PositiveBalance’s Diary: In Search of Positivity, Balance and a Positive Bank Balance

PositiveBalance

Ok, so the rest of my lazy day was spent part-listing 11 items on Ebay (I was rushing to get them on there so I will finish them tomorrow. (That's over 50% of Dedicated's target! :j)

I put £6 in my Lunch Pot for Friday's lunch and today's lunch that I made both days. Go me!

I also checked my purse and found £8.67 left over from the weekend meaning that I must have spent about £21.33 this weekend, despite thinking I had noted everything I had spent. I did wonder whether I had bought myself an extra soft drink, so maybe that's the proof that I did. I put the remaining £8.67 back in the pot and took £5 more out of my 'general stuff' envelope.

Speaking of which, my envelope system is not working as perfectly as I had hoped: I dropped a drink the other day and totally drenched my envelopes, meaning I have to write out new ones. I wrote them all out bar one, and now I can't remember what it was meant to say! It's nothing obvious like food/petrol. I hope I can remember soon as I don't want to touch the money until I know what it is destined for!

Also, I realised I made a fairly huge slip up in the whole credit card department. My online banking was messing me around something shocking fora few days, so I realised that I hadn't transferred the money across for my insurance excess for the broken window, my friend's birthday or some sewing materials I had to buy for my college course. That means that I had to take £154.99 out of my savings and pay my CC. (I could have left it in savings as it's 0% interest and it would be used to pay it off eventually, but it pushed the balance into the new thousands bracket and was more than I could bear. I may live to regret that, though, as I think my logic had been to leave it there in case I needed to get a new car. Ouch ouch ouch!) This now means I have just £347.47 and now have less than 10% of the outstanding balance saved up.

I've also set up a 'Stunning Item' fund so that I can save up the money for one of the stunning items I saw and wanted to buy for next year. Given today's shennanigans, I'm delighted that I didn't buy it!

Tomorrow is work, food shopping, finish Ebay listing and apply for jobs. In short, all the things I didn't manage today. :mad:

I'd better get some sleep before the morning arrives. I really need to get into the habit of going to bed earlier!

Also, I need to start using that exercise bike, else there will have been no point in buying it! :mad:

Night all!

edinburgher

Stunning item fund, eh? Sounds like fun.

Maybe I should start a 'koi pond in the back garden of forever home' fund

Maybe I should start a forever home fund first? :rotfl:

PositiveBalance

I've just lost another post! *Fumes*

OK, so here's what's been going on:

Spent £1.68 on milk and whoopsied crumpets today (crumpets not strictly necessary, but if I'm going to have an impulse buy, better it be cheap and serve me lots of breakfasts!). I've done really well on the food budget so far this month - I could probably still cut down further, but it's a baby steps thing...there's no point going at it too hard and failing and feeling bad.

I've been a bit stressed about the whole money situation the past few days: between fearing that my electricty bill is going to be ginormous when they finally figure out what the hell is going on with it and learning that both people involved in the tiny car crash are claiming and not knowing what is going on with my car (need I pay an excess or will they scrap it and give me the value minus the excess back, which then means I need more money for a new one?) means that things are up in the air and I have a horrible feeling I'm not going to have enough money to sort things out when they all hit the fan.

I know that's kind of worrying ahead of time, something I try not to do, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

Anyway, stew is in the slow cooker (I've realised that leaving the lid on means there's no chance for water to evaporate - I don't want really liquidy food!) and I've not really finished my Ebay listings and'or applied for jobs (cos things at work are just dandy at the minute)!

Anyway, sorry for the moan. Normal service resumed!

PositiveBalance

P.S. Extra 2 days not buying lunch so £6 extra to the Lunch Pot.

PositiveBalance

I've been very quiet due to a terrible situation at work.

I'll catch up as I go but I transfered £6.75 Quidco payment to savings today.

mooomin

PositiveBalance wrote: »

I've been very quiet due to a terrible situation at work.

*hugs*

Hope you're ok

PositiveBalance

mooomin wrote: »

*hugs*

Hope you're ok

Thanks, hon, but not so much: things are very difficult at the minute, but it's an ongoing process and I daren't say too much on here just in random case.

Anyhoo, £39.97 trasferred to savings as it's money saved from last month's budget (there should be more tomorrow when I get to see my varous pots at my flat. ) I've sort of been settinf out my envelopes for this month as well, and they will be finished depending on what is left in last month's, if that makes any sense.)

Also, I realised that my budget is not perfect, as rather as Ed suggested, it does not have a social fund, and my electricity has not been properly accounted for.

Oh, and I sold 4 or 5 things on Ebay. I'll list what I earned as soon as I know.

PositiveBalance

I just counted up the remains of my envelopes from last month and I saved a whopping £127.14! :j :j That's amazing!

My plan was to dump it all straight into savings, but my outgoings this month are going to be quite high, so I may need to use them to cover some of them. I will have to caluclate that in the next few days, but I'm so crackered I'm straight off to bed.

Night all!

PositiveBalance

OK, so the work situation has been mostly resolved. It has been the most stressful experience of my life, though, and I wouldn't want to go through it ever again.

Also, I receievd a message from an Ebay bidder who won one of my items. She sent me a message a few days ago about 4/5 days after winning my item. She says that due to issues with her bank and getting new numbers through etc. she will not be able to pay me until the end of NEXT week for the item. (This is someone with 0 feedback). I want to reply and say that I cannot wait that long and that she has until X to pay, else it gets sold as a Second Chance offer and she gets a non-payment strike against her. Is this too harsh? What do you recommend?

Am just going to post another Ebay item. I have to go for a lesson today, go to the library, hopefully post another Ebay item or two, sort out Mother's Day for tomorrow, apply for jobs (I'm definitely leaving - no way I'm staying after all this nonsense) and generally get my life back in order after it being taken over by all this rubbish. (Have bought a few lunches at work etc. as a result of this, which will be less good for the finances, but hey ho.) Oh, and I'm going out tonight for dinner with some friends.

Right, onwards and upwards. (Advice on the Ebay situation, please!)

PositiveBalance

Have just transfered £20 from savings to current account to cover outgoings until I get to sort out my finances properly.