December Debt Destruction!!!

nanell · 1 December 2012 at 7:06PM

Right this is my first no spend day! I've reduced my budget a bit to £130. I bought some presents yesterday (still in November) because it was the last day of discount but with December's money if that makes any sense. But I think it's still ok, because I have reduced my December budget by the amount I spent! (twisted logic!)

Anyway, here we go! Everytime I think about starting January without an overdraft, I get butterflies!

AlTeREgO · 1 December 2012 at 7:08PM

abundant1972 wrote: »

Arggggh - my first hurdle...

I was going to do my 7 in a row challenge, right... but just found 2 x £6 off when you spend £30 vouchers!!! 1 for this week (ends today) and 1 for next week.. I pledged £20 per week for this challenge. Do I...

a) Ignore the vouchers - use up my food cupboard and restock at a later date keeping within the allotted budget.

b) Buy £30 of food (lots of my essentials on offer at the moment) this week and next week (= £60) and equate that to 3 weeks budgeting, but effectively only spending £48. I could then use up my food cupboard before starting on the new food.

Heeeeeeeeeeelp :eek:

Well in order to save yourself £6 you have got to part with £24 in the first instance, If you dont really need anything at the moment, your just spending money for the sake of it to get the £6 off.

I fell into a bit of a trap with the money off petrol coupons myself, when ever i had a coupon i was putting more petrol in to save a few extra pence per litre

abundant1972 · 1 December 2012 at 7:17PM

I made an executive decision and did the shop... <awaits telling off by NSK!!!>

With my voucher and a Brand Match ticket from a previous shop I got £30.49 worth of shopping for £22.62... so a little over what I'd allowed myself for a week. £7.38 worth of free food overall!

Aside from the 10(!) tins of mackerel (which I eat a lot of as is high in Omega 3 oil and good for the heart!) everything was on offer... (I'd researched and compared prices in all main supermarkets beforehand online via 'mySupermarket') and it was all food that makes up my staples for lunches at work (so food I would have bought anyway).

In keeping in the spirit of DecemberDebtDestruction - The new food is boxed up and will remain untouched until I have used up my cupboard's existing contents (which are very low as was on a NSD stretch at the end of NOvember so no bulk shopping bought). I feel a bit naughty - but that's £7.62 in my pocket rather than the supermarket's.

I'm going to use the voucher next week too (an extra £6.00 free food) BUT am going to further slash my grocery budget for the month from £80 to £50!!! So that shop will be my last pretty much for the month... (I saw Kat had dropped hers from £80 in NOvember to £40 this month, and decided to challenge myself even more!!!)

So from old stock - tonight's food is jacket potato and beans . Tomorrow is looking like soup and <dejected sigh> rice cakes!

PS

Thanks for the advice 'startingtogetoutofdebt' and 'AlTeREgO' - much appreciated!!!

missyv30 · 1 December 2012 at 7:21PM

Well can't believe its december already where has the last month gone or year well today was my

I did have to get the girls winter coats and boots but that was done by using the money. I get for child support as its for what they need. So i don't count that as my money hope that is ok kat as i don't feel its technically my money as didn't come out my wages or bank.
Also will be doing my 20 minutes of excercise on my bike and might do 20 mins on the wii. Just dance with the girls give them a laugh on how bad i am :rotfl:
Then going to have a hot bath and a nice glass of something not sure what yet. My treat for the time i have been having just now.

searching_me · 1 December 2012 at 7:47PM

evening ..

spend day today but had to be nothing in at all and i had to buy lunch as i ran out of gas and my bread had gone mouldy

.. came to the grand total of £39.57 ... should keep us going till next saturday as im working loads and the kids are mainly with the ex ..

one of the lads as just told hes leaving so in 2 weeks work is going to get hectic .. not much fun but extra money i suppose ...

so looking forward to my lemon and herb chicken for dinner smells bootiful x

LaFolie · 1 December 2012 at 8:15PM

Right, day 1 done, and we actually have food in the house again (by food I mean cheese, crumpets, and fruit - the IMPORTANT things), £60 spent from groceries budget (including £10 for the Christmas Roast), and £8 from my spending budget on bus fare, body lotion, and cider. Tomorrow and Monday should be NSDs :j

the_cat · 1 December 2012 at 8:35PM

Scored my first NSD. Yippee!

Batch cooked some treats for the next couple of days and a HM pizza from odds and ends for tea, plus realised I am about £50 in credit with phone bill.....asked for it back so technically £48ish up so far. No exercise today but have about 4 hours worth planned for tomorrow. Will take packed lunch out with me to make sure the 'no food out' rule is adhered to and that will make tomorrow a NSD too

Hope you all had a good day. Catch up soon

WantToBeSE · 1 December 2012 at 8:48PM

1st NSD today, and i have also donated some food to the foodbank. It was only some tins that have been lurking at the back of the cupboard for ages, so i thought they may as well be put to good use by someone else.

It was my sisters birthday today, but i bought her a scarf that she had mentioned she wanted, via Tesco clubcard points

I have some herbs, cheese, flour, bananas and lemons to use up, so tomorrow i'll be making banana and lemon drizzle cake, and cheese herb bread. I'll share if you ask nicely

Abundant, i think you did the right thing with the food shop/voucher. If it was stuff you were going to buy anyway, then why not get a deal on it

Had a good look at what cleaning products i have in the house, and found 5 huge bottles of Lenor concentrate fabric conditioner and 2 bottles of washing gel...as well as the box of Ariel i am getting through at the moment!

So wont have to buy any washing powder/gel/fab con for a while

Applied for 2 more jobs today....fingers crossed!

abundant1972 · 1 December 2012 at 9:10PM

Arghhh..

Just dusted off my Reebok Step (previously very handy for hanging laundry off to dry!) and have done 20 minutes to various dance tracks on YouTube! Whilst I feel like I'm about to have a coronary - I actually quite enjoyed it - even broke a sweat!!!

Money Tin arrived this am and just gonna put my first £1.00 in!!!

Got a cracking deal on Car Insurance (had budgeted for £430 and this year it's down to £260) so all in all December is off to a money saving start!!! £££

Well done to everyone who got their first NSD too!!! Awesome work!!!

WantToBeSE - thanks! You prompted me to go check my toiletries and like you I think am gonna be ok this month... Nice gesture donating food tins (so long as it wasn't out of date SPAM or anything ha ha!!!)... wonder if they'll take Rice Cakes

:T

WantToBeSE · 1 December 2012 at 9:27PM

Hehehe, no it wasnt out of date spam

Just some hideous custard that none of us would touch, and about 8cans of chicken soup (we hate chicken soup

).

December Debt Destruction!!!

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