Finally reaching out for some help...

ZTD

kerri_dfw wrote: »

Thanks Z I started doing that 2 days ago, helping to keep track of where it disappears to. I thought I was doing so well as well

Just checked through Vanquis online:
£75.56 - food
£26.52 - petrol
£30.05 - toiletries (no idea what though probably cold and flu medicine in there somewhere)
£142.81 - DIY (£50 on curtains, £28 on boxes, can't think what else)

Food definitely seems to be the killer for me though.

There seems to be almost as much money on "can't think what else" as there is on food...

kerri_dfw

ZTD wrote: »

There seems to be almost as much money on "can't think what else" as there is on food...

Just had a long chat with OH about how I need to keep track of my money and how much just seems to get lost. He agrees that the spending diary is a good idea Post #2 has a list I started from yesterday. Now I have to remember to keep updating it.

hp48910

Good luck with the spending diary. I think we will have to start one. It's normally ok during the week as we both work and the money we know we need to spend i.e. kid's activities is taken out at the beginning of the pay period and put into envelopes. The problem comes at the weekends when I have a rough idea what we'll spend but 99% of the time that's just a base line figure. Then it's the od £10 drawn out here and there that mounts up.

Today will be a test as I need to do a top up shop of things for packed lunches. Will I be able to stick to the list? Hmm....Will report back later ;o)

kerri_dfw

Thanks HP, my £1 2012 calendar arrived today with lovely photos of London on it, sadly no stickers though so will have to just use a pen instead. This will definitely help me to keep track of my spending.

Only a quick update from me today as I've got up late. OH has just paid me back the £135 I lent him plus £40 for petrol over the holiday which I didn't say no to. I normally tell him it's my car and not to worry about it, but I drove his mum 80 miles for a hospital appointment and I paid for his train ticket so recouping some of that I thought was justified :-) instantly transferred £50 back into the emergency fund which was in deficit by £68. I did consider paying off more freemans, but will wait for the cheque to clear first.

Now to find my camera and photograph these bras for fleabay. 20 of them and some scarves to sell. You can sell 100 items at £1+ starting price on a free listing weekend, so if I can clear the ikea bag I have I'll be impressed.

No spending today as won't leave the house and defo have enough food. No debt busting either, but hopefully I can on Monday.

Finances update:
HSBC £190 remaining (£25 to savings, £35 car insurance, £26 vet insurance, £10.98 glazing film still to go out this month)
Vanquis: £18 (£14.80 riverford still not gone out)

Cheque and Next refund still to clear (£31 to HSBC, £34 vanquis)

No interest to be charged on HSBC this month for the first time in a very long time as I kept my deposit money in there over the cut off date :-)

Afternoon update:

- photographed lots of bras, skirts, and scarves
- have put kitchen foil behind the small radiator in front of the window
- put away washing
- room now more of a mess than it's been all week!
- 3 episodes of season 2 of dr who watched back to back
- housemates dogs let out into the garden as a treat for 20mins as I don't think she's walked them today they loved it

to do:

- edit fleabay photos
- list on fleabay (scheduled for future so can activate them tomorrow at the same time)
- put on another wash
- put out current wash
- make some dindins

hadahardyear

hp48910 wrote: »

Good luck with the spending diary. I think we will have to start one. It's normally ok during the week as we both work and the money we know we need to spend i.e. kid's activities is taken out at the beginning of the pay period and put into envelopes. The problem comes at the weekends when I have a rough idea what we'll spend but 99% of the time that's just a base line figure. Then it's the od £10 drawn out here and there that mounts up.

Today will be a test as I need to do a top up shop of things for packed lunches. Will I be able to stick to the list? Hmm....Will report back later ;o)

i have this problem during the week to. I have a spending diary and tally it up when im sitting at my desk but during the weekend
the book stays at home and i never use it. BUt i have an app on my iphone i have been using, and its incredibly accurate

beanielou

Blimey thats a lot for DIY in one month.

kerri_dfw

beanielou wrote: »

Blimey thats a lot for DIY in one month.

