My 'I Need A Diary' Diary!!

Anoneemoose · 5 September 2018 at 4:34PM

Good afternoon to anyone who might read this!

I've been wanting to do a diary for ages but always put it off in favour of reading other people's!:D

My aim for the diary is to control my willy nilly spends while bored - - and ultimately pay off our revolving credit card balance. We're lucky that it's not much compared with some, but obviously it would be better to get rid of it. Then I want to concentrate on building an emergency fund or possibly aim for both at the same time.

About me..there's me, Mr Anon, and 2 small Anons (12 and nearly 9) who live at home and then there's a bigger Anon who's just finished uni and moved in with his gf. Mr Anon works. I don't as I have ME and Fibromyalgia and had to give it up. Hence my boredom and subsequent spends.

One of the things I've been concentrating on since last pay day is cutting grocery and food spends because we tended to waste a lot I'm ashamed to say. In my defence, a lot of the times that was because of my illness symptoms, so we are experimenting with different methods of shopping and cooking.

That'll do for now but I shall post again later with some figures and specific aims.

Anon

Anoneemoose · 5 September 2018 at 6:55PM

So, our total debt at present is £7350.64. All on 0%...most of it until December 2020. Some is Argos BNPL, some of which is due in Nov and we’ll have it to pay off. I should maybe do a signature but I’ll have to learn how lol!

I’ll be honest and say that we’ll be spending some money in the next couple of months, including borrowing £1000 from DH’s parents. This is because we’re decorating both the hall, stairs and landing and our bedroom. And my in laws really don’t mind lending us it and say we can pay back however and whenever without any expectation. Obviously we wouldn’t not pay it back or even leave it too long but it’s good to have the option. We’re lucky they’re reasonably well off and are happy to do this. And we don’t mind as it’s towards the house.

We use YNAB and as part of this have allocated budgets for things. We are lucky we generally have a surplus (on paper anyway), but realistically we’ve been going over our budgets and then pay the overspend back with next month’s surplus. And then of course we rinse and repeat the cycle most months.

So my first mini goal is to aim to stay on budget at least. Then I will look at reducing the budgets if possible. One thing we’ve done previously is set ‘wishful thinking’ budgets which we have inevitably gone over which then led to ‘we’ve already gone over, what the heck’ spends.

Today’s postives are that I made homemade pizza for the rest of their teas and also a fridge bottom quiche for me, which I had for lunch. That used up a wrinkly pepper, some floppy spring onions and a few mushrooms.

I will be spending around £7 this evening as I am catching up with my friend and getting a takeaway..I usually just get chips, cheese and salad.

I also have to go to T3sco and get some baking supplies. I’m making my sister’s engagement cake for Saturday. I have already allocated the funds for this in YNAB under gifts as I am making it as a present to them.

Plan for tomorrow is that the kids will have McD’s (budgeted) and DH and I will have salmon and potatoes. I will also be baking the cakes and getting prepped. I shall be popping to Home Bargains to pick up cling film, foil and baking paper.

Anon

another_casualty · 5 September 2018 at 7:06PM

Howdy !
Nice diary . I never really bothered with diaries . For obvious reasons , I'm on diary no.3 :rotfl:
Wishing you all the best .

Anoneemoose · 5 September 2018 at 7:38PM

Ha, I may end up that way! Thank you for your good wishes.

I'm hoping that doing the diary will serve the purpose of relieving boredom too..if I'm posting here, I can’t be spending too. I hope anyway!:rotfl:

117pauline · 5 September 2018 at 8:02PM

Hi there

I too have fibromyalgia along with a host of other maladies.

My main suggestion is to cook in advance if at all possible. I tend to make tomorrow's meal as I finish off today's if you know what I mean.

Come up with arange of meals that you all enjoy then come up with a meal plan. When you feel well, try to double up some meals so you have something in reserve for those difficult days. However I am definitely not suggesting that you do loads all at once as that will only end in tears!

I use ad breaks as a way of getting even a little done.

But it sounds as though you have an aspirational rather than a true SOA. I recommend a spending diary where you record every little spend. If you can, add in your mood, time of day etc so you can identify your weak moments.

Come up with an attempt at your SOA and make some allowance for treats etc.

Good luck
Pauline

beanielou · 5 September 2018 at 10:23PM

Happy shiny new diary

Another one who does wee bits & bobs in the add breaks

Anoneemoose · 5 September 2018 at 10:54PM

117pauline wrote: »

Hi there

I too have fibromyalgia along with a host of other maladies.

My main suggestion is to cook in advance if at all possible. I tend to make tomorrow's meal as I finish off today's if you know what I mean.

Come up with arange of meals that you all enjoy then come up with a meal plan. When you feel well, try to double up some meals so you have something in reserve for those difficult days. However I am definitely not suggesting that you do loads all at once as that will only end in tears!

I use ad breaks as a way of getting even a little done.

But it sounds as though you have an aspirational rather than a true SOA. I recommend a spending diary where you record every little spend. If you can, add in your mood, time of day etc so you can identify your weak moments.

Come up with an attempt at your SOA and make some allowance for treats etc.

Good luck
Pauline

I’m hoping my first time at multi quoting works!! Thank you for the tips. It’s much appreciated. I’m sorry to hear you’re a sufferer too.

