Chica's gonna get a house! (hopefully)...

ChicaBonita

Update -
Wednesday - bread £1.50
Thursday - coop lunch £3.25
Friday - Tesco shop £30.25, but most of that was either presents or stores for xmas day so I'm taking it from my xmas fund. Only spend coming from my current account £6.40.

Had a very long, difficult week this week and I think it caught up with me yesterday, my stomach was in bits all day, and whenever I have stomach issues it sucks the life out of me. Hoping for a better day today.

Up fairly early as I'm going to town with the bf so he can choose his last present (some trainers) and last bits and pieces before the manic panic of next week. Luckily I have Monday and Tuesday off though so I'm hoping to get some chilling in Just bought a fairly last minute present for my mum after some inspo the other night. Got it a fair bit cheaper than I would've done if I'd got it in town as well!

So plan for this weekend:
- yoga x 2
-6.5 mile run (at some point either today or tomorrow)
-finish wrapping all the presents I have atm
-clean bathroom
-tidy room
-hoover room
-get some reading done
-get some beauty pampering done (essential )

I've got a courier coming to take some books to webuybooks, if all the books are accepted I'll get around £11. Annoying that the courier can only specify between 8am - 8pm, who has time for that!?

ChicaBonita

Back from town, was fairly productive - bf chose the trainers he wanted, but they were £90 in the shop(!!) so we checked online and there's a German site that did them for £55.90 with free shipping, so I've ordered them from there. They may take a while to arrive but bf doesn't mind, so as long as the order goes through ok I've saved quite a bit:money: Thought of a great gift card idea for his mum's bday at the end of December so I've bought that online, got my mum's xmas card and my step-dad's present. Actually a nice morning/afternoon in town and I'm pretty much sorted now. Just need to get some batteries!

Stomach's still bad so think I'll just do some yoga today, do some wrapping and then head over the bf's this evening. Feeling sorted for xmas now woo! :T

ChicaBonita

Update time...
Sunday - went for a 6.5 mile run, and spent the evening at home, NSD
Monday - had the day off, went and picked up some final presents for my mum, one from me and one from my bf at a local retail park. Parking was alreday atrocious at 10:30am!! Finished my wrapping, and then went out with the bf for a Chinese and some drinks to celebrate his bday. Meal was £35 each and I spent £18 on drinks.
Tueday - another day off as my bf's actual birthday, we chilled in the morning and then went for a nandos and went and saw the new Star Wars film (which I recommend!) I paid for the cinema and the sweets in Sainsbo's, came to £20 total.
Wednesday - back to work booo, had our christmas lunch in a local pub, was good but the the glass of red wine at lunch had me almost falling asleep at my desk! Not a good move. Then got my eyebrows done after work, looking fresh for Xmas
Today - had beans on toast for lunch as they were already at the office, going to a local restaurant tonight with my girlfriends to catch up, we don't see each other all that often so when we can get together we make the most of it.

We finish work early tomorrow, I should be getting a long run in but I don't feel all that great so will have to see how I feel tomorrow. If not at a push I can try and do it Saturday, although I'm getting my hair done in the morning and don't want to risk it! Shouldn't be so vain lol! The bf is going out with his friends tomorrow night in London, but I told him I don't think my finances can stretch to it - sad but true.

Orange_Ena

Sounds like you're ready for Christmas and ready for a break from work! Have a fab time

ChicaBonita

Well I suppose as it was payday today it's time to update!

I had a really amazing Christmas - Christmas day was split between my mum's in the morning/afternoon, and the bf's parent's house in the evening. I got loads of lovely presents - enough toiletries that I legit don't have to buy anything for MONTHS, and the highlight was def tickets to the Hyde Park summer festival where GREEN DAY are headlining!! When I was a teen grunger they were my favourite band in the world, and early this year I tried to get tickets to their London gig and couldn't get through on the website (typical). So the bf bought me tickets for this festival, win win as there's a band playing that he loves too I gave a little squeal when I read what he'd got me!

Been back to work the past 3 days, been dead to be honest as most of our clients have been off, but needs must.

I got paid today and moved money around, my car insurance comes out next week and I've covered that. Managed to put a little bit in my house fund, but need to be extra good with the pennies this month to keep me out the red.

