Too much month at the end of my money...

Scott_Weiland_2

£75 on cat food? How long does that last?

Magpie100

Hi Scott, it should last about 6 weeks. £75 is 96 tins and he has two a day. Ordered from Zooplus as they are by far the cheapest.

HOWEVER, it is still a lot of ££. So this order I have included a few tins of a similar but slightly cheaper brand, to see if he'll eat them. It's about a third of the price cheaper. I don't like judging what people feed their pets, but cats are obligate carnivores and a lot of the supermarket cat food brands aren't high in protein - they are bulked up with cereals etc. The stuff he currently has is all killer and no filler. But any way I can find to reduce the cost further I will! The cat needs to realise that we all have to make sacrifices and austerity rules.

Sat in my dressing gown trying to mentally raise myself for the obstacle course run! I know it will all be fine, but I still feel anxious. Will be glad when it is over.

Planning to take £20 out with me in cash but hoping to return home with most of it unspent. Have drinks and snacks to take with me but based on prior performance I know that immediately afterwards I will want something hot and filling: CHIPS.

Scott_Weiland_2

Thats not to bad then lol, bear in mind all of these sites are on topcashback.co.uk

zooplus
pet planet
monsterpets

Me and the ex had quite a few dogs and we used to flit between those 3 and ebay to get the best deal.

Magpie100

So, the OCR was brilliant. I really enjoyed it and it was great to run with such a fun team. We had an amazing time.

I took £30 out of the cash machine and returned with £21! No merchandising was bought - I had one celebratory beer and a burger (I am still ravenous. I burnt 900 calories in 2 hours!). On Sunday morning I woke at 6 am as I was still hungry! Very pleased at lack of spending here as I really wanted to buy more kit. I will need a new pair of training trousers at some point as mine had such a big hole in they had to go in the bin...

Yesterday we went to Aldi. My share was £30. We go about once every 6 weeks as there are some things there that are much better value than in Tesco.

Today I have spent a lot of money, but I am tracking it carefully. I spent £67 in TKMaxx on two pairs of boots. My one pair of boots were about 3 years old and since I have lost weight they were about a size too large for me. I am fed up with sliding around in them.

I also bought a dress for £55 for a party I am going to this weekend. I am not 100% sure about it so I am going to try it on again when I get home and I may return it and look for something cheaper to wear. I do think it is lovely but I want to be certain.

Operation coffee went well, so that is £1.40 saved today.

This week I am not going out at all - well I am, but not to anything costing money. Tonight and Weds is boot camp. On Friday I may go to metafit which will be £4.50. So aims are to keep lunch spending as low as I can until Friday.

I have £15 in my purse and need to pay £3.50 to someone at boot camp tonight as contribution towards a present for one of our instructors. If I can get through the rest of the week not spending any more cash than what will be left in my purse I would be delighted.

This weekend I am off to a birthday party two hours drive away. I am driving two friends down so am wondering if they will offer to contribute to petrol. We have booked a hotel for the night (£75) but that money is reserved in my bank account. I will need to buy some drink to take along so will think about the cheapest way to do that.

Lots to ponder. I feel like I must keep a tight rein on myself this week - I often find that once I start to spend I can't stop. I must track, track, track.

Magpie100

Spent today:

2.70 on ingredients to add to what we had for dinner tonight (stir fry with delicious leftover beef from the weekend)
4.00 on lunch

Monzo account has £191 in it and I need to keep hold of as much of this as I can for as long as possible. I bought petrol yesterday which annoying would not accept the card so that £25 had to come out of my bills account.

Tomorrow should be low spend - out for lunch with a colleague but should be £7-8 spend. Then boot camp in the evening.

Magpie100

Lunch yesterday with colleague was £7 and came out of cash in purse.
Today I spent £4 at lunch and that was all.

Monzo account now £187. Sounds both plenty and not enough at the same time. This is a short pay month for me and as of tomorrow net payday is 3 weeks away.

Tomorrow: out for lunch but we're going to a pub where you can bring your own food. I will have one drink (although at London prices!). I have booked Metafit in the evening but need to see how I feel after a drink at lunch time. If I go it will be £4.50 and I may have that in mu purse.

The weekend is the big spend looming. I have enough petrol to get to where I need to go but hoping the others might contribute. I need £79 for the hotel but that is budgeted for in my current account. I will try and go to Aldi before I leave for booze and snacks, so at least I am in control of spending there. Suspect there may be a taxi or two involved. Will just control the things I can control.

Magpie100

Must keep writing in this diary as it really does help keep me on track.

FRIDAY: We didn't go to the pub at lunch but had a sandwich outside. £3.35. Not too bad for London. I went to Metafit - £3.50 from my purse.

SATURDAY: Big road trip down to Wiltshire. My co-travellers offered me petrol money but instead they kindly paid for the two taxis we needed and lunch for me. So my extra spend was £12 for some champagne and snacks for the journey. I also drew out £30 in cash. At the end of the trip I put £15 of petrol in and have used the remaining £15 for work lunches this week.

THIS WEEK: I have spent £35 in Boots. Too much. But I currently have braces and needed to buy interdental brushes and floss. Need to think how to get this spend down in future. the rest were toiletries and mascara.

I now have £100 in my Mondo account and 2.5 weeks till payday AND we're away for a week next week (but in England). There is definitely a bit more ££ I can move over from my current account but still need to make the week away as cheap as possible. We have agreed to stop at Aldi on the way down to stock up on supplies.

Things going well: Not spent a penny on coffee for over a week. The weekend could have been extremely spendy but was the minimum it could have been given what I was going.

Things going badly: work lunches, spending in Boots.

Posting on here and spending via Mondo are really hepling. It is by no means perfect and I have to be ever vigilant. I don't feel that the rest of the month is going to be easy, but I do feel I have made some good habits to take forward.