Hello! Newbie!

Verbatim

You're doing really well there dtdt. Your debt free date has come down so much already and once you get to "critical mass", when much less interest is added and more of the payments goes off the capita,l the totals will tumble fast. Hang on in there!

determinedtodothis

Well October is on the horizon, Septembers been tough and I haven't been as good as I should have been which means I'm going to have to make sacrifices in October to make up for it and i've started thinking about my October targets

• I have been very good at store cupboard dinners this month so I hope to keep that up
• I am determined to go as long as possible with out turning the heating on, i have been reading last years diaries and compared with when everyone else switched on and the fact i'm thin blooded i'm going to aim for not switching the heating on before 17th October hopefully i can last out longer with all the throws, pj's and hot water bottles I have bought
• I'm aiming for 20 NSD, hopefully I will do more but going on the success of this months target i need put a little less pressure on myself - plus I intend to buy some more xmas things this month...
• I need to do 20 dooyoo reviews

Overall Balances:

• Phone Bill Balance (inc line rental) £15.80
• 0p credit on the mobile, still have free text tho!
• 14 NSD :rolleyes:
• Done me scratchcards £32.80 but £7 in the bonus :mad:
• Dooyoo 27560 and 5 product suggestions pending
• Survey's £5.00
• Capital One vs 100 Challenge £13.00
• Estimated Electricity Bill £24.66 (trying to beat £284.83)

Targets this week

• [STRIKE]Monthly shop - budget £40 [/STRIKE]:D
• Don't use the phone!
• [STRIKE]Monthly payments to my debts[/STRIKE]
• Do some more dooyoo reviews!
• Storecupboard dinners all week
• [STRIKE]5 NSD[/STRIKE][STRIKE] 4 NSD[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]3 NSD[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]2NSD[/STRIKE]
• Try to cut electricity use to £2.00 a day

determinedtodothis

Happy October!

Well this month is the start of the count down to xmas! I can't believe I only have 3 pay days til xmas it has come around so fast but i am on track i've been putting a tiny bit away for the last few months so hopefully it wont be too painful.

At the moment i'm trying to cut down on the things i can control, shopping, electricity, petrol etc.. so far the electricity has been sucessful, and surprisingly it has been pretty painless i've just had to be sensible and plan ahead to do my washing at the cheaper times etc at the moment I seem to be using 9 units a day which i don't think is too bad..but i'm going to see if I can stay that low, I feel the cold and i expect the heating will be a drain on my finances. My shopping was sucessful this month my cupboard has been stocked for £40 so it will be interesting to see if it will last me the month.

All my bills have now been paid for October which makes me feel a bit more relaxed I just need to get through the month on the whats left...which isn't a great deal! luckily I have no birthdays, weddings or nights out this month so I have come up with a cunning plan... I have divided the money I have left in 4 and i'm going to do the piggy bank(ish) version of spending so i have a weekly budget for going out, petrol and see how that goes. I thought I would also arrange a night in round mine, a few board games, get everyone to bring a bottle of wine, buys some pizza's etc and if i arrange it for the middle of the month it will stop my mates moaning that they never see me!


Overall Balances:

• Phone Bill Balance (inc line rental) £15.80
• £10 credit on the mobile
• 1 NSD
• Done me scratchcards £32.80 but £7in the bonus :mad:
• Dooyoo 27560 and 5 product suggestions pending
• Survey's £5.00
• Capital One vs 100 Challenge £13.00
• Estimated Electricity Bill £29.88 (trying to beat £284.83)

determinedtodothis

Afternoon:

Well lets start with the positives!

• I'm officially winning the race with justruth after a mis-calculation with a credit card :T
• I'm £32.21 in credit with the electricity company
• I have managed 5 NSD in October already!
• I cashed in my dooyoo points and got some gifts on Amazon for xmas
• The heating at mine is still off !
• I've up'd my debt payments to a minimum of £81 a month

The Negatives

• I'm still in debt!
• my electricity usage is up for september
• I've up'd my debt payments to £81 a month *LOL*

determinedtodothis

Gosh thank god its friday been a long long week!

but on good note I have managed not to spend for most of the week which I am very proud of, next week I am going for dinner with friends but i'm aiming for a repeat performance, i've been having store cupboard dinners and taking my lunch to work and avoiding the shops like the plague! The piggy bank style of dealing with my "live on money" (food, petrol, going out, clothes) seems to be working so i think this is going to be the way forward..

My phone bill is hurrendous this month, partly because I called CCCS for a review but thats sorted now we've agreed to keep the payments the same and i'm going to put extra away and they said I should try a full & final with Capital One when I get enough together

Not feeling well today, have been fighting the temptation to put the heating on (i've set myself a target for 17th October for it to go on) but I have the sniffles - maybe becuase I haven't got the heating on?? my friend came over for a cuppa to discuss BF issues and cracked up when I opened the door I had my fleecy Pj's on, with my dressing gown and a pair of illuminous pink fluffy socks *LOL* she said I looked "hot" *LOL* i felt like bridget Jones next to the skinny mini and her designer jeans but at least i was snug as a rug!

I've done a strict budget for the next three paydays to take into account xmas, going out, food, drink & presents so far I've got:


Nov: (Paid in Oct)

• Present Fund: 30.00
• Going out fund: £30 - this is a standby amount incase xmas party is announced or tickets for xmas eve go on sale
• Shopping - £40 going for a tight budget again this month
• Petrol - £28 (£7 a week)

Dec: (Paid in Nov)

• Present Fund: 70
• Going out fund: 40
• Shopping - £100 have two members of my family staying over xmas
• Petrol - £30

Dec/Jan: (Paid in Dec just before xmas)

• Going out fund:100.00 (£50 xmas eve/£50 new years eve)
• Shopping - £40
• Petrol - £30

So in all i've budgeted:

£100 for presents - I only have to buy the main family ones now so might not use all of that
£170 for going out - I didn't celebrate my birthday I don't go out the rest of the year really, once a month if i'm lucky so i want to be out with my friends as much as possible, plus i might treat myself to 1 outfit as I have bought no clothes this year :A

What do you think?? too much? do you think the food budget for Dec is enough for 3 people? i am only feeding them for the week in betwen xmas and new year and we are all going to the grandparents for xmas dinner

determinedtodothis

Hey folks

why oh why is this month dragging??? i have soo little money!

The heating is still off although I think I am really struggling sticking to my aim of not switching it on til saturday i feel the cold something terrible, at the moment my £30 credit with the Evil Electricity company has been eaten up and i reckon I'm about £3 in debit with them, I do have another £50 DD going out on the 27th, so i wont be in debit for long its just come Nov/Dec how long I can keep the bills down for really, at this stage I think I can come in under £284 if i'm careful i'm hoping that i can come in at max £180, £30 of that of course being credit and covered by Oct, Nov & Dec's DD's

The NSD's continue to be a roaring success - 9 to date, I had to fill up the car again due to alot of errands for work and an emergency bar of chocolate was purchased today to cheer me up so I am well on my way to my target of 15 and may even smash it to bits with 17 days of October still to go

The monthly food shop for £38 seems to be holding out - i still have a freezer and cupboards that look rammed so i don't think i will be going hungry anytime soon and for once it all looks yummy! I have written a few reviews on the basic stuff that I have bought so that is all helping with my dooyoo credits so hopefully that will be more vouchers towards xmas presents!

I just seem to be a bit fed up at the moment, i think its the weather, the cold nights, the lack of money and that there is nothing going on in October, no birthdays, weddings nothing bit of a dull month, i'm not the only person that feels like this as my mates are all complaining that October is dragging its heels i think we are all paying as much of bills as possible to brace ourselves for xmas

roll on paid day.....

lossed

Hiya, i arrived here last week in a right state and 7 days later, i feel like a different person, aint they just fab

Well done you are doing great

jo x

Verbatim

Hi there dtdt

You ARE doing well. You chose a good user name, you really are determined.

We live in London too and have not put the ch onto auto yet, although we have had it on for an hour about 4 times so far. Our system has a "plus 1 hour" button which makes it easy to do that. Is that something you could do? It stops the mindset of the system being either on or off. If you know you can have an hour when needed without committing to its then being on full time for the rest of the winter you don't feel hard done by and it's a heck of a lot cheaper! Once we go onto auto we have set it to come on only for an hour in the morning and we rely on the plus 1 hr for the evenings. BUT we do have an open fire in our sitting room, with smokeless fuel so we're legal in London, and I light it each evening! So we're not shivering and if we didn't have that I'm sure we'd use the ch a LOT more. So I think you have done brilliantly to have managed without so far.

determinedtodothis

Thanks Verbatim! you always gee me on when i'm floundering!

Well the heating went on, on Saturday I stuck it out for as long as I could and I have set it to come on half an hour before I get up, half hour before I get home for 1 hour and then in my bedroom for half hour before I usually go to bed and see how I go on that bit frightend to do my unit count at the end of the week! I've only been using 9 units a day at the moment!

The NSD have slowed a little 12 now but I am well on target. Planning to pay another £51.00 off my debt next week too which is good, might try for me see what the spreadsheet says..

Managed to get some haribo in Aldi for 99p (big pack of mini's) so hopefully that will sort the trick or treaters we don't usually get that many..

I'm just looking at the calendar for November and I have no social things going on so I might arrange something mid-month to keep my friends happy, i want to save as much as possible this month so I can party in December....

Verbatim

Glad things are all going to plan DTDT!

I think that if you have a plan you're 75% of the way there. You know what you want but more importantly you know how you can get there! And it's working really well. Just look at your siggy! If you've paid off over £8k in just over a year is your dfd really 2021? Sorry I can't remember if some of that was a windfall/one off payment?

Enjoy your evening at home with friends.