Mission accomplished

Today I managed to buy my season ticket for the year as I refuse to line TFL's pockets any more than I have to. I am a little concerned as to why my loan hasn't come through from work though, but my manager said it was easier to do it another way to the way I was told it would happen where the money is put in your account in one go so maybe that has happened instead and it isn't because I haven't passed my probation period.- eek! fingers crossed. 

My finances are a little up the wall at the moment....

Hello to the people who read this blog and I hope you all had a very enjoyable Christmas- with a not too bad financial aftermath to deal with in the coming weeks. This year Christmas seemed to pass by in a blur and I can't believe it is almost New Years Eve already.

I last posted before my work Christmas party just over a week ago, which was a very enjoyable night and surprisingly I actually tried to alternate my alcoholic drinks with soda water and lime and even drank a bottle of water in the cab home and took some painkillers too- I was very proud of myself as usually I never know my limits and end up in a bit of a pickle :S. The next day I was one of the first in the office at 8.30am and was feeling pretty good- just really hungry as I hadn't had much for dinner the previous evening, only some canapes. 

The past week I seem to have fallen a little off the frugal bandwagon, and whereas before I would have carefully thought about what I was buying there hasn't been much of that going on. Nothing too reckless, but there has been food bought which has gone mouldy and unused which has ended up in the bin which I usually try to avoid at all costs, clothes and make up bought that I wanted and didn't exactly need and meals out in close succession with the reasoning that hey-ho its Christmas. 

Also, what has really thrown me into the red is the all-in-one computer I bought outright with built in freeview television. It was a planned purchase, but as the BF gets paid weekly he still owes me £200.00 which I'll probably get in four £50.00 installments. It has a nice big screen, which is such a luxury compared to the crappy cracked screen laptop I've been using the past few months, and is perfect for photoshopping my photos and watching TV in our room. 

And on top of that my annual season ticket loan money still isn't in my account, despite the finance department saying it would be there the week before Christmas. Therefore, I have had to transfer money from my ISA into my current account to pay for all £1,880.00 of it. Eek! I tried to buy my season ticket today to start in the first of January so I pay for this years train fares and consequently avoid the ridiculous 5.8% increases but the ticket office was closed at 1pm. I'm hoping I can buy it easily tomorrow instead without too much hassle, but my sister said they make the process so over-complicated it took her three attempts to try and buy hers. Fingers crossed. 

All being well I will be able to buy the season ticket tomorrow and that will be my travel costs paid for the next year. Once that's all paid for I will have around £165.00 in my account plus £55.00 cash which I need to pay in  tomorrow whilst carrying out my mystery shop at Santander (£10.00 payment for asking a few silly questions and filling out a form-more on that later!) totaling £220.00, I'm hoping to get around £60.00 next Friday for the bar work I've done this week taking that up to £280.00, plus the £200.00 I'm owed from the BF £480.00 and I should be selling my Wii for £100.00 making that a grand total of £580.00 to last another 25 days. Most of this will go on bills; £220.00 rent, £150.00 into the joint account, £42.00 gym membership and then £33.00 phone bill= £445.00, leaving £135.00 to spare. 

It feels good to finally work all this out as for the last week or so its been a bit of a head in the sand situation. I think my head cold has knocked the stuffing out of me a bit and I'm almost (I said almost!) looking forward to getting back into the usual routine- hoping to shake the cold before returning to work. 

I hope you all have a great evening tomorrow, whatever you have planned and hope next year is a happy and successful one for all!

PS. Does anyone have any resolutions yet? I haven't given too much thought to it yet I must say.