I've had to change the amount I put into savings. Well, as of Saturday it will change. I've decreased it by 18gbp; I'm now saving thirty pounds each pay period (Four-weekly) I still dream of paying back the money I withdrew this year - that's why I increased it in the first place - and having five hundred pounds in it, but hopefully next year.

Paying Hubby's credit card each month has added to the budget (thirty something pounds). I hate withdrawing from savings so I thought it made sense to decrease it.

In other news, hubby's birthday is fast approaching. When I got him the tv from my rewards in April/May, I said no presents on his birthday since that is a big enough gift. As it turns out, I've bought him a game he wanted and a book. I'll be making a cheesecake too. I'm going to get SG to help bake the cheesecake and blow up some balloons. We might get a takeaway, I'll see.

I've got two different savings funds to keep track of now. I was going to write it down in a notebook, but thought I'd keep track on here too. They're in the same savings account.

EF:

125.11
+19.50

________
144.61

Holiday Fund: 40.00

Tota savings: 184.61

During the first few months of the year when we were struggling, I withdrew money from the EF. Slowly trying to replace that.

I was feeling upbeat until I checked my credit card statement this morning: I got a late payment fee! I can't believe I let this happen! Apparently it only takes that to ruin my mood. I'm getting over it now.

I paid both of hubby's catalogues yesterday. Minimum payments are about 160.xx now in total. I also paid 30 to one of hubby's buy now pay later items. I'll be so happy the day that I can stop using that phrase.

I took SG shopping for a princess outfit for the birthday party that's coming up. While there I also bought her a few other things. Next on the list is a little present for the birthday girl. I'm thinking crafts,something small.

I've increased my weekly savings deposits. I owe money to my emergency fund so this will help to pay it back.

I tried to add money to my Christmas savings card but the till wouldn't accept the transaction; if this happens again I'll just put the cash aside.

It's been a tough month. I've completely blown my very low budget of 80gbp for food shopping, withdrew some cash from savings and borrowed some money from my mum. Ugh.

I don't know how on earth I'll reach any of my goals if we keep on like this.

I redeemed 3.00 rewards from my survey today and I'm almost at enough Swagbucks for 5.00 PayPal. When these come through I'll put them towards Jason's cot that km paying off so I don't miss the deadline (29/4)and it gets added to my catalogue bill. I was debating whether to put it towards my credit card, bank of Scotland, but this is more important right now,

I'm thinking from June onwards I'll put any snowflakes towards Christmas shopping.

I'm going to make a note of how much I owe to savings. I really don't know if I'll get it paid back this year. I hate owing myself money. I worked hard to save it.

I'm on the lookout for a new job, work is getting me down.

Hubby has been invited out by his friends. We really can't afford it but I want him to go because it's been over a year since he's seen them.

340.00 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 weekly deposit

_________________

352.00 New Balance

It's bittersweet though because it will be getting used soon. Such a pity.

322.00 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 weekly deposit

-------------

334.00 New Balance

318.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

----------------

320.00 New Balance

316.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------

318.00 New Balance

32.00 to go

304.00 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

------------------------

316.00 New Balance

302.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

--------------------

304.00 New Balance

46.00 to go to reach my goal. I'd love it if I could get this done in one swift deposit but I will have to wait for my automatic deposits.

300.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

--------------------

302.00 New Balance

292.78 Beginning Balance
+_1.11 Tesco coupon
+_3.75 Survey rewards
+_2.00 Weekly deposit
+_0.36 To even out amount

-----------------------------

300.00 New Balance

280.78 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------------

292.78 New Balance

278.78 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

----------------------

280.78 New Balance

276.78 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

--------------------------

278.78 New Balance

I was debating whether or not to update, even though there's not much to talk about. I think I was losing interest in my blog there but I don't want people to think I'd fallen off the bandwagon and was away racking up debt or spending my minimal savings (if I disappear). I realise it's only been a week since my last update. I guess I just think I'm at a point where I will talk about anything in this blog. Or, almost anything. I'm unsure whether this is a good or a bad thing

Anyway....

Spending has been all over the place. Seems to be the theme these last few weeks. Food shopping has not been helped with me buying some processed foods. And steak.

I got my haircut. It's a total change.

I haven't totaled up my snowflakes for August.

EF is now at 276.78.

I think that's it.

252.78 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Leftover money
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

_______________

274.78 New Balance

Today is payday, but I have a few things to update first.

My impulse spending still seems to be happening a lot. It's mostly something for lunch after work, or out for lunch with the kids, like we did on Monday. Mostly my reason for it is to get something to eat on the way home from work because I'm usually starving by the time I finish. I need to start packing something to eat on the way home.

Speaking of work, the trousers that I wear at work are becoming a bit of a nightmare. Or rather, they have been like that for a while and now it's really starting to get to me. On Monday night I decided that I was definetly going to buy a new pair after work on Tuesday. It means going into the shopping centre and I can never be bothered, but I thought I'd definetly make myself go then.

Well, it never happened. I was three hours into my shift at work when I fainted. The first aider at work decided to call an ambulance. They came out, spoke to me about my weight, blood sugar etc and told me to get an appointment with my doctor. I was lucky enough to get an appointment that day. When I seen the doctor he told me to keep a food diary and come back in a few weeks. As per recommendation, I've now joined my fitness pal to keep track of calorie intake.

