*** Living beyond my means - My diary ***

cmjohnson_86

Well, I have estimated going out tommorow will be;

£30 rent to mum
£40 cheque to nan
£19 cheque for delivery of Xbox (Gf didnt have the money at the time)

Then I was going to buy a game for my Xbox, at around £30-£40 but I think I might just rent one, and pay the rest of my Barclays CC off.

But im going to be doing the Sunday to Friday weekly challenge, with a limit of £50 which I think ill fly past supposing I dont buy that evil game.

patwa_2

Do you have friends with XBox's? Maybe you could all get together and either share the game between you, or have get-togethers at each other's houses - it'd give you something to free up your time.

Doesn't the XBox come with a couple of games to start you off, or is it just a base pack?

cmjohnson_86

patwa wrote:

Do you have friends with XBox's? Maybe you could all get together and either share the game between you, or have get-togethers at each other's houses - it'd give you something to free up your time.

Doesn't the XBox come with a couple of games to start you off, or is it just a base pack?

Yea a few mates have Xbox 360's and have already planned to lend a few games off them. But they havnt got some games which I want. So will rent some before buying, that way I can tell if its worth paying so much for it too. The console comes with 2 games, but there both rubbish. It comes with Project Gotham Racing & Perfect Dark Zero. I think I will sell these two and buy one with the money I get from them.

cmjohnson_86

Ive just found $14 dollars in my pocket of my jeans, obviously from a sale a long time ago on eBay. I dont suppose anyone knows where I can exchange this for free, I know the post office do but on return of a reciept isnt it?

patwa_2

I have been told that both the post office and M&S offer good rates for currency conversion (we used M&S when converting money to travel to DAR).

$14 is roughly £7, although with commission you probably won't get that much.

Personally I'd say to keep the foreign currency should you go abroad in the future, especially given the low amount, but it's up to you of course.

cmjohnson_86

Been a good day I think, Xbox 360 arrived and I resisted temptation in buying a game despite looking around town in several games shops. BAnk also tried to get me into raising my Overdraft by another £300 which I declined, So feeling positive with myself. Here's what I have spent today;

£40 to my mum (£30 rent & £10 petrol money)
35p Mcdonalds
£2.49 new calender (50% off)
£3.50 renting a Xbox 360 game (Resisted temptation in buying one so rented one)
£8.95 couple of drink in a bar (After gf's job interview, I didnt want one but gf did)
£7 weekly bus pass (Dont usually buy one, so will save me probably £10 p/w)
£5 credit for Mobile (Just finished contract & sticking to Pay as you go)
48p on Choccie bar for gf

Total: £67.77 - Quite a lot but this is with rent for a week.

Out of my Friday to Sunday Challenge I've so far spent £37.77 :eek: But cant see me spending anything until Friday now, Hopefully.

On a good note though, I did find £1.37 in 1p, 2p & 5ps, which will go straight into my collection jar. Also exchanged the $14 dollars I found in my jeans at the post office free of charge and got £6.73 in return. So all in all I made/found £8.10 :j

Off to play the 360 soon anyway

lil_me

:T Big well done for resisting the temptation, and naughty girlfriends offering to help buy things that would have been even more tempting so well done.

£12.23 left and counting until Friday, wonder how much you would have had spent this week so far if you were not doing the challenge ? I find it not only good to keep a spending diary but to include things you have resisted, and how much you have saved by doing so.

I think the major thing in life is to learn what you NEED and what you WANT, ie you NEED to repay what you owe of course, but maybe the little luxuries are just WANTS that you can reward yourself with when you've been working hard at clearing the debt. I'm not saying don't buy things you WANT, more like prioritise.

(PS I lived beyond my means for 8 years, I've been there, but the debts were much much higher, learning the hard way what I WANTED and NEEDED was the hardest time of my life)

cmjohnson_86

I know yeah, I dread to think how much I would have spent so far if i wasn't dong the Sunday to Friday Challenge.

Thats my main problem, getting what I WANT more than paying/getting what I NEED to.

Im getting better though.

A no spend day today, also going back to work 2 hours earlier later so thats an extra £20

lil_me

:T Well done, and if you're at work you can't spend, bonus

cmjohnson_86

Yea, also been told tonight that the tips from Xmas day get shared between everyone who worked, so I should recieve roughly £20 in the next few days

Also working an extra shift saturday, an extra 6 hours so probably almost £40 extra and on my two days off next week im going to work in Cheltenham whoch will probably be around another £120 in my wage packet

So all is going well, at the minute.