A Fool and Her Money- CAFCGIRL's Debt Diary

CAFCGirl

And here is another attempt at my expenditures. Now this one is based on my statement for January, which runs from 23rd December to right now!

Food : £58
Toilettries : £33
Clothes : £18
Rent : £300
Mobile : £60 flexible to about £40 due to contract
Landline/Broadband : £35
Meals out : £18
Gifts : £146
Utilities : £55
Misc' : £34
Cash : £60
Sky : £18

Debt Repayments
Loan : £135
CC1 : £50
CC2 : £40
Store cards collectively : £55

Now when I've added all that up it comes to £1118 :eek:

However Gifts would never normally be that high, but that included christmas and two christmas presents.

So I've highlighted what in my mind is flexible. Now this doesnt include sky, which I really want to keep and that will go down to £9, as flatmate will pay half.
And by flexible I mean, I could cut down on, for example utilities, I could cut down my usage.

I havent included council tax because at this precise moment we're not paying it but that will happen in a couple of months.

Now heres my flexibility plan

Food goes to £60
Toilettries to £10
Clothes to zero (dont need any, its just desire)
Mobile to well just less basically, limit usage
Meals out to zero, cook at home!
Gifts to zero, no presents to get this month
Misc to £25, so thats treats and what nots
Cash to £20

So really that gives me breathing money of £45...

Now when I add in those changes, my outgoings come in at
£884

If I've been really dumb and miss something out please feel free to let me know.... or if theres something I may have missed.... or maybe some ideas/hints and tips on how to do this "new plan"?

tryhard_2

do you have time to do mystery shopping?

CAFCGirl

I'm signed up to Grassroots and have done a couple but I never seem to have time/energy, plus I only ever seem to get offered bank ones which I never really enjoy.

CAFCGirl

Super day in the life of me.

Spoke to Lynzpower this morning and we devised a challenge to each other! We've got £15 to do the weekly shop!
I'd organise a meal plan (ohh get me), and went through the cupboards to see what I already had in!Then armed myself with a shopping list.

Now after some oooooooh-ing and ahhhhhhh-ing at various topics of conversation, Lynz and I discovered that low and behold I had a Nectar card with over 4000 points on it, which when redeemed in Sainsburys made £20!

So off I went with my list to Sainsburys, with my nectar card, and got everything on my list, plus some sandwich meat (ssssshhhhhhhhhhh dont tell Lynz) all for £10.96

And stupid me forgot to take her actual purse with odd change in, so I opted to pay £7.50 from Nectar points and £2.96 on my debit card. Not great I know, but couldnt do with the embarassment of paying 96p by debit card!

And so really........... my weekly shop has just cost me £2.96!!!!

And here is what I will be eating this week:
Shepards Pie (another monster)
Spag bol
Potato curry
Corned beef hash
Roasted veg filled pitta breads

Might not seem like much, but theres only a small one of me.
Lunch to work will be sandwiches or soup in my lovely thermal flask!
Breakfast will be toast, cereal or some yoghurt bars that I've got in.

I actually had a lot of fun doing it really, and now I've got something to eat each night without really needing to think about it too much, apart from what order to eat them in.

Very happy bunny xx

Verbatim

Sounds good CAFC,

Have you got insurance payments or travel costs to think about?

How are you going to factor in Council Tax? Are you just trying to get going on this first and then build up to it sort of thing?

Anyway well done and good luck. I'll be following your progress.

CAFCGirl

Well council tax should be coming through soon, and that will be an added £50 a month.

When flatmate comes back we're going to sit down and work out all the bill shares, like the phone, internet, sky etc so even though council tax will be added in, a number of them should go down, so it will near on even itself out I think.

Insurance is covered in our tenancy including our contents, and no travel costs because I walk everywhere lol, or the BF gives me a lift

bobbie78

wow CAFCGirl you certainly have got your second wind. Well done for doing all the calculations and especially for the cooking.

Keep up all the super work :j :j

CAFCGirl

Awww thanks very much Bobbie.

Well its another no spender for me. I'm getting good at this now!
Even had my lunch bought for me by my boss who came to do my 3 month probation review at work...........

AND I PASSED!!!!!

Woohoo, even told me I had the best visually merchandised shop out of the bunch, and after a small rough patch, I've continued to blossom!

Even better.............. it means my pay now rises to £17.5k!!!
Not a massive lift but I'm not complaining, its £500 more a year then I would have and for nothing

Super chuffed and happy

gallygirl

Congrats hon!!!!

Skint_Catt

Well it's taken me about a week to read your diary - but I've enjoyed every minute of it - except your low bits of course!

I'm so proud of you CAFCgirl that you're tackling this head on!

Well done on the new job, sorting your man out, and passing your probation thingy!

I started my spending diary on Monday - scary thing, lol, but not too much unecessary spending yet as I'm out of work so can't afford to!

Go get 'em!

S_C xxxxx