Shortie's DFW Diary

Shortie

Gosh I'm waffling on here! Still, it's keeping me focussed / motivated at the mo

I'm gunning for a NSD today. I bought in my breakfast and leftovers lunch to work. Plus I now have a little stock of Tuc Biscuits to hit the savoury munchies if I get them - 2 biscuits from a whole pack will be cheaper than a 65p bag of crisps so it helps to the overall saving

And I continued to feel guilty about the chicken last night... yes it was underweight but I didn't expect the refund. I think I just wanted a (polite) grumble at anyone going after the salary slip up that day) and a local volunteer only charity put out an appeal for funds on fb earlier in a desperate bid to try and save as many dogs as possible from being put down on Christmas Eve that are in Pounds by trying to move them out of them. So guess where the chicken refund money just went? That's my conscience slightly clearer and they've just got a tenner from me that (right now) I wouldn't have otherwise been able to give them

Yes, I'm in the muck right now until I get paid, but until I got home and found out about the chicken it was money that had been spent anyway so I shouldn't really miss it right?

I have a happier, warmer feeling now I've just done that

Shortie

... And breathe.... I got paid the rest of my salary today. Pheeeeeewww.

Standing orders all reinstated, postponed payments made, monthly cash bit of budgetting (petrol, 'entertainment' money, cash element of food shopping, etc) withdrawn and put into envelopes...

I have £110 now 'spare' for the rest of the month.The remainder of the Christmas shopping planned for this weekend/Monday or Tuesday should all be easily achievable in what I still have put aside, I've managed to squeeze 1.5 years of car tax out of my 'Yearly by Month' account for two of the cars, and I need to pay £30 for new new allotment (a whole £5 a year - I know, sooo expensive plus and initial £25 admin fee)

Oh, and we have the team Christmas meal in December too.

This month's focus is to keep out of my buffer (well, ignoring the fact my mortgage today shot me to the practically the bottom of it). Will I do it? I bloomin' hope so! I so want a fresh start to the new year with finances.

Also hoping I get some overtime paid next month from working away 2 weekends ago which should help me build my savings buffer back up too

Anyway, waffle over for a bit

elantan

Carry on waffling me dear, it's good to get it all in place

Shortie

Ta elantan

Shortie

Today wasn't a NSD day unfortunately but I ended up not meeting a friend for lunch so I got something cheaper so at least saved. I also paid my Christmas meal money. I will go and get my invoice for my lottie in a mimute too and get that paid up

We're planning to go into the main village tomorrow to get (what I hope is) the last of the Christmas pressie shopping, and a bit of food shopping as we ran out of spuds.

Hoping to fit the upvc door up tomorrow too but we now only need to buy wood for the frame. The door was free and we only needed to buy the brackets, a new lock and the wood. We've already fitted a cat flap so the cats and dogs can come and go as they please (rather than waking me up every morning between 4-5am to be let out for a wee....)

Also planning on having a practice of some of the sweet treats that we'll be making for the Christmas hampers which the boys will love to help with both making and eating

I have a budget still left for Christmas pressies - it was meant of the boys pressies but I've managed to be more frugal than I had first hoped so I'll use the spare to get other bits instead


Oooh and Mr Shortie is getting more and more onboard. He decided to call his mobile co today to find out when his contract was up, to find it's already expired so he gave them his 30 day notice and will switch to the Mr T £10 30-day rolling contract instead. Woo hoo!

Shortie

So, a frustrating few days but finally making some progress with the house (though it's cost me a bit more than expected in DIY shops..) we have replaced the old rotting back door with a upvc one that was donated. Minus a key unfortunately and we kept sheering drill bits trying to get the old lock out so ended up calling a lock smith

Still, the door went up today, looks much nicer, has a decent sized, non-busted catflap in it, and a window at the top so makes the area much lighter - woo hoo!

I'm trying to keep on top of the finances side of life, hope I'm doing an okay job of it!

Shortie

Have been good so far with taking food for work today and yesterday. One day left to go and the weekend

Oh the things we do to save money... I've just been sat for longer than I care to think about finding bargains on Mr T Direct, staying within the clubcard vouchers I have (and have doubled up) and then spending a frustrating (literally) hour trying to work out why my last voucher wouldn't register after thinking I'd read that any difference between the balance and exchange voucher (if the balance was lower) would be recreditted or lost. But nope, the system simply refused to apply the last voucher. So lots of faffing and fiddling, and then giving in and trawling the toy section for something around £4. Hey presto, I now have an order placed. One DVD being delivered for free, and the toys going to my local store for free.

I also order the Amazon/Kindle vouchers for my folks today so they should be turning up tomorrow. I only now need to buy a set of PJs for my goddaughter and with the help of the clubcard vouchers, I've still got £51 left of the Chrimbo pressie budget. If we don't need that for Christmas dinner (we have the sweet and savoury nibbles sorted, plus a little bit of wine and some nice flavoured waters) then it's going to be put towards tile paint for the not-so-nice pinkish bathroom in the new year

Yay, feeling a little bit organised again!

Shortie

Hmm, I'm feeling like I'm burning money at the mo... Mr Shortie and his Mum decided that we should all go for a meal yesterday which set us back £100 (yes, it's not a cheap place, and most of the people with us spent the time moaning, phah) which was £30 over the remainder of the entertainment budget - so that's now totally blown too

I bought a picture in a frame which was lovely, though I feel bad about that now in light of the meal :-/

I seem to have the grumps today, I've just got the house back from having people staying over this weekend, and I am off sick with a cold. I'm pooped and can't sleep as I'm either getting phone calls as my throat behaves enough for me to not cough, or something starts the dogs off (who are adament to sleep in the bedroom with me so it wakes me up)

I think I'll give up on the sleep for now and recheck my bank account and get me recipies ready for the Christmas hampers. Hopefully it'll cathc me back up and if it does, I'll give in and sleep on the sofa

Sorry, grumpy Shortie's piece has been said now...

On a good note, I'm sorted of Christmas pressies now so I should just be a case of waiting for the last 2 bits to come, I need to do some wrapping, and then on Christmas eve make the hamper foods

elantan

debt paying and money making is such an up and down experience, i know sometimes i feel is it all worth it? am i wasting my time etc, and sometimes i get really down about it all ( and life in general)


but it's like a rollercoaster and with the downs come the ups, when you see the debt coming down and the savings going up and realise things which before you may have panicked about now have became second nature you need to remember to give yourself that little pat on the back

Shortie

Thanks elantan. I'v ejust had a look at the spending analysis, and updated /corrected it all for November. It was quite an eye opener really, a couple of big spends on car tax (but they are budgetted for) 2 big spends on hotels (not something we do often at all - but it went to show just how much it cost me last month) and lots of spends here and there on Mr T and cash withdrawls - it's quite an eye opener!

I've already worked out that with yesterday's meal out, and the fact some of the food shopping budget still sits in my current account waiting to be spent, I'll be £100 down this month and I still have 2 weeks till pay day.

I wasn't expecting miracles suddenly the first month, but if I take away anything right now, it's that this is an eye opener and I need to be in much more control of my money. I'm hoping to at least be a lot more homest with myself about the spending this month so that I can really see where I burn the money. It's potty how I seem to be in the red already..!