I want to break free........

BADPENNY_2

Day 8 - so far so good,

Day off today so not much to report a nsd tho.

GS - would love to be able to put the cash i normally spend on ciggs into a jar but I don't actually have the money to be able to do this. I know if i was still smoking I would be spending this anyway but I would go into debt, drawing money on my cc or using overdraft if i needed to, so the way i see it is i am saving money as Im not atually going any further into debt.

SA - can't walk to work Im affraid as it would take me about an hour and a half and i have a 6am start. may have to walk home tho, only tommorrow to get through and i get paid on Friday:j


Money saving activity today.

A nsd.1st this week. when i get paid on Friday I am going to commit to at least 3nsds a week. I seem to be spending a lot on sweets/choc now that im not smoking need to get this under controll.

jacket potatoe and cheese for lunch

washing on 30 degrees

just trying to decide between chilli and rice or pasta bake for tea.

Back tommorrow.

BADPENNY_2

The end of the month is in sight. I managed to scrape through the day with the help of my oh's loose change tin!! Have aprox 30p left to last me untill tommorrow, easy!

Can't wait to get paid tommorrow, day off so I am planning on getting my food shopping done early but am going to go prepared with a meal plan and shopping list to stop me from straying. Want to start paying £50 a month of my overdraft and I have decided that the only way to do this is to treat it as another bill that i have to pay each month, if I leave it untill I have extra cash it will never get paid off. So plan off action for tommorrow is to get shopping done for next week, Iam planning on doing some batch cooking and baking whilst i'm off work so need a proper shopping list. Then I'm going to work on my budget for this month, think its going to be an expensive one tho - gas bill and set of new tyres for the car, but no council tax this month and i'm fairly certain that my car loan finnishes this month so that will be an additional £230 per month.

Now don't shout - We are in desperate need of a new kitchen and a new boiler. We have the same kitchen that was here when we moved in and it was old fashioned then, boiler must be at least 25 years old and we need a new damp proof course, it really is a horrible room and lets the rest of the house down. Would it be madness to take out a £5000 loan to get this work done?? what do you think? the loan repayments would be less than what we are paying for the car at the moment! If we have to save £5000 we will never get it done! I will forgo my holiday to compromise which would normally be around £1500????

Money saving activity for today

not much - found 1p at bus stop - into coin jar
lunch from home
no smoking.

BADPENNY_2

OMG:eek: this is going to be a tight month. Just been doing my monthly budget and our gas/elec bill is gonna wipe us out this month. oh says we need some new tyres for the car also but its not gonna happen this month. I've had to cut the food shop right down to £25 per week:eek: is this do-able, i dont think its possible, but there is only the 2 of us so I am hoping I'm gonna be able to stick to this. Dont know weather to do a weekly shop of £25 OR a twoweek shop of £50 to give me a bit more flexability. The only trouble is the more I buy the more oh tends to eat, and with him not smoking he seems to have his head in the fridge every 5 minutes. I better get my list made, I have some mince in the freezer probebly about enough for 3 meals and also some chicken breasts again enough for 3 meals so that is a weeks worth of evening meals at least but i will need to generate a meal plan otherwise i won't know what i'm doing on a day to day basis. will also try some batch cooking whilst i'm off next week and really want to do some baking but don't know if budget can stretch enough for ingreadiants for cakes but i know i will buy ready made bits and bobs for treats but i'm scared of maing them and they don't turn out well and end up in the bin. not moneysaving at all.

On a posistive me and oh are both of work next week so should not spend as much cash on day to day expenses. I have £50 personal spending money to last me until 5th march so i am going to have to budget well. I have to find bus fares and toiletrys out of this so not much at all ,£12.50 per week. one thing i am going to do thou is take it all out of the cash point at once so i can see it and then leave my debit card in a tin at home . I have just been through my statment for last month at nearly £100 has slipped through my account without me knowing where or what its been spent on.

other thing i a planning on doing next week is make a start back at the gym and try and go 3 times, then if i don't keep it up when i am back at work i really need to cancel my membership as i am just kidding myself that i will go back and itscosting me £28 per month.

right thats it for now need to get a move on and try and have a productive day. before I forget i have saved £31.50 so far by not smoking and oh has saved £63.00 thats nearly £100 in just 10 days. good eh:j

Sun_Addict

Hi BP - I can see your dilemma with the kitchen and getting a loan. If you get one you'll be adding to your debt but it depends how desperate the situation is. Could you not wait a little longer until your finances are a bit better? We actually took out a loan for a new van for OH last year when his old one needed so much work doing on it to get it through its MOT that we would have been throwing money away. I'm glad we did it now as the new van is great and OH keeps saying it's the best thing we've done. We had just finished paying off the loan for the old van and the repayments for the new one are the same so we haven't noticed any difference in our monthly bills. At the end of the day it's up to you to decide.

