Keeping up appearances.......

Box_of_Fluffies

Happy well done on the 5%. That's great news. :j:

Honey_Bear

Thank you Happy (if I may be so bold as to be informal) for your kind offer of feedback which, all things considered, I am going to accept. Comments about appropriate Valentine's gifts and romantic gestures are particularly apposite, and when the project is launched you will see why. In my world, the tax disc holder is romantic (as was the dressing gown.)

Speaking of which, as you said that Mr HN doesn't 'do' romantic gifts, I think you were on to a winner getting the chocolates and eating them yourself. The only mistake, as I see it, was the need to justify picking them up in Smiths by letting yourself believe for that moment they were for him!

You sound about 1000% more positive these days than a while back, and it's lovely.

HappyNow

FlacosFloozie wrote: »

Well done for reaching 5% that's great news :j

haybel19 wrote: »

Well done on the 5%.
I got a winning email today- 3 of the new palmers lip balms :j:j:j

Box_of_Fluffies wrote: »

Happy well done on the 5%. That's great news. :j:

Cheers for the good wishes. Almost there now, only 95% to go :rotfl::rotfl:. But seriously it IS a lift and I don't think it will take me as long to hit 10% as it did 5%, I'm a lot better at frugality now than when I first started.
Congrats on the lip balms Haybel, still nothing here yet but I'm enjoying entering everything .

HappyNow

poohbear59 wrote: »

We are about £200 short too so we can compare notes. We were in the same situation last month so I feel I am an expert on living on next to nothing.

Mr Pooh and I decided that we wouldn't buy anything for each other this year. We usually just buy or make a card. It is our wedding anniversary on Monday so we will treat ourselves then instead. I am on the lookout for bargains to be had locally. Or maybe make a special meal.

Enjoy your anniversary Pooh. It was ours on 9th Feb but I only remembered when I saw your post! Twenty two years married to Mr H, I should get some sort of award !

grannyx2 wrote: »

:rotfl: at chocolates, they say its the thought that counts x

Yes, that's what I decided. My intentions were good, but those chocolates were made out of CHOCOLATE!! As a gift, it was never gonna happen

HappyNow

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

Happy the tax disc story is hilarious. I think last year Mr PG bought me windscreen wipers, but I was so pleased with them ! As you are of course with your pressie !

Hope you enjoyed the choccies and as much as Mr Happy obviously doesn't know about the diary, I am sure all our positive happy birthday vibes were flowing from the PC to Mr Happys Brain yesterday

Good luck with the Spending Diary, its something I have not done either in my Diaryland Job....... I think I will sit back and observe yours first ! :rotfl:

I actually do like practical gifts. I might have mentioned a while ago that Mr Happy once bought me a potato masher and matching collander for my birthday?! And we have never, ever spent money on cards or flowers, even when we thought we were rich!

I'm going to post my spends later this morning, and I'm also going to analyse what was essential and what was waste - there's no scope for waste this month .

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Thank you Happy (if I may be so bold as to be informal) for your kind offer of feedback which, all things considered, I am going to accept. Comments about appropriate Valentine's gifts and romantic gestures are particularly apposite, and when the project is launched you will see why. In my world, the tax disc holder is romantic (as was the dressing gown.)

Speaking of which, as you said that Mr HN doesn't 'do' romantic gifts, I think you were on to a winner getting the chocolates and eating them yourself. The only mistake, as I see it, was the need to justify picking them up in Smiths by letting yourself believe for that moment they were for him!

You sound about 1000% more positive these days than a while back, and it's lovely.

Your project sounds very intriguing. I shall keep watching my PM box!

Yes, the chocolates were far too girly to give to Mr Happy. They were heart-shaped and in a pink box. I appreciated them much, much more than he would - it was meant to be :rotfl:.

Thanks, I am more positive nowadays. We're still financially quite 'on the edge' and it wouldn't take much to push us back into disaster, but I'll worry about that if it happens .

HappyNow

Right, from now until 15th March I am keeping a spending diary.

Friday 15th: Tesco. I know it's not the cheapest but it is much, much closer than others so saves on petrol, and I use their price promise/vouchers to save money. £62.90 (a lot, but we were out of so many essentials and I used £9.78 of vouchers so it would have cost over £70, plus got £1.52 back on their price promise.
Saturday 16th: Mr Happy haircut £10.00 plus £0.60 parking, Tesco £16.63 (I know I'd only been the night before but I'd been mealplanning that morning so needed ingredients - this will provide lots of meals for the month ahead. Mr H Petrol £25.00
Sunday 17th: NSD

The BT phone bill has gone up to £21 this month. It had been about £15. Checking on-line it looks like my discounted line rental has expired so I will ring them tomorrow and either get it re-activated or look into switching.

Flippin' 'eck - that's £115.13 spent already, and looking at my Tesco receipts, about £10 of that could have been avoided.

Savings-wise, I am in the process of making and freezing lots of cheap, healthy meals, inspired by the Change4Life book that I ordered purely for the vouchers! They gave me a voucher for a free 2 ltr bottle of milk which I have used.
I have also started using Quidco's ClickSnap (where I have 55p due!) and TopCashback's Snap and Save (that one has already given me £2.25 for petrol and bananas!).

HappyNow

Today has been a good day. I have spent nothing and I have done some pretty sharp MSE stuff.

There are now enough meals in the freezer to last us for half of the month and I have moved my house phone line from BT to the Post Office. It's only £13.75 per month with them for line rental, free evening and weekend calls including all 08 numbers, AND free weekend calls to mobiles. How good is that? You have to have quarterly billing which I'm not keen on, but I will learn to live with it.

Tomorrow will be a bit more spendy. I dye my hair myself nowadays because I just can't justify salon prices, but my roots are pretty dire so it's an emergency now. I've checked the prices on Mysupermarket and I can get two Nice n Easy's for £10 virtually everywhere. I'm having a cut and blow-dry on Saturday (can't do that myself!) which will cost about £30, but it would be at least £80 with a colour. I am therefore classing that as a saving of £50, which I would like to put towards debt repayment, but instead will blow on food!

poohbear59

It is a good idea to DIY your hair. I decided to let my hair go grey to save money. It is just at the front so I am pretending I am joining in with the latest fashion Not really convincing myself.

HappyNow

Heck, I haven't written in my diary for ages. I've still been around and I've kept cropping up on other people's diaries, just not really had anything much to say.

Up until yesterday it has been quite a succesful, frugal month although both car insurances are due in a fortnight so that will be a huuuge lump to find. Then yesterday, I was told that the tenant of our rental house has lost her job and can't pay all this month's rent. She has paid £300 of it and promised the other £150 will follow as soon as she gets her Housing Benefit sorted. I'm reasonably confident we will get it but it will mean waiting a few weeks and our budget really isn't strong enough for that. There's nothing I can do, and she has set all the wheels in motion promptly so I will just have to wait. Luckily this is a non-council tax month so we will get by - just!

I've got lots of diaries to catch up on but probably won't get chance today. Back soon x

brizzledfw

Great to see you posting again Happy! Sorry re tenant..just think you have to keep fingers crossed but set realistic deadlines for her..if she can't pay she'll have to go. You aren't in a position to help..unfortunately.

Sorry nag over!!! Great news re the home dye. I am planning to do that more often. It makes one h3ck of a difference...