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

ChicaBonita

Went to the supermarket last night, spent £9.98 which included stuff for lasagne, chocolate and some prepared pomegrante for moi. I was hoping to keep the spend under a tenner and did so unconsciously so all win there. I used a masterchef recipe for the lasagne, I did cheat and used prepared white sauce (because I've heard it's hard to make and I'm not a cooking expert yet) but the lasagne went down very well and I have two portions left which I've brought home. For my first attempt I was pretty pleased. The rest will probably be my lunch for Monday and Tuesday :money:

My spend weeks are running Sunday to Sunday this month, so all in all this week I spent £93.48 in total, averaged £13.35 per day, with 3 NSD. That spend did include part of my opticians appointment, and money over our NY break, so not bad at all. I've worked out if I spend an average of £7.40 per day over the rest of the month, I should still break even after the extra facial money. I have plenty of lunch food for a while so this should be doable, as long as I'm still strict with myself and don't buy anything (had a few temptations so far but have resisted!) This week I plan to have 4 NSD including today. I will have to buy petrol at some point so I will aim to do that tomorrow.

I didn't manage to do much off my list yesterday as once I got home I felt like slothing. So today I have a 7 mile run to do, and then will try and do the general tidying of room and bathroom. Only takes me 20 minutes so shouldn't put it off. Also want to read some more of my book.

I'm £1.77 away from cashing out on cashbackearners - been working on that for a long time so will be good to finally cash out £20!

ChicaBonita

Ah well broke my NSD because I decided to book the seats on our flight for holiday (I have a bad bladder so like to be near a toilet and in the aisle seat so I'm not climbing over anyone!). £15 well spent

7 mile run done, I did struggle and had to walk some of it, felt like I was running through treacle. Think I need to up my calories a little leading up to the weekend so I've got enough energy. Still had a very good average time per mile though, and first long run since December, so I am pleased

ChicaBonita

Well today has just about shredded my nerves, my employer is trying to change the way we take our annual leave (wants us to take week blocks, even if we have a doctor's/hospital appointment) which of course everyone is unhappy about. We don't get sick pay and we get the bare bones of holidays anyway so it's not a nice situation. Really hope it can get resolved, it's really pushing me to get my cv edited and start looking at what else is out there.

I had a look at some dresses for a wedding reception I've got in May, went on a cheap website and found a lovely dress in the sale, in my size (for a tenner!). I sent it to the bf and he gave it the thumbs up, so I've spent £10.99 on the dress and postage. If it's no good I'll send it back, I'll have only lost 99p. If it works out, that's my dress done for super cheap!! I hate dress shopping so any way I can get it out of the way I do lol. I did consider looking at the rest of the site for more things to put in my basket, but as we all know I'm on a ban so I just paid for the dressed and x'ed out.

I'm skipping yoga today as I'm walking like John Wayne due to the run yesterday. I'm instead enjoying the night with a Baileys (or two, or three, or four! It's been that kind of day).

drums

Hello again!

Sounds like you had a nice weekend, and feel your pain today. I only run really short distances but am getting back into swimming after the Christmas break and blimey did I feel it today. Ah well. It can only get better!

I haven't started a diary yet but am going to after next payday. I am just trying to get through the next few weeks without going overdrawn, so will do a proper budget and post everything up on the 24th. NSDs seem to be the way to go though, never really crossed my mind to set a number for the week, I will try this!

Enjoy your Baileys and forget about that narky employer til tomorrow. Seems really unreasonable to insist on taking AL like that, sorry they're being a pain!
Take care

ChicaBonita

Hi drums, I only used to run short distances too, it's ony really as I'm training that I do the longer distances. Swimming is a great all round exercise, I wish there was a decent pool near me! It's only something I do on holiday now lol!

Well if you start one I'll join along I never really thought about NSD until I started reading diaries, I think it's good to have a goal as it prevents those 40p here £1 there kind of days.

Yeah to me it is unreasonable too, I understand if there was a proper reason for it, I know plenty of employers do have set ways of taking annual leave. But we're a small office who all talk to each other about when we want to have off, so there's not really any reason other than our Boss always thinks we're trying to get a one up on him :think:

ChicaBonita

I'm going to declare Sunday as a NSD after all, as I've taken the £15 that was spent on the seat allocation for my flights from my holiday fund.

Woke up to being overdrawn as the payment for my insurance has finally been taken out, so had to do some shuffling around from the appropriate funds to cover it. I have £142 to last me the month, which should be doable as long as I'm strict. And if I have to go into my OD a little bit, so be it.

My brother's bday is in a week, I asked my mum what he wants and apparently every game he wants is OOS! I might ask him if he wants me to take him to the cinema or do something out together instead of a game, I don't spend as much time with him as I should so that might be a nice alternative.

Didn't get any petrol this morning as I woke up too late to get to to the petrol station before work (it's only round the corner from me ) so I will put a tenners worth in tomorrow instead.

Today should be a NSD as I'm not planning on anything. I've asked bf if he wants to run together tonight, although my legs are still sore so I might cancel it to rest instead. We'll see

ChicaBonita

Well I did skip the run last night, my legs were still sore and my back started to hurt towards the end of the day. So I did some gentle yoga instead, and spent the night with another little Baileys (oops )

I spoke to a recruiter yesterday after work, the position he put forward looks good but even at the top end it would leave me worse off as it's in the city. It costs me at least £250 a month to travel into the city, so it's just not worth my while unless it's a good whack on top of what I'm already on. If I could find somewhere where I could drive to it would be ideal as I'd much rather sit in my car than on a train! Got another call with him tonight, so see if there's anything a bit more competitive.

Yesterday was a NSD, and today I spent exactly £10 at the petrol station, and £6 came out of my account for using my OD.

I think the bf is buying the food for tonight's dinner as I've bought it the past couple of weeks. My mum's babysitting my nephew tonight, so I'm going to go home for a bit before the bf's to have a cuddle. He makes me broody he's so adorable lol

ChicaBonita

I logged onto my @mazon account earlier today and realised that my last order was on the 23rd December for a kindle book. That's huge for me, as even though a lot of my orders are only small (for e-books and the like) I do order far too much off there, and I think it's testiment to how well I've done avoiding spending so far this month! *pat on the back* :rotfl:

ChicaBonita

Last update for today - no more spends, and the phonecall with the recruiter went well. There may possibly be an opportunity for me, and even if nothing comes from this, I am so pleased with the way I handled the call (I have very low self-confidence at times!) that I feel like this is the time for me to properly make the jump, and find a role I am happier in. Feeling positive.

I tried on the missguided dress that I'd bought in mind for a wedding, and it fits like a dream. For a cheap dress the material hangs lovely as it's a scuba-material, colour is exactly how I'd hoped and it will look lovely with some nice jewellery and shoes. The back is slightly low, but I reckon I can get some lace or something to put across the back so it's not so obvious. The next step now is to buy said jewellery and shoes lol! All in good time

ChicaBonita

Today is another NSD.

Due to the snow I haven't been able to do my run today boo That's two missed this week. Hope the weather's better by Saturday so I can do my long one! Did a Jillian Michaels workout instead tonight so I've done some cardio at least, now can't feel my legs lol! Also feel a bit sick and shakey, think I've not had enough to eat today.

I got lucky and got quite a few PA surveys today, going to build it up to over £20 I think so i don't pay fees. Shouldn't be too long as I'm already at around £10