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

Claw_back_money

Hopefully its all melted where you are? Today the sun is shining here, and its almost warm, so hopefully it will be a better week of work for your OH.

Congrats on the weight loss and the payment off your card, you'll get there with both.

Pizza sounds scrummy. I sort of miss 'proper' pizzas; since we've had our bread maker we only have homemade ones, and there is something very scrummy about 'real' pizzas. What a lovely treat for the weekend!

Cheers
Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi Cbm - yes the pizza was lovely and we had a voucher for buy one get one free so I now have a few slices stashed away in the freezer for future use OH will only eat Pizza Hut pizza so it's an increasingly rare treat.

The snow has finally all gone but (why is there always a but?) more is forecast for Wednesday so keeping my fingers crossed it will miss us this time. OH is so fed up of not earning anything. He did two days last week so will get paid for them this week. He will also have three days' work this week (weather permitting) which he'll get next week. I get paid next Monday and DD gets paid next Friday and will be stumping up her board money then. So at the end of next week I'll be totting up the finances to see where we stand. Also need to break it very gently to DD that her board is going up!! She won't be a happy bunny but it's got to be done! I'm hoping that by slashing things down to the bone we'll have enough to get through February without going into further debt or using what little savings we have. Don't know what will happen at the end of February as OH says after he's finished the job he starts this week he hasn't got anything else to follow it unless something comes in soon. Sometimes I really wish OH had a normal job with a steady wage. I hate this not knowing what's coming in.

Made a big batch of soup yesterday with left over parsnips, carrots, swede and sweet potato so this will keep me going for work lunches all week. Tonight I'll be having one of my favourites - stir fry vegetables with noodles and prawns but not until I've done my 3 miles on the treadmill and some sit ups. I have also walked 3 miles to work this morning so should sleep well tonight!

7 weeks today we'll be on holiday and I so can't wait to get away from it all for a week!

Claw_back_money

Sun_Addict wrote: »

my 3 miles on the treadmill and some sit ups. I have also walked 3 miles to work this morning so should sleep well tonight!

Good grief SA - is this the bikini-wearing exercise regime?

I think the uncertainty of OH's wages would drive me nuts. Hopefully during the summer it makes up for it?

Have a good day

Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi Cbm - although I will be in my bikini in less than 7 weeks time this is my normal all year round exercise regime! I know I'm crazy! Re OH's wages - in normal times he earns decent money for most of the year but while this recession has been on it's not been very good. However, we have learned to manage on less money so when things improve we'll be able to save a lot more (in theory). We just have to see what we've got at the end of the month and draw up a budget from that. It's a real pain but he would earn a lot less if he was fully employed by the company he works for (he's sub contract). Fortunately I earn enough to cover the bills and food so anything OH gets is for everything else. At least we always know the important things are covered. However, things would be a bit grim if we were only existing on my wages for a long period of time!

I've walked my 3 miles today and tonight I'll be doing some toning exercises either on the Wii Fit or in the gym. Food-wise I've had my HM soup and some fruit and tonight I'll be fishing one of my HM ready meals out of the freezer (probably vegi moussaka as that's been in there since November) and steaming some veg to go with it. OH is having a Pukka Pie, oven chips and mushy peas so he won't be going down the healthy route tonight!

OH has managed to sort himself out with work for the next 2 weeks so weather permitting he should actually have some income at last. The current account will wonder what's hit it! One day when this recession is finally over this will all seem like a bad dream (I hope).

Claw_back_money

Wow Sun Addict... you must look absolutely amazing!

I'm glad to hear that OH has got some work for a couple of weeks. Its bucketing down here, but hopefully its not where you are (and if it is there is still something he can do).

Cheers
Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post today to say I've paid another £6.61off my debt to round it down to £270 :j It's money I had left over from last week's grocery budget. The minimum payment will be going out next Monday so that will be another £25 off and DD owes me £30 so I'm hoping to use that to pay some more off. I'm aiming for £100 off by the end of the month - I'm doing it by stealth!

I've also decided not to buy my two weekly magazines until I've read the ones I've got. I seem to have accumulated a bit of a stockpile and am still reading ones from November! I do love my magazines though so this may be difficult!

Sun_Addict

All this debt busting must be getting to me. I only needed to pay £6.16 to get the balance down to a nice round £270 but have actually paid off £6.61 so my balance is now £269.55!! :j

Swinstie73

I hate when that happens, I always like nice round numbers but end up having to pay more than I can really afford, which is a bummer!

Claw_back_money

Great balance Sun Addict - annoying though - I bet you're looking out for that £4.55 (or 9?)
You're really close....

Will it be a DF holiday? When was your last DF holiday??

Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi all

Cbm - you're so right! Now I'm after rounding it down again. Hopefully by this time next week I'll be under £200! Getting there! Determined this holiday is going to be a DF one by hook or by crook! I think our last DF holiday was around 4 years ago. It was holidays that started off the debt in the first place. We booked a holiday but struggled to save enough to pay the balance so put it on our CC then did a 0% balance transfer when the bill came in and it was all downhill from there. Learned a lesson though, albeit the hard way! The good thing is that I discovered this website before things got too out of hand and the debt at its highest was £5k which is a drop in the ocean to some people on these boards. It made me stop and think and decide to get rid of it for good. It's taken just over 2 years to get where I am but whenever I think I'm not doing very well I just remember this time last year it was £2,600 and despite OH's work dropping off I will have managed to pay it off in less than a year.

I was so tempted a couple of weeks ago to 0% balance transfer this month's spending CC balance, as things were looking a bit grim finance wise, but have managed to shuffle money around a bit and cut my budget to the bare essentials and, thanks to OH finally getting back to work after the snow, things will be ok so won't need to do it. Phew!!