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

Sun_Addict

Update for July:

All money for July is now in and I can now look at what I've achieved in July. I am very pleased with this month's achievements as we have had less money than usual this month due to OH being two weeks short as he doesn't get paid for holidays.

• Have paid £75 off debt - not a lot but decent in the circumstances - so now owe £1899. Now aiming to get this down to below £1k by end of November.
• Saved all holiday spending money in advance and not had to skint myself by taking it all out of one month's wage (or as I often used to do transfer it to a 0% interest card).
• Stuck to £270 grocery spending money and £10 weekly spending money.

Will be posting my intentions for August shortly.

Sun_Addict

My goals for August are as follows:

• Pay £240 off debt
• Save enough to pay for flights and holiday deposit for winter holiday - approx £456 (or as much as I can towards it as quite a scary amount to have to save)
• Stick to £270 August grocery budget
• Personal spending money £50 for the month
• Lose 4lbs in weight (still not weighed myself after holiday excesses but will be doing so this Saturday, hopefully it won't be too bad)
• Am starting up an emergency fund and would like to have around £1000 in it so something towards this as well, hoping to put in at least £50
• At least £150 for spending fund

Of course this all depends on OH having work for the month but I think he is ok for the next few weeks so fingers crossed.

I now also have for the very first time an amount of money to spend on things that can be classified as "other" (eg things for house, birthday presents, meals out, other bits and bobs). I have £138.03 in this pot but have already spent £55.74 on magazine subs and flea stuff for cat. It's also my birthday on 23 August so my prezzie will have to come out of that too. No idea what I want but trying to think of something I need that won't cost a lot. In the past we have just stuck this type of spending on the card without having a set budget and this is where we have been going wrong. Just got to get OH to comply and all will be tickety boo!

Swinstie73

Hi Sun Addict,

My internet at home isn't working so still at work updating on here, how sad is that! Your plan for August sounds good, I thought I'd save a fortune in August cos on hols but still got the bills to pay, will save some but not much on food/petrol etc.

I think I caught your pre-holiday spending bug, been buying tonnes of stuff that I know I don't need, but can't help it.

Sun_Addict

Hi everyone! Monday again!

Actually had another no spending day yesterday. As the weather was sunny I was outside in the garden most of the day relaxing with a book and magazine. Managed to get most of my housework jobs done on Friday and Saturday and it was so lovely to have a day with not a lot to do.

Weighed myself for the first time since holiday on Saturday and I have put on 3lbs, which isn't as bad as I was expecting. Will try my best to lose this excess baggage by the end of the month.

Planning to grocery shop in Sainsburys this lunchtime and have a budget of around £10 so let's see how close to this I can stay! This is for nearly all fruit and veg as usual. We have some lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers nearly ready in our garden so I should save a little bit there when they're ready. I could do with an allotment with the amount of veg we get through!

OH was off work Friday and today so not a good start to the month money-wise but he starts a big job tomorrow and should then be ok for the rest of August. I hate this living week by week lark and just wish things would get back to normal.

Sun_Addict

Update to above. Gone slightly over budget in Sainsburys - spent £11.49 but realised I had forgotten to add something to shopping list. I am aiming to only spend £40 this week on groceries - very aware that grocery budget is rapidly diminishing and still have plenty of month left to stretch it out! Now have £119.72 left and it's only 3rd August! No reason not do it though - my problem is I can't resist special offers! Need to stick to strict shopping list and only buy what we really need!

Sun_Addict

Good afternoon all!

Took advantage of the very good offer H Samuel are doing - buy one get one half price on gold jewellry - and decided to get myself a pair of earrings for my birthday and get another pair half price for DD for Christmas. Only trouble is have now decided I like both pairs and can't make my mind up which pair to keep for myself (and no it's not an option to keep them both for me!). Another Christmas present sorted! At this rate I will have everything well before December. Unfortunately it's also DD's and DS's birthdays just before and just after Christmas so that time of year is always very expensive for me - got my timing wrong there didn't I?

Only other spending was in Wilko and £1 shop - my budget was £7 in total and I am pleased to report I came in under budget at £5.11. :T

Sun_Addict

Another lovely sunny day! :rolleyes:

Went against what I said I was going to do last night by booking the winter holiday before I have even saved a penny towards it. We found a gorgeous penthouse apartment with hot tub in the resort we usually go to in winter for a bargain price and it only had one week left available in winter so we booked it. Of course then we had to get the flights! The flights were bunged on the spending credit card so when the bill comes in if we don't have enough in the pot to cover it we will have to lend it ourselves out of savings. I vowed not to book this holiday until I had saved the deposit and flight money first. I blame it on OH as he was surfing the internet and found the apartment in the first place. Still it's done now and once again I am going to be saving backwards for something (if you get my drift).

Will be visiting Aldi in my lunch break today and planning on a budget of £10. Hopefully won't get wet again as just about dried out from this morning's 3 mile walk to work in the torrential rain! What has happened to summer?

Swinstie73

Ah SA, at least you will have something to look forward to! You updated your diary before I got a chance to visit! Have unsubscribed to some that hadn't been updated in ages so should be more manageable.

Well good luck with the debt busting (and holiday saving), see you when I get back xx

Sun_Addict

Just a quick update to say I came in under budget again for grocery shopping as only spent £6.78 (and didn't get wet either).

Sun_Addict

Small disaster last night - power cut from 6.30 until 8.30 :mad: Had just started making a lovely vegi paella for my evening meal when power went. Phoned up to see what was going off and they said it would be fixed within 2 hours! No good to me with no means of cooking! We ended up having to order in a Pizza Hut pizza which cost £13.99! I was shocked at how much they'd gone up since we last had one - I nearly said HOW MUCH :eek: on the phone. Not good for budget or for waistline! Still it was very nice and made a change as we haven't had a takeaway for a couple of years. Hopefully, will recommence vegi paella making tonight, electricity permitting!

I have such a long shopping list for Sainsburys today it's unreal. DD has been off work for the last two days and has eaten me out of house and home. Thank goodness she's back tomorrow. Today's budget is an estimated £16. This will make a serious hole in my grocery budget but it's all stuff we need to see us through until Monday. Let's see how I close to budget I can get! Will be back later to update.