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

Verbatim

Congratulations on paying off so much during a recession and time of reduced income. And on maintaining your goal weight for 8 years. You must have a lot of willpower and motivation.

Will you be saving for retirement? I think you mentioned something about that or pensions a few pages back. i'm subscibing now so I'll catch your final df day!

Sun_Addict

Thank you Verbatim for your kind comments. I'll be carrying on my diary for a short time after DF day - just until the L plates come off! I've never thought much about me having much willpower but suppose I must have some! I think it's just become a way of life and determination not to put the weight back on - it could happen so easily. As for retirement - it's getter closer (50 this year) so really should be stashing something away. OH is my toyboy at 45 this April so he has a fair bit of working life left in him!

Cbm - doubt if I'll get time to ebay today unfortunately but might get stuff sorted at the weekend ready for the next free listing day.

Sun_Addict

Not much to report today. Just waiting for payday next Thursday really. Nothing planned in particular for the weekend OH and I will probably go out for a coffee tomorrow. He's off work today as his next job's not ready until Monday so he's doing the cleaning up for me so I don't have to do it tomorrow. The good news is he's got work until we go on holiday and then he has a job to start when we get back. This is how it is at the moment living from week to week, he really hates it but at least we're getting by.

Looking forward to that first glass of wine tonight, sitting down and putting my feet up and not having to think about getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for work.

Have a good one everyone! :beer:

Verbatim

Enjoy your weekend.

beanielou

Happy weekend

Sun_Addict

Had a productive weekend money saving wise. OH had a quote from his van insurer for renewal at £327. Shopped around and managed to get it down to £255 on Go Compare. :money: I had saved £340 to cover the insurance so the £84 change has gone towards holiday spending money. Now only need to save another £96.16 and this savings target has been met. Will be able to do this this Thursday when I get paid.

OH should have gone back to work today but because of the stupid snow at the weekend he is now off today and possibly some of this week depending on what the snow's like where he's working at the moment. Roll on spring!

Yesterday I made a huge batch of roasted tomato and roasted red onion soup for my work lunches this week, so that's me sorted very cheaply. I also made a batch of salmon risotto cakes with a tin of boneless skinless salmon I found lurking in my food cupboard. Made 8 fishcakes, had 2 with some veg last night and the other 6 have gone in the freezer for future reference. Also got some more decluttering one by sorting out my CD collection. Came across loads of CDs that I'd forgotten I had. Put a few on one side to possibly sell on Amazon that I don't play anymore.

Mini challenges for this week are:

1. Pay off last £25 of debt and finally become debt free.:j
2. Write to Virgin Money and close account for credit card.
3. Lose 1lb - trying a bit harder this week as put back on the ½lb I lost the week before.:(
4. Save remainder of holiday spending money.
5. Do some more decluttering at the weekend.

Have a good Monday everyone!

beanielou

Happy Monday to you too!

Claw_back_money

Your insurance quote was good. Our renewal forms have come through too, and OH's car is reasonably cheap so he wants to just accept it - but looking at yours there still might be room to reduce it so I might encourage him a bit with that. I was also wondering about paying in one go rather than in monthly installments - it sounds like you do that? The charge for credit is quite high I think, and for the first time in a lot of years we could afford to pay it outright so save money through the year. 18yr old DS is insured on my car, so the insurance for that is renewable still in 4 figures - £20 a month less this year though!

Cheers all
Cbm

Sun_Addict

Hi Cbm - it's cheaper to pay the insurance all in one go; you get charged interest for instalments. The house insurance is due for renewal in May so I had a look at what we could get that down to. Looks like we can halve it from last year's price so looking forward to getting on with that. I always put the money away so we've got the lump sum up front to get a cheaper deal. OH's first ever car insurance was over £1000 a year 25 years ago so we've come a long way since then!

Another way I saved money at the weekend was I'd seen a cookbook in Tesco for £5 which looked really good but didn't want to pay £5 for it. Got home and found it on Amazon for £3.45 so ordered it. I'm really getting into this shopping around lark now!

Roll on payday!

Claw_back_money

Thanks for your encouragement, OH has agreed to look again at the car insurance. I think it is the 'next step' in our journey back to financial intelligence to start paying for things in full where its cheaper to do so. I wonder about other things - TV license etc - I must make a real point of double checking the small print as renewals come in.
For books, for next time, there is a fab site 'bookbrain' which tracks down books on the most obscure sites to find the cheapest one; sounds like you got a bargain at Amazon with your cookbook though.
Am I right in thinking its roll on your payday tomorrow?!

Cheers
Cbm