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.

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'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!

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.

Last month I tracked all of my outgoings. I haven't managed to do the same this month...

So how's March so far? I get paid every four weeks so I've got two weeks till payday. I'm just waiting for my first car payment to come out.

I put some money into savings this month (£20) However I haven't put anything to my Christmas savings this month - it's £15 a month. I really should have just put that money towards Christmas but I wanted to get a start on my emergency fund.

I'm going to cancel a web browsing pack that I have on my phone, I never use it so it's a waste of money.

For the first time ever, I wrote down all of my spending for the month. In the future I might just track every four weeks when I get paid. Anyway this is what it looked like:

anniversary meal: 40.00
capital one: 62.79
MIL: 260.00
washing machine: 20.00
Littlewoods: 60.00
car deposit: 100.00
monthly ticket: 63.00
Love Film: 14.99
ASDA: 69.27
misc: 21.52
hair: 40.00

Christmas savings: 30.00

I think March will be tough because it will be the first month that I'm paying for the car and insurance. Road tax is 150.00 for six months which is due in June so I'm going to put money aside for that.

It was payday yesterday. This morning I wrote down how much I had spent, and I suppose it wasn't too bad.

I gave MIL £100 towards the money I owe her (£270 to go till she is out of the way)

Cleared credit card balance.

Paid £60 to catalogue.
New balance: £459.86

Paid £20 to washing machine.I really should have paid more though.

The only problem is that I didn't put anything into savings.

Today I'm meeting my friend for coffee. I'm back at work tomorrow.

Yesterday we went to Tony Roma's for our anniversary meal. It was nice. Spent £40.00.

Today's spending:

Costa £2.35
Wetherspoons (lunch) £5.00
Asda £4.07
Card Factory £1.18
Superdrug £2.22

Total over past two days = £54.82

I'm going to keep track of my spending. I get paid every four weeks so will post a total every four weeks. I get paid next week so will keep on writing everything down to see where my money's going.

My mum bought me lunch today.

I bought hubby's valentine's card (£1.99)

Total spending today: £1.99

It's just over two weeks until and I get paid. I'm getting my hair cut and highlighted next week (hopefully) and me and hubby are going out for a meal to celebrate our anniversary. I take a monthly bus ticket to work and I bring my own lunch so I really shouldn't spend a lot. I'm off for the next few days so hopefully they will be No Spend Days.

I've been really busy with work lately, I haven't really made the effort to keep this blog up to date.

My interview went well. I've to phone when my disclosure comes through. This job is only temporary so I really need to keep my current one.

At my current job I have been doing a lot of overtime. I'm bored of the job but I'm just thinking about the money.

I've started Christmas shopping. I will be doing more tomorrow at work because staff get an extra 10% off. I'm going to buy some gifts for my cousins and my boyfriend if I see anything that he will like.

Well my challenge total is increasing very slowly, but the important thing is that I'm adding more to it. I have £3.20 to add to it. This is savings from shopping and money from walking my dog.

Previous total: £90.90
Added: £3.20
New total: £94.10

As far as my spending is concerned I have paid some bills and spent money getting to work. Taking my lunch to work all weekend. I have to help my mum buy a fence for our garden, hopefully it won't be too much.

I got back from the Dominican Republic early this morning. I'm a bit annoyed with myself - I only came back with $40. I thought I would have came back with more since it was all-inclusive. However I didn't consider days out when I decided how much spending money to take. I'll get it changed and then I will finally open up a savings account for my challenge. Hopefully I will do that soon.

I only spent $22 on gifts for my mum and my auntie. I went to the stalls on the beach with only $10 and basically said that was all I had to spend. The man there was trying to sell me a lot of things that I didn't want e.g. candles. I looked at some ornaments and asked how much - they were $7 each. I told him I needed two gifts so I got 2 for $10. I probably could have gotten a better deal, but I was pleased with it.

I had a great holiday, actually I think I have the travelling bug. I can't wait till I go away again, hopefully it will be next year.

I came home to a rejection letter, only one so it could have been worse. I've decided to get serious about job searching.


So I'm back home...aiming to get serious about job hunting and my challenge money. I didn't think about money when I was away, although really I had a lot of No Spend Days. I'm back to reality now.

I'm meeting my auntie for a coffee today. I'm going to have something to eat before I go so I only need to buy a drink.

