Fresh start....

savingholmes

Hi Karen with the overtime you are certainly putting the effort in! Hope you get to the £300 this month and hopefully the £10 a day challenge money should start to kick in soon too. Check out printable coupons for supermarket shopping if you haven't already too (I put a link in my diary - oops shameless plug!)

Have a good day tomorrow !

shaggydoo

Karen_30 wrote: »

Ok, I have just had the shock of my life! If my calculations are right after paying out everything this month I think (I hope!!) that I should have approx £500 or there abouts left over!!!!

great news :T

Karen_30

Morning!

Hope everyone is well today. I'm feeling a tad tired, sometimes I think too much sleep can be bad for you??

A sucessful no spend day for me yesterday :T Not sure today will be though as really need to go to food shopping. However, I am part way through writing/updating my list. I'm really going to cut back this month and use up what is already there.

Savingholmes - thanks for the vouchers link

Here's to a succesfully cheap month :j

Primula

Well done with your luvly juvly surplus. :T One piece of advice I would give you though, is don’t be too harsh with your budget – better being realistic and leaving enough for yourself to live on, rather than budgeting far too tightly – in my experience if you do that, that’s when you end up completely blowing things, so make up your list, leave something extra for “emergency” and then immediately put the surplus away out of temptations way!

Re my little bits of savings each week, I have different “pots” at home for different things which I just put £1 or £2 per week away and they are building up nicely – one is for Lula Hula’s crazy clothes challenge which I have joined on here (clothes are a weakness with me) – challenge is to spend no more on £100 on clothes in 2009 (excluding any money given as gifts). If you have a weakness for clothes this might be a good challenge for you to join? I put £2 away for this, others are for special birthdays etc. Also have a jar for my loose change. Someone gave me a piece of advice on here along the lines of “ask yourself if you really really need the item you are about to purchase and think sensibly about it before you just rush in there and get it” and although I have still had implulse buys, these are much reduced! As my mum always says “it’s only a bargain if you need it” and the tops/trousers/jeans hanging in my wardrobe with tags still attached are testimony to that! :eek:

Also re scratchcards, can you sign your partner up for them too and collect his winnings?! I am doing this and keeping all the winnings for buying gifts in the sales next January for the following year! LOL. :money:

Good luck. I’ve subscribed to your diary now and will be keeping up to date with your progress if you don’t mind.

P
x

Karen_30

Afternoon!

Thanks for popping back Primula I like the idea of pots...must give that a thought. Def will be being realistic about budget I wouldn't want to blow it all

Having me a very productive day, working from home again. Have mananged to do two washloads, dishwasher, shredding of paper work and filing all before work!! Not bad eh, usually spend 2+ hours commuting each way to and from work so i'm finding I have a lot of time on my hands.

Only down side to working at home is the eating. I can see me increasing in shape and size all over at this rate :eek: I must be good and start some kind of healthy eating/exercise plan on a daily basis or I may never move more than 10 steps at a time. I don't even have stairs to climb up and down as live in flat:rotfl: Another thing to think about.

Had some good news re the overtime, to be confirmed but possibly Fri eve and Sat/Sun daytime. I really hope so as will def be putting some hours in.

Anyway, on my lunch break. Feels kind of weird sitting in my living room but hey ho.

Hope everyone is having a good day x

savingholmes

HI Karen - well done on using your time constructively.. I know what you mean about the eating temptation tho - I was hoping to lose weight now I'm off and can plan meals better but not happened so far!

Really good news about the overtime too.

sistercas

£300 :j well done . its nice to have something positive to do with money isnt it?

Karen_30

Evening all,

I've only just got back from the supermarket....I hate shopping :mad:

SH - it's def a nightmare with the food and being at home, I am embarking on a healthier lifestyle as of tomorrow :rolleyes: It's been nice being at home and being able to get things done. Although I can see me becoming lazy

Sistercas - hope you are well. It is great that I have the extra money, need to buget well and spend little to ensure that I put it away in savings. I think I might just transfer it now and then if I 'really' need it then it's there but if not then I can just forget about it.

Been shopping, stuck to my list. Spent £65 in total and have enough food (bulk stuff) to last us the rest of the month. Only things that will need to top up is milk, bread, fruit and salad. It'll be a challange but i'm up for it!

Other than that not a lot to report, going to to surf the diaries for a while and then head off to bed.

K x

Karen_30

Morning all,

Hope everyone is well this fine Friday...or not so fine, it's raining lots here.

Just logged into work emails only to be greeted with one saying no overtime until next week :mad: Gone are my plans of becoming rich then :rotfl:Yeah right!! Still going to look on the positive side and make the most of my time without overtime as hoping that next weekend it'll be available.

Lots to do today, work obviously...aim to eat healthy ALL day...aiming for no spend day (shouldn't be too hard as working from home) and finally...exercise.

Have a good day all,

K x

savingholmes

well done on sticking to your budget when shopping. It is disappointing about the overtime but at least you can get a rest to keep you going for another time when you are offered it.

I was really shocked last night to find we still have £800 in one of our accounts. Oh gets paid Monday. I thought we would scrape £600 this month if I was lucky. It shows it can be done. If we spend similar this month we make get up to £1000 at the end of next month, I am amazed! It shows that even tho I have struggled to stick to the budget we are still doing much better than normal. I hope you have a similar positive experience with your £200+ target!