Finally reaching out for some help...

kerri_dfw

Just decided on tonights task when friends have left after dinner... inventory list all the food that I have. I have lots in pots but haven't stock taked it yet. Then I can start meal planning when in work as it'll be in google docs

hp48910

Enjoy your meal and good luck with the food inventory;)

I've had a good dog walk and am off to the gym later, it's also been a NSD here, so all good in hp's world right now. Simple things and all that.....;)

banwa

Just dropped by to say hello. *waves*

Yours is virtually the only diary that I have talked to Mr Banwa about, and the reason is I am bewildered by your sister's attitude towards the money she owes you. I hope she starts to take it more seriously; I'm glad you seem to be determined not to let her take you for granted.

You're making great progress

Banwa:)

kerri_dfw

Thanks Banwa, I'm bewildered as well but nevermind we all have our LBM at different points hers is still to come, and boy will it come when it does!

Tonight I bought another pack of loo rolls (I now have 48 rolls) at £6.99 for 24 and a carton of ambrosia custard so not a NSD I will make it to my 10 for this month though, promise.
Ambrosia was £1.50 and I might have been able to get it cheaper elsewhere but it was an impulse buy and tasted amazing with the crumble.

Crumble recipe:

Take a tub of stewed & seasoned garden apples out of the freezer.
Add a tub of frozen blueberries and defrost on a the hob using a low heat.
Put filling into pie dish.
Take some porridge oats (not sure how many there was but not much left) and grind with a pestle and mortar into a flour.
Add two tablespoons of olive oil and 1 table spoon of golden syrup.
Add 1/4 cup of demerara sugar
Add some museli (take out the tropical bits and coconut but leave the raisins and seeds)
Mix well with hands until crumbly
Sprinkle over the filling and then add more sugar to the top
Put in the oven for 20mins at 170 degrees.

Burn custard in pan and then serve with the crumble.
Voila! Lovely crumble and custard.

Finish off the evening by pouring remaining custard in pot and putting so much in that it squirts out everywhere when you put the lid on

I've never made crumble before this evening so I was very proud of myself. My grocery spend for this month is still under my limit which I'm really pleased about. I have 9 days remaining and just over £20 to spend I'm thinking more beans on toast for lunch tomorrow.
Just packaging up some more fleabay stuff, some people haven't paid me yet which is reaaally annoying me grrr but I do have an item I relisted that had a bid. Hopefully will be able to list some scarves tomorrow, need to get them done before it's the end of winter

Edit: completely forgot to write that I had a big long think on the drive home to London yesterday and have come to the conclusion that as long as I can have a family with my OH then I don't care where in the world I am as long as he's there told him this and he thought I was very sweet and it was a really lovely thing for someone to say to him. He also said it wouldn't be abroad forever and he doesn't even know if he'll ever do it. So told him as long as we can both find jobs, as it's not just a case of going "ooh I want to work in xyz today" then doing it, then I'm fully behind him. I think after seeing my sister happy with her OH and little boy plus one on the way, I don't want to give up potentially having all that, but debt free of course!

kerri_dfw

Morning, morning.

£59 from fleabay cleared today with £27 to clear tomorrow. I have £50 + £26 that my sister owes me going in on Friday. Now the question is, do I pay freemans £10 a day for 3 days, or do I keep the money in my account and pay OH tomorrow. Then use the money from my sister to pay freemans?

I have plenty of food in the cupboards and still have the majority of my veg box from last week, so no food shop this week Will cook up something yummy for tea and get the slow cooker out tonight too Not used this yet. I want to stock up on loads of cheapo beans from lidl when they go on offer tomorrow as branston are my faves. But I will use purse money for this (I know that purse money is technically my spending money, but better to invest me thinks)

Edit: bit the bullet after deciding better not to leave it in my bank account as tempation so now I've paid over 1/3 of my debt off since October whoop whoop. Although saying that my debt was a LOT higher as I had 2 payday loans before I started this diary.

Update: I've just updated my stockpile prices so I know the current price of the items. This then gets deducted from my grocery budget when I use an item. So todays beans for lunch are now 64p in the shops instead of 50p, comparing the top 5. So have transferred 64p to my virtual second purse, aka my online bonus saver. Have updated my spreadsheet to say I've used one and have now got -£77 in my purse. Off to make beanie toasties now for lunch om nom nom. Dad has just text to say my fruit garden has arrived too can't collect until weekend after next though, will have to plant them that Sunday too as won't have time in the week. Fun and games!

Update 2: productivity has just dropped from 100% to 0% as have been told to stop doing documentation and finish the perl script I hate

Update 3: need to put £20 in my 2nd purse as just got 2 tickets (priced £10 each) for free to see a play at The Old Red Lion theatre on Friday night. Cheap date with the OH if it's rubbish we can just walk out.

kerri_dfw

Well my coffee with a friend turned into buying a sweet potato and falafel wrap, lemonade and baked crinkle chip (oops!) for £6.45. However, this has come out of my purse money so I'm not too worried as I had technically budgeted for it This leaves me with about £12 to spend when I've got the OH here, but with a fridge full of food and lots in the cupboard this should be fine.

He's keen on the idea of going to the theatre Friday night, then we'll probably take my housemates dogs for a walk Saturday daytime.

Off to schedule some fleabay listings now, 3 day listings I think and I'll go on and activate them tomorrow late afternoon

hp48910

Can empathise with that. It's all fine in theory/in my head, then I get out of my safety bubble and all of a sudden it doesn't seem as important and before I know it I've spent more than I planned:eek: It's not all the time tho and I bet it was the same for you today.

At least you have a MSE few days ahead planned so it's not all bad.

I've been to the theatre today which,, despite being with a bunch of 15/16 year olds, was treated by me as a free treat;) The play was fab and it was also a NSD:j Nearly wasn't but DH didn't get my text request for bread and milk:p

kerri_dfw

I've managed to fleabay a few items this evening they're scheduled in the future so I can activate them tomorrow. They're on a 3 day listing to hopefully end on Sunday
After my friend found my budgeting spreadsheet useful I've made a thread to share my spreadsheet with everyone on MSE. It allows you to spread the cost of annual payments and gives examples. I'm hoping someone will find it useful. I can't believe I didn't think to do it before now, I think it's one of those things you don't think about until you encounter car insurance, service, MOT all at the same time and have to work out where the extra £800+ is going to come from. Anyway...
It's here: budgeting with pots

f1widow

Hi Well done on getting the ebay bits done - its something I need to do - I always find quite a lot but the thought of doing it always puts me off - perhaps I should just try 5-10 items at a time not 20+ like I have done in the past (well that was craft bits and bobs so it all sort of went together IYKWIM!)

Hope these sell well

Im going to have a look at your budgeting with pots - it sounds very good
Have a good day

kerri_dfw

I think I'm going to try to schedule 3-4 items a night, that way I can activate them when I want them to be listed and it will take up less of my weekend, well other than the tediousness of photographing and logging in my spreadsheet so I can just zip through the spreadsheet without having to get everything out.

Thanks re: pots spreadsheet, I have an awesome spreadsheet for my finances that covers everything, debts, pots, spending diary, stockpile and that was just one section. I might share the stockpile one too as it's really useful for seeing what's in your 2nd purse.

Phone bill just come in it's a much nicer £31.88 this month, instead of the £99.33 last month because I called lloyds tsb constantly trying to find where my money was grrr