DFSD's motivational ramblings...

debtfreesomeday

I sold another book on Amazon yesterday for £6.33, so credit card balance now £2930.93 :T - it's so nice to see that balance within the £2000's now.

We had a massive binge right across the house on Saturday - I spent all day clearing every cupboard, shelf, nook and cranny - and the entire garage. We found a whole load more stuff for the car boot sale and some for ebay too, AND we have a lot more space now! I decided to give the bits on Amazon 1 more week to sell and then, if they haven't sold by next weekend when we're doing a car boot sale, then I'm going to take them off and sell them there. I don't really want to store stuff for much longer, we're gonna have a fresh start and get rid of it all.

Fingers crossed, we sell that item for £100 this week that we put on the notice board at work. I'm also going to see if I can borrow a camera from a friend just to take some pics for ebay and other stuff for the notice board. Our camera is well and truly b*ggered it seems. :mad:

DFSD

debtfreesomeday

I've decided to incorporate a spending diary into this thread, so that I can see where I'm wasting my money. We should have a little money left at the end of every month, but like many, we never do because of all the little bits and bobs that trickle out throughout the month. So, I shall keep track of my spending on here, starting with yesterday. I'm not including the bills and direct debits as they're all accounted for already and I know where that huge chunk of money goes! :rolleyes:

So here goes...

Sunday 14th June:
£10.75 on planters and compost for garden
£4.80 (ish) on some decorations and reduced tablecloths for a planned party in August.
About £8.50 (I can't remember exactly how much! ) on some bits for lunches in the week, a newspaper and a couple of reduced items for the freezer.

Hubby bought us a coffee & cake out as a treat so I didn't have to spend any pennies on that.

Hmm, that's nearly £25 - :eek: I think we can see where my money's going!

I'm quite shocked at how much I spent yesterday actually... it doesn't seem like that much when you spend in dribs and drabs like that. Think this may turn out to be a worthwhile exercise!

No spend day today. I've taken to not having any money in my purse at all, particulalry during the week as I get tempted by the odd can of coke and packet of crisps - not good for the finances or the waistline!

debtfreesomeday

I did another survey last night - now have about £12 in that account.

Also planned some meals for the week with freezer / storecupboard ingredients. Tonight we are using some of our first homegrown veg of the season for dinner, I had to put some slug pellets down the other night as I see the nasty little blighters have got their beady eyes on our lettuces and courgettes too. :mad: I hate slugs.

Updated spending:

Monday 16th
NSD :j - in fact, I gained £7.81 from a refund on an Amazon product which turned out to be faulty. Going to put this on the credit card now... balance now at £2923.12.

Tuesday 17th
£1.98 on ebay - cookie cutter to make my own cookies for our party :-)
£10 on gift card for Dad for Father's Day
£3.69 BBQ cleaner
£4.50 ish on postage of Amazon sales

Now counting the 9 days til payday!

debtfreesomeday

Wednesday 17th
Another NSD today :j

A pretty uneventful day really. The weather is appalling here so I'm planning on an evening of boxing the car boot stuff up ready for the weekend, planning the meals for rest of the week and hopefully a nice hot bath! An evening of relative relaxation I hope!

We picked a lettuce from our garden last night to use in our packed lunches today, and also transplanted the carrots to bigger pots. It's so lovely to see our own fruit & veg growing, especially as the seeds were free in the first place!

debtfreesomeday

I forgot to mention, we cancelled our joint gym membership last month, saving us a combined total of £69.05 every month! :eek:

Hubby is going to keep paying his half of the gym membership into the account every month so we can use it for overpayments or bills etc. :T

debtfreesomeday

So, spending first:

Thursday 18th
£36 :eek: on DIY bits and some cake bits to bake at the weekend in anticipation of a cake sale next week!

Friday 19th
I need to buy some paint today and pay my lottery at work. Plus I gave hubby a fiver this morning towards a wedding card and bottle of bubbly as a gift for a wedding 'do' we're going to this weekend. So a spend of about £25 :eek: EEK - what an expensive couple of days!

HOWEVER - we sold two items yesterday, totalling £110. :j £60 of which has gone in the bank to cover most of the overdraft this month; £20 is going to pay for the paint & lottery; another £20 we're using to pay for car boot sale fee (£5) on Sunday, plus gonna get some change with it to take with us. The last £10 has been spent already on some of the DIY stuff and a contribution to the wedding gift! Phew.

I had invites for a couple of surveys yesterday which I couldn't be bothered to do last night - I shall try and do them at the weekend if it's not too late. We're also being taken out for a (free) meal tonight so I'm looking forward to that.

The diet's going well this weeks so far - I've even planned what I'm having to eat at the restaurant tonight and counted the points for it - all within my daily allowance, with 2.5 points spare!

DFSD
x

debtfreesomeday

We did the car boot sale on Sunday and, although it wasn't that busy, we made about £110. :j We used £40 of that to fill the car up with petrol; we treated ourselves with an £8 takeaway and the rest has been paid into the bank account for overdraft or credit card payments.
We still have quite a bit of stuff left, so I'm tempted to do another one in a couple of weeks or so, as much as I dislike them! :rolleyes:

It's pay day in 2 days, so I shall be making another £300 payment towards the virgin card then. I would like it to be more, but hubby's birthday is coming up at the end of next month and I'm planning on buying most of his pressies this month as we have other things to pay for out of next month's salary.
I have put all my Amazon listings on hold for now as we sold some of the books and cds listed on there at the car boot sale. I need an evening of going through the boxes and seeing what's left before I re-list those items.
Hopefully we'll be able to make a bit more money this month for extra credit card payments but I'm not sure how yet... Oh - I do have an ebay pile upstairs in our spare room, but our camera is broken and hopefully being repaired (for free!) at the moment. We also have one more item for the notice board, but, again, I need a picture of it really. Will have to see if I can borrow a camera from someone.

I have ordered an online grocery shop to be delivered on Wednesday. We're running a bit low on most things and packed lunches are getting interesting at the moment :rotfl: - especially trying to make them heathy too! We had to do a few 'top-up shops' at the weekend which I hate doing as it works out so expensive!

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

Spending:

Monday 22nd
50p :eek: on a packet of low fat crisps!

Tuesday 23rd
Another 50p on a packet of low fat crisps! NO MORE CRISPS!
£85 on hubby's birthday presents (which will come out of next month's budget as get paid on Wednesday / Thursday.

debtfreesomeday

This morning I've made a payment of £323.40 to the virgin card. That's the usual £300 plus I've added a little extra on to round the balance down to exactly £2600. :j
Only one more 'pay day' left until our 0% runs out on that one though :eek:, hopefully egg will offer us a good balance transfer in August before Virgin crank up the APR to a ridiculous level. :mad:

Worked out the budget for this coming month - I have £162.65 remaining in the bank account after bills, food & petrol etc. Maybe a bit more as hubby's petrol expenses will get paid in too which is usually about £40 - £50. Out of this, I need to buy a tin of paint (which I still haven't got round to buying since last week!); about £25 worth of garden materials to finish the current section we're working on, and a cheap pair of trousers for a night out on a weekend away we have coming up. I'm sure the rest of it will go very quickly too though!

Also had news that our camera is not going to be fixed for free. Have to ring up today and see how much it's gonna cost, if it's too expensive then it's definitely not worth it.

Also had to raid the 'loose change' tin this morning for some pennies for a sandwich for lunch - we have no 'lunchable' food in the house until the shopping gets delivered tonight!

All in all, not feeling very positive this morning... :sad:

debtfreesomeday

Having a down day today. It's actually pay day, so I should be elated, but the fact that it's pretty much all been assigned to various bills and expenses already is getting me down a bit at the moment. There are so many things I'd like to buy for our home but obviously we don't have the money to do so at the moment. It's a good job I don't have a credit card to hand at the moment as I'm sure I'd blow lots of money on it. I just feel like I want to spend some money! Anyone else get these spending urges?

Haven't spent any money yet, but I need to go out tonight and get the bl00dy paint for our house - still haven't bought it!

Feel like screaming today! ARGHHHHHH!

Sorry, pointless rant now over...