I’ll start with a huge breath of relief this week after I had confirmation from my consultant that all is well. A few weeks ago, you may remember I had a little operation. They had a good look around and took a biopsy to test for anything sinister. And all results have come back clear. This investigation has been going on for a whole year so its good to finally get the all clear. I am hugely grateful to the NHS for all the amazing care they have given over the most challenging year for them.
This good news meant that I did lots of fun self care things last week, that were all super lovely, but of course cost money!
Self Care Spending
After a five month break I finally had my nails done, £25, the brightest of pink gel, and every time I look at them I feel happiness! I also booked myself in at Origins in John Lewis for a free facial. I was excited to see that they are allowed to do these again. Such a brilliant offer from Origins. There is no obligation to purchase anything, although I needed some new moisturiser so spent £49 on Origins Plant prescription. They also gave me lots of free samples.
My last purchase of self-care was a new lipstick from Bobbi Brown, £28, one of my favourite make up brands, and really not a bargain brand. I do love my bright lipsticks and this is another shade of red, you can never have enough red lipstick! My total spend on self care this week was £103.
Very Late Birthday Lunch & Other Food Spend
I’ll count this as self care, despite my birthday being more than a month ago! Fran and I headed to my local pub The Lytton Arms for lunch and prosecco and had a very lovely time. I do love this pub, it does amazing food, and has beautiful views over the Old Knebworth fields. Just look at those scotch eggs!!
Grocery spend this week was low at £68, including a £21 on a Mindful Chef food box. This week I got a £10 credit as a lovely reader took advantage of my refer a friend offer. If you want 25% off your first four Mindful Chef boxes just pop in my email address as your referral – lynn@mrsmummypenny.co.uk.
I also had a cheeky Deliveroo during the week which lasted two days worth of meals £23. And a coffee and panini lunch at Costa. Do you have the Costa app? A great way to build up points for free coffee and there is often offers like a 50p frappaccino as it was last week. Total spend on eating out was £72.
Bills, Bills, Bills
Finally my mobile phone bill has dropped down to just £45. This is now that my smart watch contract has been cancelled. £45 is for my SIM only contract and two contracts for my boys, one of which is never used so that needs to be cancelled when the contract ends later this year.
I need to make a decision about my phone. Its a three year old Samsung S9 Plus that I dropped and smashed. Not a huge smash, but it has affected the front facing camera. And after a days use the screen flickers. Do I get a new mobile phone contract and thus new S21 phone, costing around £40 a month, so £22 more than the SIM only that I pay for. Or do I pay £150 to get my S9 fixed???? Comment with your thoughts!
I also paid £24 for my EE broadband, £17 for my Life insurance policy, £10 for Netflix and £8 for Disney Plus. These are the only TV packages I pay for on top of TV license. £102 spent on bills.
Other Costs This week
Every two weeks my cleaner makes my house look perfect, I’ll never regret paying that £25! I filled the car with petrol, £42. I had some small business expenses of podcast hosting and my auto-savings made a mistake and transferred a big £85 over to my Plum savings. But it was okay I let it flow and it means I now have £1,050 stashed away in my Plum Auto-savings. All has happened with me doing nothing except download the app and link up my current account for the auto-savings transfers to happen.
Total Spend
My total spend for the week was £512. And spending it was lots of fun. Will this week be a lower spending week, I highly doubt it as I have the boys most of week, my nephew is visiting this weekend and I have London drinks on Thursday!
Hey ho, enjoy MUCH more freedom this week, and all the hugs and doing stuff that we haven’t been able to do for ages.
One Response
I heartily encourage you to go for the S21! I have the bottom of the range version of it as I wanted a smaller phone and a flat screen after having a larger curved screen for 2yrs. It costs me £10 more per month than my old phone did, but as I use it a lot for the kindle app and I have an Instagram page (nail art so I approve of the pink nails) and I found the camera much improved. I was using a Huawei before though so I can’t compare to the S9.