Goals for w/c 5th March 2006?

fairylights_2

Right, so first an update on last week:

1. Have two no spend days Didn't think I was going to manage this, but Friday and Saturday succeeded!
2. Pay off £350 on the card this weekStill not got the paperwork to do it, but the money is not going out of accounts in any other way either - just waiting for a bill!
3. Pin down the £20 which will work out as an overpayment on to the credit card - and get them to reimburse it. Try to get that paid across on to the new 0% card The bank won't let us withdraw it (OH doesn't know PIN for cc) so the plan is to use it on this week's tesco.com shop, then put £20 on the card instead!
4. Get two weeks' worth of lessons on the tutoring system, meaning I get paid more!They paid out a couple of days early, so a low pay month this month - still, means more at the start of April instead!
5. Sort out the paperwork and posters for the bookfairs - so I'm ready to go next week!Done! Hooray - I'm organised for a change!
6. Add two more £2 coins Added THREE!!!!! :T

This week's targets are to be equally attainable, still to keep me on track ...
1. Try for three no spend days (am hoping for four - but Friday will have to pay to park - although that's work money, not personal money, IYKWIM!)
2. Keep our big fortnightly grocery shop under £60 - and get a big tesco points bonus code to use!
3. Sell more than £500 of books this week (lots of lovely commission for me!)
4. Get things ready to list on Ebay on the next special offer listing day. It's just such a pain, I can't be bothered :rolleyes:
5. Add three more £2 coins - can't believe how fast that's mounting up!

PaleScene

I haven't quite sorted out in my head how the week runs for me On the one hand I think I have the rest of today to still possibly do the things I haven't done yet - but on the other it's nice to get on with the new slate!

Last week:
Right, new goals:
1. Update spending spreadsheets, including Jan-Feb 06 as that closed on the 23rd (day before payday) - I'm still ploughing through this and the end is not in sight. I know in the past I've done a couple of months easily in a day so had imagined that if I knuckled down I'd get through a lot more than I am. Perhaps I'm rusty!
2. Have 2 no spend days - achieved. Wednesday and Sunday (today).
3. Tidy an area of the house *and* spring clean kitchen - sort of, I've sorted and tidied the kitchen drawer and the freezer but still haven't tackled the bedroom or done that rashly promised spring clean!
4. Plan grocery shopping thoroughly - I can save £5 against a £50 instore shop with a Sainsburys voucher and it occurs to me that I can probably do this in Tesco instead - technically a very organised shopping week. I put off the big shop to the back end of the week and did good targetted shops in the interim although stocking up coffee and cider even at best price is not cheap. I also feel doing a huge shop was *less* controlled than my usual 'what do I need?' feely approach because I had to do it very fast and when I quickly became aware I'd have no difficulty topping £50 I stopped counting (was having difficulty holding all the prices in mind). So goal achieved but I'm not sure if it was the best goal to have.
5. Investigate freezer contents because two missing dishes have made me aware I'm not sure what lurks at the bottom! - I now know exactly what is in the freezer and can see almost all of it because it's tidy (but debatably now too empty). I should defrost it - but am not really sure of the do's and don't's so am not going to rush this! I admit I did throw some food away so will try to not get back to a position of being unsure what I have in there.
6. Investigate savings accounts for Christmas Club as Halifax 7% comes to an end in March - I have until April 5th before the cash gets chucked out of the high interest account. Having had a look at options for the coming year the best choice for us would be... Halifax if you can open a new account and do this again. It isn't feasible for us to start switching salary and main banking to one of the banks (HSBC/Barclays) with big paying attached savings accounts.
7. Two days chocolate free - almost. One completely clean and several where only the secret weapon that is my Dad scuppered plans! I have gained fantastic self-knowledge this week with this goal, in that I now understand that I can be quite well-behaved and controlled of my own accord, not touching chocolate, but that I have no defences or sensors that react when I am offered chocolate - I actually found it quite amusing that there were *three* occasions this week where seeing my parents involved me being offered chocolate and having it in my mouth before my brain went *damn!!* I'm also being very honest as I was tempted to claim Friday a success but the piece of cake I had did have a few tiny curls of chocolate decoration on it.
Summary: I'm actually feeling generally pleased because even though I didn't get everything achieved I got good self-awareness and some insights on what decisions to make in the future. I also had a few other things during the week that were successes - such as surpassing my normal cooking skills and getting ahead of the necessities on the washing.