Gym-wise - if you don't enjoy it could you find some other form of exercise to do that you do enjoy? You're more likely to stick to it then. For the £28 you spend on the gym you could buy a new fitness DVD every month and still have change. You could then do the DVD in the comfort of your own home at a time to suit you.

I think you are doing really well so far and can see a real improvement in you since you first started your diary - you seem so much more motivated!

BADPENNY_2

Thanks sun addict.

with regards to the kitchen i really think we are gonna just hav to get it done. It really is becoming unbearable just to go in there at the moment. If it was just cosmetic then i would try and just put up with it for a bit longer but the damp sitution is getting worse and the boiler sounds like its gonna pack up at any moment. I am loath to add to our debt tho and my mum and dad have offered to lend us £5k but i just don't like to borrow money from them. I will wait until my car loan is finished and as we are use to paying out for that we wont notice the loan repayments although it would of been nice to chuck that extra money at our credit cards.

Been thinking about the gym today, i weighed myself this morning and shock horror have gained 10pounds since christmas. I blame leggings, I hve been wearing them all the time and cant tell when i've put weight on. at least with jeans you can tell the minute you gain a pound. Anyway it has been such a nice day here today it started me thinking about spring and i really want to be in shape so i'm defo gonna go to the gym next week and start eating more sensibly. I have a cupboard full of exercise dvds that i never use, i feel stupid jumping:j up and down by myself! I guess i just dont have the exercise gene.

went to tescos with my mum this afternoon. I had decided to do 2 £50 shops than 4 £25 shops, so i made a list and gave myself a budget of £35 to get what i needed. guess how much i spent? £35.34:j pretty cuffed with myself. I have enough food for 16 evening meals, all of which will have to made from scratch tho and £15 left for any basics that i need.
made some muffins this afternoon, 6 choc chip and 6 lemon. they where declared a succsess by oh who ate 3 after his tea but he will eat anything at the moment!

gilligansyle

Hi

£25 for food budget is definitely do-able, I set myself a budget of £50 and am normally well within it. Especially if you really check the contents of your cupboards, fridge etc. first and PLAN.

I have put my risotto recipe in my diary if you want a look at it, really easy for leftovers, there is also a really cheap chilli recipe somewhere. Another one is 'fridge bottom quiche'

Have a look on the Frugal living thread for some good ideas.

I can sympathise with the boiler thing, as mine is rubbish too. Personally, there's a balance between the cost of borrowing from banks and the pressure of borrowing from family. First get the boiler checked out, it may be worth paying, especially if it will only cost a few hundred to fix. I thought I needed a new boiler, but have had it all flushed through and it is still ok.

BADPENNY_2

Thanks for posting the rissoto recipe, it sounds tasty and i am defo going to try it this week. Just made meatballs from scratch and my own homemade pasta sauce. It wasn't well recieved ,although I thought it was perfectly acceptable especially for a first attempt. The sauce was apparently too fruity and the meatballs not firm or brown enough and i was only given 5/10 for my efforts. The muffins however have all gone and even thou i say so myself the choc/chip ones tasted better than any shop bought ones i have ever tasted.

I quite enjoyed my shopping challenge yesterday and found that I was really thinking about what i was putting in the trolly and what i really needed instead of just wondering around and throwing anything in that took my fancy, i definatly think I can do it for £100 and if I manage it this month I may continue with it.

A nsd for me today which has to be a first. got paid yesterday and so far apart from paying some bills and my shopping i havn't spent anything on myself, would really like to make tommorrow a nsd as well but i really enjoy my sunday papers and don't get the same enjoyment reading them on line. Think I might have to just settle for a low spend day instead.

The non smoking is going really well. I am so proud of my oh(and myself) i really didnt think he would do it and he has really suprised me and himself,he has not been irrateable at all and is getting more and more determined each day not to smoke. so far so good.:T

gilligansyle

Sometimes with cooking from scratch its a bit hit and miss to find something that works for you.

Well done on the no smoking still. Hopefully you should feel better for it soon.

BADPENNY_2

Right. 1st day off, need to get a task list together or i'll spend all week on here....

sort out wardrobe and drawers. 3 piles- keep-chuck-ebay. had a bit of a tantrum yesterday when i couldnt find anything to wear despite having a wardrobe stuffed full of clothes. the plan is to asemble a capsule wardrobe of things that i can put together to create several differnt outfits and then create a list of things i need to buy to achieve this. i will use some of my profits from ebay (if any) to do this.

sort out bedside cabinet of lotions and potions and throw some of my old nearly empty dried up stuff away and list everything i've got so not tempted to buy more of what i've got.

put xmas tree and decs in loft(oh will d this)

declutter spare bedroom

re-organise airing cupboard

tidy out kitchen cupboards

get hair trimmed, do coulor myself

visit gym 3 times

eat healthy.


better get started.

Sun_Addict

Hi BP - you're being very productive! Know what you mean about a wardrobe full of clothes and nothing to wear! I always intend to have a capsule wardrobe and then end up just buying anything that catches my eye even if it doesn't match anything else! Could do with being Gokked!