In the words of Yazz...

debtfreewannabe321

You sound so happy lovely to hear! And nearly CC free......wow well done you you have done brilliant so far....last push now to get rid of it

Fudgefund

Thanks Robin and DFW123.

Another week over, not a good week for money saving I'm afraid. My Mum came up on Wednesday and it was lovely to see her, we had a lot of fun. I couldn't cook for her in my flat due to there being too many people here at the moment, so I did the next best thing and took her to a bar where you can get a bottle of house wine for £10, and most of the mains are £6. My Mum had brought a Pizza Express voucher with her, I think it was two courses for £10 but I thought by the time we'd bought some wine and left a tip it would end up costing us a fortune, so I managed to talk her out of it. We both put £30 in a kitty, and out of this we got dinner, drinks and a trip to the cinema. I'd prepaid the hotel, and managed to convince her to come to my flat for lunch (everyone else was in work) so managed to save some money there which I think she was grateful for. The trouble is, I know she doesn't have a great deal of money as she has no income until her pension is paid, but she seems to be slightly in denial. I obviously did my best, strong arming her into lunch at home, cinema snacks from Tesco, but then we went for a quick drink in a bar on the way back and she spent over £10 on two glasses of wine. I did my best, anyway. I bought DB's Mum a present from the two of us whilst in town (I never go shopping normally for obvious reasons) and this cost me another £12.50, but she seemed to love it so it was worth it.

I drank too much on Wednesday(another pitfall of too much time with Mum), so I haven't had any alcohol all weekend. Friday night I stayed in, and Saturday night just went shopping. I only had two evening meals to buy for along with lunch things but again we came up to the £40 mark with no extras bought. I am trying really hard but the cost of food just seems to be going up and up. Today we went for a meal with DB's family, we were supposed to be splitting the bill between the three couples but DB's parents again wouldn't hear of it so I had a lovely meal for free. Although I do feel a bit bad about this, at the same time I am really relieved.

This week I need to take my lunch to work everyday and stay out of any shops. If I can do this until the end of the week I'll have £80 to live on until I get paid. Obviously this will be really tight, but when isn't it? I've booked all my Christmas travel and left it on my credit card until I get paid. I really couldn't have left it any longer, the prices seemed to have got worse every time I looked. I am feeling pretty poor at the moment.

*Robin*

Hi Fudgie, :hello:

Glad to hear you and Mum enjoyed her visit, even though she paid an eye-watering price for vino (£5+ per glass! :eek:).

Fudgefund wrote: »

I've booked all my Christmas travel and left it on my credit card until I get paid. I really couldn't have left it any longer, the prices seemed to have got worse every time I looked.

Do you know the trick of wiping your browsing history in between checking prices [maybe several times] and booking tickets?

DS3's flights to Asia doubled in cost over about three weeks while they were pondering which dates to book. Cleared pc history [for another reason] and hey presto - tickets were the same price as the first time they looked (- saved about £700! ).

Fudgefund

Ooh no, I've never tried that Robin, the next time I'm booking train tickets I'll definitely try it. I always thought it was just a matter of continually elapsing time, and had visions of Richard Branson running after me with an over sized pocket watch looking threatening.

My Mum would think nothing of £5 on a glass of wine, although that wasn't the worst of it. Where we went to watch the gig a pint of Strongbow/Fosters was £4.80! I'm not sure I've ever had worse value for money in my life!

I spoke to DB about money last night, and he said that he was fine with me giving him my half of the rent mid-month if it meant I could skip this month. I'll have responsibility for Council Tax and TV Licence out of my account, so he shouldn't be short at all. This is a great plan short term - he was going to pay my half of the deposit on the flat, but now I can do that and still have £65 left over from what I'd budgeted this month meaning things aren't as tight as they seemed! Phew.

I have an interview for that job on Monday, I still don't think I have a hope and I'm not sure whether to buy a new skirt or not. I haven't bought any new work clothes for nearly a year, so it would definitely get used again, but if this interview hadn't come up, I would have just soldiered on. Hm. :think:

First NSD of the week, hoping to last out until Friday evening.

please-let-me-be-lucky

Congratulations on the interview. If you do decide on a new skirt, don't underestimate supermarket clothes! Xx

beanielou

Buy a new lucky skirt

Fudgefund

It's been an olde worldy week in Fudgeland, where I've been taking the 'make do and mend' spirit which won us the war as far as I can (not all that far, admittedly). On Tuesday I finally gave in to the fact I needed winter boots, but had a perfectly good pair from last year which the heels had fallen off of. This actually happened about three months into the purchase but I obviously couldn't face the thought of asking for a refund so I just put them away. My colleague offered to take them into a cobblers, which I reluctantly agreed to, and the day after I picked them up and they were like new for £12.95! Buoyed by this success I then pulled out my winter coat which is wretched with damp from last year, sewed up a couple of rents in the lining and stitched a button back on and plonked this monstrosity on the counter of my local Johnson's Dry Cleaners. I didn't get a murmur out of the shop assistant as I had feared (I read somewhere they inspect the garment so you can't blame them for accidents) and bounced out with my ticket for £12.95.

