Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat and my overdraft needs to go on a diet!

allybee101

Well my 4 pm home time turned into a 6.15 home time. Grrr.
Today it was back to 10 am arrival and dashed into work without my id card and pass. Remembered my lunch at least so not a complete fail.

I am using some of my extra hours from yesterday to have an early finish today and try to do some housework. I really know how to live the high life!

allybee101

Well, end of the month and pay day!
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'd done better than expected and reduced the overdraft by £116.59 :j. And my budgeting hasn't been perfect so hopefully this month it'll be even better with tighter reins!

Off to the panto now!

allybee101

So on Friday I started my new £10 a day budget.
It's not quite perfect as putting a tenner in my purse each day as I realised things like grocery shopping invariably come to more than £10 and I don't want to have to visit the supermarket every few days.

I have split the month into blocks and have taken out £100 to last til 29th. This has so far covered

£5 - Panto donation (it's free entry and they raise money for charity). I drove and my passengers bought me a drink!
£7.90 Coffee with friends yesterday and lunch
£22 groceries

The remaining needs to cover

Haircut - £32 plus tip
Night out on Friday - I have budgeted £25 but I think I may be able to get away with less as I'm not intending to drink too much.

I've currently got £15 in my purse and am challenging myself to rack up 4 NSD this week. Eek.


I also didn't plan to spend nearly £100 booking tickets to see a group called Fascinating Aida for me, my mum, two aunties and cousin. :wall:.

I'd sent my mum an email about them - they're amazing - have a look on Youtube! - and said how nice it would be to have a girly night out somewhere and perhaps this would be good. Then realised that I'd need to book tickets so that we all sat together so that's £97.50 gone in the click of a mouse button! I will get the money back for four of the tickets so overall expenditure will actually be just £19.50.

It's amazing how using cash more makes the value of money a lot more realistic. It's cetainly making me stop and think about what I'm spending.
Another lesson learnt from the school of Martin...

allybee101

Yesterday's NSD plan was completely and utterly broken by a visit to the NHS Walk-in Centre last night and a £7.40 prescription! :eek:
I haven't had a prescription for years, possibly 5, I knew it had gone up but not by that much!
So it works out at about 53p per tablet. Blimmin' kidneys. You'd think they had better things to do than get infected.

I went to Mr A to get the prescription filled and pick up some painkillers as well. And ended up buying some chocolate and a mini tub of Haagen-Daz as I felt so miserable.
So not good for the diet either.

I've also had to cancel a blood donation appointment on Friday because they won't let me donate whilst I'm on antibiotics, or for 2 weeks after.

The one positive thing that comes out of this is that I will save money on Friday night because I can't mix alcohol and antibiotics and it's a 7 day course.

allybee101

I was up and out of the house at ridiculous o'clock today. I had to catch a train at 7.15 which meant leaving the house at 6.45 to get to the train station.
I justabout managed to ignore the tea trolley on the train and the chap offering pastries, cookies etc. Thankfully I had prepared ahead last night - even as far as prepping my breakfast and having it ready to eat straight from the fridge. Sad I know, but I really don't do mornings.
Also brought my lunch with me so feeling all virtuous.
Otherwise coffee and cake would have been eroding my NSD attempt and the diet

I had a new patient appointment at the doctors yesterday. It can take 8 weeks for patient records to be transferred so they do a health check and get some background information.
So the usual blood pressure, height, weight, family history, offers of various services, alcohol intake etc.

One of the questions about alcohol asked " Do you ever feel like you need a drink just to get started in the morning?"
I've never been in that situation before and was horrified to think that people might have to do that.
The nurse said it was surprising how many 'yes'es they get to that answer.
Then this morning once I'd arrived in Leeds I had to nip thorugh Tesco (42p spend and didn't break my tenner so I consider it a NSD). There were two scallies buying Special Brew. At 9.00 am!!
I can just hear that Nurse saying "told you so"!

allybee101

Well today could either be really good or pretty rubbish.

I have lost 5lbs this week +
I went to Mr A to buy some bits. And chocolate, and couldn't find my purse. (

Which means I've either left it at work or it's the lost/stolen option.
The only good thing is that it stopped me buying a large bar of chocolate.


There's £45 cash in it, plus some treasured photos including a rare one of my dad who died when I was 6. That's upsetting me more than the money right now. Praying I've just left it at work, but cancelled cards as bank can't just put a watch on them. It's either active or inactive. I can get to the bank tomorrow for some cash so I've cancelled my debit card and credit card, just in case,and they're sending replacements.
Right now I'm so annoyed so going to bed so I can get to work when it opens at 7. Sigh

allybee101

Crisis over!
Purse found :j

And the moral is that I really should tidy my desk a bit - it was under some papers I've been working on this week.
Phew.

So I'm very grateful to the big fella and my guardian angels.
Not only do I have my purse, pictures and money back in safekeeping, it also stopped me from buying junk food, and made it a NSD.

mancitychick

allybee101 wrote: »

Crisis over!
Purse found :j

:T:beer::j

allybee101

There were too many people in the office at that time of morning (crazy people, haven't they heard of a lie-in!) so no victory dance, but jumping up and down in my head!

It's also made me realise that I need to have a clear out of my purse and carry the bare essentials with me so that there isn't this crisis if it does happen for real.
I think I may have to take only what I need that day, so there isn't a raft of cards to sort out.
It's just a case of remembering to put them back in when I need them!

allybee101

Well this week has been qiite successful.

- I did have to pay out £110 in cheques for two singing events but hopefully it'll be next month before they pay them in. They're not v speedy!
+ The £10 a day cash has worked well though (helped by temporary purse misplacement) .
- My hairdresser was off sick yesterday so it cost me more to have it cut by the lead stylist. An extra £1.50.
+ but it did look fab and lots of people told me so.
+I spent £4 on drinks last night instead of much more had there been alcohol involved.
I lost 5 lbs. +++++

So not too bad all in all! I have £12.40 to see me through til Monday so we'll see how that goes.
I dreamt last night that I had two cars and I was going to sell one to pay for the singing trips. Alas that was not the case when I woke up. But if I see any prize draws for cars I'll be entering!