London Socialite Sees The Light

turbo.jet

Just tell yourself that this weekend going T.U. is not an option, it's the first of many austere weekends. You can do it!

Have a good'un! :-)

Horace

You are doing well.

Thinking about temptation and clothes - why not hold a swishing party - ask your chums for a £5 contribution for food and drinkypoos and they each bring 5 items of clean clothing that they no longer where - you add 5 items of clothing that you don't wear either and you swap clothes. That way you get some new things for your wardrobe and you will have gotten rid of things you no longer wear.

Another idea is to have your chums come around to yours and they each bring a dish e.g. a dessert, a starter or a main - enough for you all to share and you could then watch a DVD, have a glass of wine or two or have a bit of a pamper session at home.

Food wise make a list - Oldstyle board has some great ideas plus there is a thread over there called Great Disguised Own Brands and as well as what to buy from Lidl and Aldi.

Enjoy your day at the races.

LondonGirl252

Couldn't resist logging back on could I?

Thanks turbo.jet, you're right - and if i don't take my bank card I cant go wrong... can I??

Horace that clothes party is a fantastic idea, my girls would love that, and I will take your other idea when the girls come round on Monday, I'm making the main so I'll ask them to bring wine and dessert... perfect!

Today was another NSD

I have prepared my shopping list already for Sunday. I have a few bits I need to buy and the ingredients for my bolognaise on Monday night - so I logged onto Waitrose online (Its the closest supermarket and to get to one cheaper Id need to travel costing me more money than Id save!) and picked all their "waitrose essential" brands and I can get everything I need for £8.26! Amazing, normally I'd have gone there and thrown stuff in a basket and had a nasty shock at the till. I really am beginning to see where I've gone wrong all this time! Also from that shop I'll have even bolognaise to serve 6 so that's 3 meals left over for me next week or to freeze. So I'll go to waitrose with nothing but my tenner for the day AND I'll get change

LondonGirl252

This really is my last post today, I just made my weekly meal plan and shopping list and want to post so I can compare..

Sat - Races all day. Already have crumpets for breakfast, lunch will come from my Ascot budget that I saved up this week and dinner will be a simple pasta when I get in.

Sun - Crumpets for breakfast. Will go to Waitrose when it opens and buy: Fabric softener, spag bol ingredients, pasta sauce (2 for 3.50) and my fave soup which is currently on offer for a total of £13.45. For lunch on Sun I'll have pasta and for tea some of my spag bol - the rest I'll freeze/refrigerate for the week

Mon - Brek and lunch at work on allowance Spag bolg for tea with the girls

Tue - Brek and lunch at work on allowance. Soup for tea

Weds - Brek and lunch at work on allowance. Weds is my weekly "withdrawal" where I withdraw my £70 budget for the week, so I will go to waitrose and buy chilli ingredients to cook and freeze a batch. Waitrose bill should be £7.44, therefore less than my daily £10. So chilli for tea

Thurs - Brek and lunch at work on allowance. Soup for tea

Fri - Brek and lunch at work on allowance. Chilli for tea

So fingers crossed Mon, Tue, Thur and Fri will be NSD's That'd be £40 to take into the weekend. It's my nieces first birthday, present and train tickets already paid for so hopefully I'll hardly touch that

turbo.jet

I love it when a plan comes together :-) make sure you stick to it now! Have fun at the races :-)

LondonGirl252

I'm home I had fun I STUCK TO MY BUDGET

Actually I came home with £6 something ..

Great day, picked 3 losers losing £6 so gave up on betting!

Managed to divert lunch away from the £69.50 5 course restaurant menu down to the £8 steak sandwich.... phew! Anyway had a few pimms and the weather was gorgeous! Really fun day with a great bunch of people.

As we are on the train home the conversation turns to dinner and the gang pick a nice restaurant for dinner which I'm expected to join in (because I always would...... because it would go on the c card............this is why I am in the situation I am in!) I wish I'd simply said I had plans but I was a little more honest and fessed up to saying Id spent all my cash and cards are at home and they all protested and said "nah come...." but I was good and thanked them but came home. Phew. I do think next time I'll invent plans as it does become awkward when you say its because of money... I did really want to go as I was feeling on form and we'd had a hilarious train journey back, and normally I would have gone without a second thought for finances. Well there's another incentive to fix this. It will be so nice when I really can spend my money more impulsively!

Still on track for my Waitrose trip tomorrow and batch cooking!

In other news, I came home to a letter from a really good friend who is serving in Afghan for the second time, I love him to bits and I'm so to hear from him doing well. Need to think of cheap parcel ideas to send over...

nearlyrich

Keep up the good work, involves a bit of outlay (or a present) but my Kindle has completely cured my Waterstone's habit (was £40 per month) I now mainly download freebies from Amazon... I was a real book junkie till my children insisted that they could not think of anything else to buy for Christmas.

LondonGirl252

Hi nearlyrich,
Thanks for the idea, maybe I could ask my parents for xmas, I do love having a book in my hand but a kindle would be so much easier to carry around...

Thanks

LondonGirl252

Why don't supermarkets open early on Sundays? I'm such an early bird and want to get on with my cooking!

Instead I'm still in bed reading other's diaries on here, it is such a comfort to hear how other people got into this mess and the support they get on here (just like you guys have given me ) it does make me feel like I can finally deal with this once and for all.

None of my 6 items sold on ebay are any of you avid e-bayers??? I think I made the starting bids too high but then I would have been upset if they had of gone for anything less, what is one to do?!?!!?

I also have approx 200 books here and more at my parents, whats the best way to sell these to get the most money from them?

Will report in after waitrose trip to report how budget shopping went!

ani*fan

Hi there LondonGirl :wave:

Thanks for dropping by my thread. Just caught up with yours and you're doing so well. I agree that its comforting to have buddies on this journey...makes me feel loads better about the debt!

I've already picked up a couple of tips from you I plan to use. First, leaving the cards at home. The thought of it has me breaking out in a sweat. What if there's a disaster? What if my car breaks down? In reality, I use my cards to buy a coffee, bar of chocolate and packet of crisps on the road somewhere. I've started taking lunch to work every day and that's going well so the next step is not spending anything at all through the day. I know I can manage without the cards so I'm going to give it a shot. Thanks for that!

Also, running. I used to love running. I was never much good at it, more of a plodder, but the energy it gives is amazing and being out in the fresh air is fantastic. And its free if you've already got good trainers which I do. So I'm going to start that too. You're right that healthy food is more expensive than junk. You can buy a greasy pastie for about 70p up here and a lovely sandwich with fresh salad is about £3.50. I really need to keep an eye on this as I'm prone to putting on weight. The running will help though.

And the socialising...my biggest downfall! I've been working loads in the last 2 weeks so literally not able to do anything but the thought of losing friends cos I can't afford to spend time with them is awful. I felt for you after the races when your mates went to dinner and you went home. It feels so unfair eh? I wonder if you can make some extra cash selling stuff and save a small amount so you can occasionally join in with spontaneous things? And now they know you're trying to save money, you can maybe pick something really cheap to eat and not be expected to split the bill evenly? I'm still trying to figure this one out too so will keep you posted if I have any great ideas.

Best of luck LondonGirl.