Trying to Save

I just spoke to my uncle. He thinks he has the key that I need to get the wheel off. He's going to come up tomorrow and check. I hope it is, I don't want to get my hopes up though.

I packed breakfast, lunch and snacks 100% today so the challenge is going well.

Just went and paid the credit card bill online. Next on the list is road tax.

Uneventful day, got a lift home from work so that saved me bus fare (£2)

Hubby went to the bank and paid the washing machine payment for me (I was going to go during my lunch)

Today went well. Packed 100%. Before work I bought cappucino sachets that I can have instead of drinking tea all the time. £1 for 8 sachets, I thought that was a good deal. Instead of having cereal this morning I had a pain au chocolat (I think that's what it's called) with my cappucino, it was nice for a change. There's no more left so will probably be back to having cereal tomorrow unless I think of something else.

I had to get the bus to work this morning. Before I started I picked up some crackers and cereal bars to snack on during the week when I'm at work.

Today was my third day of the lunch challenge and I took all my snacks and lunch with me. For my afternoon tea I had the crackers that I had bought this morning with some tea. I drank a lot of tea today, but at least it was all free.

I was wondering today if people notice that I'm not spending anything. The woman that I took my break with bought a big breakfast then she bought her lunch, and her snacks too. In fact, she rarely brings in her own lunch. I actually thought I might just end up buying something since her cooked breakfast usually looks more appealing than my cereal. Luckily, I didn't. I'm so pleased with myself.

I went to the garage this morning to order the replacement key that I will need. It's going to take two weeks (ten working days). The guy can't order it until Monday so it's really two weeks from Monday. It cost me £38.19

Came home to find a letter from the DVLA, a reminder about road tax. It will cost £85 for six months. Thankfully I have some money put aside for it.

Once I get the tyre changed I'll need to look into getting the exhaust fixed, but that will have to wait.

I'll need to get the bus to work for the next two weeks. Tomorrow will be the worst since it's a Sunday, I'll be at work earlier than I'm meant to but it's either that or I'll be late if I get the bus that's due after that. I'll need to get a weekly bus ticket too...

Before I start work tomorrow I will buy some snacks for the Lunch Challenge. I get bored eating the same things all the time.

I don't know if I will accomplish all of this but this is what I would like to achieve:

1. pack breakfast, lunch and snacks at work for 16 days
2. track spending
3. add to savings (it's been a while)

Today was going well until I was on my way home. I must have went over a blade or something because my front tyre is flat. I tried to take it off but I need to get the replacement key for the wheel. Also, I think I will need to get my exhaust fixed, it's making a noise. Not good at all. I've found a dealer online that I can go to so I will go there tomorrow to try and get the key for it.

I worked 5 hours today, so in total that's only 9 hours extra in this pay. I get paid tomorrow. Next week I am working 8 and a half hours extra so July's pay should be better.

I didn't have lunch at work today since I finished at 11am.

Hubby worked 5 hours extra today too.

Hope everyone has a good day!

Breakfast: cereal and a cup of tea
Lunch: tuna roll, yoghurt, apple, bottle of water
Snacks: snickers

That's two days in a row I have brought everything in. I like the feeling knowing that I haven't spent anything.

I'm going to have to buy something else for next week's snacks though, as much as I like chocolate I can't have it all the time.

For the June Lunch Challenge I have set these rules for myself:

1. bring own breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack
2. no additional spending

I will do this for 16 days since my week is a 4-day week.

Today was the first day of it. Before I started work this morning I bought a pack of 80 teabags for 28p. I'll keep them in my locker. For breakfast I brought in cereal, and had tea with that. For lunch I had a sandwich, yoghurt and a sweet. For my afternoon break I had a cup of tea and a packet of sweets that I had bought a few days ago.

I worked an extra shift today. The sales at work have been really good so there was money to spend. I've also got a few shifts over the next couple of weeks too.

Hubby worked extra today too.

It was from my catalogue. I haven't ordered from them in months. They're offering me £15 off my next order of £50 or more. The catalogue bill came at the same time. My minimum monthly payment is the lowest it's been since before I ordered at Christmas last year, I'm not adding to it now.

I hope it's nice on Thursday. It was a lovely day outside and I was stuck at work for nine hours. I spoke to my manager and it doesn't look like I'll get overtime this week, so I'm hoping that it will be nice on Thursday.

Never spent anything today.

Still haven't got credit card bill yet but I'm expecting it soon.

