Carrot cake in the oven

supersaver1000

Thank you. I can report an NSD today. Pasta with homemade sauce and garlic bread.

supersaver1000

Had to go shopping for work so did a bit of shopping (£18.02) to make up the purchase price to £50 (as I had a £7.50 off a £50 spend). So I have actually spent another £10.53 to get £18.02 of goods plus they gave me a price match voucher of £1.82 which I will use next week - so in effect I have really only spent £8.71.

So I am this week £5.93 over budget but I will carry that forward to next month as I bought 2 shampoos for £5 and a couple of other bits that I will use next week. So my budget for next week is £24.07 currently including the £1.82 sainsbury voucher. Doesn't seem a lot so may have to sub it a bit - what do you think?

Result!:T

supersaver1000

Summary today:

£60 cash
£40 in bank
£1.82 sainsburys match voucher
£20 on my black card
£24.04 paypal balance (reserved for DDs haircut)
£3.31 Nectar points
£20 M&S card
£14.76 received from Santander 123 (have removed £2 fee)
£17 - Waiting to send off email claim to Energylinx

Daligas form sent off. Direct Debit will be £53.19 per month which I think will be a little low so I will probably increase it to £60.

Ali-OK

Good going SS, well done :T:T

You're on a roll, keep going

supersaver1000

£58.30 cash
£40 in food account
93p Tesco match voucher
£1.82 sainsburys match voucher
£20 on my black card
£24.04 paypal balance (reserved for DDs haircut)
£3.31 Nectar points
£20 M&S card
£14.76 received from Santander 123 (have removed £2 fee)
£17 - Waiting to send off email claim to Energylinx

Daligas have received my form. Just waiting for the switch now.

Thank you Ali. Can't believe how all the little bits add up. I really need to make the mist of my time from now on to make sure I'm in a really good position for earning ASAP.

supersaver1000

Bother. Was just editing my last post and had written loads when I lost it all.

I'm thinking of upping my grocery money to £40 a week which means I will need £80 out of the bank instead of £40 this month.

I promise not to use it as a target but I think £40 a week will be more achievable for me. I'm trying not to use the nectar and Tesco points for everyday spending but may use for one offs or maybe build up to £40 to replace a whole weeks spending.

Right that's me for now. Will be back in a minute.

supersaver1000

Ok my food budget for the rest of the month (£40x3 Saturdays before payday) is made up of:
£58.30 in cash
93p Tesco voucher
£1.82 Sainsbugs voucher
£58.95 in the bank

Have also got:
102 nectar adpoints
£3.82 nectar points
835 Tesco points
£19 Tesco vouchers + £2.87 after topcashback transfer
7500 Avios point after Tesco cc transfer (for 6 bottles of wine)
£20 M&s gift card
£24 PayPal
£32 in my saver ac for DDs hairdo this month
£100 in Santander as we are having a rare night out this month

The end of this month will be my last month of my large salary (yikes!) but also last month of major stress (yayy!) so I am trying to get every thing in order. So I just logged into our Tesco Cc that I use just to earn points but which has been building up so this month I've made an effort to get it to zero - lo and behold DH has spent on it. Only a small spend, but we know how they add up to unmanageable amounts don't we. However it was a mistake, it is black like his debit card but his debit card doesn't say Tesco. He is going to give me the cash back. He insists on keeping it for emergencies but I think I'm going to sneak it off him - might see if I have the old one still hanging around and do a swap. Is that sneaky?

The only major expense I have next month is 2 new tyres so am going to save as much as I can next month ready for my frugal living. More in my next post about my hopes and fears for this next chapter.

Ali-OK

:rotfl: at replacing DH's credit card! At least it was a mistake.

I do wonder if "in an emergency" is a false sense of security sometimes - I carry my use and pay off monthly CC but use it for the Nectar points and budgeted essential spends (fuel and online for DS it seems).

It's those little bits that add up for sure - either earning, saving or spending. They're making quite a difference and I love adding them up at the end of each month.

Countdown to happiness and frugal living - great stuff. :T

supersaver1000

Yes it was a mistake and easily spotted this time because the account should have been zero. Perhaps that's the key then. Will give him a last chance.

But exactly Ali, what kind of 'emergency' necessitates a card with a £6k limit. :rotfl: I may reduce the limit on another, different colour card and then we may both be happy

Ps just swag bucked for first time and earned 26 points.

supersaver1000

So I don't start worrying and getting down I'm going to try and plan the things I am going to do over the next year. About 9 months ago I moved from a fab job where I liked my colleagues to what I thought was my dream job but what turned into my nightmare job. After I gave my notice last year, once the nightmare started to reveal itself in staff problems, I tried to rescind my notice but was too late. Was a really tough time and I was working all hours, taking work home with me, no support and being undermined from all directions, just extremely stressed and not sleeping which is a self perpetuating nightmare. Now I've got a 12 month contract and thought yesterday yikes! that year could go quick and I could have no job. So I'm not going to get down and start worrying - I need to get on with planning and take control.

I've signed up for two online courses via Groupon so need to complete those. I also want to take a degree level qualification in admin, business, leadership maybe and if possible a masters.

So my list is:

Finish Excel courses (basic and Advanced) and print the books off
Finish Sage courses, get a sage disk and print the instructions off
Look into degree and funding

Work wise I would like to gain some more Sage experience, paid if possible but I'm open to volunteering. [Strike]Greying Pilgrim[/strike] DigforVictory recommends payroll so I will look into that. I've also just started volunteering at the school and we are volunteering at our local gardens soon. I just really want to open myself up to different people, settings and experiences. It's already improving my self confidence. Perhaps it was too big a step to go from a largely PC based role to one that was the complete opposite.

I am also going to speak to everyone work wise I know and say call me if you need someone to do virtually any bits of ad hoc work.

Money wise I will be about £250 worse off from my job last year, but the new job earned me another £5k overall so if after 12 months I get a better paid job again it will have been financially worth it and the experience has been very useful.

See I'm more positive already. I'm sleeping better already and slept through the storms last night much to everybody else's amazement.

I've also got to shabby chic all the furniture I've been planning and have a really good spring clean, do some sewing etc. lots to look forward to.