Diary of a spendy cow

mooomin

NSD!

£3.70 was sitting around as change at work so I've put it in a wee coin purse which I'll keep in my drawer at work and use for milk and the occasional hot water. I'm going to top it up with a fiver at the beginning of the month and then aim to spend less than that over the course of a pay period. If I manage that, I'll be saving a fortune as I was spending £50 a month when I started working here (Based on a conservative three to four cups of tea a day at 75p each on a four week month)

Ali-OK

Well done on another NSD. I only seem to manage a run of 2 days at the weekend at best!

Not enough tea is my worst nightmare

mooomin

Ali-OK wrote: »

Not enough tea is my worst nightmare

A world without tea?! We'd be no better than Americans

Ali-OK

Totally against the MSE grain now. DS and I were in the US last summer for 3 weeks (not the reason for any of my debt, but admittedly I could have paid off £3k more by not going) - Costa understood hot tea with cold milk, but very few other places did so I spent alot of time educating how the British love their tea!

When we've been elsewhere abroad, I pack my own teabags. Why is Liptons thought of as the top tea Brits buy and drink abroad? Never have worked that one out!

mooomin

Meal plan time!

Tomorrow: Chicken and chorizo gratin
Saturday: Chicken and chorizo jambalaya
Sunday: Chilli (from the freezer)
Monday: Bolognaise (to feed us and the friends visiting)
Tuesday: Bolognaise (leftovers)
Wednesday: Turkey pasta bake
Thursday: Gammon egg and chips
Friday: Gammon frittata
Saturday: Fish fingers and chips
Sunday: Carbonara

The only meat I will need to buy in for the meal plan is mince as I don't have any in the freezer :eek: Tomorrow and Saturday I'm using leftover roast chicken from tonight. The turkey bake and carbonara will be new recipes I'm trying :eek:

My shopping list for tomorrow should come in under £20.

Ali-OK

Fish fingers...Nom Nom Nom

Are these the HM ones you've made before? I've only ever bought them in a box

mooomin

Ali-OK wrote: »

Are these the HM ones you've made before? I've only ever bought them in a box

Yup, home-made. They are delicious but such a pain the bahookie to make that they're a weekend meal

PositiveBalance

mooomin wrote: »

HAPPY MOO YEAR!!

Thanks!

mooomin wrote: »

Current plan is to go and visit The original plan was for February but it's now looking like it'll be March, I'm very excited!

Good news today - emptied my spare terramundi with a butter knife and found £16 in £2 coins and that's now in my £2 coin terramundi The rest will go in the Sealed Pot. Hurrah!

Ooh, nice one! Perhaps the terramundi can be holiday spends...and finding all that money will help!

mooomin

PositiveBalance wrote: »

Ooh, nice one! Perhaps the terramundi can be holiday spends...and finding all that money will help!

The terramundi is earmarked for the Edinburgh Fringe this year I'm going to ALL OF THE SHOWS and will be drinking ALL OF THE COCKTAILS

mooomin

• [STRIKE]Mortgage appointment[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Drop off stuff with Friend A[/STRIKE] and Friend B (they're taking old books/kitchen things to help with my decluttering)
• Post parcels
• Finish UCAS application for uni
• [STRIKE]Write shopping list[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Do the food shopping for next week and stick to the list [/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Put petrol in the car[/STRIKE]
• Go to a friend's on Saturday for board games and wine
• Take stuff to the tip
• Take old clothes to cash for clothes place
• Post pics of clothes for sale on Facebook and if they don't sell prep a listing for Ebay

Money stuff

Current account: £70
Food account: £56.06
Savings account: £1407.01
Purse: £10

My challenge is going reasonably well at the moment, although Spend Free Days are proving elusive.

1. SFD 4/20
2. Food budget £44.57/£200
3. Brand downshift 1/5
4. Lunch to work 4/11 (projected days in the office this month)
5. Arranged outings 2/4
6. Exercise 7/15
7. Petrol budget £30/£50
8. Food bank donation 0
9. Beauty spends 0/£10

If I had a sensible brain in my wee head I would have posted my parcels yesterday when I was already spending but I didn't. I might do that today instead and buy some ingredients for soup while I'm at it. I need something to make for lunch for next week.

My mortgage appointment yesterday went well - I've fixed the rate for four years with no fees to pay. It's actually going to reduce my monthly payment by £20 as I was on the SVR. I could have reduced it by another tenner by choosing the two year fix, but I want the longer-term certainty. Once I've been paid and know how tight money is likely to be on my new reduced income I'm going to set up a standing order to overpay monthly. I can overpay 10% of the balance annually, which would be £3700 at my current balance but that's pretty unlikely unless a suitcase of money falls from the sky If I can overpay by at least the £20 I'm saving then it's a good habit to get in to and I can overpay by more as and when I can, even if it's just by whatever is left in the direct debit account at the end of each month.