Time to 'grow up' - the slippery slope to 30.

immoral_angeluk

Budget time!

Food £70.00
Petrol £25.00
Social £20.00
School dinners £21.00
Dance £20.00
Bills £434.56
total out £590.56

total in £663.89
surplus to CC £73.33

I need to look at buying the remainder of my xmas presents, but I think I'm going to pay off the CC for as long as possible and just plan ahead with the presents and start getting the rest around the middle of Dec. I don't want to use the CC again to buy presents as otherwise I might not be as restricted as I could be and might be tempted to splurge, so I'm going to be good and plan ahead and pay cash instead of risking it.

Haven't got anything really planned for this week, no events or anythng, so going to try and save what I can. Partly tempted to use my social budget for the train fare AND dance, which would leave me just under a tenner for myself but it would mean an extra tenner I could lump towards the CC....


Now I've started I'm desperate to get it paid off. I don't get paid until the 23rd Dec, so that'll be awkward timing for xmas presents but would be more ideal if I could use that rather than the CC.

Or maybe just plan what I am going to buy, buy it on the CC and then pay off with my wages? Oh I don't knoooooooooow.

:wall:

immoral_angeluk

Morning all!
I'm off to a course in Birmingham today and have decided to walk down the train station instead of driving and parking. It's about 3/4 of a mile so will save me petrol and be good exercise. My only gripe is having to walk home in the dark BUT I'm doing well on petrol this week so if I use it as little as possible I might be able to put less petrol in on friday and save some money too!
Every little helps right?
Going to get out my £20 weekly budget today and then use nothing but that for the rest of the week for stuff I want/need such as train fare and dance/lunches whatever, so once it's gone it's gone. I'm also taking my own lunch in today and hot drinks/biscuits and provided... bonus

So bar the train fare and dance later today should be a NSD

Must resist temptation to mooch round the shops in brum though, it always ends badly :eek:

immoral_angeluk

..aaaaaaaaaand finally, at 10.30, I can sit down in comfort... what a day!

Had my work course which was really god but my train home got cancelled meaning I had to wait for a later one. In my despair I bought myself a cup of sweetcorn for £1.50 while I waited :rotfl:. Other than that though I was very good, walking to/from the station instead of driving, and took my own lunch do didn't buy anything. Also even though I did have a look around a couple of shops, I wasn't tempted into spending anything else so despite the corn I'm still counting it a success :rotfl:.

The train fare was £8 not £7.50 :wall: and with the corn (£1.50) and dance (£4) I have £6.50 left of my personal budget. However I forgot it's the kids' school Advent fayre on Thursday with the school wanting kids to donate £2 each on Thursday, and I need milk, so that money is gone already. :mad: I might have enough to buy a chocolate bar if I'm lucky...

Speaking of school, I've sorted out the c*ck up with them saying I was in arrears of dinner money as it was an admin error. Thank god.

Hoping to be able to not spend anything else this week but we shall see. If I do need to spend anything else I may take it off the food budget or something but we shall see how it goes as I'd already cut down on the dance budget as it was.

Right, going to go and slob for a bit before crashing out no doubt.. night all!

immoral_angeluk

Evening!
I had £6.50 left of my budget which has now gone. Boooo.
Spends today:
£1.50 on bread/milk
£4 on money for the girls to take to school advent fayre (£2 each)
£1 on chips as a treat.

And that's it.. just like that it's gone. :eek:

Haven't spent anything else yet, so am hoping to still spend as little as possible, with anything else coming out of food budget. I know I'm going to have to spend £1.20 on parking for an appointment on friday but should be able to keep the rest of my spending reigned in.

benbenandme

No idea how I've missed your new diary, but welcome home
Have just read the lot, lovely to see you again, *subscribes*

immoral_angeluk

benbenandme wrote: »

No idea how I've missed your new diary, but welcome home
Have just read the lot, lovely to see you again, *subscribes*

It's probably because I tend to update in the evening along with everyone else so it quickly drifts down to the bottom and onto page 2... :eek:

It's lovely to see you

immoral_angeluk

Have rejigged my budgets so here we go..

Food £70.00
Petrol £20.00
Social £20.00 (spent)
School dinners £21.00
Dance £10.00 (the girls')
Bills £434.56

total out
£555.56

total in
£643.89
surplus to CC £88.33

I've cut down my petrol budget, and am intending on spending less on my food budget this week. Might try ALDI or something in addition to basics from ASDA, which will also help with eating healthier if I buy more fresh fruit/veg etc. Will give it a shot and see what happens

Might try and see if I can get it to £100 spare to pay off the CC and cut £12 off the food budget?


Something I thought I'd clarify as well.. when my budget says 'total in' it's basically what's in my bank account once the CB/CTC have gone in, in addition to what's left of my bills budget from my wages. Each week I get an additional £33.70 from CB and £193.64 from CTC, so I don't have an additional £600+ a week :rotfl: If only!

immoral_angeluk

Right!!
I'm being strict this week with my food budget. I have *gasp*.. a LIST! I shall also not be verging from this list and I'm just going to make do with buying more fresh fruit/veg/meat and cooking from scratch. I've become very lazy and gone for convinience stuff, so it's time to eat health and cheaply! Going to try and save as much of the £70 budget as I can, so wish me luck!!

I shall my post my results later..

immoral_angeluk

Success! Out of my £70 shopping budget I have spent:
£4.99 in home bargains for a Christmas play costume for my youngest
£18.58 in ASDA
£26.05 in ALDI
Total: £49.62

Not bad going that A whole £20.38 saved from the budget

Edit: I've updated my budgets, and that means I'll have £118.71 spare! I'll be double checking my banking/budgets in the morning though once my tax credits go in but HURRAH! Great success!

immoral_angeluk

Hurraaaaah!

Thanks to being seriously frugal this week, and also getting my work expenses today, I've just paid another £134.15 off the CC.:j:beer:
Siggy updated That's looking like a much nicer figure but I'll be even happier when it's under £500

Shame I've STILL not had my music magpie cheque, or else I'd be able to pay another £13 off!

I have been slightly naughty, I've kept £10 aside to treat the girls tonight as they're off doing a dance display at a local Christmas market tonight. They deserve it after all for being brave enough to dance in front of a crowd of people I'm very proud of them!

Also, sssssh, I think Santa's going to be there!