Oct ‘06 PMS Challenge

kethry

i'll give this a go.. I'm trying to save as much money as possible for christmas at the moment.. its difficult because i do need to spend *some* money on christmas now - buying things to make pressies, for example, so i'm not run off my feet before xmas - so i don't really have any idea how much i've "saved" towards xmas cos i've not taken that expenditure into account.

i've got a big coffee cup sat on the shelf above me which i'm dumping 2ps and 1ps into after i've been out, but the PMS challenge looks like a good idea, so i'm gonna do that with my xmas money, i think.

I've already got 16 quid saved in the bank for xmas so i'll start on Wednesday 11th October when i next get paid (I know its half way through the month but.. i'll try!) I also get paid (benefits) every 2 weeks so that affects my finances quite a lot.

thanks - and wish me luck!

keth
xx

Queenie

Banner month so far!!! :j

Rebate on mobile contract: £60 (Actual)
New Mobile phone: £200 (Virtual)
Switching Plans: £28 per month saving (Actual)
Petrol (Tesco Voucher): £1.35 (A)
Multibuys: £4.58 (A)
Reduced Goods: £13.16 (A)
Tesco Till Voucher: £6 (A)

Actual Total: £113.09
Virtual Total: £200.00
Grand Total: £300.09 :j :j

Queenie

:hello: Welcome kethry and BusyGirl

EagerLearner: One way to do it is on paper (or in your case, computer as that is your forte) . You allocate X amount to certain expenditure then you have a limit of how much you have budgeted for that particular expense. Keep a track of how much you actually spend and the difference is what you have saved (or, heaven forbid, over spent ) At the end of the month, you transfer the total amount over from your J/A to you S/A.

I have set a limit for every expense I can think of including annual bills, quarterly bills, monthly, weekly. Those are my limits.
In some instances I have to guestimate ie: Christmas/clothing/car repairs but none the less, I still have an amount allocated. If my budget were say, £10 on a gift for someone and I only spend £8 because of some deal/bargain/sale, then in my records, I will record that £2 actual saving. If I have no budget/amount allocated and buy something for £8 then clearly, I have *overspent* because I haven't budgeted for it in the first instance - or, I've had to find that £8 from another pot. In which case, I would record that £2 saving as a "Virtual" saving. In other words, I've made a saving by choosing wisely, I've bought a £10 item for £8 but as I didn't have a budget for it, it can't be *actual* cash - the £8 in reality has to come from some other pot.
Does that help?

BusyGirl - :T :T :T Congratulations on your win :T :T :T

kethry - Best of luck with your crafting!

tryhard_2

Queenie
what is the tesco till voucher? BTW congrats on your PMs saving.

kethry

Thank you Queenie!

the christmas PMS challenge is going quite well - got £39 in the bank, and 58p in my coffee cup (of 1ps, 2ps and 5ps). Also spent £31.76 on xmas pressies and xmas food - almost half was on the ingredients for mincemeat, although some of that i'm making for mum and i'll get some money towards the ingredients for that.

So i'm feeling all pleased with myself - and my xmas pressie stash is slowly but surely getting bigger, more towards completion. Still got a lot to make tho'!!

will update signature after this.

YAY me.. !! :T :T Roll on the next 2 week challenge!

keth
xx

Queenie

tryhard wrote:

Queenie
what is the tesco till voucher? BTW congrats on your PMs saving.

They are the smaller receipts you are sometimes given at the till along with your receipt. Sometimes it's for money off petrol (see scuzz's post re: 5p off a litre), sometimes for money, as in my own and sometimes for extra points. There is a thread about them in the Discount Codes n Vouchers Forum but they call them "till spits" :laugh: Here's a thread about them Till-spit vouchers ... worth keeping an eye out for.

:T :T Keep up the good work, Keth :T :T Will you be making some mini jars of mincemeat to give as gifts too? :drool: HM mincemeat would be a lovely treat/gift for some!

Nothing to report in Queenie Land; no spending = no savings :laugh: Optimistic for the next couple of weeks though

tryhard_2

thank you Queenie
I shall have a look at that thread.

kethry

Queenie wrote:

:T :T Keep up the good work, Keth :T :T Will you be making some mini jars of mincemeat to give as gifts too? :drool: HM mincemeat would be a lovely treat/gift for some!

nope, mostly because the only people i could give it to is my mum and my nan - and i think nan doesn't make her own mince pies any more, my aunt does it these days, and i know she makes her own.

Also, i did the food-as-presents thing before christmas last year - christmas chutney, green tomato chutney (using tomatos i'd grown) and quince mincemeat, as well as others and i found that because i was cooking so much that needed to be eaten within the use by date, the week before christmas was *incredibly* stressful - not helped by my mother calling christmas eve to say that she, dad and gran might not be coming up boxing day.. :eek: :mad: in the end up they did come but at the time, the thought of being left with tons of food for presents that i'd worked so hard to create was enough to trigger a panic attack - and i don't handle that kind of stress at all well.

So this year, with the exception of some home made bread for mom (which is a tradition i've inherited from my Grandfather who used to make bread for the family, they regard home made bread as a real treat) i'm just not giving food as presents, or at least, not home made food, just to avoid that level of stress reoccuring this year.

keth
xx

EagerLearner

Thanks Queenie for clarifying - I am doing this already in a way on the Grocery Challenge Thread - I saved £65 last month as a) there was a tiny phone bill compared to the £30 I had allocated and b) I skimmed shopping money from the account bit by bit = £65. Then spent this on well-deserved wine £45 for 18 bottles (got £25 off due to a thread here on MSE). This means they were £2.50 a bottle rather than £4 a bottle we usually spend. I put the £20 towards the B&B cost of a weekend away.

I now will try and spend as little as poss on grocery so I can 'skim' some more and report back with news...

Will have to re-look at the budgeting as I am building up a good idea of my Actual yearly spend with the spreadsheet (below) - then each category spend for the year I split into 12 to find out what my average monthly spend is. I will then know what my *Real* spend on clothes, make-up, trips etc is and I will then be able to properly budget monthly for 2007 and save more money.

For now the joint account will do the PIN Challange - I'll see how it goes!

How are you doing with the advanced version of the budgeting spreadsheet by the way?

squeaky

Hi everyone

Just a reminder that I'll be unsticking this thread some time late today - by which time it'll be the featured challenge in our Monthly Challenges sticky.

You can find the challenges via the link in my signature any time you see it or...

..you can use the Monthly Challenges link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-