Champagne diet, lemonade budget!!

menina

Hello! Not much to report... Went out for a dinner that I shouldn't have had yesterday... Spent £10 at work today. Oops!

Now I've got 5 days off, going to have a look at my Girl called jack' book in preparation.

I'm soooo tired, I shall return here tomorrow x

menina

Hmmmm, I think I have failed (epically!)

I will probably have £400 on my credit card come pay day. I have clearly been spending beyond my means AGAIN.

On the plus side, had a conversation with OH yesterday regarding where on earth all our money goes. We have agreed to cut the eating out right back. I think that 'a girl called Jack' may well save the day. Truly cheap recipes. Made a pork casserole thing yesterday- yummy!

Been organising the flat today. Definitely clean house, clean productive mind for me. Organised all my housekeeping stuff, next port of call is to organise my studies. I do not want to be pulling any all nighters because I've got behind and reckon that I'm right on the cusp of that happening if I don't sort it out right now!

Bye for now x

menina

Phoned Sky, ended up getting my broadband reduced to free for a year plus a credit to my account for £15 so next months bill should be much more acceptable.

Spent £3 today. Minimal ingredients for tonights dinner.

Right, must stop distracting myself on here, need to study!!

mum2one

sounds like your tackling it all, I know it sounds daft but try to focus on one aspect as a time, otherwise your try to tackle everything, spread yourself too thinly and if one fails ur feel youve failed, where as 1 task gets 100% attention, and theory shouldn't fail, (unless its beyond your control).

I did that in Jan, started a new task, - for me it was checking online backing at least 3 times a week, then by Feb that became 2nd habit, so added a new task, - get presents organised, so now have all bday presents sorted (hit the sales) all do is grab and wrap.
March - i'm planning on adding reading, even if it is 5 mins a day....

I do mine on 24th month - as I do the Santas challenge - for me i find its easier to work from 24th month.
xx

menina

Hi Mum2One, thanks for dropping by...

Good point! I have good phases where I'll do everything well and then get bored and completely fall off the wagon. The food thing has been an issue for me for ages now (and is the biggest factor in me wasting money) so I'll focus on that for now.

Note to self! I will:
Only eat out if its going to be cheap and I am not paying for everyone.
Not eat out more than once a week.
Take food and drink into work.
Reassess this after a couple of weeks in April and see how I'm doing.

Right then, I must stop lounging around, things to do!!

Xx

menina

Not a good 24 hours really... The ugly side of money decided to show it's face yesterday evening.

Went out for what would have been mine and OH's weekly meal out. Seemed like a good idea, we are having a stressful time at the mo due to his very lazy brother living on our sofa at the moment. OH was paid yesterday, so I thought OK, we will be going dutch on this.

Bill came, OH went to the bathroom. I paid. Asked for OH's half when he got back. He got in a massive strop and the atmosphere was dreadful after this. (And I never got a contribution to the meal).

Oh well, now it's very simple. No more meals out, end of. Still feel lousy today, have switched my phone off for some head space.

xx

menina

A bad day indeed, but a good evening Myself and OH talked and I can say that we are back on the same page. I HATE arguing, it really upsets me. We have agreed (amongst other things because of course it wasn't just money that we were fighting about) that we will go out one week and he will pay, the next I will pay. And if we don't have the money we won't go at all. Simple.

Will need to spend a little tomorrow. Careful food shop from A Girl Called Jack- using £2 off £20 voucher. Dog food from Waitrose as it's reduced at the mo, making it way cheaper than Mr T (the usual front runner) so will stock up. Also, my (very old) hair dryer died today so will do my Boots shop tomorrow rather than waiting for pay day. I have points vouchers so hopefully it won't be too painful.

It's pay day on Monday. Thank the Lord! This month has been a bit of a mess TBH, I look forward to seeing exactly where I stand and starting afresh.

xx

AlexLK

When you know exactly where you are it would be worth you doing a SOA form. I cannot remember where to get it from but I'm sure somebody will give you a link.

menina

Good idea AlexLK, I plan to do that soon... I just worry it will be too depressing though!!

Got my payslip today. The depressing truth is that once I've paid all my bills and paid off my credit card in full I have -£20 to last me till next payday (32 days away). Bummer!! That figure will mean that transport and absolutely all bills are paid for, just need food and spends.

Since I am clearly rubbish at sticking to a budget, I have come up with the following goal for the month. It is based on the fact that OH gives me £160/week towards his bills (so I still have this money coming in- £640 by the time next pay day rolls around).

Use his first two payments to live off for the month. Will give me £10/day. Save the next two. So goal for the month- keep to the £10/day budget. Have £320 in savings by pay day.

I intend to do a kind of snow balling thing, involving (hopefully) NSD's. Everyday, I will move £10 into a 'spending' account. This is the money I can use for my expenses, as needed. Of course, another part of this idea is to not spend absolutely everything and thus have more money left over at the end of the month.

Hmm, I feel I will be doing some very frequent updates on here to try and keep myself on track!

xx

menina

NSD no 1

Bought baguettes into work. OH had made pasta for dinner, a bowl of which I'll take into work tomorrow. £10 transferred into my 'can spend' account.

Lots of tempting bargains over on the grabbit board tonight. Normally I'd have gone for them without thinking and would definitely have spent £30 tonight (minimum) However, I'm sticking to my guns.

Credit card now down to zero

Its 1% cash back so I do want to use it if I buy something, even if i only get a few pounds back at the end of the year, it'd be worth it. Need to find a way to be super organised with transferring money around though, or my budgeting plans wont work out...

Xx