Getting there...slowly.

girlatplay

Well I have fallen off the wagon today. I bought lunch from the sandwich shop. I knew I was falling and I was perfectly able to stop myself but I didn't. I chose to let myself fall. Going to put the 90p change from a fiver in my sealed pot. Worst of all, I didn't even enjoy it. I enjoy my home made lunches much more.

Back on the wagon again as of now.

girlatplay

I had 50p in my purse left over from the grocery shop last week so added that to the sealed pot.

CSA came good today so a little over to the cats' account and a little to LMG's pension holding account. I am leaving the rest untouched in case she needs anything in the next few weeks. The next payment should be next Thursday but who knows whether that will happen or not. :cool:

Wedding dress shopping with the bestie later. We have the figure for the accommodation for the weekend away in November. As long as no one pulls out, it will be £106 each. We have to work out costs for travel/food/entertainment at a later date but now I have that figure I can aim for it by end of July (balance to be paid August). I'm almost half way there! :T

All accounts looking healthy. I want to get the cats' account up a bit. It was over £1000 but 2 vet bills and then paying for the cattery for our holiday in July have brought it down (£778.94 in it at the mo).

I brought lunch with me today and it will be tasty as I made it myself!

girlatplay

Leftovers for lunch today and I am looking forward to them. Something I call "pasta soup" although it is more of a pasta dish than a soup. An adaptation of a Nigella recipe. LMG loves it.

Got a message from the CSA to say more money will get paid into my account on Monday. He has almost caught up with where he should be so far for the year.

£2 coin for bestie's pot. That's me half way now and I haven't noticed any hardship :j I haven't really noticed the saving, only when I read back this thread do I see the times I have potted the odd £1 or 2.

I haven't done the grocery shop this week yet due to being out with the bestie yesterday (she has it down to 2 lovely dresses and I am hard pushed to pick the one I like better so I don't envy her with this choice). I hate going to the supermarket at the best of times but when I go on a Wednesday afternoon it is bearable. The rest of the week I have to go after 5pm and it is just horrible. It's not too bad if I go later at night but we are very much hermit people and like to get in and get our PJ's on nice and early. I don't like going back out once I am in. We are running out of milk fast though (already ran out once, I bought a top up milk on Monday) and bread is getting a bit low too. Don't have too much in the freezer either as I have been trying to use stuff up. Needs must I suppose.

*begrudgingly starts working on shopping list and meal plan*

girlatplay

Yesterday I got another £2 so popped that in bestie's pot. £55 now! Got a horrible feeling that we may have to pay more than the £106. One person heard the cost and made some excuses about not being able to go for the 3 nights. She can make one night which reduces her costs but that leaves the pot £47 short. We may have to rejig the prices. Hope no one else wants to reduce, or worse, pull out :eek:

Overspent on groceries in Mr M's yesterday I did buy kitchen roll (not on the list) as it was on offer and I was down to the last roll in the house (I like Plenty and it is expensive so I only buy it when I can get it reduced). Little Miss fancied a more expensive yoghurt than normal and she also wanted fruit juice and some nice cheese. Because we have the extra CSA money I felt able to say yes (I said no to stuff for so many years it is actually nice to be the good person now - most of the time anyway! ) It was £18 over (clearly that is not just from kitchen roll and cheese :cool:). I chatted with LMG to explain that the excess would come from the CSA money. She was fine with that. I put it on the cc (to get points) and transferred the money across from the CSA account this morning. I already had £2 unused in the cc account so I only needed £16 from CSA.

A few months back I made the decision to explain to LMG how our finances work. That would never have happened to me when I was a child. Finances were never discussed in our family, not with the kids anyway. It meant telling her how much I earn, what the tax credits are and how much we get (or don't get sometimes) from CSA. I explained how much the bills are and I tell her when we have to pay out for stuff. She got a bit bored and wasn't too interested. She gets pocket money and is quite good at saving. She is quite careful with her spending and she never asks me for extra money, never needs to. She gets extras from her grandparents as a treat now and then and they do spoil her at times but she is fairly level headed when it comes to money. She has seen us struggle and now sees us much better. If we are skint one week I am not afraid to tell her why and she is completely understanding. It's all good.

Oooh, getting my hair done tomorrow. Nearly forgot about that! The money is budgetted and I have it ready to take with me. It is the one and only proper "treat" I have. The only time I go out is like last Saturday, to one of the besties' houses. I don't drink, smoke, gamble, or anything else actually. I am so boring. I do enjoy someone else washing my hair for me and making me a cuppa while I read a magazine - I don't buy magazines either.

TGIF :j I don't expect too much to change between now and Monday. I have a nice shiny £20 note in my pocket money purse. I will be buying myself a coffee or hot chocolate at lunchtime today when I meet my friend - £2.30 max. It is mum's turn to pay for the coffee's tomorrow although we are popping to a church in the morning to consider it for sis's wedding so will have a coffee there too but that won't be expensive. We will all chip in for that.

Sunday will be catching up with washing and cleaning. Boring stuff but I was lazy last weekend and I can see it needs doing.

Have a good weekend!

girlatplay

Monday again eh? I preferred it when I worked 4 days and had a 3 day weekend. It was a bit nicer like that. Anyway, mustn't moan.

Another £5 in bestie's pot thanks to 2 x £2 coins over the weekend and a £1 coin in my purse today. Up to £60 now.
30p to sealed pot.

