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Goals for week: 27 August

Last week's thread is here

Mine were:
  • Spending below the £100 mark. Aim for £90.
    -- £96.80. It's been a month since I started keeping a spending diary. The biggest category that needs cutting down is "pub" (more than £100/month). The £28 on coffee and £44 on lunches also need eliminating. This has been quite an eye-opener.
  • Make lunch at work* as many days as is practical, and certainly at least twice.
    -- Managed three days.
  • Bring alcohol intake down to 21 units.
    -- Nowhere near.

* = "Make lunch at work" is my new version of "take lunch to work". It's a similar principle: making a cheap meal from supermarket ingredients instead of buying expensive sandwiches etc, but I make it in the work kitchen because I'm too lazy to do so at home in the evening.

Next week:
  • Double check with Halifax that overdraft is interest-free for another year (their internal communication is pretty awful).
  • Double check that Halifax have closed credit card account. Wrote to them months ago. See sentence in brackets just above.
  • Sell another 20 CDs on Amazon marketplace before my pro-merchant subscription expires.
  • £100 maximum spending.
  • Two make lunch at work days (Tuesday and Wednesday).
  • Three no-alcohol days (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday).
  • Work out where the first £200 is coming from for my overdraft challenge (see below).
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Comments

  • saubryn
    saubryn Posts: 610 Forumite
    My goal for this week is to a)sort out my electric bill (you wouldn't believe the nightmare I've had trying to get an arrangement for that) and b)Sign off JSA and start working and claiming tax credits.
    DFW Nerd No. 140 :)
    Status as of 30/11/12
    [strike]Rent 2500 Council Tax 800 NlPower - 800[/strike][SIZE=-2]:j IF - 8000 :(British Gas - [strike]112[/strike] - 102 Lloyds - 1123
    Barclays - 306 Barclaycard 1,123 HSBC - 200 Capital 1- 400 Barclayloan - 4500[/SIZE]
  • After being encouraged by this board, my goal for this week is to pop a card up advertising my services as a babysitter to earn some extra pennies.

    I'm a 31 year old mum of 2 so very qualified lol. I figure I spend most evenings knitting in front of the telly, I may as well go & do it at someone elses house & get paid for it!
  • newleaf
    newleaf Posts: 3,132 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker PPI Party Pooper
    Hi all!
    Last week:

    No cash withdrawals - still got same £10 note in my purse for past 3 weeks! - Achieved! and that £10 note is still there!
    Packed lunch to work every day. - Achieved!
    5 No spend days. - Achieved!
    5 Alcohol free days. - Managed 6!
    Do something with the Cherry Plums just picked off my tree. - Achieved! (12 jars of delicious jam and a crumble)
    £40 shopping budget for Wednesday - :o Failed miserably by spending a ludicrous £78 something at Morrisons. In my defence, a lot of it was too good to miss bargains - now in freezer - and dozens of new plastic storage containers needed after my horrid moth infestation.

    So, This weeks goals will be:

    5 No Spenders.
    5 Alcohol Free days.
    0 Cash withdrawals.
    Take packed lunch to work every day.
    Do something with the Greengages off my tree.
    Make my Christmas cake.
    Continue to wage war on Indian Meal Moths and and their ghastly grubs


    Good luck everybody! :)
    Official DFW Nerd No 096 - Proud to have dealt with my debt!
  • Last week's:

    1. Do the filing Did some of it yesterday - MUST finish today!
    2. Do the expense claim Aaaaghh - NO NO NO - why can't I get my act together for this one??!
    3. Two spend free days Only managed one :(
    4. Keep up the lunches 4 out of 5
    5. List another 5 things on eBay Done - but so little is selling :(
    6. Get into exercise routine! Sort of - have started doing a bit on the exercise machine!
    7. Weekly shop for £30 £36 - but I bought an extra bag of dog food for £8.98 as it has extra free and will last - so in fact the planned shop was only £25

    This week:
    1. Do the damn expense form!
    2. 2 spend free days
    3. Lunch to work every day
    4. Do at least 2 matched bets through to completion
    5. Another £30 shop
    Highest Debt (July 06): £55117.79 Debt now: £52895.44 Debt Free Date: June 2010
  • newleaf
    newleaf Posts: 3,132 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker PPI Party Pooper
    carriel wrote:
    After being encouraged by this board, my goal for this week is to pop a card up advertising my services as a babysitter to earn some extra pennies.

    I'm a 31 year old mum of 2 so very qualified lol. I figure I spend most evenings knitting in front of the telly, I may as well go & do it at someone elses house & get paid for it!

    Carrie, have you ever considered knitting for other people to earn extra money?
    You could advertise on the same card - Handknitting Service, 'you buy the wool, I'll knit the jumper', price by agreement depending on complexity of pattern. I know that many people would happily pay someone to knit them a nice jummy!
    Official DFW Nerd No 096 - Proud to have dealt with my debt!
  • I'm in again this week.... this was what I had to do last week.....

    * open up a savings account for christmas/holiday/emergencies ---DONE
    * aim for less than £10 spend off my debit card --- yes but things went pear-shaped due to cheques......
    * get a baking sheet and a couple of tins (for christmas baking) --- nope, no time...or money :)
    * take the dog to the park (mile there, mile back) at least three times --- done - well, twice :)
    * get camera developed and items listed on eBay (10 items) --- nope, no time
    * finish cross stitch project ready for Christmas stitching --- yep, finished!!!
    * finish weeding garden (massive) before break on Friday --- nope, couldn't be ar$ed :)


    I'm really annoyed. We were going to be OK this month, but we had to pay out the cash I was hoarding to the garage for the car, so the vet bill had to be paid by cheque, and another cheque is on it's way out via my boss......argh! Still only took £10 in cash :)

    My goals this week are:

    * get camera developed and stuff up on eBay
    * finish at least one Christmas present picture and start my round robin
    * get on with weeding garden (when back from break)
    * no spending until Wednesday
    * get OH to apply for at least two jobs (he applied for 2 on Thursday)



    not many this week
    DFW Nerd no 239.....Last Personal Debt paid off Nov 2012!
    Donated 50 pints so far.... gold badge got 17/11/13! Blood Group O+
    mummy to 3 cats, 2 budgies and a cockatiel
  • cathybird
    cathybird Posts: 15,090 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    My goals last week were:
    1. At least 4 no spend days DONE!!!!!:beer: :beer: :beer:

    2. Send charges claim to Barclays No, but only because the issue of what interest I can charge them turned out to be more complex than I thought and, annoyingly, the spreadsheets I can use to work it out with don't function on my home computer. But I did make a concerted effort to work it out, went through the statements, added the charges up, got the letter written, then realised the interest was tricky ... it's ready to be sent Tuesday, so this week

    3. Calculate claim for Citicard & Citibank & send that NOPE. Forgot I said I'd do this actually

    4. Sort the fridge - there's a strange inexplicable smell going on, no food gone off in there that I can see ... just a wierd fridge smell DONE (though whether I've entirely got rid of the smell is another thing ...

    Goals for this week:
    1. Four more no-spend days
    2. Sort Citibank, Citicard & Barclays
    3. Three no-alcohol days
    4. Set up a grocery book to keep track of what things cost at which store
    5. Finish working out what each of my household appliances cost on an hourly basis (didn't realise my telly cost less than a normal lightbulb!! (it's 48W). But my kettle uses 200 times as much electricity as that!! :eek:
    6. Actually re-read my goals during the week so I remember what they are
  • Zammo
    Zammo Posts: 724 Forumite
    My goal this week is to try and get out of bed in time to watch the start of Trisha instead of just catching the last 5 minutes. LOL.
  • Gemmzie
    Gemmzie Posts: 14,876 Forumite
    Last Week...
    1. See above!!!!! Damn that coursework, gotta do it this week- go back next Thur :eek:
    2. No spending until Friday bar parking/lunch Mon Yes! Get iinnnnnnn :j :T
    3. Sort bedroom Partly, but it's still half-bedroom, half-tip
    4. Print and send first set of bank letters to re-claim charges Got them, need to send - can do this week because parents are home
    5. Fill in passport form ready to take in Friday and IB claim form But in my defense, I was really sick Friday so spent the day in a blanket _pale_ :(

    Parents are on holiday this week, so treating it as semi-holiday

    So, this week
    1. Don't overspend, £40 for the month is limit
    2. No spending frivolously on clothes (apart from the skirt I'm looking for)
    3. Chase work for owed pay
    4. Do at least one task from last week which wasn't completed
    No longer using this account for new posts from 2013
  • judi24
    judi24 Posts: 2,272 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Goals for last week-

    1. Open a new bank account so I can start a claim for bank charges. (Done OH opened an A&L Account through quidco so made 50 pounds I opened an acount with SMILE and hope to get 12 free bottles of wine before christmas)
    2. Make a signature for this site (not very good but done!)
    3. Reduce grocery shop (used ASDA online came to 60.60 alot less than before)
    4. Try to be nice to the kids and OH (feel less stressed cos i'm taking charge of our debt problem) (Don't know - you'd have to ask them!)
    5. Pass exam on thurs!!! (results in 2 weeks!)
    6. Have at least 2 no spend days 9shouln't be hard - need to stay at home to study for exam) (done)
    7. Write a Christmas plan (this will have to wait till I have finnished my disertation)


    Goals for this week:

    1. Sort out Microsoft money - had it for years but never used it
    2. Get new job - interview Thurs
    3. Finish disertation
    4. Have at least 3 no spend days
    5. Keep grocery shopping down
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