Pollyanna

ChopinonaBudget

A debt diary sounds such a good idea, it can be so hard sometimes to see the woods for the trees and stay postive when the debt is mounting up again (an annual problem for me due to fluctuating income; on a good year I have backup to cover my slow periods, last year I was already on the brink and the summer pushed me well and truly under)
So, to keep the Pollyanna thoughts I have spent so long fostering, I'm starting a diary. At the very least I'll be able to look back next year when my income dives and see if it really has got better (I hope so)

I have a budget and have done for a while, although it took me many months to finish off some expensive phone/gym etc contracts that I was no longer using, these are finally gone and my monthly outgoIngs are less now. Next step is to phone swalec and find out how much I owe them to see if I can afford to pay off and switch suppliers.

I have a new budget plan, groceries I am hoping to spend less on by switching to asda (even counting thE taxi fare back it's a much cheaper shop), planning ahead and wasting less food, stopping buying sandwiches, and buying more value lines by buying monthly in bulk.

This week has been expensive; vets bills, the asda shop, my daughter's haircut tomorrow. Thankfully my students are filtering back for lessons now!

Money in today: £30 (£40 owing)
Money out today: £123 vets £12 tesco £10 odds and sods

Pollyanna: the £123 is well worth it for the sake of my bunny, and my vet is very sensitive to extra costs: took blood but will only send to lab if bunny still poorly in two days, he'll wait on my phone call. Can't ask for better than that really.

ChopinonaBudget

Bunny looks much happier this morning, I can put her back in her hutch in a few hours. :j

It's going to be an expensive day today but if I add on anything I need for tomorrow I should manage my first NSD tomorrow

Today:
1 morning piano lesson
Take daughter for haircut (not cheap as we have avoided haircuts for ages so she needs a restyle)
Get cash out to top up bus smart cards
Teaching from 3.30 (possible new student sitting in on her friend's lesson)
Cook nice cheap tea: pasta for me, homemade sweetcorn chowder for daughter.
Make gluten-free bread in bread maker for school lunchbox tomorrow
Check and possibly buy online new TV for daughter (birthday present in a few weeks; she's found a good one for £150)

ChopinonaBudget

Brief hiatus in lessons:
Have done everything I planned (except the stuff that hasn't happened yet )
Good news: new student is definite and booked in for weekly lessons. Must remember to adjust spreadsheet tonight.

First day back at school tomorrow for daughter so will spend the day organising all my put-off projects for this year, stuff I didn't have time to do for various reasons last year.
Some of them might even make some money!

ChopinonaBudget

Well that was another painfully expensive day :eek::eek::eek:

My daughter's birthday is at the end of this month so have just paid out £149.99 for a new TV for her room as hers is on its last legs. It's pretty scary now looking at my bank account but I make sure I do it and don't ignore my increasing overdraft.

Earnt a proper amount today for the first time in weeks, so things will start easing off as from now!

Will call electricity company tomorrow to find out if switching is a viable option or not.

In the meantime, went out for a wee drinkie (half a pint) with friends this evening, and made sure I have the 4 small bits of shopping I need to be able to do my first NSD tomorrow.... :T:T:T:T:T

chevalier

Hi there
Are you sure your budget covers everything? Have a look at this

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html to double check you have included yearly costs.

Two other things. You mention going by taxi to Asda to do cheaper shopping. Is there any reason why you couldn't have it delivered? You can often get codes on the 'net for free delivery. So this would save you money and time?

Also does your daughter NEED a new tele or does she WANT one. Does she need one in her room at all? If you have decided it suits you, then what about seeing if the same model is available second hand on ebay? Or get a working one off freecycle?

good luck
chev

ChopinonaBudget

Thanks for your reply, chevalier

My daughter does actually sort of 'need' a tv in her room; I work from home and we live in a painfully small house so she doesn't have access to the living room while I'm teaching. I've used frEecycle and eBay for lots of stuff before but for a few other reasons (I won't go into details but i started being single again 18 months ago and it's a VERY good thing) birthdays were extraordinarily difficult for me to buy for. Sorry I'm not going into more detail, it's very personal. But I can afford the tv (my o/d just looks frightening because of yearly slow work, now resolved again) and I'm not overspending, which is something I did massively in the past 2 years.
(my main tv is on the Way out too, when It goes, I've got my eye on the local charity shop that specialises in elEctricals. Should cost me £30 for a new one. £15 if I buy a portable!

