Gap is Back - Time to Knuckle Down

Drawingaline

Just reading through, you seem very focused. Have subscribed

girlatplay

Hi there Drawingaline. I've done this before so I know how to do it, just have to get back into the swing of it. I like having a diary as it keeps me accountable.

I'm just going to iron LMG's uniform for tomorrow (she's on her third late shift in a row and she's knackered. She's up early tomorrow for college stuff. I feel really sorry for her. I'm not usually that good a mum) then I'm going to go to bed and watch something on Netflix for an hour.

girlatplay

What a brilliant day today. It was a work seminar type thing at a visitor centre in a nearby town. The speakers they organised were excellent and I got a huge amount out of the day. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Free lunch which is always good. Had tea with the family tonight which was lovely as always.

In financial news, I wore a jacket today that I've not had on for about a year and found a £1 coin in the pocket! Into the unsealed pot it went. I had a rake around in the pockets of my other jackets when I got home but nothing came of that.
Also I cashed out £5.09 from Prolific so £4.70 ish is winging its way to me. Once I get that I'll be putting it into the holding account which only has £1.72 in it right now.
I signed up for Post Office broadband because it is only £17 per month which is great. We don't use the landline and we have cooncil telly (apart from the Netflix) so I though £17 was pretty good. However, they took the first payment on 24th April (correctly stated on their bill) so I contacted them to ask for it to be changed to 1st of the month. Yes, no problem, that's it changed, they said. I then received the next bill which was for £22.03, had an extra 9 days' charge on it and an unchanged dd date. After a long, painful telephone conversation I finally figured out that when he said the bill date and dd date are the same thing (19th of month and 1st of month are the same?) what he actually meant was the bill date triggers the dd date and they are 12 days apart. Ok, got it, so bill date is 19th now and dd will come off 12 days later? Yes. Great, thank you for your clues to help me figure out the puzzle. Checked my bank account this morning as I do every morning. dd came off today. Dammit. Lucky I have the mini emergency fund then eh?

That's quite enough from me for today.

girlatplay

Today's lunch consists of a sandwich with leftover sausage stuffing that boyfriend made at Christmas which I divided into portions, stuck in the freezer and completely forgot all about. When LMG and I did our freezer inventory a couple of weeks back we came across it. I was going to bin it as it was in a bashed container with the lid half off and I though it would be past it's best it but something stopped me, not sure what. Anyway, this morning I was trying to plan my lunch based on what we have in and I decided to take it out with some bread. Well, it's delicious! I actually forgot how good it tasted at the time. I'm so glad I kept it. Since it is sausage stuffing I dont really need any meat with it. I might do this again tomorrow!!

May have to creep into the supermarket before Friday though. We've got no milk left and LMG likes a bowl of cereal in the morning (when she's here that is!). I'll just have to write a list and stick to it. Hopefully milk will be the only thing on it. I feel like I'm doing great with the using up stuff plan so I was really hoping to avoid the shops altogether.

NSD again so far today and I'm not planning shops. Boyfriend found a chicken pie in his freezer so invited me for tea which means I don't have to worry about tonight's tea either. LMG is doing a college thing until 7pm tonight so she'll sort her own tea later. Actually, if she can get past tomorrow morning without milk then we will have made it to payday! She might give in and buy it herself though.

No other financial news today.

Frugal tip (I got this one from Frugal Queen before she disappeared - I miss her): Froogs said she found a bottle of bubble bath for 18p and used it to fill her hand soap dispensers. I have searched and searched but the cheapest I can find bubble bath for is 59p for 750ml from Lidl. My soap dispenser bottle in the bathroom (it's just an old one that I keep refilling) is 250ml so that means I can get 3 bottles out of one bubble bath at just under 20p per bottle! I'm pretty sure Froogs did this a few years ago so inflation and all the rest will have added to the cost but I'm really happy with it. It's the little things that excite me.

