Walking the walk...

E2006

As the title of the diary suggests, its time to stop saying 'when' and time to start making sure the changes happen. Im sick of sitting back, dreaming of being debt free but not putting the work in to make that the case. The point is (for the time being anyway) DH and I earn enough to survive on every month and make big changes to our debt, but we dont. We have a budget but never stick to it. We live way beyond our means and continue to use CC's despite knowing that we cannot keep adding to the debt. Its out of control now and hard to reign it in, but Ive been so inspired by the diaries I have read on here that I want to do this now!

We originally tried saving as much as possible with the aim of paying large lump sums off the debts, but this didnt work - we continued to dip into the 'savings' money and the payments to the cards remaining fairly low. We then somehow slipped back into old habits, and actually increased the debt! Que major LBM, and since then Ive became addicted to debt busting by whatever means. My DF date is end of 2012, but I want this sooner.

Emma x

Mags30

Hi Emma and welcome to MSE. I tend to have a bit of a spending habit too but I've improved. What really helps is reading other diaries on here written by people who seem to spend almost nothing yet have a better quality of life than us shopaholic types.

E2006

Ah thankyou for the welcome. Im definately all for living more frugally - just need to get tips and practice (and get DH on board!).

Emma xx

E2006

Ive checked my bank account. At the minute I have £60 in there. I have another £110 to go in there in the next couple of weeks, but three DD's to come out totalling £112, and a £5 cahrge, so I should have an extra £53 in there if I dont use any more. I will wait until the day before payday to transfer that over just in case.

I also have £70.70 in my purse from this weeks budget (I have £130 per week, withdrawn on a Friday for the weeks food shopping and petrol - any extra goes towards bits and peices when we are out and about etc). The shopping only came to £33 this week as I had loads in the freezer and jars of pasta etc in the cupboard so only needed fresh. I will need about £10 of that for petrol, and DH will need £5 ish for his game of football on Wednesday night. Im hoping to keep as much as that as possible, then on Friday will pay whatever's left over into the savings account - and will do this everyweek to add to the savings as much as possible.

I have also scraped 22p in loose change around the house today (DH is a terror for leaving piles of copper in random places although we have a jar!). I usually ignore it, or give it to my son just to play with, but after reading more diaries on here, im going to put every penny I find/receive into my jar, as well as making DH empty his pockets into it each night, then take it to the bank each month and pay it into the savings account - I wouldnt be supprised if we manage to pull together about a tenner a month that way! As they say, every little helps!

Emma xx

(PS, is there any easy way to find my diary when I log on rather than searching through them all for it?0

elfen

Welcome to your new diary. If tyou go up to the top there should be a bit called "thread tools" If you click on this it should come up with subscribe to this thread, click that and ill ask you to confirm, click that and its done.

E2006

elfen wrote: »

Welcome to your new diary. If tyou go up to the top there should be a bit called "thread tools" If you click on this it should come up with subscribe to this thread, click that and ill ask you to confirm, click that and its done.

Ah thankyou! That saves me searching for it every time.

I have had to spend some of the left over budget money I had in my purse - completely forgot it was DH's dads birthday tomorrow (and typical bloke forgot to remind me). I popped out and bought a pressie yesterday evening - spent 23.25 of my £70.70. I have also had to buy some milk today. So I have £46.40 left. DH will need £5 for his footie tonight. I also need some petrol so if I put in £6, I should have £35.40 left over from this weeks money. Its a shame to have had to spend some, but on the plus side, presents would usually be bought from my savings money - so I havent had to dip into that.

Think we might have also won £10 on the lottery so if so, that will go into the savings too - so potentially, I could up the savings to £796 by the end of this week

Yesterday I redemed some points I had accrued through my MBNA CC - and have £25 of sainsbury's vouchers on their way to me. I will use them to buy some bits towards christmas pressies. I already have a few bits that Ive managed to get in sales during the year, and have some advantage card points that I will use too - im hoping to do Christmas as inexspensively as possible this year.

Emma xx

E2006

Well, I had to spend more than I hoped of the left over budget money - I needed more food during the week, which explains why I had so much left over! I ended the week with about £14 extra, £10 went in to the savings acc and the coins went into the coin jar to be deposited at the end of the month.

Took out this weeks budget money and have already made a dent in it! DH has gone off to the footie, so took £20. I have been swimming with my son, that cost £12:eek: because I needed some new armbands, then I bought him an icecream afterwards (another £3). We're out at a family do tonight - it will be a free night other than the taxi home, but ive been quoted £10 so thats not too bad for a night out.

I still have to go shopping, but am doing a freezer/storecupboard week so hopefully it shouldnt be too expensive. I had in the following:-
2x garlic chicken breasts
2x chicken breasts
large bag of king prawns
2x stirfry sauces
2x jars of pasta sauce

So this week we're having pasta twice - just need one bag of fresh pasta which will do two meals. garlic chicken, and normal chicken with salad and coleslaw - so need some salad bits and a small tub of coleslaw. One night will be jacket pots, the remaining salad and coleslaw (already havr the pots in the fridge) Last meal will be a king prawn stirfry, so just need a stirfry pack. Tea tonight is free so that takes me up to next Saturday.

The only things I have left to buy are for our lunches for work - tbh I find this the most expensive, by the time I buy fresh meat, bread, fruit etc etc - although I know its no where near what we would spend if we were buying lunches everyday.

Hopefully I will have a little money left over at the end of this week too, that will go into the savings account.

Emma xx

E2006

Morning,

Why do the weekend's end so quickly?! I feel like im constantly working at the minute.

