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Time flies.

I'm not doing so well with the not spending unnecessary money it would seem. I'm going to try to rectify that since I only have about £100 to last me until April 16th...

I also missed a few expenses off of this, car insurance because while it's come out of my account I'm still not 100% sure how much it was because they made changes. When it shows up on the statement I'll consider it gone. Also, I ordered two books off of amazon - totaling about £12, but I plan to get reimbursed for that as Easter presents.

They were...



I'm working towards a goal of a more varied and healthy diet and I'd heard good things about these books. Once they arrive I'm going to aim to try one recipe a week and work out what I like, don't like and can grow to like. I'm an incredibly fussy eater and a huge cheesatarian so it should be good to get some variation...

Monday 19th March

Broccoli £0.42
Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream £2.50
Curly Fries £0.99
Waffles £1.69
Pepper £0.78
Organic Goats Cheese £1.29
Pasta £0.85
Crisps £0.48
Quorn Escallops £1.99
Bagels £0.70
Lindor Egg £0.50
Cheese Baps £0.20
Butternut Chunks £0.75
Houmous £0.99
Birthday Card £1.85
Gift Voucher £10

Totals so far...
£192.71
Necessary £141.46 73.41%
Unnecessary £51.25 26.59%

Lazy Days

Friday 16th March

Petrol £5
Mini Eggs £0.99
Mars Eggs £0.99
Mother's Day Card £2.95
Phone Credit £10

Saturday 17th March

Celebrations £2.87

Sunday 18th March

Mother's Day Chocolate £4.97
Mother's Day Thingy £0.99
Pizza £2.45
Cheese £1.84
Pepper £0.89
Cucumber £0.52
Spaghetti Hoooooops £0.46
Hula Hoops £0.34

Totals so far...
£166.73
Necessary £123.83 74.27%
Unnecessary £42.90 25.73%

No Surprises

Thursday 15th March

Photocopying 0.64
Baguette 1.70

Totals so far...
£131.47
Necessary £98.51 74.93%
Unnecessary £32.96 25.07%

Wednesday 14th March

Cat food 15.00

Totals so far...
£129.13
Necessary £97.87 75.79%
Unnecessary £31.26 24.21%

Evaluation of the first two weeks...

I don't think I'll have time to evaluate this tomorrow, so I'll look at it now.

The two weeks of normal spending is pretty much up. It's so easy to see the common places I waste money. There was also the near miss with Sonic & The Secret Rings (Wii) (would have been £17 as my boyfriend and I were going to split it, but in the end we completed it and returned it :S haha) and also I get so tempted by books but I've been really good with that for quite a while now.

Amazon used to be my worst thing, but I really tried to cut that out at the beginning of the Uni year. Although as a result my wishlist is triple it's usual size :S (Or it was until I was really cruel with it yesterday and hacked it to pieces)

Looking at my old Amazon orders, I've only ordered myself one book since the end of August and it was a uni book. I did however blow £350 on a camcorder not long after that...

Anyway, looking at the spending... The totals for two weeks and the cost should I live like that for a year (which is unrealistic but it's a nice shocktastic way to curb the spending)

Alcohol - £13.55
Cost - £352.30
I doubt I'll be drinking again for a while anyway, considering the other night...

Chocolate - £8.29
Cost - £215.54
That's really scary... although I did vow at the weekend to not buy myself chocolate

Other junk food - £9.42
Cost - £244.92

Total - £812.76

Not really surprisingly, since I already curbed the book/music/game outlet at the end of summer, it's all foooood. Vending machines are definitely my downfall. I've been taking a bottle of water to uni to stop myself buying Ribena and I really have got to remember to eat before going to uni. I'm sure that would stop the vending machine snacking. As for supermarket bought snacks... I'm trying.

It's definitely been interesting. The next two weeks are no doubt going to be difficult, I do so love my M&Ms :(

I'm contemplating keeping a food log in conjunction with this, although I'm really not sure I want to know what I've been eating. I'm sure if I have to blog it I'll think twice before looking like a gluttonous heifer... so maybe it would be a good thing.

Squaternut Bosh

Tuesday 13th March

Celery £0.68
Butternut Squash Chunks £0.20 (oh yeah, how amazing is that!)
Red Pepper £0.78
Carrot £0.10
Cucumber £0.47
Coconut £0.10
Waffles £0.95
Printer Paper £2.24
Houmous £0.74
Wraps £0.79
Petrol £10
Pizza £0.88 (while I needed a meal this wasn't necessarily the most healthy choice, and I could have made something out of all of the above without it)

Totals so far...
£114.13
Necessary £82.87 72.61%
Unnecessary £31.26 27.39%

Vodka = Eeeeevil

So I'm sitting here in my boyfriend's jeans (I spilt water on my skirt and I'm too lazy to change now I'm home), having eaten more pasta than ever before, again, wondering why one can never ever do anything with polystyrene without making a mess of giant proportions, thinking that it would be great if it really was 20:44 (as my clock says) because then my work would be done maybe and procrastinating about going to the shop because I know once I've done that I'll have to do some work.

I am actually rather knackered.

Also, trying to remember my spending for Sunday's gonna be difficult...

Sunday 11th March

Petrol £9.02
Alcohol £13.55 (I think)

Monday 12th March

Vegetable thingies £1.75
Misc £0.25

Totals so far...
£96.99
Necessary £66.61 68.68%
Unnecessary £30.38 31.32%

I miss cheese.

Friday 9th March

No spending! Woo.

Saturday 10th March

Groceries...
Red Pepper £0.89
Apple £0.24
Carrot £0.10
Banana £0.14
Broccoli £0.38
Cat Litter £2.49

Totals so far...
£72.42
Necessary £55.84 77.11%
Unnecessary £16.58 22.89%

Sonic's a blue bastard.

Thursday 8th March

Chocolate 2.35

Totals so far...
£68.18
Necessary £51.60 75.68%
Unnecessary £16.58 24.32%

Melty melty melty cheeeese!

Wednesday 7th March

Groceries...
Crisps 0.79
Hula Hoops 1.05
MilkRoll 0.71
Parsnips 0.49
Smoothie 1.29
Chocolate Pudding 0.69
Organic Shop Stuff... (no receipt so just a total)
Cheezly Melty Cheese
Organic Soap
Organic Shampoo
Vegan Chocolate 1.41
Veggie Sausage Rolls
Organic Moisturiser
Total 16.71 (15.30 essential)

Totals so far...
£65.83
Necessary £51.60 78.38%
Unnecessary £14.23 21.62%

M&M Addict

I guess I'm just feeling a bit down, so, M&Ms and their consistency of existence are keeping me going.

Tuesday 6th March

M&Ms £1 (yes, I got two bags, whilst at the library, vending machines are extortionate)
Art Supplies (2 paint brushes and a dipping ink pen plus nib) £2.50
Photocopies £0.60

Totals so far...
£44.10
Necessary £35.81 81.2%
Unnecessary £8.29 18.8%

That's not that great really...

Day Whatever Day It Is

Monday (?) March 5th

Groceries...
Cucumber 0.85
Peppers 1.42
Brown Rolls 0.48
Houmous 0.80
Bounty (chocolate) 0.34
M&Ms 0.50

Totals
40
Necessary 32.71 81.78%
Unnecessary 7.29 18.22%

London Baby!

We went up to Londinium yesterday. We have this project at uni at the moment which entails some science research and looking at how people engage with science and various things. I didn't think I'd be well enough to go to London, but really wanted to because there's so much one could get out of this project. I was also still miserable about not being able to hit the galleries in our two weeks off.

As it was we didn't make it to the galleries, just the Science and Natural History Museum - both of which were awesome but exhausting. Worth a visit, I really want to go back to the Natural History Museum for a proper nose about.

I might have some photos, I don't know. Maybe I'll check the camera in a minute.

Anyway, huge step for me, and I survived. I'm not too tired today despite having to get up at 7am to go do a table top sale. I have to sell a lot of my unnecessary stuff simply because it's unused clutter - I didn't make too much today, but will be doing another sale in a few weeks. Hopefully do a bit better. :)

Money Money Money Money Mushroom Mushroom Money Money Money

I tend to read a lot of things on how to not procrastinate, life stuff, but usually fail at actually implementing anything etc.

I love Zen Habits - I tend to use it to procrastinate with - haha, completely the opposite of it's purpose, but you know, it's interesting.

