Reality Check...

reality_check

Me again...

I am going to take advantage of the Quidco offer and buy my daugters perfume for Christmas. Of course she has expensive tatse and wants Tom Ford Black Orchid which is £108 for 100ml so it's not cheap, so £98 keeps it under £100 at least. Have set £500 budget for each of them, which might seem a lot, and I am aware it is, but that is one present and £100 gone. Long gone are the days when you can buy them loads of things to wrap up and get a lot for your money.

I have budgeted another £500 for the rest of Christmas, which will be as follows -

£50 for my mum, I bought her a White Company Winter set worth £60 for £45 during my summer splurge.
£30 for my dad - he never needs or wants anything, so I always get him slippers, socks, beer and chocolate. My kids will get him a t-shirt and a jumper that I of course will need to pick!!
£50 for my sister who also has a white company set.
£20 x2 of my friends kids at £10 each - I normally spend about £25 each so this is a cut back and shops like Home Bargains do great toys
£40 for my niece and nephew £20 each – again this is being cut down normally spend double if not more.
£10 secret Santa in work
£5 towards my teams gift to the manager
£5 work Christmas night out, it is a lunch that I would rather avoid but my work cover the meal, we paid a £10 deposit which I will use for soft drinks and £5 max is anything extra it will cost as I am going to drive.
£50 for dinner with my friends. We always do a lunch with drinks, normally don’t have a budget but I am setting one this year and will make it last.
£25 IKEA Christmas tree, bought this last year and you get £20 to spend in store in January so really only £5, not that I need anything, but can never have too many tealights and napkins.
£15 for flowers and bottle of wine for my ex mother in law
£20 - £10 each for my ex husbands sisters kids
£30 – nice flowers for the house over Christmas
£100 on Christmas dinner. I am hoping not to spend as much this year as I always go over the top, filling the fridge like the shops are closing for weeks

That leaves £50 for anything creeping up, which it will I’m sure. That’s the plan anyway!! This is my Christmas budget from my wages/commission, I still have my pocket money to allow for extras in the month, I normally give myself £200.

Need to work out what's happening with my marine, I will get him something but don't want to go over budget or under, all a bit awkward and not sure how to mention it...but I think will be about £100 which will come off my pocket money!!

reality_check

Ending up spending £18.50 on a chinese tonight round at my sisters, wasn't even that nice, but oh well, done now.

The rest of the week needs to be no spending until the weekend!! Apart from tomorrow I need dog food, only buy every 3 months as buy in bulk from the vet.

I'm on night 2 of moisturising, using up a Soap & Glory Righteous body butter, put it on my bedside table so no excuse not to forget.

Tomorrow is first of November so going to see how many days I can manage not spending money, ideally I would like to manage 20 days.....we will see!!

reality_check

Allbeauty had 100ml of Flowerbomb for £84.75 with £6.36 plus the £10 offer so ended up getting it for £68.39 which is a good saving considering I bought a bottle not long ago for £99 from Boots.

Small start. I know she wants foundation and mascara so that will be £50. Not sure what else she wants and she doesn't know. DS wants trainers but isn't sure what else either. I want to be organised this year!! Going to put what I am spending on kids on a credit card and pay if off in December from my commission so that I can get started.

The money I have aside for my dad will be using that to pay off Santantder and the remaining of Barclays so will need to look at figures again as all will be changing. Not sure of my wage yet as all different as commission now being paid directly into my wage so not sure what impact this will have on my studen loan/tax/insurrance. Previously we only paid national insurrance and the company paid tax, so it is def for the worst now!

Wage slips in on 14th so need to wait until then to know xx

reality_check

If you have a Barclaycard you can get free access to Experian. Checked my score today and by some miracle I am in the ‘Excellent’ category with 989/999, of course I take this with a pinch of salt as this is of course no reflection of being good with money, as we all know I’m not!!

The website was down so made a call and paid £800 from the balance bringing it down to £2600 then with my November direct debit it brings the balance in at £2500. It has to be down to £2564.64 but the uneven number would have annoyed me.

I also spent 50p today in work. Never took my cup with me and really wanted a cup of coffee, so had to pay 19p. The cards we use in work to put money on only accept 50p, £1 or notes. Dog food was £20.25, such a good deal for great quality food from the vets and this lasts my dog 3 months.

Nothing much else to report, toast and beans with some cheese on top for dinner tonight as only me home and can’t be bothered making anything else xx

reality_check

Another no spend day fail and it wasn't even 8am! Put £1 on my card as again forgot a cup for some tea/cofee. Hot water/milk + tea/coffee is provided free but you need to bring your own cup, if not its 19p for a paper one. This will be my only spend for the day!!

Trying out overnight oats for breakfast with some fruit, soup and a sandwich for lunch and shepherds pie with sweet potato mash and veg for dinner tonight.

Nothing much else to report... have a good day xx

reality_check

I was speaking to a company tonight that do those government deals to try and get a free boiler for my mum and dad and the man on the call was giving top tips for how to bring energy costs down/be more energy efficient.

One that I am amazed at is that your hot water makes up 20% of your bills! When DS and DD have showers they both forget the way back out and in forever, I constantly have baths, I always run the shower a good 5 minutes before I get in...may aswell through my money down the drain!!

reality_check

Since I decided to have no spend days all I have done is spend money!! £10 yesterday on a charity donation in work, £1 on milk and then today £3 towards a birthday in work. Also going to book panto tickets for next month, we go every year and this year won't be an excpetion - clearly forgot about that in my 'Christmas Budget' - amazing how easy it is to forget things!

Seasidegal58

You're certainly nice and organised with Xmas budget! I've chivvied up DD and sis for their own and families' lists today.

Hope your Mum is okay.

roomontheend

I haven't even got a budget for Christmas. I will have to sort one out fast. The more you can plan and prepare the cheaper you can make it.

I still have four case studies to complete before I'm classed as qualified. So if you change your mind let me know lol

reality_check

I always make lists and budgets but never stick to them!!

My mum is getting a bit better, thanks for asking.

ROTE I would be your nightmare client :rotfl:

So had a spendy few days -

£106.09 yesterday in Tesco on a new juicer, fruit/veg, pyjamas, slippers
£157.86 when I went to Cheshire Oaks (shouldn't have went!) got DS shorts and tshirts from Nike (Christmas) and myself a dress from Reiss, pair of boots for me Hobbs and and some chocolate from Hotel Chocolat - which is already gone.
£35.34 on petrol, who knows how I thought could get away with £10 top up!!
£13.74 on oven cleaner, bleach and anti bac wipes in Home Bargains
£82.49 to Scottish Power - really need to sort this as it is quarter billed, and never budgeted for.

£395.52 :eek: did not think was that much!! little things just add up, annoyed at myself! :mad:

I also don't know what has happened...I have kept £20 aside to last me until Tuesday, but...I had £2500 aside to pay my Dad back. I have £800 left, I paid £800 to my credit card, the above £400, I bought that perfume for DD £65....I am still missing £435!! I need to properly look into my bank and see what has happened because I haven't used a credit card so it should be able to see....I am just looking on the app on my phone. I think I might look into YNAB, free trial so nothing to lose.

I am also juicing again - hence new juicer because my old one decided not to work!! It is a Philips one and was well used but wasn't that old, bought a new one anyway now! I used to always juice for breakfast so going back to that and on a juice cleanse for 3 days so 5 juices a day...and to top off my missing money and overspends someone in work has brought in krispy kreme doughnuts so the smell of them is all around me!! :mad::mad::mad: