*sigh* this may take a while

ohdearhowdidthathappen

enthusiasticsaver said:

Happy Birthday for the weekend and don't beat yourself up about the odd glass of wine.  I do find though that snacking and wine/gin tend to go together and as my birthday is February I am doing dry January but failed on a visit up to see my mum on the 10th as we did a family meal out with a taxi booked so turning down prosecco and gin seemed a waste of a taxi!! One drinking day out of 20 doesn't seem too bad. 

I did think a job would be the making of your entitled teen so that is great news that she is so much nicer to be around.  Booking her tickets to a show is a nice thought and hopefully she will spot the correlation of her nicer behaviour with treats offered. 

Definitely keep some personal money back from your DHs bonus.  Do you not get personal spends each from your normal budget?  We have £300 each per month plus sometimes get birthday money from my mum and that has helped reign my husband in from frittering our joint account balance. It also means I can splurge every now and again when my personal account balance  has built up.  

Definitely would have been a waste of a taxi  
I'm sometimes tempted to give a dry month a go, I reckon a month off of booze along with calorie counting would shift a good number of the 10lbs I want to lose.
She's SO excited about the show, bounding around like she's 8 rather than nearly 18.  It's sweet.
We currently set aside £100 each a month, if I continue to do the extra private shift a week we're debating upping that to £200

mark55man

Happy Birthday for the weekend.  Always better at the weekend.  I hope you get spoilt and get to be the entitled one for the day

ohdearhowdidthathappen

mark55man said:

Happy Birthday for the weekend.  Always better at the weekend.  I hope you get spoilt and get to be the entitled one for the day

Awww, thanks. 
Birthday was lovely... went into London as planned with eldest; had dinner, saw show, night in a hotel and then some sightseeing before heading home.  Sunday had a family meal out which was yummy.

It only takes 30 mins from our house to get into London and we don't really make use of it enough, saying that though, it always seems to cost a lot.  Train travel is expensive, it cost £90 for the 2 of us including tube.  Almost as much as the hotel room which included a massive breakfast.  We stuck to free sights rather than paid entry.  I had a mental budget of what I'd spend on DD wile shopping and came in way under that which was a bonus.  We had a pre show dinner and blue light card knocked 20% off the bill, which was nice.  I did buy DD the souvenir brochure for the show as she's obsessed with it and has been wanting to see the show for ages (the one about the founding father  )

So all in all, a very successful trip.  DD seemed to enjoy it being just the two of us, she cried because the show was so amazing and I think she'd been worried it wouldn't live up to expectation. Bless her.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

We have just been paid, thank goodness, that was such a long month!!  

CC and Next accounts are still clear, but I didn't end up paying all of PP off as it was too hefty and then I'd have just used it later this month when funds started running low!  I've cleared two thirds of it though and will clear rest out of extra shifts booked in February.  No interest will be incurred as doesn't have to be paid off until April.

Health wise, I've been sticking to 2 alcohol free nights and 10K steps on my non work days.  Have lost 3lbs in 3 weeks, so ok progress, I haven't done any strength training though and need to get that into my routine.

I still haven't sat down and worked out goals for our finances this year, definitely on my 'to do' list though.  This month's financial goal is to live within what is in our account and not dip into CC, PP or Next , pay extra money into PP and be completely clear when we get paid on February 25th!!

EssexHebridean

Well done on the booze and the steppage - definitely get some additional strength training in there too though even if it's just squats while waiting for the kettle to boil! A sneaky one that I heard someone mention earlier in the week which I keep meaning to try is to stand on one leg while brushing your teeth - 1 minute on one leg, 1 minute on the other. The movement of your upper body really challenges you to keep your balance and apparently it's great for strength and stability! 

So glad you both had a lovely time on your London trip too - that's some lovely memories to have together!

lucielle

Sounds like you had a great trip!  
L

mark55man

wow - I know the show you mean - I don't like musicals (sacrilege) but our friends have been a few times and loved it every time.

I think a similar show is one called Six or just 6 about Henry VIII (spoiler - they don't all make it through). Maybe next time! as it seems to be such nice thing for you

savingholmes

Glad you had a nice time in London. Everything I've tried to book recently has ended up being cancelled. Debating whether to try again or not.

Drawingaline

mark55man said:

wow - I know the show you mean - I don't like musicals (sacrilege) but our friends have been a few times and loved it every time.

I think a similar show is one called Six or just 6 about Henry VIII (spoiler - they don't all make it through). Maybe next time! as it seems to be such nice thing for you

Six is my all time favourite, seen it five times!!! Love your spoiler 🤣

Drawingaline

Can't believe how expensive it was for the train. We are 45mins out and even without a Railcard it is around £30 for a one day travel card each. I have a network Railcard and a friends and family one. My 17yr old also has a young person's one. They pay for themselves with two trips. But then we do go to see shows regularly.

Glad you liked the show. We saw it on Disney in 2020 when they streamed it, I wasn't keen, but actually enjoyed it. Enough to think about going and seeing it in the cheap seats (I am a bit of a bargain hunter with theatre tickets) but daughter wasn't keen and actually fell asleep when we watched it on Tele so might have to find someone else to go with. I am going to be missing my theatre partner if she does go to uni in the depths of the countryside!!! Time to cultivate some new theatre friends.