Learning to say no..

Arthurs_Rose

and breathe... this must be the first time ive had some chill time in almost a week. Shift 9 of 12 done. bank holiday weekend was a ickle busy - remind me not to volunteer next time.

having been discharged from babysitting duties and DS safely collected from uni - i commenced dog/house sitting watch on saturday... mother commented on how tired i looked and that i should learn to say no more often ...as she exited the house leaving me to look after her dog and home for 2 weeks..errrm!! Having to rope in DC and OH for this as my request not to book anything during school holiday as im unlikely to get the time off fell on deaf ears.
There is far too much chocolate and cakes and... in this house. Found the weighing scales and discovered that OH and I acquired 2.5 stone between us since we met...and we consider ourselves quite active and healthy...i blame the cheesecake. We have a pact to lose half a stone each before this wedding.

On the money front... Friday was pay day. all regular stuff paid. plus the final balances for the expensive hotel and the money allocated for those that have birthdays this month.

So...spends look like this;

Friday a NSD
Saturday £11.83 food
£0.65 replacing the sweets id scoffed at work
£2 birthday card
£6 collections at work
£10 petrol
Sunday £25 more petrol - much more taxi service dutes for DS than I had anticipated.
Monday another NSD...I was at work and the shops were closed when I got home - OH
bought the bits i needed for tea, so im counting this as a NSD.
Tuesday £5.07 Food - you now have buy a 10p reusable carrier in tesco - no more 5 p plastic
ones.

I shall have the insurance...i really should have done this by now and the airport parking to do and a few bits of clothes to get and thats the holiday done.....oh and the spending money eeek! and only one more pay day...though i do get paid whilst we are there i dont want to rely on it.

Arthurs_Rose

Shift 11 of 12 done.. feel less tired than i have all week.
DS returned to uni...and still dog sitting. Me minus dog would never of got out of bed at 5:30 am and thought oooh i must get a hours walk in the rain done before work - dog sitting certainly gets the steps up 18,000 already today.

On the pennies side of things..

Spends;
Wednesday £3 on the bridge and 65p on a yogurt and banana. - totally forgot £5 to another collection at work.
Today will be a NSD.
.

Scott_Weiland_2

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Have you tried cooking something and freezing a portion so you are not tempted to live off sandwiches when it is just you? That is what I did when my OH was working away. Just froze portions of chilli, lasagne, casseroles or Bolognese.

Leaving cards at home is definitely the answer to not spending as much. You have to mentally calculate what you have in your purse rather than just reaching for the card in a blind sort of fashion without thinking of what impact it has on your budget.

Another option re cards is yup take one with you but only transfer what your shopping budget allows, secondly take any shrapnel you have lying around the house ie 1p's 2p's 5p's etc etc and buy your shopping at the self service. That way you dont go over what you can afford and you dont have loads of small change lying around the house.

Pet hate of mine is small change jars lol

Arthurs_Rose

Scott_Weiland wrote: »

Another option re cards is yup take one with you but only transfer what your shopping budget allows, secondly take any shrapnel you have lying around the house ie 1p's 2p's 5p's etc etc and buy your shopping at the self service. That way you dont go over what you can afford and you dont have loads of small change lying around the house.

Pet hate of mine is small change jars lol

Thank you for suggestion - ive been using a combination of these, even if i use the card, i know what the budget is and dont spend more - a big improve from previously.
I dont have a change jar - if im somewhere there is self service, those pennies etc go in first then pay rest from my cash budget or card.
Im thinking a lot more about what I buy and what it will be used for and i think we are spending less and eating better.

Arthurs_Rose

well its saturday.. and my first day off in what feels like ages so had a bit of a put the pennies in order day.

have read the meters and am nicely in credit with both duel fuel and the water.
all regular bills have either been paid or the money is sat there waiting to pay them.
debt payment for the month has been made.
holiday/wedding balances paid.

Budget will be tight (as always) as its an almost 5 week month but still dog sitting so can use up some of the bits in mums freezer this next week - for some reason she roasts a new joint every single week and there is a bag with im guessing 50+ little freezer bags of cooked roast beef, each bag has easily enough for two. This last week we've managed a stir fry and beef dinner and ive had beef salad sandwiches for lunch. Any ideas for use of left over roast beef??