Budgeting by the beach

Aimingforthegoodlife

Hey, have spent a few days reading your diary, you are making great progress! I would be so annoyed at BG, how incredibly ridiculous to cause issues on your credit score! You should definitely be offered compensation once this is sorted. I think it is great you are going away with your friends, the house list never gets shorter, there is always something to be done! 

DaisyCheerings

Thanks savingholmes.  I've looked online and it says I can contact the ombudsman after 8 weeks.  I'm hoping they'll have resolved before then though!  Who knows. I'm not confident about that, sadly.

DaisyCheerings

Thank you for joining me Aimingforthegoodlife.  BG have been such a stress. Thank you for taking the time to read my diary.  I really appreciate that.  You're so right that the house list never gets shorter.

DaisyCheerings

The holiday is a bit up in the air now.  A close friend who is also going to be on the holiday had to go into hospital last week and will need 1-3 months recovery time without driving or flying, so that's put a question mark over the holiday.  I have the time booked off and am happy not to use it for a big trip away as my holiday year starts in July so I have to take that time off either way.  So we'll see.  I realised when it was at risk of being cancelled that I really want to go though, so that was a good decider too.  If it doesn't happen in June then it may do in the next few months once my friend has healed properly.

This weekend I visited another friend who has just bought a new house/converted barn in the country and had such a lovely time.  We were both tired for various reasons and we don't get a chance to spend much quality time together as she lives on the opposite side of the country to me, so it was nice to not have to rush around.  The area she lives is stunning too and the weather was beautiful.  We visited a daffodil fair which had very little for sale.  I think they had about 5 flowers on sale and the rest of the hall had been taken up with competition entries and awards.  We then went on to visit a large garden centre and if it wasn't such a long drive home I think I would have bankrupt myself with all the plants I wanted to buy.  My garden isn't in a position to be able to do much with those plants though as I have such terrible soil, so that helped me not splash out.

I received an email from my car insurance company with a renewal quote of £399.08 and all the excuses in the world about how every company has had to increase their quotes significantly!  I've just done some research today and have gone with a company that has charged me £228.34 with a possible £45 cashback through one of the cash back companies I booked it through.  What a massive difference.  When I cancelled with the original company they then dropped their quote to £288.10 but I resent that they don't offer anything for loyal customers so even if they'd matched the price I'd have moved.  I just don't know how they feel that's acceptable!  So that's been done and paid for, although my insurance doesn't need to start for a month I wanted to get it done and off the list.

BG need a chase up this week.  I did try to give them the benefit of the doubt last week that I'd get some type of update, but I heard nothing.  I'm also having to check my emails and junk folder regularly to make sure I don't miss anything which is time consuming.

The month has ended well on finances.  I was thinking yesterday that I'm just scraping by as my monthly budgets have little to nothing left, but then reminded myself that I get paid on Thursday so it's correct that those budgets would be low.  My gifting budget is a struggle right now but that's because I paid for 2 birthday gifts from last year and a new house gift that I wouldn't normally have.  Also one of the birthday gifts I bought early for a friend was the one who has been in hospital so I gave that to him as a get well soon gift.  Normally I wouldn't but he's had such a rough few months that I just wanted to brighten his mood if I could and it was a bright and light type of gift.  I've written up my list of expected outgoings for April, so just need to be paid to distribute now.

Shopping spends now feel under control since I worked out a weekly allowance throughout the year.  Now I'm much more mindful on what I have to spend, I can see that a lot of my shopping budget couldn't have gone on actual food shopping as I have full cupboards, fridge and freezer other than some vegetables to last me the next couple of weeks.  So it's obvious that a monthly budget on regular spends isn't for me.  Maybe I should try that with my personal budget too as I often spend too much early in the month.

I hope everyone is having a good week and getting the Spring weather too!  It makes such a difference to my mood when I see blue skies.

doingitanyway

Well done on the presentation.
I will probably buy an air fryer once I am settled. Halloumi in it sounds nice.
The get well gift was a nice touch and I'm sure it would have been appreciated.
You seem to be making changes for the better all the time with your budgets and spending.
I hope your friend recovers enough to take the holiday with you. 

