding to old supplier will be paid out of the joint savings account so it doesn't affect anything else.

Off to update signature....

Perfect, great job once again!! You will notice as the months go on, that you will find other/different ways to increase your OP's...

Keep going!!

Cheers
Froggy :cool:

Iris_Blue

Great OP. Well done! :j:j:j

misscousinitt

Thanks Iris ;-)

Swapping over to M&S Energy on Monday, so will need to send the readings off. Got my £20 worth of vouchers for joining in the post yesterday and already have £10 voucher go going to paperless billing. Probably going to buy some food and some wine glasses with £10 and squirrell the rest for some nice things at Chrsitmas or if we need anything during the course of the year.

Also got a cheque in the post from my Aunty for the buffet I am doing for her on the 21st - she has given me extra, so I am splitting the profit - about £45 between £20 OP and £25 for me to buy something nice - don't know what at this stage so shall put into my 'holding' current account untill I come across something. Not very good at spending money on myself really.

Anyhoo, so that is another £20 added to May's OP. Total Now: £60.00.

Will have a better idea of the potential shopping underspend for this month when I have done the shopping later.

Going to transplant some of my seedlings into pots at the weekend too, so I will have some spare trays to start some more things off. I didn't think the basil on the kitchen window sill was going to come up at all, but in the last couple of days there are definate signs of life!!!

Working on keeping the petrol consumption down too, so going to walk to Waitrose, the butchers and my mum's tomorrow - its a bit of a trek, but as long as its not raining it should be fine.

misscousinitt

Sending my gas & electric readings off to M&S Energy today, so next month's direct debit will be an average of my payments last year rather than high in the winter and low in the summer - thats a drop of £8, so that should be going into the pot every month.

Did the shopping at the weekend - it looks like I have spent £155/£260 grocery budget this month - thats having two bank holiday weekends (not that I'm complaining!) and doing most of the shopping in bits and pieces rather than in one go...think I should meet my secondary budget of £200, but who knows - only two weekends till we get paid and I have no more meat or booze to buy so should be able to add the £60 left over to the total.

So, Virtual OP Pot for May stands at TOTAL £120.

Need to figure out where I can save another £30 from...

DH put £2.00 in Penguin Pot over the weekend and I've found 2 x 50p in my purse this morning so a new total of £3.50/£50 target.

misscousinitt

Hi

Got some expenses back and banked them yesterday. Also, found out we are going out for meal with friends on Saturday night. So, I have decided to put £10 towards the OP and the other £20 can help pay for my meal on Saturday - not out of pocket at all as I haven't really missed the expenses.

So, May Virtual OP Pot Now stands at £130. Only £20 to find now....

And after yesterdays deposit of 50p in Penguin Pot, that now stands at £4/£50 target.

misscousinitt

Had a nice evening in yesterday. Cooked dinner and dropped DH off in town for a night out, then went home to pamper myself.

Found a box in the drawer with some Olay Micro-dermobrasion and mini-peel that I bought a couple of years ago, so did that, had a nice shower and went to bed with a good book - so no TV for me - it was so relaxing (just what I needed - life if far to hectic sometimes) and didn't cost a bean...

Only spent £4.50 in Aldi last night and estimate that the Mr T's shop will be about £16-£17 with the £4 off voucher I have (got to get some bits for the buffet I'm doing on the 21st which will get me up to the £30 required for the discount and then I get £4 off my shopping bill!)

If I manage to get the bread that is on offer (they always seem to have run out by the time I get there, so fingers crossed) - I will hardly have to buy anything next week and might have about £10ish left from the budget towards the OP - but we will see...

It will then remain to be seen how much I can skim off the bank account depending on my other spending toward the end of the month.

misscousinitt

Weekend was good, but spent quite a bit of money.

Went out for curry with friends on Saturday night which was really nice - had some great food and the company was fantastic. DH has paid for this so don't need to worry about the spend there.

Yesterday, ordered a 'Golden Wedding Anniversary' Rose for my Aunty and Uncle for this weekend - this is budgeted spend really as I put money by for presents - we also bought a nice pot for it to go in when we went to town which as only £7.99 so total spend approx £28 for their present, DH bought the cards.

We have also booked to go and see the Blues Brothers at the theatre (its next week). We have been to see the show before (twice) years ago when it came round last - its a anniversary treat for us both (even though it will be a week early) and we have split the cost.

Also, booked to have my hair done in 2 weeks in readiness for our 1st Wedding Anniversary meal - it will be £18, but I will have been paid by then so will come out next months budget.

On the money saving side - spent £20.31 on shopping total for this week, leaving £24.69 of the budget for next weekends' shop. Got to get some chicken for Wednesdays' tea, but have a M&S voucher to get that (and some tights for me!).

DH put 2 x 50p in Penguin Pot for me - so up to £5/£50.

Edging closer to the target of £150 OP for May - I think that I should make it one way or the other.

yukkibear

Well done those totals add up quickly don't they.