Trying not to fall off the DF wagon

vasseur

Spends this weekend came to about £43 - included a couple of pairs of jeans for dd from primarni that she paid me for. Also had to buy birthday cake for dd's party - £10 from sainsbugs and a loo seat from bee & queue £12.

So my main account is quite depleted but I'm not worrying. There's 2 weeks to go till pay day and I have £60 in the groceries account (ample), £40 in my emergency account (hopefully won't need to touch this but glad it's there), £14 in the petrol account (shouldn't need to use this) and £43 in my paypal acc - would ideally like to leave this there but can't see that happening.

DD's pamper party was a huge success. All girlies had glitter make-up hair and nails done and they sang on the karaoke machine- i even had my nails done too. It was lovely to see them all enjoying themselves so much.

vasseur

DD is poorly with tonsillitis so this is my second day off this week. She is very up and down with a shocking temperature so apart from a visit to the docs yesterday we haven't left the house for 2 days. On the plus side it has enabled me to get ahead with the washing although as we have been indoors the house is a mess.

I did manage to grab a window cleaner this morning as I saw him doing next door's so he's done our front windows for £5 (owe dd for this). Embarrassingly the windows haven't been cleaned since we moved in a year ago although I have done the back ones.

Also a man has been round to look at our guttering which needs doing so the days haven't been entirely wasted.

Money matters

£15 withdrawn from paypal account to top up current account.
£27 withdrawn from TCB for same.
£5 item sold on eb@y
Several more items sorted for ebay listing.

Might sort out next month's budget while I have all this time on my hands.........

vasseur

Valentines cards 0 (I just get saucy texts ), letters from CSA 1 (could be worse)

DD (feeling much better) has a friend round so I am having a nice quiet time with a coffee listening to Danny Baker while they are playing upstairs. Rather enjoying all this time to myself as am so far ahead of the game houseworkwise after having 2 days off this week.

Have just made a banana loaf as had 3 very ripe bananas that needed using up so house smells wonderful. Feel rather serene and organised in manner of 1950s housewife. Might even water plants later!

Food shop last night came to £39.04 which was more than I wanted but did include ingredients for white chocolate cake that the girls are going to make later (did not have hardly any non GF cake ingredients in - completely unlike 1950s housewife :cool:)

Have listed 8 more items on eb@y but have scheduled them to start tomorrow evening so that they finish at the optimum time next Sunday.

Totally amazed at how I have managed to eek out the finances this month and am getting very itchy fingers as i want to order some more curtains for my bedroom (not happy with the ones I bought after xmas) but am mindful that it's half term this week so will definitely need more money than usual.

Its really lovely sitting here in my kitchen looking at my garden. It does need a tidy up but I don't want to go out when it's this cold. I will definitely make more of an effort with it this year.

RosaBernicia

Fabulous (and I think you can be excused, I doubt 1950s housewives had to worry about GF versions).

I've been looking out at my garden too... does this mean there's spring in the air?


Rosa xx

judi24

Just catching up with your diary. Glad DD is feeling a bit better - lots of nasty bugs around at the moment!!! Your grocery spend is great - I average £300 for the month but would like to get it down a bit! Lots of 'looking at the garden' going on today - me too! Not actually done anything though!!! Just looking!!!

vasseur

It definitely feels like spring is on its way - it has been lovely and sunny here this afternoon.

Not so this morning, it was really damp when I went out on my bike. I did 15 miles and a particular hill that I always struggle up seemed a lot easier so I think my new running route (which includes a long hill) must have helped with that. I had a lovely bath afterwards with some homemade bodyscrub (olive oil, sugar, pinch salt) very MSE

I cleaned the inside of my windows yesterday and realised that the window cleaner that I nabbed on Thursday did a rubbish job :mad: slightly annoyed now that I arranged for him to come every 4 weeks. I'll have to cancel him when he next comes for his money.

Also managed to get all the ironing and hoovering done while dd had her friend round so I have had a nice afternoon just pottering. I've made a lasagne for tonight's dinner and started watching Breaking Bad to see what all the fuss is about.

vasseur

Gaaahh!! It's not payday till Tuesday, I have precisely £22.02 in my account and still need to do a food shop and get petrol for a 120 mile round trip to a family do on Sunday.

I know my overspend has come from half term spends. Spent £21 in H0bbycraft (we dbought stuff to do some decoupage - very therapeutic) and had lunch out twice totalling almost £20. We played crazy golf £12.50 and nipped to 1kea and bought scissors and bedding (£13). We did have some good fun though.

I was rather hoping that I would get a lovely text from the CSA telling me that they would be paying me 4 weeks money this week but it still hasn't come through if the text comes through now it will reach my account on payday and I won't really notice it's there :cool:

Still - this month hasn't been too bad overall given everything that I've had to pay out for so being £50 adrift is not so bad.

vasseur

Just as I expected CSA text came through yesterday morning and it is 2 weeks short :mad: It's something I suppose.

Managed 3 runs again this week (really getting back into it now) so might treat myself to some new running shoes as realise that mine are over 4 years old!! And some new running clothes so I look like a proper runner

Still doing 100 crunches every morning. I think this is the longest I have kept to a new years resolution

Food shop came to £32.56 which I'm quite happy with (damage limitation now).

Meal plan

Tonight - lime and coconut chicken (Delia recipe)
Tomorrow - family party
Monday - chicken korma and rice
Tuesday - pancetta pasta
Wednesday - tuna steaks, salad potatoes, broccoli
Thursday - salmon pasta
Friday - at mum and dad's

Just need to get a few GF bits today and some petrol and that should be all my spending done till payday.

Got home yesterday to a note from the man who's been scraping my car asking me out! Feels a bit weird now as I'm not really looking for anything (and I have told him this). Said I wouldn't mind going for a drink but it's hard to get out what with sorting DD etc.

judi24

Oohh nice to have an admirer even if you aren't really looking! you're doing great with the running - I still can't get my a** in gear at all!!!


If you are looking for running gear my DD2 works in an outlet store for N*ke - all there clothes are 50% off at the moment - I nipped in when picking her up and got a couple of t shirts for DS at £4 each - but they had lots of fab ladies stuff


Hope you get the CSA sorted out - it can be so frustrating I know - luckily after the initial rant my ex has been paying his regularly!!

vasseur

Payday yesterday so have shuffled lots of money around. Have managed to save £350 this month which is the most I have saved for ages. Not having to pay council tax again this month has helped towards this but as I've managed on less money for the past couple of months I'm sure I can do it again this month.

After last month's panic about paying for so many After School Club sessions I actually forgot to book them :rotfl: Got a phone call yesterday saying 'we have your dd here but she's not on the list'. Paid for but not booked...:doh:

Received another week's CSA money today so that bumps up the balance. I also sold 5 items on eb@y on Sunday - not for great amounts - but some items I had been given so it was pure profit.

Cashed out the last of my balance on TCB - £35 and got an email from QCo saying my car insurance related cashback had been paid along with some other tiny amounts - £27. It's all good.