Cloudy's 'bring me some sunshine' diary!

Cloudy456

Well I didn't get to the bank to pay my cheque in but I'll do it tomorrow. I spent a total of £7.74 today on toiletries - 3 items, all of which I chose because they were on offer :-) and food my lunch today, dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow... so not too bad. I'm feeling in quite a good mood for a Monday evening! I'm feeling quite positive and hopeful about this month as I've really got back into my stride and am feeling super motivated again after a bit of a lull last month. I think maybe the overdraft losing its interest free rate gave me the kick I needed and I'm back in the debt busting game! Still no news on my pay review, I just want to know now so I can make my plans for paying stuff off over the rest of the year. At the moment there's a bit of a question mark over it as I don't know if I will be able to pay off any more than I am now. So I guess I'll keep working on the assumption of being able to pay off around £300 per month at a push, and anything else is a bonus. Except this month, where I am aiming for £200 and will be amazed if I make even that as its going to be a very pricey month!!

Cloudy456

Good day today spending-wise, spent £1.35 on a box of cereal and that was it :-)

Still haven't paid the cheque in but will try to tomorrow. I'm doing ok budget-wise this month but its going to be sooo tight that I feel like I need to be constantly on top of it, as soon as it starts to slip I would lose motivation a bit like last month. But so far so good. I've made lunch tonight for tomorrow and Friday, and I don't anticipate anything spending much until the weekend now.

Oh and I got told I'm being informed about my pay review a week on Friday - but I'm on leave until the following Tuesday so it seems 13th is D Day on that front!

Cloudy456

Quick Sunday night update - not a great weekend spending-wise, the budget for this month is already disappearing a lot faster than I'd like! Spent £63 on a haircut and colour yesterday which needed doing really badly as I'd gone 3 months between cuts. I go to a trainee place, and needed it done before the wedding in a couple of weeks but ouch, £63!! I am going to try home dyes and maybe just get my highlights done every 6 months or something, I can't afford to spend like that every 2-3 months!! I bought my friend's 30th present for £20 in the end and only spent £13 on her birthday night out by pre-drinking and not getting taxis, so I limited what I could whilst having a fab weekend. I have £13 in cash in my purse which I am hoping to last through to Wednesday when I go to a 4 day festival, for which I have a set budget already of £200 for food, drink and travel. Unfortunately, that leaves me with about £25 for the last 10 days of the month when I get back!! Hopefully I will have some left over from the festival budget to help me out...

Cloudy456

Not a great start to the week really - spent £17 on petrol money for my friend that I owed her and also bought my lunch - £3.99 for a cheese and ham baguette! I was outraged!!! It was at the station, and my own stupid fault for not being more organised, but was not impressed!

Its not looking good budget-wise this month, I don't see myself clearing anything much this month. I need a way to bring in more cash, the survey sites just aren't cutting it!

Cloudy456

Just watched the money programme on BBC2 with Martin on, its given me a bit of a kick and made me realise how many people are out of work - my salary may not be great but at least I have one and its enough that I can live pretty well and pay my debts (albeit VERY slowly!)

This month I have basically resigned myself to not paying off anything, but if I can avoid adding to my total I will be satisfied, draw a line under the manically busy last couple of months and settle back into hardcore debt paying after 25th July when I next get paid. In the meantime, I'm doing surveys and watching the pennies as best I can. Been packing tonight for weekend festival, very excited but keep thinking in the back of my mind that I hope the spending stays manageable. I went and bought cereal bars to have for breakfast each day to avoid buying festival food, and I'll just try not to drink too much. Other than that, I've just got to go with it and enjoy it as its basically my only summer holiday this year!

Cloudy456

Well I'm back from my 4 days away, and its not looking good money-wise. Had an amazing time but the cash kept on flowing and now I know for sure this month is totally shot, my overall total will actually have increased. I went and spent a tenner tonight on food which should last me most of the week but I have 10 days to get through before payday. Feeling gutted, demoralised and am scared to check my bank balance. I knew this month would be hard and that I can really pull my socks up again from next month onwards, but am seriously failing at the moment.

