Champagne Lifestyle Lemonade Budget (My attempts to get debt free by April 2010)

Sun_Addict

Sure will beanielou! Can't wait! It's taken me 2 long years to get rid of just £5k.

Sun_Addict

Today's mission is to go to the Boots Advantage Card Holders Christmas Shopping Evening and get OH some smellies for Christmas. They are giving you £12 of points for every £50 you spend. I used to always go mad on these evenings in the past and spend at least £150 but as I've already got most of my Christmas presents already this year there's not a lot left to get so I will only be spending around £50. I have a £10 Boots voucher earned from surveys so this will come in handy today. I've managed to accumulate £30 in Advantage card points over the year so this will take my total to £42. This is for me to treat myself as and when I see something I want and not to fritter away a bit at a time. Last year I had over £100 in points and bought myself a really good electric toothbrush and flosser thing.

The downside is it means I am having a really late lunchbreak today as event doesn't start until 3pm but by the time I get back it will nearly be time to go home! Will also be visiting Aldi after I've been in Boots to grab some of their latest fruit and veg offers.

DD is still eating me out of house and home and need to stock up fruit bowl yet again. It was full to the brim on Monday evening and this morning it was almost empty again apart from a few pears (which she doesn't like). Think I need to do a big monthly shop next week before cupboards are bare!

Sun_Addict

Quick update to say I've been to Boots, spent £51.49, got £10 off with my voucher, got my £12 of points and now have £43.09 of points. The after shave I wanted to get for OH was reduced from £36.00 to £23.99. Used my £5 off No7 voucher to get myself some eye gel for only £3. Got (yet another) £5 off No7 voucher and another voucher which says if I spend £50 at the next Christmas event in November I'll get £17 in points. Can't be bad. Only spent £7.21 in Aldi and got 2 huge carrier bags of fruit and veg. :money:

Sun_Addict

There is always something to throw a spanner in the works. Got my latest statement from Atlantic Gas. They were originally only taking £45 a month and this wasn't enough as we suddenly found we had gone from them owing us over £200 to us owing them over £400. 6 months ago they upped the payment to £75 but now they are upping it to a whopping £108 a month as they say we still owe £222!:eek: This is an extra £33 a month I have to find. I know the payments will go down once we have caught up but it's still a scary amount to pay. Just hoping that when we get the electricity statement from them this won't have gone up as well. I don't know how we use so much gas but suspect that because our boiler and central heating system are so ancient it's no longer efficient. Unfortunately we can't afford to upgrade it at the moment but maybe we should look into it next year. We are now paying more for gas and electric than we are for our mortgage! The annoying thing is I work with people who pay less than £100 a month for both gas and electric. I just can't understand why we use so much more than them.

Anyway rant over. Glad it's Friday. Will need a very large glass of red tonight I think. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Will try not to use too much gas and electricity!!!!! :rolleyes:

Sun_Addict

Day off work today - yippee!:j

I'm meeting an old schoolfriend for lunch, haven't seen her for about 2 years, so we'll have tons to talk about. I'm going to have a wander around town first and treat myself to a coffee. Hopefully I won't be tempted to buy anything although I have a bit of cash and a couple of Boots No 7 vouchers to use by Sunday.

I'm afraid I was a bit naughty yesterday and bought a handbag from TK Maxx. I had only nipped out of work to pick up my boots from the cobblers and took a short cut through TK Maxx where I spotted this gorgeous handbag for only £16.99. Next thing I knew I was buying it!
It is lovely though and will liven up my winter outfits as it is patent black with tiger stripes, just the sort of thing I like, I love bling handbags! OH rolled his eyes a bit and said "not another bag" but then thanked his lucky stars I'm not the type to spend a lot on a bag. Don't regret it really.

To make up for this I have a load of stuff (including handbags I no longer use) to ebay this weekend. Hoping to cover the cost of the bag and more besides although after my last attempt at ebaying I won't hold my breath! It wasn't the most successful thing I've done.

I sometimes feel I shouldn't buy new stuff as I have enough to see me through autumn/winter as it is but then I see something I love and as long as it's reasonably priced and I have the money I buy it. This is a vast improvement from the old me who used to just buy stuff and worry about how to pay for it afterwards so I must be making some progress. At least I know when to stop now.

