Learning to say no..

Arthurs_Rose

Well its Sunday and my day off.. was supposed to be OHs day off too but he mucked up his off duty and is at work! so lots of little jobs to do. Pots already washed and 2nd washing load in the machine.
A charity bag came through the door so going to sort through my clothes and let go of some of those size 6 "only wear on holiday" clothes, that never actually get worn because i will never be a size 6 again.
Sort through my paperwork again, read meters and tot up figures. doesnt make me owe any less pennies but somehow feels better when its all organised.
Then if this weather holds go for walk and get my steps up.. 10 hours at work yesterday and flopped on the sofa most of the night means my fit bit hardly registered a step..

Arthurs_Rose

Busy couple of days, so much rushing around i hit the 10,000 steps mark on Monday - aiming to do this every day but with the awful weather we have had recently going outside needs more than a little bit of motivation.
Blown the £15 budget with a top up at Aldi for £9.15 taking the weekly total to £21.21 so far. I think trying to stay under £15 two weeks running when OH is around to feed too is a bit unrealistic but setting it that low makes me put more thought into than say a £30 budget would.
Think it is slowly starting to dawn on OH that i'm not made of money and he has started to contribute when he is at mine..only baby steps..eggs and coffee so far but heading in the right direction.
The holiday/wedding is now paid for.. and my bank account is now looking very sad. Things will be a bit tight to say the least until pay day on the 25th.
Three more get ups before my week off, though wont be spending much. Just some much needed chill time, although I have agreed to lunch with DD2 - might just ask her to come to mine, much cheaper.

[Deleted User]

Have a lovely day x

Arthurs_Rose

Well my second job appears to have done a U turn on the no shifts after August as I have been issued with a rota for September! now i had been looking forward to not working the weekends but I cant turn them down as for the 4 shifts i have been allocated i will net around £450 and it will go a long way towards my wish to be debt free by New Years.
Will need to sit down and match days off with OH, we are like ships in the night at the mo.

In other news i tried out one of the recipe kits Nasi Goreng - or special fried rice and its was yummy (i think i used too much rice) and turned out to be a super cheap dish, i used leftover cooked chicken in place of chicken thighs and red onion instead of shallots but was very nice all the same.

To do this month for holiday/wedding.

Sort OH's visa waiver (already done mine).
Book travel insurance - OH has an under-active thyroid and takes meds for this. not sure if i need to declare this when booking the insurance. - need to check.
Book car parking at the airport - or near by.
Buy a bigger suitcase - apparently i have to take some nappies - and they wont fit in my little one.
- was asked to take the wedding dress - that is a responsibility i don't want - so declined!

Arthurs_Rose

Total spent on groceries this week £22.87 this was for 5 evening meals for 2 and 1 for just me (though i only had scrambled eggs and toast) and lunches for work for the week. had breakfast stuff already in.
7th meal was tea out at the 2-4-1 local and OH paid.
£7.87 over the £15 budget but a lot less than i have been spending and i am trying to eat healthy with plenty of fruit & veg and not buy the rubbish. OH and I have agreed no cheesecake until after the holiday... that's 12 weeks away!

Arthurs_Rose

July/August has been a very expensive month indeed.....why did my mot, holiday balance, DS birthday and DD hen day payments all happen in one pay day. I really need to plan for these things, i mean its not as if I didnt know they were going to happen, well the hen day was kind of unknown until after pay day but everything else i knew about.
If i am to avoid borrowing from the debt pot i have precisely £20.45p for food until the 25th and im on leave for 6 days from Sunday... now there is a challenge!

Arthurs_Rose

£3.06 spent
decided on tomato and pesto tart for tea as i've most of the ingredients in already just needed veg to go with it and should be enough to have for lunch tomorrow too. Bit of fruit for lunch and some nuts/dried fruit to add to branflakes for breakfast.
Couldnt decide on tea tomorrow so left that for now. Im not sure how people manage to shop for weeks at a time in one go, dont think i could ever be that organised.

Arthurs_Rose

Sunday and my first day off. OH woke me up so could go down and watch the football, not quite sure why i needed to be awake too but the cuppa was much appreciated.

Yesterday was a NSD, only because OH bought tea - pizza and salad from Aldi.. and wine!

OH also give money for my car insurance/tax for the last month as he has been the one driving it - which was very unexpected - not sure what to do with it yet, tempted to put it in the debt pot. He had to give his company car back when he took his new job and although there is no car with this one the earning potential is much greater so mine is on loan while he gets the money together for a new (to him) one. I can car share to work and split fuel costs but im hoping its not for much longer as he is adding a fair bit of mileage.

Arthurs_Rose

Spends Sunday
£5.05 on toiletries
£0.52 on milk
Clocked up 15,000 plus steps on a walk in the afternoon. aiming for over 10,000 everyday whilst im off work.

Cherryfudge

I think you like the same foods I do!

Could some of the car money supplement the food budget? Or will that mess with your planning? (I know I like things in nice little pots, personally, but perhaps you need more calories because of the extra walking so the car fund could legitimately fund that!)

Just a suggestion here because I may be assuming wrongly but... 52p for milk? If that's 1 pint, would it be cheaper to factor in a bigger bottle on a regular shop rather than buying locally. Those single pints of milk always seem a lot more expensive to me. However I have to admit I get them from time to time because the large ones don't last forever - and I bet that's exactly what's happened to you!

ETA: And I am also guilty of having dried milk 'just in case' then never using it because I don't like the taste!