Cherry takes the reins

No car boot sale this morning as DH has to attend something... I also had to pop into town and ended up spending (all useful stuff and no pens). It's warm and intermittently sunny which is perfect for mooching round the market and deciding not to buy stuff.

Last night I was going through my diary for information to put in the neglected spreadsheet, and reading back is illuminating. I saw more clearly how I am putting off the same stuff now as I was a year ago and it's things I could take action on but somehow don't, i.e. pension AVCs and a decent savings account. Yet I've made massive progress on the mortgage, paying off nearly half of what was left 13 months ago.

I can also see that some of the holes in my record keeping are due to things that are hard to keep track of on the day, or hard to categorise. These include holiday spending, payments to do with Mum's house and very busy times. I don't really know how to deal with these though a notebook of spending while away from home is helpful (I don't always have Internet). Part of it, of course, is that I put off dealing with any backlog.

Yesterday DH had a super-stressful morning at work but had booked the afternoon off to take his Dad to the shops as today's committment meant he couldn't fit it in this afternoon. We decided to have lunch out and drove to a cosy pub, only to find it's empty and up for auction! No, we didn't put in a bid. Sad that such a nice place has gone. We did find another country pub, though, and had a really super meal, two courses for £10 but it was good enough to have charged more. DH paid so it's not going on my spending . I had been feeling washed out but gradually picked up as the day went on and I've noticed I do feel better after a 'full' meal rather than porridge or similar. I don't think it's in the calories, I suspect the protein is helping. My shopping today therefore included chicken and chorizo to have with pasta and veg for a couple of work meals.

Spends:
Housekeeping £11.79
Toiletries £1.69
Medical £0.20
MS stuff:
Lots of yellow-stickered items saving £1.13
Bought ingredients rather than ready meals - if I make 3 meals with these they will come to about £1.20 each which is more than the cheapest ready meals but probably more satisfying, and about haf the price of the mid-range ready meals.
A double points voucher -one of those things that's money-saving only if used.
Wombled 10p off one of DH's receipts

Nothing spent yeaterday (13th).

I'm a bit short of days off this week - only really tomorrow - so I'm doing some day off jobs today, which seems to be becoming a trend. Thankfully the energy levels are back up and the sky is blue so I can do anything. Well, apart from actually getting down to the really important stuff.

So far today: I manoeuvred the bins and discovered the one for garden waste was full of water and smelled foul, so that's now emptied and airing. We don't pay for collection but they left the bin with us so things that won't compost collect in there till there's enough for a tip trip.
Sold a couple of packets of seeds that I can't use and which came with a magazine. Lovely buyer. The £2 she paid will go into the general fund and off the cost of the magazine.
Two loads of washing on the line.
One load of washing in the machine.
Made a start of the ironing.
Chatted to the window cleaner and paid him for two visits. (£10).
Admired my coffee plant (yes, I have one ) which I put in the sun last week and which has rewarded me with beautiful shiny new growth.

Avoided:
Getting down to paying the Council Tax on Mum's house. Need to get to this urgently as it's due by tomorrow and don't want to get stuck with some problem that takes days to sort out (okay so that may already have happened in theory).

Mand S have sent the paperwork for my new card so at some point I need to read and sign though I think I've read much of it online already.

Interestingly, following from me googling whether a certain supermarket has a loyalty card, that same supermarket has written to me offering a cashback CC! That just HAS to come from cookies, doesn't it? I don't normally hear from them. If I hadn't just had a credit check for the Mand S card I might be interested as I do use them from time to time but I don't want to end up with a reduced credit score (not that I know much about it).

Right (said she, decisively) - if I come back here for anything but advice before I've sorted out that Council Tax, send me away with a stern warning.

Spendy sort of day today but the weather is so nice I'm not particularly complaining... I did manage some savings by dint of wandering round the sunny high street finding what was cheap.

I have also done 20 minutes' gardening which doesn't sound much but the little patch I did looks so much better.

The dentist was the main expense - I need to look into whether I really would save on a dental plan. I've avoided them before because I don't often need extra work and in the past year I also spent out on an electric toothbrush which seems to be keeping my teeth in good shape. That toothbrush was my 'insurance' for the year and the MS aspect is letting the battery run right down before charging it up completely, thus hopefully keeping it going as long as possible. However I had about £85 extra to pay in March for a (very good) repair to a chipped tooth, and the bill today was £110. :eek: I'm wondering if a sneaky start to dental insurance in six months' time, plus moving my annual appointment up a month, will make it all cheaper in the long term. My costs have gone from roughly £1 a week averaged over the year to nearer £4.

Other than that, I took a list to the shops and got everything on it plus a couple of bits that looked nice/cheap/unnecessary. Bargain oranges in the greengrocers (plus a free carrier bag), half price dishwasher cleaner in W!lkos (so I got two), more coffee sachets on offer etc.

Spends:
Medical (dentist/toothpaste) £111.00
Housekeeping £13.23
Pets £0.99
MS stuff:
Savings by going to greengrocer and W!lkos not supermarket for some things
Toothpaste from £ shop.
Coffee under half price so stocked up and will continue to do while the offer runs as I have a sachet coffee every day.
Wombled 28p
10th coin savings pot 45p
Confession time:
Dentist is getting really expensive - kind of worth it in that this one seems good, but I must be able to cut costs somehow and still stay with this particular dentist?
Ahem! Treated myself to chocolate. Don't tell the dentist!

I now need to start reading throught the paperwork for the new credit card. The sooner I do it, the sooner I can have my savings earning 5%.