Getting back on track for 2013 and beyond

PinotGrigio41

:j:j Yey I've found you ! I wondered where you had been hiding !

Things sound like they are going great for you both in Cardiff, and as usual the lists and plans are still going strong !

We were put on the naughty list for Les Mis freebie tickets as well ! We got the last two seats but couldn't sit together which was a pain as we only had one drink to share ! Mr Pinot got the drink, I got the popcorn ! the film was amazing though wasn't it ?

The lemon rice sounds interesting, let us know how it turns out ! X

Mrs PG x x

kerri_dfw

Aw hello Mrs P! So glad you got in as well and sorry you couldn't share your drink, but really happy you got the popcorn, was it homemade? Or did you treat yourselves? I think next time I want popcorn I'm going to take an oversized bag to the cinema and have a tub in it of homemade butter popcorn om nom nom, small bag of popping corn in the supers costs pennies compared to what you get in the foyer! Must admit I did splurge the day after boxing day and bought 2 tubs one for us and one for my parents...have to let loose sometime!

I've just got back from climbing and going to check surveys before going to bedfordshire, I'm zonked! I wasn't even climbing particularly well, it's not so fun when you climb with someone that's better than you are which the OH is.

OH and I have decided that we will do the £50 a week spending money thing and manage ourselves what we do with it. If it doesn't work then we can always revert, but we both need to be able to say "right, if I spunk this in the pub then I can't do xyz tomorrow" and neither of us do that, we just think "want it, have it NOW".

Lemon rice was lush Mrs P... 1 cup of rice, 2 cups of boiling water, put in pan, wait for water to boil, put one half of a lemon on top of the rice sliced side down, leave for 15-20mins with the lid on (until the water is all absorbed), in the meantime steam some carrot, peas & sweetcorn. When rice finished squish the lemon and throw away, throw steamed veg into the rice, mix round, serve immediately and smile

Right, surveys then bed. Night night. I'm counting another NSD because climbing was budgeted, although they put the prices up by 50p this was already accounted for as I thought it was £9 not £8 and the OH got in for £5 as he's a student even though we were there an hour later than student discount rate, result!!! :T:T:T

CC: £51.36/£2206.97 2.33%
OD: £0 / £400 0%
Grocery: £51.27/£217
Petrol: £20/£87
NSD: 7/31
Find £ £42.46/£25
Make £ £83.53/£155
Planned Spends: £13.50 / £18

kerri_dfw

I don't have a lot to report today, as I haven't spent a dime! So it's NSD 8 today, I don't think I've had a single month where my days of not spending have totalled a week, let alone more. I know I am kinda cheating by allocating money so I can do things, but it's the unplanned things that I used to fall down on. You all know the ones, the little things that creep up on you, the bar of chocolate because it's Tuesday, the cup of coffee because you're going across the road and have to pass the cafe, the fry up when you've got a fridge full of food!!!

I think my poor OH has had enough of me talking about budgeting though, I seem to develop small obsessions with stuff, I'll do something get really, really into it, then something will happen and I'll just stop cold turkey. I wonder why I do that? Anyway, as long as it's saving money who am I to question it

Our Mr S top-up card arrived today, £120 of lovely grocery shopping for the price of £114. I make that to be half the OHs coffee saved each month as he always gets it on the 2 bags for £6 offer...hmm I think I'm going to go off and find his coffee cheaper somewhere, it must be mustn't it??? Or maybe I should investigate whether grinding your own beans is cheaper in the long run. Why can't he just have instant?!!?!?

CC: £51.36/£2206.97 2.33%
OD: £0 / £400 0%
Grocery: £51.27/£217
Petrol: £20/£87
NSD: 8/31
Find £ £42.46/£25
Make £ £83.53/£155
Planned Spends: £13.50 / £18

RosaBernicia

Hi Kerri :wave:

Lemon rice sounds fab - thanks for that, will try it.

Glad to hear all well with you


Rosa xx

kerri_dfw

Hello Lovely Rosa, nice to hear from you I must catch up on your diary pronto!

Right so where was I...oh yes Friday!
Well on Friday I had a planned spend day as it was a rock climbing day, we also had our first tiff over the budgeting eep! OH had run out of milk and needed to get some more, so I said to take the top-up card to see if it worked OK to Mr S over the road and get his milk. For some reason he completely rebelled against this idea and instead of getting his normal red top milk, went to the corner shop and got green top milk?!?! When he got back I was quite annoyed that he hadn't crossed the 30 seconds across the road to go to Mr S with the pre-paid card, and later we had a big tiff with it and I got really emotional about him not wanting to do this budgeting and how I'm only trying to save us money. It has now been agreed that milk comes from Mr S mid-week, using the top-up card and collecting points. :T:T:T

However, it has also been agreed that the budget is too controlling, so we now both get £40 a week to spend. £15 of his goes on train travel and £20 of mine goes on petrol although some weeks I don't use it I may need that for going to see my parents so I have to save it up on no-petrol weeks. It's going to help us to manage our own finances and gives him his own financial responsibility as he knows that if he spends it all then there is no extra cash until the next Sunday. I think this might work a little bit better.

