Lockdown Spending Diary Week 11
I say it every week, but I am really over lockdown now. When can get back to some form of previous life I miss my friends; I miss contact with human beings that are not my children or random acquaintances I bump into on the street for a chat. 🙁
I managed to shake off my shingles rash within four days of taking the drugs last week but not the tiredness which is ever present ten days diagnosis. Last week I was tired every single day, despite having many good nights sleep. This virus has taken a strong hold and I have been forced to take lots of rest.
The consequence was a too many trips out for easy to cook food and takeaways impacting my lockdown spending diary week 11. I did not have the energy to cook every day. And it was a hugely emotional week with everything #blacklivesmatter and a full moon. I was grateful for a quieter work week.
Monday 1st June – £558 spent, mostly monthly bills
First of the month always means a heavy day for bills. In one day £513 was spent on mega exciting bills (not) including council tax £150, Car Loan £175, Car Tax £12, Energy Bill £92, Water Bill £34, Income Protection Insurance £29, TV License £13, Car Insurance £9.
I am considering just paying off my outstanding car loan. This would mean I do not have that £175 charge each month and I then own my car outright. One of the many decisions I must make. The loan is interest free though so its not costing me anything. Decisions, decisions.
Other spends included a cheeky Monday night trip to KFC with all three boys. I had a fillet burger and immediately regretted it, I felt sick afterwards, we had to go out for a long walk to walk off the grease. £25 was spent at the coop and £4.93 at the post office, plus a nice £11 refund from my website hosting company for an incorrect charge.
Tuesday 2nd June – £129 spent
The boys and I went for a walk to the village to celebrate the re-opening of Caffe Vero. We sat outside and had brunch, nice decaffeinated coffee and watched the world go by. It does feel like things are slightly back to normal. It was good to chat to Arif, Caffe Vero is my second place to work after my dining room table! We spent £20 on brunch.
We also had another walk to the village later in the afternoon to go to park as the boys were complaining they were bored. Dinner was from the butchers £19 and we also took a trip to The Range for pool filters, pool cleaning chemicals and ice lollies £30 spent.
Tuesday was a very emotional day for everyone. Instagram screens were black, and most brands did not put any content out from this point onwards, including me. I cried many times listening to the radio 1 and 1 extra and immersed myself into podcasts and posts from my black friends to understand my privilege more than I have ever done before.
I am in the process of repurposing my old interviews from my radio show during 2018-19 into blog content and listened to the interview (whilst Otter.ai software turned it into written content) with Zeze the founder of Malee Beauty products. The interview prompted me to buy some Malee room spray and moisturiser, £30 spent. Plus, some dull household bits from Amazon for £18.
Wednesday 3rd June – £81 spent
A big day! My decree absolute certificate arrived, meaning I am officially divorced. Gosh the feelings of relief, closure, completeness is huge. I celebrated with aperol spritz or three, £25 spent in Tesco on Prosecco and Aperol!
It was cleaner day, £37.50 for three hours as we are still on deep clean phase. Whilst my cleaner was here, we went out to do errands, dropping off signed accounts to my accountant. Boys wanted subway whilst in Old Stevenage, another new food shop to open this week! £18 on three meal deals, I had a very lovely teriyaki chicken salad bowl.
Another regular bill of £8.99 for Netflix and another refund to say sorry from Chip for £10. That account is 100% being closed now I have finally got all my money out of it. 4 attempts at failed withdrawals. Not good enough.
Thursday 4th June £340
Two big one-off costs here. And a very busy day with lots of meetings. Thursday is my childfree day, so I pack them in. Kat my cleaner has been saying for ages that Henry hoover has died, Dylan has been moaning too about wanting a better hoover. I did some Twitter research, #asktwitter and the consensus was a shark. I found a good model that was £269.99 with £80 off in a sale on the Shark website. So, £189.99. I also got 7% cashback using Topcashback, giving me an extra £13.30 off. Rather good saving there.
I also paid for two therapy sessions, the first one the beginning of the week and the second one at the end of the week. The sessions were tough, very emotional, but very good. I felt hugely better after each session. I do need a few more so this cost will appear each week.
Friday 5th June – £56
I had cancelled Mindful chef for a couple of weeks, but my box comes again this week so £30 was charged to me on Friday. Along with £26 at the co-op. I am totally out of food, but I cannot face going to the supermarket and the stress of it.
Saturday and Sunday 6th & 7th June – £25
A nice low spending weekend despite having the boys here. We had two long walks, slowly getting my walking steps back again, although no runs or bike rides. And just one visit to Co-op and one trip to caffé vero again for take away brunch on Saturday morning.
I expressed alot of gratitude last week, as I normally do, but more last week with the full moon and I just felt it was neccessary. Karma has its beautiful way of repaying multiple times and it certainly did last week. These five have been my guardian angels over the past stressful year. And Rebecca to the top right has agreed to help to edit and coach me through the final stage of my book. We talked agreed terms and deadlines, and I sent part 1, 22k words to Bec today. Hurrah. More than 50% of the way there to writing this book!
Summary of the week
A heavy week for regular bills and car costs, with £522 spent. I am still on a mortgage holiday so its much less than normal. £135 went on groceries which was a lot for one week. Far too many trips to the co-op but did include a celebratory and thoroughly deserved £25 on booze! £79 was spent on eating out as well. The highest this has been for the whole of lockdown. I must calm this down for the rest of June. But I also want to support small business so a bit of both I think.
Household and personal fun money were higher than usual with one-off costs at £408 with the new Shark vacuum cleaner and therapy sessions. The headline spend of £1190 sounds a lot but well explained with some one offs. Must spent less on groceries and takeaways for the rest of June!
