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

Sun_Addict

Nearly Friday! :j

Feel quite positive today as I've put another £300 towards holiday spending money. :cool: Still got another £400 to go but OH is expecting a tax rebate soon so that should cover the rest. If it doesn't I'll have to do a bit of shuffling around with the budget but never mind.

Usual walking exercise today and will be in the gym again tonight. Some days I just feel like putting my feet up with a glass of wine instead but with only 3 weeks to go to my holiday I've got to keep it up.

Meal plan: Porridge for breakfast, Greek salad and wrap for lunch, Vegi moussaka and yet more salad for evening meal. Snacks are fruit and 3 squares of dark chocolate . Not planning on drinking alcohol tonight but can feel myself weakening! Some days (like today) I long for a big piece of cake - could just eat one today and it's no one's birthday at work. I've just got to keep thinking about the holiday!

A few weeks ago I took out a subscription to In Style magazine, 12 copies for £12 and a free gift of L'Occitane shower gel, body lotion and perfume. I wasn't holding out much hope of getting the free gift but it arrived yesterday and it's lovely! So very pleased with it.

More good news in the form of OH has got work at least until we go on holiday. How sad that it's come to this, he used to be busy all the time. Hopefully this recession is coming to an end and we can get our life back to normal again.

More grocery shopping today in Sainsburys and spent £8.96. Still under budget but I don't think I'll have anything left this week to go towards those gold wedge sandals. Still there's always next week and the week after!

Off to update my signature now. Have a good evening everyone!

Sun_Addict

It's Friday at last, the sun is shining and the weather forecast is good for the weekend! :beer:

No grocery shopping to do today for once so in my lunchbreak I wandered into New Look to look at the gold wedge sandals (purely for research purposes ). Found a gorgeous pair in my size, fitted perfectly, just what I need for my hols. Only £20! Took them to the till, £10 off, so only £10!!! Bargain!!! :j Naughty but I have paid for these out of my grocery budget. A little treat to myself for all the shopping around I do! The old me would have bought another pair in a different colour. The new me didn't but wishes she had! :rolleyes:

Start of new weekly spending budget, only £5 this week and have already spent £1.95 of it on a bronzer from Boots.

Looking forward to a nice glass of wine tonight as managed to resist it yesterday.

Have a brilliant weekend everyone!

Swinstie73

Ok I was writing a post and I jumped into Google - strange!

Anyway, as I was saying, those wedges sound very nice, are they comfy? I could be doing with a pair for hols but really shouldn't, not near a New Look and won't be for ages. I do have £10 in my 'Treat' jar, but saving up for a web-cam for laptop!

Have a nice weekend, gonna try and not log on cos too much to do xx

Sun_Addict

Hi everyone! Time to start a new week (only good thing about Mondays is the fresh start!)

Holiday is looming very close now - two weeks on Friday so time to knuckle down.

This week's exercise plan:
Walk to work Monday to Friday
Go out for a walk at lunchtime Monday to Friday
In the gym:
Monday - toning circuit with weights
Tuesday - run 2 miles, lunges/squats/sit ups on ball
Wednesday - day off
Thursday - as Tuesday
Friday - as Monday
Saturday - day off
Sunday - circuit using treadmill/cross trainer/step

This week's menu plan:
Breakfasts Monday to Friday - porridge Sat/Sun - diet yoghurt and fruit
Lunches Monday to Friday - home made split pea soup, crispbreads and cottage cheese, Sat/Sun - probably jacket potato/salad type thing
Evening meals:
Monday - stir fry with prawns and noodles
Tuesday - salmon, new potatoes, veg
Wednesday - pasta in pesto sauce with veg
Thursday - home made tuna pasta bake with salad
Friday - courgette and red pepper sausages, sweet potato wedges, veg
Saturday - home made sweet potato, chickpea and spinach curry, pilau rice, mini naan bread
Sunday - home made butternut squash and red pepper risotto, veg

Snacks will be fruit, toasted nimble, maybe the odd square of dark chocolate

No alcohol until Friday (boo!).

