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Archive for July, 2010

added to savings!

July 29th, 2010 at 08:08 pm

It's the night before payday. I was just checking my bank balance online. I had £49.85 left so I transferred £29.85 to savings. The other £20 will be used to pay the deposit for the tribute night (hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow)

weekend update

July 26th, 2010 at 07:25 pm

We went to see Toy Story 3 yesterday then we went bowling and had a few drinks. I spent all of my £30.

Last night we went to visit one of our friend's who has just bought a house. It was a late night but good.

I'm going to take my mum to see a Beatles tribute in September. I'll need to pay the ten pounds deposit for each person this week.

Checked my bank balance, and once I take out the £20 for the deposit I will only have £29 left. My phone bill didn't come out automatically so had to phone and pay that today. Hope its sorted by next month.

Trying to keep spending to a minimum for rest of the week. I've got three more shifts left to do this week before payday and I've been buying snacks at work. Next month I will try the lunch challenge again and record my spending. I bought in a small notebook that fits in my bag perfectly so that will make life easier. It'll be even easier to record if I don't spend anything. However, life isn't that simple.

Tomorrow's plans

July 23rd, 2010 at 07:49 pm

We're going to see Toy Story 3 tomorrow. DH wants to see it in 3D. He's treating me. I'm buying us sweets to take into the cinema.

Afterwards we're going bowling. I'm paying. I have £30 in an envelope that my mum gave me when I went shopping for her (I paid for it, she gave me the money back). I was going to put it into my bank account but I will just use it tomorrow instead. All in all, I'm hoping the day won't cost too much.

What's everyone else up to?

impulsive visit

July 22nd, 2010 at 04:09 pm

I went to my mum's for dinner last night and, impulsively today I went over. It was only for a few hours. I had lunch with her then we took the dog for a walk. She lives alone and doesn't see a lot of people. I wish she got out more though. Her friend, who she hasn't spoken to in a while, is going to phone her tonight. I just feel bad for her. She is having problems with her neighbours. She is thinking about moving to a hopefully better area. My mum spends a lot of time alone in the house so I think that makes it worse, I think if she got out more she would feel better.

I've been slacking

July 21st, 2010 at 10:51 pm

I am failing the Lunch Challenge this month. I've decided I will try harder next month.

Speaking of next month, it's going to be busy. This week two of my friends got in touch with me. They both want to meet up. It's been ages since I seen them. One of them just moved to London, she's coming home for the holidays though. My other friend lives nearer just we've both been busy. It's her birthday in a few weeks. I have another friend who is due her baby next month too. August is going to be a busy month.

weekend update

July 18th, 2010 at 06:38 pm

We went to DH's friends house on Friday. We ended up not going to a club. Spent £9 on drink to take there and £20 for the taxi home.

Saturday morning I went to the garage. £69.30

Bought a few things today before work. £2

Not doing well on lunch challenge, I think that's because I haven't blogged in the past few days.

I still have money left over that I withdrew on Friday. I need to give a girl at work sponsor money (£5), I sponsored a woman in my department money too and a girl at work is leaving, so that will be £3.£8 isn't too bad. I've got £17 in my purse right now so at least I will have money left over.

I finally found out how much I have left to pay off the washing machine: £127.55. I requested more payment slips and they sent me a letter with my balance on it, which was good.

tyres, overtime

July 14th, 2010 at 07:23 pm

My tyres are causing me problems. One tyre has a slow puncture, the other is my spare and I should have replaced it since I think it's been about a month that it's been on. I'll need to get them replaced. I took the bus to work today. I'll need to go to the garage and get them sorted. Honestly, having a car is brilliant until there's problems with it. I think I'm going to have to put it on the dreaded credit card. I mean there's money in the bank but I don't know how much it's going to cost.

Lunch challenge isn't going too well. Bought breakfast at work yesterday. Packed everything today.

I've got some overtime for next week. Hopefully my pay will be good.

general update

July 11th, 2010 at 06:44 pm

Lunch challenge going well. Packed everything today.

DH told me we've been invited out on Friday. First to a friend's house then to a club after. It's been ages since we've been out, I just wish I'd known about it earlier so I could have budgeted for it. We're having drinks at a friend's first so I'm hoping the night won't cost too much, although when I think about it we will need money for: transport (getting to their house, and to the club and back), drink and money at the club. I always feel like we're the only ones who are watching our money, DH's friends always seem to have plenty of money.

Speaking of Friday, I was arguing with my mum today cos I can't go with her to the hospital on Friday. It's an annual review because she gets benefits. I told her a few weeks ago I was working so I couldn't go. She has a map and they've told her how to get there. She's not happy with me, but I've made it clear I'm not going. I hope she finds the place. I am a bit worried. I told her to leave in plenty of time.

8 hours spent doing nothing!!

July 9th, 2010 at 09:35 pm

Ok that may be a slight exaggeration. I done some overtime at work today, eight hours to be exact,and it was spent showing customers into the fitting room and helping them. Eight hours. It was really boring, especially in the morning when the shop was quiet. On the other hand, I did get paid for basically doing nothing. I thought it was going to be worse than it actually was.

Came home from work to find DH tidying out the cupboard in our room. We found some spare change in a tin so I added that to the change in the drawer. I'm going to take it to the bank soon.

On another note, spoke to DH. He is going to continue to pay back MIL and I will try and save as much as I can.

