Diary of a spendy cow

mooomin

I did promise a SOA, so here's mine. It's looking pretty healthy but this comes with the knowledge that my contract at work is only until the end of next month at which point my income could drop to zero :eek:

Income:

Wages: £1759.67

Mr Mooo does get some money from ESA, but it's not a lot and covers his expenses and pretty much nothing else, so I neither count it nor rely on it

Outgoings:

Mortgage £273.56
Council Tax £122
Internet/phone/TV £37.99 (to rise in the New Year I believe)
Home insurance £19.48
Current Account fee £7.50
TV Licence £12.12
Bus pass £51.75
Electricity/gas £54
Vodafone £20.95 (Mr Mooo)
Orange £31.85 (Me)
Cinema card £14.99
Gym £18.99
Zoo membership £4.14
Savings £20

Total £689.32

Other outgoings:

Food £250
Car fund £100
Christmas/birthday fund £100

GRAND TOTAL: £1139.32

I pay £1200 towards all of these each month so there's a small buffer in case of any unexpected increase in my bills. That leaves just over £500 for me each month. This month I've paid off my RBS card in full and transferred a small amount to savings, leaving £500 in my current account.

Some of this will be needed to get my Tesco credit card back in order as I think I have a small balance but won't know till all my transactions clear.

mooomin

Final post of the morning

Current money situation

Current account: £500 (very much subject to change!)
Food account: £270
Christmas: £280.27
Car fund: £380 - car goes to the garage tomorrow so think happy thoughts!

This month before I get paid again I have:

• To get my hair cut
• Three (minimum) work trips to London. Most of this is covered by expenses, but I always end up buying food when I'm out and about for work
• Meal out this week
• Theatre trip (paid for, but probably going out to eat first)
• Craft day to pay for (£25 for two workshops)

So, there's a lot going on in Mooomin Towers and I just have to try and behave!

mooomin

Evening all

Despite the fact it is COLD here, the heating is off thanks to a dressing gown and a mug of hot chocolate!

I had a minor spend today on an excellent craft sale, but used the money left in my PayPal account. I've got £17.80 left there. I'm also working my way through the day's Adpoints while I can be bothered

I made a massive pot of chilli this morning. I worked it out at 8 portions, but after we ate there were five left. Methinks that Mr Mooo was loading the bowl :rotfl: My plan for tonight is to read through some of my new cookery book which I got for a bargain price I doubt it's going to be anything new, but I enjoy his programmes so if I can get new ideas for tasty food I'm in favour of it.

mooomin

I'm up to a whopping 44 Adpoints this morning and they've now dried up :rotfl: I'll keep an eye on them through the week though.

The car goes to the garage today, so lets hope that it's not as bad as we think and that they can fix it for under the £380 sitting in the car fund. If not I can look forward to some creative accounting.

I'm giving the slow cooker a quick scrub because today I'm doing "roast" chicken in there. Our oven is really dodgy and can't be relied upon to roast things in the required time. Tomorrow I'll make jambalaya with the leftovers.

beanielou

I got to 44 too funnily enough :rotfl:

Ali-OK

mooomin wrote: »

I'm up to a whopping 44 Adpoints this morning and they've now dried up :rotfl: I'll keep an eye on them through the week though.

The car goes to the garage today, so lets hope that it's not as bad as we think and that they can fix it for under the £380 sitting in the car fund. If not I can look forward to some creative accounting.

I'm giving the slow cooker a quick scrub because today I'm doing "roast" chicken in there. Our oven is really dodgy and can't be relied upon to roast things in the required time. Tomorrow I'll make jambalaya with the leftovers.

Might be an extra 10 on Adpoints up for grabs - I looked this afternoon for the first time this week and picked up 54.

Hope the car bill came within the fund.

How did you do your chicken in the slow cooker - did you put a little liquid in? It's something I'd like to try out at some stage.

mooomin

Ali-OK wrote: »

Hope the car bill came within the fund.

How did you do your chicken in the slow cooker - did you put a little liquid in? It's something I'd like to try out at some stage.

Yesterday I chopped up an old carrot and leek to add flavour then put two stock cubes in with about 400ml water. Add the chicken on top of the veg (so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the cooker) and then whacked a load of garlic powder over the chicken. Cook for hours.

LOADS of meat from the chicken and really nicely cooked too. I'll be having jambalaya for dinner tonight and there should still be a decent amount of chicken left, although Mr Mooo will likely use it to make himself home-made chicken mayo

mooomin

Morning folks

Aiming for a NSD today as working from home. The heating is off so far (probably won't last!) and I have candles burning to take the chill off the air.

Yesterday I got £6.90 confirmed to my TCB account for a claim which had previously been declined, so it's always worth chasing them. It's not payable yet, but it's sitting there ready

My weekly spend budget took an unexpected hit last night as I had to use £10 of it to pay a deposit for the work Christmas night out. I successfully lobbied for it to be on the Friday after payday not the one before though so the remainder will come from next month's wage :j I have £32.77 in my purse at the moment and am out for dinner tomorrow night. It's three courses for £15, so I'll just need to keep to soft drinks

I have £62.88 outstanding on my main credit card at the moment. Some of that is owed to me by other people, so I need to chase them up. I'm going to do that this week and then pay it off on Monday. I'll hear back from the garage today and that should let me know when I can get my car back and how much it's going to cost me! Think happy thoughts for me...

tomtombeanie

Fingers crossed for happy car news

mooomin

Hello

Didn't keep to a NSD yesterday as I had to pay for postage and also to buy popcorn at the cinema :rotfl:

The first of my work trips is now booked - I'm doing a day trip to London next week on the train :eek: The benefit of doing that is that I get directly in to central London while getting up at the same awful time of day as if I was on the red-eye flight, and get fed on the train going there and coming back. I'll just need to bring some kind of lunch with me and aim for a low-spending day.

I had a small spend last night of £6.75 at Aldi which covered cat litter milk, fruit and some chorizo. We don't get the car back till Friday so when my friend offered me a lift to the supermarket I decided that was better than lugging two bags of cat litter on the bus :rotfl: