Cloudy's 'bring me some sunshine' diary!

clippy_girl

hi, think its a really good idea to give yourself a budget each week in cash. i find it really does help to stop me spending so much as it feels more real. with my budget i made it quite realistic so i could still have a treat each week like a cheap night out or a meal but less than what i spent before.

i then like to try and see how much i can have left over at the end of the week. any i have left over i put in a box to keep for one off things like presents or if i go away for a weekend as those are things that i cant afford to do on my normal budget and if i had to pay for them as they came up it would eat into my money for paying debt.

this month i have started trying to guess how much i need and only take that out each week. this has not been working well as i always need more and seem to spend more than i used to on my normal budget. so this week i have returned to my normal budget

i am going to start a spending diary as i have not done that before and think it will help. i know i spend loads on junk snacks at the tesco at the top of my road. should bulk buy at supermarket to make it cheaper but i kid myself that i will be good and not eat junk!

have you thought of mystery shopping to earn more? there is a thread on here which is good. wont make you a million but can make an extra bit or at least have a few free meals out so you dont need to spend your own money on that. a good one to try if you like surveys is https://www.edigitalresearch.com/index/becomeems

they are abit long winded but pay at least £3.50 each and you can get a cheque when you get to £15

corrig24

well done cloudy, keep it up.

Cloudy456

Thanks so much for the encouragement guys, and I will def check out the survey link - I'm becoming a bit of a fan and am signed up with 3 different sites so far! And I have been thinking about doing mystery shopping for a while - will have to look into that one too.

I was really annoyed yesterday as I realised I had left £5 change in one of those supermarket self service machines - that's nearly 10% of my weekly budget! Kicked myself for ages about it but its a lesson learnt. Its so silly how the coins come out in one place and the notes in another!!! Anyway, I have about £13 left to last me until the end of Thursday now. I have pretty much all the food I need, just need to spend about £2 probably then I'm set for all my meals. I made a cake on Saturday which I was quite proud of, so I'll be munching a slice of that this afternoon. I'm keeping the other tenner or so to spend on Wednesday night when I will probably see my boyfriend, maybe see a film on Orange Wednesday. So fingers crossed, I am still on track to stick to week one's budget!

Cloudy456

Just updated my signature as I forgot to do it the other day - it now reflects the extra £6 I paid off last month!! Hopefully it will be down to ten thousand four hundred and something by the 25th of this month, a little more positive progress!

I'm still within the £60 budget for this week, with £10 left to last me tomorrow and Thursday. I've made lunch for tomorrow, so shouldn't spend anything in the day, but I'll probably end up spending the tenner in the evening so I need to make sure I have enough food for Thursday lunchtime. Then I'm away for the rest of the weekend for the wedding so will be eating at my Mum's house where I'm staying. Hopefully the weekend won't cost me much as the accommodation was paid for in the wedding package as I'm a bridesmaid. I'm paying £18 to get my nails done but that's a real treat - I was booked in for toenails too at the same price but as my dress is floor length I decided it was a waste of money and I can do them well enough myself - the old me would have never done that! So anyway, apart from that and some petrol money for my BF who is driving us there and back, I shouldn't spend much. I'm due to receive a £10 voucher for Tesco for surveys I've done any day now, so hopefully I will use that for food from Monday-Thursday next week so if I spend my whole £60 budget at the weekend it shouldn't matter too much.

Oh and I'm still job hunting - waiting to hear if I got an interview for the one I applied for so far, its very slim pickings out there at the moment but fingers crossed some more will crop up soon!

Cloudy456

Wow....what a weekend! Time for a quick update before I hit the hay for an early night! The wedding was AMAZING! So tired and a bit fuzzy-headed today though :-)

So the good news - I spent £18 on getting my nails done but no other cash on drinks or anything. The only other expense of the weekend was....(the bad news!) £100 on the hotel room!! I thought it was paid for in the wedding package but even immediate family and the bridal party had to pay for our rooms. So that will make a big dent in this month's totals but I almost don't mind really because it was so amazing, the place was lovely and I didn't even buy a drink all night. I insisted on paying for it all even though my BF was with me as he doesn't have much money either, he did all the driving so spent a lot on petrol and also bought me a few drinks. So, in terms of where that leaves me for the rest of the month:

I have £38 ish left from this week's budget to last me until Friday. Excluding the £100 hotel room of course! I am hoping not to need to spend all that as I don't have much planned this week and also I have a £10 Tesco voucher from doing online surveys that should buy most of the food I need for the week. So I'm hoping to have about £20 left out of that. We'll see!

Obviously the £100 will knock into the total I had hoped to pay off this month, but if I can still hit £350 that will be good and seems quite realistic if I can keep being strict and have no more unexpected expenses!

Right, I'm off for a much-needed early night! Bring on a good week!

Cloudy456

Great start to the week money-wise - I went to Tesco and bought all the food I need for the week for £9.68 which means I have a grand 32p left on my Tesco giftcard and didn't spend a penny. Almost makes it worth filling out all those ****** surveys!!

Still sooo tired from the weekend so that's it for today :-)

Herewego

I know what you mean about the surveys I have been collecting vouchers all year and now have £70 of M & S I just love their food so when I finally get off my diet Im going for a big shop there.
Keep up with the surveys as they say "every little helps"
Glad you had a good weekend we all need to let our hair down now and again just keep going with your budget and once your under 10k it should fly down

Cloudy456

Thanks, that's what I'm hoping for - it just seems right now that I'm treading water above that illusive 10k barrier and just can't crack it!!

But another good day, nothing spent at all again :-) Don't want to speak too soon but this month is shaping up pretty well so far, even despite the unexpected £100 hotel bill. Long may it continue!

My loan repayment for this month has just gone out of my account taking the balance down to £182.55 - the last payment for this amount will be made in one month's time then the first of my 5 separate debts will be cleared! Can't wait! And around the same time I am hoping to have my £750 credit card cleared as the interest kicks in the following month (its currently 0%) I think I'll feel better once I am able to actually start closing down accounts and making fewer but larger payments instead of 5 smaller ones each month.

Herewego

I love closing the accounts its such a great feeling have closed 5 in total so far although all my accounts now have high balances hoping to close the next one for xmas would be a nice present for me.

Cloudy456

Wow, that's pretty good going! I think it helps mentally to have fewer debts even if they are higher amounts - although I know I should focus on them in order of interest rates, I still get tempted to clear them in size order so I can close things down sooner!

Today I spent £25 on a cookery class for next week - bit of a treat but I had that much left in my £60 budget for the week so why not! As long as I don't spend more than about £12 by the end of tomorrow (which is the end of the week, I budget from Friday to Thursday) I will have made it through a second week sticking to my budget for day to day expenses, yay!