Tondella's (epic) debt-free journey

BrokeBrunette

I pay BT £15 a month by DDR and they seem to be ok with that. I use 1899 for my calls so £15 a month to BT is plenty. I'm sure they would let you drop your DDR if you rang them. |You can also ask them for your credit balance back if necessary. They just pay it straight back into your bank account.

Faith_Lady

Thanks Tondella, am off there now!

Tondella

Well, a little bit of reflection on my first week trying to shop to budget. Overall verdict - poor!
In addition to the post above i did a top up shop in somerfield on the monday for bananas, broccoli, milk and a chocolate mousse (!) at £3.86 and then went into tesco last night for eggs, caster sugar and a tin of beans at £2.01. I bought lunch yesterday at work for £3.70 (plus 80p pastry) and I bought lunch and a banana today (grand total £2.45).

I didn't buy enough food for the week, two of my evening meal options were based on tinned food in the pantry, and when i didn't feel like making/eating that my fallback options used all the bread up, so i had none left for sandwiches. I think I need to use more of my food budget in the supermarket, rather than trying to underspend and then having to buy from work. I also need to buy something quick to prepare for the evenings closer to the weekend rather than expecting myself to cook from scratch every night, as it is just not happening.

I've been over on OS board checking out the discussions about menu planning and food shopping this week, interesting to see that people like Becles don't menu plan, but keep a stock of basic ingredients that can be used to make up what they fancy eating. This is definitely more along the lines of what i do.

Other spending this week
£5.00 sponsoring colleague at work
13.99 christening present
9.49 on sunglasses to make an outfit for my fancy dress hen do (will need to buy a neckerchief too but will find all the remaining items from my existing wardrobe - it's 50's theme)
5.99 on large photo frame from brother's birthday present
1.40 on brown wrapping paper for next round of ebay (will reimburse from money raised)
5.60 in boots on 241 shampoo & conditioner (large bottles plus got £5 off hair care voucher too)
7.67 on nail varnish and 241 showergel in superdrug (with free lip gloss (which i had planned to buy) and 10% off total)
£5.50 oyster card top up

That's all of my £60 beauty and misc spent now
This month my clothing allowance will go on the hen do activities. I'm hoping not to have to buy many drinks!
I've still got my £20 per week entertainment and the remaining £34.50 from my travel budget.

This weekend we'll be cycling on saturday (and putting sandwiches up, but might buy a shandy!) and attending the christening on sunday (£9 train fare, but not much else).

Tondella

A good weekend for MSE.

I got home on Friday to discover that shop and scan had accepted me as one of their scanners. For those that don't know, shop and scan is a market research company that asks you to scan the barcodes of all the things you buy. you then download this information to them via the net and receive vouchers for House of Fraser, Debenhams, other high street stores or activities. I'm going to be saving mine up for Christmas.

OH brought his old motorola V3 home, it has a scratch on the fascia and so wouldn't have raised much on ebay, however someone here pointed me in the direction of envirophone, who recycle used but working mobile phones. We were offered £29.49 in cash or £33.91 in argos vouchers. We've gone for the latter and we will use it to buy disposable cameras for the wedding (with some credit left over for Christmas)

The cycling was great fun (although the bitter shandy cost £3!) and we'll definitely try another route another weekend.

dinkylou

Tondella wrote:

Hi there! Thanks for your post, good to see you on here.

Yes, we're getting sooo excited about it all, had a few wedding chores to discharge this weekend, including choosing our readings, which was a lovely thing to do together. Big changes are afoot after the wedding too, I am considering a career change when i move to live with OH next summer, however alot hangs in the balance. More on this later, perhaps!

Looks like you are making great progress on your debt, when was your lightbulb moment? are you going to overpay your student debt when your personal debts are over or will you let them take their course and start saving?

Thanks Tondella,

My small lightbulb went on in October 05 but then was on full watt in January 06. I've just worked out that I've paid back over £4700 in that time so feeling pleased with myself.

When my personal debt is gone then I will focus on the student loan. After all, its still a debt, even at 2.4%. Then once that's gone, its full steam ahead to save for my year out.

It sounds like you and OH especially now that he's more committed to the MSE way are doing well.

Tondella

You are going great guns! I haven't included my student loan in my debt totals, but it will be paid off in the next six months, before my official dfd. I can't defer payments as i am over the threshold, shame because i have alot more important things to pay £57 a month off!

dinkylou

That'll be one more off though, when its gone. Then thats an extra £57 to do what you need to with.

I know most people leave theirs to just expire but if I have to take a drop in salary at any point, I know I'll feel like I'm going backwards.

Oh and dont beat yourself up about a bad food week last week. Your food spending is much better than it used to be and at least you can see where you're going wrong and can sort it out this week.

Good luck! x