Money in from CSA this morning. I paid some to LMG's pension fund and some to the cats' account. I am leaving the rest sitting there for now.

I spent a bit more than planned over the weekend. Not hugely but I don't have the whole £20 note left

I was clearing out a bag in my bedroom. It was the bag I had put my Christmas presents in to keep it all together. I knew I had a new blusher and a new eye cream in it. I don't need them just yet, still using up the old ones so I had just put the bag to the side. I decided to put the stuff away to tidy up. I found a £20 note in it! It was Christmas gift money so I added it to the £30 of Next vouchers I have. I can treat myself next time I get there

Left over mac 'n' cheese for lunch today. I think this is the nicest batch I have ever made. There is only a tiny bit left too as it was so good.

Everything else is looking fine at the moment. Next cc bill is due on 24th March. The balance is sitting just under £45 at the moment and the money is there ready to pay for it. The other cc is clear. I do have the CSA money if anything is needed. Sort of feels like cheating though.

Payday next week!

girlatplay

Well I seem to have managed to pot another 2 x £2 coins into the hen weekend pot without realising. I opened it this morning as I want to bank some of it and there was £64 in it! Bonus!! I am going to bank £60 at lunch time.

Tuesdays are quiet in gap-land. CB comes in once every 4 weeks on a Tuesday but the next payment is not until next week.

Everything is just fine here though. We go to my parents for tea on Tuesdays so don't have to worry about dinner tonight.

Got work to do at work which is good as the boss man is in today and there's nothing worse than when you have to pretend to be working when there is not much to do.

girlatplay

Just had a wee read back through my posts here. I started counting the hen weekend pot on 12th February at £26. So in 34 days I have saved £38 and not even noticed a difference in my budget. That's really scary. This is kind of what happened when I managed to pay my debt off sooner than planned. When I am not tracking it, I'm not aware of it and I must just hemorrhage money.

When I paid the £60 into the bank earlier I felt a tiny pang of guilt as it is money that could have been going to the buyout fund. If I wasn't saving for the hen weekend though, that £60 wouldn't exist in savings at all and I wouldn't even know about it.

I have created a bit of a mind trip for myself here. I am off to muse...

girlatplay

Ok, it is a beautiful morning this morning. The sun is shining and I am not cold. All good. I am not going to dwell on the last post, just keep it in a pocket in my mind. I have started a spending diary as of yesterday though.

40p from my purse went to the sealed pot today. I found 36p on the floor in the car this morning so that is going in when I get home. £1.87 over to buyout fund holding account. That is up to £4.37. Think I might add that to my sig.

I have an appointment this afternoon with a nutritionist that I have been going to since December. I have a chronic illness and I've tried lots of different things to help it. This is the most expensive thing I have tried though and after the initial boost of energy when I started taking the supplements, I am not seeing any progress now. Things are not worse, but they are not improving now either. It is £30 a session now (first session was £85 :eek: plus supplements on top of that :eek::eek:) I just can't afford it anymore. I know you can't put a price on health but when I am not seeing any improvement, I am not prepared to pay. I feel a bit awkward about it though.

The 2nd years at school are being issued with mini iPads. LMG is getting hers tonight so we have to go to the school to sign for it.

It is grocery day. I have to fit that in after the nutritionist and before the iPad meeting. Ooh, and we have to eat. We are having friends for dinner tomorrow night and I have to clean the bathroom and tidy the livingroom. It doesn't sound like much but I always find more to do. At least LMG is on board for helping. I haven't decided what to cook yet and that is not helping.

Off to complete (yes, I started yesterday!) the shopping list and meal plan and write a to do list including all of the above. When I start ticking things off I will feel better.

girlatplay

Groceries came in at £48.56 yesterday. That is £8.56 over budget I used some pocket money to make that up. I blame having guests for dinner tonight. Need to work harder next week.

£76.18 to the nutritionist :eek: She agrees that I am where I should be at the moment and I don't need to go back to see her unless things change. Thank goodness.

LMG got her mini iPad last night. The good thing is that the school are not asking parents to contribute to the costs of the iPads, the school are fully covering that. They have asked us to contribute to the cost of the case though, £15. They cost the school £23 each (retail at around £35 each). Quite reasonable, I thought.

44p to sealed pot. Nothing to bestie's fund today. I have £13 pocket money in my purse to last me until next Thursday.

girlatplay

We had a really lovely evening with our friends last night. I ended up making chicken fajitas which went down really well. We took them out for ice cream for dessert. I chose that because neither of them are from Edinburgh and they don't know our side of the town very well. They had never been to Lucas in Musselburgh despite living here for 6 years!! That cost me £7.50 but it was so worth it. I took the scenic route, showing them the beach at Portobello and the harbour at Fisherrow (both in the dark though - would have been better in the daylight). They thoroughly enjoyed both the mini tour and the ice cream

Nothing more into sealed pot or bestie's fund yet. I have £5.50 left in my purse and I am meeting a friend for a coffee at lunchtime today. I have food with me and she is on a diet so it will be no more than £2.30 (that will be a large hot chocolate ).

Quite a quiet weekend ahead. Bridesmade dress shopping on Sunday and that is really about it. It is mum's turn for coffee tomorrow so that is covered.

Apart from the fact it is Friday, the best thing about today is that because we had our friends round last night, the house is clean!!! :j

Happy weekend.