I can’t batch cook and freeze sadly because one of my ME symptoms is a hypersensitive sense of smell and nausea and I actually cannot stand the smell of cold (defrosted) food...it makes me retch and puts me off eating. That being said, I have been using my oven’s slow cook function regularly as I can pretty much chuck things in on a morning. Sometimes Mr Anon will peel and chop and I just put it all together and switch on. And the good thing is it’s not risky if I’m having a really bad day because it can be left.

We do record all transactions on YNAB so that’s a spending diary, however it doesn’t track if for example we take cash out for a takeaway, what we do with the leftover change. Most of the time though, it will be DH’s lunches. He usually gets a sandwich for a £1 from work.

I have done an SOA, although I’m not sure it’s still saved, but I’ll have a look. I daren’t post it on here because it contains a lot of extravagance!:eek: Mainly things like I get my nails done every other week..and I know this is an unnecessary luxury but it serves the purpose of getting me out of the house and having a cuppa and a chat with the girl who does them. She’s a friend of a friend. I don’t have many friends left now, I lost a lot when I got ill and left work. It’s upsetting but it is what it is and I can’t dwell too much otherwise it uses precious energy.

beanielou wrote: »

Happy shiny new diary

Another one who does wee bits & bobs in the add breaks

Thank you for popping in! I do try and do things in short bursts too. I went through a phase of trying to get everything done first thing but then I’d be broken afterwards. I’m getting better at pacing but it’s not always easy or even possible when you have littlish people!

Well, tonight’s a first for me. I went to T3sco and only came out with I needed. I picked up a gorgeous skirt but then put it back!! Normally I would wander round and pick up things that ‘might come in handy’.

I’m going to aim for some NSDs, however, when I refer to them, I will mean any unecessary spend days. As this is where my problem lies. Anything that’s budgeted for (like petrol for example) will be classed as necessary because we can’t do without it.

I had a lovely catch up with my friend. I spent £7.39. Also, T3sco have stopped doing their basic brand of chocolate which I normally use in ganache, so I will have to use Aldi’s which is good, but not always available or quite as reliable. It will however save me money as it’s only 30p per bar instead of 55p so that’s a bonus.

Anoneemoose · 6 September 2018 at 4:32PM

Today’s been good. No spends apart from the budgeted McD’s for the littler Anons. I haven’t yet been out for my baking supplies, so will probably pop to Home B@rgains later. And A1di is on the way. That will be a test..not picking up things I ‘need’ in those two shops!! Mini challenge for me.

I baked the bottom cake of my bottom tier today (it’s going to be a double height bottom tier with a normal sized but smaller diameter top tier) - with a little help from DH..I need supervision with oven and things. It’s a good job he knows my recipes!:D

I’m feeling rather wiped out today so have been resting other than the cake.

I stupidly forgot to get the salmon out of the freezer so will have to think of something else to have to eat. I think I have stuff in for pasta bake of some sort so we will probably do that. Normally this would be the kind of situation where takeaway would be resorted to, but I’ve come to the conclusion I’m not actually that keen on takeaways.

Anoneemoose · 10 September 2018 at 9:28PM

Wow! What a busy weekend. I spent a lot of time finishing my sister’s cake. Then it was the party on Saturday evening. We didn’t spend a massive amount on drinks etc as my MIL came too and insisted on paying for lots!! I don’t drink at all so I did the driving. It was a very late night and I have been paying for it since. I pretty much did nothing at all yesterday and today. I’m suffering with lots of pain and other symptoms, but it was actually worth it to have a normal night out for once. Mr Anon had a few shandies! He doesn’t drink often so it was nice for him to let his hair down.

Budget wise, I spent a few pounds in H0me Bargains today, on actual needs. Soap, teaspoons (because they seem to end up with the odd socks:rotfl:), cling film (because I didn’t get it the other night and wasn’t paying £4 in Sainsbugs for 10m when it’s £1.29 for a 60m refill in HB).

I’ve been sticking to my groceries budget and we’ve been cooking. I do prefer it to takeaway.

My aim for the short term is to stick to our budgets as they are and up to now that’s going well. We have a meal out on Saturday night, for our nephew’s 21st. It shouldn’t be massively expensive though. We’re just having mains and cake (which yours truly will be making).

I uploaded a couple of receipts to Shoppix and am very nearly at a £20 payout! Will probably get either an Amazon voucher or PayPal. I read about some other similar apps so will have a look at those.

Anoneemoose · 13 September 2018 at 11:37AM

Hi diary!

So, I added up our debt and it's a bit more than we thought. I said 'about £7000', but as you can (hopefully) see from my signature, it's actually nearer £8000. Things are a bit upside down still with the house but once we get organised, I am going to try and find things to sell. I never seem to have much luck with selling things as I either don't make anything or things don't sell. I will maybe have a look on the eBay forums and see if I can pick up some tips.

Having said that, I have already sold my Nutribullet -- and hopefully a piece of caking equipment. I'm thinking of streamlining all of my cake stuff, so hopefully that will get me some pennies. What I make from those will go straight to paying off one of the cards.

CC 2 in my signature is an Argos card, BNPL, due in November, so £586 will be getting paid off that then. I will allocate funds in the next couple of months.

I have had a few NSDs (non essential or not budgeted for). My groceries budget is still coming in under, with plans for the whole of next week, so fingers crossed that will stay that way.

All positive at the minute - I just need the house sorting!:eek:

*slavetothevibe* · 13 September 2018 at 12:04PM

great new diary! i look foward to reading

xx

My 'I Need A Diary' Diary!!

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