I'm back at work tomorrow morning. I've had a good few days off. We went to our friend's for dinner last night, ended up just getting a takeaway.

Hubby got some overtime today, he worked five extra hours. As long as one of us is getting some extra money i don't mind.

Bought my little cousin's birthday present today. Spent £9.22 on her (including card and wrapping paper) I bought her a nice summery dress. I'm going to post it on Monday since I'm not brave enough to drive to visit them yet.

Hubby phoned when I finished work. He wanted me to pick up a few things - something for us for dinner tomorrow, beer for him and drink for me for Friday and coleslaw to go with the salad we're having tonight. £17 later and I was done. I could kick myself, I really wanted to keep the money for important things. I guess I can't do anything now, just thought I would have a moan about it.

Also, paid the woman that I work with the sponsor money that I owed her.

The only good thing about today was that I never spent a penny on my breaks. I took my own breakfast and lunch like I had planned so tomorrow will be the same.

I spent £7.70 in total today. I put £2 on my card at work and then spent £5.70 after work in Asda. I bought a tub to put cereal in to take to work, cereal bars for work, two packs of snack pack biscuits (4 in each pack) which I will take to work. I heard today that they're raising the prices in the colleague canteen so I'm going to take my own breakfast from now on (usually I buy from the canteen). I always take my own lunch. I also bought a new tub of cream since the one I'm using now is almost done.

Returned the top today, exchanged it for a pair of trousers. The cashier gave me £1 back so that was good.

Seen a few tops I could get my cousin for her birthday so will probably pick them up soon.

I sponsored a woman I work with £5 for the Race For Life. I'll need to give that to her tomorrow.

That basically sums up my day so far.

Bought me and hubby breakfast and 2 large coffees = £9.54

Went to a clearance shop, Hubby found a pair of shorts for me for £2 so picked them up, I found a top. Top is too big so going to take it back and exchange it for something else. £10 spent

Hubby bought me my wine and chocolates for tonight while he's out. I'm going to enjoy them.

Hope everyone has a good day!

I have finally paid back MIL, which means another goal for this year has been met. I've forgotten how to edit it though, so my list of goals hasn't been updated yet.

I paid two bills online before 7 this morning - then I went back to sleep. I really only woke up to check my bank balance.

Hubby and I haven't done much today, been lazing about. He has a night out tomorrow, I'll be home probably watching a dvd with a glass of wine.

So what's coming up this month?

1) Meal at friend's house
2) My cousin's birthday
3) Cinema with my mum to see Sex and the City 2

I think that's all, hopefully I won't be spending too much this month (well I'm going to limit my spending)

Have a good day!

That was how much overtime I got today. Hubby worked 4 hours extra too. I'm going to try and do as much as possible this month. It was a long four hours, there wasn't much to do. I'm just glad I managed to get some overtime, I guess that's all that's important.

I'm off for two days now, I won't be doing much though, just taking it easy.

I'm going to keep track of my spending this month. Well for four weeks until my next payday, just to see how I'm doing.

I'm glad May is here. I know that one of my goals will be accomplished (paying back MIL). I will be clear of that debt when I get paid next week.

Hubby and I went on a long walk today with my mum and her dog. It was nice. I'm tired now, could do with having dinner soon (it's 5pm here)

Filled up petrol, well it's almost a full tank. Wrote down my current mileage so I can keep track of how many miles I get out of it. I have no idea just now. All I know is that it was nearly three weeks ago that it was full.

Here's hoping May will be a good month!

Got my new credit card the other day - or should I say we got our new credit card? Hubby is the additional cardholder. He went shopping and managed to spend quite a bit, and he withdrew £10 from the ATM. I didn't find out until that night (I was working). I told him that withdrawing money from a cash machine with your credit card is a big NO! Never do it. I told him it affects your credit rating (which I'm sure I read somewhere that it does). He had me really stressed out. I told him we will clear the balance during the interest free period so I am hoping that it will be ok. It was his first time using a credit card so it could have been worse.

I keep on saying this but I am going to apply for tax credits soon. We will save the money since it's money we wouldn't have had anyway.

Eight days till payday. I think I will just make it with the skin of my teeth.

Plan for next month:

-sort out tax credits
-money aside for road tax
- get overtime

There's probably more things I need to do but I'll leave it at that for now.

