When Budget Met Crisis: Part Two

Hello friends

I am sad to report that this challenge is not going well!

The first two weeks I managed to keep in budget perfectly, despite the loss of all of my Tupperware.
Week three, however, has not been so successful.

It started well. I went out for a brunch meal with my cast and managed to only spend three pounds. My top tip for eating out on a budget, eat something before you go and then you won't be tempted by the big stuff, something small and cheap will do you fine and you get to spend some time with your friends.

Then the weekend rolled along and I made the executive decision to break the terms of my challenge, spending 15 pounds on a train ticket so that I could visit my Grandma. It was something my family had arranged, and there was no way I was going to let this challenge stop me from going. I don't see her very much, and it's important to take as many opportunities to do so that I can.

So I did that, leaving me with two pounds for the rest of the week, which obviously wasn't going to work out very well, seeing as I hadn't even done my food shop yet.

Then Crisis Number Two hit me.

And this is much bigger than Lost Tupperware.

Lost Phone and Lost Bus Pass.

I'd like to make it known here that I have never lost anything as important or significant as my thermos, phone, and bus pass. So this has been a very bad month for me.

It's felt a bit like this

So I had to get a new phone, and replace my bus pass of course. Now there was no way I was going to do this and stick to the terms of my challenge, so I took the opportunity to buy a phone I actually wanted (and was going to purchase with this months savings anyway) So I am now the proud owner of a windows smartphone - which, with the credit and charger, cost me £85. I also had to spend £5 on bus tickets (which I am sneakily reusing everyday until they notice and make me buy a new one) and £25 on a new pass, which should hopefully arrive in the next week.

Overall this crisis cost me: £115

Which I should have managed to save this month anyway - so that actually works out quite well (seeing as I probably would have lost these things whether I was budgeting or not!)

So technically, I have failed the challenge, by a long way, but I decided to just wipe the 'crisis money' off the slate and carry on as if nothing had happened.

And it's still not going very well.

For two weeks, turning down invitations out was not a problem, I was busy anyway, and committed to the challenge. But the more time goes by, the more depressing it becomes. I like being social and doing social things! So I had an invitation to go clubbing last night, which I haven't done in a long time, and I couldn't resist.

Club fee: £5. Taxi £3.

I've also done an £11 pound food shop this week, and had to put £3 on my printing account at uni so that is a grand total of...

£40 this week. When I should have spent just £20

So I've reached the end of the budget really, with nine days to go.

So Ashamed

So what now?

I suppose the challenge was kind of bound to fail the moment I spent £15 on a train ticket, when I only had £17 that week and hadn't yet bought any food. But I don't regret the decision. In my head, I had already saved a hundred pounds and I wanted to put that money to use right away in visiting my grandma.

So if that's the line of thinking I'm going with, that the fifteen pounds came out of my savings, then I suppose I can subtract that as well. Meaning I have spent £25 this week. This is still over budget, but next weeks budget was £21. If I take five away from that that leaves £16 from now until the 27th of February.

£16 in nine days.

Let's do it.

Handling a Crisis on a Budget

Well

What a week I have had.

Before I go into it, I might as well say now that this crisis of mine is really a very minor one in the grand scheme of things, but nevertheless has really bothered me this week! Here's the story...

So for Christmas 2013 I got a brilliant thermos flask, which I have used almost daily ever since. I like a hot meal and so I use it to take hot food to uni. It's more expensive than your standard flask, about twenty pounds, but it really is excellent.

This week, I lost it.

Now normally, this would just be a bit annoying. I would tell myself off for being so careless, and then fork out for a new one. But it just HAD TO HAPPEN NOW, didn't it? Now, in week one of my budget challenge, just as show week is coming up - a week in which I need a lot of good hot food in me.

I wrestled with the dilemma of whether to buy a new one and break the rules, or to just go forth without one. My decision was made slightly easier by the fact that I would have to order it online, as they don't seem to sell my one in the shops. I didn't see the point in buying a cheap crap one, and all the ones I found were more for tea and coffee than for food. So it wouldn't be here in time for show week anyway, so I decided to just move on.

So I started making cold lunches again. On Thursday I packed both a lunch and a dinner because I was going to a poetry event in the evening. Of course, being on a budget I couldn't buy dinner so I made one. I had a lot of stuff in my rucksack that day, and so I had to put the lunches in a plastic bag.

WHICH I LOST.

So now my thermos and my two only lunch boxes were gone. I had lost all my food holding apparatus' in one cruel week.

Needless to say I had a day of absolute rage on myself (which I eventually meditated away)

Of course, I can't buy lunch or dinner because of this challenge. But with no boxes, I can't really bring meals in.

So I had to suck it up and buy a new lunch box.

As I say I start my financial week on a Friday, so this Saturday I went out with nineteen pounds to my name and bought a new box for a fiver. Leaving me with fourteen pounds. All of that I have since spent on food.

So I have managed to sort out the crisis AND stick to my budget, which I am very very happy about. However, I had actually hoped to come under budget, because next week the cast of the show I'm in are planning on going out for a meal, and I thought if I can save a fiver this week I could buy something better than a bowl of chips.

Alas, it can not be.

So thus far the challenge has felt like one big cloud of doom over my head - but as always there is a silver lining:

The fact is - I would have lost my thermos and lunch boxes either way. That was always going to happen. So even though it happened during this challenge initially seemed really annoying, it's actually a good thing. Because at the end of it I will be able to buy a new one with my savings, and I will still have loads left over. If I had done it any other month I would have probably paid for the thermos on top of the seventy I would have spent that week, and I would have forked out for some hot lunches in the meantime. But my challenge has made me more sensible than that.

And in a way it's already made the challenge quite interesting. My initial eighteen pounds actually stretched out quite well, and after a really successful first week I thought the month was going to be a breeze. But then this happened, and it made me think about how no matter how well you budget, sometimes life will just deal you a bit of a shit hand, and you just have to find a way around that the best you can.

So some food for thought there. Speaking of food - I am happy to announce that I managed to make ELEVEN portions of spaghetti bolognese for under a tenner. That is less than a pound a portion. And it's delicious. I'll save the details of that for another blog, but for now I shall just say that I am very very happy with myself.

Till then, let's hope this week is slightly less disastrous.