I've got an hour or so to myself this afternoon so I'm going to continue catching up with BlackCoffee's diary before boyfriend finishes work. There is other stuff I should be doing, obviously, but I'm so cold I just want to curl up quietly for a bit.

db2016

hi, following your diary!



just a thought on a budget helping idea, not sure if it's applicable, but you say you have dropped times at work down coz of health.



sometimes you may be eligible for disability benefits such as a disabled element in tax etc.



and also PIP which doesnt matter if your working or not. and also off the back of that (if eligible), you can qualify for things like blue badge, and a bus pass (both of which i have).

of course i don't know if the health thing is related / eligible for these above but just a thought


Dan

girlatplay

Hi Dan

Thank you for your thoughts. I have looked into all of these but annoyingly, because of what I have, I don't qualify. It's a bit complicated because although I have chronic health conditions they don't hinder me all of the time. A blue badge would be great at times when I'm having a relapse/flare but I don't think it would be fair for me to have one when I'm doing okay. I tried applying for PIP once before but I can do stuff for myself most of the time, it's only when I come down with something that I need assistance and that doesn't happen often (thank goodness) and usually only lasts between 2-4 weeks. I suffer from fatigue a lot but I'm still able to do things myself. I might look at PIP again because it has been a while since I last looked. Thank you for the suggestions.

girlatplay

I have managed to get through today without spending any money! I was in the shops too. LMG asked me to meet her as she has an event that she needs to attend on Saturday and wanted a chum to pick up a couple of things. We met in town and I only looked for what she needed and didn't look at anything else, not that I buy myself stuff anyway, I've not had anything new for a very long time. I've avoided the supermarket since Saturday. LMG doesn't mind that I haven't bought milk.

I've got a pizza in the freezer that I bought ages ago as a go to if we needed a quick tea so that's mine for tonight. LMG is having a concoction of veggie sausages on a brioche bun (pack of 6 M&S yellow sticker 23p - best yellow sticker deal I've ever had as I'm usually last to get there when the good stuff is all gone - and they're lovely), mozzarella dippers and smiley faces. I'm so chuffed we've managed this mini freezer challenge. Just to be clear, I do actually have a little money, we're not completely brassic, I just wondered if we could make it through without spending and we have. I'm just worried about when the tax credits stop and I'm seeing how we would manage. It's good prep and will help me plan better.

Going to start the meal plan and shopping list tonight.

beanielou

Great idea.
I remember when the tax credits stopped.
It was such a big hit
So good that you are thinking about it.

girlatplay

beanielou wrote: »

Great idea.
I remember when the tax credits stopped.
It was such a big hit
So good that you are thinking about it.

I'm just really concerned I'll run out of money. If I'm careful then I won't but I need to get back into the habit of being careful. When I was on a higher salary (no tax credits) it's not that I was careless, just that I didn't have to think so much about it.


Payday!! I've just topped up all the pots and updated the spreadsheet. Most of the dd's are due off tomorrow but will probably be Monday. I'll update the spreadsheet again then. I have an annoying little dd that comes off on 7th of month and I can't change it but I'll put it on the spreadsheet as paid and then I won't have to look again until later in the month.


Got held up at work today (why does she always ask me to do something extra on my busiest day when she could have asked any day this week? Plus it's Friday! I think she does it on purpose) so didn't get out until 2.30pm instead of 1pm. That totally screwed my grocery shopping plan. Plan was go to Lidl for the bits I needed from there, LMG would pick me up in the car so that I didn't have to carry the heavy stuff then after I dropped it all off I would walk to Morries to get the other bits and bobs (it's practically across the road from my flat). LMG was working at 5pm so there just wasn't enough time to fit Lidl in. I went to Morries and got most of the stuff there, just didn't get the things I'm guaranteed to get cheaper in Lidl and I'll go there over the weekend.


Spent £43.64 in total which is £33.64 of the grocery budget and £10 of the Mini Rainy Day fund (I need to change the name of that, it's really my "overflow budget" pot and also contains my entertainment budget, not that I really have one but I take money from there if I need it for something. I'm calling it Overflow Budget from now on). The £10 was for fizz and chocolates as I'm going to my bestie's for tea tomorrow night
I don't think the extra stuff that I need will come to more than £20 so even though I've gone quite a bit over the grocery budget for the week, some of it is monthly stuff (shower gel, diluting juice, toothpaste, etc, etc) and I won't need them again until at least next month.


I've meal planned from today to Wednesday next week. I used to do the grocery shop on a Wednesday because that was tax credit day but I might just stick to a Wednesday as it is convenient and I usually get away from work on time midweek. I might find that I can stretch it out a bit anyway as if LMG is working I can make up some nonsense to eat myself, I'll just buy milk if necessary. I'm so looking forward to my tea tonight; spinach & blue cheese risotto. I just really fancied it yesterday so I looked and found a recipe online and I'm going to make that up shortly. I've got frozen spinach in the freezer which is ideal for something like this.


Oops, blethered on a bit as usual. Off to read other diaries for a wee bit before tea.

girlatplay

Spinach & blue cheese risotto. Yum!!! I'm so glad my cooking mojo is back.