Month 2, Day 27: A Weekend Away

A lot of ground to cover now, I’ve not blogged since Friday! On Friday, after sorting out my Cuban propaganda photos I took a walk round town, with misanthropy in mind. I started to feel a bit better about humanity when I saw the paperback bestsellers in Borders. In my memory, this is probably the least offensive set of books that have occupied the top 20 at Borders. No Coleen McLaughlin autobiographies, no “How to get rich and popular” or anything like that. Maybe we’re getting better.

An increase in affection for life and humanity then set in, which stayed with me all weekend. Friday’s spends were:

• £4.40 for coffees and teas with Jenny
• £4.24 for a range of exceptional bargains in Sainsburys, the bounty shared with Omar
• £5.20 for a couple of pints in the ever charming Deco Lounge

On Saturday, I hopped on the bike and took a ride round past Gloucester and into Wales, through the Brecon Beacons and into Snowdonia. Absolutely amazing. I’m still scared of doing long runs on the bike. When I’m sleeping the night before going out on a long run, I think about the hundreds of hazards I’m going to have to negotiate, and my untimely death seems a certainty. Once I get out though, I get on top of the fear (well, mostly) and it’s an amazing experience.

More fear conquering in Wales, as we walked into the mountains up to about 1000m in the ice, wind and snow. At night it was lots of guitar and singing and drinking on both nights, and then the run back to Bristol. Spends:

• Various petrol stops at £25.62
• Whisky and tobacco at £19.99
• Food at £8.00

The weekend was such an amazing experience, I was expecting it to be all change with the thesis progress, but unfortunately not. Still in procrastinor’s grip.

Since then it’s been:

• £5.50 that I was owed for some shopping
• £1 that my housemate Anya owed me that she used to buy me a dessert
  • These last two items happened a while back, but a change in skinto accountancy procedures means I’m setting them against the budget
• £12.92 in Lidl for supplies for a meal for Phil, Gemma and Laura who were round for dinner
• £2.20 for Latte Wednesday

Balance = £44.58 (-63.4%), about enough for a half decent weekend!

Some conflicting movements in the EAPCCI

1. Houses for sale on my street = 4 (up 1, was 2 at the start)
2. Price of petrol at the Tesco down the street = 106.9p/l (down 1p, was 103.9p at the start)
3. Price of 1kg of spaghetti in Lidl = 79p (no change, was 69p at the start)

Month 2, Day 21: A Clutch of Minor Spends

So there’s been a bunch of minor spends this week that I’ve not been taking the time to put up one by one. So here they are, in no particular order:

• I thought I had a system figured out for eBay, a system for drawing in punters with items that start the bidding at 1p, with free delivery. I do not have a system. Lost £2.40.
• 67p for enough last-minute reduced bread to do me till the end of the month.
  
• £2.20 for Latte Wednesday
• £5.50 spent on chinese takeaway in a rare outburst of self-indulgence
• £2.76 for a book. I want a book.
  
• £30 spent on accomodation in Snowdonia, where I will soon be heading. The challenge seems too easy now, why not a weekend away?

My promise of not going on t’internet to look at the news in my last post was not held to. I know it’s Procrastinor’s wicked work, but I haven’t been able to fight it. What I do know however is that I was happier living in blissful ignorance than I have been this last week wallowing in my perhaps-not-so-paranoid-anymore fear of impending economic collapse.

Maybe a day walking round in the sunshine in Bristol, followed by a lovely trip to Snowdonia will cure what ails me…

Balance = £122.65 (-26.2%)

Month 2, Day 17: Falling off the Wagon

So the weekend spend was £20.38. Nothing exciting, just booze, food and petrol.

The real story is that I fell off the no-news bandwagon. The reason was that I found out about the Bear Stearns collapse. I managed not to read up on it for a day after I found out about it. I gave in this morning, and have wasted virtually the entire day clueing myself up on what’s been happening since I last was keeping track about three weeks ago. It’s quite frightening to see the massive deterioration in the situation since I last looked at it. Most revealing is that all the important people are still saying exactly the same things as they were last time I tuned in. They say that it’s all fine, and the worst is past. Since I last heard them speak like this, it’s got worse by a staggering degree. It’s the worst thing to happen in the financial markets in the lifetime of anyone who’s likely to be reading this. Tune into BBC News 24 though, as I did at lunchtime, and what you’re going to get is literally non-stop coverage of the McCartney divorce settlement.

So with this in mind, I got shot of my 74 dollars, in exchange for £33.91.

Balance = £166.18 (+8.9%)

I need to break my renewed news addiction though, so I solemnly swear not to go onto the news websites again this month. There’s nothing I can do about it, the best thing I can do for myself is get my thesis written…

Month 2, Day 13: Sale of the Century

The idea in selling stuff is that I should get some money for things that have no value to me, stuff that I’ll never use again, and that in other months I would just let gather dust. In this spirit, I sold my laptop yesterday, for the princely sum of £125. It’s not been working for ages now, since I spilt a glass of water on it in my sleep. Minus the postage and the paypal, that’s £109.72 to add the budget. To celebrate, it was out for drinks to the The Woods and the Picture House, net cost £7.45. I said “to hell with poverty, give the cat a canary” and genuinely thought I was going out to whoop it up and spend some serious cash. It’s kind of embarassing that I only spent £7.45 really. I tried to end the night with a meal from the Ming Yin (it’s seriously called that), but they shut the door on my nose. Some ebay costs from last month came in £3.12.

Tonight it’s a haggis lasagne banquet with friends, share the wealth.

Balance = £165.79 (+148.8%)

EAPCCI

1. Houses for sale on my street = 3 (no change, was 2 at the start)
2. Price of petrol at the Tesco down the street = 107.9p/l (up 3p, was 103.9p at the start)
3. Price of 1kg of spaghetti in Lidl = 79p (no change, was 69p at the start)

Month 2, Day 12: A Bargain?

Went waitrose lurking again last night. Managed to bag two Caesar’s Salad kits for 20p. A true bargain. I’ve been a few times to Waitrose with my housemates, but there’s been little to tempt me of late. A typical waitrose “bargain” is shown below:

Beef Wellington, reduced to £4.99 from £11.99. On the face of it, that’s a great bargain, it’s less than half price. But let’s be honest, £11.99 is a ludicrous price to be spending on a ready meal, so much so that even at less than half the price, it’s still not tempting.

I have again indulged in Latte Wednesday, to the tune of £2.20. It’s nice to have a good coffee at least once a week

Balance = £66.64 (-3.5%)

EAPCCI

1. Houses for sale on my street = 3 (no change, was 2 at the start)
2. Price of petrol at the Tesco down the street = 104.9p/l (up 1p, was 103.9p at the start)
3. Price of 1kg of spaghetti in Lidl = 79p (no change, was 69p at the start)