Losing control, time to take charge.

Caspeia

Well tesco is a minimum of £25 regardless, their rules. I've changed the lloyds DD to be £40 every time as normally its 1% I have to pay for the minimum there.
Husbands holidays have been accepted for job number two so we are sorted until the start of november for childcare it will be a lot easier with 3 wages coming in

Caspeia

Today is technically my first day at work but I'm on holiday. I'm glad I'll be bringing money into the house again.

Earlier my brother and sister came round, my sister gave me the money for her phone. Normally I end up spending the money on rubbish and not really following where it went. This time I used it towards my gas & electric top up, trying to make all my money be accounted for! I have to take out the cash to top up my electric and gas so I thought this way I don't have to withdraw the full amount in cash, more money safe in my account. I know most people say its easier to see where your money is going in cash but I find the opposite. I find it way too easy just to spend say £7.50 on something and then the £2.50 change ends up getting spend on rubbish as in my head it doesn't mean much.

When they were round my sister offered to look after the kids so I could go to the gym. I took her up on the offer as I do love going to the gym. I always feel so positive when I'm finished. I also like that I can have a shower there, we only have a bath in the house which I hate. I normally don't go as the husband is out of the house 7.45am to 8pm 5 days a week, I either have to go early morning or late in the evening which I can never be bothered doing!

I'm going to start trying to go more. I always feel better mentally and it will help with my weight loss. The gym costs me £29.99 a month, I want to go at least 12 times next month. This will make each visit only £2.49. I'm sure it will also help save money as I won't need to heat up water for my bath on those days. There's a 'member of the month' in the gym depending who has the most in visits in a month, last months winner had made 36 visits to the gym. That's more than once a day! Crazy!

When I came home from the gym I was starving and my sister was eating a subway, I was so tempted to go out and get my own but instead I heated up the lasagne. I had a portion, my brother had a portion and my son had some. Way cheaper, way healthier (I pack my food with veg) and more filling.

I had to buy a new hairbrush earlier as I lost mine. I've searched everywhere and couldn't find it! I could only see brand name ones for £5.25 which I didn't want to spend, decided to walk round the shop a bit and in the £1 section there was a hairbrush there so I got that one instead. Its actually better than my normal hairbrush so I'm quite happy.

Caspeia

I quite like having food in the freezer ready, I couldn't be bothered cooking today so we've had the paella for tea. We're running out of fresh food but I've ordered a delivery of food to arrive on Wednesday so only one more day to go!
Food shop is £48.30. I bought it from sainsbury with a £18 off coupon and managed to get a delivery slot for 50p. Our monthly milk order has also come off which is £18.81. We still have a couple milks left so I don't think we'll need a September delivery. We use oatly milk.
The week after we'll have our last hello fresh box to use up my account balance so the box will be £26.79, we get 5 dinners in the box so the other two days will just be food from the house. That week I'll spend a maximum of £20 on fresh fruit, bread & yoghurts etc. This should be us sorted until the 18th of August and we should have only spent £113.90.

I'm setting myself an end of year goal for weight loss and money.

So by the 31st of December...

I want to have lost another 4 stone, I was 16 stone 9lb on the 12th of May. Today I am 15st 10lb. My goal is to be 11st 10lb. This will bring me from the 'obese' to the 'overweight' BMI category. I need to lose around 2.5lb a week to achieve this.

Money wise I want to get my debts owed under £3500, I hadn't worked out the figures exactly but it means about £500 roughly each month paid off the debts.

Caspeia

I need buy myself some new clothes but I'm putting it off. I hate buying clothes for myself. I've been wearing the same outfits since my son was born over 10 months ago which is 5 mens tops from primark, they were between £2.50 and £3.50 each and 3 pairs of black leggings that cost £3 each. I bought some plain black big 'granny' pants after having my 3 year old and I'm still wearing them 3 years later If its raining I have one big jumper that I bought from the work shop which was £7, my jacket is about 4 years old and only cost £16 from asda. The most expensive think I own is my feeding bras which cost £30 for two, I ummed and ahh'd for ages over these. I bought them because they were necessary but it took me a good few weeks to pluck up the courage to spend £30 on myself. I think over the past year I've spent a maximum of £100 on clothes for myself.

