Slimming the Wallet... and Me!

Alarae

Neglected my diary a bit... oops!

Oh, I still look in the mirror and cannot see that I am 'tiny'. I'm actually the smallest I have ever been in my entire adult life but I don't think of myself as small. I just think I look average (an improvement on chubby!)

Had my work Christmas party on friday- an all expenses paid dinner at London zoo! We got to meet reindeer and have a stroke and have drinks with the dragons. Travel was paid for into London but meant I didn't get back home until 1:15am- and then was up again at 3:30 am for Sainsbugs :eek:

Let's say that I had a little nap after I got back

FINALLY saw Fantastic Beasts this weekend and loved it! Was on the big cinema screen as well (like an imax) and didn't cost me a single penny!:j I went with a couple of friends and as I got us all free tickets, they provided snacks. So I got a film and food for zilch!

I've also got preview tickets for When a Monster Calls tomorrow (also free) which I'll be seeing with OH. I'll park nearby for free and walk into town, so another freebie night out :money:

Planning on watching Moana next week with my friend on employee passes, so another freebie lined up! :j

Was meant to be going to the gym today but the normal instructor called in sick so I did too. Absolutely blighted with a cold so wasn't up to it. I did put up the Christmas tree though! Christmas is so close :xmastree::snow_grin:

A while back I accidentally went into an unplanned overdraft with my account (stupid, as there was money in the other one) so got charged £16 this month. Rang up T5B and got 10 back! Couldn't get it all but it is more than what I had! Every little helps :money:

My part time jobbie earnings (after 10 refund) stands at 775.46, so I am well on my way to clearing the first half of the mbna by March! :j

I have only got to pick up Christmas presents for one sister and a small something for my mum, so no nasty spend surprises expected. I got my stepdads a box of the Pickerings Gin baubles which I'm putting in a hamper with some fancy tonic water. I was stalking the release and was one of a handful who got a set in the 82 seconds they took to sell out! They look awesome, so I hope he will like them.

Anyway, enough of my rambles. I'm going to soak my weary bones and hopefully fight off the remnants of this cold. It's the busy season at work so I don't need this at the moment!

Seasidegal58

Hope your cold has vanished and you're back to normal - which is zooming around like Wonder Woman!:rotfl:

Seasidegal58

Happy Christmas Alarae. Hope you have a lovely day. :xmastree::xmastree:

Alarae

Thank you for popping in while I have been away Seaside! Hope you had a lovely Christmas and new year!

Well. Diary. I have been neglecting you

It's been a mad time here. Lots of hours, averaging probably 63 hour weeks at the mo between the three jobbies. Still, it will all be worth it in the end when I can hopefully say I will be debt free in September this year! :j

What to update you all on.

Fulfilled one of my dreams and managed to get tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London in December! Was a fab show, watching both parts in the same day. Ended up costing me £140 for both tickets, plus £15 travel :eek: but came out of my birthday money so no cost to me! OHs family gave me £100 for my birthday, so that plus the £60 my dad gave me covered the entire cost of the trip. Well worth it for any HP fan. I was front row as well, so I was up close with all the action!

Christmas was absolutely lovely. Travelled back to see family in Kent where a lot of naughty eating went on. There may have been profiteroles for breakfast. Twice I did put on 4 pounds over Christmas but managed to lose 1.5 to today, so not too much damage. Was yummy though :rotfl:

Also while I was down I managed to finally get Vodaph88ne to apply the NHS discount to my contract. I had tried about three times before but as I had an existing discount they couldn't figure out how to take it off and apply the NHS one (it was higher). Guy in store did it straight away, no faffing with validation via email, and my monthly contract has gone down from £21.40 to £19.60!

2017. The year I become debt free. This year started off with a whole weekend of working at the cinema, so even though I was off from the main job and Sainsbugs, it didn't mean I technically had any time off at all! Was asked to work the 1st which I wasn't on rota to do as others were pulling out (NYE on a Saturday... doesn't make for good workers the next day!) and since I had no plans I said okay. Lucky I did as it turned out to be double pay! Works out as £14.40 an hour! So my 9 hour shift earned me £129.60! After tax it will be £103.68 which is a nice chunk of change! This will be paid on Thursday- not that I'm waiting for it or anything!

We have also decided to buy carpets for the upstairs bedrooms, plus buying a new bed, mattress and extendable day bed for the spare bedroom! Means we will finally have proper furniture for everyone to stay on when they visit. Luckily we were fortunate enough to get a nice sum of money from OH's parents as a wedding present so I don't have to dip into my pocket. Not that I have anything in there!

Anyway. Best do a balance update to keep on top of things!

Debts:
MBNA 1 - £2,392.00 (0% until Mar 17)
MBNA 2 - £2,671.14 (0% until Dec 17)
BC - £878.54 (0% until 2018)
AA - £899 (0% until 2018)

Total: £6,840.68

Money saved towards debts:
£1,355.20

Net Debt: 5,485.48

That means since I started my diary on 9th October 2016, I have 'paid' off £1,590.99! :T

Seeing that in black and white is just... amazing and depressing at the same time. I know I have already had the benefit of that money but what I could do with it now...

Ah well. Onwards and upwards!

Alarae

Right. Just made an extra payment to BC of £8.54 to bring the balance down to £870.00. Only for housekeeping reasons as it is on a fixed DD of £30 a month so I know it will go down in equal payments from now on!