This week:
1. Continue with spreadsheets
2. Visit the Halifax and make enquiries about using another 7% saver account
3. Buy toilet paper (from the only place that still does mauve - I'm over that way on Weds)
4. Tidy clothes
5. Find an instant soup with the lowest possible salt
6. Close/Cancel dead accounts and cards
7. Have 2 no-spend days
I also have an abstention for Lent in force - I am not buying any ready meals :A

Whoo - this is long - sorry about that, it's like the confessional isn't it coming on here!

Miffi_2

Well here goes, fingers crossed:
Last week:
* Have at least 2 spend free days - achieved
* List as much as possible on ebay - put on quite a bit, but will have another look around the house for stuff
* Take packed lunch to work everday - 4 out of 5 days achieved, one day left my lunch at home
* Do not go out and buy chocolate at lunch time - if I need a 'hit' have a hot choc - free! - achieved
* Payday on Tues 28th Feb - ensure all direct debits have gone over to pay off debts etc and take out £10 cash for emergencies - try to leave cards at home - achieved

This week:
* Have 3 no spend days (not including posting out ebay items as spends as that is paid back from earnings)
* Take packed lunch everyday
* Avoid spending money on snacks during the day at work
* Go over bank statement online and check if there are any surplus money that can be transferred to pay off credit card

linniestorm

scottishspendaholic wrote:

*Make my business cards - unless can buy them for free somewhere

scottishspendaholic x

I've never tried this myself, but looked at it, but have you seen Vista print? http://www.vistaprint.co.uk There's a link on the left navigation thing for 250 Free Business Cards (though I think you pick one of their templates and just add text.) As I said, never actually done it, but maybe someone else can advise on if they are any good/ maybe worth looking at?

PaleScene

linniestorm wrote:

I've never tried this myself, but looked at it, but have you seen Vista print? http://www.vistaprint.co.uk There's a link on the left navigation thing for 250 Free Business Cards (though I think you pick one of their templates and just add text.) As I said, never actually done it, but maybe someone else can advise on if they are any good/ maybe worth looking at?

Funny you should mention this - I've PMed you ScottishSpendaholic on similar lines

MrsTinks

oooo great idea

Well this will be my first full week of things I want to ge done and maybe if I am kind of accountable to others then it will make it easier for me

1) List at least 5 items on Ebay (some are going on tonight - plus I already have a mobile phone/PDA on there which should fetch £150 fingers crossed )

2) Cancel loan protection through Egg as have gotten better quote and it willl save me a LOT

3) Re-vamp shop website. Look into legalities etc of what we have to declare about the shop to Mr Brown to ensure we don't get into trouble about that.

4) Go through wardrobe for stuff I'll never fit into again for a continued Ebay pile *sigh*

5) Only spend £1 on treats each day at work (eg a scotch egg or a fizzy drink etc)

6) Obtain copy of MS money (ebay or sweet talk a friend who works for MS to get me a copy, feeling a bit guilty about the sweet talking as had a keyboard last month when mine died... And he won't accept any money for it and it's a £100+ keyboard and mouse!)

7) Next grocery order for Tesco to be online as have 1000 tesco points for online order over £50. Need to find out if it's possible to get free delivery too...

8) Buy anything I can from boots instead of tesco if prices are same.

9) Start an emergency saving fund for things like car tax, heating oil bill, and so on.