Anyway, the author of Zen Habits did this thing where he tracked his expenses for a month and worked out what percentage of them were necessary.

My boyfriend and I thought we'd try it, for funsies. I'm going to document mine here, just because it's somewhere I always have access to. Although unlike Leo we're doing two weeks of normal spending and then two weeks of trying to cut down on the unnecessary expenses and then comparing. I do think though that documenting it alone will affect the first two weeks simply because we're more aware of what we're spending and more likely to think it through.

Also I won't be generalising food as groceries, otherwise I could buy eight packets of M&Ms and consider them necessary. I'm thinking healthy eating here - if I'm aware of how much money I spend on crap food I'm more likely to not spend it, and therefore it's more healthy. Woo.

1st March
None

2nd March
Ribena £1.10 - U

3rd March
Train Ticket £10.65 - N
Cake and Crisps £2 - U
Groceries...
Carrots £0.23 - N
Flour £0.31 - N
Loo Roll £1.69 - N
Lettuce £0.49 - N
Quorn Burgers £1.79 - N
Goats Cheese £1.35 - U
Sweetcorn £1.99 - N
Broccoli £0.54 - N
Cucumber £0.47 - N
White Rolls £0.20 - N
M&Ms £2 - U
Red Pepper £0.78 - N

4th March
Petrol £10.02 - N

Totals so far...
£35.61
Necessary - £29.16 81.89%
Unnecessary - £6.45 18.11%

Five Reasons my Uncle is Awesome

1. He's my uncle.
2. He has a beard.
3. He bought me almond M&Ms when he was in New York
4. He lets me have his Pentax K1000 on extended loan
5. He drove 5,500 miles across the Sahara in a Citroen 2cv. Yes you heard.

A Quick Question

Anonymouse, who are yoooou?

You ARE Amazing

Things are good.

I'm on the mend now. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I made it into town the other day, and I've even been to Portsmouth and to uni. I was mortified about missing the start of that really. And also, I have so much work to do now, last semester's, and this semester's... but that's ok. Because it'll get done. So long as I can stay well. I still get fairly tired easily, but that'll go. Thankfully the feeling depressed about it has passed, I think that went with the actually being able to do things again-ness.

South Park, good or bad?

I actually did something artistic the other day, it felt good.

I'm also reading Design Anarchy - finally managed to put my hands on it in the uni library (yeah, because I can afford £50 for a book). It's good. It scares me sometimes, as do the Adbusters magazines, but it's good. I like it a lot.

I finished The Modern Pagan: How to Live a Natural Lifestyle in the 21st Century. It came across to me as a little preachy at times, a lot of things are common sense, but it was alright. Not the best book in that vein that I've read, but still good to read all the same. I know I marked off some pages to go back to, maybe when I do I'll think some more about how useful I thought it really was.

I started a Library Thing thing actually, though I've not had much time to play with it. I like the site and what it does, but not the interface so much. I don't know. Anyone know of any similar sites? I guess it's like last.fm in a way.

So it's halfway through February. Anyone keep their new years resolutions this time? I didn't make any. I stopped eating chocolate for a bit, but that went to hell when I got sick. I can't count how many Mars eggs I've eaten - they have to be the best invention since.... cream eggs. Still, that needs to stop. Really.

Actually, that's a lie, I did have a resolution in mind. Haha. Guess that went to hell too. I'll dig that out and maybe start doing it. It involves cameras.

Happy belated Val Day world. Love is amazing. Find some.

I got an essay back that I wrote "analysing an image found within contemporary visual culture". I got 70% which is really good, and some really nice comments. Considering I was in quite an upset/stressed out state the day I wrote that, that's pretty amazing. I did put in some library time for that though, and it paid off, judging by one of the comments. I guess I might just live in the library this semester. It's not like I don't have too much to do.

Quite probably one of my favouritest photos ever. <3 Although it should be the other way around, as per the way it was developed ;P

I'm getting rid of my tellybox. That's not to say I won't watch telly elsewhere, I think that's inevitable. And you know, the stuff I watch on the PC, but but but, I'M GIVING UP HOLLYOAKS. Properly this time. Yes. You heard. Giving it up.