The asda shop is tricky, we walk there, taxi back, the taxi is £6, but my daughter needs a special diet as she is coeliac, so its a pain in the neck for me to do deliveries as we will find substitutes that she can have by ingredient chEcking.

My SOA I constantly check at the minute, it's really helpful to rEad comments on other peoples'. It's where I realised how bad my energy bills were. (I knew they were bad, I didn't realise how bad) my house is an absolute b***h to heat as its open plan and any heat goes straight up the stairs. Plus I suspect the boiler is very inefficient. By the way, my SOa is a complex affair due to my fluctuating income, I have 4 spreadsheets and a budget app I use to keep track of spending :eek:

ChopinonaBudget

NSD1 is a go !

I'm not counting my impending purchase of bunny food as my rabbit Is still not eating properly and this is my last ditch attempt to find her a brand of food she will eat before I pay the vet £50 tomorrow morning to send off the blood he has for testing. She's typically very fussy, and has been eatig a little more since her teeth clipping, but she's not eating enough yet and can't afford to lose any more weight so I'm counting her food as medication, which in her case, sadly, it really is.

On the plus side, I spent an hour in town, to bank cheques and sort out bus to pet shop, discovered an O2 moment for free hair care worth £10 (no spend needed) and got free drink of water at bank.

I'm seeing the point of NSD now, as despite the rabbit food, I didn't buy a sandwich, coffee, bottle of water etc. I'll wait till I get home.

ChopinonaBudget

YES!!!!

NSD1 is going well so far and the rabbit tucked into her new food with gusto :T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T
I shaved £30 off :eek: my monthly gas DD by phoning existing supplier; back debts are now paid off, and my energy is slowly decreasing :T:T (cheapest price comparison was only negligably cheaper, and this saves me changing, and it's capped for 2 years)

Better news: I used to be on Swalec's Argos points scheme, but lost my argos card and forgot about it for ages. I asked customer services if I could have a new card sent out with my old balance, and there's £88 credit on there!!!!!!!!!!!:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T
Damn shame I didn't think of this before I bought the TV, but still, I'll save it for Xmas. YAYYYYYYY!!!!


So..... DF stuff today: Rabbit eating, got free drink and free shampoo/conditioner/comb/other stuff. Paying £30p/m less for gas (will try to get this even lower this winter), found £88, and ebay lots are currently standing at £33.

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:

ChopinonaBudget

NSD1 complete. Done and dusted. I'm rather proud of myself

Have gone through two of my survey sites and found I've earned £12.50 on one, and I can cash £10 worth as Argos vouchers. Will spend the whole Argos lot on MS office when the Argos points card arrives. Am still a bit irritated at buying MS office as I've never paid for it in my life before, but for the first time ever we don't have a ahem 'borrowed' copy to hand, I need a copy of powerpoint for homemade handouts, and my daughter needs office for school (joint projects are always done in powerpoint, I've tried the free ones and just can't get them to work). The vouchers will take the cost down from £109 to £11 so that's do-able!

Still waiting to see if I need to pay the vets for those lab tests, the bunny is eating more, but she's a night eater, so won't really know if she's eating properly till the morning.

ChopinonaBudget

Didn't manage an NSD today, although I hadn't planned one. I'm going to stop this planning stuff, I'd have made it if I hadn't splashed out 57p on a stupid packet of crisps....

Have lost another two students today, but their situation is far worse than mine so I'm not really feeling sorry for myself and I refuse to. Two family members who both have lessons are having to leave the country as the parent's visas have run out, it's very sad, and I feel terribly sorry for the whole family, it's desperately unfair. They're going to try to return but it all depends on finding a new job here to come back for.

I've re-organised my SOA, cut a few more corners here and there where possible, and my daughter has told me she's found loads of stuff in Home Bargains that are half the price we usually pay so we're off there tomorrow.

Onwards, ever onwards. The lost student money I'll make up, and I'll hope for their luck to change.

ChopinonaBudget

Have just been through a few bags and found some coins to start a 'park pot' for my daughter for after school. And finally, today, jumped through the thousand hoops required by yahoo to join freecycle, all of which took me an hour, and confirmed my opinion on yahoo. B****y thing.
I've used freecycle before though, I have a fabulous Hoover after mine died last year (I'm fairly convinced the previous owners didn't realise you need to wash the filter, as it was clogged when I got it but worked perfectly after a good sluice through) I'm looking out for saucepans as one of mine lost a long battle with its handle last month and we're a pan down now.