Alarae

Major boo boo this morning. My alarm didn't go off so I ended up missing my Sainsbugs shift! My alarm is meant to go off at 2:30am to get to work for 4am, and I woke up to the OH saying "aren't you meant to be at work" at 6:20! Cue an awkward phone call to say I wasn't coming in

I worked out though that as I did an overtime shift last week that I'm only realistically down two hours (as long as I don't miss any more shifts this month!) so only will lose about £12 in my pay. I did an extra shift at the cinema yesterday so that more than makes up for it.

Was a bit naughty and bought lunch yesterday even though I made my usual salad for work. Was feeling like utter !!!! consumed with cold, didn't fancy a cold salad so treated myself to a toasted sweet chilli chicken wrap with cheese from the sandwich shop. And a sausage roll Due to the evening cinema shift I wasn't eating dinner so it was okay.... until the OH offered me a chocolate bar to take to work and I munched on that instead of the nothing it should have been :rotfl:

Received my wages for the bank holiday week, and I'm due just over £180 tomorrow! :j That will take me to over £1500 in my savings account earmarked for MBNA payment in March, so need to find a new home for the extra as I don't get paid interest above that! Luckily I have a 2nd tsb plus account for will start putting it in there.

Anyway, Bones has just come on so I'm going to settle down with my footsie blanket. Until next time!

Scott_Weiland_2

New series of bones?

Alarae

Started to watch the new season of Bones then USA Netflix disappeared I don't have sky or anything like that so no way to watch it. Last season I watched was when Booths relative died in camper van explosion.

Ah, Monday. A lot of people dread going back to work after the weekend. For most people, they do their one job then go home. Me? I do three.

Up at 2:30am, for a 4am start at Sainsbugs. Finish at 8am, start next job at 8:30am. Finished at 4pm today (working later tomorrow to make up) and started next job at 5pm, where I currently am. Scheduled until 11, but I'm hoping to get off at 10.

If I finish at 10, I would have worked 16 hours in total today! Madness. Same again on Wednesday. Woo?

Oh, pleased to announce I hit a milestone yesterday! Not for debt, but for fitness. It marked a year since I decided to give up the fat, and I'm down to a size 8, 8 stone 12, from size 14 and 12 stone 12! :j Done some comparison shots and I still can't get my head around it.

Didn't stop me eating chocolate cake at work today though that someone brought in for their birthday. Two bits

People always think I eat nothing but salad but today has been a fantastically sugary day.

Breakfast: Yoghurt, granola, pack of crackers.
Lunch: None- snacked instead
Dinner: Technically none, but also technically a second slice of chocolate cake in the car on the way to start the cinema shift.

Snacks: Pack of crackers, baby plum tomatoes, lion bar, Coco pops cereal bar and a slice of chocolate cake.

Eaten most of my calories from cake and chocolate. No regrets :cool:

I am at home tomorrow though and I have bbq slow cooked pulled pork to feast on. Will pick up some potatoes for home made chips and maybe some bread rolls. Makes me hungry thinking about it!

Today is a NSD. Did think about buying a Costa panini for dinner but considering at 4.25 it's pretty much an hour of wages from the cinema after tax, I decided to go hungry :rotfl:

Alarae

Payday from the cinema, with the grand :rotfl: ol' sum of £65.49 winging its way into my account. I am now up to £1,602.08 earned from my part time jobbies since starting mid-October, with another weekly pay and a 4 weekly Sainsbugs pay next week. That will be another £350ish to the pot, soooo close to the £2,000 mark! I am well on track to cover the £2,392 by the time the 0% finishes mid-March.

Didn't go to the gym today. Decided to take the evening off and just be at home since I have been out of the house pretty much all day Mon-Weds working. Monday and Wednesday I worked 16 hours in the day across the three jobs :eek: Tuesday I worked Sainsbugs then main job, but was tired so crashed out in the evening. Not much quality time spent with the hubbie

Oh, other awesome news! I passed both my exams that I took in November!!! Means I am half way to qualifying for my ATT, and then ask for a payrise! In theory I should be able to ask for 26k when I qualify (that's the market rate for qualified) but whether I'll get that much is another thing since they will be sponsoring my next qualification as well, which is around 11k :eek:

The aim is to quit Sainsbugs when I get a payrise as I'm hoping the payrise will cover what I would have been earning. I might keep the cinema going and just do minimal shifts. The people are fun, it's an easy job and the two free cinema tickets a week are pretty nice!

OH and I are having a film day on Sunday at the cinema. Going to see Hacksaw Ridge on a preview screening and then Sing in the afternoon. Not a bean spent on tickets either as the first is on a freebie secret screening, and the second is on employee passes. We will have around an hour in between the films so will treat ourselves to mcds nearby.

One more day at work until weekend freedom! For once I am not at the cinema working in the evening, but instead heading into London for a concert with a friend. It's a band I've loved for a long time (although not as fond of their new music admittedly) and have only seen them once before, so glad to go again. Meeting up with a friend from Kent as well who is giving me the money back for the other pair of tickets I bought, as they were better seats than theirs. So another £100 back, which is nice.

Until next time!

Alarae

Just a quick one. Payday from Sainsbugs, which brings the part time jobbie total up to £1,923.12! So close to the £2,000 mark. May be able to make it next Thurs from the cinema, but will probably be Thurs after as I don't think I have done enough hours.

Treating get ourselves to a Chinese tonight. No cost to me as coming out of the surplus in the joint account. Free food! (Kind of!)