Champagne Chaos

System

Hi CC!! :hello: I've just read your diary and will be subscribing!! It's horrible feeling heartbroken, especially when the ex's updates keep popping up on your news feed on social media :mad: I'm sure it all isn't as rosy as it appears though. Most people don't broadcast their problems on there, just the nice stuff, so take it all with a very large pinch of salt

Well done for knocking the cocktail nights on the head!! That is a massive saving!! I much prefer having a girls night in than out but I'm a real home girl at heart, I find it more relaxing & fun It also means that when we do go out its more special!! I'm in a group of 7 and we're all trying to save some pennies due to having kids, mortgages etc so we don't go out as much but still regularly get together & do fun cheapy things!!!

TimeToChange wrote: »

and making a meal plan based on what i already have bought (good recipes for aubergines anyone?)

I did an aubergine, tomato & Parmesan bake once and it was yummy!!! The recipe is here - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10033/aubergine-tomato-and-parmesan-bake-melanzane-alla- I definitely recommend xxx

Dansmam

Hey CC hope the world's feeling brighter today. About to stride out with the pooch, always a reason to smile. You coming along?
DM x

Dansmam

Ah, cross posted. See you're out already DM x

hummingbird

Hiya CC, hope your Sunday is going as planned (or something like it??! LOL)

That's a great idea about copying recipes. I've got some recipe books at home I haven't used for years, so I could have a look through those to get some new ideas - I also occasionally print off some new recipes online. Then tend to forget about them :rotfl:

I'm in our local library right now - we have one about 15 mins walk from where I live. I brought my umbrella which is just as well as it started teeming with rain as soon as I got here, but it's stopped now so I may get home dry!!

Was just going to say about Sophie Kinsella - if "Twenties Girl" isn't available, any of her "stand alone" books would be a good starting point too - "The Undomestic Goddess" is hilarious, and so is "Can You Keep a Secret?" I started with "The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic" and have still got some of that series to read (and she's still adding to them LOL!!)

H xx

TimeToChange

So here we are at the end of the weekend, and i have spent.......60p!

I must say i have had a bit of a rollercoaster emotionally this weekend, sometimes feeling really positive and knowing i can do it and sometimes feeling alone and like its a ridiculous task and i should have just kept my head in the sand. The Jerk (The Ex, he shall be known as TJ from now on) hasn't helped with his glorious holiday pictures and some mutual 'friends' letting me know how lovely his new GF is, and how i should give her a chance (no interest in doing that, i'm sure she is perfectly nice, i just have no interest in involving either of them in my fresh start)

Lunches are all made for next week (Lentil & Bacon soup, carrot sticks, home made rhubarb cake and a banana if anyone is interested) and i have set myself the challenge of buying NO FOOD next week, my kitchen, as my regular readers will know, is ridiculously stocked and i am visiting my parents at the weekend so i feel this should be easily achievable! I have made a meal plan, for the first time ever, and i fully intend to stick to it! Please guys feel free to remind me that i don't NEED anything extra. This whole stocktaking and budgeting exercise has really made me look at food differently, before i would just aimlessly wander around the supermarket spending hundreds on stuff that looked nice, with no real order to what i was buying and i would probably go for inbetweeny shops every other day, buy more just because i fancied something different to what was in the fridge and throw huge amounts away, now my mission is to run down my stockpile to a reasonable level, and to shop smart, with a list, after meal planning so i use everything i buy.

It was nice to log onto my internet banking today an juggle around the excess (pennies this week, hopefully more next month) and to actually feel slightly in control of what was going on. Don't get me wrong its still not good but at least i feel slightly like i know whats going on and where the money is going to come from for the mortgage etc.

I have a £25 work expenses claim to put through on Monday, that will go nicely into the MSM fund, taking it to confirmed £75. I still have the three pending payments from things i've managed to sell this weekend getting there, i am however running out of ideas. I'd love to do just a few hours part time work but wouldn't know where to start looking or what i'd do. My 'real' job is so demanding and predictable that my options would be really restricted. Maybe i could dog walk lol!