It's only once a year that I spend on DIY, normally caused by moving house hehe. Although I deeply regret the £75 spent on failed curtain rails but lesson learnt.

Just made the yummiest tea, of chips! Not just any chips though, Nigella Homemade oven chips. They were seriously the best chips I've ever had, soooo scrummy and I didn't spend £6 in the chippy Recipe here
I did the slightly differently though:
3 potatos scrubbed
basil infused olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
rosemary
thyme

- Peel (or don't) potatos then chop each into 3 round chunky slices, then chop into chips of equal width.
- Fill saucepan with cold water and some salt
- Put potato in pan and put on medium heat until water boils
- Drain potatos and then swish over some boiled water to get rid of any of that white stuff that forms in the pan
- Add olive oil and mix about with fingers
- Coat oven tray with basil infused olive oil and add potato
- Sprinkle potato with rosemary, thyme, pepper and salt
- Turn each chip over to coat
- Pop in pre-heated oven at 200c for 30 minutes (mine's a fan oven)
- Turn chips after 10 minutes or slightly brown
- Take out of oven and put in bowl, eat whilst hot and you won't even need ketchup they're so yummy mmmm

Just had an email from a freecycler about a bookshelf that I can have to put bulk buys on and store inside the fitted wardrobe. My housemate is going to think I'm mad the next time she goes in there to get some clothes out.

I share a massive wardrobe with my housemate, I have one double rail and she has 1 double rail, 2 single rails. She has wayyyy more clothes than me and no room in her room for a wardrobe so I don't mind at all.

RosaBernicia

Oooh thanks for recipe will be trying that

I have a spreadsheet as a spending diary - I have a sad habit of keeping receipts for everything so every couple of days I empty my purse and log them. I log cash taken out as well and try to keep a note of what it went on. If I was cleverer with Excel I could probably set up reports to track what went where...

Rosa xx

kerri_dfw

RosaBernicia wrote: »

Oooh thanks for recipe will be trying that

I have a spreadsheet as a spending diary - I have a sad habit of keeping receipts for everything so every couple of days I empty my purse and log them. I log cash taken out as well and try to keep a note of what it went on. If I was cleverer with Excel I could probably set up reports to track what went where...

Rosa xx

I now have a very comprehensive google docs spreadsheet (can open it wherever I am ) It currently has the following sheets:
- Overview (overview of balances on all a/c's and cost of bills each month)
- pots (breakdown of how much has been paid into annual pot fund and what has been spent from it, automatically allocates money to the 8 pots within it and highlights if there's a deficit)
- hsbc (tracks what gets paid out of HSBC and towards what)
- vanquis (tracks what gets paid out of Vanquis and towards what)
- presents (tracks what presents have been bought, for whom, how much paid and how much remaining)
- debts (tracks how much remaining and how much paid)
- spending diary (keeps track of what has been spent and how much in detail)

Just collected the bookshelf and it's the perfect size, it even fits in the wardrobe sideways so I can choose which way round to have it, I can't decide.

Was craving cola and remembered I had a can of P in the boot of the car that's been there 6 months so fished it out. Perfectly cold mmmm and free

Right, battery must be charged by now so it's photoshopping those fleabay pictures time.

hp48910

kerri_dfw wrote: »

I now have a very comprehensive google docs spreadsheet (can open it wherever I am ) It currently has the following sheets:
- Overview (overview of balances on all a/c's and cost of bills each month)
- pots (breakdown of how much has been paid into annual pot fund and what has been spent from it, automatically allocates money to the 8 pots within it and highlights if there's a deficit)
- hsbc (tracks what gets paid out of HSBC and towards what)
- vanquis (tracks what gets paid out of Vanquis and towards what)
- presents (tracks what presents have been bought, for whom, how much paid and how much remaining)
- debts (tracks how much remaining and how much paid)
- spending diary (keeps track of what has been spent and how much in detail)

Liking the sound of this, Will look into it:) thanks. My spread sheet is not something I can access from anywhere:(