A Year of Living Frugabulously

Lula-Hula

Oh dear, hadn't noticed the broken arm ... DDs is like that, makes me feel all queasy & achey when she bends it back - it's her secret anti-nagging weapon ... & very effective it is too.

Just checked my bank account & am within £5 sniffing distance of the interest free overdraft. Still have £600 squids to pay off the CC without having clutch replacement bills appear yet.

I have £110 in the car 'spares & repairs' fund. It should be £45 but I haven't paid anything to the funds this month. Buffer fund is overrun with tumbleweeds & I dont' think the cash emergency fund ever got past the £10 I started if off with

This was really not what I had planned for 2012 & it's a rather a sharp lesson in the perils of being rather too blase & impetuous where buying news sofas are concerned, on the assumption that I will have the money & time to pay it all off before interest occurs or any other expenses are incurred.

Will I ever learn ?

:wall:


G'night
x

Karmacat

Ouch. Well, the transport discussion is lots of fun and being a non car-owner I can really understand wanting to keep hold of your car - all that mattress buying on Saturday was *so* easy as we trundled around widely-spaced shops in my sister's car, it would have taken all day on public transport.

Can I ask why you rent a garage, tho, Lula? Security, maintenance of the car, stuff like that?

The money sounds squeaky - but if you go over, at least the overdraft is interest free.

It *is* interesting about buying patterns - I had a very odd conversation with my sister on Saturday, I'd been whinging about sofa, which I loathe (and which I haven't looked after particularly well, so its even more loathsome) - I really want another one, and I was showing her one online I liked the look of, and she was adamant that you looked for comfort first. I mean, I agree that comfort is completely essential, but why would you buy a comfortable sofa that you hated to look at? You have to look at the ones you like and *then* see if they're comfortable, surely?

What did you look at *first* with your new sofa?

vasseur

Lula-Hula wrote: »

This was really not what I had planned for 2012 & it's a rather a sharp lesson in the perils of being rather too blase & impetuous where buying news sofas are concerned, on the assumption that I will have the money & time to pay it all off before interest occurs or any other expenses are incurred.

Will I ever learn ?

:wall:

You're not alone Lula. I have just £26 in the emergency fund and now I've got problems with my plumbing ;)

I do think though that things could be far worse and they generally tend to work themselves out with a bit of tweaking and belt-tightening here and there.

Besides at the end of the day you do still have your lovely new sofa

Souk08

What polesalot said. Oh and I thought of you the other day as I visited a part of town which has a Waitrose. Twas lovely X

Lula-Hula

Hello gorgeous lovelies,

it's been an age since I last appeared but the last week has been very busy; lots of work, lots of changes to routines & lots of travelling too.

Monday was a journey to work on the train. The novelty factor was high, I enjoyed the march to the station & not having to get stressed in traffic - plenty of time for scrabble - so I may well consider doing this a couple of times a week. I will need to organise it for those days when I dont need to go anywhere else or do shopping after work, but I really did enjoy it.

Was a bit naughty on the journey home & sat in first class. I didn't actually realise at first but as no one else was in there & the guard didn't throw me out, I stayed put for all 7 minutes of the journey :rotfl:. Apart form adjustable seats & curtains, the main benefit seems to be that they have sockets so potentially I could charge my phone whilst in there .

Anyway, my car was ready Tuesday afternoon & in exchange for a new clutch I handed over £370 . Still pretending that my CC is not about to breach the £1000 mark at the moment, & I do have a cunning plan to get rid of that balance asap.

Wednesday was my Grandmothers funeral & due to ridiculous & completely thoughtless plans by my father, we all traipsed about the county in convoy for far too long. DD1 had just come off a night shift & had another that night so I offered to go & collect her & chauffeur her as it just seemed pointless for both us to be driving about in our own cars. She was grateful but due to the arrangements, I ended up doing 60 miles that day !

It was a lovely service although I shed a lot of tears & the meal afterwards was a pleasant opportunity to spend time with relatives I rarely see.

As littlest decided not to attend the funeral, the rellies staying over at fathers house were disappointed at not seeing her so we visited them on Thursday evening, which was a free meal but another 30 miles round trip.

I was at work on Friday so needless to say a trip to fuel up was required. I ventured into the sainsbugs fuelling territory & found it to be perfectly easy & the £20 I spent seems to have boosted the tank up to half again

Yep, that went on the CCCCC but cash funds are low & when there's already £970 on the card, another £20 didn't seem to matter .

The drinks with the boys has been postponed for a week & frankly, I'm relieved as it was blooming frizzleing last night. I walked DD up to guides & then went on a 20 minute fast walk & it was really really cold.

In between all the goings on I have been contemplating the best way to clear the CC ... & it's not an easy decision to make.

I can either gather up all funds ( £445 in holiday fund, £105 in clothes fund, £60 in £2 coins fund, £50 in pocket money fund & the £200 overdraft) live on fresh air for the next 3 weeks & pay it off , but have absolutely NOTHING in any funds or ...

... I can retrieve the very generous cheque from my aunt received last year, which I paid straight into my 'ISA' & use the full amount to clear the CC & still have all my funds intact .

To be honest, for me it's a 'no brainer'. There is no shame in having used that unexpected gift money to buy the new sofa - it's a long lasting & worthwhile purchase - & the car money can be repaid in time.

I fully appreciate that I am very lucky to be in a position to do this, & I am so very glad that I put the cheque straight into the ISA in the first place.

