Daffy's 'patchwork dreams' diary

lotti379

What on earth happened Cheery?!

Cheery_Daff

What happened??

Well I was going to copy and paste my giant rant from elsewhere, but I'm rather calmer now - suffice to say I was meant to start taking some tablets last week, and for a combination of reasons I still haven't got them yet, and now can't pick them up til Saturday...

However, I do have tea. And cake. So all is well

lotti379

Ah. There are times when it feels as if the universe has decided it doesn't like one... :mad: :mad: :mad:

I am v. envious of the cake situation btw, all I have is half a pack of jelly babies, which taste a bit odd as they've been stored in a jar with polo mints... :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Wish my cake tasted like that, then I might eat a bit less of it :rotfl: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

So I'm calm now, and have had another piece of cake

Going to set the timer and crack on with a couple of little things...

First up - typing up some notes from the other day. A tiny little job, but a nice achievement, and it needs doing! (after that scary phone calls... but let's cross that bridge when we get to it...)

Cheery_Daff

Ok, typed up thing done, checked, letter to go with it written, and all gone off to someone to sort and post :T :T

Scary phone calls now!

(and only an hour til I leave - eek!)

Cheery_Daff

Right then.

I am drawing a line under yesterday, with all its cake eating (which didn't stop when I stopped posting ) and grumpiness. Suffice to say I was parcelled off to bed at 9.30, and slept for 10 hours, and feel rather a lot better now

Have been reading this blog post, about how to get to where your dreams want you to be, which is a nice reminder that we don't have to wait for everything to be perfect before we start working towards the life we want. I read something similar on MSE years and years ago, about someone wanting to live in the country, but not being able to afford it, and being cross, until she sat and wrote down everything she wanted out of the lifestyle (making jam, going for nice walks, a lovely garden full of flowers, making her own bread, talking to neighbours etc), and worked her way through them one by one right where she lived

Nowt in particular to say about all that right now, was just reading about it!

Anyway, I believe it's pay day :j :j :j So I shall go and do a bit of internet banking, a bit of juggling spreadsheets, a bit of looking at spending diary :eek: and report back with a plan.....

(dentist this morning to have a filling redone :eek: and car's off to the garage, again, for them to do the service etc that I asked them to do lsat week but for some reason they didn't... yawn....)

Cheery_Daff

Ok......

bank's looking pretty healthy :j :j :j

£1547 in Patchwork fund :eek:

£90 in Patchwork development fund (good job - this is paying for most of my flute lessons at the minute )

£97 in Car maintainance (again, good job, it's in for a service today and the insurance is due next week :eek:)

£627 in emergency fund

£647 in palace fund (I'm not adding to this any more, just spending it )

£238 in holiday fund (going in 2 weeks :j :j :j MUST remember to book the darn ferry or else we're going to be swimming! :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:)

Er, think that's it

Have left a £50 cushion in the current account, don't want to accidentally go over :eek: :eek:

But altogether I'm not doing too badly at the minute :j :j :j :j Keeps feeling like I'm spending LOADS on absolutely nothing but all these pots are being filled as soon as I'm paid, so I guess I can actually spend the rest on whatever I like...

Off to investigate spending diary to see what I *did* spend it on.... :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Ok...

I've kept a spending diary for the last 10 days. This is just what I've spent from weekly food/fun money - everything that has a proper budget of its own hasn't been written in here (eg diesel, new front door etc)

Theoretically I have £30 a week for food, £20 a week for fun. I've kept track each day, but just been through and totted it up into various sections, so deep breath and here goes...

£33.12 FOOD (including the odd pint of milk etc, but not food in cafes)

£6.90 BUSES (including transporting mother to/from graduation - wouldn't usually spend this!)

£10.46 FUNCTIONAL STUFF (new purse, tin opener, fuses for plug, insoles, toothbrush)

£5.29 UNNECESSARY (earrings, little make up bag thing from charity shop)

£12.19 PRESENTS/DONATIONS (for work wedding present, part of Mr Daffs' birthday present)

and here's the big one....

£33.71 TEA AND CAKE :eek: :eek: :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl: (not *just* tea and cake, but tea in cafes, lunch once, entry to beer festival, couple of drinks etc, all social stuff really, although some of it was by myself :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:)

Grand total of £108.35. Not toooooo bad, but the budget is £100 for 2 weeks, and this is only 10 days, including only one weekend.

So it's not as madly out of control as I'd thought :T But I still do need to rein it in a little! Some thoughts...

* buses don't have their own budget at the minute. I still get student travel on the bus so it's only 50p a journey. This means I use it more than I would otherwise! Paid for mum's trip for graduation - that was an extra £2.60.

* I don't have a presents budget at the minute, and I'm thinking Maybe I should have. Could also cover donations/sponsorship? I've not done much of this for a long time, but have started to again now so it needs to come from somewhere!

* don't think I'd normally spend *quite* this much on tea and cake :rotfl: £8.20 of it was in London the other day - entirely unnecessary as we were fed at the meeting (and I suppose I could possibly claim it back...) Wasn't all for me either, having spent years counting pennies I'm now far more inclined to buy other people cups of tea when I see them

* I also have £50 a month 'fun' money kept in the bank - but that was designed for maybe underwear or bigger stuff that wasn't going to come out of the £20 a week, rather than frittering away on things...

Hmm, will have to have a think on. Glad I've done this though, even if only for a few days!

Cheery_Daff

Ooooh! That means my total savings is up to £3888.40 this year :j :j Which is 47.71% of my target! :j :j :j :j :j :j

Must dash off and update signature :T :T :T