Reality Check

Today I had to fill both cars up with fuel. Eeek. I may have to sell the house next time. My car is the smaller and is quite fuel efficient. The tank cost £50 to fill up today. The other car is bigger but runs on LPG, better for the environment and for my purse. All the same it cost £38 to fill the tank. However if I had filled up with the same amount of petrol then it would have been nearly £80! This will keep us getting to and from work for just under two weeks. I am driving it at the moment as beloved is away and I prefer to use the most efficient and cost effective.

However it more the shock of the price that I am writing about today. I know that petrol prices are rising,its the forefront of the news. However actually handing over the cash really brought it home to me. Prices of things like this never seem to go down again after this. So we will have to get used to it. I had to drive about 70 miles today,on business and there is no public transport available, & I believe that the roads were noticeably emptier. I don't know if people are car sharing or finding other ways to travel or just avoiding moving about entirely. You can do this if the driving is leisure but of course on business we are stuck.

So, prices of fuel are going up, prices of food are going up, i assume prices of anything which comes by road (and what doesn't ?) is also increasing. It has never been more important to think about expenditure. The time has come for a spending diary.

At the moment I am spending quite a lot of money. But don't worry, Its all budgeted. I have to spend money here because I need to sort a few things out, decorate the sitting room,re-seed the lawn, various bit and bobs. But I have saved up for what needs to be purchased. I need to buy quite a bit for the Crete house of course. It is completely bare at the moment. Not a stick of furniture of course as the building is barely finished (fingers crossed it is actually finished.)

When we come back from Crete then the spending will be over until the next trip to Crete (more furnishing - this is going to take time). So the spending diary will start when we come back from Crete & continue for one month. I will analyse where I need to cut down. Where we can make ecomonies. Its an adventure but it's an unavoidable adventure , so be it.