Reach for the stars...

Lemon_Tree

hi, back, almost wasn't cos the internet power cable has broken but we've sorted a replacement phew! only just realised how much i rely on checking my internet banking daily. It gets to be a bit of a routine/religion, won't be long before you catch the bug.

A lot of your first entry rang so many bell with me. Like the hair styles, i'm not a morning person so i've opted for the longer look, unfortunately i don't get free haircuts so i wait and hope to get vouchers for christmas and birthdays.

Kayleighpea

Hiya, glad you're feeling so positive! It does get tough sometimes where you have those days when it feels like nothing is going right and no matter what you try you're getting nowhere, it is just important to remember that every little helps! And the people on these forums who have been there, done that and got the debt-free date are definitely the ones to help you remember that! I don't know what I'd do without these forums! :T

niccatw

Hey there

Thanks for popping in and heling keep me sane! You're right, it really helps to see that other people have done it! And there have been a few triumph threads on the forum's recently, which is so great to see - you can't beat a good group cheer and round of applause :T

Today I did my first ever yoga class - boy did I find it tough, but in a good way. I felt every stretch! And loved the bit where we had to tense and then release our muscles - made me realise just how much tension I hold in my body! If you've never tried it, definitely give it a go. Though I've got to say I'm completely uncoordinated, don't know my left from my right and a bit wobbly on my balance - so I was all over the place trying to keep up (and it was apparently a gentle class!)

It also turns out I've got a bit of an eccentricright leg which does its own thing and doen't go in the direction I expect it to. I think it's always been like that - I remember being told I run funny (by my dad! Bless him!). Mum reckons it my pelvis (she's a newly qulified yoaga teacher). The yoga teacher thought it was my knee. But it doesn't hurt at all and it never has done really so I'm not really sure what I can do about it.

The yoga teacher, btw, said she was 80! Bl**dy hell! I hope I can be half as active and flexible now as she is at the moment - and I'm less than half her age!

The only trouble with the gym is that again I had to walk by Asda and again popped in (marg this time). Again, I was good and only got the one thing, but I need to stop the "popping in" before it goes horribly wrong However, one thing at a time - I'll wait until I can actually manage my spending diary without feeling like a petulant child being told to do homework instead of going out to play. Then I'll tackle the meal planning! (Today's spending, incidently, £3.10 on 3 months of hayfever tablets (courtesy of Matin's email) and £1.20 1kg Asda olive spread).

You never know, by the end of the year, I might even be a well-rounded proper grown-up :eek: (Does such a thing actually exist?)

moo2moo

Spending diaries work for some people and not for others. The legendary scotish FlyingFresian staples reciepts into a v. posh book in her v. glamorous handbag and then updates them into a swanky spreadsheet which is available simply by PMing her. The less organised of us have a liberated school exercise book into which we write our spends on a daily basis usually at the ungodly hour of 6am as thats the only point in the day I don't get pestered by children. I write everything down no matter how small, add them up on a daily basis and keep an eye on my bank blance which is periolously close to entering the red with four days to go until payday. Several years back it would have been in the red the day after payday and I'd have happily been spending my way round town anyway.

My current challenge (because I was bored one day) is to live on the very generous sum of £20K a year which equates to £1667 a month. Incidently this is far better than last September when FF and I decided we'd have a go at living on 4K until x-mas but realised 3 months in that this was 4 months away not the 3 we'd imagined. Unsurprisingly I went way over budget but learnt lots. Mostly that a family of 4 cannot live on 1K a month and go on holiday, have 4 birthdays and Christmas.

You might find it easier to work on a weekly budget for the moment and challenge yourself to do everything over and above your essentials for £10 or £20 or even £50 depending whether you include food and transport. That way its easier to see change you make having an impact and if you go way overboard then come monday you're starting again. New week, new challenge and all that. Then do something with the surplus. Note you will eventually have a surplus. Whether its putting it towards a debt or saving up for some ridiculously frivolous treat. Whatever incentive you need to make budgeting work for you.

PS. I'm not as boring as this in reality. Honest.

niccatw

Hey moo2moo - that sounds a sensible and manageable way for me to go! I'm going to bash on with it as soon as I've finished this entry... Thank you!

Been reading 77366.35's diary (I may not have the exactly right title, but you'll know who I mean) I'm still back in her early days, but her trials and tribulations over her spending diary and forgetting stuff on it and admitting to lipsticks etc etc have spurred me on! Can't do a swanky budget with getting at least getting to grips with the basics first now can I!

And just so you're all warned, at 5am this morning - when I was extremely frustrated and upset I was still awake! - I looked up some of your diaries... as most of you are much further into your adventures than I am, it might take me a while to catch up! So apologies in advance if I throw you off guard in future by quizzing you on things that you perhaps forgot happened or that happened ages ago I will get around to posting on your diaries when I'm up to speed!

Today was programme day at the gym. Uh-oh! Turns out it's not that great to go to the gym on so little sleep and having eaten only an apple (D'oh! But, you know, some people do need to be told these things. Especially when sleep deprivation clouds what can occasionally be a sensible, logical head! Honest guv!) So I nearly passed out on the poor girl. And had to run to the bathroom to throw up - twice! Feeling rather sheepish about it! The lovely girl (some may argue she was evil for giving me a tough programme...) took care of me and bought me some ribena (water wasn't cutting it!) so I had some sugar. I sure hope I didn't b*gger up a NSD for her - but I didn't take any cash with me to keep me out of Asda You know, some people will do anything to get out of their gym programme just before it gets to the sit ups bit... :rotfl:

Bumped into my flat-mate outside Asda (he was going in, I wasn't, woo hoo!). He tells me Arnie Scwarzenigger did that all the time at the gym. Not sure as to the source of his information or whether I should be viewing that as a good or bad thing!!!!

The rest of the day has been rather lazy. I used my gym experience as an excuse to do none of the planned housework But the postie had been and slightly calmed my mounting anger than I hadn't heard back from any of the accounts I had closed. RBS got back to me, my age-old account with them is now closed (still have current account though). Aparently they can't give anything left in the account to charity so they enclosed a cheque for £0.01. Guess I better get down to that bank pronto...

Also checked my BT account online (to see how much I'd spent calling N Rock - who haven't confirmed my overpayments yet. Grrr.) I've been paying £2.59 for call diversion. Huh? When did I set that up? And how do you even use call diversion? So that's now cancelled. I haven't been brave enough to check how long I've been paying it though.

*Skips off to complete spending diary* ... *then remembers to much exercise can be a bad thing, so merely creeks off comfy sofa and slopes to "dining" table*

niccatw

:j Yay, spending diary up-to-date... well kind off. There are a few discrepencies, quite possibly classic schoolboy errors, but I'll get there. And the discrepencies currently work in my favour. I should apparently have £115.15 left in my main account. I actually have £188.95.

After much scratching of my head, I remembered taking £70 cash from pay from my second job to pay the electrician. That still leaves me £3.80 up (not counting the £25 cash stashed away).

Hold on though the cash was £40... my "challenge" that lasted until the paperboy needed paid... which accounts for £2.70. Apart from £5 note, he gave me the change in coins - they went straight to the coin jar....

So, er, yeah. This is actually how the numbskulls in my brain work - slowly and noisily! But basically, it's not bad! And since the 28th January I've spent £35 on ink for my printer (fairly new printer so not sure how much to budget for it yet), £20 was a cashline withdrawal (that'll clear up the other discrepencies - I counted everything as coming from my bank account. Any change I got from paying in cash went into my jars) and £7.50 was on a top in the Jane Norman sale (I'll blame mum for this one; she was the one who visited and wanted to go shopping ) I'd never been in the path of temptation otherwise

So while it's all still a bit of a muddle, I think I'm right in saying that I'm over budget by just over £100 - electrician and ink not thought about or accounted for. And I haven't analysed the groceries yet... but :j:j:j not as bad as I was expecting!

I haven't touched at the account my flatmate pays into this month at all yet - it's still at £250... that'll change with my trip to the hairdressers on Saturday! And I might not admit the price of that Suffice to say, my hair badly needs died and cut and they've a half price colour sale - and I want to be pampered, so I'll let myself of the hook this month

The sooner I can get a nice swanky spread sheet the better though. Although I guess this is a much cheaper form of brain-training than a DS would give me

niccatw

I forgot to have my obligitory rant... my renewal membership came through for one of my professional registrations, "You currently pay your fees by direct debit, monthly at £16.58. We will renew your memberships at the above rate automatically, starting on 1 April"

Eh no, my current rate is £16.08. Sneaky b*ggers. Why don't they just come clean about hiking the price! They've a bl**dy captive audience anyway, we need to register with them if we want to be insured! I've a good mind to write a letter... if I ever get around to it :cool:

I wonder how many folks just won't notice though...

niccatw

http://www.spendingdiary.com/main.php

Still catching up on In My Dreams' diary (that's who I meant when I was talking about 77366.95 reasons to be... diary). Currently in November last year and came across her link for a spending diary. Yay, so exciting! Pie charts and everything.