Sun_Addict

Had a lovely lunch with my friend yesterday. We found a pub in town that did two main meals for just £5.95, the food was really nice and there was plenty of it. We had a great time catching up. I had a fantastic day and now it's back to the grindstone I'm afraid. Decided I'd like to be a "lady who lunches" but unfortunately finances dictate I must remain a lady who works for a living.

Been to Aldi this lunchtime and got two huge bags of veg for just £9.04. Last night the monthly big shop from Tesco arrived so am nicely stocked up with the essentials now.

OH will no doubt be watching football on TV tonight so think I'll take the opportunity to have a long soak in the bath and an early night. I made him watch Gok last night so can't really moan about the football tonight.

Sun_Addict

Just realised I haven't updated my diary since last Wednesday! I am slacking!

I've been a naughty Sun Addict - I was being quite good, sticking to my plans, even had a very rare NSD on Friday until Saturday when I broke one of my new money rules yet again by booking a holiday before I'd actually saved up for it. This holiday is for my big 5-0 in August next year. We'd been looking for somewhere special for ages that was in our budget range but as August is peak season things were looking very expensive. To cut a long story short we decided to go to the same place we're going to in March (Playa Blanca in Lanzarote) as we love it here. We got a good deal on a privately owned villa but unfortunately had to book and pay for flights up front as we didn't want to risk leaving it too late. So now this month have to pay for holiday deposit plus flights! Fortunately with a bit of juggling about we'll be able to do it. For a while I thought I would have to put paying off debt on hold for a month and put my DF date back to January but don't need to do this now. We want this big birthday to be nice as I couldn't really celebrate my 40th as my mum found out she had a terminal brain tumour just 3 weeks before my birthday and she sadly died just 8 days after. So this big birthday has to be a vast improvement on the last one.

Unfortunately my plan of saving the spending money for the March holiday by Christmas has now gone out of the window but I still have January and February to save it.

Sun_Addict

Got electricity statement yesterday from Atlantic. For once they owe me money (£144). However, I'm not getting it back and they're not reducing my payments - they're "carrying it forward" to the next statement. How nice of them :rolleyes:

Almost time for my lunch break and today I'm going to Wilkos to pick up a few household bits and bobs. I have a budget of £7 and will hopefully spend less so I can put the change in my little pot. I have a weekly grocery budget of £50 which I split amongst the various shops I go to in my lunch break. I try very hard to beat my daily budget and whatever's left goes into a pot. So far I've managed to accumulate £23 in the last 3/4 weeks. This will be used towards paying off this month's debt repayment target of £400.

Sun_Addict

Quite pleased with myself today as only spent 86p in Boots and came out with:

Soap & Glory Fab Pore 15 minute facial peel - free courtesy of voucher sent with advantage card mailing.

Time Delay Gradual Tan moisturiser - 86p courtesy of £5 off voucher.

Hairdryer - on offer reduced from £34.95 to £15.99 but paid for with Advantage Card points.

So all in all a successful lunchbreak haul! :money:

I love days like this :j

Thank goodness it's Friday! I'm really looking forward to putting my feet up tonight with a large glass of red wine. Hopefully I won't fall asleep half way through drinking it like I usually do on a Friday (it saves on the calories/alcohol units though I suppose!). OH has just phoned to say he'll be late picking me up from work. I was hoping to leave at 4 but now it looks more like 4.30 - oh well it all adds to the flexi. It's so quiet in here as most people went home at 3.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! :beer:

Sun_Addict

Been far too naughty over the weekend alcohol wise and not stuck to my 14 units quota. Sometimes go off like this and then am really good for ages so don't know what went wrong here! It all started to go downhill on Saturday when I bought a bottle of cava and drank most of the bottle (bar one glass). Went shopping with OH yesterday to a shopping centre in another town we've never been to before and was actually quite restrained and bought the boots I was planning on buying anyway (reduced to £25 in BHS) and a scarf for £2. We had a very nice lunch out but I had 2 glasses of wine when I normally would have had just one! Finished off the cava last night and had a small bottle of cider as well - my excuse is I needed something to drink whilst watching X Factor results! Disappointed Jamie went off as I wanted him to win as he is a bit different to the usual sort of singers they have on there. Don't think Lloyd can sing at all but I guess the young girls are voting for him because he's cute. Now I don't really care who wins to be honest. There are a few good singers left but no one different.

Will be running 3 miles on my treadmill tonight to try and make up for the indulgent weekend but still have one small glass of wine left in the fridge which I will enjoy tonight and then be good until Friday. :rolleyes: