First one to clear 15k gets a paper hat

CAFCGirl

Welcome Pinky!
Nice of you to join us and 12k is still a great effort, and the challenge is more to pay off as much as quickly as we can, since we all are guilty of spending when we shouldnt!

I really need to be strict with myself next month. Want to pay at least £750 off our debts, £670 is our normal overpayment, so should manage it!

Also found some bits of us to list on ebay so I'm probably going to do that friday this week as I need to get it all together and organised.

ShelleyC_2

Lots of snow here today - even saw a few :snow_laug

Meant I had to abandon my plans to be out for day. I got 10mins down road and gave up as thick snow and max speed of 30MPH on dual carriageway. The snow has also meant I've had to put heating on. Unfortunately being trapped in hasn't forced me to be productive grrrr!

How do you guys work out what to pay off debts? I used to pay minimum amounts and then pay extra from most expensive ones. But never knew how much to leave in my current account for the rest of the month - guess thats why I should still try and make an accurate SOA and stick to it (especially groceries budget!) I'm struggling more saving rather than debt busting. Just got to motivate self better :wall:

CAFCGirl

Hi Shelley,

Some people find spending diaries helpful, means you can look at where you spend and therefore build a logical budget.Some people have a figure they would like to overpay in general by, so for DH and me we look to overpay by £670, and then we have budget for household bills and personal spends are then whats left after all that.

ShelleyC_2

I've tried to do a spending diary for ages but never end up filling it but it would be a really good idea so must try harder

savingholmes

Hi Pink Twirl and welcome.

Shelley - a few things that might help
Use the budget planner on this site - to look at where you spend your money now and where you would prefer to spend it

Also use the makesenseofcards link to look at your statement of affairs and post it if you dare... then you can look at where you are perhaps over-spending with some helps from peeps like us....

Use the demotivator to put in some of your common spending on luxuries eg magazines, britvic, soft drinks, chocolate etc It will show you how much these things are costing you per year and how long you have to work to earn them.

There is also a stoozing calculator on this site which shows you how much your savings could earn - would that help motivate you? Kind of the snowball but in reverse...

I wouldn't survive as well as we are without the £10 a day challenge - look at what in your life you can do differently to make another £10 a day whether that is selling stuff, surveys, cash back sites, gambling loopholes or whatever

HTH

poorandindenial

Hi Pink Twirl - good luck for your challenge, don't forget that £12k is no mean feat

Shelley - good advice from CAFCGirl and savingholmes there. For the spending diary I am pretty shoddy at keeping records too so I just use a notebook with elastic around it and put my receips in there, then I only have to remember to write down the things I don't get a receipt for. Then when I can be bothered I go through and put it all together properly and look at the tat I have frittered away money on.

My head has been spinning from trying to work out what my wages will be this month (final in current job with holiday pay etc) and next (first month in new job - fingers crossed that the paperwork goes through so I actually get paid in December, otherwise :eek: :eek: :eek:)

Am still hopeful for my ISA being £2k by January though but will get over it if it isn't

I have pretty much sorted Christmas presents now, just a few small bits and bobs for my parents (probably some choccies and some nice biscuits - am doing them a bit of a hamper)

Have also been making OH a papier mache piggy bank this evening, I reckon just another two sessions on it and it should be good to go. He is starting to get better at this frugal thing too.

ShelleyC_2

Well I went and put a little notebook in my handbag for tomorrow - I will try a spending diary and you have my permission to kick / lash me if I fail!

When trying to clear my CC I used the demotivator to stop me buying trashy mags and bottles of pepsi max but have definitely lapsed. I guess I'll have to workout the savings I could be making and ultimately how much less mortgage this will mean :j

ShelleyC_2

PS joined up to Dooyoo & completed my first review. Might take me a while to get to an amazon voucher!!

CAFCGirl

ShelleyC wrote: »

PS joined up to Dooyoo & completed my first review. Might take me a while to get to an amazon voucher!!

If you're anything like me, it gets really addictive, and you get up to 10k pretty quickly... its when u get to 30k that it becomes hard not to cash them in :rolleyes:

I've just spent 2 hours being very uber money saving and spent my time drawing, yes drawing, well technically designing DH new tattoo that he wants. finally finished it showed him and he said "yeah its nice but its a bit tribally" and what was the first question I asked him before I startd "what style did you want?" and what was his answer????

TRIBAL!!!!:mad:
i've given up now and am eating fig rolls instead:rotfl:

tirlittan

I have not listed on ebay. I think I've lost the motivation. I'm going to go over my grocery budget as well...