But it's silly o'clock again so I must try sleep. Can hear upstair neighbour's telly - need to find a broom handle.... I don't cope well with low yet audible noises when I'm trying to sleep (clocks ticking, fridge motor buzzing, boiler creaking when flatmate runs the tap for hours for a glass of water... so I lie and stew instead. Grrrr).

Clearly I need a no laptop rule. But I'd also need a no book rule... no magazine rule... and so it would continue. So they're all at hand for when I am wide awake but not wanting to stray from warmth of my bed (even though I've read all the things about the bedroom is for sleeping only, you need to get up and leave the room, go back when you're tired... doesn't work when you used to be bar manager in a student union and finished at 5am - 7am if it was wages night! I can always keep myself awake. If only I could wake up as easily ).

Anyway, this was just supposed to be a quick copy and paste so I didn't lose the spending diary... Night Night zzzzzzzz

niccatw

Ouch, ouch, ouch... arms are killing me from the gym! Just as well I never got as far as the sit ups; I might just be crying now!

Todays post: New o2 sim arrived, Tesco credit card and old RBS account now officially closed. A&L have confirmed everything has switched (though I am in a bit of a panic that payroll won't have received confirmation in time and nothing will be paid this month. And RBS didn't tell A&L about my direct debit to my RBS loan and I added that in without checking with RBS 'cos I thought that it was a bit sneaky and cheeky of them - but maybe I better read the terms and conditions of the loan!) Deep breath... I'm sure that won't be the case... I'm sure payroll cut of is the 15th of the month (though how I've got this date in my head is any-one's guess!) and I'm sure RBS won't care how I pay the loan, as long as I am paying it!

Just been to the park with my friend and her two kids (in-service day). Had a fab time trying to keep the kids upright on their roller blades, going on a "nature walk" (we only found some orange and mushroomy type fungus and me and their mum aren't clued up enough to answer the questions about fungi - got as far as it's slimy and some you can eat but most are poisonous so don't try ), playing tig and having a massive picnic!

My MSE ways are kicking - had an adhoc picnic from bits and pieces in the cupboard (and made a right mess trying to cut up a mango!). My friend isn't quite there yet - she'd bought salmon, prawns, chipolatas, mini eggs, sausage rolls, millions of cakes (already admitted the cakes on kayleighpeas's diary - no need to dosee here too ) But she also brought me a wee flask of tea and a lovely baguette so I got to love her for it

Took a fiver with me, just in case, but we all refrained from the ice-cream van (courtesy of the million cakes!!!) And I didn't allow myself in the garden centre!

I do actually need to repot my cheese plant and should have got a bigger pot and some compost - but I love that garden centre; it has loads of gorgeous gifts and nic-nacs and jams etc etc - and I had the feeling the temptation might just be too much (might only have taken a fiver, but not quite up to leaving the debit card behind yet!).

So the plant will have to wait. Poor cheese plant - it's in a bit of a no-win situation. If I don't repot it, it won't survive. In trying to repot it, it is highly likely I will kill it! Since I bought my wee flat (2 years, 7 months ago - pretty much right at the wrong time, just before N Rock etc went belly-up!), I've managed to kill at least three yukka plants! The remaining yukka palnt is looking a bit brown and is possibly on the way out! How? How do you kill a yukka palnt! (Answer: Drouth or drown. Not figured out the happy medium yet!)

So so far, it's looking like a no spend day. :j Which will help ease the guilt of the hairdressers and ice-skiating tomorrow Hope I make it home in time for the rugby though!

Purpletea - thank you! I noticed you thanked all my posts and so must have been reading! I've peppermint tea, lapsong souchong tea, Lady Grey, Earl Grey, green tea, white tea... but never purple tea before now I love the sound of it - purple is my favourite colour

niccatw

Awww, feeling guilty. Just told the paperboy I need to cancel from next week (didn't just want to tell him not to come back). Think I'll give him a tip next week too. He started off just grunting but we can now exchange one or two short sentences - I'm quite proud of how he's come on :rotfl: And I feel bad - kinda want to tell his boss it's nothing to do with the paperboy. Just the paper And me not wanting to pay for it