17 July 2011

First Week of FabFrugal - SHOCKING


Sad Sunday today it be!

Well today, I want to show you a break down of my budget what I have spent, I'm going to show you every penny I have spent, I have literally written everything down even slip ups, I have tried not to hide anything from you as I would feel bad lying to you lovely ladies, and few men……

So I have overspent, but In theory that is a good things as it means I have not budgeted enough for things (my main overspend was lunch, I didn’t realize how much I spent on lunch I was quite shocked to tell you the truth!)

So here is the break down I will do it daily to show you my average spend (which I was so surprised about)!

Day 1 - £27.00
Day 2 - £10.15
Day 3 - £8.59 (including stationery)
Day 4 - £22.23
Day 5 - -£43.33 (yes minus I sold my bag so that made it so I didn’t overspend)
Day 6 – Today I have not been out yet still in bed as I’m writing this!

Week days this should be my spend: -

Day 1 - £19.00
Day 2 - £3.00
Day 3 - £3.00
Day 4 - £3.00
Day 5 - £3.00
Day 6 - £7.00
Day 8 - £0

So that is what my spend should look like and as you see mine is very over the top for my first week, I’m actually so shocked, usually something like this would make me give up, but this time its made me more determined to get it better!

So here is the break down of exactly what I spend, I don’t want to show you all the receipts as I don’t have all receipts (annoys me not all places give you them) and I thought as I only have 40% of the receipts it wouldn’t be a fiar test!

Week 1 Break Down

Travel - £22.50
Lunch - £29.51
Needed - £9.33
Unnecessary - £14.80
Income - £56.50
Budgeted - £5.00

Spent on average lunch per day, I divided £29.51 by 4 and got £7.37, which has shown me I need to have my lunch budget a day £5.00 as I buy breakfast and a snack for the bus, I get hungry! I know your all going to say have breakfast before you leave and take packed lunch, but that doesn’t work with me, I cannot eat before 10am as I have this thing in my head since the age of 14 that I cannot eat before that time as I feel really sick, silly I know, but this is coming from someone who can live off water and 2 packets of crisps a day!

If I take packed lunch I do not eat properly and I gained 5lbs in 2 weeks when I tired it last month, I buy water in bulk at the beginning of the month, to save money as it works out at around 17p per bottle, compared to spending from £1.20 – 50p per bottle in town, yes some places charge £1.20!!! Shocking I know!


So my overspend for this week was as follows: -

Travel - £6.50 (part of train fair to Philofaxy meet up)
Lunch - £17.51
Unnecessary - £14.80
Overspend - £38.81 TOTAL!

So my unnecessary spending was as follows: -

McDonalds - £8.13 
Milkshake and chocolate - £6.67

As you can see I’m being very honest with you all!

This has made me realize how bad with money I have been and I thank CP so much for starting this challenge its what I have really needed!!! I’m going to give her a huge thank you hug at Paddington when I see her in September!

So for next week I’m going to try not to bring my bank card with me at all! This is how I get in trouble every month, I seriously do not learn I cannot believe how stupid I have been with money!  I feel like I’m finally learning! Considering I’m just above minimum wage I am really doing badly with money!

I’m going to write a shopping list for Christmas to work out what to get people and stuff and I will set a budget amount, I am going to start shopping for it next month! I want to make it as easy on myself as possible!

Next month I also need to get a rail card in order to save me money for future train trips considering I go to London too often, I might as well move there!

So my last little thing I want to say a HUGE thank you to the amazing Steph at Roller Disco, she gave me some Filofax inserts, coloured pages and it was so nice of her to give them to me :-) She is lovely! Thank you so much Steph!!! Hugs


So I think I should end it here and I will do another post half way through the week! Ask me any questions you have and I will try and respond!

Sorry if I have given anyone a heart attack from reading this!

Much love <3 xxx

P.s. I have a £43 hair cut and dye this week

6 comments:

  1. Imy you should definitely get a rail card. As soon as I started my PhD I got one. It is 1/3 of rail fares so I have saved myself a lot of money! :-)

    Also I admire how you are doing the challenge. No one is perfect and you are being extremely mature in setting out what is and isn't working for you and learning from your mistakes. That is very inspirational!