I lost 1.5lbs last week so now only 3lbs to go!

Swinstie - sandals seem to be comfortable but am saving them for holiday so that will be the test! They add about 4 inches to my height! Tempted to go back in again and see if they've got any more in a different colour, but trying hard to resist!

Sun_Addict

Glad Monday's nearly over, feeling a bit rough around the edges today as I normally save enough wine from the weekend to have a little glass on a Sunday and Monday night but foolishly decided to drink it all last night! Not a good idea when I get up at 05:40! Note to self: don't do this again! :rolleyes:

Dentist for check up tonight but won't cost anything as I have Denplan. Have to pay £17 a month for this pleasure but as dentist has gone private this could potentially save me a fortune!

Only have £80 left in grocery budget to last until the end of the month. Should be ok as DD goes on holiday today for 2 weeks so there's only OH and me! Bliss! I know some people can last a whole month on this but we spend so much on fruit and veg it's unreal. Spent £11.65 in Sainsburys today so made a very nice hole in it already. We are growing a lot of our own stuff but so far only lettuce is ready to eat. No doubt everything else will be ready when we are on holiday. Foolishly relying on DD to water everything. :rotfl:

Hoping to get debt below £2k this week when OH gets paid. After this month I've worked out I'll have to pay off £220 per month to be on target to pay it all off by the end of March 2010 when the 0% deal finishes. As long as OH keeps working I should do it.

I've worked out I've made £23 profit on the stuff I ebayed. Not a lot for selling 7 things but I wanted to make £31 to pay for manicure/pedicure I'm having the day before I go on holiday and with this £23 and the £10 I got paid into PayPal for doing surveys I have enough! :j In total I ebayed 10 things, 2 haven't sold and there is one still left to sell. I will relist later in the year - had enough of ebay for now (fed up of going to post office and parcelling stuff up).

Sun_Addict

Quick update today:

Feeling back to normal today thank goodness. I'm such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol! Hopefully won't be like this on holiday!

Spent £4.51 in Wilkinson and £2 in Poundland out of grocery budget today. I wish we'd stop running out of things! I would love a no spend day. Had to top up phone with £20 ready for holiday as well today. Normally £10 lasts me months but need plenty of credit in case of emergencies. So what with that and OH's hayfever tablets and stock up on vitamins I spent £30.91 in Boots today (not out of grocery budget thank goodness).

Have a good evening everyone!

Sun_Addict

I've done it - I've got my debt down to below £2k!! :j Only by £1 but there will be another £25 minimum payment to come off next week when they take it from my bank. I looked back at my old diary and I've paid off £601 since April! :j How wonderful it is to look at the figure and see a 1 in front of it instead of a 2.

I can honestly say that if it wasn't for keeping this diary I wouldn't have paid this much off. I just know I would have just paid off bits and bobs and then found a new 0% deal in March next year. I know I can't afford to pay off as much as I'd like to but at least it's going in the right direction. It's made me realise that instead of paying off debt I could be saving this money which is giving me the incentive to pay it off as fast as I possibly can.

Here's to the next target - getting it below £1k!! Hopefully well before Christmas. :beer:

wendz86

Well done on getting below 2000! That is a great achievement. At the end of the month my next payment to my dad will take me below 2000 that I owe him and i can't wait!

Sun_Addict

Thanks wendz! Well done on your achievements too. At its highest a couple of years ago my debt was getting on for £5000 but then I discovered MSE and had my light bulb moment, thank goodness. Now I can't wait to get it paid off.

Swinstie73

Well done Sun Addict, under £2K is brilliant! Have a wee glass of vino to celebrate!

In other news, my budget is out the window and I am skint (again)! Bought a lovely dress today, didn't mean to, honest! It went on the Visa - argh!

Have a nice nite, I am off to bed soon x