December debt destroying *blows the budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

Okay, so probably not much debt will be getting destroyed this month, but hopefully we won't add too much to it.

Here's the thread you want if you need to keep a spending diary somewhere, confess money sins, ask for help or have a general whinge at the cost of living.

Welcome to any newbies

[ArtemisatBrauron]

yes, amoxycillin and another type which apparently mean ABSOLUTELY NO ALCOHOL I started feeling like an Alky because they kept repeating it so often

Off to the supermarche now to get food - only need a small amount and no wine now so should be cheap!

[claretandamberforever]

Haven't spent much in the last week (or so it seems, but my spreadsheet seems to say otherwise)

Grocery budget: Spent £159.28 // £190.72 remaining
Petrol budget: Spent £149.04 // £105.96 remaining
Everything else budget: Spent £88.98 // £253.61 remaining

Everything else spends have been...
Lunches at work
Make-up
Some money I owed my eldest...
Nit lotion...
Some money for my BIL birthday
A new scarf...
Kids haircuts...
A Xmas jumper for DS for school theme day (Grrr)
Some new boots for me

Did buy some Christmas presents today for my mum and dad (from TK Maxx, some Paco Rabanne for £14, and a purse for £17 (which had the original £75 RRP price on it, although do these things in TK Maxx ever sell for the RRP in the shops they were originally meant for). Now just have MIL, step MIL and BIL to buy for so I will be sorting out the money wallets next week and start wrapping presents.

Thanks for the good wishes about my job, I've unfortunately used around 3 more days AL than I have accrued at current work so I'll have to try and make this up (probably 8 weeks until I leave)or else I'll have to pay it back which I'd rather not do unless I have to. I unexpectedly had to stay late on Friday night which made me 1.5 hours to add to the 1 hour time owed I already had. Only another 20 to go.

Money saving things I have done today...

1. Didn't go to the Leeds German Market as I had planned which probably saved me loads of money..
2. Updated my spreadsheet and did some financial reconciliations even though I didn't feel like it...
3. Swapped a cheese with cranberry at £1.95 for a yellow-stickered cheese with cranberry, raisins and amaretto at £1.29.
4. Savoy cabbage was 20p cheaper at Morrisons than normal

Spendthrifty things I did today...

1. Did I really need to buy a date and walnut loaf, or some 'the best' scones when there's only me who eats them....(ditto, we also could really have done without the 4 malterser bars for a quid)
2. Should have made myself known to the morrisons manager to get my 'little apology' but I didn't have the balls

things to do for Xmas...
wrap the stuff I have already got
work out how much money I need to withdraw and do the money wallets
Buy the bike for DS2
Try and find cheapest place to get Fifa14 and GTA5

Happy budgeting y'all

[ArtemisatBrauron]

£40.92 in supermarket - that's for this week's food plus some extras for Christmas (soya custard for me and cranberries to make sauce, extra vegan butter, extra soya milk etc)


£16 on chocolate treats for my students I can't really afford it but they are all so lovely and deserve it.

We've been trying to get the long-life stuff for Christmas each week so it isn't a massive blow in late December, it's working pretty well so far.



Good luck with making up your hours claret! DH had to make up about 20 hours recently due to time off to finish his PhD thesis, and it was a real PITA until he'd done it.

[claretandamberforever]

I'm dreading it Artemis because I won't be making the time up in my normal job (secretary) which I quite like doing and would have been no great hardship, but I will have to make it up doing reception which is so stressful and my heart is sinking at the thought of it.

[ilovepicnmix]

Claret - we can't live too far away from each other. I was at the German market last week.

£8 on taxi to train station. I'm back in the bosom of my family! My DS is the only grandchild so the red carpet was laid out for us. I've been given a hand knitted snoody type scarf from my gran which is pretty cool considering she's well into her 80s. Someone picked up a lovely charity shop coat for DS and an upsy daisy body warmer. I can just imagine his dad's face when he sees that as it's clearly a 'girls' item. It's lovely being looked after and cooked for.

[claretandamberforever]

I've outed myself on here before anyway Picn... I live in Bradford

[Turnoffthelights]

Hello everyone! Have been reading and keeping up to date. Well done all.

