Update: My first month as a DFW

Katharine

Well its been a depressing yet enlightening month, the annoying thing being I went £100 over my budget. (this went on my lowest rate CC to avoid going over overdraft). Even cutting down on beer I spend more than I thought, I cut back and still spent £35 and I also spend £35 on smoking. I have asked my OH to buy his own baccy as I shouldn't be buying it myself let alone paying for him to smoke, but his doing this has been sporadic and I cant bring myself to say no when he wants to steal a bit. The other over buget cost being paying coucil tax we owed. :rolleyes:

Gorcery shopping has been a success with my previous £200+ spend halving this month, the OH whinged about no getting enough meat, (I almost completely cut meat out as it is expensive) so have returned to buying some cheaper meat like mince and sausages, without much change to the budget. Been interesting trying out some vege recipies.

This has been the first full month of OH being able to pay all his half of the bills, which will continue for the next couple of months, then his contract ends and I don't even want to think about that. :eek:

Another good thing is this is the first time in months I won't be going over my overdraft and getting charged £25!

July is going to be alot worse as we just got an electric bill that is £100 more than our winter one! I am clueless as to why this is, we are using less electric! I need 2 new tyres for my car which I've been putting off for 2 months and can't just wait any longer or their going to be illegal. So tallying up my outgoings for July I am short £200 so looks like I will have to sell one of my more expensive loved items, which I dont want to sell any off.

It's not easy this DFW stuff is it? :rolleyes:

Katharine

I feel like a tight git, as I got quite annoyed when OH took 80p from my 20p savings and said he thought it was just spare change, yes spare change all in 20p's that would be strange!

Still by debts have gone down this month, just not as much as I hoped. I'm waiting to withdraw my funds from paypal until my items are recieved just in case there are any problems.

In_Search_Of_Me

Well done so far...it does take time o get the hang of the dfw lifestyle...have you tried car boot? I did my first one yestreday & got 100 for old junk - easier & quicker than ebay! Keep going though - have you looked at old style board for cutting down on groceries etc...lots of handy hints and am sure you can get some meat in there somewhere!! Just wanted to say well done!

Katharine

I don't really have junk, I've moved house so many times in the last 10 years, all junk build up gets sorted then, the OH seems to have lots of junk, but apparently its not junk. Been on the OS board just as much as this board.

Really should stop smoking tho it's just burning money, literally! Will try again this week. :rolleyes:

newleaf

Have you been to your GP to get some help with giving up smoking? Most practices now have a stop smoking clinic and give free patches or whatever. It really is worth doing, for the sake of your health as well as your purse. Good luck!