2010 Resolutions - My Crafty Diary

craftingmad

Managed to find my desk again today (and came across a couple of CDROMS I had forgotton about so thats a bonus!!!

My little girl is porrly again though so could'nt get much done today.

craftingmad

Hi everyone, well its now been 23 days since my last craft purchase and I'm feeling good! I've not spent one penny on magazines, nestabilities (my weakness), digital stamps, cds. papers etc, etc. I cannot belive it but I have just seen our bank balance for the end of March and it looks much healthier for it. Plus I've managed to cut back on all the other things I said I would so we easily have another £100 for the mortgage overpayment just ready and waiting (unfortunately our mortgage company only accept payments over the phone of £200 or more - we already overpay by dd £500 a month so as long as I can keep it up for April I will arrange for the DD to change to overpay £600 a month) in the meantime I shall keep the £100 saved in March in our saving accounts so that it can be paid to mortgage at the end of this month along with the £100 saved for April - get it - even I'm confused now so if you understand you must be super brainy!!!)

MF here we come!!!!!

craftingmad

OMG!!!!!! I have just looked through 3 months of bank statements and have worked out my average spend on craft, food and postage (thats when I send craft things back to QVC & Ideal World that I decided not to keep under their returns policy) and I am in a state of shock!!!!

On average it works out to the following:-

Food - £628 per month (this also includes some petrol I think and one of the statements was for over the xmas period)
Craft - £220 per month
Postage - £28 per month
Magazines - £34 per month

And the worring thing is that this is just from our joint account - I have another account where the Child Benefit is paid into (£132 per month) which i also used to use to buy crafting goodies so the total for craft is actually much much higher than stated above (don't worry we save £200 a month for or children so this more than makes up for the CB)!!!!

OK this has to stop - just think how quickly our mortgage would be paid off if all the money on craft and craft related items like the postage and mags was used to overpay? Also I am determined to cut our food bill down by at least £100 a month so that this money can also be used to pay off the mortgage.

So this is the plan for April:-

Savings:-

No craft spend at all from joint account - saving £220!!!!!!!
No craft spend from CB account - saving £132!!!!
Nothing to send back to QVC as not spending anything so save on postage - £28
No Craft Mag spends - saving £20 (as one of the amounts listed above was for a 1 year subscription)
Food Bill Cuts - £100

TARGET SAVED IN APRIL - £500

Earn:-

Delivering local village magazine (bi-monthly) - £50
Ebay - £20 (going to list like made over the next few days)
Quidco - £10 (have this money validated - just hopeing it will pay out this month - fingers crossed xxx)
Card and Craft Sales - £5

TARGET EARN FOR APRIL - £85

TARGET TOTAL AMOUNT FOR APRIL FOR EXTRA OP - £585!!!!!!!

OK, I'm off to find some more things to put in the box ready to list on Ebay!!!!

Oh & on a positive note, its been 25 days since my last craft purchase and I managed to tidy some of my craft room yesterday and came across some great craft kits that I had forgotton about so will be able to make some more cards tonight hopefully ready to try and sell at playgroup on Thursday.

cha97michelle

:TWow. Some serious savings there if you can keep up with the will power. I wish i spent that much a month to be able to save that much. I don't think cutting back on the odd choccy bar or bottle of wine will do it.


You can do it.

laurasavon

Good Luck - some great savings / overpayments you can make there!

craftingmad

Thanks everyone. With your encouragement I am going to try really hard - promise xxx

Made first food saving today - needed pizza to go with one which needed using today and firstly picked up 2 for £4 when I found similar ones (not quite so much topping but same size) for £1 each so I got two of these and saved £2 - not much but a start. And as an added bonus the kids liked the cheaper ones better so I'll be buying them again.

I still can't believe that I have been spending that much each month!!!

23rdspiral

hi crafting mad,

good luck with your challenge, it's really scary to figure out what you're spending and where cuts can be made, so you're doing really great. i know i could do better, so i'm going to subscribe to your thread and be inspired!

have you checked out the MSE old school forum? http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33 there's really good advice on sticking to a food budget, menu planning and using up leftovers. and they are really friendly there too!

good luck!

craftingmad

Thanks 23rdspiral,

Thanks for that. I shall head on over there shortly.

Well tomorrow will mark a whole month of buying no crafting items or magazines (apart from the two I subscribe to) so that a real achievement for me and I am feeling very proud of myself.

The food bill has taken a battering over the last few days as we have had relatives staying over and they eat a lot! but I have tried to stay as close as I possibly can.

However the potty training is going well as we only used two nappies today (one while we were out at my playgroups fundraiser and one for nighttime) so definately saved some money this month already and because I have'nt been ordering from QVC for a while I have sent nothing back so have'nt spent anything on postage so thats a result as well.

So far so good for targets this month! Fingers crossed xxxxxxx

Happy Crafting!

SmlSave

Keep up the good work crafting!

I agree with 23rd, the old style board is lovely

craftingmad

Hi everyone,

I'm back from my short break. Sorry its a long post today but I have lots of good news:-

I still have not spent anything on craft items even though QVC had a craft TSV today (and lots of other craft shows) and I have been round my mums which has loads of craft shops in the area which I am always tempted by - I resisted so I am very proud of myself.

Also because I have not bought anything from shopping channels am not spending any money on postage so that budget is on track too - yippeeee!!!

As we have been away for about 6 days hopefully we will have saved some cash on our grocery shopping so fingers crossed there.

Potty training is doing well. My little boy has been dry (excluding twice when he could'nt get to a toilet while we were out) since my last posting so we are currently only using nappies when we are out and at nighttime so we should be making a considerable saving there.

Delivered our local magazine so have just paid in my £50 cheque so thats over half of the money target for earnings for April.

Also had £6.01 paid out from Quidco this month so looks like unless they pay out again before the end of the month I'm going to be lower than target on this bit. Am gutted though as lots of my "earnings" which were validated have just been paid as £0.00!!!! Has anybody else had trouble with them recently? I'm just about to raise several enquiries with them so fingers crossed I'll get the money due back into my account soon.

And now the not quite so good news:-

As of yet I have not listed anything on Ebay for sale so I must pull my finger out and get listing. I am going to get a few lots together tonight and hopefully list them tomorrow when the kids are asleep so hopefully the Ebay target figure will be reached by the end of April.

I have not sold any cards yet this month but then again playgroup has not been on over the Easter Holidays so next week I am going to pluck up the courage to take the cards to the other playgroup I attend and try and sell some there. I have also come across a few local businesses which I was unaware of until I contacted them regarding a fundraiser for the playgroup I run, which I think would be ideal locations for selling my creations so am going to get making lots more and then sit down and work out a percentage I could offer to these outlets to sell my items. However I think until my little girl goes back to school next week I am not going to be able to get my head around the figures so its on my "to do list"

Promise I won't bore you all for too much longer but we received our mortgage today and we are well chuffed as we now owe £91,471 and a few pence so its going down which feels great!!!!!! Its great timing as it really has kept me motivated to stick to my resolutions.

Happy crafting everyone xxx