PennyGrabber's Path to Pecuniary Positiveness!!

PennyGrabber

Oops. I've just looked at my spends so far this month, and I've gone over my ents budget already! To be fair, it's dd's birthday, and I'm paying for a party, but that still means that we're doing free things for the rest of the month!! I have a fair bit left in the gifts budget, and no parties we've been invited to as yet, so may be able to cream some from there if needs be. Useless - it's not even the first of the month yet!!! Oh well, she'll only be 7 once.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner for today all sorted - the usual for breakie (cereal or toast), lunch is packup for them, already done, and phili and crackers for me, and then my dinner is more mussaman curry (ch at their dad's). A frugaltastic day planned, although I will be going to a sm to get dd card and ds present. "The sm will not take all my money, the sm will not take all my money...!"

Have a great day everyone, I'll update later after I've been to the sm - wish me luck/strength!!

PG x

PennyGrabber

PennyGrabber wrote: »

"The sm will not take all my money, the sm will not take all my money...!"

Have a great day everyone, I'll update later after I've been to the sm - wish me luck/strength!!

So the sm took quite a bit of my money. Oh fiddlesticks! But, I have now finished the shopping for dd birthday, including cards, presents, food and sundries like pass the parcel stuff etc.

I zoomed to a!di before college today, as I wanted some onions. You'll see why when you see the positives for today!! Spent around £8. Then, I went to te$co after college, and spent another £43 odd. But, in my defense, some of that is party, and some is gc, and some is misc!! I'll have to sit down after the weekend, and work it all out, allocated to each budget. I can't do it before as I've got so much baking and prepping to do!

Positives for today:
- Finished the party shopping now!
- great lesson at college, really useful for the business I'm looking at going into
- acquired 20 apples from work today, so I can start the Christmas hampers with some chutney, hence the onions!
- I got what I needed from hobbycraft at te$co, so I have saved myself the petrol money there and back, and the extra money I would've spent there, while having a mooch around...
- got the cake for dd birthday in the oven as I type, I know it's late, but I have to bake it today, so I can ice it tomorrow evening! Smells quite nice.
- got a fairly large pineapple for 69p and a!di today, quite pleased with that - I love fresh pineapple, but rarely get it unless it's on special offer

I'm off to read up on the gc thread now, while I wait for the cake to finish and cool down before I can go to bed!

PennyGrabber

Positives for today:
- transferred money into savings account - the right amount, going to try and do without it so it can be used for a real emergency, not just an 'i spent too much' emergency
- iced dd's birthday cake for tomorrow, it looks lovely. It's a small round choc sponge with pink icing, a crown on the top, and an icing border with white flowers round the edge. Quite proud of it tbh!
- the frozen stuff from mr a delivery all fitted into the freezer. OK, I had to take the pizzas out of the boxes, but it still all fitted!
- tidied fridge, so now all the party stuff is on one shelf, in an attempt to not forget any of it on the day!

I'll be glad in a way when Saturday is over with, so I can focus on something other than the party! Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it, it's just taking up so much of my time!! Mind you, i can't wait for her to open her presents tomorrow! Her main present is an ipod. (Ebay, second hand job!)

Was reminded at work that I need to take in sweets for the class. I would've made a big traybake cake if I'd had time, as it's so much cheaper, but I completely forgot! Trip to a$da and £18 later, I got some gc bits too, then I spent £20 on petrol!! I have decided to only put a bit of petrol in at a time; I usually fill it right up as I don't really like going, but I am trying getting less, as I think it's in the mindset - if I don't have much petrol in the car, I may just walk/cycle. Well, you never know! So, I put in £20 today, where my monthly budget for fuel is £60. Don't actually know how much I spend on fuel these days, as I do much less driving now ds has started school and not with a childminder.

Not many positives for today really - the month feels very long already and it hasn't even started!! I don't have very much money left in quite a few budgets, and over in others, so I may have to beg and borrow from other budgets to even it out this month...

Feeling a bit lonely today, don't really know why.

PennyGrabber

Just wrote the jam jar notice on the board at work!!

Suffolk_lass

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Positives for today:
- transferred money into savings account - the right amount, going to try and do without it so it can be used for a real emergency, not just an 'i spent too much' emergency
- iced dd's birthday cake for tomorrow, it looks lovely. It's a small round choc sponge with pink icing, a crown on the top, and an icing border with white flowers round the edge. Quite proud of it tbh!
- the frozen stuff from mr a delivery all fitted into the freezer. OK, I had to take the pizzas out of the boxes, but it still all fitted!
- tidied fridge, so now all the party stuff is on one shelf, in an attempt to not forget any of it on the day!

