Trying not to fall off the DF wagon

vasseur

vasseur wrote: »

Going to double-check my figures in a bit because it almost looks too good. If they're correct I will save a bit extra

It was too good to be true....I forgot to take into account the cost of DD's birthday party (£200) :doh:

vasseur

Food shop came in at £51.41 after using all my discount vouchers. I'm really pleased with this because there was a lot of cleaning products, washing powder, toiletries in with everything and the food i managed to double up on so we'll have the same next week as the week after (meal plan below).

I have just been looking through my receipt though and have noticed that I have been charged for 5 cans of mackerel when i only bought 4. How do I prove this is the case? Should I have checked my receipt before I left the store (i didn't realise anyone did that). It's only 59p but it is the principle! I have emailed them anyway, see what they say.

Meal plan

Saturday - thai green curry and rice
Sunday - dinner at friends
Monday - salmon pasta
Tuesday - pancetta & spinach pasta
Wednesday - dd at friends, I will have mushroom risotto
Thursday - chilli
Friday - I am out for drinks and meal :T

Quite a carby meal plan but I need the energy for all the runs I'm doing

Freezing here today but when we went to leave this morning we found that the man next door but one had scraped all the ice off our car. How nice

RosaBernicia

Hurrah, you have lovely neighbours and I'm very impressed with the meal planning. And the running.

So impressed I shall go and start my Kindle running book :rotfl:that's as close as I get atm

RB xx

vasseur

Not a very spendy weekend considering it was just after payday. Went to town and bought some cards and a new baby present for next door. I'd promised myself some new jeans and some work tops so got them in Ada's (£16 in total :T). We did stock up on GF stuff while we were in there and some treats for lunch so that came to just under £17 so food spends this week has been pretty high but then I shouldn't need to spend too much next week.

We had dinner at my friend's yesterday and we discussed holidays and we are going to go abroad with them this year. Absolutely cannot wait and dd is so excited. I already have the money for the flights saved up so it would just be the accomodation and spending money - very doable. Nice to have something to look forward to at this time of year.

In other money saving news......

Cut my fringe myself
Sold a car seat on eb@y for £7
A concert that I had got dd and me some tickets for has now been cancelled so I should get the money back for that (approx £90) within the next 2 weeks so I shall stick that straight into my savings account.

Think that's it for now.

vasseur

Positive MSE things for today

Got text from CSA saying another weeks money is on its way. Excellent.

Managed to get a refund for a cycling hat I ordered last week that didn't arrive on time.

A NSD today.

Ta-da! List

Got sewing machine out and shortened jeans I bought at the weekend so I can wear them out this Friday.
DD's muddy PE kit washed.
Eb@y sale collected.

I had a look at YNAB today and have realised that the principles of it are pretty much how I run my accounts at the moment. I might just download it when I next see a deal on it. Would I be able to use it with a chromebook?

vasseur

Realised to my horror yesterday that I need to pay all of next term's after school club fees within this salary month :eek: made all the worse because DD has got to go every evening for the whole of March :eek::eek: so that's another £250 chunk out of this month's money I did have some put by and I have just paid the rest so it will be another belt-tightening month. It's not ideal but if I hadn't been so good last month it would have been a whole lot worse.

So I probably really do need YNAB

RosaBernicia

Eek :eek: but well done for sorting it... could have been so much worse.

I am probably the wrong person to ask about YNAB as I think the whole world needs it :rotfl:. Presumably you already know there's a 30 day full version free trial? I've just checked the YNAB boards to see if it's on sale as you can get it cheap via Steam (mine was the best value £7.50 I've ever spent) - that may come up again or it's $60 full price which isn't outrageous anyway. I have no idea about chromebook I'm afraid, I run it on a laptop which is about 8 years old and there is also a smartphone app for both Apple and Android. The app won't let you do everything - for example you can't adjust the budget - but it makes it easy to record spends and check the budget when you're away from home.

However, you might need to look at the system as YNAB primarily focuses on this month and next, plus savings pots for things throughout the year. So you'd have to account for needing more club time in March in your savings pot, then use it up then,


RB xx

vasseur

Thanks Rosa I will have a look out for deals. I saw one around NY but didn't take it up because i was being good :rotfl:

MS news

After paying DDs ASC fees on Tuesday I got the statement of account and found I was £40 in credit :mad: cue grovelling email to the manager to send it back to me (that's a week's food shop!!). Although it's not their policy she will send it back (just as well because I was ready to play the single parent card ) but it will take them 2 weeks...how can this be when I can pay my bill to them in a minute??? Anyway just relieved to be getting a little back.

Checked my bank account this morning and the refund for the cancelled gig has gone in (less booking fee grrr).

DD picked out some clothes from New L00k for her birthday present so I have ordered them through TCB to be delivered to store to save on delivery.

In a slightly sadistic way I am quite enjoying all this scrimping

Other news

Daily 100 crunches done
Went for a run in possibly the worst weather I have ever run in :eek:. It was Ok (although really windy) until I was halfway round and then the rain started...it was a real battle and I was a mess when I got back. I'm hardcore now

vasseur

Got home and got loads done. Felt really energised this evening for some reason - must be all the running

Ta-da!! List

100 crunches
Lunch time run
Cooked dinner
Vacuumed all through
2 loads of washing done and hung out (indoors) 3rd set to finish in the morning
6 items listed on eb@y

It has been snowing here on and off for the last hour. Terrific. I only like the snow if I'm watching it from the comfort of the sofa. I don't want to go out in it

vasseur

Grrrr...I wrote a huge long post on Monday evening and it got lost :mad:

This week's MSE-ness

Won £4.80 on the euromillions.

Gave meter readings in and balance went from £377 CR to £19 DR in one fell swoop. Was expecting to get a letter saying my direct debit would be increased but it is actually going down by £2 a month.

I sold 4 things on fleabay last night and they have all paid so that is another £30 in my paypal account.

I also listed the C0nverse boots that I bought for DD for her birthday as she didn't like the colour (!!!!) but as they were such a bargain and are still for sale at a much higher price elsewhere including am@zon I thought I'd try my luck at selling them for more than I paid for them.

Food shop came in at £47.82 tonight which includes a load of stuff for dd's party on Sunday that I wouldn't normally buy so I thought that was pretty good. Leaves just under £60 in the food account for the next 2 weeks - easily doable - I could teach them all a thing on Eat Well for Less - if Greg Wallace wants a challenge I dare him to try to cut my food bill down rather than the wallies who are spending £2 - £300 a week

DD's After School Club paid back the £40 that I was in credit so that's bumped up my balance a bit.

Took dd out for birthday meal and had a BOGOF voucher so cost £10 less than it would have done full price.

In other news....

Usual 100 daily crunches done.

Been for 3 runs this week and have altered my route a bit meaning I don't actually stop for a rest halfway round so I actually feel like I've had a better workout. Also ran in some horrific weather, sleet, hail etc.

Need to give house a thorough tidy up tomorrow in readiness for dd's party on Sunday.