Reformed shopaholic? please can you give me the benefit of your advice

NGlady

Supersmith - still lots available in Thorntons today

Well. Im not sure how my latest challange is going - and this is a pue example of my attitude towards money.

I have been invited to Manchester for the day on Saturday, costing £20 on train fare. Now, I was thinking "Oh crap how am i going to afford £20 on a train ride" best not go, but then in my next thought was working out how much moneys worth of things I can return and get from different pots to be able to buy clothes. How twisted is that, that Ill try and think of a way to get out of going cos the train fare but not to skip the shopping bit?

So my challange has sort of changed All week I am going to try and avoid spending money - going to return as much as I possibly can and then on Saturday, I shall have my bank card with me but shall try and avoiud spending anything other than what I have saved up this week and returned enough items for. I still have three weeks left in my challange so err I guess still lots of time.

Think I need to go sit down and reassess my challange and try and make it work Shall put myself on a strict budget of something like £50 plus Train for the day though

I have had quite a positive bank holiday though. Total spends, £13.20 for Saturday, Sunday and Today (AVG £4.40!!!) which I don't think I can really complain about as I have been out everyday and still coming in under my £10 allowance even under my new £5 allowance. YAY me!

So todays spends:
£3.20 on McDonalds (£22.80 left in food budget this Month)
Tooth paste £1 - The other I had had some sort of bico soda in and it made me feel sick, mum likes it so sold it her for £1 and put it towards my new (How MSE!!)
Also got my two black T-shirts from Primark (Total chage £3.50) that I said on my original challange post that I would be allowed. One will go under my dresses and one is a non-stretch cotton perfect for thurs

I genuinely enjoyed going into town today, allowing myself something like the T-shirts but only spending a couple of pounds - felt so much nicer than that guilt after spending £40 odd

Also I did return £8 worth of stuff to primark, so therefore I think I made £0.20p "profit" today!!

Hope everybodys enjoying their bank holiday

morocha

Hi ya, girls... today is a nice day...

my oh took us for a lovely chinese lunch then i went to DEbenhams cos i needed to send back the Clarins eyeliner, it made my eyes itch so much... anyway i went to clinique with the voucher and got a very mild soap + a concealer... so i am £14 down( had to pay the diference)... BUT Got a goody back with lipstick, eye remover, blush, eyeshadows and a mascara... i am sooo happy

verynewmoneysaver

Well done NGlady and Morocha.I took my mac back to Debenhams as the zip had broken. They didn't have another one like it so I'm now £30 better off.

Mags30

NGlady wrote: »

Lol... Im thinking of making a thread on here the dairy of Laura lol.

Do it:) Even if it's just for yourself to read back over later.

verynewmoneysaver wrote: »

He bought me some perfume in Debenhams for my birthday.Didn't realize the free bags sold well on ebay. May try selling mine on there.

What perfume did you get? The bag I was talking about is the big plastic one that's free with Marc Jacobs. I don't think the branded paper bags sell for quite so much, probably would sell though.

annieb30

NGlady wrote: »

Hello Annie, welcome Something we tend to ask all our newbies, do you like crisps? Have a love for magazines? as we all tend to have one/both of those addictions here.

A bit of both sadly - little bit better now i have about 5 subscriptions thanks to Tesco clubcard deals

Spent £18 today on home things in Ikea (some necessary some not!!) but then me and OH got taken out for tea by in laws so not too bad!

Back to work tomorrow x

tyzer2001

Hi,

Can I please join you?

I'm 36, single with two kids, well my son is 19 and working but still lives at home, and I have a daughter aged 13.

I spend waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much money on .... well, nothing really. My main vice is eating out, which is sheer laziness. Last week we spent almost £100 on meals out - I have a bad habit of paying for whoever happens to be present so twice last week I bought takeaway for three extra teenagers.
I'm very lucky in that I earn a fairly decent amount of money although it's purely commission based , which means that some weeks I'm very flush and other weeks things are pretty tight.
I have decided to try the 'two purse' idea - so the real household/family expenses will come from the usual purse but I have a separate purse purely for 'unnecessary luxuries', which I have decided to put £20 into. This is an experiment really this week to see how I get on, so far today I have spent £1.52 out of it and that wasn't on myself lol! I need to try to make myself think 'I could make that meal cheaper at home' etc.

Clothes are not such a huge issue as I am a big girl, can only shop at Evans, and refuse to pay their full prices so only buy from the sale stock. I dont feel too guilty about that!

I do have some pretty chunky debts though which I'm trying to work through bit by bit, most pressing at the moment is a Bailiff action for non-payment of Council Tax. It's all just about under control but it wouldn't take much to break the camels back! My income and my outgoings just about match at the moment but I know that if I got my 'wasting money' thing under control we would be able to breathe much easier. We got into a bad habit somewhere of forgetting that meals out and takeaways are supposed to be a 'treat' - not an everyday necessity

NGlady

Hi tyzer and welcome Course you can join!
Do you have a crisp addiction and magazine addiction by any chance?

tyzer2001

Ermm... cakes and chick-lit. Can I still play?

tyzer2001

Sorry - peculiar double post!

CompletelyLost

Evening ladies (& gents if there are any!)

Well, I was naughty today... I spent... *drum roll please*.............9p! Bought some Simple wipes and toothpaste, total £3.09 but I had £3 vouchers so paid 9p cash.

Then I started feeling a bit faint so went back to the car, so avoided New Look/B&M/Evans/Dorothy Perkins. Probably saved myself a few £s!

I've just dyed my [STRIKE]bathroom[/STRIKE] hair but don't think it looks any different Used a different dye to usual as someone recommended it (plus it was half the price of my usual one), I bought it months ago... but anyway, I wish I hadn't bothered as all it did was create a mess! So I guess I'll have to buy some more and redye it next week.

tyzer - welcome to the thread Ahh, young people can be expensive! My brother and sisters are teens and are terrible for bringing friends round and getting my poor mum to buy them all KFC, sweets, etc Anyway, I hope you stick around and find this thread helpful x