I seen a pair of jogging bottoms for £4 which I'm going to buy to wear on the plane. I bought a t-shirt for £1.75 so it's a really cheap outfit, but comfy for the 9 hour flight. Only 4 weeks till I go!

Put aside £100 for spending money. I've never been on an all-inclusive holiday; I don't know how much money to take. Any money I come back with is going into savings. I'll put another £100 aside next month.

I went shopping today, spent £40 when I had only planned on spending £20. I think I have everything in for my holiday now. Saved £4 and I walked my dog. I added £5 to my challenge.

New total: £57.60

It was my friend's hen night on Saturday. My boss didn't give me the favour that I wanted (the day off)so I had to swap shifts with another colleague. I worked from 9am-6pm and I had to meet my friend at 7pm. I actually got there before her. Anyway we ended up going go-karting, then getting all-you-can-eat at the Chinese then went to the local club. I didn't have a lot of money on me so I was really budgeting all night, so much so that I only had one (alcoholic) drink. The soft drinks were cheaper so I just drank them. I told my friend I was completely skint so I wouldn't be spending a lot, she was just happy that I had went.

The night ended up being really quiet; not what I expected. I also didn't think go-karting was something that you did on your hen night, I suppose it depends on the person.

I put in £1 every week to the bonus ball at work. My number came up on Saturday when I was about ready to give up on it ever coming up. Today I used the money sensibly: paid the phone bill and put money into the gas and electricity. I couldn't have won the money at a better time.

It's my friend's wedding on Friday, I will not be drinking a lot since I'll have to borrow money from my mum.

I've filled out the application forms for Volunteer Scotland I just need to post them. It was three pages long and it's only for volunteering. It's been so long since I've actually filled one out. If I do get the volunteer position there's about seven weeks of training. It's a long process but I suppose that's to make sure that you definetly want to volunteer.

I've been looking at job vacancies; they all say I need experience, especially the Assistant Psychologist vacancy. Hopefully I can spend this year making my CV look better by getting experience. The only bad point is that it may mean another year in the supermarket and I don't know if I can cope with that.

How the hell did I manage to do that?? I checked my balance today, and printed out a receipt.

The next two weeks are going to be bad, I have my friend's wedding and her bridal shower to go to. I can't cancel now, I've already said I'll be there!!

Driving lesson tomorrow. If I cancel now he'll still charge me for it. I'll tell him I can't afford it for the next two weeks.

I thought having this blog would help but obviously I'm not trying hard enough.

Today I am going to play badminton at my old high school with my OH. Cost: £6 (he's paying the next time). We're going to take out a membership to see if it will be cheaper since we're planning on going regularly.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with my two friends from school. One of them is getting married at the end of the month. Cost: £10 hopefully at the most, we're just meeting up for lunch.

Wednesday: coffee with my auntie
Cost: £5 at the most

Thursday: working all day

Friday: may be making a meal at my OH's house for a friend of his mum's. He made it the last time now it's my turn.

My auntie had a little girl last week, she's 6lb something. She was five weeks early. I'm going to visit her tomorrow. I haven't seen her yet.

I bought baby clothes today. I saved 90p with my staff discount card so I added that to my challenge.

New total: £4.40

I can't wait to see her

I read the comment from my journal entry last night from Boomeyer. Boomeyer suggested that I take a bottle of water with me wherever I go. Anyway I checked the fridge this morning and noticed that there wasn't any (usually there is). I asked my mum, she had thrown out the half-empty ones. Anyway I had to buy one this morning when I got to uni. I remembered that there is a tap to fill up bottles of water that I really don't use anymore, but will be next week. My mum offered to give me some money for bus fare next week and so did my boyfriend but I'm really hoping that I won't need it, or if I do hopefully it won't be a lot.

Goal for today: spend no more

Total spent today: £4.50 + £0.55 = £5.05

Due to my very low bank balance, I only have about £15, maybe a couple of pounds more to do me until I get paid next Friday. Within that time I am working two days and visiting my friend, and going to uni for three days. So far all i can think of is to take my own money and walk wherever possible.

I really hope that my goals for this month work out.

13 days until the final draft is due in and I have 6000 words to write. Add two reports and a presentation and I'm stressed!

Spending today: £2.71

Saved money by:

- walking to work
- taking lunch to work

but he came back within half an hour. Apparently he likes nothing better than running about the street, occasionally barking at kids. He would never bite them.

Spending today:

£4.50
£2.00
£1.30
£0.40

I think that's it for today.