As I lose weight I will need to buy more clothes, my tops are a bit baggy right now but these are okay. My leggings are starting to go at the seams so they really do need replaced soon. I have one pair that I've deemed 'house leggings' as they have a huge hole in the thigh but I can't make myself throw away clothes :rotfl:
I've went to the shops many times with the intention of buying myself something but come back with clothes for the kids!


I think I will need to go and get some more leggings before I go back to work, I don't think it will be a good look if they rip open mid way through a shift.

beanielou

Yes, I think you maybe do need new leggings!

Caspeia

Its the husband birthday today and he got given money from family, he's keeping some of it for a new game that is coming out next month and the rest of it is being spent on me. He's off work tomorrow and he's making me go and buy new leggings. I tried to get him to treat himself but he's just too nice. I married a good one!

I'm going to get a couple of pairs of leggings and some workout gear as I was at the gym earlier, I put my phone into my back pocket and went to zip it up. The zip burst and it caused a little hole near the stitching for the zip. Over the course of the hour I was at the gym it ripped even more. I will need to get some more unless I want to show my bum to everyone at the gym
They only cost me £6 from primark 3 or 4 years ago so I would say they've lasted well.


I also need to get some new shoes soon but these aren't top priority yet. I want to get new shoes for work, we have to wear steel toe caps but the ones we can buy at work are very cheap and they feel cheap. On a long shift my feet end up very sore, I want to buy a pair of shoes for work that are comfortable to wear all day.
The second pair of shoes I need to get is new gym shoes. I really want a pair of personalised nike ones but at £115 I don't think its really in my budget. I like to think that maybe one day I could afford them! Realistically I will spend around £40 on a pair.

While I'm talking about feet... I really need to see a specialist about two issues. 1. my toe nails, they are ingrown. I was getting them treated privately but at £35 a session I just can't afford it and my big toe has ingrown again. Its really quite sore.
2. About how I walk, sounds weird but I walk on the side of my foot. I've never noticed it until my husband pointed out how deformed my slippers were. I mentioned this to my brother and he said he noticed I walked funny as well. I think this is why my feet hurt if I walk too much. I tried to balance my weight more evenly across my foot while I walked but it hurt. I would like to speak to someone about this but I think it would be costly. I'm not sure if I could see someone on the NHS about it. I think its something I need to explore.


We haven't' spent anything money wise really. Tonight we had shepherds pie and I've got family sized meals worth to go into the freezer for another day

Caspeia

I got £40 to spend on myself. I bought some 2 face washes from superdrug, 2 pairs of leggings and a pair of gym trousers. The rest was spent on a lunch bag for my son and a cup for him, which he will finally drink out of! I was worried he'd go 11hrs while I'm at work without any liquids as hes still breastfed. I also bought some baby wipes and a couple of small tubs from the poundshop.
Kids have now got their own lunch boxes, bags and waterbottles that are labeled. Just two weeks until schools are back, 3 weeks today until my first shift back at work

WelshKitty85

Hi, I've just read through your diary. I'm at a similar stage of maternity leave to you, due to go back to work this month but trying to add on some annual leave.

Well done for facing up to your debts. You seem to be able to identify for yourself where things go wrong, but need to break some bad habits. Keep posting, I find it really helps being accountable and having to 'own up' to spends on here.

Good luck with your journey!

Caspeia

Accidentally spent £39.99 yesterday, I've been tracking my food on myfitnesspal and they have a premium service. It flashed up saying '£3.33 a month' and I thought thats not bad. I should have read it properly as it was an upfront yearly payment which has now come off my account. I also got my first pay from work yesterday, I only had a single days holiday pay so that has practically covered my accidental spend. Next friday should be full pay.

I've managed to go to the gym 4 days this week I realised that I get amazon music as part of my prime membership which I've been using when I'm at the gym. I'm glad I noticed as I was tempted to sign back to google music which is £4.99 a month. Prime membership isn't due until next April, I'm a student so get prime discounted luckily.

Last nights tea was sausages and baked potato. Weird combination i know but the potatoes I was going to use to make wedges weren't the best and I couldn't be bothered peeling them for mash so I just used the frozen baked potatoes we have.
I'm really tempted to go spend money today, I'm not feeling the best and I used to always just spend when I'm feeling down but I'm trying to avoid doing it today

beanielou

How much is Prime for a student?