Weekly Spend Challenge W/C 11th September 2010

pointypenguin

Hello everyone . Welcome to the weekly spend challenge. This challenge is open to anybody, no matter what financial place they are in.

On this thread please post an amount of money you wish to stay below within the week (Sunday to end of working day on Friday). This can be pennies or thousands it depends on the individual. Then next Saturday report back and pledge for the following week. Feel free to update this thread with daily spends if that keeps you on track. We colour code the results as below:

Green - within budget
Red - overbudget
Purple - zero spend
Yellow - made money over the week

This is a little bit of fun but for many it highlights the fact that maybe that magazine/chocolate bar isn't needed. Hopefully your spending habits can be changed forever.

Moozie was the founder of this challenge and here is a quote taken from her around last year


Originally Posted by Moozie
Good afternoon lovely DFWs Now for anyone looking in, please feel free to join - the more the merrier! Basically, decide on the amount you want to spend up to from Sunday until the end of the working day on Friday then pledge it here and off we go! The challenge is about incidental spending and not for stuff that should be budgeted elsewhere such as bills, groceries, debt repayment etc but you decide what to include at the end - this is about changing your habits and improving your recording of your spends more than anything else. Have a great week everyone and keep it low!!! Moozie x

Good luck everyone.

W/C 6th Sept Challengers / Pledges /Total Spent
Pointypenguin £20 / £16.30
Baileys Babe £10 / £0
pinkarsenalprincess £30
SazM030306 £20 / £16.06
natsing £5 / £5
Jodie1234 £20 / £25.50
sunshineyday £50 / £83.48
psychopathbabble £10
hedgesparrow £21 / £20.50

link to last week's challenge

W/C 11th Sept Challengers / Pledges /Total Spent
Pointypenguin £50
natsing £10
Jodie1234 £30
sunshineyday £50
SazM030306 £20
dottyanne £20
hedgesparrow £27
ms_london £23
Lilacpixie £100
cubrianmum £80
pinkarsenalprincess £30
Chasing The Dream £30
Baileys Babe £100
ferriswheeljunkie £10

pointypenguin

Evening all,

I made green last week. I am going for £50 this week as I am off to the theatre on Wednesday and suspect that also involves dinner.;)

Well done to hedgesparrow and sunshineyday for completing their first week. It is always the hardest one. Congrats to all the rest of the greens and good luck for next week to the reds.

I have updated the first post with results and pledges so far. Let me know the updates for the rest and I will put these up.

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.

SazM030306

I spent 50p on parking yesterday, so a nice GREEN total of £16.06

£20 again please PP xxx

(This is my 1000th post woo hoo! )

hedgesparrow

This is related to the challenge, bear with me!

I feel conflicted and crap. I have £54.04 left in my personal spending part of my budget. But after shopping around on various sites for car insurance the cheapest deal for my (15 year old) car is £272. This was a bit of a shock as my last car (over 20 years old) only cost about £160 to insure a year. I don't know whether it is that insurance has gone up or that this car is just a lot more expensive to insure (but I am only doing 3rd party fire and theft) and I really can't believe it is that stealable.

I have started saving up in a seperate account £90 a month towards car repairs, insurance and tax. But I started this two months ago so I only have £181 in the account. And the MOT is next month. :sad laugh:

It is my our wedding anniversary this month and we really wanted to go to a gig to celebrate. A band we both really like is coming to our local city. But the tickets are £23 each. And I can't decide whether we should buy them or not.

Part of me is thinking:

* This is the kind of gig you will never get to see again - this band is just going to get more famous and the tickets will not be getting cheaper. You will regret it if you don't see it.
* I am letting my husband down if I don't go - he has the money to see them (just about) and he would never go without me.
* You are still within the budget you made up - and you are in your overdraft anyway.
* You should stick to the budget and chalk this month up to experience. £23 isn't going to make a massive difference.
* You will only blow the money some other day if you don't spend a little - you can't crash diet.
* You haven't exactly wasted money this month - you bought two Christmas presents, two items of clothing in the charity shop, gave sponsership money and had a hot chocolate.
* You are on budget for fuel, groceries and you have spent £0 on your mobile.

And the other part of me thinks:

* Are you crazy. A gig like this is a luxury and you just do not have the money for luxuries. End of.
* You don't deserve a treat.
* If you go ahead as planned - you will only be chipping off £7 from your overdraft and your aim was for £100 a month!!
* You might end up spending more money on carparking , drinks etc at the gig.
* If your MOT costs more than £90 next month the budget will be stuffed then too.