I got mail today, well it was yesterday, it got sent to my mum's house and I got it today. Anyway, it was a good letter, saying that we had to fill in a form and let them know if we were still interested in the shared equity scheme that we applied for last year (the funds fell through last year, I got a letter about it the day before the wedding) I'm going to fill in the form today and post it (I also need to let them know my new contact details). I really hope that we have some luck.

Oh, the shared equity scheme helps first-time buyers. However, since we are not renting from the council already or a landlord we aren't in a priority group. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this works out for us.

I worked an extra shift today, it was only 5 hours. Hubby started earlier too. This will count towards next month's pay, which is two weeks away. I'm hoping May will be a good month for me, I will finally have paid back MIL. My catalogue bill is going down too. The only thing that's taking ages is saving but I'm sure I'll get there.

No other news to report really. Cancelled life insurance appointment today.

We have an appointment at the bank next week to discuss life insurance. I was at the bank yesterday for my annual review and she asked me if me and hubby would like an appointment. I don't like to think about either one of us dying but I guess you have to talk about it and get something sorted.

I'm getting another credit card. The bank offered me it. It's a lower APR than Capital One and they're giving me 0% interest for 9 months. I'm going to transfer the balance on Capital One to the new card. It's a low balance, just my first month's car insurance.

No other news to report, still in the same position money wise as last time.

Have a good day!

I've been slacking off... meant to update when I got paid but decided not to. The reason being is that I don't have any good news to report.

Got paid on Friday. Went out for a meal for my friend's birthday. Me and Hubby both spent all of the money we had with us. Not good - I wanted to come back with some money.

On Friday Hubby had a funeral to go to. We went to his gran's grave after the funeral. We didn't find out until the day before the funeral when it was so that was more unplanned spending.

Saturday we got invited to the pub at the last minute. More spending. We enjoyed ourselves though.

I checked my bank balance and after my direct debits come out I will only have £9 left. Nine pounds! It's crazy, I worked overtime last month (only two shifts but still) There's money in the bank just, it's just allocated for other things.

The only good news I have to report is that I added to my Christmas savings and I only have £70 left to pay back MIL and then that's her out of the way. That won't be until next month though.

Hope everyone's having a good day! I'm off to read your blogs now.

It's my day off today, so I am going to try and get a lot done. It's not even 9am and I have already registered my Shell reward card online so I can get points when I fill up. When I've got enough points I will get money off vouchers which I can use towards fuel.

I need to phone my mobile phone company and cancel web browsing pack. The last time I tried I couldn't get through.

I'm not up to much today so it should be a NSD. Will be taking Hubby to work later then getting him tonight.

Hope everyone has a good day!

I found out last week that they didn't need me in work today so I was looking forward to having today off, especially since a few weeks ago I thought I would be working on Easter Monday. I get paid normal time for being off anyway, if I had went to work I would have gotten time and a half so I'm not really missing out.

While DH was sleeping this morning I was looking at my budget. I typed in everything I spend into a sheet on a website and apparently I am leaving myself with £66 spare, roughly, each month. I'm not too sure exactly how accurate this is.

I hate that I'm not getting very far with my savings. 4% progress is so depressing. Once I have paid back MIL I will have that money to use towards savings but that won't be until next month; road tax is due at the end of June.

I haven't used the car today or spent anything so overall it has been a good day.

I'd never heard of this show until I read about it in Retire@50's blog. I googled it a few minutes ago. I'm going to have a really good read at what they say, and the advice they give. As far as I know the UK doesn't have a show like this. I don't know if it will teach me anything I don't already know from being a member of SA and reading all of your blogs but I'll take a look and see. So, thank you Retire@50 for mentioning it in your blog. I look forward to reading how you're getting on

I've noticed everyone is adding updates since the first quarter of the year is over. Here's mine:

*Get a used car - got one

*Emergency fund is sitting at a measly £20. Goal is £500. I've got a lot to do towards this.

*Pay back MIL - this will be done by May

*Clear washing machine debt - have been paying back every month but it's not clear

*Clear catalogue - have been paying more than the minimum but it's not cleared.

All in all, I'm not doing well. I will try harder this quarter.

I took Hubby to work and I'm picking him up tonight.

I really should be catching up with my ironing and housework but thought I would read some blogs first.

I'm going to my Mum's for dinner later.

My new driving licence came today. I should have updated it a while ago so I'm glad it's here, no more worrying.

There's a pile of washing waiting to be put on, I really should go and do it, I'm just in a lazy mood.

No financial news to report. Today would have been a No Spend Day but I think I'll get some petrol tonight when I pick Hubby up.