DaisyCheerings

Thanks doingitanyway. I think an air fryer is such a great find because it cooks things so well, cleans easily and no waiting time for the oven to warm up sufficiently.

I've not been able to get in touch with British Gas for any updates.  I go through the website to the last "speak to an advisor" and the button doesn't work. That's happening on all devices I've used, so I'll just keep trying.  Maybe they've blocked me

This morning I managed to get to the supermarket before work and bought some essentials.  I was just going to get 4 items, but then remembered that as it's a bank holiday weekend making the shops extra busy, I should get the other bits I'll likely need before the end of the weekend.  That only came to £10 which I'm happy with.

Pay day tomorrow, and I'll be happy to see money in the budgets again.  I want to get a couple of home items, my car needs an MOT, and I have a lot of driving to do this month, but I'm still going to try to rein in spending on anything other than big needs.  I'm hoping I can be very strict with my personal spends so that I have a bit more for a trip away.

I've had enough today, so roll on 5pm.

savingholmes

Glad you had some time away at your friends. With you on the temptations of a garden centre. Poor soil can be improved with a layer of compost and bark - but I appreciate that gets expensive. Most plants aren't as fussy as you'd think.

I hope you manage to get some time away - and I hope your friend that needs surgery is okay.

Happy Easter!

DaisyCheerings

Thank you savingholmes.  I must admit, I am an over-thinker when it comes to gardening.  I'm considering getting raised beds around my garden for various reasons.  My Mum has them and weeding seems much more achievable, plus she just has all good soil in there.

My friend is doing much better from the surgery, and is hoping to be back in work next week!  I hope you had a great Easter.

DaisyCheerings

I managed to get through to British Gas but still no updates.  I do have my reference number now though and have been keeping a transcript of the chats I've had.

After getting paid I sent all the money around to the various budgets and am left again with very little but this month I'm not sure why.  There are some birthdays and outings I have to do, but my personal allowance just got swallowed up.  I've managed to jiggle some budgets around so I'm ok, but it's a worrying trend.  Now my shopping budget feels more stable, the personal allowance needs to be controlled better.

I've been invited for a long weekend away somewhere exotic (we haven't decided where yet), so I'm just waiting to see what the costs would be for that.  As it's just 3 nights I'm hoping it won't be too bad.  I currently have a healthy holiday budget but if I do an exotic weekend away followed closely by an exotic week away then I'm slightly concerned that I'll have enough.  The thing is, I have decided that after these 2 trips I won't have any more for a while until I get my debt down.

I'm not sure if I mentioned but I had a Dr appointment to discuss HRT based on some symptoms I have (bloating and brain fog being the 2 I'd like to fix - hot flushes and other symptoms don't really bother me when they happen). She was so good at going through the good, bad and ugly of HRT and was also very understanding when I asked if I could take a bit more time to think about it.  I have now decided not to though as the side effects are more concerning for me as my current symptoms based on some family history, so I'm going to try more natural solutions.  She also wants me to have some blood tests to make sure my symptoms are menopause related and not anything else going on.

To be honest, the more natural solutions are what I should have tried before.  I've already cut out caffeine as that gave me terrible brain fog and also made me feel very low in energy.  Now I have really good alternatives that work for me, I don't miss caffeine at all.  My next step is to cut out unnecessary sugars, and this is a huge deal for me as I'm very much a sugar monster.  Chocolate and flavoured syrups are my worst culprits, so I think it'll take a lot of determination to keep with this.  I've made a solid decision though, so I will stick to it.  Lemon water is helping with some after effects of drastically reducing sugar overnight.  I don't want to use sweeteners either, I just want to "upgrade my taste buds" now.

Happy Thursday to you all.  I hope your week is going well.

doingitanyway

Sounds like you have a GP who is thorough. I find it difficult to actually see a GP, so you are lucky where you live.
I forgot I was supposed to be cutting out sugar until you posted about it on my diary. I've been eating MnS hollow E eggs  That said, my sugar levels are lower than they were when I was in Scotland...

Well done on caffeine. I find coffee gives me flushes, so cutting it out may help there too. That said, I still drink the coffee and accept the flush 

I think you should take both trips, as you say, nothing coming up after that. You will still get your debt down.

I like the idea of upgrading ones tastebuds