pickle me's diary

pickle_me

Thank you Fortune Smiles and natsplatnat for continuing to read my ramblings

Waitrose have sent me another voucher. £10 off a £40 spend this time. No chance. :rotfl:

I can feel this month spiralling out of control already. Lots of bits and pieces to get for the party, contributions to buy for not one but two Easter egg hunts, birthday presents galore, grocery budget an optimistic nonsense with us all at home every day and eating twice as much as usual. And MIL coming to visit for a few days so we'll be feeding her too.

I have a craving for an Indian takeaway. So tempting just to say f*** it and stop keeping track of spending, just let it all happen. Ugh.

pickle_me

Woken up feeling a bit more positive. I've got one more day on my own with the kids today and I haven't decided what we're going to do. Maybe the local shopping centre for some essentials, as there are often free craft activities for kids in the school holidays; maybe the library; maybe the local RHS gardens (we're members so it's free). All free or very low-cost activities.

So that will be a week of virtually free days out with the kids:

Mon - friends came round to play, made gingerbread men (ingredients already in cupboard)
Tues - cinema, free tickets & snacks (see previous entry), then round to friends' house
Weds - to local park with next-door-neighbour & her kids, then playing outside at home

The girls have had fun and I've spent almost nothing it's so easy to spend masses during the holidays so even if I do end up spending more on groceries and other unavoidable expenses this month, at least I can console myself that I've done a good job keeping costs down this week.

Fortune_Smiles

Morning Pickle Me (waves). Well done on the low cost holiday activities. My Across-the-Lane-Neighbour always struggles with how to keep the children entertained on a budget. I help out sometimes and we've recently done pom pom making and chocolate making. We turned the pom poms into creatures using sticky eyes and the chocolate making was just pouring melted chocolate into a circle on greaseproof paper and decorating with sprinkles etc. This week there's going to be an easter egg hunt in the garden.




I'm not sure who enjoys these activities most, the children... or me!


Fortune x

pickle_me

April finances are a bit of a mess. The birthday party of course cost vastly more than I had budgeted, what with party food and birthday cake and decorations and prizes and party bags. And yes, I could have done it all much more cheaply but my daughter had a wonderful day and it was worth every penny. I don't regret any of it

I am in a good mood.

The party went well :T

The sun is shining

MIL goes back home today :j

My youngest is out of nappies! and using the toilet! People who have now or have ever had small children will appreciate how exciting this is - I think I'm more excited than I was when either child produced her first word or first step :rotfl: Particularly as she is the most pig-headed child ever and was adamant she was never going to use the toilet. I decided to go hardcore and simply refuse to put a nappy on her. And blow me down but she's streets ahead of where her sister was on day 1. It's early days yet but I am giddy that we've got this far.

Obviously saving money on nappies and wipes will be very welcome too :money:

And tomorrow I have a meeting about a possible new job. Long story but it's someone I worked for almost 20 years ago. We always got on well and have been in touch sporadically for the last 3 years. She has a very small company that I would love to work for and she's always been very keen to employ me - it's just a question of a vacancy coming up (or more accurately, being created). Now it looks as though she might have a job for me but we need to discuss details. I'm trying to prepare myself for the possibility that it might not work out this time but I really really hope it does! It would offer me much better career prospects than my current job and the work is fascinating. Oh and it would be more money.

So for today I'm just enjoying the possibility of it. And the sunshine



(And ignoring April's lamentable finances :rotfl: )

pickle_me

Fortune_Smiles wrote: »

Morning Pickle Me (waves). Well done on the low cost holiday activities. My Across-the-Lane-Neighbour always struggles with how to keep the children entertained on a budget. I help out sometimes and we've recently done pom pom making and chocolate making. We turned the pom poms into creatures using sticky eyes and the chocolate making was just pouring melted chocolate into a circle on greaseproof paper and decorating with sprinkles etc. This week there's going to be an easter egg hunt in the garden.

You sound like a lovely neighbour! I like the pom pom and the chocolate ideas - I may steal them! I do a fair bit of baking with the girls but I'm trying to do more craft as well, and it's getting easier as the smaller girl gets bigger.

in_need_of_direction

Fingers crossed for the job

pickle_me

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Fingers crossed for the job

Thank you

I had a good meeting with my prospective boss a few days ago and the signs are good, but it's not in the bag yet. Usual procedure with getting a new job is that a company has a vacancy and you have to persuade them that you're the best candidate. This time I don't need to persuade them, I'm already the chosen candidate; it's just a question of whether or not there is a job! Basically the work exists but it's being offered to the two current employees first. They both work part-time so the boss wanted to give them the option of increasing their hours first, which is entirely fair. They both have school-age children so I'm hoping that they won't want to work longer days, but for now it's in their hands.

I really want the job and in my head I have already left my current one so the waiting is killing me. I won't know the answer for another week so I really have to focus on my existing job and try and put the new one out of my mind. Easier said than done ...

I'm starting to make sense of April's messy finances and I don't think it's as bad as it could be. Payday still seems light years away but I've just about covered all of this month's unavoidable expenses (including birthday presents) and if I can clamp down completely on spending from now until payday I should be ok.

pickle_me

So I presently have about £15 in my current account. Don't get paid for another *sob* 12 days. I do get child benefit in 4 days. My goal when I embarked on this debt-busting journey was to save the child benefit as emergency funds and try to pay for everything else out of my wages. That hasn't exactly come to pass although I have managed to hang onto £100 from month to month which I am determined to keep aside just so I'm not running down to zero every month.

We have cash set aside for groceries to the end of the month. I will have to dip into child benefit for petrol to get me to payday. I think I have about £10 in my purse for sundries. I have a couple of direct debits coming out of my account at the end of the month - before I get paid - amounting to about £35. Soooo, I will either be dipping into my overdraft or into the child benefit before the end of the month. But that's ok.

The point of this ramble is to try and keep myself on track and focused for these last 12 days until payday :rotfl: 12 days. I can manage not to spend anything extra for 12 days, right ....?

Oh, and by payday I should know whether I have a new job or not. Getting to payday is going to seem an even longer slog than usual. Sigh.

in_need_of_direction

It's better than ok. It's brilliant that you don't even consider upping the debt.

pickle_me

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

It's better than ok. It's brilliant that you don't even consider upping the debt.

You're very kind, INOD

I've gone overdrawn though :mad: by £16 and still have a £15 direct debit to go out of my account before the end of the month. And a week to go until payday I have an authorised overdraft so it's not a disaster, no bank charges and probably only a few pennies in interest but I've stayed out of my overdraft for the last six months of debt-busting and I wanted to keep it that way, dammit.

I've been doing some more calculations, looking ahead and trying to work out where to find the money I need for September when I don't get paid at the end of August. I can do it but it does mean every last penny is accounted for, as usual.

I'm just having one of my little debt-busting tantrums I always feel a bit embarrassed about whingeing on here when I know that there are so many people in much worse situations. But it does help to get it out of my system.

My grocery spending is all over the place at the moment, I'm letting too many 'treats' into the trolley and I really need to rein it in. Part of the problem I think is that I do get a bit bored of being head chef. I'm an ok cook but nothing special and cooking is particularly unrewarding when your children only really want to eat pasta night after night (which admittedly is cheap but it's so boooooooring ...)