** Wish I was a money fairy **

Housework*Fairy

Spends today

ZERO (yay me) :T also brought some food home that was leftover after a meeting brought in by a rep so I'll be having that for my tea. DH is having the curry he couldn't be bothered eating on Saturday night, so I'm having a free food night tonight.

DH is still in the mother of all sulks. I'm seriously considering saying to him that he can go back to having his £200 a month and just put up with it. He's a pain in the butt to be around right now. I'm a nervous wreck, I like to live in a happy environment and he is making my existence really miserable at the moment. He sent me a text today saying: "Gave up cigs, gave up alcohol, gave up money, what else do you want me to give up".

Well try having to give up having fun like I have! Cancelled another night out that was planned for a friend's birthday but I can't justify spending £30 at this stage.

Nothing seems to get through to him though. I'm fed up of his self pitying and feel completely alone.

scotdebs

Hi HF - been reading your diary and sympathise with you on DH's behaviour - luckily mine is on board most of the time. Have you tried showing him how great things could be IF he's prepared to help you through the difficult part just now - that what really seemed to turn my DH around - I showed him how much more disposable income we would have once debt was clear (excl mortgage) and how much more again once we got our savings to a reasonable level... a bit of carrot rather than stick might just be what he needs;)
Also what about the adult equivalent of a "star chart" if he sticks to his budget for 1 or 2 months he gets a bonus amount to spend as he wishes (or you could go a bit more saucy and offer him a "favour" of his choice;))
Yes its frustrating that sometimes they are bigger children than the children but whatever it takes to get him on board

good luck xx

Housework*Fairy

LOL I'm really loving the idea of confronting him with an adult star chart! I can just imagine his face. I think you would hear the howls of indignation from Scotland :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I'm gonna stay strong....

Housework*Fairy

Today's spends

£0.99 music download
£4.00 - DS1 & DS2 athletics

DH is in a better mood today. I said he could buy some new trainers (he is in training for a 10k). I did give him a limit of £40 but he rang to say he's being brought a computer to fix on Thursday which he will get paid for doing so he asked if he could spend a bit more.

Had a 99p fritter myself today and bought a song off i-tunes for my phone.

Got a shock today when car tax renewal came for my car. I had expected it to be about £85 for six months but it's actually £115. That will have to be paid by the end of the month but I will leave it to pay day.

Current account as it stands is £227dr so now I feel really good because last month I was around £600 overdrawn by this date last month. However in my head I'm now thinking to myself "I have paid my overdraft off by X amount" rather than "I'm still £1100 overdrawn but have £500 put aside for expenses"

mooomin

Where you hiding missus?!

Housework*Fairy

<fanfare> I'm back....I haven't actually been hiding anywhere, just haven't had chance to come on and update my diary. I've been noting down my spends on my mobile phone

Wednesday
£1.00 - DS1 because I had to give him some money as he suffered the indignity of getting to school before the open the doors which is like child abuse, so I gave him a quid to get a hot chocolate
£67.50 - Petrol
£15.50 - morrisons (haven't got receipt to hand) but you would have been proud of me, moneysavers. I had to buy some items for operation christmas child (the shoe boxes). Got off lightly with felt-tips (£1), pencil case (£0.50) and other item was a notepad. Found a notepad which was above a label saying £1, got it to the till and it went through at £3. So I instantly went to customer services and demanded my money back, then went to corner shop and got one for 99p.

Thursday
£1.00 - DS1 again (for a revision book)
£0.50 - DS2

Friday
£2.70 - breakfast butty (special occasion, first time in 9 months we have ordered butties in).
£6.00 - DS1 & DS2 football

Had to send off for DH a new driving licence which is £20 (so he can have his points endorsed on it) and DS1 paid his cheque in for Spanish trip, so I have transferred £70 over for when the cheques come out.

At the moment £307 overdrawn but DH will be paying a cheque in next week for some work that he has done privately (which will pay for the £52 trainers he bought) and also he is awaiting his £50 mileage back from his boss. Much better than this time last month which was over £700 overdrawn.

Housework*Fairy

Saturday, day of rest, which means only one thing - grocery shopping day.

£39.60 in Farmfoods. Hopping mad with myself because I had forgotten to take the £2.50 off a £25 spend voucher :mad: Still haven't done a meal plan. Also accidentally threw in a jam roly poly, sticky toffee pudding and three sachets of custard....
£25.32 in Aldi
£9.00 in Home Bargains but £3.17 of that was for a knee support and some painkillers for DH who is currently nursing a knee injury in his efforts to go from couch potato to Paula Radcliffe. (disclaimer: he may be known round these MSE parts as Mr Fairy, but I don't know the names of any male endurance runners).
Grand total on groceries: £70.75

Which isn't great because I didnt need anything non food related this week :mad: I think I will cut out Home Bargains next week.

Two more great jobs have come up including one at the hospital up the road so I shall be applying for those this afternoon

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Good luck with the jobs and well done on better month than last with o/d x

Housework*Fairy

Today's spends
£3.00 - DS2 school trip (yes, another)
£2.50 - DS1 football (Monday)

Well it's nearly the end of the month as far as my current account goes. Bills wise I have my mobile phone bill to be paid out and a £10.25 child tax credit payment before my wage gets paid in next Tuesday. I have increased the bills overdraft by £67.72 but this is because I got paid on 25th September but did not have my full-blown lightbulb moment until 30th September, by which point I had already spent some of the money in the bills account. I have done my spreadsheet for next month too already so I can just enter figures in as and when they start rolling in.
.

Housework*Fairy

Whoops, haven't been on in a few days

Spends
£1.00 - lunch money 17.10.11
£1.00 - lunch money 18.10.11
£2.00 - DS2 athletics 18.10.11
£1.00 - lunch money 19.10.11
£3.50 - McDonalds lunch 20.10.11
£4.00 - bus fare to night out on Friday
£17.00- Curry on Friday
£10.40 - beer :beer:
£3.95 - home bargains Saturday
£4.95 - home bargains Saturday afternoon
£1.00 - mushrooms today
£30.00 - rabbit hutch yesterday

Today is the last day of my bills account as I get paid tomorrow. On 24th September I was £1594.67 overdrawn, and today I am £1682.23 overdrawn, so this overdraft has increased by £87.56. This is mostly due to not having my lightbulb moment until a week after payday, but also, due to weekends, DH's mobile phone bill came out on 26th September, so I had calculated it would come out on 26th October, but I hadn't realised that 26th September was a Monday, and the bill should have come out on Saturday 24th, therefore it was actually due on 24th October (which is this pay period)...Next month should be spot on, give or take a few quid I should finish next month as overdrawn as I started it.

I didn't have to go grocery shopping at the weekend so we're living out of the freezer and cupboards although I might need to go tomorrow and just get in a couple of days worth of food.

I've still got the mileage cheque to pay into the spends account, and also DH has fixed someone's computer which he hopes to get around £100 for. I've also done some work for someone I work for, which I will have to invoice her for at the end of the month which should be worth around £37. However I've got my road tax (£118) and DH's speed awareness course (£75) to stump up for when I get paid.

The rabbit hutch was second hand and is a reet bargain!!!