Twelve Weeks To Glow

Rainbow_Bridge

Day 44 of the 12 week challenge and 108/365 - 30%.

30% of the way through my year already.

This is the end of my month. I get paid later today for my PAYE jobs, so I am going to conclude my finances for October before I get totally confused.

I will be £404.50 richer, than at the beginning of the month, and 2lb lighter .

The £404.50 includes the £100.00 of work that I am going to do today, and is £204.50 over what I planned to earn.

Although a lot of it will hit my account, throughout November, in drips and drabs, my current account is still looking healthy .

On the negative side, this actually meant that I spent £204.50 more than I had budgeted for :eek:. If I had stuck to my budget I could have saved a phenomenal £604.50.

Grocery, mobile, gym, diesel and £200.00 savings were bang on plan, the offenders were:-

Clothes for me - £91 over plan
XMAS presents - £65 Nothing in plan at all for them
Entertainment - £40 Italian lunch with auntie and lunches with friends that I did not mention
Stamps and Parking - £10 - ebay and MS costs not factored in.

Total over budgeted spend - £206

Also, I am losing less a week than I thought, I have been tracking on the WW site and I am averaging a loss of 0.44 lb a week this month, which is less than in the first two months, so I am going to have to work much harder, over the next 9 weeks, than I thought to realistically hit my goal.

I will give all this some thought and come up with a plan for November,tonight, because November officially starts for me tomorrow.

Overall a really enjoyable month, with little stress, and despite doing a heck of a lot of things that technically I shouldn't of, I am somehow still the right way up ................. go figure :whistle:

TTFN and thanks for all your wonderful support xxxx.

grannyx2

No, please don't start November tomorrow because that means I've missed my wedding. How can I have slept through it, I knew I was tired but.......... :rotfl:

Morning my lovely, hope the ms aren't too bad today x

Rainbow_Bridge

Day 45 of the 12 week challenge and 109/365 - 30%.

grannyx2 wrote: »

No, please don't start November tomorrow because that means I've missed my wedding. How can I have slept through it, I knew I was tired but.......... :rotfl:

Morning my lovely, hope the ms aren't too bad today x

LOL :rotfl:Is the wedding today? Rainbow time is very flexible, you can move it anyway you want to.

The FP MS visits, yesterday, were fine, I am glad I did them. I know I said that I would never be tempted to buy the product, but as usual I was wrong ......

Their key product was a pre-payment plan, where you organise all the details in advance and pay-up over a number of years.

You are given a certificate and that is kept with your will, so that when the time comes, the family just hand over the certificate and the company organises everything. We have critical illness cover, a will, and a lot of life insurance, so this would be a sensible thing to consider too.

I couldn't help asking, 'what would happen if the company folded before I did?', but they all seemed to think that particular scenario was unlikely .

At the end I had to leave the shop, return, and show them a letter authorising me to audit the premises. I got four VIP tours, and fortunately I only saw live visitors.

One of the questions was very disconcerting though, it was,

"Were the public areas free from cremated remains that you could see :eek:???" I did not feel up to forensically examining any dust particles, so they all got a no here.

All in all, an interesting day, in the twilight world of mystery shopping! On that note I have decided to move November to tomorrow, because I am not organised for it yet .

Hope your wedding is fantastic granny xx.

grannyx2

Wedding is next Wednesday, 31st just so I can wear my usual outfit of witches attire and no-one needs to worry how I will get there as my broomstick is charged up ready. Actually my darling DDIL2B said that privilege falls to my DM who can be a crotchety old witch at times. :rotfl:

Oh dear re the dust in the FP's, did you say "no" they weren't free of crematory remains or "no" you didn't see any that concerned you? It did make me giggle that you considered buying though and the comment about who would fold first also made me smile.

You really do have a natural way with words x

Rainbow_Bridge

Day 46 of the 12 week challenge and 110/365 - 30%.