This has resulted in a quite a spendy few days, but I think this is the wisest investment of my extra money from not paying all my rent this month. Who knows, perhaps tomorrow I'll indulge in a light spot of candle stick making.

I went into Boots today and spent some money on myself (on make up) for the first time in ages. It felt very peculiar. DB is taking me to the theatre and for a meal tomorrow night :A and then I have the dreaded interview on Monday so I absolutely had to replace my foundation which ran out months ago. I was wowed by the choice in foundations and very worried I would be accosted by a sales person so I grabbed the nearest one and left. It was £11.95. I'll get over it in time.

Fudgefund

There's no good way to say this, so I'll just make it quick. Since my last post I've gone a bit rogue.

Last Friday I went out with DB and managed to spend £40 (we went for drinks, a meal, to the theatre and then to a club (I use the term club loosely)). The next day we went to Blackpool where I spent another £15, then on the Sunday I went out with friends and spent another £15 on lunch.

I then elected to buy a skirt for my interview from Next, which set me back £30 :eek:. I have come back with my tail firmly between my legs.

The interview on Monday went horrifically badly (there was a lengthy test at the beginning using only Excel, I haven't used it since University) so it was a waste of £30, although I will wear the skirt again. They still haven't bothered to let me know I haven't got the job, despite it being an internal vacancy, which I think is terrible, but I'm definitely not planning on asking for feedback so I need to let it go. :rotfl:I was pretty down about it Monday/Tuesday but I've completely bounced back now.

I was good moneywise all week, then on Friday I spent £6 on a bottle of wine to take to my friends' house, so not too bad. The rest of the weekend apart from food shopping I've spent nothing, and I'm hoping it will stay that way apart from a (non-alcoholic) drink at a gig on Tuesday.

But where I have really gone mad is on my Dad's Christmas present, which cost me...wait for it... £130. I have historically spent far more on my Mum at Christmas, and this is the most I've spent ever on my Dad, but it is on something he really wants to see, and he's not known for his enthusiasm. This means I'm not going to be credit card free next month, but it's done now. I won't be spending anything like that on anyone else, needless to say, and the figure does include a ticket for myself. My outgoings next month are much lower than this month which is going to bear the brunt of my moving costs, so it will even itself out MSE'ers! Don't look at me like that.

please-let-me-be-lucky

I can't help it, it's the face I was born with :rotfl:.

Sorry about the job interview but onwards and upwards. Everything happens for a reason.

I don't actually think £40 is bad for drinks, a meal, the theatre AND clubbing (however loose!). The only bad thing is spending money when you haven't got it to spend - if that is the case - but at least you got a full night out for it. Xx

Fudgefund

Thanks PLMBL. I didn't overspend on my day to day budget last month, I put my Dad's Christmas present on my credit card, along with skirt from Next which is why I'm not sitting here proudly declaring myself credit card free. I'm not going to dwell on it though, I'm just going to try harder. Last week I had NSDs on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, so I pulled back a bit there.

I was paid yesterday, and have paid DB all my bill outgoings for the month. Obviously I am paying a lot more (£160 more a month!) than I was in my old place but I am so much happier here the money really is well spent. I'm a bit concerned about damp in my new flat (damp seems to pervade every flat in Manchester in my experience) but since I moved in and have been regularly airing the rooms and putting the heating on, it's much better. We've decided to invest in a dehumidifier to really put my concerns to bed, so my half is setting back £64 this month.

I've paid £390 to Barclaycard which has left me with £100 to pay next month, which I feel fine about. DB miscalculated how much I needed to pay him for the deposit, so I've had to pay him another £47.50. I've allocated £40 this month for my Mum's Christmas present (including again a ticket for me) so all this leaves me with roughly £60 a week to live on. I should be fine, and I've got a round four week month so I'm just going to withdraw the money on the Friday of the week. Since the nights have drawn in getting me to go anywhere is an uphill battle, so I won't be spending much in the evenings.

I've downloaded all my Christmas songs back on my iphone and organised the work secret santa this week, so it's Christmas a-go-go here. I bought some mince pies for 89p from Morrisons and they're all gone already. Along with the diet it seems. Hm. :rotfl: