New Grad DFW

ab_saver

Thank you! Happy New Year to you too!

I have been lurking on here reading diaries but haven't had time to post.

I do have a huge spendy confession to make too...

ab_saver

Well... I finally have no more unread posts so I feel I can update my own diary.

I had a hectic Christmas (at work both days of that weekend) but a lovely time off on Boxing Day and the day after. OH and I put on a huge spread, almost all of which was reduced . Thankfully he liked his present (a microwave/ combination oven reduced from £190 to £70) and he got me a digital radio which he knew I was very keen on. I was amazed by the generosity of people towards us this Christmas. His family gave us £100 of ikea vouchers and £100 in John Lewis vouchers, and his sister and her boyfriend gave us a further £50 JL voucher. They all want to help us get the things we need for our home and I'm touched at the practicality of it all.

My grandad sent me a £25 cheque and my parents gave me £50 towards a kitchenaid in addition to lots of lovely gifts. So with £75 in the kitchenaid fund and plenty of vouchers we made a trip to JL after work - and I may have spent £299 on a kitchenaid! I have wanted one for ages and they are usually about £450 - but this was not a very MSE decision. I worked out that I can make it work and find the remaining £224 myself by being otherwise frugal this month. We didn't use any of the vouchers on it as it has very much been my desire.

I did do a lot of baking and hope to do some more this weekend Over new year we had OH's sister and the boyfriend over and had a lovely and MSE night in.

To be continued...

ab_saver

Had an otherwise MSE time - and I have put money in an HTB ISA - and OH has an appointment at the bank to open his. The week before Christmas at his nana's house we had a lovely conversation about how she overpaid her mortgage - and how the lenders wouldn't account for her income. My OH then piped up saying he wanted to pay off our mortgage early when we get it! :A

My fridge and freezer are full of YS goodies - 38p for 2 chicken breasts being a personal favourite- or today's bargain of £1.49 for a whole chicken.

The kitchenaid is a fairly large budgetary lapse but seeing it on the counter makes me smile.

In other good but expensive news - my annual leave is finally rock solid and I can now book my flights! I will of course compare and get cashback.

I am thinking of some more/new/better 2017 goals- but saving is the name of the game this year. I want to save towards a 10k contribution to a house deposit, pass my test, save towards a car, and maybe sneakily put some money aside towards a future wedding. Oh and live life and go on holiday with my darling OH!

moneyonmymindsam

YS goodies - Where do you get these fab bargains what supermarket?:T

The kitchenaid is a fairly large budgetary lapse but seeing it on the counter makes me smile -It would work for me

I am thinking of some more/new/better 2017 goals- but saving is the name of the game this year.


I want to save towards a 10k contribution to a house deposit, pass my test, save towards a car, and maybe sneakily put some money aside towards a future wedding. Oh and live life and go on holiday with my darling OH! [/QUOTE] - all this plus a Kitchenaid 2017 is looking good ..lol :rotfl:


Sam x

ab_saver

Mr W remarkably enough- OH and I have worked out that the second round of reductions happens at 6pm and we only live round the corner so it's easy enough to pop round (or more accurately for OH to pop round as I'm not often home from work on time!) . We got another load of bargains today and it's now freezer Tetris! Think 15p loaves of bread, 99p mince, £1.50 for sustainable line caught fish... my favourite recent one was £2.49 for their Chinese fakeaway - the kind that comes as a meal for 2 in a bag and usually costs £10. That felt like an indulgence even though we could never replicate it for that price.

I need to update my signature as I have a bit more saved - now just over £500 towards the house, and really hoping to put another £200-300 in this month - without leaving myself so short I end up overdrawn!

I did put myself forward for some extra hours this week (!!!) but they got snapped up very quickly. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, the extra hours are advertised to 2 separate mailing lists - and until recently I was on one only. The extra hours are extremely well paid but I'm wary of taking on too much or working in a department I'm less familiar with.

I'm planning a relaxing weekend with OH taking down the Christmas decorations and having a bit of a sort out. We are having salmon tomorrow and roast chicken on Sunday- both Mr W bargains of course.

I must update my signature - it doesn't appear on my phone and I lose track...

ab_saver

Spent an :eek: :eek: amount of money today- finally bought my flights and as a pleasant surprise I was able to put my very few miles towards them and I saved £22. I even got cash back .

OH and I went to JL and raided the reduced electronics - he got an amazing deal on a new laptop (he uses his personal laptop for work and would need a new one in the near future). I may have also picked up a reduced kindle and loaded it up with free books

We made salmon en croûte for dinner with reduced salmon - and potatoes and veg - a bargain dinner that looked very exciting. Our reduced chicken is defrosting ready for another bargain meal tomorrow.

OH is heading back away again on Monday/Tuesday - which I'm sad about but will entail more staying in, going to the gym, and eating less indulgently...

ab_saver

It seems forever ago since I've been on my diary - even though I've just been working normal days this week it's been chaos and I'm absolutely shattered.

To pick up where I left off, our reduced roast was very lovely indeed, and the leftover chicken went into a batch of leftover veggie curry to make some chicken curry for Monday. Just as well as I had a meeting with my uni supervisors after work and was extremely hungry when I finally got home.

Tuesday was a standard working day, and OH stayed until Wednesday morning, which was lovely. On Wednesday evening I hosted a friend from school's younger sister and mum, here for a university interview. That was lovely, but I did spend £10 in waitrose on pizza, garlic bread etc. Their train didn't get in until very late and I justified it by saying it was cheaper than a takeaway or going to the actual pizza express across the road. It was all half price....

The past couple of days have been busy, but home alone, and working my way through the freezer. As a result of my meeting with my supervisor, I need to do quite a bit of uni work this weekend and in the mornings before my lates next week.

My list for the weekend is as follows:

- freezer inventory (started)
- meal planning
- laundry
- start uni work
- book into classes at gym next week (started - I haven't been in five weeks which isn't MSE at all... )

ab_saver

Yesterday was a very slow start to my list - but I have managed a freezer inventory:

-haddock x2
-haddock in breadcrumbs x1
-quiche x2
-salmon en croute (HM) x2
-cooked cubed beef x1 portion
-pork fillet x2
-sausagemeat x1/2 pack
-chicken thighs x1 pack
-chicken breasts x3 packs (total 6)
-chicken Kiev x1
-chicken korma ready meal x1
-veg curry x1 portion
-veg in BBQ sauce x1 portion
-HM parmentier potatoes x1 portion
-HM potato dauphinois x2 portions
-pizza dough x1 portion
-pitta breads x1 pack
-broccoli
-spinach
-peas

The conclusion is that I don't need to buy much before I fly in 16 days. I'm working on a meal plan - but as I'll be working 2-9pm this week I'll be having a big lunch and a small dinner each weekday. The week after I get back I'll be on nights, so I do want to keep some of the quick and easy food for then.

I'm thinking using a quiche for a couple of suppers, and bread and hummus for snacks/ suppers too.
For main meals, I'm thinking salmon en croute plus one of the many leftover potato portions, plus veg (x2 days); a pork and spinach ragu with pasta (2 days if it'll stretch); fajitas (using up the veg in BBQ sauce and a pack of chicken); curry and rice +/- chicken; roasting one of the pork fillets if OH is here at the weekend; another round of curry (I usually do HM but I have a jar of butter chicken sauce which would do an after work dinner); a Katsu curry with OH if he is here (I was given a katsu kit!); the non-breaded haddock with potatoes and veg (with OH); and a selection of 'easy food' (I.e. Breaded meat/fish, prepared meals, quiche) with appropriate veg and carbs as required.

From this, all I can think of needing in the next fortnight is milk, hummus, mozzarella, and wraps (last attempt at HM were a disaster). I have plenty of veg (all bought YS of course), bread, and breakfast cereal.

This is good as I'm currently on a bit of a tight budget for the 12 days to pay day. I've essentially deliberately left myself short by putting £400 into the house fund this month (of which £100 was my joining incentive from FD), leaving me with just over £200 split evenly across 2 current accounts (making the number on my main one look pretty scary for this point in the month), plus my flights on my cc (for section 75, due at end Feb, will pay on payday).

In spite of that I'm pleased with myself as I have paid for my kitchenaid in full and have £700 in house fund (£300ish in saving certificates to mature next year). It's my other categories (emergency, car, wedding, holiday, annual expenses) that have been neglected. The logic was that by putting 2 months worth into a help to buy ISA in one month I'll be £50 better off in the long term (as there's £200 more eligible for the 25% bonus) and I can top up my other categories next month.

My spending this month has been outrageous- £300 on my kitchen toy, £320 on flights, plus £70 on things for myself in the sales (kindle, jumper, pyjamas). BUT - the cc balance is less than my house fund contribution and there's still money in the bank - so overall I've spent less than I've earned and am choosing to tell myself I'm stoozing by putting money into an ISA this month and putting the flights on the card rather than paying for the flights outright and not having much in my house fund.

Sorry for the stream of consciousness- I MUST do some uni work today as I did none yesterday.

ab_saver

Busy couple of days. Tea and toastie for supper and soon onwards to bed as I'm shattered.
Very MSE if I'm too busy working to spend any money...

ab_saver

Spend day yesterday and NSD today. I'm shattered but had a good day at work and got to do some mentoring which I really enjoyed.

Having seen the MSE email preview with the prospect of £10 worth of SB as a bonus for newbies to sw@gbucks I thought I'd sign up - and it's already driving me up the wall. I keep being screened out of things and it seems quite time consuming, but I am up to 350 SB in 24 hours which is nearly halfway to the amount I need to get to get my bonus. My original idea was that if I can get some am@zon vouchers through it it could provide me with free kindle books - very MSE. I'll see how I get on. I used to do PC (as far as I'm aware the best survey site), but since I haven't been getting emails from them I must have fallen off their panel.

Only other MSE news I forgot to mention from the weekend is that I bought my annual travel insurance and got meerkat movies with it (coincidentally as it was the cheapest) - so in addition to my club cinema tickets there'll be lots of free/cheap cinema trips this year.

I must get to bed soon as I have a meeting tomorrow morning at uni before I go into work. I'd love it to be an NSD but I may have to buy some food out.