Preparing for adult life ..

Littlebirdie · 3 April 2017 at 5:58PM

Hey,

I know exactly what you mean about giving yourself a break! I sometimes find it hard to get a balance. The key thing is that you are not throwing your money away - your money is better value (if that makes sense) as you appreciate what you are spending now. I think you are doing brilliantly - especially squirriling away £100 as that's not an easy amount to save!

AleMrsT · 5 April 2017 at 8:01PM

Hi bma, I've just stumbled across your diary and have subscribed. You seem to be doing great so far!

bma14 · 6 April 2017 at 10:10AM

Thanks Littlebirdie and AleMrsT

this diary has definitely helped me like nothing else to stay on track!

Have had an ok few days MSE wise - a few NSDs and LSDs. Still finding it hard staying within the budgets due to the 5 week month but I'll need to sort that ASAP so that we aren't struggling at the end of the month!

I'm pushing forward on my April challenge and have made £14.09 so far towards my target

I also got a quote to sell my ipad for £82 so I will send that away at the weekend and hopefully add a good chunk towards it.

I'll also have a think at the weekend about putting stuff on ebay but not sure how good it is at the moment or if it is worth the effort ... I'll have a look through the cupboards at the weekend and see. Hopefully I'll be feeling pumped and motivated by then! Lacking today.

bma14 · 9 April 2017 at 4:51PM

Another weekend almost gone ... how did that happen! :eek:

Thankfully we now all have the 4 day weekend to look forward to! I haven't had a proper holiday since Xmas so very very much looking forward to (and in need of) some time off!

I've been feeling the pinch this weekend and seems no matter how careful I try to be with money I keep having set-backs. I think it's down to the 5 week month and because I worked it out ahead of time I am feeling it all the way through rather than just in the last week! Pay day is 2.5 weeks away for me and it can't come quick enough!

I'm worrying a bit about the amount of social things I have coming up before the end of the month and I have not a lot of funds left in my personal spend with which to pay it from ...

I have a work dinner before after the office closes on Thursday plus another on the Tuesday we get back, then I have a tournament weekend after that. And with only about £60 to pay for it all I'm not feeling very optimistic about it. I may have to back out of one so that I can stay on track with paying down the debts. I guess I should think of it in a positive light that I am thinking about it differently as otherwise I might have just kept spending out of my overdraft to be able to go to them all.

My plan for the rest of the month is to have NSDs apart from the dinner(s). I can probably get away with blaming it on the hen if I go and don't drink at these things haha, but then again I am going to have (significant) expenses following me to that too!

I'm trying to push on with my challenge of getting the debts down to £1000 before the end of the month. I have packaged up my ipad to be sold and taken to the post office tomorrow so that could be another good chunk towards it hopefully. I'm also hopeful that I will get some cashback in soon from insurance products I bought when we moved in to the house and I'm powering on (slowly but surely) with surveys and earning a little each day. Every little helps I suppose!

I'll need to get my motivated hat back on! :rotfl:

bma14 · 9 April 2017 at 5:23PM

And as if the universe knew I needed to calm the worrying a bit - I just got a notification that £37.52 appeared in my cashback account

So happy days - that can go towards my challenge for this month !

Littlebirdie · 10 April 2017 at 5:56AM

Keep it up, all these little savings will add up and in a few months you'll be feeling so proud. Fab news on the cashback - the most I've ever got is £4.35 and I was thrilled ha:rotfl:

bma14 · 10 April 2017 at 9:42AM

Haha I know - I never used to use any of these sites but it seems like the more you use them the more profitable they become! I got another £40.40 from the cashback website this morning plus another couple of £ with surveys so feeling on a roll and a little less worried about everything.

I guess I need to keep in perspective that I am actually ahead of schedule in terms of repaying the debt and if I keep it up I might actually finish paying it off before I finish up my job at the end of August! A gal can dream

Hutchch0920 · 10 April 2017 at 10:48AM

Hello! Sounds like you're doing great. Buying a dishwasher and jumpers from Zara would be a luxury in my book though...nobody *needs* a dishwasher :-p

You might want to look into mystery shopping tasks, can be quite lucrative and something you can fit in around other activities like travelling to work etc.

bma14 · 10 April 2017 at 10:56AM

Thanks Hutchch0920 ! Haha yes I did consider whether replacing the dishwasher was a necessity but as it was a joint decision between me and OH I couldn't really say no - she's not in debt so I guess I couldn't really use it as an excuse to make her wash the dishes by hand haha! Although I'm a worrier with money I do feel in a better off position than a lot of people struggling with debt so definitely appreciate that I have a big of wiggle room for purchases whilst still paying down the debt

I will definitely look into the mystery shopping thanks for the tip. I used to do mystery shopping for licenced places when I was younger to check if they ID'd people and definitely enjoyed it - just need to have a look into the best companies to use!

bma14 · 10 April 2017 at 4:47PM

Soooo looks like I mis-calculated my funds a little. So hard when the bills come out of my bank account that has the overdraft on it because it's hard to keep track of the little discrepancies between months (for example, our factor bill came out this month and I forgot I had saved money in that account for it!!)

Although it's all paid I need to add a little more to my challenge in order to get down under that £1000 mark before pay day this month. £53.76 to go! If I'm lucky i'll be paid for selling my ipad before then and that will take me over the line by itself

Preparing for adult life ..

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