December Week 1:
3 NSDs
Food - £40.22 (£159.78 budget remaining)
Misc - £9.38 (spends yesterday with friend we're helping out. £90.62 remaining)
Childcare - £0 (bill at end of month)
Petrol - £0 (had half a tank left from November, will need to fill up today or tomorrow)

I've been tracking my gas and electric for four weeks now. claret I saw in November you did a quick work out of how much yours had cost for the month. Just tried to do with mine. Looks about right for electricity, used 189.4kwh costing £33.90 (multiplied kWh by unti price then added standing charge) however gas is confusing me; we used 137.5kwh over 28days, our unit cost is 3.861p and standing charge is 25p per day, I work this out as £12.30, surely this can't be right as I'm paying £64 dd for gas per month. claret I wondered if I'm reading my meter wrong! you put yours in imperial units. My meter does say kWh but are you supposed to read it in a different way? Am I reading my unit cost incorrectly and it's actually 38p per unit?

[Fluffycloudland77]

A unit of gas on my meter is 10x kwh.

And people say gas is cheap

[Turnoffthelights]

Ah, need to get back to the calculator. Re-checked the meter and see it reads metric. Just found a conversion online to change metric to kWh. I hope it's not 10 x £12.30!

[Turnoffthelights]

Ok, new calculation done, gas usage this month £66.57! Oh my goodness. Really feel we've been cutting back in the hopes of a DD reduction next year but this is pretty spot on.

First frugal thing of the day - learnt to read my gas meter properly!

[Fluffycloudland77]

It does annoy me when family say "oh gas is really cheap", its not really because of the way they calculate it.

Check your hot water tank isn't set above 60c and the pipes in the cupboard are all lagged with thick insulation. I've changed ours from 10mm to 19mm lagging this week & it's noticeabley cooler in there.

We fitted all the draught excluders yesterday and again the rooms are much warmer now. It's a new build so its already stuffed with insulation but its definitely helped.

£6.50 cat litter.

[Helenagrace]

£309 and two trolleys in Aldi

To be fair that is a month's shopping and some Christmas stuff too. I've meal planned to the end of the month and we just need one joint and then bread, milk, fruit and veg.

NSD today hopefully.

I'm getting a cover allowance for this week as I'm covering a colleague's area. It'll be a bit extra at the end of January.

I have resisted getting any new decorations this year and I overruled on a real tree as we're away for a week.

DH's tax bill looks like it might be less than we budgeted for too!

[CremeEggThief]

£24.65, on a day out with DS.

[northender]

Gas is definitely not cheap. I meter read every week or 2 to keep an eye on things.
Going to meal plan tonight to the end of Dec I think inspired by helenagrace. I'm sure we're going to be over budget by end of Jan but we're aiming to keep the over spend as low as possible.

[Turnoffthelights]

Second frugal thing of the day: brought our potted Christmas tree inside to decorate - on its 4th year now!

Third frugal thing: convinced DH to have jacket potatoes for tea. He has an aversion to them. I could eat them daily!

DH spent £18 in sainsburys but this includes dishwasher tablets and a bunch of flowers. This is not a regular occurrence (flowers not dw tabs!) so I'll let that one slide!

[Fluffycloudland77]

£3 on a bottle of beer.

[busylizzie76]

Hi everyone
Hope you've had good weekends
I had 4 NSDs this week but yesterday was spendy:

• £40 on diesel for car
• £200 on Dds piano lessons x 10
• £25 on groceries
• £125 of nectar points on ds' iPad mini for Xmas (he paid the rest by selling stuff)

So, was just recovering from that when I saw that my car had a flat tyre so no doubt that's going to cost £75+

[Fluffycloudland77]

Fake trees will be pennies in the new year sales.

Ours was 80% off the month after we bought it

[claretandamberforever]

NSD for me today.

[ilovepicnmix]

£1.69 today on a bottle of diet lemonade and maltesers. Went to a Christmas craft fair but it wasn't very good thankfully.

[AdoraBell]

NSD at last, Spent a bit yesterday and we bought christmas gifts for DDs,

£30 supermarket plus £2 parking and £2 roads. Didn't see How much DH coughed up for the gifts. Must have been around £80- ish. And Dd2's gift To me came out if the joint account £10-ish. Oh, and DD1 weedled £40 out of DH on swimsuits.

I'll catch up later.

[ThePearShapedToad]

Errrr..... I don't know too much what it is (I bought it, then made brownies and my male friends did the actual physical work)

But it's a hard shell boiler, which feels warm when the water is hot, so now it's wrapped in a red plastic puffa-jacket type material, and it stays hotter to touch for longer under the wrapping

The pipes aren't covered no..... Never even though about covering those?? Have I missed a trick?!