Cloudy's 'bring me some sunshine' diary!

Cloudy456

Thanks Herewego, I think we are already on the cheapest as I looked into it not long ago, also it turns out its not as bad as I first thought because the person in the call centre gave me a load of wrong info (grrrrr!) so we actually owe less than first thought....I guess after the winter we've had I shouldn't be surprised!

This week is shaping up well money wise, no more spending since I got my food on Monday. Today should be a NSD, and a friend I was meant to be seeing for dinner tomorrow has cancelled - even though we always go for voucher dinners, that will have saved me about a tenner! Got excited the other day as I thought I had about £20 more left in my monthly budget than I had thought but I forgot about a couple of things I had used my debit card for which then showed up on my statement and I definitely have only £90 ish for the rest of the month (until 25th). But at this rate that will be fine and come the 24th I'll update my signature with a shiny new total which I'm desperately hoping will come in under the 11k mark!!

Have a lovely day everyone, I'm off to work!

Choc-addict

Hey! Just read and subscribed to your diary - see you pop in on others so thought i'd take a nosey

It's so hard to start making the adjustments i.e. lunches to work and so on but they say if you do something for 21 days it becomes a habit, perhaps thats why I always fail as always starting a diet or exercise regime on a weekly basis after the prev week failed! :rotfl:

Wishing you lots of luck, i'm sure you'll hit that under 11k target soon enough!

Cloudy456

Thanks Choc-addict!

Well today didn't turn out to be a NSD after all - spent £14 on toiletries at lunchtime after realising I was out of a few things this morning. But I got 6 decent sized items for that, and made sure to buy things on offer. It showed me how much my mindset has changed though, I stood there for ages in the shop before going to the til, trying to work out if I could spend less somehow, I've started to feel major guilt over buying a few bits to that I won't smell!! So now my budget for the next 12 days until payday is looking a little shaky but fingers crossed no more unexpected spending will crop up and I'll be able to stay within it.

Tonight I've just put my (discounted!) veggie sausages in the oven to have with some veggies left over from the weekend. Then a night in on my own so no more spending. Might find a few new diaries to subscribe to, they are amazingly effective at keeping me motivated! Also going to scour my flat for anything I can stick on Ebay, think I've done everything I can but you never know....an extra £30 or so might just get me over that 11k mark!

Tomorrow might be out for lunch with work, hoping it doesn't happen so I can smugly have my 50p tin of soup in the office instead of spending about a tenner on a massive lunch so I feel sluggish all afternoon!!

Cloudy456

Just worked out my DFD....October 2012. Hmm, I refuse to accept that! I am determined to be debt free and saving before the end of 2011. Still, I guess if I recalculate it in 6 months or so hopefully it will have come forward a bit!

Herewego

The snowball is very addictive i know im there every month

andymc29

Good diary, will be reading regularly. I write a big list of things I can do that cost nothing or next to nothing to do. It's surprising how quickly you can fill in a whole page of stuff.
Lunches are the worst for spending money, what about making packed lunches? Also, with dinners, try cooking a big batch of something at the start of the week, tehn put the portions in bowls in the fridge. I cooked a big chilli at the start of this week and it's lasted me four days, I just cook some rice every night when I get in. Works out really cheap.

Woowoo

Hi Cloudy

Thought I would come check out your diary as you popped over to mine the other day!

Sounds like you have started making the changes you need to make to get debt free.

I always give myself a weekly spending allowance just for me after everything else is paid for and then challenge myself to spend as little as possible of it so I can pay the rest off my credit card. I currently give myself £10 a week but rarely even spend £5 of it. I have my whole budget done for the remainder of the year as well so I always accommodate for car tax etc when it's due.

I hate not being organised!

andymc29

just had a quick idea that might help you manage your spending.

pre-paid credit cards!!!

I'm getting one from O2, you basically transfer money to it once a month, or week, or what ever then you can only spend what's on the card, when you go out, you only take this card with you, so you can't access you main account. Only put on it what you've budgetted for social, food, whatever and that way you have to stick to it, cause your main cash card is at home!

Cloudy456

Thanks guys! Well we did go out for lunch but only a sandwich so only spent £3.50. Not so bad considering that I haven't bought lunch at work for a good couple of months. Spent a fiver on groceries tonight but will be fine now for the next couple of days and a few more dinners after that.

Work sucked today so I came home and poured myself a large G and T (free as I was given a bottle of gin recently ...roll on the weekend!! No plans yet, hoping it will be a cheap one as down to about £70 for the next week and a half now!

anonymoose_3

Ho Cloudy, I work in the middle of nowhere so I have no choice but to take pack up with me. Didn't stop me putting money in the vending machine though so now I don't take cash to work with me unless I know I will need it for something (normally the lottery bonus ball we do).

Good luck with your cheap weekend, maybe you & BF could go for a nice walk & picnic somewhere if the weather isn't too bad
xx