I was fully intending to pay off the sofa costs but having that extra £370 just slayed me & my good intentions.

To have to deplete every single fund in order to pay the balance off & have nothing in my funds is just too disheartening to bear in the first few weeks of the year. If I have a viable alternative, I think I would be mad not to use it & then I actually have a chance to continue with my Buffer Fund (£3000) & Savings Funds repayment ( £160) plans as of the end of this month.

Realistically, without using that gift money, it will take me until about June to be back where I was in December. I know very well how easily swayed I am by defeatism & see this as a golden opportunity to restart the year on an equal balance.

DD has already decided she wants to do the guide camp in the summer :j& that's £150 needing to be paid by the beginning of May which can come out of the Holiday Fund if I have it.

I need to read my meters today so have an energy bill or two due soon.

His Royal Furriness needs his food cupboard stocked up & the fridge is looking a bit bare so we need to stock up with fresh bits too which means withdrawing this weeks £50 allowance.

I still have about £18 from last week so am very pleased with myself - & that includes having spent £8 on travel from that budget too .

I have a brilliant app on my phone which I'm using to keep track of all my spends & funds. (No need for excel workbook anytime soon ) It's so easy ( now I've got the hang of it ) & immediate, rather than having to wait til I get home & try to fiddle about on the laptop.

I did manage to top up the cash savings funds this week :

Childcare £150
Gifts £20
Xmas £20
Entertainment £30

The £2 coin pot got another 2 this week so that now has £60 in .

The washing marvel has finished it's load so I'm off to empty that & then get dressed :rotfl:.

I'm still saving 20ps in case of needing to use the dryers in the launderette, but so far haven't needed to & doing laundry every night or other night rather than all at the weekend seems to be working well for me. I feel far less overwhelmed & chore bound at the weekend so while today is about catching up with shopping, tidying & a few chores, tomorrow we can whatever we like :j.

I will be back later to report my spends

bye for now
xx

vasseur

Definitely use the ISA money. Sometimes I think we need to do what is psychologically more beneficial

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like that decision's already made Lula - and it doesn't sound like a bad one to me Well done you

And :T :T For sitting in first class for 7 mins Sounds like the train journey was quite relaxing!

((hugs for your grandma's funeral))))) glad you got to spend time with relatives though xxx

Cherryjack

sending love over yr grandmas funeral xx

Only just caught on your dairy..yr so right Cinema is SO expensive these days.. i think it will be a year treat now for this family.. and i save the clubcard vouchers for it..and smuggle in some food lol.. :-) OR eat lots before i go in so im truly stuffed :-) Using the isa fund sounds better.. you could budget in a plan to pay it back in maybe

Lula-Hula

Thanks guys, for your thoughts :A.

I would feel rubbish about using ISA cash if I had saved it up, but as it was a gift & I could have just put it straight in my regular account & bought a sofa with it, I don't feel quite so bad & at least now I can show my kind Aunt what I have done with the money.

That is the last opportunity to use hidden funds though so from now on, I'll be using up what I earn & save all by myself; that'll be mere pennies then :rotfl:

I know for sure that replacing my Buffer Fund is of paramount importance & once that has a decent amount in, I'll get on the case with my Escape Reality Fund :j.

I've done a bit of tidying, hoovering & sorting through paperwork & DD has been dealing with her 'room' too, & then we headed off to get the stocks & try to regain favour with Cat. He ran out of wet food on Thursday so has had to make do with dry chicken flavoured food which he really doesn't like.

Usually he gets the hump & uses any opportunity to get his claws out, but clearly remembered that just gets him evicted from the house so this time he just mooched about with a baleful glare in his eyes.

I withdrew my £50 allowance from the cash machine & spent £16 on Cat munch - his favourite wet food was on a '2 for £5' deal so that was excellent & we also got a new bag of dry food & 4 bags of the the treats - which does help the unfavoured dry food go down .

Next stop was waitrse & I let DD use my phone to add up the shopping while I stuck rigidly to the list ... apart from the ready meal lasagne & moussaka which I couldnt resist as it great to have something in for when I'm buried under home-job work & DD is ravenous. Silly really, as that was an extra £6 but in return I resisted the offer of 2 lots of 12 pack s of crisps for £4, in favour of one bag of 6 packs at £1.58.

I know in the long run it's cheaper to buy in bulk, but that is why I have cupboards full of stuff & have you not noticed that Tatco profits are down since I stopped shopping there :rotfl:. I would just end up eating more crisps because we have them & now that family meals etc are over for a while, my Health & Fitness Plan begins tomorrow :eek:.

Fridge is now stocked with fruit & veg, freezer has quorn & real meat in & the pantry stock is still full. In exchange for all this luscious food, I gave £44.45 & received another £2 coin in my change so the Fabby New Boots fund is looking great with £62 in . I have £6.20 left in my Weekly Spends Allowance.

Cat is looking very happy, although probably has indigestion after gulping his meal in about 3 seconds & we wont need to get him any more food for a couple of weeks.

I'm off to do bangers, beans & mash for supper & as if by magic, DD1 called to say she's visiting :rotfl:

Bye for now
xx

gilligansyle

My little game when out shopping is to write out my list and then make a best guess at how much it will cost, then as I go round the shop I add up (roughly)in my head, but don't take into account any offers. I always know by the time I get to the till how much it will cost, and often get a surprise, and so that goes into the 'spare money' pot.