Squeaky spreadsheet diary

Tiglath

New month with payday tomorrow so got myself organised for a frugal one; lost the plot a bit towards the end of January with having to buy a new hoover and splashing out on a couple of take-aways, and I also have to pay the car tax this month. The overdraft is the wildcard in all this so I'll be super-disciplined about it. Haven't got any special spends planned for the month apart from possibly a fence replacement, so we'll see where I end up by 25th Feb.

My study course is ordered and my first workbook arrives at work tomorrow, so it'll be heads down to complete the first module ASAP; giving myself approx 10 weeks. It'll give me something to do on Saturday while I wait for the courier to finally collect the boxes for musicmagpie. Our daily routine is going to have to change to protect my study time so I'll try to automate dinner as much as possible, and salad could feature very highly even though it's not yet Spring. It will also help reduce my wheat intake which has been making me feel bleah.

It's DH's birthday on Saturday and he's requested roast lamb with Greek salad; we're both craving veg in a big way at the moment so I'll make sure it's a scrummy one. Leftover lamb will be chopped and frozen for curries etc. It's always a fight to get leftover lamb away from DH but Saturday he can have as much as he wants.

Work is hectic - we had a 2-hour brainstorming session today and planned our programme until the end of May. Lots of extra responsibility coming my way which I relish.

Came in from work tonight and wondered who was peeing with the bathroom door open as I listened to the sound ... it was cat no 5 perched on the seat. She's taught herself to use the loo - clever girl

lurvlyloz

hahahah your cat is very clever!

excellent news that your study pack is coming so quickly. good luck

Tiglath

That's pleased me - 92% on a sample exam. If I can replicate that in the real thing, I'll be very happy indeed.

The cats are crazy - they're knocking over dining chairs fighting, and one is licking the box that multipacks of crisps come in. Must be the weather.

debt_by_design

Tiglath wrote: »

They're all planning take-away for the team meeting tomorrow and I shall munch my leftover risotto (and try not to be envious if they have Assenheims chicken, rice + salad @ £7 a pop). Going to incorporate a few veggie dinners a week.

So - here we go. Ready to really start this mission. Very excited

I haven't quite got to the end of your thread yet but well done for keeping focused.

My only problem is as I seem to live near where you work, so I keep stopping to google all the amazing food places you mention! Not so good for my DF journey.

Good luck with the journey.

Tiglath

Oops - I'd best not mention Whitecross Market, Birleys, Tayyabs, Hummus Bros, or The Anthologist. I definitely won't mention Fuzzys Grub because I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in a food-of-the-gods roast dinner sandwich

Tiglath

DH's birthday today. Allegedly the courier is collecting my 2 musicmagpie boxes, but I'm not holding my breath on that, and if this one fails I'll probably give up - 3 initial failures to collect would be deemed incompetent. Once DH is up and about, I'll stock up on some groceries. It's been a month since I did anything other than basic milk/bread/veg, and the cupboards are pretty bare. Tomorrow it's a gazillion tins of catfood and restocking the freezers from Costco; I've not done badly though living off the meat stocks since about November.

debt_by_design

Lol!

Love Tayyabs, but I would say with their prices, that's almost an MSE meal!

Luckily, as most of these are only open during work hours, I have managed to keep out of them.

I must say that I have found your blog really inspiring and useful - I have looked into the share centre for the pactise account and noodle credit reports because of your thread.

Also your spreadsheets, mean I do not feel like the biggest geek either - my friends freak out when they see my colour coded budget that stretch to 2015 with alternate budgets for possible life events, like job losses!

Thank you again and hope your thread and debt busting continues.

Tiglath

Thank you for your kind words, DBD My fantasy share portfolio is up 3% so far. I've not been to Tayyabs yet but everyone in the office raves about it so we're all going one night this week. I do recommend Hummus Bros if you ever get there - a most unusual hummus, gorgeous with the slowcooked beef stew and tzatziki. Really out of this world, and I'm not really a big hummus fan.

Musicmagpie did collect the boxes yesterday so at some point I should get a cheque for £100ish.

Had a huge spend in Costco today. The car was groaning under 288 tins of catfood, and we had no space for the month's cat litter, but the freezers are stocked again with meat and should do us for 2-3 months. I've gone back to lowcarbing in an effort to feel better, as grains really upset me and sugar makes me spiky.

Dinner was rather scrummy slices of roast beef spread with Philly and wrapped around slices of orange pepper; I prefer picky food to real meals. About to hardboil 15 eggs to take into work for snacks. Lunches will be Greek salad + extra bits this week, and dinners (chilli etc) will be served over romaine lettuce rather than pasta/rice/spuds. I'm expecting a burst of energy and better sleep

DH's thought for the day - wouldn't it be funny if breast implants came with squeaky toy bits. I'll slap him later ...

Tiglath

Just a small thing. BT emailed last night to say they're reducing our monthly DD from £69 to £42 for phone and BT Infinity; it'll all add up. I've been scrupulous about submitting gas and electric meter readings to Eon because we did have the heating on a lot over the recent cold weather including a couple of allnighters, but they're not increasing that DD which is good. DH says he's cold but I'm not, so the heating's not going on! Am at the point of swapping my winter coat for my raincoat again now the weather's improved.

I've booked next Monday off work so I can finally have a bit of peaceful time at home on my own, plus a week in March as study leave. I feel like a robot at the moment. Work, study, try to sleep ... getting the IOC qualification is one of my objectives for promotion next Spring. May stay late Friday night so I can work on my appraisal, as my remote access is messed up.

I've put the fence replacement as a job on ratedpeople.com so we'll see if anyone's interested in the work - it won't happen unless I organise it, and it's stressing me out a bit.

So ... life is dutiful rather than pleasurable at the moment, but I'm surviving and not spending.

Tiglath

The only possible way to tackle the pricing of financial instruments in my study tonight is like this:

http://youtu.be/s-6u0HWodsw