We haven’t done a money diary in a while, so it’s about time we checked in again with our finances to see what we’re wasting our spare cash on this month!
I’ve been pretty good with my money recently as i’ve been on a bit of an extra saving mission ready for Christmas – not just for presents, but a ‘festivities fund’ as I like to call it! You know, that extra cash you need for Christmas parties, end of year catch-ups with friends, over-priced beer at Christmas markets and so on. I always start squirreling a little extra away from about August onwards each month so I can enjoy myself properly in December.
I’ve also been on a clothing ban, not buying anything new and shopping my stash for the last 3 months – you wouldn’t believe how much money that saves! Without popping into Primark for one thing and coming out with £50’s worth – game changer. And I haven’t missed it either, so it’s a win win.
But I do however need a new home office, so this week isn’t going to be a cheap one. Let’s take a look shall we…
MONDAY
Today I bought Toby a light up dog collar as the night’s are drawing in so quickly these days. If I don’t get a chance to walk him on my lunch break or first thing in the AM, then towards the end of his early evening walk it gets dark and makes me a little nervous. The dog collar I bought is rechargeable and comes with the charging cable included – there’s loads of colours too – £9.95 on dog safety!
Daily Total: £9.95
TUESDAY
We’re still loving our gousto boxes for our evening meals, and this week and had enough credit for a free one – score! …and the best part is, you can get free food with gousto too – Check out this blog to see how!
For lunch I make things like beans on toast form the cupboards (freezing half a loaf of bread when you buy it is a FAB little tip by the way and saves waste), tinned soup and tuna salad. So as we didn’t need to do a food shop at all this week, it saved a good £20-30!
I have however recently started up a new nail business (www.instagram.com/reddognails) so I bought a couple of polishes to expand my colour collection! I couldn’t resist, and now I have a proper excuse for buying new nail polish right?! (£11.70)
Daily Total: £11.70
WEDNESDAY
NO SPEND DAY!!!
Today was a no spend day – working from home and resisting the temptation of online shopping!
Daily Total: £0!
THURSDAY
I’m currently making 5 woolly hats to raise money for Age UK, and today placed the order for the wool! I’m covering all the materials as part of the donation (my bidders don’t know this yet, top secret) so I spent £25 getting everyone’s favourite colours plus some wool for a doggy jumper for Toby as my next project! I’ve already bought the handmade tags and fluffy faux fur Pom poms to go on top, so we’re good to go! I can’t wait to get started!
This evening I went to play Badminton for a job with a client – I know, fun right?! I took Chris and Ellie with me so we could get a good game going and we had a great time…even though we are all very unfit! It cost £9 for the three of us which I paid as it was technically for my work, but we’re 100% going to go again in the new year for a re-match!
Daily Total: £34
FRIDAY
This evening we went to one of Chris’ friends house for dinner. Chris picked up some flowers and a bottle of wine for us to take with us so it turned into another no spend day for me!
Daily Total: £0!
SATURDAY
IKEA DAY. Dun dun duuuuun!
Today we bought some storage for the middle room, storage for the bedroom, a desk, an office chair, shelves and a nice plant! We even managed to avoid the sneaky little IKEA marketplace buys and only come out with what we needed which I was incredibly proud of.
In order for me to make room for an office space we needed to sell some old furniture that we no longer used. After taking off the money we made from the old furniture and me paying for the office things out of my savings, the bedroom storage and shelves came to £27 each – bargain!
Moral of the story is: don’t be afraid to sell some of the old items you no longer use to help towards new things you need. There’s always people moving into a new house that need a sofa and can’t afford to buy one new. Look after the things you have and recycle, re-use and re-purpose them where you can – its good for the environment too!
Daily Total: £27
SUNDAY
Today was a chill day! I needed a lamp for my desk and found a gorgeous geometric copper one on Amazon for £22.99, so I treated myself to that!
I also went to tesco and picked Chris and I up some Sunday night snacks and a nice bottle of wine – £13.75 – to enjoy in front of the tv under our cosy blanket!
Daily Total: £36.74
WEEKLY TOTAL: £119.39
I don’t think this week’s money diary total is actually that bad! Thanks to selling some old furniture we kept the new office spend down, and two no spend days always helps keep a check on your cash flow.
£25 for charity, a nice little desk lamp for work, a treat for Toby and a bottle of wine I’m ok with!
xax