So I can't decide and I can't decide what my personal spending should be. I need some help! I keep leaning one way and then the other. Sorry for the thread hijack.

dottyanne

Hi all I'm new to this thread bit not to mse though I need to get my but in gear so my max is £20 for the week

ms_london

hedgesparrow wrote: »

This is related to the challenge, bear with me!

I feel conflicted and crap. I have £54.04 left in my personal spending part of my budget. But after shopping around on various sites for car insurance the cheapest deal for my (15 year old) car is £272. This was a bit of a shock as my last car (over 20 years old) only cost about £160 to insure a year. I don't know whether it is that insurance has gone up or that this car is just a lot more expensive to insure (but I am only doing 3rd party fire and theft) and I really can't believe it is that stealable.

I have started saving up in a seperate account £90 a month towards car repairs, insurance and tax. But I started this two months ago so I only have £181 in the account. And the MOT is next month. :sad laugh:

It is my our wedding anniversary this month and we really wanted to go to a gig to celebrate. A band we both really like is coming to our local city. But the tickets are £23 each. And I can't decide whether we should buy them or not.

Part of me is thinking:

* This is the kind of gig you will never get to see again - this band is just going to get more famous and the tickets will not be getting cheaper. You will regret it if you don't see it.
* I am letting my husband down if I don't go - he has the money to see them (just about) and he would never go without me.
* You are still within the budget you made up - and you are in your overdraft anyway.
* You should stick to the budget and chalk this month up to experience. £23 isn't going to make a massive difference.
* You will only blow the money some other day if you don't spend a little - you can't crash diet.
* You haven't exactly wasted money this month - you bought two Christmas presents, two items of clothing in the charity shop, gave sponsership money and had a hot chocolate.
* You are on budget for fuel, groceries and you have spent £0 on your mobile.

And the other part of me thinks:

* Are you crazy. A gig like this is a luxury and you just do not have the money for luxuries. End of.
* You don't deserve a treat.
* If you go ahead as planned - you will only be chipping off £7 from your overdraft and your aim was for £100 a month!!
* You might end up spending more money on carparking , drinks etc at the gig.
* If your MOT costs more than £90 next month the budget will be stuffed then too.

So I can't decide and I can't decide what my personal spending should be. I need some help! I keep leaning one way and then the other. Sorry for the thread hijack.

To be honest, I would say, just go to the gig together and enjoy it - if you try and live on a budget to the extreme all of the time, you'll go mad. Life is about living too, perhaps next month you can cut back and recoup the extra £££ you may end up spending this month?

It sounds like you are making yourself miserable!

Can you ebay anything and use that £££ for the ticket? That way its kinda free

xx

psychopathbabble

Hedgesparrow, if it means that much to you then I'd go to the gig. Maybe I've got the wrong attitude (and probably would have a lot less debt!) but if you don't treat yourself every now and then, you will just end up being so depressed and miserable. Treat yourself every now and then.... it won't hurt. xxx Also, why not pay the payment-a-day thread a visit? They are a friendly bunch and keep up each others spirits when needed. You will have still paid a sum off your debt which is still very positive! (mine went up by about £900 over the summer but got it back down again now!).


It's only £46, it's not like you are blowing £2k on a holiday or something (like i did!).

hedgesparrow

Thanks an awful lot guys. You made me feel better. I can't get away from that voice in my head sometimes you know!

Put me down for £27 for the week - £23 of which will be a ticket for the gig! I feel excited now!

I like the ebay idea - off to look round house for things to sell!!

ms_london

hedgesparrow wrote: »

Thanks an awful lot guys. You made me feel better. I can't get away from that voice in my head sometimes you know!

Put me down for £27 for the week - £23 of which will be a ticket for the gig! I feel excited now!

I like the ebay idea - off to look round house for things to sell!!

Yaaaaay, I feel excited that you feel excited (I must get out more!). Honestly, £23 isn't that much, yes there might be a bit more expense on the night, but s** it!

And with ebay, its free listing weekend at the moment, and people really do buy anything on there (I've just sold some old benefit make up which I had used a bit of for £12, it had just been sitting there gathering dust!). Each to their own...

xx

ms_london

I guess I should be joining in on this thread??! My weekly budget for food and personal spends is £50! I do hate the fact that usually I spend all of that with nothing to show for it, I need to start leaving my card or purse at home!

xx

psychopathbabble

hedgesparrow wrote: »

Thanks an awful lot guys. You made me feel better. I can't get away from that voice in my head sometimes you know!

Put me down for £27 for the week - £23 of which will be a ticket for the gig! I feel excited now!

I like the ebay idea - off to look round house for things to sell!!

Awwww have a good time Hedgesparrow!! Can I ask who the band is? I'm always curious to see new music but there isn't much in the way of live gigs round here so I don't go very often now x