DH has gone off to work with my purse in his car:mad:. Im working away from the office today and need money to pay for parking. I will have to use his card (which is left at home) to take money out of the cashpoint, but that means withdrawing a tenner! I will have to make sure I put whats left over, along with some money from my purse back into the account tomorrow. At one time I would have just spent it for the sake of it being in my purse.

In terms of this weeks budget - we have came in :T (although there's nothing left for the rest of the week so we will both have to have 4 NSD's (although DH will be spending when he goes to footie on Wednesday but he already has that money). So from the budget thats for food and petrol (and usually gets used up and more) I managed to get both of our weeks petrol, weeks food (including lunches for work), DH's £6 footie money. I also managed to take from it DH's money for going to the football on Saturday (and he gave me change :shocked:) and pay for the taxi on Saturday night. I have about £1.90 left, but that will go towards my parking today then thats it all gone.

I know I dont have any extra to go into savings this week, but its a major achievement just to be able to stick to budget and not have to touch any savings money - and more importantly CC's! (We usually blitz the budget and then take money from the savings until eventually its all gone and then use the CC's). The thing is, with being just a bit more careful, shopping around for food etc, we have managed it easily - we haven't even been too strict on ourselves - DH bought his usual lottery tickets (we can all dream) and Sunday newspapers, and we managed to buy some popocorn and crisps to pick at when watching a DVD we already had last night.

Ah well, off to work now...

Emma

E2006

Well yesterday wasn't a NSD as planned - my heel came off my shoe during work, so I had to nip to the cobblers to get it repaired - cost £3.20. Not too bad but I only bought them a couple of months ago :mad:

I need to try to have a NSD today, and manage the rest of the week.

I have received the Sainsbury's vouchers I had redeemed. I have also ordered a lovely jumper for DH in the next sale to go towards his Christmas pressies - it was half price so a bargain! I have two full presents now for Christmas and 2 other pressies that I only need to add something small to like a bottle of wine (and for that I will get 3 for £12 in Sainsbury's (if they do that there)) with the vouchers. Im goig to use my advantage cards points to get some smellies from boots too to go towards another pressie. Im determined to spend as little of my savings as possible, and I hope to pay of the first cc in January after putting more money into the savings in Oct, Nov and Dec 10.

Ah well, off to work again...

E2006

Ive done a bit of spending this weekend! My savings account is £160 lighter. I hate spending money from it - but as I explained earlier in this diary, my savings will also need tio be used for Christmas, birthdays, and other extra bits needed - the plan is to put as much in there as possible through the month, spend as little as possible and end the month with a good amount in savings. Eventually when a good sum is built up a lump sum will be paid off one of the debts. The savings payments will be large over payments, because im currently paying over the minimum payment anyway on the cc's.

I have £120 to last me until payday (next week). I have enough food for this week, and maybe a little into next week, so will just need to top up during the week (on fresh bits) and then get additional bits at the weekend to get me through next week.

If I end the month with £600 in the savings account I will be very happy. We usually use all of the savings money through the month and end up with nothing left (and at times using the cc's) so this will be a major improvement.

The things I have bought this weekend are some Christmas pressies (found loads of great (branded) things for our son at really reduced prices, so got a few - and saved some money on the price we would have paid elsewhere. I also got a few bits of work clothes - I really was desperate for some - I havent had new for over 4 years and the clothes I had were getting very tatty. I didnt get expensive items - a full suit for £30, some shoes for £12 and some trousers for £6.50.

The last thing we did was pay the deposit for a little holiday we have booked in January (just a weekend away in the UK). The deposit was £89. I paid £60 out of the savings and the remaining £29 out of our weeks budget. Theres £200 to pay at the end of November, but then we wont spend much on the holiday (its self catering, and we use that fully ie breakfast, lunch and dinner in). The swimming pool, play areas etc are all free, and the only things we will have to pay for are a few drinks on an evening (probably 2 each), so will spend less than £100 (including petrol to get there) for a lovely weekend away. Its a bot of a tradition for us going away in Jaunary - DH and I have been doing it since we started our relationship 10 years ago. We even got married in January, so our anniversary is around the time we go away too.

Ah well - must head off to work as I need to go to the petrol station first :mad:

E

E2006

I havent logged on since October last year, and in that time DH and I have slipped back into old habbits. Not sticking to budget, using the dreaded CC's, spending willy nilly on things we want and not things we need, wasting good food and spending money on takeaways etc. The upside is that as we have continued to make decent payments to our debts and have managed to reduce the CC's by over £1000 to £13000 (current debt). We do however have a holiday to pay for, but to be honest, we always make sure we can have our holidays - we work so hard for them thats our luxury that we strive to afford each year. That should hopefully be paid off in a couple of months, and then that will be it for the year in terms of big spends.

Ive read through my earler posts and its inspired me to get back on track with budgeting. Ive been feeling out of control recently, and finding that im increasingly relying on my cc towards the last 2 weeks or so of each month. If someone asked me where our money goes to result in having to use the CC I wouldnt have a clue!! Thats scary!

So my aim for this month - just to simply stay in budget! We have paid £600 off the debt, so all that remains is not to add to it any further. We have quite a bit on before Im paid again, such as a wedding away this weekend - the balance of the hotel is needed, as well as petrol as its a good 2 hours away, and a gift. We all have our outfits sorted so thats something at least.

Next week we are off on a family self catering holiday in the UK. We are car sharing with my parents so that will save on petrol, and then will be sharing the food cost and eating in the cottage every morning and most evenings, so it shouldnt be an expensive week away.

After that its our holiday abroad, then afterwards nothing more to pay for, so we will be spending a few months ploughing money onto the card with the holiday balance on and paying that off.

Onwards and upwards...

Ex