Staying Positive & Focused !!!

mamato3

Ebay did well should have £25 left after postage and ebay fees paid which will cover the cc payment I made. CC now down to £1445 yippee. Haven't had time to update sig yet will do that later bought a few more pressies so will have to update that also.

Happy Friday everyone and a nice long weekend ahead with the bank holiday on Monday - enjoy

mamato3

Mid month check in so far is:

food bill £235 - Petrol £170 - Gifts £62.55 -school/activity costs £102 - clothes -£36.44

Don't think I'm going to make it within my £280 budget for food! I got a lot of gifts this month for later in the year so as much as it seems high its covering maybe 8 or 9 pressies so I'm happy enough with that. Plus my boots points are up to £23 which will go towards xmas pressiess Petrol, not much we go about that! school and activity costs should be very little next month (fingers crossed). The clothes are for the kiddies for holiday hoping to spend no more than £250 for all of us, might add that to the sig so I can keep an eye on it!

On a mse note got my first payment from quidco it was only £10 but every little helps 3 eb*y parcels packaged up for posting tomorrow, just to list five items for this week hopefully do this tomorrow night!

Having a girlie night with dd and Edward & Jacob lol! My guilty pleasure - :heart2:we're huge twilight fans:)

Have a good Friday night all.

weeclick

hey mamato3, does your food shop include gifts etc? If so then youve done really well! I always note my gift spend down seperate and Ive only just started getting a box to put things away in. You dont seem to miss the odd £10 or £20 each week compared to a big lump sum coming up to christmas just cant buy for the kids because they change their minds on what cartoon they like as much as the weather changes!

Fuel prices is becoming wild now and as you say theres nothing you can do about it! They reckon on the news they are tackling fuel prices so fingers cross they make a difference soon! I remember just a few years ago £25 filled the tank, these days that doesnt even touch half!

Hope you have a great weekend!

mamato3

Hi Weeclick, unfortunately the gifts are separate from my food budget! So it's been a bit high this month but I did get a lot of good 3fo2 buys and points on my boots card so I'm not worrying too much about the total at the minute! I just have to stay out of boots!

Going to post eb*y paracels this morning and then enjoy the rest of this sunny saturday!

Have a good one everyone

mamato3

10 days left to payday! I always start to feel a little deflated around this time of the month the pennies seem to get harder to find no matter how hard I try and budget! The food budgets pretty much bust lol its at £275 was hoping only £280 for the month so thats not going to be possible! Only one cheque for the kiddies passports has been taken so far, I'm just hoping there's nothing wrong with the other application and it doesn't get returned!

On a good note its a lovely day today which always makes things seem not as bad

mamato3

Tax credits and child benefit went in today so after dds for April come out I was able to put £110 into holiday savings yippeee! Was really pleased by this and also keep #£40 to help out until the end of the month:) So the day ended better which is great:)

Hope everyone had a good day.

mamato3

DSs passport still not arrived yet, dds came yesterday, but the other cheque still hasn't come out yet ....sigh... really hoping the application doesn't get returned!

I also got some more holiday clothes today, only £21 but have to update sig to show this along with another £14 groceries. I thinks £280 was optimistic especially when last months total came in at £400 for groceries! So will re think this for next month.

mamato3

I wrote a whole post out last night only to loose connection with the wifi grr.... just have to try an remember what it was about now!

I gave into a take away last night, the first of the month which is actually pretty good. I was to tired so didn't put up to much of a fight! It will probably put me into the red though come payday.

Ebay didn't do great this week only £5 in sales, which I guess is better than no sales. I might leave ebay for a few weeks, I don't have to much to put on. I think I might have to venture into the dark whole that is the attic and see what lurks up there!

Looking to April spendy things I have 2 birthdays , 2 cars to tax (both up end of April), a night out with the girlies (yippee ) and OHs birthday and dds music lessons when she goes back after Easter. So quite alot to sort our really and keeping up with my £200 savings and £75 to CC, oh and we're decorating our living room so will have to work out how much that will cost also. mmmm I feel it could be a tight month!

The food budget I'm going to up to £300, as £280 just isn't possible! I'm going to get a large meat parcel for the month, order a large fresh fruit/veg box from a local veg shop and pretty much try and avoid Ts wherever possible! We will see if it works!

The cheque for dds passport came out, which is great, it should arrive at the start of the week. At least thats one less thing to have to sort out!

Have a super Sunday everyone.

mamato3

Darn, just checked the lotto numbers and not a winner lol! I can keep dreaming

mamato3

End of the month count up and boy is it scarey:eek: Good news was only £51 into the overdraft rather than last months £185 so a huge improvement there! But the rest isn't so good!
Food Bill £400.53 :eek::eek:
Petrol £240 (actually a lot lower than I thought)
Take Out £17 (pretty good also)
School & Activities £120.80:eek:
Gifts £66.35 - Clothes £73.00
Misc - £56 (haircuts, window cleaner, toys (i know like we need more toys)
Lotto £40
Nappies/Wipes £25

The food bill was a bit of shocker - I really have to stop nipping into the shop for a few things only to end up £15 down! Petrol was lower although my cars going on fumes at the minute so will have to fill it up tomorrow but will add this into Aprils spends. School costs should be about £80 for April - gifts should be £40 for April if I just stick to the two that I have this month. I have enough nappies for April so don't need to buy any either and hoping to get my little guy potty trained as well! Food bills definitley a challenge hoping for £300 this month fingers crossed I can do better. The spending diaries a little scarey when you go over it at the end of the month but definitley a motivator to try and improve.

The kids are now finished for Easter so will have to find a way of entertaining them in a not so expensive way! Going to go and up date sig now and hope to do better in April