Living in Austerity

Shoe_Gal

Me too! Don't beat yourself up, sometimes you just need to roll with what feels right

vasseur

Mags30 wrote: »

I'm overdoing it on the heating these days but it's January, it's cold and having the heating on is quite comforting. This is yet another area in which I'm finding the MSE lifestyle difficult.

Same here but you can turn it off soon enough when spring starts. I can't bear a cold house..

Mags30

OnePoll £39.70
RedC 44 points (need 50 for a €50 payout)
Swagbucks 340 points (going nowhere fast)
Toluna 18,165 (need 80,000 for £15 Amazon voucher)

Mags30

My January spend was €34.08 but the RRP of what I bought was €98.48 as I mostly only buy things at 70% off.

There was an extra €32 spent on 3 items from Primark but that's not included in spends as I paid with gift vouchers from Christmas.

Spend includes €6.65 for dry cleaning a cashmere jumper. Dry cleaning is a very rare spend for me as normally I would hadwash such things but I was afraid I'd damage it so worth the cost this time.

There were 9 items in (and 0 out unfortunately)

1)Vintage dress from a charity shop €3

2)Primark vintage look black clutch bag reduced to €5 but RRP €11

3)Primark teal blouse/top €11

4)Primark black jumper with studded neckline €16

5)Gap t-shirt €4.99 RRP €14.99

6)Another Gap t-shirt €4.99 RRP €14.99

7)Jimmi Jams Pyjamas from Boots 75% off sale €5.50 RRP €29

8)Pair of tights from Awear €2.50 RRP €12 (yes I am being strict about counting every single item:rotfl:)

9)A pair of Montray sandles from Debenhams, it's not a brand I'd normally like but they look exactly like silver Birkenstocks and will definitely be handy in the summer €6.45 RRP €21.50

So I'm doing OK with the €500 clothes budget so far, got quite a lot for the money spent.

This little accounting exercise has taken up way too much time, will try and simplify it for next month by buying less

vasseur

Excellent bargains there Mags - I wish I had your eye. I don't think I've spent anything on clothes this year yet - not even knickers

Mags30

polesalot wrote: »

Excellent bargains there Mags - I wish I had your eye. I don't think I've spent anything on clothes this year yet - not even knickers

Thanks, I definitely can spot a bargain from miles away. BUT tracking my clothes spend also shows up my bad habit of wandering around shops and making regular small impulse buys. That's clearly not a good MSE habit.....however I'm sure you'll all overlook that when you see what I've been spending on food.....:o:o:o

I've just reached £40 on onepoll :T and requested payment by paypal

Mags30

January spend on groceries €91.04 :A

January spend on other food €195.95 :o (despite how all this might look I'm not obese)

When I say "other food" I mean eating out, takeaway coffee, coffee and cake, pizza delivery (twice in January), lunch with friends......you get the idea....basically the sort of thing that's frowned on by MSE types.

I've found January to be a really difficult month and there has been a LOT of comfort eating going on plus I've had zero motivation for cooking and meal planning "meals for one". In my defence I will also add that I spent zero on nights out so that might help balance it out with what others are spending.

The total food spend is €286.99 which when divided by 4 gives €71.75 a week on food for one :rotfl: :eek: or if you divide it by 31 gives €9.26 per day

The plan for February is to half this spending because it's just ridiculous :o

Mags30

A friend who is a stay at home mum got a heating bill for €460 this week, I've never ever had a bill for even half that so I guess we all "waste" money in different ways. She was home all the time so needed the heating on, I was out and about in the cold and rain comfort eating cake in coffee shops....Different lifestyles but either way we're both broke with nothing much to show for the money spent.

I think both examples show just how difficult budgeting is in January. It should be a bit easier to keep check on the spending/heating from now on.

• January newspaper/magazine spend was €18.93
  
• Boots 75% off sale spend was €44.25
  
• Cinema to see Les Miserables €9.45
  
• Parking €6
  
• Petrol €80

Irish_Mom

Hi Mags,

All you can do is get over Jan as quick as possible. My ESB should be EUR 295 when we are out all day long so I have just lied about the reading and hopefully catch up in the next few weeks if hubby gets any work. And this is with no dryer on and heating limited to a few hrs in the evening only - last winter we couldnt even afford heating oil!!
So fed up at the mo. Should be getting my employment termination dat this week - something to look forward to -(((((

Take care

IM

Mags30

I feel so guilty for putting the Avon catalogue out without an order Buying things I dont need for the sake of supporting people/being nice to people is another not so good habit or mine.

Last night I did a (free) safeTALK course http://www.livingworks.net/

Went to the cinema to see Lincoln. Brilliant, highly recommended.

I have a free 2 week gym pass so I'm planning on using that soon.....as in when the weather improves and I'm not rushing home to attach myself to a radiator. I want to go 5 times a week for the 2 weeks and hopefully develop a bit of an exercise habit again.