CATCHING UP

Oops, been a while since the last update, and you'd be right in thinking that I must have spent something since last Friday (but only just).

It was another fairly quiet weekend, and other than buying booze (legally allowed to be purchased via the joint account) I didn't spend anything again. Go me!

However, this week has been a bit poor. Firstly, Monday started badly. After my usual cash point was busted I was forced to use a shop based cash machine complete with outrageous £1.95 charge! So in order to displace the horribly overpriced charge I tried to extract as much money as possible, thereby reducing the percentage occupied by the charge. Well dear reader, this plan worked wonderfully as the machine only had £20 left in so when I requested £50 it couldn't cope and only gave me twenty and let me off the charge! So the moral of the story is if you ever find yourself in the same sitauation, make sure you extract as much as you can bear and you may escape a charge. Hurrah!

Next up, I decided it was time for new glasses which proved rather expensive...

Sight test = £20
Jasper Conran Designer Frame = £125
Another Jasper Conran Designer Frame = FREE
Ultraclear Lenses = £30 x 2

Total = £205 (-£20 cos Nick's paying for my sight test)

Then I decided to compact the issue by going for a Wagamama's for tea. Our High Life card took a cool £10 off though so it only worked out at £15 each.

Last thing was a Mars Bar Duo for pudding on the way home.

GRAND TOTAL = £220.60.

Eeep!!!

PUB LUNCH FRIDAY

Another chunk of cash spent on a lovely pub lunch today.

I plumped for Lasagna (a first for me at the Village Inn) at a wallet pummelling £4.95! Plus a delicious pint of Becks at a reasonable £2.55. Pudding was a bar of Aero mint chocolate for 50p.

Smashing.

FACTS

Yesterday I bought a Lion bar. It cost me 50p.
They're not what they used to be.

REVOLUTIONARY

£15!!! Fifteen english pound spent on a quiet week night!

Well, a nice meal at Revolution with the missus and Maddie was a worthy exception. But it does make a hefty dent in the monthly spend. And with just 6 hours before the end of the month too!

I'll just have to make an extra special effort for October.

ANOTHER QUIET ONE

I've been good again this weekend and didn't spend a dime.

Friday saw a slight lapse with a pub lunch but I did manage to resist the delights of alcohol in favour of a cheapo pint of blackcurrant and soda. So that was under a fiver, but a packet of minstrels and a banana pushed it over (£5.75 in all). The rest of the weekend was spend lounging about at home and finally getting the photos of Corfu sorted.

Only other spend has been the usual £10 megarider this morning. How annoying.

In other news, we're planning on attempting our first Aldi shop this wednesday evening so I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Mmmm Aldi. Nice.

OATISICK

Not necessarily related to anything, but I bought some Oatibix for my breakfast this week.

I'll not be making that mistake again. Never before has there been such a disparity between 'promised product' and 'product itself'.

"With the goodness of 100% wholegrain oats Oatibix is a delicious, nutritious alternative to wheat-based cereals. So what are you waiting for! Tuck into a bowl of Oatibix today and discover for yourself just how delicious they are."

Hmmm, yes, I did discover how delicious they were. Not delicious at all.

They have the consistency of pulped cardboard and, I would imagine, a roughly similar taste. In fact, it'd probably be more enjoyable to finely chop the box and eat that instead.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other 22 Oatibixes (Oatibi?). They better be doing me good, that's all I can say.

MAN UTD OWE ME FIVE POUNDS

Oh dear. Not a good day yesterday.

Not only did I lapse over lunch with my KFC, but due the Man U match last night the buses weren't running properly. Unfortunately this also means that I have to walk past all the skanky yet delicious smelling burger vans. Of course my pathetic levels of will power didn't hold out long resulting in the purchase of a hot dog for the princely sum of £2.85.

And as if that wasn't bad enough I then had to get a tram back into town for another bloody £1.90.
For a one way ticket of about 1 mile.
At about 8 o'clock at night.
Which of course wasn't even checked.

Bloody trams.

SURPRISE ATTACK!

I've just been hit by a surprise attack from Jane who tempted me to a illicit KFC Zinger Tower burger for £3 (including Jane's commission). Oh well, I'll just have to make up for it by skipping my pizza tonight.

It was worth it anyway. Mmmmm, zingers.

Also, I've just paid £21.87 off my Virgin credit card. Hmmm, don't even know what that was for. How annoying.

DANGEROUS TERRITORY

Em's away on a work trip until Thurday night which is leaving me dangerously exposed to the possibility of ordering a Dominos for tea. I don't need to buy any booze cos we've got some wine in already so that's one pitfall evaded, but I'm not sure I can avoid the pizza shaped one.

Tune in later to find out if I can control myself when not under supervision!

PS. Don't worry about me getting lonely. Dora's been resurrected to keep me company in Em's absence. Quack.

CHEAP WEEKEND

I did pretty much nowt this weekend except for playing my nefariously obtained copy of Zelda on my DS.

We also had a nice young lady look round our flat so hopefully she'll give us £139,950 for the privilege of living in it. That'd certainly give the old piggy bank a little boost.

On a positive note, I've brought sandwiches in so no trip to Greggs today, plus I've just transferred 3p of interest that had been sat in our savings account for the last few months. Soooo, woohoo! 3p up!

Ah, except I just remembered I had to buy a Megarider for the bus this week. So £9.97 down would be more accurate. The sooner I get them running shoes on the better!

UPS & DOWNS

Woohoo! Paid the rest of my monthly spends in today (£320) so I was down to £778 from my target. However I did have to withdraw £20 for my pub lunch plus pint of Fosters which came to a grand total of £6.70. Bit naughty but it was pay day after all.

Only problem is the joint account's not looking too healthy so there's a strong possibility that some of that lot will have to get paid back in. Boooo!

Oh, nearly forgot, I got charged £7.73 interest on my overdraft for the months too. Bloody banks.

BUGGER

Not the best start. After waking late as usual I was unable to prepare sandwiches so ended up having to buy a ham and cheese baguette and a bag of crisps from Greggs.

If this wasn't bad enough, I exacerbated the situation by offering to get Nick H his lunch. So Baguette & crisps x 2 = £4.30 down already. Bah humbug!

CHANGE OF PLAN

Everyone knows food diaries are so last week. It's all about spending diaries now. Get down with the kids!

SHOCK!!! HORROR!!!

As you can see, due to foreseen circumstances, the March food diary has come to an early conclusion. Unfortunately this was unavoidable as I got a bit bored and stopped doing it.

I plan on maintaining the blog regardless and shall be updating any particularly enjoyable or unusual eatings. I may also widen the subject matter to include various other pointless and tedius ramblings about not much.