pickle me's diary

pickle_me

Have to laugh - we're bouncing each other's diaries :rotfl:

You sound sad You'll have a baby to buy presents for soon. I'm sorry your OH isn't helping though.

I'm quite a bit older than you - not sure I had my head screwed on at your age. In fact you sound a lot more mature than I was at 23, I didn't have a clue really ....

milocat

Forward and backward over the Irish Sea!

I'm sad, but coping. I guess I don't really have much choice either way - time I stop being an ostrich and start living my life. Especially with bump en route & ice cream to eat

I think I've had more of life at 23 than most - it certainly makes you grow up quicker! Also I'm hoping it means nothing but good luck and good stuff for the next 23 years!

pickle_me

I hope so too. Keep eating the icecream and loving the bump. Good things to come in 2014

pickle_me

Sometimes I feel as though I'm just holding my breath until the debt is paid off. I was looking forward to payday (yesterday) but by the time it arrived I'd worked out that once again, every penny was accounted for, and then some ...

In theory I have some surplus this month - my pay is £694 and my expenses are:

£300 for our food kitty
£100 petrol
£66 ballet lessons (carried over from last month)
£19.50 new ballet uniform

So over £200 left! Woohoo! Except ... April's expenses come to approx £670 and I have the aforementioned family birthdays approaching so this month's 'surplus' will have to go towards presents.

Which is fine ... except I would love to be able to buy something for myself *stamps foot childishly* I miss being able to wander into a shop, think 'ooh, that looks nice' and buy it, without thinking about the cost.

I was looking forward to March as the first month since this debt-busting journey began when I would have a bit of money to spend on myself. Now realistically it's going to be May.

I know I sound like a miserable, ungrateful old turnip and really I have nothing worth complaining about. I just need to get this out of my system and I'll be fine. And the important thing, as ever, is that we are making good progress with the debt - £858 will be paid off this month and every month following until it's gone :T So feeling a bit deprived for a few more months isn't going to kill me.

pickle_me

My plan for birthday presents is as follows:

£100 total for elder daughter - I'm going to take her shopping for new clothes (which she really needs, her legs seem to get longer every week); and I'm going to make up a 'craft box' for her, full of coloured paper, stickers, glue, paint etc. I hate doing craft activities but she loves it and at least if we have the stuff to hand I can indulge her every now and again

£60 for my husband. I suspect he may possibly be aware of my diary (which is fine, I've mostly been very nice about him ) so I'm not going to say here what I've got planned - but he'll love it

£80 combined for my parents - tickets for a chamber music concert, which include dinner afterwards. I may end up spending a little more on my mum as my sister has something planned I'll chip in for.

Oh and Mother's Day, of course. Flowers for my mum approx. £30

At least I have a plan. I do like a plan

pickle_me

I always do that - write a neat little list of my expenses for the month and forget half a dozen extras I've got a couple of choir rehearsals in London this month, so will need train tickets for those; the kids have two birthday parties in the next few weeks, so need presents for those No doubt there are various other things I've forgotten about but hey - just got to keep juggling.

Did the weekly trip to Lidl yesterday, that always cheers me up I love the feeling of getting a bargain and knowing that virtually everything I get there is saving me money. Since starting debt-busting I find I remember more and more prices of groceries I regularly buy so I can compare quickly without needing to look them up. It's rather satisfying

I try and stick to £60 per week for groceries (including nappies, cleaning products etc) and a few months ago I was doing this without too much trouble, even shaving a bit off some weeks. Now I seem to be spending every penny and needing a bit more (so really I need about £65), which is annoying. We tried to start toilet-training our youngest yesterday - it would be lovely not to have to buy (or change!) nappies any more - but she's not having any of it at the moment.

It's been a nice quiet weekend. This glorious weather! A cheap one, too - nothing spent bar grocery shopping. Lovely days like this one make it so easy to keep the kids entertained. Elder daughter had a couple of friends round for a playdate this morning, then the girls played with our neighbours' kids in the front gardens this afternoon. Bliss.

pickle_me

Oh yes - elder daughter needs a new passport as her current one expires days after we leave on our summer holiday (which I feel compelled to explain will be paid for by my very generous parents). Aaagh. £54.75 I could do without having to find (£46 if we don't use Check & Send, normally I'm too nervous about getting something wrong in the application but maybe I'll give the PO a miss this time to save a bit of money ...). If it had only been valid for a few more weeks we could have left it for another year or so, as I'm sure we won't have a foreign holiday next year.

pickle_me

Oh I knew there was something positive to post. I went through younger daughter's drawers earlier to pull out clothes she's outgrown, and there are a few things I think I can sell on ebay, including Gap pyjamas which have sold well for me in the past.

I have a few days off at the end of the month, as the school where I work breaks up before the various educational establishments the rest of the family attend I was wondering what to do with myself - if I had any money I'd usually treat myself to a relaxed day mooching round the shops but obviously that's not going to happen! So I think I will give the house a proper spring clean instead, and do a thorough raid of all the cupboards looking for more things to ebay. That and a bit of running, some afternoon naps, a bit of reading, internetting and tv watching and the time will go very fast

pickle_me

Goodness, my diary makes such dull reading. I dip in and out of other diaries on here and some of them are very entertaining!

In a way, I sort of want my diary to be dull. I want it to be as simple as: started debt-busting, worked out a budget, stuck to it, paid off debt, the end. Beyond that it's just grumbling about not being able to go shopping, rambling about birthday presents and the odd Ebay sale ...

pickle_me

I took my elder daughter to her ballet lesson this afternoon; the teacher was handing out balloons and cake at the end of the lesson to celebrate three years since she founded the dance school. It started with just one toddler dance class and she now has 10 different classes every week.

We started going to that first class shortly after it started and have carried on ever since. My younger daughter was a newborn in a car seat the first time we went and now she does ballet herself. The teacher is absolutely lovely and I'm glad the girls are still learning with her.

Even nicer, she told me today that to celebrate three years of classes, she's giving a 25% discount on the next half-term's fees of her five longest-attending pupils - of which my elder daughter is one :T A lovely gesture on her part, and one she didn't need to make - we don't need a discount to persuade us to stay with her - but it's a very welcome one!