Diary of a reformed shopaholic (I hope)

Drawingaline

Good news it can wait, and at least you have a figure to work towards, and with DH a little more on board it should be easier. 

shoppingobsessed2020

Whoops, budget has been blown.  Unplanned day/night out today so approx £60 put on my tsb credit card.  Was a lovely couple of meals out today so I’m not sweating the cost, my card will be clear again in a couple of weeks and I’ll just adjust next months food budget to take it into account,  I’m also out on Thursday but that’s his lordships pay day and I do have the cash in my purse to pay for that - just not enough to cover coffee and cake and then a beautiful meal out with friends.  The coffee shop didn’t take cash which is why I had to card it and I’m leaving everything at home bar my credit card that I’m using for fuel and grocery shopping.  Saying that I won’t be spending much on fuel next month as I’m using his lordships car until I get my new one and he has a full tank.

his lordship has emailed and still no date as to when he is home, however there is a small silver lining, he is due a small pay rise which is going to be backdated to January when he passed his last exam.  Don’t know how much but it should still be a few hundred which is better than nothing.  Hoping it is paid this month but will see, they should do but depends when his lordship chased them about it and if he’s missed cut off and things,

have sorted out childcare for monkey boy when schools go back, I’ll only have to start late and leave early the first week that he is back at school, after that I will only need to leave about half an hour early 2 days s week to make sure I’m back on time.  Just need to continue to hope that I can book him in as it’s first come first served so back up plan if I can’t and one I don’t want to do on a regular basis as it means I’m dropping hours at work.

we are having a busy week this week and I don’t know why, we went from hardly anything planned to dentist appointments (thank heavens we have the medial pot as forgot we were booked in) builders, handymen, trip out, friends to visit, us visiting friends and a toy shop trip to spend all his pocket money.  Still has lots left but I wouldn’t let him spend it all.  

I did go to a German supermarket and I forget how cheap it is, it’s just faffy to get to and I’m going to have to weigh up my regular mr s grocery shop on a Friday night to going on a Saturday morning after having been to exercise class,  this I need to work into the budget as my friend very kindly did give me a years pass for my Christmas but come new year I will be paying for it.  

I’m not sure I want to give up my mr s shop as it’s convenient and we only have one night during the week when we are not out at a child activity or an exercise class I’m reluctant to make that shopping night, but I’m also reluctant to go after exercise class on a weekend as I car share with a friend (who I am bubbling with) most weeks.  Normality is returning Just at w much slower rate.

shoppingobsessed2020

tonights plan had been to have a bit of a tidy up, it’s a horrible dark night so I’ve got lots of atmospheric lights on to make it cozy, probably put my electric bill through the roof but I’ve no candles left so went with the cheaper option of lights rather than buying more candles.  I tell a lie, I do have one candle left but I’m saving it as it was an anniversary present so want to wait for his lordship to come home before I burn it. 

Tomorrow we have the dentist in the morning, a play date in the afternoon which may or not be cancelled due to friends work commitments so I’ll find out in the morning.  Plans for the afternoon if it’s cancelled will be working my way through an ironing mountain which I should have done today and some more housework.  I’d like to have all my shredding up to date but tomorrow’s job is ironing before it takes over the sofa.  If I’m up early enough I could do the ironing in the morning before we go to the dentist.

I need a proper to do list for September In addition to the general housework list so here it goes

shredding - 2 huge carrier bags full
Sort through living room storage boxes x 4
sort through all shoes in hall - get rid of monkey boys old ones and my trashed ones
clean out my car
sort out winter emergency box for his lordships car
Buy some candles (ikea trip) for winter power cuts - will be a mid September trip as not planning on going there on a bank holiday!
check medicine box for cold and flu season 
check monkey boys winter coat from last year - should still fit but he’s had a growth spurt so want to check so I can sort a new one sooner rather than later.
Research cat food and best place to buy it. Want to try local independent shop in village first we prefer to support local where I can.
Sort out understairs cupboard
tidy his lordships study
sort out study cupboard. 

