so far, so good.. been trying to cut down on food spending more.

this week so far all I've bought is
Bagels £0.09 (Had a £1 off coupon)
Tomatoes £0.34 (for my cupboard )
Diet coke £1.08 (for boyfriend..)
Milk £0.58
Tip £0.80 (mystery shop in Pizza Hut)

and that was for boyfriend staying for 2 days as well

The bagels are good. I complained about some that weren't cooked properly and they sent me some vouchers. The only problem is I have to use the other voucher by Monday. And I am getting sick of bagels!! It's so annoying that when you live on your own, if you buy something you have to eat it over and over and over again until you finish it!

However, it will be bagels and soup again next week :-) It would be nicer if I could get the cinnamon & raisin ones (not with soup though!) but the shop only has plain

Well, that's the first week survived!

I got my parents to take me shopping and got lots of "store cupboard" stuff to start me off with (it would have been helpful if they hadn't accidentally taken half of it home, though..!)

I stayed under budget with food, although I did eat quite a bit of the stuff they bought me, but I also bought other things that were for the store cupboard.

I shouldn't need to spend much this week, though. Mystery shopping Pizza Hut tonight with boyfriend - also scored some Mullerice on try me free today, and got some almost-free bagels with my coupons from complaining!

What made last week expensive was presents - I bought two bottles of wine as "thank yous" for people who helped me fix my computer, and I got some stuff in advance for birthday presents too.

Paid for b/f to come and visit - I used all my accumulated reward points so it was only £6.

The EFAs are a supplement I'm trying. I'm not sure I'll buy them again though. I got the tubigrip (for my HMS ) and the mirror with a gift voucher, same for the paper and envelopes

Anyway, here's the diary

Roule £0.59
Juice £0.49
Carrots £0.23
Spaghetti £0.28
Spaghetti £0.28
Houmous £0.50
Rice £0.54
Rice £0.54
Malt loaf £1.00
Apples £0.62
Fennel £0.58
Lettuce £0.99
Pears £0.86
Naan £0.18
Avocado £0.15
Mango £0.20
Bananas £0.22
Satsumas £1.20
Carrots £0.30
Parsnip £0.30

Wine £2.89
Wine £2.89
Bop £5.00
Mirror £1.00
Paper £0.99
Envelopes £1.49

EFA £3.99
Tubigrip £3.45
Laundry £1.20
Birthdays £0.30
Birthdays £10.00

Travel £6.00

Well, it's the start of a new term.. lectures began again yesterday.

I have got myself two jobs for this term:

1) Fire warden for my corridor
I actually applied for this back in October, and another girl got it, but she's moved into another corridor now so I'm the new one. I have to check all the fire extinguishers and so on in my corridor in return for a 10% rent discount - so £6.20 a week.

2) Telephonist in development office
I just got this job yesterday - I don't start till Feb. I'm just doing 4 hours a week on a Monday evening, calling alumni and asking for donations to the university's fund. Pays quite well - starts from £6.35/hr - and fits in my terms. £24 a week.

Not fortunes, but they won't interfere with my work much, and that will cover all my weekly food/entertainment costs

I'll be back in a couple of days with spending diaries..

Rosie

I've had complaints on another forum about my failure to keep my journal updated :-) so I'm back!

So, what's happened since I got back home? Not that much.. been pretty busy with Xmas and holiday work from uni. It's been great to have some time to just do nothing and see my boyfriend though - I miss him a lot when I'm away at college.

In the end this is what I gave as presents:
Mum & Dad - my year group photo from college

Grandma, boyfriend's parents - I bought them each a kind of "gift voucher" in a card, except the actual gift goes to a needy person in another country. I got them both seeds & saplings for a Bangladeshi family as grandma & bf's mum are both keen gardeners. I thought it was nice to be able to give people a "good feeling", not give them cluttery junk they won't use, and also help someone else out

Other grandparents - home made certificate enrolling them in the Letter a Month club, where they get a letter from me every month..lol, i know, it's not very good.. I have been working on a lovely sampler for them all year but I didn't get it done in time!

Brother - book from Amazon.co.uk bought with gift voucher from surveys bought at same time as my canopener to get free postage, hehe

Sister - (brand new) T shirt found in a charity shop ages ago and saved for her -it's really unusual, never seen one like it! & Boots gift voucher from surveys

Boyfriend - ended up giving him cash to get some new computer games, it's what he wanted! - plus a load of different soft drinks from Home Bargains (a random shop that sells all kinds of overstock, going out of date etc things), some posh men's skincare freebies, and some choccy etc

Bf's brother - gift voucher to a CD shop I know he'll use.

So, all in all, it didn't come out TOO expensive. Bf & I took his parents out for a meal for their birthdays (both in Jan) - there's a scheme where you can swap your loyalty card reward vouchers from a supermarket for 4X their value to spend on things like certain restaurants, so we took them there with several years of my saved up loyalty points.. hehe. Was very nice!

I also sent a donation to the tsunami appeal.. it wasn't huge.. but it was something, and I used Gift Aid so that the government kindly increased my donation by about 30% (it comes out of your income tax... I don't pay tax, so I always make donations in my mum's name!) - I have also given several pounds more by signing up for lots of free donation sites.

Tried to get back into selling some stuff online to declutter and make some cash. I "upgraded" one of my textbooks to the newest edition as I got a v.good price from an older friend, and sold my old copy.. put lots of other books on Amazon, sold 1 so far, and picked out a load that weren't worth selling (good condition, but were being sold for 1p by hundreds of other people) for the charity shop.

Also been putting some clothes and stuff on eBay. Sold one skirt so far, two other things finish today and both have bids.. I have another pair of jeans on, which have one bid, and some stuff for my sister (none of hers have bids yet though).

All this is going towards my stinky college bill - £1129.82 . This covers next term's rent, canteen subsidy (a stupid mandatory charge you have to pay even if you never go there) and tuition fees.. plus charges for last term for electricity, canteen, bar, etc. Gotta pay that on Friday - left my money in my account for a couple of weeks rather than paying it straight away to earn a few more £ interest. It's all set up to pay online though.

Okay, I think I will stop waffling on now. I should be back a bit more often once I go back to college - determined to track all my expenses for a term rather than just a couple of weeks so I get a better picture of things.

rosie xx