I'll be glad in a way when Saturday is over with, so I can focus on something other than the party! Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it, it's just taking up so much of my time!! Mind you, i can't wait for her to open her presents tomorrow! Her main present is an ipod. (Ebay, second hand job!)

Was reminded at work that I need to take in sweets for the class. I would've made a big traybake cake if I'd had time, as it's so much cheaper, but I completely forgot! Trip to a$da and £18 later, I got some gc bits too, then I spent £20 on petrol!! I have decided to only put a bit of petrol in at a time; I usually fill it right up as I don't really like going, but I am trying getting less, as I think it's in the mindset - if I don't have much petrol in the car, I may just walk/cycle. Well, you never know! So, I put in £20 today, where my monthly budget for fuel is £60. Don't actually know how much I spend on fuel these days, as I do much less driving now ds has started school and not with a childminder.

Not many positives for today really - the month feels very long already and it hasn't even started!! I don't have very much money left in quite a few budgets, and over in others, so I may have to beg and borrow from other budgets to even it out this month...

Feeling a bit lonely today, don't really know why.

Well I think you've got loads to be proud of! The cake, the party, the savings, the sheer organisation and effort is just tremendous. Don't be down and lonely. You're pretty fantastic you know, and your daughter's birthday will be fantastic too.

I try to shove as much as I can into savings or to pay off my one CC with a balance (o% on purchases though because when my account has little in it, I don't spend as much. Thank goodness I've done that as we have had to spend £4000 that was not planned this year (that is 2012, not the last 12 months!). I have just got the house insurance bill today, I knew it was coming but it is still £1100+ (old house, traditional materials, pay a premium, even with fireboards).

Re your fuel, I set the trip meter to zero each time I fill up and set the uage to show my fuel efficiency. You could copy the amount in litres, the amount paid (from the receipt) and the mileage for that much (approx, based on the trip meter) to see what you get from your fuel. I was looking for a receipt in my drawer (! yes really) and found diesel was under a £1 a litre when we moved here 7 years ago - it's £1.41.9 today - for a 50 litre tank that is a huge increase! I drive slower now, to reduce the consumption. It all helps.

I do hope it goes well for your DS birthday and party
Take care
SL

PennyGrabber

So, got cash out of the atm today, and I realised it's the first time I've had money in my purse since at least last Thursday!!

Needed it for the fish and chips today for dd birthday dinner. It cost £8.90 for an absolute feast! Plus, as I was chatting to the woman, telling her about the birthday dinner, and the fact dd wanted wooden forks(!), saying well, you're only 7 once, she threw in some prawn crackers as an extra! I thought that was really sweet.

I now have the cash to be able to pay back my friend who bought the book for me last week. Looking forward to making my first batch of Christmas chutney on Sunday/Monday. Anyone know anything about fruit cheeses? Never heard of them before reading my preserving book.

The birthday cake went down well today, and I'm just about to go and make the Saturday cake.

DD's dad rang her this morning to say happy birthday, and I told her to tell him he could come over for a cuddle on the way home from work if he wanted. Well, he turned up and gave her a bunch of flowers! We had a nice chat, then he went off. Have to say, I never thought I'd have flowers from the ex in my house again!! (Think I could count on one hand the number of times I was given flowers in the twelve years we were together!)

Positives for the day:
- great birthday
- only spent what was actually planned
- dd LOVED her presents! Insisted on taking her ipod into school for show and tell!
- good chat with ex
- heating on less today, so less money
- olb checked, looking ok for where I am in the month
- put sign up on board for jam jars ready for chutney etc

Right - off I go, three tiers coming up!!

TheThriftyScrumpers

Hi PennyGrabber

So glad that dd's birthday went so well. You should be very proud. I love reading your posts.

Xx

PennyGrabber

TheThriftyScrumpers wrote: »

Hi PennyGrabber

So glad that dd's birthday went so well. You should be very proud. I love reading your posts.

Xx

Thanks! I feel much more accountable for my money when have to report here. It seems silly, but hey, whatever works!! And yes, I am proud - of her and of myself.

I've just taken the cakes out of the oven - man, they're going to take some icing!!! Three tiers, and a ten-egg sponge mix! There are about 30 children and 20 adults, so it needed to be big really.

Was going to colour the icing today, but cba so had a lovely hot shower instead while the cakes were in.

Nighty night!

Lovethenight

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Feeling a bit lonely today, don't really know why.

Oh sweetie, don't feel too lonely :grouphug::grouphug: Just look how far you've come. I bet there was a time when you didn't even have a budget for things like petrol and birthdays. You're doing so well, and it sounds like DD's birthday was a great success!:)
Keep smiling and keep writing too - your posts are wonderful andwill help you see how far you've come too:)

Suffolk_lass

:wave:I keep thinking about your DD's party and hoping it is going well. :bdaycake: