Goals for the week/c 6th Feb?

sashanut

Hi everyone - apologise for starting this again as a thread but don't know how to link it to last week's - moderator maybe?

Anyhow I found it useful to list my weekly goals & had feedback from other people who did theirs too - that was great & gave me some more ideas :T

So - last week I did:

- called credit cards to try & get a lower rate - no luck so far but MINT took my call as an invitation to close my account!! No problem as I don't use the card but not quite what I asked for.

- kept food shopping under £50 by using cash & walked to supermarket (15 mins e/w)

- listed on eBay - but only one item (!)

- found that my local Aldi sell all fruit & veg half-price on Mondays

- made that call to NTL & got an £8.50 reduction - INDEFINITELY !! :rotfl:

- applied for another LLoyds cc with a lower i/r - waiting to hear

- paid £500 off highest rate card!!

OK now THIS WEEK my goals are:

- get my house insurance quote cheaper than Direct Line
(renewal 12th Feb)

- keep the food shopping under £45

- list 5 things today on eBay

- try & get new business bank account - this account is in good standing

- call EGG & see what they can do for me re ccs & loan - can't find egg thread tho'

- chase up ALL the ppl who owe us money!

Be interested to hear what other people are doing this week!!

good luck everyone!

Sasha

carolbee

Hi, I am going to

• check out alternative power suppliers, do this on a 3 monthly basis
• get quotes for car insurance due this month
• try to use the car as little as possible, only use for essential trips now. live at the coast so able to walk along the seafront to go to the town
• keep within food budget, have started using farm shop, trying to shop seasonally, more difficult than I thought as supermarket stock all things at all times!
• carry on thinking twice about what I buy, but don't make myself miserable if I buy something, once I have budgeted for all the essentials
• try and find a slow cooker recipe book in the charity shops a quest which will take me forever and will appear on here week after week I think

scottishspendaholic

Hey sashanut,

Hello! Well done on all your goals for last week - you've done really well.

It must be a theme for the moment as Pixie1 posted a very similar thread yesterday (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=146588) and I'm going to list all mine again (might make sure I actually do them!):-

Goals for last week:-

*Set up a standing order to pay my mum and dad back DONE!
*Set up a direct debit for my minimum Mint card payment (so at least the minimum is covered!) DONE!
*Organise when I can afford (in my budget plan) to pay for a new passport and driving license NOT DONE BUT NOT A PRIORITY AT THE MOMENT
*Pay some more of my overdraft off NOT DONE, BUT STILL PLANNING TO DO THIS BY THE END OF THE MONTH!
*Make some soup (made two batches last night and burnt them both as too busy on MSE!) DONE - LAST NIGHT, MMMM CREAM OF TOMATO & SPRING ONION AND MUSHROOM & TARRAGON!
*Not spend any money on non essentials. Have £10 a week left as 'pay myself first' money and this will be gobbled up by stamps, a birthday card etc. FAILED MISERABLY - MUST STOP SPENDING MONEY ON CHOCOLATE AND ICE CREAM!

Goals for THIS week:-

*Have a fun week off work on holiday but spending as little money as possible. Find cheap or free things to do.
*Put an advert out locally advertising my babysitting services
*Book a table at my local antique and bric a brac fair to sell my glass painting DONE!
*List more things on ebay DONE!
*Clean the house! (Not stricly money saving, but will try and use old style tips!)

Good luck with all your goals - its really great to have them all written down, isn't it!?

scottishspendaholic x

frugglewump

Major goal for this week - try and get solicitor to understand that if completion on this house is timed wrongly i will have to pay mortgage AND rent for march. Alternatively try and get the bank to understand the problem. This is all due to the snails pace the solicitor is crawling at meaning I couldn't give notice on the flat on 1st feb.

hope_strong

Frugglewump - mucho sympathy - I too am at the mercy of sluglike solicitors.

Not many suggestions except keep ringing them until they are so sick of you they have to help you to get rid of you.

Plus side though - if it does happen that you become a two-property household for March, at least you'll be able to do proper spiock and span cleaning etc of your new place before you move in, a luxury one normally has to do without in the chaos of same-day completion/move.

-Hope

sashanut

Hi scottishspendaholic

Yes I agree - to have things written down - on the computer, not just on a bit of paper - seems to make a massive difference - to me, anyhow. Perhaps it's the feeling that other people are also watching & seeing how you get on.

Sounds like you had a good week last week - the soups sound especially tasty- did you get them from the OS board?

I don't know if this is the same for eveyone; but even a tiny little victory or money-saving item gives me pleasure! For example, yesterday in Lidl buying the half-price fruit & veg; after the till they had boxes of biscuits, boxes of chocolate lebkuchen & large stollen cakes - ALL FREE. Help yourself! And they weren't even out of date or anything like that....no, I only took one of each!

PS What's pay yourself first money? I wish I had some of that!

sasha x

ms_london

Ive had a bad past few days after having an awful day at work Friday, and then going out and getting completely drunk on Friday night - which has resulted in a) spending £75 +++++, leaving me not much for the rest of the month, and b) leaving me feeling very rough indeed, eating very unhealthily & having not been to the gym!!

So since I have hardly any money left for February I shall get my bum back to the gym (which I am paying for!) and try and use the food I DO have rather than buying more for the sake of it!! Grrrrr!!

I also want to sort out my room and decide which items I am going to sell and which items I am going to hang on to when I go travelling, so will list the ones I want to sell on ebay..

I just want to feel better :0(

scottishspendaholic

Hey sashanut,

sashanut wrote:

Sounds like you had a good week last week - the soups sound especially tasty- did you get them from the OS board?

No - I didn't but good idea! I've got something called the Soup Bible at home and its fab for cheap & tasty soups. I don't think I'll try the beetroot though!

sashanut wrote:

I don't know if this is the same for eveyone; but even a tiny little victory or money-saving item gives me pleasure! For example, yesterday in Lidl buying the half-price fruit & veg; after the till they had boxes of biscuits, boxes of chocolate lebkuchen & large stollen cakes - ALL FREE. Help yourself! And they weren't even out of date or anything like that....no, I only took one of each!

Well done you! I would not have been so restrained! How many have you eaten so far?

sashanut wrote:

PS What's pay yourself first money? I wish I had some of that!

Someone on here (ms_london maybe?) suggested that you should pay yourself first - i.e. allow yourself a wee bit of money for you for the everyday things you need - it could be £5 a week or £50 a week, depending on your circumstances. That means you don't have to feel so guilty when you spend little bits of money. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks - although see my post on 'what have you spent today -7/2/06 - to notice that I've really slipped up today!

Hope your goals are going well sashnut! I really like writing them down every week...

scottishspendaholic x

James240

Well my goals for this week are to spend as little as possible ive budgeted £20 a week after all my bills have come out so i want to stick to this. If i can stick to my budget then i will be in a really stron posistion to start over paying my loan at the end of this month : :j

Rubber_Duck_4

carolbee wrote:

[*]try and find a slow cooker recipe book in the charity shops a quest which will take me forever and will appear on here week after week I think
[*]
[/list]

I have recently bought a slow cooker and there are loads of recipies available on the internet for free which you can download.

Some of them tend to be american but that shouldn't be a big problem.

I only spent 10mins searching and I got over 40 recipie and I am working my way through them at the mo.