Impulsive Spending… Make It Stop!

Sarahwithlove

Maybe let yourself go to nail lady as a treat? Or when you have earned the money from surveys or something? So it's not impacting your day to day budget. 

Pink_Butterfly

All nail appointments are budgeted for - I’m actually not having them done as much now to save money. I want them done for my holiday & for my birthday but other than that I’m not fussed. I need to learn how to use nail wraps 🙂

Medicash have finally paid out for the dental costs but the amount was a lot less than I requested. Apparently I’ve reached the maximum amount I can claim & it resets itself in July. I need to look into this as I haven’t claimed that much!

I was looking at my spreadsheet this morning & I can see I’m over budget on food, toiletries and cleaning products 😳 I’m only £20 away from hitting the 2022 monthly average, and we still have 11 days of January left! 🤦🏼‍♀️

DD1 is off school today as she’s poorly 😞 She has a sore throat & a fever. She was sick at 6am but that seemed to be a one-off. Poor thing. I’m keeping an eye on her while I work from home. She has spent her day watching YouTube & sleeping so far. I can tell she’s ill as she has no appetite - she normally loves her food!

Hope everyone has a good weekend 🥳

Pink_Butterfly

DD1 is on the mend 🙂 Her appetite is returning thankfully & her temperature is down to 37.2. Her throat is still sore though. She was meant to be at her dad’s house last night but I asked him if I could keep her with me so that she doesn’t have to go out this morning for DD2’s swimming lesson. I’ll drop her off at his house in a few hours.

Unfortunately I have ran out of the normal Calpol so we are using the sachets they do which she doesn’t like as apparently it tastes different? I need to buy some more so I might go into town today at some point. I also want to sort out the girls’ clothes, do some housework, catch up on the washing, and then tonight I’m out with a couple of friends for a catch up 😊 I’m going to be driving so I’ll be on the soft drinks 😇 I’m not much of a drinker anyway!

I’m doing a sleep out with one of my friends in 2 weeks & we have raised £235.00 for the local homeless charity so far! Really chuffed with this ☺️ I need to borrow a sleeping bag from someone if I can, plus get cardboard & plastic sheeting.

Money continues to be tight but I’m determined to get through the next few months without borrowing more! I have already reduced my spending by a lot 🙂 I think lockdown made me have a strong ‘YOLO’ outlook on life so for about 18 months, once restrictions were lifted, I went a bit crazy with the spending! I had a great time don’t get me wrong 😂 but I want to be debt free & be in a good financial position for when I come to move house (likely 2027). So that’s my aim. I find it hard getting the balance right & I'm always adjusting between planning for the future & living in the now. One day I might get it right! 😉

HampshireH

You're lucky your childminder doesn't take a fee when they are off sick. It's standard practice round here.  Well done on the charity funds.

Also medicash is so useful

Pink_Butterfly

It really is!

It’s been a busy weekend, but also very productive 💪🏼 I have done 4 lots of laundry which is a lot in 2 days, especially as I don’t have a garden so all washing gets dried on airers instead of outside on a washing line. It smells divine in here ☺️

I sorted through the girls’ clothes and I now have 2 piles of summer wear out so that I can see what we need to buy for our holiday. They’ll need a couple of dresses each, swimwear, a couple of tops and some sandals but that’ll be it I think! I’ve started looking online but there’s not much summer wear out yet so I’ll look again next month.

I had a lovely time catching up with my friends last night. I budgeted £20 but only spent £6 😇
So £14 under budget. Spent £12.94 of that today on a friend’s birthday present & a card. I ordered the card from Moonpig & I had a discount code, so the personalised card plus delivery only cos me 95p! She is obsessed with Yankee candles & I managed to find a large one on Amazon which was £27.99 reduced to £11.99 including delivery 😀 So I was happy with that.

I had to do some food shopping today & I have officially hit my budget for food for the month, and it’s only the 22nd 😱 I’m going to get creative over the next few days I think!

DD1 is still poorly. I doubt she will go to school tomorrow, which means another day of me working from home, but we’ll see. I’ve got 3 meetings tomorrow so if we are at home she will be summoned to her bedroom so that I can have these meetings over Teams without my colleagues hearing YouTube videos in the background 😂 I did about an hour’s worth of work earlier just so I can get ahead and not be rushing about in the morning.

I'm going to start preparing dinner now for me & DD2 - I’ll give DD1 some aswell obviously but her appetite is still off so she won’t eat much 😞

Pink_Butterfly

DD1 has tonsillitis. It’s not bacterial according to the nurse so we’ve just got to keep doing what we are doing. She recommended that we use Nurofen instead of Calpol but unfortunately the pharmacy didn’t have any, so will try and find some later. I have moved my 2nd meeting to tomorrow and have already done one meeting today, so only have one left 🙌🏼

I’ve got a few people watching my FitBit on eBay 😊 My dad was able to fix it but I haven’t worn it since, so it makes sense to sell it. I’ve decided whatever money I get for selling things will go into my clothes budget or meals out budget, since those budgets are currently at zero 😁

Pink_Butterfly

Poor DD2 is now ill aswell 😞 I knew she wouldn’t escape it, her immune system is terrible. Both girls will be with me tomorrow while I work from home. It’ll be a day of them laying on the sofa and being dosed up on Nurofen 🥺

I’ve paid off the holiday balance! Mixed feelings - so much money leaving my account at once, but it’s all for creating memories with my cherubs 🥰

I had a crazy afternoon of work and then I had to rush to the ice rink for my skating lesson, which went well 😊 My washing machine was just finishing as I got home… love it when that happens!

Pink_Butterfly

One week until it’s pay day! And the end of the longest month ever 😉😂

Another busy day of working while parenting 2 poorly kids, including 3 meetings! DD1 is definitely getting better which is good. I reckon one more day at home for her and then she can go back to school. DD2 on the other hand is suffering & will likely be at home all week 🥺 Poor thing. Their dad is having them tomorrow so I’ll be going to the office. I’ve not been there for a week!

I need to go to the doctors shortly as the ADHD team need my GP to take my blood pressure and e-mail them the results plus a few other things. This is so that they can see if I’m ok to have the medication they prescribe. I’m going to bring DD1 with me so she can watch me have my blood pressure taken as she gets anxious when she has hers done & it makes her faint bless her. I’m hoping watching me have mine done will help 🤞🏼 I then need to drop her off at her dad’s house & then nip round to my friend’s as she’s lending me her sleeping bag for the sleep out next week 😊

Off to give the bathroom a quick clean… trying to kill these germs 😂

Pink_Butterfly

Good evening!

DD1 went back to school today 😊 DD2 is still poorly but I’m seeing improvements which is good. Both are chilling on their tablets now so I thought I’d pop on here!

Work has been, let’s say, interesting this week. There are some big changes happening and my workload will increase a lot over the next few months I reckon 😨 I also will be taking more trips to our offices in the north east, which I don’t actually mind as I like seeing my colleagues up there! They are very friendly.

I have cancelled my Spotify subscription. This was my last subscription to cancel - I had already cancelled Disney Plus and LinkedIn premium, and Netflix is now through my brother’s account so free for me 😂

Spends today: I got my eyebrows tinted & waxed, and I bought the travel insurance. I went through Top Cashback so should get about £2 back 😊 So it only cost about £14 altogether which I didn’t think was too bad!

I’m yawning my head off so I think I’ll watch a bit of TV when the girls go to bed & then I’ll get an early night 😴

Pink_Butterfly

I’ve been spending 🙊 but it’s all budgeted for!!!

I ordered some Barbie trainers for DD2’s birthday from River Island, plus some sandals & a top for her for our holiday. I used a voucher I had so it only cost me £5.00 in real money. I also have £2.73 in Top Cashback pending so the whole order has hardly cost me anything 😀

I spent £21.99 on more birthday presents for DD2 in Smyths toy store. I was meant to use her voucher that she’s had for 10 months but I forgot! D’oh 😂 The plan was to give her the value of the voucher in cash. I just wanted to get rid of it before it expires so will have to buy something else soon 😂

I had a discount code for Very, so I ordered a load of bits for the girls for our holiday 🙂 plus Barbie pyjamas for DD2’s birthday. I’ve got £2.81 in TopCashback pending and their dad will give me half for the stuff that they’ll wear throughout the summer.

The final order was through Monsoon. Just 2 dresses for DD1 for our holiday - a bit pricey but I don’t mind because DD2 will probably be wearing them after DD1 has outgrown them, so they’ll get plenty of use out of them! I ordered via Voucher Codes and I’ll be getting a £15 Amazon voucher in about a month. And again, my ex will transfer half of the cost to me.

All in all, the net amount all of the above has cost me (order value less vouchers used less money my ex will give me less Cashback) is £102.21. Or £87.21 if you include the Amazon voucher I gained, which I can use for other stuff I’ve budgeted for. I have some items on eBay which should hopefully pay for a big chunk of all these orders! Bids at the moment total £28.50 🙂 and there are still 3-5 days to go. I did budget for holiday clothes and birthday presents but I still want to make up as much money as I can!

Work has had my head spinning today, but the bosses did order pizza for lunch for everyone so that was nice! It’s the weekend now so time to switch off 😴

Oh, I got a text this morning from my friend saying his wife gave birth yesterday 🥰 So I’ll need to get a card & a pressie at some point. No rush though as we probably won’t be visiting soon - they live about 1.5 hours away and his wife needed an emergency caesarean, so she needs to recover. I miss my 2 being babies! Never thought I’d say it but I’ve been feeling broody recently 😳🤦🏼‍♀️ No chance though! I don’t have a partner for a start 😂