newshoes' DFW diary

newshoes_2

I will be good, I will be good..

Yesterday was the first day of the new way of dealing with the debt.
I have made several promises to myself, the first was I will be realistic about my lifestyle and spend only what I can afford. For me this is fantastically difficult - but hey, I like a challenge!

So I didn't spend much yesterday - I bought a book online, second hand so £1.49 instead of £5.99. Would have borrowed it from the Library, but it's for book group and the library couldn't get me a copy in time. That's because I wasn't organised and didn't order it when the next book was announced, I've left it to the last minute again. Lesson learned. Then I picked my son and his friend up from their golf lesson (ouch expensive) and they were hungry and thirsty, so I took them to the supermarket and bought them a drink and a mini punnet of strawberries each - £4.24. If I'd thought about it I could have taken them a home-made chocolate muffin or an apple each and a carton of juice from Lidl or even a re-filed bottle of squash. That would have cost certainly less than £1 total. Must put brain into gear in future.

I bought a magazine subscription to Harpers Bazaar online for £12 instead of £44 as a birthday present. A good saving, and she gets a present with a perceived value of much higher than I spent. At that price I would usually have ordered one for myself too, but £12 is £12 after all and better not spent. Flipping heck, I'd better check my temperature - this is not like me.

Today, my husband's first words to me were 'have you got £1.80?'. He has a big bank account with tons of money in it and I'm skint but subbing him for his posh coffees at work. But he gives me the housekeeping money so he thinks it should come out of that - fair dos? Not sure.

I"m taking the two boys out this afternoon (National Trust, will get in free) and my son's friend is obsessed with shops and what he can get in them. I heard him talking about some town or other this morning and he didn't know what it was called but he could identify it by the shops there. Oh dear. So I am determined not to spend any money. We will have lunch at home before we go and I'll take snacks in the car for them to eat before their swimming lesson. And then take a drink for my son to have after swimming so we don't need to use the vending machine. I may give him 20p for a lolly. If I buy them in the newsagents it's only 15p, but he likes the treat and at 20p I think it's one I can afford.

I need to do a supermarket shop soon but will take a list and cash, I will withdraw enough for a week and make it last. I like the five jars idea, but I seriously need to just withdraw enough for one week at a time, or I'd start dipping into next week's pot, and the one after that...

I have wrangled with the issue of the milkman - ours is organic so really great to have and even healthier for my son - proven higher percentage of omega 3s in organic milk, and while I'm happy to just do the best I can to be ethical while saving money, I will keep up the milkman, and use my usual magazine and book fund (sometimes as much as £30 a month) to fund it. However, I ordered non-organic eggs at 68p/half dozen and when they came they're from caged hens - I'm horrified, so I will cancel those as I know I can get free-range for 69p from the supermarket. There are some ethics I can't put aside and animal cruelty is one. And I know too many farmers getting shafted by the supermarkets to buy supermarket milk - even the 'local' schemes still underpay, they're better but not much - a sop to customers more than a helping hand to farmers. I'm not a big fan of supermarkets per se - so giving them so much of my money is not good - I realise that.

I am determined this will work. I will be debt free, I will I will.;)