Random rambling for the day done - hopefully a more upbeat post from work tomorrow - my spies are trying to solve the mystery of the flowers for me :D:D

This weeks goals:
Join Library
NSD - Tuesday
Buy No Food
Claim £25 expense from work
Ebay 5 things

hummingbird

You've done brilliantly well, love the meal plan/shopping plan/ baking/ etc etc!! MMmmmm cake sounds lurvely!! :-)

It will definitely be worth it, just you see!!! it's great that you have lots of food in and that will save you loads as you work your way through it!

I went to the library this afternoon and got a book on Excel to aim to improve my skills - and a Sophie Kinsella book that I hadn't read LOL! It's called "Wedding Night" which sounds like a cheesy Mills & Boon (!) but it will be considerably better than that I have no doubt! it will be great to take down to my Dad's when I go to visit next weekend.

Sleep well !! (P.s those mutual "friends" don't sound much like friends to me hun xx)

System

Lovely positive update Your friends sound very insensitive though, why on earth would you give the new gf 'a chance' when you're moving on from TJ?! xxx

TimeToChange

Loopy - I know, why on earth would i a) care if she's nice b) ever want anything to do with either of them

Hummingbird - a book on excel is such a good idea!?! i can use it basically but have no idea about formulas etc.....

So today is a NSD, whats quite funny is yesterday was too - through no plan, i have just really started to evaluate every purchase (I'm in debt, do i NEED it? which budget is the money coming from? could i get it cheaper else where? is it an indulgence? etc) and it mean i am really thinking baout where my money is going. I know it's ealry days but i rerally want to get back on track and pay off my debts as quickly as i can - i'm even thinking about the future now and being not only debt free but also mortgage free. Abitious and probably very silly i know, but hey, shoot for the moon - if i miss i'll still be amongst the starts.

Day two this week of bring my lunch to work with me (more soup, however i forgot my cake today :mad: and i'm kinda dreading the three o'clock slump without it) but i'm off for a run with a friend at 2 so hopefully if i get back and have a water it'll fill me up until home time. I've also submuitted and been paid a small work expenses claim (£25) so thats getting added to my MSM fund, can't wait to update my sig block i'm hoping that some of the other payments start coming through soon to really take a dent out of what i need to find.

In other news i have decidd it is time to get myself back into shapr - i used to be so healthy running all the time and playing sport and always out and about doing something, when the break up happened i kind of lost myself so i have reolved to loose some weight and start taking care of myself again. Unfortueatly there is no money in the budget for beuty treatments so i'll have to learn to do it all myself - but what is life without challenge eh!! i think it will help with my confidence to start taking care of my apperance again, i feel like such a shaddow of my former self right now, like the girl everyone walks past and never notices. Well, i don't want that anymore.

Right i'm off to updat my sig block and do some work....... Update later when i'm home

CC xx

hummingbird

Ooh you've gone all pink CC!! LOL!

I'm the same as you with Excel. I used to be able to do the formulae when I did my New CLAIT exam but that was ages ago now and I've totally forgotten.

This book I've got is called "Brilliant Excel 2013" and seems nice and up to date (library books often aren't are they?!) It has nice screenshots and clear writing so I think it will be just right!

Shame you forgot your cake....hope you can last through til you get home! So frustrating isn't it when you know it's sitting there in the fridge for you at home!!!

I've even been known in the past to take my packed lunch out of the fridge and then leave it on the kitchen table!!!

snowscreamer

hummingbird wrote: »

I've even been known in the past to take my packed lunch out of the fridge and then leave it on the kitchen table!!!

That made me smile hummingbird - I have done that so many times! I once got a text from my OH when I was at work to say he'd found a bag containing a tupperware box of soup and a nibbled roll in the hallway - I'd taken it out ready but left without it and the cat had found it! Doing better this week as I have just finished my second "freezer lunch" of the week and remembered to take a piece of fruit in as well.

CC - really positive post and I can empathise with a lot of that. I used to spend without thinking too hard about where the money was coming from and now with our budget I have a totally different attitude to money. One I'd like to cling onto even after we are debt free and the excess can be for a rainy day / income-affecting life events. I'd like to build up a permanent buffer of three months' spending. That's my next goal after becoming debt free.