pickle me's diary

pickle_me

Hi satchmo In theory I could attempt to make them myself but it could take me a million attempts to get them exactly right, and I know she'd reject them if they weren't what she was used to. Or in the right packaging! I used to buy fromage frais pouches for my elder daughter, she loved them; then they changed the packaging and she point blank refused to touch them. My younger daughter is even more stubborn and cussed than her sister (seriously, I can bribe her with her weight in chocolate and if she doesn't want to do whatever I'm asking, she won't do it) so I don't fancy my chances getting a homemade smoothie past her!

Freezable not an issue as they come vacuum packed in foil pouches and last for ages (well, they would if she didn't eat two a day :rotfl: )

I have no idea what the Waitrose vouchers are about - we do have a Waitrose loyalty card which we haven't used in ages, so I guess they're trying to tempt us back. It worked, at least for the next couple of weeks! I love shopping in Waitrose, middle-class nirvana that it is, but it's just impossible on our debt-busting budget.

Thank you for listening to me dribble on about purple smoothies :A

pickle_me

I feel tired of it today. Tired of feeling like there's never quite enough money, tired of trying to save a pound here or there on birthday presents (makes me feel really mean ), making endless calculations and forward projections to work out when the hell I'm going to have any money. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to saying f*** it and just spending some money without calculating to the last penny whether or not I can afford it.

I miss shopping. I'm yearning for my pre-children life - the shopping bit of it, anyway - when I could just go out and buy some new clothes without thinking about the cost. I lived within my means without having to try to. And now I feel guilty if I spend more than a couple of quid on myself. I think our budget needs adjusting. I've calculated it so far so that my husband has a few hundred pounds each month after the bills are paid. I haven't made the same allowance for myself. I need to give myself some slack.

I have a few days off next week - hopefully that will recharge my batteries and perk me up a bit.

pickle_me

I've cheered up Firstly it's payday, and I do enjoy seeing money in my bank account, even if I know I can't spend any of it in the frivolous ways I'd like to.

Secondly I've had another look at our budget and decided that from now on I'm going to pay for the children's swimming and ballet lessons out of the joint account. We've been building up a surplus in that account to cover the car tax, MOT and related expenses; we have enough for tax and MOTs already and these aren't due until the end of October, so I can relax a bit. (We'll continue to put a bit extra into the account each month so by October we should still have a good amount saved.) Knowing that I don't have to find the money out of my wages has taken a weight off my shoulders. I've been making myself miserable trying to cut back too drastically when I don't have to.

Off to Waitrose later to attempt to use the voucher again - wish me luck

pickle_me

Oh for crying out loud. You'll never guess. I drove to a different - bigger - Waitrose ... and no purple smoothies. I asked a shop assistant who told me sullenly that they didn't stock them any more. Despite the fact that they have them on the @*($&%!!*(% website.

So I swore a bit (to myself, under my breath) and thought, ok, I've got here now, I have a trolley half-full of stuff (yes, I should have looked for the smoothies first ), I'll make it up to £30 to get my £10 off, and I'll be done. And then as I was queueing up to pay I looked again at the voucher and realised that I didn't have my 'myWaitrose' card, and without it, no money off :mad:

So I paid, and I left, and the lesson I have learnt from this is that I cannot shop in Waitrose while debt-busting. I'm so much more clued-up about the cost of things and I was walking around thinking 'how much!?' 'I'm not paying that!!' 'It costs half that in Lidl'.

If anyone is remotely interested :rotfl: I got a couple of not-purple fruit smoothies with Peter Rabbit on the front - I'm hoping that might keep the small girl happy for a few days. Until I can get to Sainsbury's, which definitely stocks the blessed smoothies.

(No more smoothie-related posts, I promise )

pickle_me

I gave my mum her Mother's Day present yesterday (my parents were away last weekend). Originally, without really thinking about it, I'd stuck £30 on my budget for a present as I usually order a bouquet of flowers from M&S or similar. I revised that down to £10 nearer the time as I looked at all the birthday presents I had to pay for this month In the end I gave her a very pretty stephanotis plant, £5.99 from Lidl, and she was genuinely delighted.

Lesson learned - I can spend less on presents and still make my family happy. The test will be my elder daughter's birthday - I've got £100 in cash which I'm hoping will pay for new clothes for her, plus some crafty bits and pieces, plus what I need for her party (party bags, cake ingredients, catering etc). Looking at that now it really should be doable, shouldn't it? I'll be very pleased if I can cover it all for £100. (Husband will be buying other presents - we both like choosing things for the kids so we tend to compare lists before we buy, agree on what to get then get what's on our own lists.)

pickle_me

It's 6 months since I discovered the extent of our CC debt, and 5 months since we started making proper repayments (ie more than the minimum amount). I just worked out that we have paid back 28% of our starting total. Nearly a third :T That feels good

eco_farmer

congratulations pickle me you are well on the way to clearing your debt and before your interest free period ends. just remember your brilliant progress on the tough days when it seems never ending !


eco

milocat

well done you!

also pregnancy obsessed me would love purple smoothie right now -- sorry!

also waitrose fruit fools, and red onion topped pork pies... oh the deli counter, how i miss thee i have banned myself from going in there to stop myself spending money i don't have!

pickle_me

Thank you milocat and eco farmer Milocat, I've promised myself that when we've paid off the debt I will go on a splurge in Waitrose or M&S and buy whatever takes my fancy, however indulgent We used to do that regularly before we had the kids - wander into M&S and fill a basket with all sorts of nonsense. Haven't done that in a long time.

I spent some money yesterday and it made me happy. I bought clothes for both girls at H&M and for £50 I got 3 dresses, 3 pairs of leggings, 1 cardigan, 1 top, 1 skirt, 1 hairband, pack of hairclips and 2 pairs of tights for elder daughter, and 2 dresses for younger daughter. That's their summer holiday wardrobe pretty much taken care of (younger daughter has all her sister's and cousin's hand-me-downs as well). Ahh, I do like shopping for clothes. Can't afford to buy any for myself so this is the next best thing and in some ways almost better as the girls are so easy to buy for - they look cute in everything

Next is £20 on craft presents for elder daughter, which will leave me £30 for her party (I suspect I'll spend more than that but I'll try to stick to my budget ....)

pickle_me

I tried out a new exercise class last night. The leisure centre were launching a couple of new classes, one of which sounded interesting so I thought I'd give it a go. I found the class itself rather annoying - music was far too loud, I could barely hear the instructor and the hall was dimly lit in an unconvincing attempt at creating some sort of rave or rock concert atmosphere - but it was ok as a workout and it only cost me a £2 donation to Sports Relief (as it was the launch evening). Rather than parking in the leisure centre car park (£2) I parked in a nearby street for free.

And today I took the girls to the cinema. Tickets paid for entirely with Odeon points, free icecream each courtesy of Ben & Jerry's Cone Day (I put some money in their charity collection buckets) and once again I parked for free a short walk away, rather than paying to park in the car park directly behind the cinema. A very MSE outing :money:

These little victories all add up, don't they? £2 here, £3 there, and at the time you think, what difference can it really make? But it does. A few little savings like this over the month and that's £20 or £30 saved - and when you're on a tight debt-busting budget, £20 or £30 feels like a fortune.

I'm knackered after two days looking after the kids on my own - I'd forgotten how much hard work it can be Being married to a teacher, I'm spoilt - we're usually both at home during the school holidays; but he's had to go into work for a few days this week. The funny thing is, I've got the prospect of a new job on the horizon - similar hours to my current job but all year round, not term-time only. I was wondering if I could bear to give up the school holidays. Now I'm thinking that working might be preferable :rotfl: