Flying solo

LilSmiler

• Meals from stores 
  

 

I love catching up with your diary and have followed your journey for a while.. but I've always wnated to confirm what do you mean by the "Meals from stores" - is it just food that you have already in your cupboards/fridge/freezer..?

badmemory

I did wonder if the odd splash of boiling water might help with the drain.  It might reduce the need for chemicals.

twiggy86

@LilSmiler - you're correct that I mean using food we already have in (opposed to takeaway, eating out or grabbing a meal deal for lunch). 

@badmemory - I'd tried boiling water (and bleach) but it wasn't shifting it this time! That's always my first "go to" option to save costs and chemicals! 

twiggy86

I decided to move my "misc" savings to my Christmas pot for now, rather than pull from my CC allocation. So I went ahead and ordered another couple of things. I have one more definite thing I know I want to buy and then haven't decided on the others yet. I am enjoying feeling this organised though! 

A couple of positives... Finished making the pumpkins! So I can now try and concurrently work on the doll and blanket - will take the doll to work with me and blanket can be more of an "in the house" project! Also a jumper I ordered on Vinted for myself wasn't shipped within the deadline so they have refunded me £13 - annoying as I really liked it but possibly a good thing! I did buy another jumper on there for bf as a Christmas present - brand new with tags showing £40, bought for £9 - thankfully that has been sent straight away! 

Sarahwithlove

I'm glad you and bf have come to arrangement over food shopping. Regarding top up shops could you both keep the receipts and once a month or week work out who owes what. Either that or have a joint food shopping account or card? When me or my housemate brought something we would just send each other a what's app so other one could pay half. Hopefully you'll come to some sort of arrangement that works for you. 

Floss

Have you tried soda crystals and boiling water on your drain problem?

Also, maybe think about seeing how much you both spend on groceries over a few months, then you can work out how much your "average" month's spend and pay that into a joint account  / joint card. Then spend from there, & review regularly. Monzo is good for a simple, online account that you can both access.

twiggy86

I had been considering suggesting a joint account for groceries, so both send a set amount to it per month and then just pull from there. However, it feels like a big step to have a joint account! Which sounds silly given that we moved in together after only 3 months - and that is arguably a much bigger step! Just never had a joint account with someone! 

joedenise

If you don't want a joint account how about both drawing out the same amount in cash and keeping it in a separate purse to use just for groceries.  At least that way you're not going to impact each other credit scores which you may be thinking about.

twiggy86

I had a very nice weekend overall! 

Friday was my friend's funeral, which was obviously tough - it was very busy, which was lovely but also a sign of how young she was. I then drove the hour to my best friend's to watch her local fireworks and stay the night at hers. Sent her £15 which covered the ticket to the fireworks and a couple of drinks she'd bought me (she hadn't asked for anything but it's only fair!). 

Saturday I came back early and went out with bf and his daughter to a local house/ animal place. It was free to get in - he bought me a sausage roll and then I bought us hot chocolates (£6). Then after a bit of running around, we had a quiet night at home. I did fill up on petrol, so that was £62 from that pot. 

Then Sunday we popped into town to pick up some bits - including a birthday present for his son (from his daughter) and some clothes for her. We then went to watch a women's football game - men's team are in the premier league so was at a "proper" stadium. We had planned to have lunch at home before but ran out of time, so bf bought us lunch there. We only stayed for the first half as his daughter had had enough, but that was fine as tickets were only £7 and she enjoyed the first half (was very cute her doing the chants!) Bf also paid for the tickets. After we dropped her off we cooked some pizzas for dinner and chilled out. So my only spend was £2.20 on some bread and milk - bf did ask what he owed me for his half but given that he'd paid for the tickets and lunch I said not to bother! 

I managed to get some crochet done over the weekend but not as much as I'd have liked ideally... plus his daughter then asked me to make her something for Christmas!!! I did say that I would if I could but may not be possible... not sure a 5 year old fully understood though so that's even more pressure!!! 

I did manage to get a bit more Christmas shopping done over the weekend. Thankfully I got bf to try on the trainers I'd bought for him (he chose them) as actually they didn't fit very well! So I will return those and he can chose something else instead! All of his other presents are a surprise though! The other Christmassy thing over the weekend was that we booked tickets for a panto on 23rd December! I've always wanted to go to the panto so I'm excited! 

twiggy86

Right so that's the weekend wrap up done, now on to money things! 

My CC statements came in over the weekend, with the minimum on the new card being about half what I'd allowed for in my budget. So I paid the minimum (or rather £2.50 above the minimum) and have re-worked the spreadsheet so that the rest is allocated to the Virgin CC. I have also paid the minimum on the Virgin CC , and am leaving the rest sat in the account for now - will likely make little payments over the course of the month. These payments do mean that I have now cleared just over £6k in debt since ex left last June! My current outstanding debt is now sitting at £9.585. 

Tonight I believe the plan is for me and bf to go to a local climbing wall. It's something both of us have only done a couple of times but possibly want to get into - however we'll see how tonight goes! It will cost £15 plus parking - may also need to buy some chalk! If we do want to go regularly, you can pay £31 for a monthly pass that allows as much access as you want. 

Today's list of bits and bobs... 

• Make lunch to take to work 
• Make CC payments
• Update spreadsheet 
• Shuffle money around so everything is back in correct accounts 
• Sort out return for trainers 
• Work on crochet present at lunch 
• Walk pooch to lockers to pick up a Vinted parcel (present for bf) 
• Dinner from stores - not sure what yet though!