I thought I'd lost my bank card but I found it this morning.

I recently qualified for one of those mum surveys. 5gbp reward, so I should have that soon. My Survey emailed me because I haven't been attempting surveys recently. I attempted a few so that's sorted now. My attention seems to be either on surveys or swagbucks, I don't have time for both.

Yesterday I checked my bank balance only to realise that I still had money left over before payday. I transferred some to my emergency fund .

Today I woke up and seen that my pay was less than normal, although I think I was late a few times. It's not drastic though so we'll be fine.

I paid minimum to BOS this morning. I've also paid Christmas savings. I think there's only one pay left of paying them, I'm going to double check. There's possibly only three or four more paydays until my huge buy now pay later (BNPL) item gets added on.

It's dh's birthday next month. It's over four weeks away so we'll be paid before then. Any meals out will come out of that pay, unless I manage to keep money aside from this one.

We've almost finished the last of the meat from the huge order I did online a while ago. I'll have to actually buy meat this pay period.

250.78 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------

252.78 New Balance

I'm looking forward to next week's deposit; it'll be payday weekend then.

246.58 Beginning Balance
_+1.50 Cheque
_+0.70
_+2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------

250.78 New Balance

I can't remember what the 70p is for.

P.S. thank you for all your kind comments on my last post. It has been deleted now in case you're wondering where it went. It was too depressing. But now I'm regretting deleting it, it seemed like a good idea this morning.

240.00 Beginning balance
+_4.58 disount
+_2.00 weekly deposit

--------------------

246.58 New Balance

227.40 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit
+_0.60 to even out amount

--------------------

240.00 New Balance

110.00 to go to reach my goal.

In other news, Dh may have lost his wallet and the new bus ticket. Yep, the one we just bought on Friday. I'm going to have a good look today for it.

224.50 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit
+_0.90 Survey rewards

--------------------

227.40 New Balance

I realised I haven't posted about my goals recently.

As of today, I have 227.40 in my Emergency Fund. This means that I have to add 122.60 to reach my goal of 350.

Credit card debt is sitting at 4635.22. Bank of Scotland is almost under 3k, sitting at 3006.13. If I get accepted for Nationwide's new credit card, which is offering me 0% on balance transfers for 26 months I think, I will transfer about 1000 I think.

Bank of Scotland's minimum payment is now at 56.xx. If I do get accepted for Nationwide, I will ideally work out a payment plan to get it paid off within the interest-free period (Ideally, Tesco too but I've only been paying the minimum, or just a bit more, to that)

Catalogue debt is slowly decreasing too. Minimum payment is still in the hundreds though, currently at 133.xx. At its highest I'm sure it was 180, maybe closer to 190. I am also working on paying off J's cot and mattress.

Come December though the BNPL items I couldn't afford to pay off will be added. I'm not looking forward to that, although with my extra payments it won't be as bad.

I think I'm pretty close to achieving my snowflakes goal of 150, so I may have made that too low. However, having the first three months of the year off definetly helped that.

I bought SG a new top, two pairs of leggings and slippers in the sale yesterday. That was less than ten pounds in total. She absolutely loves them, although I will now have to get another pair of slippers for nursery since these are her only pair in her new size.

216.20 Beginning Balance
+_6.30 Survey rewards, coupon, money owed
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

------------------------------

224.50 New Balance

I've been picking up little shops after work, usually between 10-12GBP.

A while ago, I redeemed 25 Paypal rewards from Swagbucks. I sent 10 to debt/EF but I kept the other 15 in the bank because I was a bit short. That was months ago, but I finally paid myself back this morning. And now my emergency fund looks better for it.

I've been feeling a bit rundown these past few days. I think I just need to start taking better care of myself.

I was talking to my co-worker the other day and I realised that he has the same birthday as Laura/KeepingItFrugal. At least, I think he does. 15th December, am I right?

I need to catch up on the blogs. I've been skimming but not reading properly if you know what I mean? I like to know what everyone's up to.

We're taking SG to get her feet measured tomorrow. It's been a while so I think she might be up a size. J isn't walking yet so he won't be getting new shoes yet.

214.20 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

-------------------------

216.20 New Balance

I know I need to increase this next year. I can't forever put 18 Pounds in every four weeks, but I don't want to upset debt payoff either. I'll figure something out.

Scfr's post the other day really hit home how bad my emergency fund is. I decided I should try and add more to it.

One of our deliveries came yesterday, this was all food for the pantry. I had used a discount code that I found on Facebook when ordering, but I didn't give it much thought. I checked my receipt and I saved 8.25. I've added it all to the emergency fund, breaking the norm of only adding 30%.

So, it now looks like this:

205.95 Beginning Balance
+_8.25 Delivery savings

------------------

214.20 New Balance

It's not much in the grand scheme of things, but I'm getting there.

192.45 Beginning Balance
+_1.50 Survey rewards
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

------------------------

205.95 New Balance

Finally, a number I like!

188.70 Beginning Balance
+_3.75 Survey rewards

---------------------

192.45 New Balance

I finally got around to redeeming a few snowflakes and applying them to debt and savings. My new debit card works.