Taking back the control

Thick_n_Thin

Oh goodness, we have 4 tins of shortbread to get through before the diet starts next week!!!:(

Thick_n_Thin

So instead of doing a full shop yesterday I forced myself to just pick up essentials, milk, bread, eggs and just made a meal from what we had in, I will do the same today, just eat what’s there so essentially I have stretched the time between shops by 2 days, I will definitely need to do one tomorrow though as the meals are becoming a bit strange!

Thick_n_Thin

So yesterday turned out to be a no spend day again, another bonus was free parking at work as the machine is still broken! I am hoping it will remain broken for the rest of the week and then I am on annual leave for a week! Continued with using up what’s in the fridge/freezer and yesterday’s evening meal was something that i wouldn’t normally cook.. roasted veg with spices, so essentially pepper, courgette, new potatoes, onion, carrots and sprouts, some Cous cous, garlic bread and used up some garlic dip, gave OH a chicken breast as well, I have to say it was delicious and apart from my Xmas dinner was one of the tastiest meals I have had in a while!
Today won’t be a NSD I am meeting some friends for lunch but I will be sensible and not go overboard!

Thick_n_Thin

So lunch turned out a lot cheaper than I anticipated, £15 which is unheard of really but I am happy with this ( probably because there was no alcohol involved at all) maybe this is the way forward, meeting up with people over coffee ect rather than expensive meals and nights out being our social catch up. I think I will suggest this more in the future. Afterwards I needed to do a food shop, went to Ald& with a £60 budget in cash and spent £59.67, as I was about to start packing the bags I did a quick scan of the receipt and noticed I’d been charged twice for a 6 pack of beers I’d bought for OH, so I had to go back and claim my £3.99, so glad I didn’t wait until I’d got home to check, I’ve noticed that this has happened before in Ald! and it’s always with things that are a couple of pounds never with the cheaper stuff!

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Good evening! Not much planned for this evening, I’m in my pjs already and have a bottle of prosecco chilling.. I will probably be asleep way before midnight!

Another nsd day today by the skin of my teeth, I was massively tempted whilst in work ( today has been particularly stressful) and desperately wanted a treat of a shop bought lunch and a coffee but the realisation that I would need to part with the best part of £10 stopped me! I am going to try and get until the end of the week without spending a penny!
I’ve noticed quite a lot of new diary’s have been started over the last couple of days so I’m looking forward to reading a few of those over the next few days!
I’ve made a list of my goals and aims for the next year (I hate the term resolutions!)
I will post them over the next few days!
Happy new year to anybody reading!

Thick_n_Thin

So last night turned out to be uneventful which was just how I wanted it to be, just me OH and a few drinks, managed to stay up until 1am which was pretty late as I was working today.
Today was relatively stress free, took lunch in with me again, I am enjoying the challenge of rustling something tasty up using just what I have available and the knowledge that every day I don’t spend any cash is keeping me out of my overdraft is an added incentive. The parking meter at work is still broken so another day of free parking, I’m hoping I can get until the end of this week out of it at least!

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Thick_n_Thin

Forgot to add.. I have been paying 79p per month for the last few years for additional storage for my phone, today I finally got around to cancelling it, so over 12 months it’s costing me £9.48 so not a massive amount but if I had to pay that up front I wouldn’t pay for it so I am counting it as a saving no matter how small!
I have 2 Christmas presents that I have to return, I have the receipt and I’m going to get the cash back so I can throw it at the remaining £100 overdraft, if I could come in level for January and have paid off an £850 overdraft I will be really pleased, this is what will keep me motivated to keep my daily expenditures under control!

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Why is there always something????
Today my filling came out. Q another trip to the dentist that I hadn’t accounted for!

I returned the 2 unwanted Christmas gifts so that is £30 back on my account, if I can just manage my money this month I should not go too much into my £100 overdraft however I will need to account for the dentist now on Monday and figure out how to fund that! I will have to become creative I think! I’ll see if I can do a bit of eBaying over the weekend and then I really need to start a separate savings account for this as I feel like over the last 12 months I have had to have quite a few unplanned dental visits!

Thick_n_Thin

Another successful no spend day... not much else to report, I’m looking forward to the weekend and some relaxation after a busy few weeks, I need to take my Xmas tree down tomorrow and give everything a good clean, have started making a list of a few things I want to start looking into over the next couple of days,
1, check my life insurance policy, when we took this out just over 3 years ago it was to cover the full amount of the mortgage however since then the mortgage has reduced by around 25k so I may be paying over the odds now,
2, I have a car on pcp (I know, very expensive way to run a car) the 3 years are up at the end of jan and I am undecided on what to do next, I don’t really need a car, I have access to OH’s and we could easily manage with one! It’s a no brainer really but a desision I am struggling to make at the moment.
3, Look at mine and OH’s pension pots and see how much they are at.
4, look at stocks and shares isa and decide on what to do with this cash,
5, clean out my file that houses all of the above paperwork!
So that’s my list for the next week or so!

Thick_n_Thin

Another added incentive for clearing my overdraft, I have just added up my charges for Dec and it’s over £14! Because it is charged daily and because the charge is normally less than £1 per day I wasn’t thinking it was such a big amount, obviously over a month it adds up which I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t even given it much thought especially in the run up to Christmas!