PommeVerte

Love a good to do list ! And a good cupboard sort out, u might even find some stuff to sell and make it mse too. Have u seen marie kondo on netflix? Such good motivation for de cluttering, u feel like your getting ur life together just by rolling a few towels and recycling some old t-shirts ! Literally like a free therapy session.

shoppingobsessed2020

What a day, payday today thankfully.  His lordships wages are manually moved into his account as they are received via chaps payment so I’ve been checking all day and they have only just gone in.  He didn’t get they pay rise which he was saying he would so that will be a next month thing.

ive moved all money around, so basically the bills are all covered but some credit cards (tsb, my Barclays, and next) will be out of my wages which I don’t get paid till 7th September as I’m paid 4 weekly.

we have no money left now in the medical pot as we had the dentist today.  I still need work so back in a few weeks to finish that off when I can go back and be child free but they took a deposit from me for that so was £90 today and I only had £75 in the pot including what I transferred today.  Positives however are a few months ago that would have been carded with no thought.  Today it was put on my credit card and I’ve transferred the £75 over from the medical pot to cover it.  

the savings accounts are starting to look healthy.  I have the following to one side

£245 childcare and child activities 
£600 his play money (not reducing but will halt when it hits 1k and start paying into emergency fund)
£450 car account (tax, insurance and maintenance, insurance due end of December for both cards, tax will be due September for mine going forward, his is 0 road tax)
£750 work account (courses and medical that needs paying for, can never stop this amount ideally should be increased)
£150 home emergency fund (I know I need to build this up quickly but I’m ok for now with it as I’m happy I can raid another account if desperate)
£148 house stuff (annual insurances and tv licence, insurances due may, tv licence November)
A grand total of £2343!

Looking st that savings figure it Is making me itch, in a good way.  I want to pay my next off with it and get rid of that.  Im not as I have a lot of insurances due in the next few months but it is nice to know that I have actually managed to save a chunk.  This is the first month I’ve put the childcare and child activities to one side as I have been paying that off debt but as things are going back to what constitutes as normal now I need to keep it to one side till I know what is going on with activities.  I may be able to reduce that figure as monkey boy may end up on packed lunches but lazily for me I do prefer school dinners but paying £2.10 for a ham sandwich, but of cucumber, and a pudding is a bit galling when he doesn’t like the hot option and even if I bought branded food I could still make a decent packed lunch for half that.

shoppingobsessed2020

Woke up to an amazing email.  His lordship has given me a rough date for being home, it changes all the time so I’m not counting on that but it made monkey boy go dancing round the house in just his pants screaming with excitement at the potential date.

the big thing that really made the email amazing is off his own back his has said about using bonuses to pay off the mbna card and his car.  I hadn’t told him my plans for the bonuses so it’s nice that he is thinking similar to me.  Could this be us both heading towards being on the same page?  I hope so.

I got the Lloyds statement this morning.  Minimum payment is just shy of £30.  Im going to pay a standard £50 to this and throw the rest at the mbna card so that means this months mbna gets £700 and next month (as Debenhams will be paid off) will get between £900 and £1100 depending on my pay rise  for changing jobs.

his lordships bonuses should be paid the end of September so not counting them just yet but it’s all looking positive.

todays plan is to finish the ironing and work my way through the shredding bags.  Tomorrow I need to clean and tidy his study.  I did look at IKEA for candles but paying £10 for delivery is annoying me when it won’t cost me that much in fuel to get there but I’m going to leave it, I’ll grab some tea lights even if they do work out more expensive at a local shop.  The time saving alone will be worth avoiding a trip to ikea.  

Oh some more good news, I finally got my HMRC refund of overpaid ni contributions from when I was self employed.  That’s just hit my account this morning, I did post about it right back at the start of my diary and it’s now finally paid!  Paying that straight of my tsb card as will cover the rest of the dentist and my meals out the other day.

Sarahwithlove

That's great news he is on same page as you with using the bonuses. It will take such a weight off your shoulders having the car and his mbna paid off. I also think you're doing the right thing focusing on the mbna that you pay interest in vs lloyds which you don't. Hopefully by time the lloyds 0% ends you'll be in a much better position to move to another 0% minus the £50 a month you pay off until then. 

GeorgianaCavendish

Great news about the bonuses and even better to know that you are getting on the same page - I know from experience that is the hardest thing! 
Also great to finally get the HMRC payment!  

shoppingobsessed2020

Updated to do list, been a busy day doing not much bar shredding, ironing and watching films

shredding - 2 huge carrier bags full
Sort through living room storage boxes x 4
sort through all shoes in hall - get rid of monkey boys old ones and my trashed ones (Saturday)
clean out my car (Saturday)
sort out winter emergency box for his lordships car (Saturday)
Buy some candles (ikea trip) for winter power cuts - will be a mid September trip as not planning on going there on a bank holiday! 
check medicine box for cold and flu season 
check monkey boys winter coat from last year - should still fit but he’s had a growth spurt so want to check so I can sort a new one sooner rather than later. (Saturday)
Research cat food and best place to buy it. Want to try local independent shop in village first we prefer to support local where I can. 
Sort out understairs cupboard 
tidy his lordships study 
sort out study cupboard. 

enthusiasticsaver

Good that you are both on the same page.  It is much easier to deal with paying down debt if you are both in agreement and working towards the same aims. Sensible to target the MBNA card next.