Mandy's savings diary and SOA...

mandy4

Annie_Fanny wrote:

Ms_london - OMG - you can't keep away? Lol!

Have you been to Paddy's market (Haymarket area)? You can buy cheap fruit/veg/clothes/everything! I used to go there with a massive rucksack - fill up and then trek back to North Sydney...

I will look into this Annie. I have been going to a local fruit market store, but will check this out next weekend. Thanks!

mandy4

Just thought I'd add my newest idea...I have several small cost items on my cc that I bought (clothes, books, etc.) and have kept a record of, so am going to continue my regular fortnightly payments, but on top of this, pay extra to 'pay back' these items. I think it will help because it will allow me to track my progress and feel motivated to find extra money to 'pay off' these items.

Currently paying off a $129 item...

Things I've done this week to reduce my expenses:
* Groceries - Bought lots of food last week cheaply (2 weeks worth for the cost of 1 weeks groceries budget), so I'm going to not buy any groceries this week and wait until payday on thursday to buy more. I normally take sandwiches to uni everyday but I ran out of bread. To stick to my plan, I've been making larger dinners for extra to take for lunch the next day so I don't have to buy bread as I realised I have lots of dinner food supplies once I looked in my pantry. I know the cost of bread is small but I'm trying to test myself and show myself I can adapt...
*I have home-made bircher muesli for breakfast every morning and I have bought some plain oats when I bought my muesli last time, so I add half muesli/half oats: it tastes exactly the same and as the oats alone cost much less than the muesli, I will save $!

* Petrol - I had a surfing lesson on the weekend and instead of driving there and wasting petrol while driving around trying to find parking at the beach and preventing a potential parking ticket, I caught the bus instead.

* Started selling items on eBay again, I have 5 books up at the moment and am looking to list quite a few clothes I have but no longer wear on Thursday after spending a whole day taking photos of the clothes (hint found on this board: list on Thursday to get 2 weekends of bidding - when most people are on eBay)

* Sold a pair of jeans on eBay: into my eBay selling fund (I'm keeping a separate bank account with money kept up to pay potential fees and my Paypal account I don't want to withdraw until I finish selling most of my stuff to reduce fees)
Current balance incl Paypal: $205.33 (£83)

mandy4

Last night I stayed at work and unfortunately this meant i had to buy dinner so I spent $5.95 on an sandwich.

Today I listed 23 items on eBay...it took a bit of effort but I'm sure it will pay off. If they all sell, the minimum I'll get is $300 (£120)! :j Plus by listing them today (Thursday) this means I'll get access to 2 weekends while my listings are up, meaning more chance of selling (a tip I got from this forum I think)

I also got paid today and paid $117.30 (£46) towards my debt for 2 items I've bought in the past that went on my cc and are now paid off (see previous post about chunking my debt down into items I've bought on my cc).

Debt now $7859 £3142 (originally $8040 £3238)