Working the numbers 2019 style

mark55man

WFH today. As you may have guessed from the silence its been busy at work, which means low spends and not so much time keeping up. It does seem quiet across the forums although I haven't dared go near the discussion topic type threads


Plan to see my brother and his OH tomorrow we don't live close so we try and make an effort whenever we are travelling remotely close to each other. That should be good although the place he has recommended looks a bit posh. Will try to keep it cheap - luckily my love for gammon (or ham) egg and chips which is a family joke and is usually available on a bar menu :-)

mark55man

So a good weekend. Lunch with my brother and OH was very nice. Had a good chat while the local welsh contingent were shouting inthe background about their rugby success.

Sunday did a bit of tidying and went out (an expensive habit) with DS1 and DS2 as #1 will be away for a few weeks for work, and just wanted to catch with him / be social.

My steps are going ok, and am under target, but not irretrievably so. If I can will be doing a lot of lunchtime walks. Was lucky today - I got unexpectedly asked to a meeting today at which lunch was provided - so my packed lunch will be saved for tomorrow!!

mark55man

Another busy week. Had another weekend away (my DD found a Wowcher deal and bought it for us for XMAS). So free stay, free food (breakfast and dinner) and we managed to be reasonably frugal when out.

The hotel was close enough for a half day trip to Chester which I had only been too once before. We had a lovely walk around the walls, spent an hour inside the cathedral and had a drink sat outside in the sunshine (but sadly with a live street performance of the loud bangy drum society)

total cost £20 for coffees and drinks - £10 for lunch in the old chester market (a little hipsterised but fun) £5 donation at the Cathedral and £5 for parking - plus OH spent some of her crafting budget on a really cool shop that hasn't made it down south yet

then on the way home we took a 30 mile diversion to see an Alpaca farm - my OH loves Alpacas as they are cute and friendly (like me!!)

looking forward to next week and getting the next end of month banking sorted - have been really good on keeping spending down but more by low spend days than NSDs. but I'm OK with that

mark55man

at work early today - at one of my further away offices - sat at the desk with the sweetshop arrayed under the monitors, that I mentioned earlier. I will now publically confess to having a hungry look at the crunchies (even though its Monday) but was somewhat disconcerted to find all the sweets were out of date 2 years ago.

so has everyone been too polite to remove them, or is the normal occupant on a really strict diet, or just really really MSE. doesn't make me want to eat them though, although I'm sure no one would notice.

Have a good week everyone as payday looms into sight

doingitanyway

But did you get egg and chips for lunch?

mark55man

yes DIA, I would have let the side down if I hadn't!!

mark55man

last weekend of the month. I like to do my numbers on the 1st when I am sure everything has gone in and out, but will try and do it tomorrow, when any chance of a spend has passed because I have a busy old week coming and I don't want to leave it to next week.end

I'm feeling pretty good judging by the balances but the numbers are based on ALL transactions in a month so like hips, they dont lie!.

some big car spends - had to rescue DS1 and his van - the local main dealer quoted £7k to fix it up - but a more local garage did it for £900. This meant he could accept a piece of work for £1500 that he would have had to give away otherwise. I may try to get it all back in 1 - but as it ended up on a 0% card I may let him do instalments. need to think - which is the least bad

the job will see him in europe for a few days around the 12th so fingers crossed and contingency planning has been engaged while the so called strong and stable government wibbles and wobbles

mark55man

hello - had lots of trouble getting the numbers from all my different on line accounts as I had my laptop rebuilt to fix a bug and had to spend a lot of time on that and setting up - but its fine now

So been a busy month after holiday.

March Overview

I have updated my spreadsheet which has all transaction from all personal accounts. 185 transactions 14 on CC (Mainly Amazon and Parking). Has been an amount of overspending on family and entertaining, which is just about under control, but has left us a bit short this month especially as my work expenses has swung high last month, and will continue that way

it often happens when I get busy at work that I lose track of the finer details of accounting so I need to get a grip next month, but broadly all of my categories rather than being close to budget were over budget by about £50-£100, so I now need to plan to get that back without disrupting my other repayment and saving.

Will try again in April, which looks like being more predictable and slightly less frantic.

mark55man

Properly nice walk into my London office. Although I did cheat as it was taking a lot longer than I thought. 2 miles by foot, 2 miles by bus. Will do the same this evening and may get over 10000 steps for the first time in weeks

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Sounds like you're doing really well.... imagine how much richer we'd all be (financially) sans children... couldn't be without them though. I've had a massive shock at how they get MORE expensive the older they get, I'd lived in blissful ignorance that the early days were the most expensive!