Morning world!

grannyx2 wrote: »

Oh dear re the dust in the FP's, did you say "no" they weren't free of crematory remains or "no" you didn't see any that concerned you? It did make me giggle that you considered buying though and the comment about who would fold first also made me smile.

x

A wedding on a Wednesday, and Halloween, is certainly different Granny and LOL to your mother! Mine has to be managed very carefully too.

As for your question above. I meant to put that I didn't see anything that concerned me, but I think I actually put the opposite :eek:. I went to see if I could check the reports, but they have all been processed . I should have sent them to you for proof-reading :rotfl:.

I have got myself in a total guddle with my spreadsheet, this morning. My dilemma is that if I close off my month on the 26th October it means that November is a 5 week month and I want to stick to the same budget that I had last month, which was only a 4 week month, to see if I can actually make it work this time, with a bit more discipline in the ranks!

So, I have decided, to ensure that there is no possible way that your wedding gets lost in a Rainbow wormhole, that November begins when the rest of the world thinks it should.

I am just going to spend £25.00 on fruit and vegetables and milk to last me to month end, and use up what is in the freezer and cupboards.

Any mystery shopping money between now and month end, will go in October figures too. I have another £100.00 of pretty easy work lined up for the next few days, so October is going to end up being quite lucrative .

I got the Skyfall job that I wanted and so DS, DH and I are going for free tonight. I just have to take some notes, before, during and after the film, and fill in a short report. We are all huge bond fans, so I am quite excited.

TTFN xx.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2012/oct/08/skyfall-adele-bond-theme-video

Rainbow_Bridge

Day 47 of the 12 week challenge and 111/365 - 30.41%.

Skyfall was great, we all enjoyed it, and my report has been sent off, so more money in the pot! It actually had a story line that I could follow, though I have to say that Daniel Craig is not wearing as well as George Clooney.

We ate before we went and smuggled in some sweets so another NSD. My £25.00 should last me until November.

Since my 'burger binge', I have been saintly on the eating front, so I am hoping for a pound or two off tonight.

I have been busy organising my banking ready for the start of November. The plan is:-

Aqua Credit Card - All spending that is not DD - for the cashback

New FD account - Money from PAYE jobs. Transferred bank details with Payroll departments so money should go in regularly from the end of November.

Nationwide FlexAccount - Money from Mystery Shopping, S/E work, Paypal, Quidco, Survey sites etc. (£10.00 a day challenge),

Separating the two accounts will make things easier for tax purposes.

Today I am going to transfer over £1000.00 into the FD account from the Nationwide. £500.00 will be moved into the regular savings account this month and £500.00 next month.

Amazingly I still have a decent float in the Nationwide account and £850.00 for my November budget.

Who would have thought that in 110 days I would have saved £1000.00. I am averaging savings of £9.09 a day!

I cheekily applied for an Amex Gold Card, though my salary is a little on the low side for it, and I am still waiting on a decision. I will give them a ring today.

Early next year, we will need to pay for flights, to Spain, for the family holiday, next summer.

Ten of us are going, and they will all give me the money before I book. I want to use the reward card, to make the booking, so that I can take advantage of the generous 2 free flight to Europe freebie, which would then mean DH and I would pay nothing! Fingers crossed.

I have no money on credit cards at the moment and intend to pay Amex and Aqua cards off in full without incurring any interest.

TTFN xx.

NewLeaf_2

How clever you are with Amex" xxxxxx

clippy_girl

Good luck for tonight :cool:

ani_26

Rainbow_Bridge wrote: »

Ten of us are going, and they will all give me the money before I book. I want to use the reward card, to make the booking, so that I can take advantage of the generous 2 free flight to Europe freebie, which would then mean DH and I would pay nothing! Fingers crossed.

If it were me, i would split the savings across the 10 tickets, which is where you and i differ, and probably why i am " bad " with money, because i am too " generous " in spirit?

southernbelle

Rainbow Bridge, thank you for your post with the MS companies - I hadn't heard of four of them so I am off for a look to see if they work in my area.