I have decided not to go to gymnastics anymore, instead I'm going to spend an hour in the gym doing some cardio, some stretching and some weights to strengthen and condition my body for climbing. We want to be able to go climbing outside and I can only do this if I can learn to do pull-ups apparently! Besides, I worked out I spend £19.99 on gym membership, plus and additional £14 on climbing each week, anything more and I'm spending a small fortune on exercise and that's quite mad!

Anyway, Friday was counted as a NSD as climbing was budgeted for

Saturday I got up early and took the train to see my parents. At £37.40 it was at least £30 cheaper than taking the car and seeing how my Dad picked me up and dropped me back to the station I didn't have to incur additional travel costs, nor did I have to ferry my sister around here, there and everywhere. For once I had a really relaxing time there I was also really shocked how the cost of the train ticket was soooo much cheaper having not come from London! Seriously, Londoners pay a LOT more than most!

Dad picked me up with my eldest nephew who is 3y/o and we took him to Mr S for some bits for a fry up that Dad made when we got home. I taught my nephew to keep his eyes on the floor and look for pennies, and when we got to the till I looked in the section where boxes are kept for people to use and saw a shiny 5p roadkill. I pointed it out to my nephew, who retrieved it and when he got back to my parents popped it into his little moneybox really chuffed with himself for finding pennies. A MSEer we'll make of him yet!

The rest of Saturday was a NSD that I am proud of

Sunday however, was not OH spent a planned and budgeted spend of £10.50 on veg from the farmers market plus £0.84 on a loaf of bread because he forgot to put water in the breadmaker grrr. Normally I'd be cross but he really needed the bread for his lunch and he was having a stressful uni day, so we'll forgive him this sin of not having homemade.

My day however was very much an unplanned spend. I went with my sister and Mum to H0bby Craft, which then ended up in the local garden centre having coffee. Normally this would have involved cake as well and I'd have offered to pay, but I only had a certain amount of cash to spend and I have other things that's meant to be allocated towards. So I spent £2.25 on a hot chocolate and we each paid for our own. I didn't have any cake either even though I was really hungry, but I could not justify £2+ for a slice!!! :eek::eek::eek:

I had promised my sister I would buy her some trainers as her birthday present back in October, but we had not been to get them yet. So Mum dropped us off at the local retail park and we went on a hunt for them. We started in the adult section and found the ones she wanted. We then went downstairs to the childrens section and found them for £20 cheaper, AND in her size! Did you know kids shoes go up to a size 5-6 adult?! I was amazed! I shall now be shopping in the kids section thank you very much. Unfortunately, they did not have her size so whilst in the shop we checked the website. Bingo! They had her size there, so I purchased them when I got back home, including cashback of 5% and a 10% discount, although the postage was included so they ended up being £60 trainers for £26.49 I also had a look for OHs tracksuit bottoms and he can go get some in Cardiff 2 for £12 during the week as I have no idea which are suitable.

We popped into L1dl as we went passed it on the walk home, and I found they have our loo roll on offer!!! I have recently discovered that the years supply I have stashed in our wardrobe, was in fact only about 6 months supply at the rate the OH is using it. So I grabbed two packs of 24 (another 3-4 months worth), called up my Dad who also wanted a pack and my sister had a pack too. I lent my sister the £7.49 and she will be giving this to me when her tax credits come in, hopefully this week or next. So we went away from L1dl with £30 worth of bog roll :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Dad came and picked us up, and apparently it was totally worth it to see us walking down the road with 96 loo rolls hahaha.

The rest of Sunday was rather rushed, but I managed to get my train home ok. I spent £3.99 at Southampton on crisps, sandwich and drink as I hadn't had any tea other than soup & bread as a late lunch. I cursed myself for it, but I was really hungry and couldn't go 4hrs without eating anything. Plus the train was freezing as I have no idea where they keep the heaters on the FGW smaller trains

Today is going to be a NSD, I'm going to go to the gym this evening for my 2.4k run I like to do and see if I can beat my time. Then I think I shall try to do some weights before coming home for my yoga DVD. I would like to try to do my yoga DVD everyday if possible. I have a friend coming over for lunch, no idea if she requires feeding but we have lots of food in at the moment so that shouldn't be too tricky. Oh and I have some work to get on with Hopefully a nice easy MSE day.

CC: £51.36/£2206.97 2.33%
OD: £0 / £400 0%
Grocery: £77.59/£217
Petrol: £40/£87
NSD: 10/31
Find £ £42.46/£25
Make £ £83.53/£155
Planned Spends: £13.50 / £18
Unplanned Spends: £28.74
Train: £34.70

PinotGrigio41

Hey Kerri, just dropping off a Piña Colada in a beer glass from tonight's cocktail party! Enjoy ! :beer:x

kerri_dfw

Thanks Mrs P, just realised I haven't updated my own diary for dayyyysss...oops! Will update properly tomorrow, however have only spent £8.08 this week really pleased with myself for that.

abundant1972

Hi Kerri!

Just stumbled across your diary!!!! Great to see you have your own thread going too...

