Oops I did it again, I played with my cards!

armchairexpert · 23 May 2017 at 3:00AM

Hi Emmie, welcome back! It looks like just by tracking things you'll do fine if you (on paper!) have that much surplus.

Another area you haven't mentioned but jumped out at me is 60 quid a month on hair?

emmie26 · 23 May 2017 at 6:50AM

Haha I thought I'd got away with that

Last time I was here my hair expense was the first thing to get noticed, I know I spend a lot but it is vastly reduced from my previous hairdressers. I have a mobile hairdresser come to my house and have a cut and highlights of my very long, very thick hair. She also cuts the children's hair for this amount as well.

I am trying to go 7 weeks possibly 8 (doubt it) between appointments which will reduce this a little. However my hair is where all my magical powers are kept, it is my mojo, so I need to keep it :rotfl:

Very short post yesterday because I was sooo busy.

In between work (9-5), cleaning, piano lesson, cooking and then an evening meeting, I didn't sit down until after 10pm.

I did speak to the piano teacher about halving the number of lessons, he obviously wasn't keen however I have said I'm traialling it. Afterwards my son did some quick maths and said it was a no-brainier as it would save us over £800 a year, which he quickly calculated could pay for a week in Wales and a weekend at hoseasons :T to be honest I was thinking debt repayments, but whatever keeps him motivated;)

Right I'm going to get out of bed and get myself ready before the children get up so I've got time to do a bit of cleaning before work, I've got the mother over for tea tonight and need to get the slow cooker on.

emmie26 · 25 May 2017 at 7:02AM

Well Wednesday was a NSD.

Yesterday was definitely not :mad:
Before work I dodged a bullet. My daughter said she needed flowers for the May procession at school. In previous years I have nipped to the co-op on the way into school, but not yesterday! Yesterday I cut her three branches of a shrub in the garden :rotfl:it was the only thing flowering in my defence. She was quite proud of them though and people kept asking her if she had picked them herself, truth is she couldn't pick them as you needed secateurs :rotfl:

It did all go down hill from there though

1. My son told me he had no money on his dinner money card at school. He only has dinners once a week and I thought I'd topped it up enough at the beginning of the month but obviously not.

2. I needed to buy a gift for my new baby nephew. I set myself a budget of £30 and did keep to it.

3. parking and a biscuit for DD hospital appointment. Parking was unavoidable, but biscuit could have been brought from home 50p wasted.

So all in all £42.30 spent yesterday. This is where I go wrong.

Today is also not going to be a nsd as I have a dental appointment before work.

I need to stay on the straight and narrow becasue I am a bit stressed at work at the moment, loads of court reports due very soon, I was working until 9pm last night and then had to quickly do some cub group planning and letters for tonight. In between I baked a cake for a work leaving party today. So it was after 10pm before I sat down with DH and had a g&t in the garden. It's times like these I feel like I deserve to be able to spend willy nilly with all the work I do.

I must stay strong and focused!

emmie26 · 25 May 2017 at 5:47PM

another non NSD unfortunately had to spend £35 at the dentist.

I am running dangerously low on makeup and toiletries as well, so I think I am going to have to get just a couple of bits before I go away next week. My son has just tried on his walking boots and said they are too tight and his toes are at the end :mad:so I will have to have a trip to sports direct.

In better news it is payday tomorrow, I am going to try and allocate money to different funds and then try and keep to whatever I have left, this will be hard when we are on holiday but I am determined. My aim is to reduce debt by £1000 this month - fingers crossed.

Kim_13 · 27 May 2017 at 10:19AM

emmie26 wrote: »

Using my time at piano lessons effectively I have just priced up mobile phone insurance, travel insurance and breakdown cover and price works out pretty much the same. My current account fees can be £12 a month if I don't go overdrawn at all during the month, so will try and stay in credit to save £3 a month.

Also forgot to answer previous question, I have paid for all holidays so these won't add anything else to the credit cards.

Nationwide FlexPlus offers insurances at £10 a month. There is a £100 interest free overdraft if you are approved and it pays 3% interest on any credit balance. Perhaps you could compare the cover provided by your existing account to the Nationwide one and see if it's a saving worth making. The current account switch service would deal with moving your payments if you went ahead.

117pauline · 27 May 2017 at 12:58PM

Hello there

It sounds as though you are very focused again on debt-bashing.

Just a couple of suggestions:

- Dentist. You don't appear to have included it in your budget

- Personal spends, ie make up etc

- Holiday fund for next year perhaps?

- Entertainment

- You mention saving for Christmas but it isn't on your SOA

I know you have been here before but do you think it would be worth going back to recording every single purchase for the next month, as you say you don't have a surplus although your budget thinks you do!!

I find going back to a spending diary really helps - when I am feeling stressed, fed up, been on holiday or those moments when my purse is empty.

My food spending has really reduced since I have gone back to a couple of shops a week rather than lots of little visits.

Good luck
Pauline

emmie26 · 28 May 2017 at 9:26AM

Thanks guys, I'll look into the other bank accounts available and see if there is anywhere I can save any pennies, that is a good idea!

I will update my SOA when I get home from my holibobs and make sure I allocate spends appropriately, it makes me feel a bit disillusioned when I have to spend money that isn't budgeted for but sometimes it's essentials.

Yesterday I spent £40 on make up and toiletries

£20 of that was on contact lenses solution, I am unfortunately allergic to preservative in ordinary solution so I have to have a specialist one that is £10 a bottle. £20 was on make up and face wash. Make up is a definite necessity I look like the walking dead without it, but I swapped from Est!e Lauder to rimmel yesterday and brought a foundation, concealer and eyeliner for under £20, this compares to nearly £40 for my usual foundation.

I went and did an Aldi shop before we came away so we had essentials and I was glad I did? We are in the lakes and the cost of groceries in booths is :eek:. We are here with extended family and there are 9 of us, each family has put £20 into the kitty and this is for groceries throughout the week (it will probably need topping up). Last night I spent £20 of it getting a few pizzas and garlic bread for tea, that was served with some pasta, olives and nibbles that I'd brought from home and all in all was a vast reduction from the alternative plan for tea which was a meal out.

Right I'm off to get dressed and get some bacon on for brekkie, it is very cloudy today but fingers crossed dry, so we are off for 7 mile walk with a picnic lunch. That's if everybody gets out of bed!!

System · 28 May 2017 at 9:45AM

Not sure where you are, if in Windermere use the smaller supermarkets Tesco, coop and sainsburys. Have a lovely holiday in my favourite place .

Toni'sfriend · 28 May 2017 at 3:46PM

If you're in the Keswick area there is an Aldi in Penrith. About a 40 minute drive but if there are nine of you would definitely be worth it. Booths is lovely but expensive.

emmie26 · 28 May 2017 at 11:48PM

Ooh those are good to know. I definitely think it would be worth a drive into Penrith to try and get some cheaper groceries.

Cumbria lass, the lakes is my favourite place on earth as well, you are very lucky to be so near. Today was cloudy to start but we went on a walk anyway and it really brightened up. We had some fantastic views over Derwent water, I've taken some photos but they are nothing compared with the actual view. I'm hoping we get to do another walk tomorrow although I think it is going to rain

if it's not heavy we'll do a small one.

It has been a NSD today even on holiday. We had chicken, jacket potatoes and salad for tea and picnic for lunch. We have enough alcohol to open a pub so we should be all set. If it's a rainy day there is more chance of us spending money unfortunately, so fingers crossed for an ok day tomorrow.

Oops I did it again, I played with my cards!

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free