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  2. Awww thank you CP, you have helped me so much you wouldnt believe!

    I need the rail card as i like first class too much :-( lol and you get free drinks food and newspapers so keeeps me entertained and saves me money in a way! hehe :-)

    So excited :-)

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  3. Hey, so you wanted to be honest and post you true spend, well done! Now however I am going to be honest in my reply! You said in your post you can 'live off water and 2 packets of crisps a day', no offence but you obviously can't otherwise your lunch bill would not be what it is! Packed lunch, should not let you put on weight, because you make HEALTHY food! I still believe it will work out cheaper to take in your lunch than to buy and you WON'T put on weight! Maybe we need to look at that together if you want to message me separately? If you get free food and drinks in first class, why not take it for lunch and snacks and have breakfast on the train. Take the total train ticket cost in first class, compared to what a rail card and buying lunch works out and see which is cheaper! Ok, we are going to sort you out! LOL! I was just like you when I was younger, so don't worry we all go through it! Leave the card at home and take an envelope just with that days spend in it, NO OTHER cards, monies or envelopes and see how you do! See also if you need to buy lunch who does the best lunch deals. Ok I have rattled on too much, but thank you for posting and please don't get upset with my reply, better to be honest, than not is my theory in life!

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  4. Sharon - I will reply to it all now and explain myself ;-)

    The 2 packets of crisps and water was when i was a bit younger, i could not do that nowadays unless im off my meds, then i dont get as hungery, hrt makes you starving :-(

    I will talk about the packed lunch thing last its very complicated ;-) as you can imagine with me lol

    I dont catch a train to work, i only go on the train to go to london or plymouth, which is once every few months so i cant have breakfast on train and if i traveld to work everyday on train i would go standard class, i just like to treat myself to first class if i can get it at bargain basement prices hehe

    the lunch thing i will from this week on wards only take my money from the envelope (ive given them to my bf mum and she gives them to me deialy so i only get the ones i need) :-) works easier that way then im not tempted to take extra envelopes hehe

    but with regards to packed lunch, im very fussy! i have tried making pasta every day but it never works, it tastes disgusting and slimey, i just really dont enjoy having packed lunch, then if i do i just take chocolate biscuits and stuff like that but if i buy my lunch on the day i do the following: -

    I have like 5 set lunches.....

    Pasta with sun blushed tomatoes from tesco, a yoghat and either a packet of crisps or bar chocolate

    marks and spencer pasta with pine nuts pesto and cheese with something similar above

    Marks and spencer cous cous with roasted vegs with same as top

    Subway Veggie Delight

    BLT from co op

    so thats how i usually have lunch as its easier

    hope thats helped lol :-)

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  5. Isn't it an eye-opener to start writing down where you spend your money? It was for me.

    I'm like you - I can't eat first thing in the morning. When I worked in an office, I would take a smoothie or something I'd made, or some toast and peanut butter wrapped in foil and would drink/eat that about 9 or 9:30. But I only had to walk a block and a half to my office.

    Now that I work at home, I just walk out to the kitchen when I get hungry. ;-)

    Out of curiosity, what does it cost to buy a chocolate bar there? i.e. regular 4-finger Kit Kat? I see the conversion from GBP to CDN is 1:1.5 - here a chocolate bar is about $1, which would be I guess 0.65 a British pound. I'm thinking your prices and cost of living are much higher than we are in Canada.

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  6. Terriknits - I think it would have to of been like that the first week anyway as you need to get an idea of what your doing to know what you need to change dont you else you dont find out :-) Now that i have got that bit out the way and know what im overspending on i can try and sort it out to make it easier and to budget it all and be less wreckless i guess.

    When im at home on weekends i just dont get hungery some days i can only have one meal a day, but only on weekends maybe in the week i eat so much that im not hugnery on weekends haha lol :-)

    I think the kitkat is around the same price maybe around 67p or 72p not 100% some things are ridiculous some places sell them for £1 just depends where i go :-)

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