Day 24: Nae Frickin Joke

Ah it seemed so simple, payday was tomorrow, and a bunch of new money would come flooding into my account, rejuvenating it, bringing colour back to its sallow cheeks. The spartan month ahead was an entirely self-inflicted one, in preparation for a delightful jaunt to Argentina in April.

Well, that little dream ended with the arrival of a letter from the bank on the subject of a little interest-free overdraft of £1500 that is a leftover from my undergraduate days. The bank want proof of my undergraduate status. As I am not an undergraduate, I can safely assume that my overdraft is about to go through the hoop.

So next month’s budgeting is very fricking real all of a sudden.

Day 23: Petrol, Lidl and (don’t) Panic

Spending Update: Had to fork out £6.50 for the first tank of petrol since the challenge began, and £2.68 on some Lidl supplies.

Balance = £41.49 (-18.1%)

Now, I don’t want anyone to panic, but there’s been some movement in the economic apocalypse paranoia corner composite index (EAPCCI):

1. Houses for sale on my street = 2 (0% change)
2. Price of petrol at the Tesco down the street = 103.9p/l (0% change)
3. Price of 1kg of spaghetti in Lidl = 79p (up 10p, +14.5%)

Day 23: Growing Stuff

Heyo,

Aware that growing stuff is top notch blog-grade banter, I’m sharing this:

Those two plants in the pot in the sink are onions that have sprouted. The first one sprouted so much that I couldn’t bring myself to eat it, it clearly wanted to live so I planted it. No sooner had I done that than the second one sprouted massively too. I couldn’t play favourites with the onions, so that one got planted too. Andrew then decided he wanted to get involved and planted the most dead and dessicated-looking garlic bulb you could imagine, it’s there in the pot to the left of the onions. Even that’s sprouted. If you click on the photo you should see a green sprout coming out it that appeared yesterday.

Then I thought about the potatoes that were sprouting in my cupboards, and I felt it would only be fair to give them a chance too. I nabbed some soil from the back garden and put the soil and a tattie in each of seven empty tins. I put holes in the bottom of the tins for drainage. It’s been a couple of days, no sign of sprouts yet.

I really worry about myself sometimes, I’m too sentimental to even eat vegetables. I would never survive in the wild.

P.S. Virgin Media dispute resolved. In general their customer services were atrocious, but I want to give a big shout out to Natalie Turner in Virgin Media customer relations in Sheffield who finally sorted things things out within moments of hearing the whole sorry tale.

Day 22: Waitrose Lurking

A new sport to get me through the next month. Waitrose is near us, and it’s as expensive as hell. No place for a man trying to save up his pennies for a trip to Argentina. Or so you’d think…

Last night at about 7.30 we went to Waitrose, just before it shut at 8pm. By keeping an eye out for the woman with the pricing gun, some bargains were to be had. Two loaves of Nimble-brand bread for 10p (reduced from £1.50) and half a pack of yoghurts for 10p (more than 90% off). It was only half a pack because Anya wanted to wet her beak too.

My housemate Carole is an adept at this game, and apparently on a good day you can get veg too. She says there’s another regular to watch out for. A woman with black & grey hair, cut in a bob. She’ll swoop on anything, a fine eye for a bargain.

Balance = £50.67 (-0.4%)

Oh, and to prevent myself from spending all my time reading up on economic apocalypse paranoia material, I’m not reading or watching the news anymore. My economic barometer will now be a composite of:

1. The number of houses for sale on my street (currently = 2)
2. The price of petrol at the Tesco in Henleaze (currently = 103.9p/l)
3. The price of 1kg of spaghetti in Lidl (currently = 69p)

Day 21: Another Month

OK, here’s what I’m proposing: It involves a change in the rules, but hey ho. For that reason I need to get approval from you guys.

I’m going to Scotland at the end of the week for the weekend, and I’m going to be seeing people I haven’t seen in a while. The spending of money will be absolutely impossible to avoid. With only around £50 left, there’s no way I’m going to have much money left. What I propose doing is taking another £100 cash injection, and repeating the challenge till the end of March.

With the savings, I am proposing to buy return flights to Buenos Aires in April, to spend a month in Argentina, use up all my holidays in one go. The first 1-2 weeks of this would be with Dave and Wan (assuming Wan is in). The rest of the time, I would head off on my tod for a bit, practise the old Spanish.

Vote yay or nay please.