The "time to be a grown up" diary!

betsycat

So a good MSE day yesterday – I cancelled my Credit Expert membership, reduced my pension contributions slightly (temporarily) which should give me £30-40 more per month. Every little helps! Combine that with the £14.99 to CE and the £29 gym membership I cancelled and I'm already at least £75 up a month so that's encouraging.

A spending day today as I bought a stamp for £1.20 to send a birthday card to Canada, and had to outlay £65 for a work lunch (but will get that back in expenses on payday). £65 seems like an obscene amount of money now... 1.5x my weekly budget! And yet a month ago I chucked £50 away on some make-up... the times they are a-changing!

betsycat

A lovely NSD today so far... hooray! And so it shall continue normally by this point in the week I'd have spent at least £15-20 on food at work, but my meal plan is really helping. I try to work it so I can just make a double dinner and take the leftovers the next day, or I batch cook at the weekend for the next few days.

It's really cut down on my day-to-day grocery spending too as I've been planning from the food we already have and I've not had to supplement it. I've been keeping track of the things we've run out of or are running low on so I can do a bit of a bargain hunt for them.

Still feeling very positive! I did mean to be being healthy (as we all are in january) but I think if I try to deprive myself of treats altogether I'll be miserable... so I've been eating the various sweets/chocolates/cakes everyone's been bringing into work. I won't be thinner but I'll be happier, there's only so many things you can deprive yourself of in one go!

betsycat

4/8 NSD in January so far, hooray!

Really getting into the swing of making sure I have food at work every day – I haven't bought any food this week, which I don't think has happened since I started working here! Had delicious sesame noodles with broccoli and salmon today, although I over-egged it on the garlic – a whole large raw clove chopped up in the dressing, nobody's going to want to come near me this afternoon

Homemade pizzas with the OH tonight, and a nice, cheap weekend planned. Lots of eBaying, continued de-cluttering and a little bit of freelance work. Got a whole chicken being delivered with my fruit and veg tonight so a delicious roast on Sunday, too. Might try and get out into the garden and do a bit of weeding and leaf clearing if it's not tooooo chilly, too.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

KarenMM

Hi Betsycat! Well done on your NSDs, it's definitely easier to save money by bringing your own lunches to work and setting out meal plans!

betsycat

Hi KarenMM, thank you!

Isn't it just – I used to know that really, but in practice was terrible at remembering to bring anything so was buying lunch almost every day... I didn't buy any food at work last week which is unheard of for me!

betsycat

Friday and Saturday were NSD too so that's 6/10! It's addictive, this non-spending isn't it... I was helped yesterday by my OH who got a few food and household bits we needed – usually I buy all the groceries since I earn more than him so it's nice when he's able to help out sometimes! But that's £12 that I would have spent so very useful.

Spent most of yesterday clearing out boxes and shelves, discovered some lomography cameras that I'd forgotten about so those can go on eBay, they seem to sell quite well. Put a truck load of books on Zapper so just need to find some boxes big enough to send them. And was going to sell my Wii but have just seen on eBay that a Wii with 15 games only goes for around £38 so not sure it's worth selling for the money I'd get for it... might hang on to it for those occasions when people are over and we want to play Mario Kart! Might encourage me to stay in, too.

betsycat

Had a NSD on Sunday but was offered a free ticket to see Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ballet at the Royal Opera House yesterday so needed to buy dinner beforehand! We went to Strada with a 40% voucher so it wasn't too bad, £15 for a drink,mains and some bread to start with... I also bought lunch today at work (the queue for the microwaves was enormous...) so I'll eat my burrito tomorrow. Still very much within budget for the week – £18 left of the £40 and next week's budget starts tomorrow – but just need to make sure I don't get a spending hat on. So 7/13 NSD this month which I suppose is not so bad!

I've got Thursday off work (needed to use up some holiday) so going to spend the day prepping stuff to go on eBay as I didn't get time over the weekend.

Got this month's credit card statement and the 0% offer runs out next month, which is month later than I thought. So that's something! Not sure whether it'll add on all the interest from the previous 3 months or just start charging interest from then, but I should be paying at least £800 (maybe £1,000!) off it within this statement month so that will at least offset it.

OH is cooking tonight (phew – I cooked all last week!) so a night on the sofa for me, might browse some OS forums and do a bit of knitting. Very tired from my night out at the ballet! First time I've been to anything like that... it was lovely! And more than a little trippy

beckie89

Well done on all your NSDs! Sounds like you're in the swing of it. It is satisfying not to be buying lunch because of planning better - just think of all the savings!

I'm going to take a leaf out of your book on Thursday and do some ebaying, I'm off work too (although I might indulge in an hour extra in bed first!).

Keep it up - sounds like you're doing a great job

betsycat

Thanks Beckie! Hope you enjoyed your extra hour in bed eBay is a bit of a pain in the bum (although much simpler than it used to be...) but I suppose it's money for things that are cluttering the house! My last few rounds have been a bit easier as I printed off postage labels through PayPal and popped the packages in the post room at work – saves heading to the post office in my lunch break!

Bought a few bits in Sainsbugs yesterday to tide us over 'til the end of the month, and another NSD today so a nice 8/15... as long as I can stay halfway or over I'll be happy!

Have been budgeting for February today – heading to Brighton for a weekend to cheer on friends in the half marathon, so trying to make cuts elsewhere for that so I can still make a decent payment. Was supposed to be running it but my ITBS has come back with a vengeance!

We'll have another mouth to feed come end of Feb, too – one of my very good friends is coming back from Canada, having moved there in 2013, and needs somewhere to stay for a month or too while he saves up for a deposit. And a month later his fiance will be arriving too! Although I think by then they'll have somewhere to live. Will have to make sure there's lots of sausages on the menu, as the sausages over there aren't quite like our thick juicy ones!

Have had a nice day of more decluttering and getting lots of washing done, at a leisurely pace I might add. And read the last few pages of the lovely liltdiddylilt's diary! Now scouring Pinterest for recipes for next month's meal plan with this furry one plonked in my lap purring away:



(Not Betsy I might add – she's off causing mischief elsewhere!)

betsycat

Morning all!

Had a lovely spend-free Friday which was nice, and then had a spendy day yesterday – paid out £60 to have my sewing machine fixed :eek: but will save me all sorts of money on presents in the next couple of years!

Picked up a few more bits at Sainsbugs (needing frozen spinach turned into needing lots of other things, but managed to get them all reduced...) and then met a friend for a cuppa in town and did a bit of shopping with her – only her shopping though, I did a good job of spending her money! :rotfl:

A nice day in today, going to start my new exercise plan, have got the slow cooker on the go with pearl barley risotto for the next few days of work lunches, we've got some gammon steaks for tea and going to get a bit of sewing done on my lovely, clean, fixed machine