Cloudy's 'bring me some sunshine' diary!

Cloudy456

Another NSD today! So its actually 4 in a row as I forgot that I had one on Sunday too. Yay! Four days without spending a penny is quite something for me! So I still have over £100 left for the next 7 days until payday. I'm away this weekend at the BF's folks so hopefully a cheap one. I'm getting a free lunch provided at work tomorrow but I've made a packed lunch anyway so I can eat it on the drive up in the evening to avoid an expensive service station dinner. If that works I may even make 5 NSDs, absolute miracle!

A few more surveys done today but no more mystery shops at the moment. Can't wait for the next week to pass so I can update my signature and see a 9 on start of the figure!!!

missfit_2

Hi Cloudy. I've been reading your diary for some time. I see no reason why you shouldn't have a holiday. As you said your debt is interest free and look at the progress you have made so far! Life is all about balance which I think is very important at the moment given the state of this country. We all need something to look forward to.

Cloudy456

Well I spent a grand total of £13.20 this weekend so I have over £88 still in the budget! I'm planning to just buy some food tomorrow then hopefully have the £80 ish to add to my savings pile on weds (day before payday) which would take me down to about £9920 but I don't want to count my chickens so hoping for no nasty surprises or expenses in the next couple of days!

Cloudy456

Oh and thanks mussfit-nice to know that someone other than me reads my ramblings!

Cloudy456

Phew. Payday tomorrow! This month has actually been really good – I found myself left yesterday with about £80 still in my budget, so my total could look even better than it does now I’ve updated it. But I made a tactical decision – as this month has been good, and next month is likely to be VERY bad (due to paying for ski trip) I spent £60 on an online Tesco delivery for loads of food and some toiletries I needed, so that I will only have to spend about a tenner over the next month on fresh stuff. I bought almost everything from half price or bogof offers, so I’ve got enough for all my meals plus snacks for work, for at least a month, which I’m really pleased with. So anyway, it means I end this month having met my ‘under 10k’ target and even exceeded it by about £20, plus I have cupboards full of lovely food to last me until I go away for Christmas. Bonus!

However….next month is not looking good! I have to pay £589 for the ski holiday by Saturday, which will be partly coming from what I have put aside already and partly from what I get paid tomorrow. I had thought that I would have to pay a deposit of around half and then the rest around new year but no such luck. So basically I am pretty much resigned to my overall total increasing a bit next month, but I should be able to do much better again the following month, particularly considering that I will get a Christmas bonus. So it all works out the same, but I was hoping for two ‘ok’ months rather than one dire one and one good one, just because I dread seeing my total actually increase from the previous month for the first time! Especially if it goes back over 10k, that would be hard to swallow! Still, that was part and parcel of deciding to do the holiday, so I’m not going to complain, I will just use the guilt to inspire me to be good in every other way! Other than starting my Christmas shopping I am hoping to be able to really hammer the NSDs and try to minimise the damage that I will undoubtedly do this month!

Cloudy456

Oooh and I've updated my shiny new signature and it feels pretty good to see a 9 on the front of it!! Into four figures now, yay! Its slow progress but I know I am heading in the right direction. I am just really conscious not to get too ahead of myself given the holiday payments to make, I know I could easily undo a lot of my hard work unless I'm very careful over the coming month...wish me luck!

Herewego

Good luck signature is looking good enjoy your ski trip and then back on track, do you have any plans for next year yet ?

Cloudy456

I’ve been delaying coming on here to update my diary because I’m feeling a bit sheepish after paying for the ski trip and seeing in black and white on my spreadsheet what that has done to my progress. The fact that I have had to pay for the whole thing this month means that I haven’t been able to spread out the damage and it’s not looking good! Basically I have set myself back around 2 months. And that’s before I have paid for my snowboarding lessons and lift pass which I can at least pay for nearer the time. I don’t regret the decision and am really excited about the holiday but I am also very keen to work as hard as possible to get myself back on track by the time I go in February, so that I can enjoy it and know that it is paid for and that I have recovered from the ‘blip’ in my progress and am fully back on track.

So, basically I am resigned to the fact that my total will have increased quite a bit this month (so I’m not looking forward to being able to update my signature nearly as much as I usually am!) but I also think that with some hard work and good luck, by the following month I can be pretty much back to where I was at the end of last month i.e. back under 10k. I just need to keep my spending down to the absolute minimum and also generate as much additional income as possible. Sounds so simple….!

So to summarise the situation as things look now, the bad news is:

• It is currently looking like I will have added about £300 to my total this month due to paying for the ski trip.
• I only have about £100 to last me until I get paid on 17th unless I resort to the credit card, and within that I have a weekend in London seeing friends and that means paying for train tickets, topping up my oyster card and a meal out.
• The mystery shopping which I was making quite a bit from before has totally dried up at the moment, maybe because of Christmas.
• I still have to pay for snowboard hire (£60), lessons (about £160) and lift pass (about £100) before we go on holiday in early February, in addition to recovering from paying for the trip itself.
• Because of getting paid early this month due to Christmas, it will be 5 and a half weeks until I get paid in January, meaning that next month is likely to be very hard and not a good month to be trying to pay off extra amounts, i.e. making up for what I spent this month on the ski trip.

But the good news is:

• This month’s pay cycle is shorter than usual because of Christmas, so I only have to make my current spending budget last me until 17th as opposed to 24th as usual, which would have been impossible.
• When I get paid on 17th December I will also be receiving a small Christmas bonus which should offset the fact that the following pay cycle will then be 5 and a half weeks long.
• My Onepoll account is back up to £20.60 and with the rate I am going at, I hope to get to the £40 payout again in early January.
• I have loads of food in due to the big online shop that I did with last month’s excess spending budget, so I only need to buy fresh stuff like milk between now and Christmas.
• Other than the weekend in London I don’t have too many plans that I can see costing much over the next few weeks. I am going home to my Mum’s for Christmas which means a few days of lying around doing (and therefore spending) nothing! I also have no plans yet for New Year and am hoping that I can convince my BF that a cosy evening in is the way forward!
• I have almost done my Christmas shopping – I think I will need to spend around another £40 which I am hoping to delay spending until after 17th so it will come out of next month’s spending budget instead of this month’s!

So a mixed picture, but I would always prefer to end with the positives!

Kepp

I'm sure that you will be able to pull it back.

You seem to struggle quite often with getting your budget to stretch far enough/your spends to last...have you thought about posting up an SOA to see if people could give you a hand with a few cut-backs that might help?

Cloudy456

That's so true but I don't think its anything to do with needing to cut my spending, its more that I always overestimate what I can pay off each month and then get disappointed when I don't achieve it! I think I just need to be more realistic about what I can live off each month. I think the only area where I can cut down any more is entertainment, but that's the whole issue of quality of life versus debt paying. I am going to make an effort to be more conservative with my estimates of what I can pay off and be more realistic when setting budgets as it feels really good when I achieve it like I did last month!

Had a NSD yesterday and another today and am hopeful of one tomorrow, so feeling quite good about that though!