Cloudy456

Well...big day one way and another! Got up the courage to check my bank account and was relieved to see I hadn't gone over the overdraft limit, I have £40 left until that happens. So along with the £20 I am owed from work and a couple of quid of loose change in my purse, I reckon I have just over £60 to last me until payday which is on 25th, 12 days away eek! I have enough food in for the next few days and am expecting a £10 Tesco voucher in the post any day now from one of my survey sites, which should help with food next week. Can I do it...?! Monster challenge but I'll try my best. Although I worked out that if I want to break even this month, i.e. not add to my debt, I need to make it more like £40 which I just don't think will be possible. Hmm. This has been the most expensive month of my life one way and another, so I will actually consider it quite an achievement if I get through it without adding anything, and will just write it off as a one off and get back on the serious debt busting next month. But it makes me wonder how I ever managed to overspend so much in the past given how much I've spent/done this month and still (hopefully!) won't really add to my debts. But that is the eternal question - just how did I get here?!

Anyway, in other news I finally heard about my pay review - I got a rise of £800 a year. Not great, I will be about £37 a month better off after tax etc, and I was hoping for at least £100 more. But I know lots of people are worse off and it is because the company isn't doing well - I actually got more than most people. But its made up my mind about job hunting so I've started in earnest and have applied for my first job tonight which would be a 6 grand payrise although bigger commute/travel expenses. But just going to see whats out there and what I can get an interview for. Although I should be feeling a bit gutted I actually don't, I'm just relieved to know my position as I've been waiting so long to hear, and now I know I can make plans and look for something else having made a fully informed decision. So from next payday I should be taking home about £1300 per month instead of £1260. Every little helps!

Ooh and I had a NSD today, yay! Going to see how many I can achieve this week as I'm feeling so motivated. If I could get to Friday without spending anything I would be so proud of myself!

Cloudy456

Been a bit rubbish on updating this lately - been very busy but not fallen off the wagon or anything! I'm now 2 days off payday and look set to make it without having added to my debts this month. That sounds rubbish, as I'm meant to me reducing them, but I've had possibly the busiest and most expensive month of my life!! So I am quite impressed to have lived off my take home salary and nothing added to credit!

But next month....it all gets going again with a vengeance! I'm aiming for my best ever reduction of £400 by this time next month. It will be hard but is in theory possible, given that I don't have much planned like the weekends away and stuff that have been happening lately. Am so fed up of my very slow progress that I feel I need to set myself a mini-challenge like that to make myself really kick start things.

Cloudy456

Quick update - got paid yesterday (woohoo) and I've done all my calculations of what I need to pay off to reduce my overall balance by £400 this month. So I will be making those payments, then living of a max of £350 for all my spending until 25th August when I next get paid. My tactic this month is to take £60 cash out of the bank each week and aim to live off this without using my debit card at all. I find that spending cash feels much more like really spending than tapping in a pin number! So anyway today I went and got a few bits of food and toiletries so I won't need to spend much in the week. I'm off to the cinema tonight and should have a cheap day tomorrow, so this week is looking good for sticking to budget. If I can do so for the whole month, I will have an extra £100 or so to pay to debts at the end of the month, but the odds of paying off £500 are teeny given that the most I've ever paid off in one month is £300!

I really really feel like I need a cracking month to get going again as I feel I've made no progress lately. Time is ticking on and I want to get somewhere! So if I can have two great months in a row and get under than 10k barrier, that would be just what I need. I'm also back to tracking all my spending in a spending diary as I find that really helps me a lot.

Nichelette

I know what you mean about the cash thing, I spent a shocking £77 on clothes today which went on my card. I would really have struggled to part with that much cash. I'd concentrate on how good it will feel in a month when you've been able to knock that much off your debt when you want to spend on something, it's a lot for one month .