Financial Focusing review #2

Such a short month February I suppose it should be easier to stay in budget but I still went over by £1.85.  Now I am thinking if only I had taken one more packed lunch I would have hit my target.

If you haven’t been following along my budget allowance for this month has been taken from the whole of  last years spend for each category – less 10% then divided by 52 and times 4 which gives me the figure in the end column.

The £13 for cleaning product was spent on water filters  – a box of 6 which were half price.  I have classed them as a cleaning product as it isn’t really a grocery item either and after all in my logical thinking they do clean up the water!

My groceries were well under budget but my lunches more than double – I must make an effort to pack up more – my mornings are always so busy I need to know exactly what I am taking in fact Ideally I should prepare it the night before.

I had to buy more supplements this month as I had not been replacing them as I ran out since Christmas and they are always expensive I also stocked up on Homeopathic remedies which have to be ordered over the internet.

And you may have noticed the stationery spend ooops – still I am reorganising my office space – I will have some photos soon to show you of the new streamlined office which is slowly coming together now –  but not yet finished.

I managed without buying any petrol last month but I know as I write this I will need to fill up tomorrow when I go shopping I am just hoping I will get a petrol voucher to get some money off.

I am really pleased with the toiletries coming in at £6.24 all I bought was Epsom Salts and Ball of foot cushioned pads both items for my feet.  I add the Epsom salts to my foot bath when I soak my feet.

And now the items that came into our house in the last week or two.

 

From left to right –

• Black display binder – to store my decorating ideas
• Patterned shopping bag – self explanatory
• Mini spray bottle – for cleaners – I use these around the house as they are neat and small enough to store in small spaces
• 3 books – yes I went to Waterstones when I was in Leeds for my hospital appointment but I only paid for one of them as I had £10 on my stamp card and £4 on my points card.
• 1 box lawn food – ready for April this was on offer at Sainsbury’s
• Toiletries – 3 for 2 offer on shower gel plus extra points,  handwash from the £1 shop
• 3 spiky physio balls – I have been wanting to order these for a while as the osteopath I saw last year swears by them for tight muscles.
• Pack of commemorative children’s TV stamps – occassionally I treat myself to a pack of special stamps for my collection – I couldn’t resist this one of Childrens TV characters
• Garden Illustrated magazine – I bought this for the article on planting a white border.

None of the items came out of my housekeeping budget apart from the toiletries which are from the March budget and so don’t appear in the table above.

These pictures will now go into my Incoming items tab on my rerouted blog click here to see the full list so far this year of what has come into the house that is not food.

This weekend I had to search for car insurance and breakdown.  After the performance I had when I broke down before Christmas with the free breakdown included in my insurance which turns out is not free at the point of need I decided to buy a years cover from Green Flag which will cover me going to work or  further afield for £65.  My car insurance does not reduce if the breakdown is not included as it is ‘free’ but my current provider is still the cheapest available to me when I search the internet comparison sites.

I am always glad when that job is done and I am signed up for another year.  To make the whole task easier I have a typed sheet with all the information I require to answer the questions such as the year I passed my test and the year I bought my car.  I keep this with my folder so I can refer to it each year – I also keep a note of my no claims bonus years as different providers have different limits.  I am now on 11 years no claims wheras my providers limit is 9 years.

I will need to keep a careful eye on the March budget – it is a longer month and with Mothers Day coming up I will be having a visit from my mum which I will need to save for so I can treat her to a few days out and about.

How are you doing with your budget so far?

Dry heels and a lightbulb moment…

I love giving myself a pedicure – not that I have a foot fetish or anything but I like my feet to feel smooth and look good. With my family genes I have not been blessed with the best looking feet in the world and as you know at the moment I am having a lot of foot pain so pampering them does make them a bit better.

I usually do the pedicure on a Sunday evening whilst watching TV and I keep a Muji storage container handy with all the necessary tools and potions and lotions for my feet.  I quite often buy new products to try and presently I use Neal’s Yard Seaweed and Arnica Foaming Bath as a foot soak (although expensive a little goes a long way – and I always have it on my Birthday wish list) together with a sprinkle of Epsom Salts.

Recently in one of my magazines I noticed an advert for Flexitol Heel Balm which is for dry rough feet and cracked heels and thought I would give it a try.

I always prefer natural products and so I bought the Natural formula version over the usual one.  It is best to use it morning and evening and it certainly does what it says on the tin.  My heels looked smoother within days. I can certainly recommend it.

It was during this rigorous daily program that I had one of those lightbulb moments as I noticed that giving this area a lot of care and attention everyday produced quick and amazing results and that if I applied the same kind of focus to anything I did then I could not fail to see changes happening and just like applying the heel cream twice a day soon became a habit then anything else would work in the same way.

Of course I couldn’t keep adding and adding to my daily routines with everything I do as there would not be enough time during a day to do them all so I will have to figure out what are the routines that I want to put in place that will give me the quickest and most long-lasting results.

As my heels are so much better now a daily application is all that is necessary and maybe this will reduce even further to a weekly maintenance application – in a similar way I suspect that I could reduce the intensity of focus of a lot of other routine tasks once a result has been obtained.

I just need to figure out what is the best task for me to focus on next – it could be something from my household, finance, self and health or work categories or something even more general.  As usual lots to think about.