Isla's "the final stretch" diary

Little_Miss_Red_Head

I did that made little payments they'd probably only mind because they get to charge less interest

isla_red

I like your reply! :rotfl:

I've just been making a few small payments recently. Usually I try to do them in bulk payments but a couple of friends paid me back little amounts of money they owed me and rather than accidentally spend it I've just been paying it straight off the card. Starting to feel like I'm swimming a bit in treacle just now and would really like to hear something, anything from the dentist about this bill!

Going to try and do some more exercise this week as the weather seems okay and I could do with toning up plus it'll keep me away from the shops!

Little_Miss_Red_Head

That sounds like a very sensible thing to do - how grown up of you;)

Hope the weather has been better for you than it has been for me!

isla_red

I swear it's not stopped raining for days here. Summer what summer?!

Trying to be good and have popped £18 into my sealed pot in the last fortnight which I'm pleased with. Still no news on the bill although I have made a £50 payment towards it so don't feel quite so guilty.

How's everyone here getting along?

Little_Miss_Red_Head

We've had constant rain as well:(

Well done on putting some money aside hopefully it'll be cheaper than you think and you'll have some left x

isla_red

I hope you guys are all well, I've been keeping up with your diaries but just not my own. I hearby confess to hiding and being back in a bit of denial about money. The dentist's bill was bigger than expected and have had a few things to deal with and pay for that I hadn't expected to hit the finances just now.

Recent costs:

Dental bill: £320
Boiler repair: £120
Wedding gifts: £60

Money owed to me by family/friends: £153
My current debt is back up to a dismal £1584.11 :eek:

Aside from the unexpected costs I have been pretty good. I bought only absolutely essential new clothes for work (and got them all in the sales), still bringing my lunch into work every day, I bought a few Christmas presents in the summer sales and I have been popping spare change into my sealed pot for Christmas presents which is starting to look quite full so I guess it isn't all bad news.

I'm hopeful the family and friends debt will get paid back this month and my aim is to somehow have the debt to at least under £1000 by the start of October. I desperately want to be debt free by 1st January 2011 I'm so tired of scraping by each month but every time I make a dent in it something gets in the way. I shouldn't complain, I know there are people much worse off but I'd like to be able to start saving.

isla_red

I've made some headway over the last four weeks. I'm really hoping to stay on track now and make the debt free date of December. This year has been so focused on money and debt I'd really like to see an end in sight soon.

I'm starting a new exercise class this week, I thought I'd give Zumba a go and going back to swimming as well. Here's to a trimmer and debt-free me by January! :j

isla_red

Three days in a row of bringing my lunch in this week and 1 NSD yesterday. I have Zumba this week so that immediately wipes out 2 days as potential NSDs. I'm trying to have 3 NSDs this week at least. My aim is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and potentially Sunday.

I'm now using my clubcard vouchers to accumulate AirMiles as I would like a little holiday next year and the more AirMiles I can gain the less I have to save towards a holiday Any online shopping I need to do for presents etc I'm going to try and do through AirMiles affiliated websites. Fingers crossed it goes well! I have 288 miles so far which isn't a lot but hopefully will accumulate more and more by being smarter about our shopping.

isla_red

Took lunch into work 4 days in total last week and had a cheap lunch with a friend one day. I've managed 4 NSDs (Tues, Thurs, Sat & Sun) and I'm hopeful to manage at least another 4 next week if I can (Tues, Thurs, Fri & Sun). I saved £20 off my Tesco shop by choosing deals, own brands and meal planning so I'm really pleased.

I have another two nights of Zumba this week so I'm hopeful that the weight I've let sneak on will start to burn off over the next few weeks. Unfortunately Zumba isn't cheap but I think that £8 a week isn't too high a price to pay for keeping fit, especially when I'm saving so much money on my lunches.

This month I seem to be keeping to my budget a lot better and planning meals is really helping with that. Hopefully I'll keep ploughing away at the debt and the weight loss and start to reap the benefits around Christmas.

I did spend a hilarious 45 minutes with a flat knife raiding my sealed pot for pound coins for Zumba :rotfl:Don't worry I returned what I took out in notes!

Hope you're all having a great weekend

isla_red

I've brought my lunch in 2 days this week so far and stuck to the 1 NSD I knew I could manage until Thurs. I did a 20 minute workout at home yesterday as well as the NSD so keeping on track with my fitness and my finances.

I'm finding things hard just now because I'm hyper-aware of any spending I do and I'm really struggling to find a balance between worrying about money and enjoying my life. There's things I really need to buy before winter, like clothes for work, and I'm trying not to feel guilty about taking money out the budget to buy them. It's not frivolous things by any stretch of the imagination but I can't shake the guilt. Oh well tomorrow's another day I guess.