24 is scary. It's all going wrong. Fix it.

I should do the stuff I came home to do.

Sing me a love song. Drop me a line. Suppose it's just a point of view, but they tell me I'm doing fine.

They diagnosed it as glandular fever on Monday. The second blood test is expected to be confirmation. At least it's out of the way right? I can't get this again. Not like this. Thank god. I don't think anything's ever messed up my life quite so much as this.

Ohnoes.

Glandular fever (mono, 'tever). Well. Whodathunkit. Worst timing ever to get this. Well, I suppose there's never really a good time to get something like this.

It's still not 100% confirmed. I have to have another blood test, but from the results of the last one, it looks like I have it. And also the fact that the antibiotics aren't touching the tonsillitis - because that's actually gotten worse over the last few days.

I've been ill two weeks now. Two weeks. I've missed two deadlines, I managed to make one other one but I'm not too happy about what I handed in. This was supposed to be our two weeks off to do things like visit Johnathan Creek's windmill, but nooo. I can't drive. Bah. There was so much else I wanted to do too, and I've already lost a week and still have that work to do when I feel well enough. I'm also bored of being stuck indoors - since last Tuesday the only places I've been are the doctors and the Co-Op (for Mars eggs, yeah, chocolate, so kill me) - and I'm used to galavanting many many miles cross country for uni, boyfriendness and various things, but, stuck here. Bah. :(

On the plus, I've been spoilt by my mother and my boyfriend and even J came to see me :) I have *flowers*. They so pretty :) :) :) Props go to those people for putting up with me being all ill and stuff. I can't imagine it's much fun for them either.

I've been listening to old Placebo music while I've been dozing, some of which I'd not listened to before - and I'm endlessly fascinated by how all their songs rhyme. What's up with that?

Also, happy Imbolc.

I hate karma.

Eating bread soaked in yoghurt and honey just so I can swallow some food was not how I envisioned the next few days. Although, there may be ice cream soon. I guess that's an upside, right?

Some Advice

Always check your toasters for mice.

SLOW DOWN

Adbusters have announced 'Slow Down Week' (see the animation here). The premise being:

For one week, instead of running to catch the bus or zipping in and out of traffic, try walking to work. Instead of grabbing take-out on the way home, cook a meal with your family. Leave the TV and computer off, and play an old-fashioned board game, or just sit and catch up with family and friends. If possible, take a day off work — and then while it away with a long walk and an afternoon nap.

It sounds interesting, but then one has to have been going fast in the first place for that to work :P

I checked out the latest Adbusters in the liiiibary t'other day, it was a roundup of 2006 edition, which, as per usual, scared me senseless. It's very interesting though. Always worth reading.

Also, it being new year and all, I thought I'd share this link with you - yes everyone claims to have the secret to willpower, but this kind of thing I think would actually work if anyone actually tried it.

And now, I must go blitz my Play to Create project...........

ETA: I've been chocolateless since Sunday.... similar to last year I've given it up.

James Dream

I had the weirdest dream, whereby I was in a James Dean movie, but I was also a man wearing a Jack Daniels t-shirt (JD I guess) and everyone was in colour except James Dean. Something weird went on, where we all ended up in this testing centre with lots of PCs where we just had to do whatever we would normally do on a PC, and I remember desperately trying to think of a way to escape. Dean was there too. I think someone had an afro.

What the hell was that about, and why was I a man?

It was not helped by my cat waking me up at 5am by walking on my head repeatedly until I got up.

I don't like Mondays.

Almost 24 hours until the first deadline hits. I like flashing underscores, they're helpful.

I also got rid of so many videos in the last 24 hours that I'm terrified. My amazon wishlist consists almost entirely of DVDs now, which is most unusual.

My hair is two colours. See my Myspace for more details.

Space Monkey.

Happy new year. Do not drink wine. That is all.

I can't believe it's 2007. That's all kinds of scary. I'll be 20 this year, no more teenagerness. Although, twenteen :P

I'm working on an essay about imagined communities, joy. Ed's playing Sonic Heroes, I'm jealous. But I'm listening to Placebo, so it's ok. And I have cake. Good cake.

Also, if you've never heard of Girls are Pretty and have a few decades to waste reading amusing things, you should go there now.