Queen Bee fighting for her Hive!

Drawingaline

Even when you know it is a loss from old age, you still need to grieve. My grandad was over 100 when he went, I was still sad knowing I wouldn't see him again.

Be kind to yourself x

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Thursday, thank you for your kind words Darrahah, Beanielou, Honeysuckle2, Drawingaline and Baileys Babe - it meant a lot

Well after last week's fog, its been a bit of a busy week so far catching up on a lot of jobs at home. Yesterday my credit card moved on to its new month and eeek what an expensive month this one is going to be. I had put off buying christmas gifts for the kids until now so last night I paid my baskets on a couple of the internet shops and paid for specially selected items. The kids are getting mainly second hand stuff plus one or two brand new items. I also needed to buy the kids individual school photos. I bought what I needed plus getting a pack of photos of the two of them together. I'll use the extra photos as minor gifts for my family. I don't really buy for them anymore but photos of the kids are still a lovely item. i'm going to pick up cheap frames from work to put the pics in.

I also used the great tip from the main MSE site - we bought two newspapers on the weekend with £10 vouchers from Lidl. We were due to do a big shop and the timing couldn't have been any better so yesterday i'd spent £68 on shopping and my partner spent £30.

So now all payments are made which I needed to make it has left me out of budget for the month (which was to be expected!) anyway so i'll be spending wisely for the day to day stuff.

Still working on setting up the new M&S current account, I need to pay tax which i'll get on to later and claim for the train tickets from last week's nightmare train journeys!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello friday, I am a grumpy mare today! I decided to just go for it yesterday and order the christmas purchases I needed to make and in doing so my credit card is just shy of £2000. I already had an accumulated balance but its not in the direction I want lol! I will be paying of a sizeable chunk though on payday.

This morning I took my grumpy !!! for the second jog of the week around my local park - 4 laps complete and happy. In September I was doing good guns with the running but as the mornings got darker it just didn't happen, guilts set in and anyway I just had to start again this week.

Each week I try to tackle one room in my home and this week it was my bedroom time. Admittedly it had turned into quite a dumping ground due to lack of storage in flat and it needed tackling. So a bit happier now.

I'm posting a quick update to my diary and then going to tackle yet more paperwork. I seem to have a mountain of it atm! This weekend its another round of working, bus too and fro work and not much else.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Thursday - gosh the weeks are just flying by!

After working all weekend, monday I went to town to collect some books i'd ordered but not had the chance to collect, got them then popped into TK MAXX. That shop is dangerous! Well im £120 lighter but really chuffed to buy a much needed rug for the living room for £60. I was looking at ones twice the price in Dunelm so happy, I bought next years diary (can't live without a paper diary), slippers for my partner for xmas, some boots for me (i am a terrible shopper and so was well needed) and a birthday card for mum. I was happy with my items for the amount spent.

Tuesday was overtime, weds was grandads funeral and today has been a well needed no spend day just relaxing at home and catching up on admin. Tomorrow I plan to go to the bank and put in £120 cash plus £20 my bro gave me for baby stuff. I'll then pay this £140 into my credit card and hopefully reduce the balance a bit.

Next week I am booked in for my regular weekend shift and then two extra overtime shifts. I need this to pay for all my christmas pressies i've just bought.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Another no spend day today which is good. Its been a lazy day cleaning and I applied for a job so fingers crossed on that one. My studying isn't happening... I might just be prepared to park it till the new year. I'm just busy with school stuff and extra shifts at work. Feel guilty though.

Monday is payday - not quite sure what I'm getting as there is a bit of overtime on there. I know the figure I'd like it to be

beanielou

Hope that you get the figure that you want

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello monday,

Well payday arrived and by luck I was a mini bit better off than expected and I also had a bit less to pay out for after school childcare too so I was chuffed! Managed to put a lip-smacking £607.57 into the credit card which has reduced the balance to £1585.28 which is still too high but baby steps and turning ships...

I've paid a bit more into the two balance transfer cards and allocated pots for the rest of the bills. So by doing the overtime I have started to make a bit of a dent in my debts. Also benefited from the school holidays coming up. Dec and January though are going to be yukky months which worry me as I have a couple of big bills coming up but they are planned for in the spreadsheets so hopefully wont cause too much pain.

Today after school run I went and did a bit of food shopping in Lidl, bought wisely (minus a couple of cheap christmas decorations), paid part cash and part credit card and finding this technique is helping to keep me focused & bill reduction.

Lastly in light of being a couple of quid better off than anticipated I put £10 into my stocks and shares LISA account (pension not property) as a pat on the back... Now I wonder with market fluctuations and long term compounding how much that'd be worth at account maturity in 20 years time?! Interesting thought.

curlytop12

Hi, just read your whole diary, you are doing so well! just keep going as you are, and be kind to yourself

Queen_of_the_Hive

curlytop12 wrote: »

Hi, just read your whole diary, you are doing so well! just keep going as you are, and be kind to yourself

Many thanks Curlytop really appreciate the kind words of encouragement!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy Sunday & happy 1st December!

Where has the year gone? Last night I was working a very long shift, 13.5hrs. Ugly! Don't even feel I've been to sleep & back up again to do it again today but just Sunday trading. Ah joys of working in a shop in the run up to Christmas.

Well the tree was put up this week which was fab & I started by wrapping a few gifts and cards for family. I'm working an extra shift this week too. I am determined that whatever I spend at Christmas I've worked for so no debt. Right better go as I need s cuppa tea.