Monthly Archive for March, 2007

Update: One Month Challenge Et Al

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 30, 2007
in The Usual Stuff
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I completely lost track of my spending last weekend. All it takes it to stop doing something for one day and then you’re track’s completely broken. So, didn’t make it a month. Plus the spending I did on Tuesday would completely wreck my percentages.

That said, I’m very happy with my Tuesday purchases. I’ve been looking for some decent black jeans for about two years, plain black, not very dark grey. Black. I found some amazing ones in Bay. I also got this weird dress/top thing from New Look which looks really cool. I’m clueless with fashion, but the stuff that’s in fashion is a bit weird at the moment. I got some other things too… basically spent too much money, but for some reason I felt like I needed to.

I am managing to hold back on buying a new mobile phone. I really dislike my current phone, but until that breaks I really have no excuse to purchase an extravagance that costs 150 of the English pounds. It won’t offer me many benefits, better mobile internet, but who really needs to be connected 100% of the time… and it’s pink. And shiny. But. I’m going to wait until summer to make a decision about this, hopefully by that time I’ll be earning, and that would be the sensible thing to do.

Going home tonight. Easter break. Gonna get some Ben and Jerry’s on the way home and cuuuddllle up with mah hunnnie.

Redyed my hair - it’s now half black and I rebleached the other side so it’s really bright blonde. That side is going to go pink in a week or so ;)

Tonight we dine in hell… 300 Review plus…

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 24, 2007
in Movies, Music, Photographs and Reviews
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Yesterday the other half an I went to see 300. He likes Miller and knows about these things, whereas I have no clue about things like graphic novels and was mostly going because I liked the trailer, and I’ve dragged him to every shitty horror flick that’s come out since October. I was surprised, I thought the film was amazing.

It was certainly visually stunning, although I’m not so sure I’d have been so accepting of the obviousness of CG had I not known it was based on a graphic novel. Either way, they really went to town on it. I especially loved this technique that I’ve only just started noticing appearing in movies, where, for example, someone shoots an arrow, the camera pans in on the arrow, time slows down and it moves around the arrow before it speeds up again, drawing you in and making you feel a part of something otherwise quite flat. It’s almost 3D without being 3D.

Gerard Butler was impressive, I’ve only seen him as the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, it was very entertaining to see him do something so different, and do it so well.

The story wasn’t that strong, it was mostly about the fighting which is fair enough, but they did manage to put enough of a storyline in to have me crying by the end of it (I felt like I’d been hit with an emotional bus, but I think that may have just been me). There were some very touching moments, some downright scary moments, but mostly, a lot of bloody moments. But even then, they were well engineered bloody moments.

The soundtrack, the soundtrack, the soundtrack, I adored it. Rocky vs classical, always a winner with me. I thought it fit the movie very well. I’d recommend the movie, assuming you can deal with slow motion decapitation… or just generally a lot of slow motion. I read somewhere they filmed most of it at 50-150 frames per second - shows just how much slow motion they did or planned to use!

—

I realise now on DA you get a free prints account, so I just messed around with the options to see what would happen, as a result, this photo of the sunset over Southsea is available as a print.

—

All else is going alright. Got a lot of work on at uni, but it’s all good things. Thinking of things to write about for a dissertation, working up a design for a competition, running a business focussed on environmentalism (proper website and details available next week), it’s all good.

—

Thursday 21st March

Nothing!

Wednesday 20th March

Chocolate chips 0.49
Pizza 1.15
Broccoli 0.46
Butter 0.46
Chips 0.88
Enterprise Investment 30
Car Insurance 476.04 (not including this in percentages as it tips it too much, just included for records)


Totals so far…
£235.35
Necessary £179.96 76.46%
Unnecessary £55.39 23.54%

Homo Erectus… haha.

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 21, 2007
in The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

Wednesday 20th MarchMilky Way Crispy Rolls 0.35
Mega Cheddar Baguette 3.30

Totals so far…
£201.91
Necessary £147.01 72.81%
Unnecessary £54.90 27.19%

Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green…

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 21, 2007
in The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

Tuesday 20th March

Petrol £5.06
Milk £0.49

Totals so far…
£198.26
Necessary £147.01 74.15%
Unnecessary £51.25 25.85%

Quick explanation…

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 20, 2007
in The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

I’ve been wanting to move onto my own hosting for ages, but never had the time. Discovered WordPress and decided with that I could do it easily enough. I do want to rework the template and sort out a personal gallery amongst other things, however until the weekend I doubt I’ll even have time to think about it.

Your understanding is appreciated and if you could update your bookmarks and whatnot I’d really appreciate it!

Time flies.

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 20, 2007
in Books and The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

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

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 18, 2007
in The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

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

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 16, 2007
in The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

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

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 14, 2007
in The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

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…

Published
by
Roxy Ghosthand
on March 13, 2007
in Books and The Usual Stuff
. 0 Comments

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.