I'm going away with the bf and his friends to an airbnb in Portsmouth until Monday. I'm actually really excited, NYE is always a weird one as if you go out it's busy and expensive, and if we go to someone's place it's good until you need to get home, and you have to wait ages for a taxi and then pay through the nose for it. Or like last year you can not drink and drive home, but when I did that the bf got on my nerves as he was drunk as a skunk and I was sober as a judge :rotfl: don't fancy that again time soon. So yeah, this airbnb works a treat as we can have a house party, but all go to bed afterwards I went out today to buy some booze, and tomorrow we will all be going food shopping once we're in the area to buy dinner etc. There's talk of going out on New Year's day, but I'm hoping we can cook to save the pennies

I want to do a post with 2017 goals as I've seen quite a few in the diaries, but my main one is still the same as the reason for this diary, which is to save enough for a deposit for a flat. Health wise I do yoga 3 x a week, I run 3 x a week, and I don't eat horribly bad (keeps my figure well enough anyway for now) so I don't need to adjust that.l CAN work on managing my stress better, but I am still meditating which helps a lot with that. I think my main goal this year is to make sure I'm not wasting money (or things!) and to make sure I save enough to be in the position I want to be (ie with a flat!).

Orange_Ena

Happy new year CB, have a lovely time. It does sound like a great idea doing the airbnb thing

Great goals too.

ChicaBonita

Thanks Ena, happy new year to you too! Have a great one

ChicaBonita

All packed and ready to go, just waiting to be picked up! Actually really excited for this getaway, something a bit different to what we usually do! I'm hoping to keep the spending to a minimum, but there's always a bit of pressure in group settings....I shall report back on Monday once I know the full damage!

ChicaBonita

Happy New Year! Back to work today *boo hiss*

The weekend was mostly good, annoyed at a couple of things that happened but there was a lot of laughter, and it was nice to do something a bit different for new year. I only spent £25 as my contribution to the food shop, the bf paid our friend for petrol (he drove us there) and he also paid for our meal out on New Years Day. That was the only spend! Can't believe it really...

Yesterday was a NSD, and so far today I have spent £10.08 on petrol. I plan on spending £3.25 on a coop meal deal for lunch today as I haven't had chance to go to the supermarket, probably won't tonight either as I'm planning to run after work and I think my brother is coming round for dinner and bringing the baby Maybe I'll get up early tomorrow morning and go to the supermarket before work...if not I'll go to the coop again

Feeling low at the moment, not sure if it's hormones or January blues....either way I'm hoping once I get back to eating properly and exercising I'll get my mojo back!

ChicaBonita

Yesterday I did spend at the coop - £3.25 on a meal deal for lunch. Will have to do that again today

Will be going to tesco after work, to get some cat food, dry shampoo (annoying because I had bought some of this before I went away, but the cat knocked it off my bookcase and now I can't find it!!!), some food for work lunches and some bits to go with the burrito kit I have for dinner with the bf tonight. I am planning on paying for part/most of this with my change out of my change purse. As I don't *see* this money every day (ie it's not in my bank account) it won't feel like much of a spend paying for it with this.

Went for a run last night, felt good and had a good pace considering it was my first proper run since before xmas. My brother and his gf brought their baby round last night and we all had dinner together - he's grown so much already and is already grabbing things (like hair! ouch!). Making me broody lol

I'm feeling ok about money at the moment, as long as I don't splurge - I get to a certain point of the month and think, oh let's just buy a couple of clothes/books/makeup, and then I go overdrawn again and realise I didn't actually have that money to spend. So this month I'm trying to be strict on myself.

Skin is bad on my cheeks again - the side that was ok for a couple of months has now decided to be angry again. I have another facial at the weekend, but I need to decide whether that will be my last for a while, as I can't really afford £100+ every other week (or even every month!). I understand these things take time to see results, but that money could be going towards our deposit fund, and I'm pretty sure my issue is hormonal which won't be sorted topically. I have decided to go back on birth control, as I've realised that it's been a year or so since I've had bad skin and certain other symptoms that are hormone related. Hopefully this can be regulated through birth control, but will have to wait a few months to see if there's going to be any improvement with that. My hormones have always been up and down, guess I just have to accept it!