Getting there...slowly.

girlatplay

Had a takeaway with the parents and LMG on Sunday night. We went halfers and I used £7 from the emergency pot and from pocket money. I took £4.50 from my pocket money to put back in the pot. I have lost track of it as I had mixed up pocket money with pot money so will count it again when I get home. I have £1.50 in the pocket money purse but have just pledged on the sealed pot challenge to put the 50p into my pot so will do that when I get home.

Got paid on Friday and organised all my pots. Dd's will come off on Monday next week.

I managed to squeeze out £340 to the holiday savings. Next month (according to my spreadsheet) I should be able to squeeze out £380! Of course, I am having to cut back in other places to get this. I know it is not sustainable in the long term but it just amazes me what I can do when I try.

I only have £4 to go to get to the £106 for the hen weekend so I will do that in the next couple of weeks.

I am up to date with the Christmas savings, dad says

Still not heard further from new ISA provider yet. I'm getting a bit annoyed as I could have had the money in somewhere else earning interest.

I bought a voucher from Itison this morning to take my sister out for a wee drinky one evening. We don't get to go out, just the two of us, much anymore. She has her fiance and I have LMG. I will spread the cost out over four weeks from pocket money.

killerpeaty

How long has it been since you heard from your ISA provider? It should only take a few days.

Great work on keeping on budget though!

girlatplay

I got home on Tuesday to a letter from the new ISA provider saying they have now opened my account. It took almost 6 weeks for them to open it. I opened it online around mid April. They asked for further ID. I sent them a photocopy of my passport (which they said was acceptable), a print of a bill from ScottishPower (as my account is online) and the original of my council tax demand for this tax year. They sent back my docs (someone had scribbled "photocopy" on the passport copy and fuel bill - was not a photocopy :mad:, was printed directly from my online account) and said they were processing my details and it could take up to 7 days. Then they wrote to me and said they didn't have sufficient evidence of my address and could I send further evidence in conjunction with their enclosed list of acceptable items. Council tax demand dated within the last 3 months was on their list. I sent back the exact same council tax demand with a covering letter referring to their list of items. Apparently that was acceptable the second time I sent it :cool:


I went over budget in Sainbury's yesterday Just under £2. I bought more chocolate for work so paid the extra from pocket money. I also bought bleach which wasn't on the list but only because I forgot to put it on and I really needed it. I was a bit annoyed with myself and I will be glad when I can get back to Morrison's. Just one more week of Sainsbury's to go.

I was so indignant about costing myself more than the budget that it prompted me to get to the GP's surgery to see if I could get my medication on prescription to save some money. I can!! Apparently I was written up for it by the hospital after my last appointment there. The onus was on me to go and ask though. I can pick that up tonight and I can get to the chemist tomorrow. I have enough to see me through until then.

£13.85 in pocket money purse. I am not meeting my friend for a hot chocolate today or for the next 2 weeks either as she is away on her holidays today. Galapagos Islands! Anyway, will save me £2.30 for 3 weeks.

My sister is just, this morning, back from her holiday. Will get to catch up with all her chat on Saturday.

LMG and I are meeting an old work colleague of mine and her son on Saturday night for dinner. LMG says we don't need to do Golden Meal next week since we are doing "beauty night" on a Saturday night now (although it will be tomorrow or Sunday night this weekend) so I will use the money for that for Saturday night.

Can't update much more until tomorrow.

girlatplay

£200 paid to the mortgage account :T The total oustanding is now down to £93,830. Once the interest has been added and the monthly dd taken off on 1st June I will know what extra I need to pay to keep it at a nice round number (either £93,825 or £93,820 depending if I can find a full £7 odds or just £2 odds).

I loaned my ex money back in December 2011 (when we were together) and he paid his final instalment yesterday :j No more ties to him now The only downside is that the money I was getting from him, I was using to pay the extra on the mortgage. Originally I had taken out a loan but when it got to a manageable amount I paid it off from my own savings. I will now have to make any extra payments directly from my salary. It's fine, I have set up my spreadsheet ready, I will just miss the extra payments, even although they were mine already.

I need to remember to take meter readings tomorrow and log them online. I will post up on Monday where I am at with my account as they will have received the dd by then too. I really wanted to put the heating on in the house the past few nights as it has been quite cold. I just can't justify it in May though, it would have to be snowing to convince me to do that! Lots of layers and, amazingly, some cuddles with DD

We are definitely meeting my old work colleague and her son tomorrow night. We will need bus fares there and back and money for the food. I have it covered, just need to get change for the bus. I don't want to take the car as it can be awkward to get parked there.

All dd's due off on Monday so I will update pot positions then.

Have a good weekend

girlatplay

Monday morning :cool:

£7.60 paid to mortgage so once the figures update on online banking the new outstanding total will be £93,820. I took the money from my yearly insurances pot. I have a nice wee credit balance in there so it won't harm.

£127.94 in the general emergency fund.

£40 in the clothes account

I did a meter reading on Saturday and submitted it online to ScottishPower. It hasn't updated on my account yet but I was £107.91 in credit at 1st May, my reading on Saturday took it down to £59.30 and my dd of £62 came off my bank account today so that should credit to the SP account as soon as they update it. I will be £121.30 in credit then. I think it is time I was asking for a small refund. My reading on Saturday calculated £48.61 for the month's fuel usage. It is not going to be much (if any) more than that each month over the summer now.

Managed to stay within budget on Saturday night, £25 for the meal in total. I had allowed £30 so have put the £5 aside ready for when LMG asks for lunch money

Spent my pocket money on drinks for mum, LMG and myself, and some plughole unblocker yesterday.

Popped £2 into bestie's fund, just £2 to find now. Oh, but I haven't paid Christmas fund this week yet so dad will be chasing me for that on Tuesday :)

Talking of my dad, the mole-type thing they removed from his head a couple of weeks back turned out to be melanoma They have removed it all but asked him to check the rest of his body for anything similar and he has to go back in 6 weeks to have a check up. They said to keep an eye on the area they removed it from (which is healing really well ) and to be aware that there is a possiblility it may grow back. He is carrying on as normal and seems to be his usual self but there is always a worry in the back of my mind.

Anyway, he will still chase me for the Christmas money, I won't get away with that haha

girlatplay

I have £3.50 in my purse. £2 for the Christmas fund to give my dad tonight and £1.50 that I owe my mum. She doesn't want it back but I insist as she bought me a lovely rubber scrubber on Sunday and loaned me the £1.50 towards the drain unblocker, loaned being the key word here which she seems to have forgotten :cool::D

I must be setting my budgets too tight at the moment A couple of times over the past couple of months I have borrowed money in advance from my weekly pocket money and just prayed that something will come up by the end of the month, which it always has, luckily for me. Once this holiday is over (we go in 24 days!!!:j) I will have to look at the figures again. Although, once the holiday is over I won't be saving for it anymore so I will have a little more room anyway. It just means that I won't be able to save as much as I hoped.

LMG and I are doing the 30 day Ab challenge and the 30 day squat challenge on Facebook. We decided it would be good to do them together to encourage each other. OMG. I can't do a sit up! I have to cheat and give myself a hand up. I am hoping that by the time we get to the end I can do a non-cheating sit up. LMG has bowed out of the squat challenge (she didn't make it to day 2 :eek:) as she says it hurts her knees. It hurt my knees the first day but changed the position of my feet and that helped. I know I will manage the whole squat challenge as my legs are reasonably strong but I am slightly worried about my future commitment to the ab challenge

It's the last shopping day at Sainsbury's tomorrow. I have to remember to hand over the 500 Nectar points coupon or I will have completey wasted the whole "experience" *stops to check vouchers are in purse - yep, they are* Going to start meal planning and shopping listing now.

Urgh it's pouring with rain Going to put the heater on

girlatplay

Meal plan and shopping list almost complete. Just have one day's evening meal to decide on (Friday). I am definitely going over budget today. I have my girlies coming for dinner on Saturday night and there really is no way of doing what I want cheaply. I know I could do it cheaper if I changed my plans and scrimped but I don't want to. My girlies are my best friends, they are lovely to me and they have bailed me out on so many occasions. I am NOT scrimping on dinner for them. I scrimp on dinner for LMG and myself every night so it's not happening. LMG will have dinner with us so she won't miss out.

Got £40 in the food budget and £0 in my purse. Will need to take the cc with me. I can take money from other pots to cover when I know how much over I am.

Paid my £2 Christmas money and £1.50 loan back. We had fajitas for tea, yum!

LMG has just gone into 3rd year. She has asked me to take her to the retail park later to buy a new pair of swim shorts. She borrowed mine and now they are missing :mad:. CSA hasn't paid as per usual so there is just no money in the pot. I will take £10 from my clothes fund to give her towards them. If they cost more than that, she can pay the difference. I can't be 100% sure it was her who lost mine but I haven't used them since before she borrowed them so they would be in my drawer, which they are not.

I'm feeling a bit low. I think it is the miserable weather. I was feeling on top of the world when the sun was shining.

girlatplay

Well the budget was burst by £6.94. That included two bottles of wine and 3 packs of goat's cheese so not too bad but I still have to buy chicken breasts (from the farm shop on Saturday as I have been sadly disappointed with all meat I have bought from supermarkets lately) and a couple of other bits just because. I found (in B&M) the dishwasher tablets that I usually buy (42 for £2.99) so I have cancelled the ones I had ordered from Amazon and transferred the money across.


I can't get into my spreadsheet at home so will update that tomorrow.

beanielou

B00ker do fab chicken breasts.
Roughly 17/18 for 20 quid.

girlatplay

Booker as in the cash and carry, Lou? Would I not need a card to get in there? Would I not have to be a business? It is nearer to me than the farm shop!

I ended up ordering LMG's swim shorts online. We couldn't get them from the store, they only had them online. They should arrive next week. £8.49 (including postage which was nearly half of that!) so I have transferred that across from my clothes fund.

I have somehow managed to pledge two sponsorships since I was on here yesterday. It will be fine...

£10 in pocket money purse. It is my turn to pay for the coffee on Saturday for mum, sis and I.