Liked your budget plan and challenges for the year - especially:

"No random shops, all items I think I "need" must be written down and reassessed the following month"

Wow - What a way to curb impulse spending. Can I use this one too??? Kind of takes supreme willpower to walk out of a shop or close down a webpage when you're a swipe of your debit card or a click away from ordering something... All tips gratefully appreciated!!!

Just read you go out clubbing in Bristol too from time to time!!! Me too!!!... Although erm... usually to gay clubs lol. But - if ever you and OH are up that way - would be cool to meet for a drink!!! I keep thinking I might start a thread around actual 'socials' where people can meet up for extra support and stuff... Course - if am out clubbing it would be for a dance and a glass or 5 of something!!!

Will subscribe here and of course see you on NSK's monthly challenges!!! It's great you are stretching yourself (i.e. house deposit goal)... Encourages me to push for my goal too... Am about a year behind you in goal terms as my deposit and 3 x wages will be saved in 2014-15 hopefully...

Keep up the good work luv!

kerri_dfw

Right, so where was I? Oh yes Tuesday was my last proper update... well I didn't go to the gym and I haven't been rock climbing all week either. I spent £8.08 for half the bill of our chinese takeaway last night because we didn't go or do anything all week meaning I had £20 leftover after the OH bought petrol last weekend from my weekly budget I thought the takeaway was a fair trade off as I was feeling really irritable all day and needed something tasty for dinner.

Today however I feel like carp! I have a high temperature, the OH is forcing me to drink water when I am told and he made me have a paracetamol as well!!! I never, ever take paracetamol because it can damage your liver and I would rather my body fought off the illness itself, ibruprofen I don't seem to mind though...I think I figure if I take down the swelling then that's better than not knowing it hurts (aka ibru better than para)...I have no idea how my logic works to be honest.

This week I have been FLYing with flylady. I've signed up to the weekly FlyLady on here as well, and will participate full speed ahead with it from Monday. I have so far organised the fridge, under the kitchen sink, my chest of drawers and the wardrobe. I have a pile of clothes sat on my bedroom floor that need to go back in the wardrobe following the chest of drawers clear out, but at 15minute intervals I am pleased with what I have managed to accomplish. The OH also appears to be happier

The one thing I am a little cross with is that our Mr S shop keeps being almost £40 each week. This week it came in at £38 and last week it was about the same, although we did have to buy coffee again this week. My OH seems to like buying the posh stuff that costs £6 for two bags...I might try to wean him onto the own brand and see whether he's happy with that. Although the own brand isn't much cheaper...why can't he have the cheap and nasty instant like everyone else? In fact, if it wasn't for the OH I reckon I could half our grocery bill, I don't drink hot drinks only water or squash, I don't eat half the stuff he does which is normally premium stuff, and I don't really drink...although to be fair we aren't buying drink at the moment anyway. Oh and he apparently needs 4 different types of cereal!!!! I got really annoyed with him on that one, but did manage to find the nice spelt stuff on Am4zon 3 for the less than the price of 2 in the shop. I think I need to work out what is in it and try to make it ourselves though....any idea how to toast spelt flakes anyone???

The OH is saving £5 a day by having homemade packed lunches and a flask of coffee instead of buying, and I'm really enjoying packing his lunch and sending him off with it.

I need to add up the totals of our grocery spends, but given that I haven't spent any money save for a takeaway this week I'm really pleased with how well I am doing at not spending money. What I have noticed though is I keep going and checking the postbox...not because I know I have stuff coming, but because I have become obsessed with things not coming. I'm not expecting anything, yet I get confused when nothing arrives. I think I am tooooo used to online ordering. Not having any money in my account and it all being in the joint account is really working, especially as I now have cash so I can't spend.

I've just had a little braindwave as to a business idea I might startup. I think Lord Sugar would be happy about it as well, it's a bit of a wheeler dealer expedition that should bring in a profit, buy at wholesale and sell at retail type thing I'm going on the basis of things I already buy myself so I know that there is a market for it. I'm going to have to sit down and work out margins, I think I'd need to register the company as well....although not sure about this and I'll definitely need to make a website so I can send the orders out with a business card offering a discount for the website when they buy through the mainstream site...this should mean repeat business. Although with the low cost of the items I'd be hoping that the customers I have will buy multiples at a time

Ooh exciting...but then again I am known for starting something, making it successful then moving onto the next thing

CC: £51.36/£2206.97 2.33%
OD: £0 / £400 0%
Grocery: £77.59/£217
Petrol: £40/£87
NSD: 12/31
Find £ £42.46/£25
Make £ £88.53/£155
Planned Spends: £13.50 / £18
Unplanned Spends: £28.74
Train: £34.70

kerri_dfw

Hmm it's all gone a bit wonky since we bought cats, seems large spends send me wonky and I forget I'm trying to break the cycle.

Anyway, I have 190+ items photographed for fleabay and have already written up over 20 of them. I want to list them on 10 day listing starting tomorrow, this should give a boost just before payday and can go on the CC.

OH has said I should put all our spare cash onto the CC until it's paid off, if we get stuck then we can always use it. So far we haven't visited the supermarket for a big shop this month, I'm going to try to keep it that way

Anyway, £900 has gone on the cc