Do you know what's helping me to save? The Lunch Challenge? Packed 100% today. Bought a multipack bar of chocolate bars for £1 this morning so that will stop me from buying chocolate at work.

Time to myself

July 8th, 2010 at 06:30 pm

Since my last post, I've had some time to myself. I took both DH and MIL to work so the house was empty. I watched Gilmore Girls, made something to eat, done some ironing. I really should have hoovered but I haven't gotten round to that yet. I'm going to talk to DH when he gets in tonight, or should I say when I pick him up tonight.

Right now, DH owes MIL £3k. It's debt in her name from credit cards and loans, which DH has used. I think DH should try and pay back as much as possible to her while we're here. The other night she told him she can't afford to pay back his debt anymore. I don't know her financial situation but does that mean that she is only paying the minimum payment/interest on the credit cards? This debt is from years ago. This is how it's broken down:

Loan: £1000
CC1: £94.99
CC2: £512.97

MIL: £1372*

*This figure comes from years of MIL buying things for DH and writing down what he owes her e.g. beer, games etc. As it turns out, she didn't write what he had paid her back...

I'm going to say to DH that he should clear CC2 first since it's the smallest. He had a small catalogue bill which he cleared so it shouldn't be hard to clear CC1. He gave her £180 the other day so I'm going to get him to find out where it went then I'll write it down.

In theory, while he is paying her back I can be saving as much as possible. I added my savings to my sidebar to motivate me. There's nothing like seeing other SA blogs to motivate me to save.

Need some motivation/inspiration

July 8th, 2010 at 10:34 am

I don't know why I'm in this mood, but I am feeling annoyed and irritated.DH is annoying me, our room is annoying me, not having our own place, hardly any savings, the fact we've been here for so long... I could go on. It is driving me crazy that we don't have our own place. I was looking at places online last night and DH wanted us to go for a place that was £800pcm ("that's only £400 each"), it was a four-bedroomed house! I told him no way, there's only two of us. He says he doesn't want to live in a one-bedroom flat cos we're already living in one bedroom. I don't want to live in a one bedroom flat either but I do want out of here.

There's a list of things I need to do today:

- post birthday card
- post tax credits form
- post letter requesting more payment slips for machine
- pay credit card
- pay washing machine
- do ironing
- tidy room
- order prescriptions

I need to get those things done today, I'm working tomorrow.

I ended up buying chocolate at work yesterday. I don't think I'll meet my July goal of 16 days but I'll try.

Long, long day...

July 6th, 2010 at 06:18 pm

My day started at 5am this morning when I woke up. I take DH to work on a Tuesday so had to wake him up. I dropped DH off at work for 6am. Then I picked up some shopping for my mum (she wasn't feeling well so I offered to get it for her).

After I'd done the shopping I dropped it off at my mum's and had breakfast with her. Then we walked the dog. Then I went to work.

The rest of the day was spent at work - although no money was actually spent I'm pleased to report. Ok so maybe it wasn't that busy but it sure felt it.

Hoping for another NSD tomorrow!

A NSD!

July 5th, 2010 at 06:51 pm

I never spent a penny today. Those are the best days.

Packed 100%. That is one day to add to my lunch challenge. I'm aiming for 16 so 15 more to go...

Got some overtime this week (7 and a half hours)

Nothing much else to report. Going to try and spend as little as possible this week.

a little bit

July 4th, 2010 at 02:44 pm

I added a little bit to savings today. £10 to be exact. I'll see where I am in a few weeks and add some more. It felt good just adding that little amount and it took me seconds to do it.

Quiet weekend

July 3rd, 2010 at 11:47 am

It will be a relatively quiet weekend. Went to the cinema with MIL last night. Spent £4.75. MIL paid for the tickets (it's my turn next time)

It was payday yesterday. I paid my catalogue bill online and transferred money to MIL.

I try and use the envelope system for some things. Every four weeks I put money into an envelope towards my road tax, one for Christmas savings and one for if I have bought anything from the Avon catalogue (but that's just to make sure I don't spend the money) I tried using it for petrol but I usually just end up using my bank card or the cash I have on hand.

I seen a few things yesterday that I would like to buy friends and family. However, I didn't buy anything. I've got a few more things to pay this month, and I need to put money into savings.

I'm going to start putting money on an Asda (Walmart) Christmas savings card. It will mean I have a bit extra to spend on Christmas. I will start this month.

July

July 1st, 2010 at 03:05 pm

Well July is off to a good start. I worked four hours this morning and managed to pick up an extra shift next week.

I think I will continue the Lunch Challenge this month. I will have the same goal as before: 16 days packingf 100%. I'll keep the rules the same too:

- pack everything for breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack
-no additional spending

I think the June Lunch Challenge made me conscious of how I'm spending my money at work. Also, the no-spend week really controlled my spending.

It's payday tomorrow. My bank account is now fully switched over, just need to close my old account. Tomorrow's pay should go into my new bank account.

I noticed today that I'm spending more money by renewing my road tax every six months rather than every 12 months. I'm going to aim to saved £150 by December so it can be used to pay it off in full.

I should have made a few appointment last month but I've been slacking. I'll need to get them sorted soon, hopefully today. Actually, that's what I'll do.

This weekend should be spendless since I haven't got anything planned. However, I'm not back at work until Monday so I might end up doing something.