Bring it on - new job, new county, new mindset!

laurag89

kjp wrote: »

Thanks novagirl and Laura! Technically another NSD today-I spent £47 on a 10 week self defence course but that was 'planned' so not counting it! Collected my train tickets for the next month after work and was proud that I walked through town and avoided the call of all the shops and coffee places!

Ok, draft budget to come, just waiting for my spreadsheet to load...

Well done on walking past all the shops and coffee places, that is an achievement in itself especially as most shops have sales all of the time. I think you are more controlled than I am by far!

I will subscribe to your thread, looking forward to seeing how you get on

novagirl

Well done on getting your budget sorted I completely agree with laura, you are very controlled walking past those shops!

I have to do the...."Do I really NEED this? mantra" in my head in order not to spend.

kjp

Eek, it's been a few days!

It's not been a bad few days - could have been better, could have been worse, will do a quick spending diary to get it all out in the open! Work expenses continue to creep up and I had a £15 TCB disputed payment declined from April so a bit of a downer, but never mind.

Friday - spent £10 on a pole dancing class for tomorrow - I went to a free trial a few weeks ago and enjoyed it, I am still iffy about spending this money but I need to make friends in the area so £10/week to socialise a bit at the moment is ok - am also keeping an eye out on Groupon for deals as I know they've come up infrequently. No other spend!

Saturday - spent £6.90 on food (used a £2.50 nectar voucher too so was a little more), £1 on 5 birthday cards, £1.75 on lip balm in Superdrug, £2.95 in Wilkinsons on envelopes, a business card holder to put train tickets in and sellotape, £4.60 in Costa (I need to eat before going out shopping I've learnt!) and then £9.30 on drinks out with housemate in the evening. I spent Saturday cooking and cooked 10 meals/parts of meals (just need pasta/rice/cous cous etc cooking) for the freezer, so that's food sorted for the next week and a bit.

Sunday - spent £4.95 on juice and a few other bits at the local shop - naughty!

Monday - spent £4 on lunch - will be claiming it back - and 30p on hot chocolate

Tuesday - spent £4.75 on lunch - will be claiming back, 60p on hot chocolate and £1.45 on a cappuccino at Wetherspoons as my course finished an hour and a half before my train.

Today - spent 65p in Boots (was proud of myself - priced at 65p, scanned at 99p - I normally would have just kept schtum and paid but I commented and the sales assistant just adjusted it for me!) and then £4.something in M&S - utter waste of money, was mostly sweets . Just spent £45.50 on train tickets for Friday - will be claimed back.

Should have lunch provided tomorrow and Friday, don't need to go food shopping on Saturday so should manage to get through to Sunday without spending. I might treat myself to a cheapie bottle of wine for Saturday night if I still have £5 in my purse - too tired from travelling this week to go out I think!

A very dull update from me I'm afraid but I feel better and more in control when I'm posting, even if it is boring rubbish! Payday next Friday - yippee!

Kxx

novagirl

Roll on Friday for you

You have to socialise a bit so don't feel bad about the pole dancing class!

kjp

Hello Diaryland,

Not a bad weekend, could have been worse, could have been better! After a hellish train journey home on Friday I bought a bottle of wine and a Krispy Kreme doughnut, but no unplanned spending for the rest of the weekend, so pleased with that!

Slightly annoyed with myself as I bought some shorts from JD Sports online for pole class, three pairs to try on, checked the website and can return to store for free. Unless you pay by PayPal. Guess who paid by PayPal because they couldn't be bothered to find their purse? So had to pay another £3.29 to return via collect plus-grrrr! However did do pinecone survey for £3 so not too out of pocket.

Also had a topcashback claim approved and made payable today from February-yay! £9.11 on it's way to my account!

Have worked out what I need to spend next month out of my fun/food/socialising budget, so need at least 9 NSDs to cover. Will take a look at the diary tomorrow and see where they can be!

Right, must sign off... For some reason booked a train 25 minutes earlier than usual tomorrow, so will have to leave the house just after 6am-argh!

Kxx

kjp

*sneaks back in slowly*

Hello diary. Long time no speak.

Well, it's been an 'ok' few months. Overall the debt has gone down, but there have been a few bad credit card months, still no interest paid, but definitely some missed out interest by having to steal from the ISA to pay.

So, no more. Back on the bandwagon now!

Things have changed slightly in that I'm now paying the full £305.22 on my loan, only 7 payments left though. That's eradicated my savings budget and a good chunk of my fun budget, so I need to rebudget to try and jiggle this all around.

This month, my expenses would have been enough to clear the credit card... but they weren't approved. So going to borrow from my car maintenance fund to clear it, and will repay it next month once I get my expenses. I've managed to not use the card this month though, which I'm pretty impressed about.

One day left at work this week, so gonna write a quick list of things I need to do with myself this weekend to make it productive!

1) buy train tickets with vouchers
2) gym on Saturday, spin class on Sunday
3) new budget
4) NSWeekend
5) Study
6) Mini pamper session - NEED to tame my eyebrows, and give myself a little mani-pedi
7) Sort out online shopping order
8) Sort out some paperwork for my mom
9) Ebay!
10) Load of washing, hopefully it will be sunny so I can dry it on the line
11) Pop into town to try and return dress that's ripped

Sure there will be more, but that's a starter for 10.

OK.