Phew! That's 9 Action points so maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew but I have to try at least to see if I can do it and if not then adjust it for next week

kathfisch

Ok, first an update on the week gone by:

Make some food to take on my long journey to avoid motorway service station prices (driving this time, not train!), allow purchase of one coffee only. I took a drink but otherwise failed miserably! Bought a meal, coffee and chocolate, doh :doh: ! Cost me about £7 in total :eek: such a waste and its not exactly fabulous food either! Score 0/10

Make sure all ebay items are in Turbolister, updated and ready to go in the event of a 5p listing day in future. All items updated and listed on friday's half price day, yippee :j Score 10/10

Buy absolutely no food except for that necessary to make sandwiches or whatever for journey, as above. Well didn't take food with me on the journey, did buy some garlic bread and a coke (£1.25) to spice up a meal and stop myself from buying a takeaway, and it worked! So Score 7/10

Have 2 no spend days. Yesterday and today (unless I get persuaded to go to cinema this evening!) So hopefully the 2 I planned! Score 10/10

Contribute at least one more £2 coin to the savings. Done, contributed 4 coins! 10/10

Spend some time looking for yummy, apetising and filling things to take as packed lunches. Use cookbooks, internet and OS board to do this (also ask mum when I see her). Then when I'm back home next week I can shop for ingredients and get started! Also, maybe, research slow cookers and recipes for them. Not done, really struggling to motivate myself on this one! 0/10

So thats 37/60 for the week!

My goals for next week:

Contribute at least one £2 coin to savings.

Research some new (cheap) meals to make, for lunches and dinner. Need to increase my range of dishes and keep myself interested!

Think of something nice to make to take on long car journeys to avoid motorway services prices (doing lots of these journeys in next month or two).

Think of some nice things to have as snacks/puddings to get sugar/sweet fix without spending money on chocolate etc (and putting on weight!).

Try and have two no spend days.

So quite a few food related ones there! Best of luck everyone

pixie1

Hi Everyone :j

My goals from last week were -

To stay focused and upbeat about paying off my debts.YES! Ive thought of nothing else LOL

To cook large quantities of yummy food in my sc to freeze for later on in the month so I wont be tempted to order take aways..I cooked a wonderful chilli yesterday in my sc, after feeding myself, hubs and my sis i still had 6 portions to freeze Im going to do braising steak tomorrow :T


Sort ebay things out (This is a little cheat goal really because Im spending next weekend with my sister aka ebay queen LOL and she is going to strip my house of goodies and help me list them ) . :j Ive listed 20 items that have started tonight and i have 39 ready in turbo lister to start for 10 days on Thursday :j


2 no spend days. . I managed 4 :T

So my goals for this week are:

To list 5 items onto turbo lister every night

To have 3 no spend days

To cook and freeze some more meals

stay focused everyone :j and keep posting your goals, I for one think about every purchase i make because i have to report back here LOL

Hugs
Pixie

PaleScene

kathfisch wrote:

Research some new (cheap) meals to make, for lunches and dinner. Need to increase my range of dishes and keep myself interested!

I make a packed lunch for OH four days a week (Fri is half day and he comes home for lunch) and it's been within a similar format for a long time as he wouldn't be persuaded out of certain things (crisps, sandwiches). But he seems increasingly influenced by talking to friends and work colleagues about healthier eating and has agreed that we can look at different lunch formats - yay!

I'm looking forward to filling a box up with salad, or cutting out the sandwiches and making flatbread wraps and have already sent him off with a small handful of unsalted nuts instead of crisps a couple of times.

It would be nice if I could regain the skill of making flapjacks that he considers edible too

postingalwaysposting

last weeks were:
- do not spent more than £30 buying clothes for my week away on the 7th well i spent £27 on clothes but loads of other stuff too so it went over the £30
- have at least one early nights sleep yes, i did this one three times, i was amazed one night i was in bed for 10pm lol
- put some more money in my newly opened saving account £20 not much but its a start

this weeks are:
- have a great time away this week
- dont spend over the alloted amount of £60 all week :rolleyes:
- sort out my monthly budget as its payday the folowing wednesday