A boring update, but an update nonetheless. Back on the wagon now!
Kx

kjp

Hello diary

Quick update from my small DFW things post...

A quietish weekend this week!

Today I have:
Been to gym
Checked bank
Checked FPL/Birthday Bingo
Done half of homework for Monday's class
Food from stores - crumpets and peanut butter for breakfast, bagel with cream cheese for lunch, sweet potato chilli with a roll for tea
NSD!
Reusing teabags - running v low and no food delivery til Tuesday!
Night in in front of TV!
Washing done and put away

Tomorrow I will:
Spin class at 10
Might get up early and pop down to the train station to buy ticket for Monday (using vouchers) before spin
Pop to Card Factory for Mother's Day card... No, wait. I have one at home. No need!
Pop to New Look to try and return a dress which ripped the first time I wore it...
Might go to John Lewis for free cake
List a few things on Ebay
More homework!
Food from stores - have chilli defrosting in fridge ready for tea
NSD (apart from train tickets)
Quick evening pamper
Early night ready for train on Monday!

Think i'm going to bite the bullet and pay off credit card using car maintenance money - will be refunded next month (hopefully!) in wages, so that'll be ok. Means I can have a bit of a life in the meantime. Normally this would have been fine, had my expenses not been delayed. Although I checked my balance last night and had nearly £25 back in train refunds, so that's helped!

I have a grand total of £23.91 in my bank account. I think I will transfer £6.71 to the ISA to bring it up to 14%/£2800. The remainder will hit the credit card. I get paid on Thursday and have no need to spend between now and then - there's enough food in the house, and my plans for the week involve gym and study, so any spending will be frivolous and unnecessary.

I did an online shop on Thursday morning before work to get a £1 delivery slot and £10.10 TCB. I can tweak it up until Monday night, so might review my menu now I've got a bit more time and inclination, and adjust accordingly. Need to spend £50 to get the TCB.

Plans tonight are dull! Read chapters 8-11 of my textbook (and actually take them in!). Catch up on TV. I had a flitter of temptation to pop to the shop to buy wine - not necessary.

Oh bum, just transferred the £6.71 to my ISA and the remainder to my credit card, only to realise I was £1 out on my ISA - will transfer from car maintenance fund to round it up. That'll teach me to not check my spreadsheet! Just waiting for the money for the credit card to appear in my bank account before I transfer it over.

OK. So, budget for next month (provisional)
Income: £1233
Rent: £429
Phone bill: £26 (should be £22 but I think i've gone over my minutes this month)
Gym: £26
Travel: £50 (shouldn't need to buy train tickets back to Cornwall, just to Devon. Going home three times in this pay month)
Gifts/Christmas fund: £50 (2 birthdays this month, brother will probably just have cash, I will use Tesco vouchers to buy friend a bottle of wine)
Car Maintenance fund: £50
Car Insurance fund: £30
Holiday fund: £50
Loan: £305.22
Food: £100 (should be able to come under budget here, the £50 will do breakfast, lunch and dinner for the month, the remainder will be used for milk and fruit each week)
Personal spends: £100 (need to buy new leggings and a new cardigan as mine are now covered in holes! One night out for my friend's birthday, but might drive)
Savings: £16.78 (HAH!)

Not looking too bad.

Well, that was a mini brain splurge! Off to get some frozen grapes with yoghurt as a snack and try and get a third use out of my teabag whilst I catch up with The Good Wife.

Kx

kjp

A better Monday than I thought!

Spends: £3.85 on lunch - claimable on expenses though

Avoided spends: coffee at station when my train was cancelled and I had an hour's wait - had my trusty travel mug with me so sat in the lounge and studied. Train home - only 95p, but it was just about to leave as I got to the connection so I walked the 25 minutes home. Breakfast and dinner from stores.

Will also be able to claim value of the ticket back as vouchers, so will print the form and post at the end of the week - once I know whether Friday's train will be delayed!

Feeling a little like I've cracked this no wasting money thing... let's see how it goes after I've been paid, though...!
KXx

kjp

Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday.

A NSD (technically - I have had a food delivery ordered, but not counting that).
Cleaned out cupboard - sorted out some things to take to work to stash in my food drawer.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner from stores.
One of my housemates left and left a stash of food on the side, so topped up my stores with it.
Asda delivery delivered and packed away.
About to pop on a slow cooker curry overnight.
Food taken out of the freezer for lunch tomorrow.
Listed two things BiN on Ebay - one sold already!
Early night tonight - didn't fall asleep til 2am last night :coffee:

Decided to get rid of one thing every day until Good Friday - doing it in challenge with my friend, so hopefully will help with the decluttering process!

Kxx

kjp

Oops, a week has gone by! That was quick.

Paid on Thursday, money has gone to budgets, I've contributed to a meal out for mother's day, bought a pair of leggings (needed!), some shampoo and some snacks on the way home on Friday - bad planning on my part meant I was running late for the train and forgot to pick up snacks from the cupboard. Treated myself to a cheeky bottle of wine tonight and a scratchcard - found a bit of money on the road as I walked to the shop to post an ebay item so used that. Haven't been taking the purse to work which is helping immensely!

Accidentally transferred £18.20 twice to my ISA when the B@rcl@ys website kept crashing, so will have to spend a little less this month!

Gosh, what a dull update! But an update nonetheless. Feeling like I may have cracked this whole not spending money as a way to relieve boredom thing...!

Kxx