Time to make some changes . . . lots of changes!

ZTD

karmachilovething wrote: »

However on a very positive note - this month for the first time in about 18 months, I will not exceed my earnings! :j:j

I know that's not as good as having made more inroads to my debt, but it does mean that I am getting better at this. And next month I won't have bank changes, so have borken the debt cycle.

It feels good, really good.:D

And so it should. This is one of the most important steps to getting on an even keel once more.

jwil

karmachilovething wrote: »

Thanks jwil, my non-paying bidder has paid now. I meant ot do the NPB thing, but it's been a busy week so hadn't got around to it. It's a particularly good thing as the other items I'd sold are going to be returned by the seller, so rather than be £4.50 up I will be £7.50 down, but if I put it together with the other one I make a marginal profit of about £5.

Last week was expensive all in all. I got my car back on the road, so I did some errands I've been putting off, and went to my favorite charity shop and found a lovely 1950s bureau for £40. The desk I have at the moment was free, so hoping to sell that on eBay and make up some of that money.

However on a very positive note - this month for the first time in about 18 months, I will not exceed my earnings! :j:j

I know that's not as good as having made more inroads to my debt, but it does mean that I am getting better at this. And next month I won't have bank changes, so have borken the debt cycle.

It feels good, really good.:D

That's very positive, breaking even is great, and getting out of the bank charges cycle is even better!

karmachilovething

Thanks jwil and ZTD for the support - it is really great. And reading your diary jwil you will get there too.

NSD today, and hopefully another tomorrow. I have £25 to last me to Wednesday (Thursday is payday) which should be fine, I just have my bike service to pay for.

I've been doing this diary, and being serious about being a DFW, for about a month. I started doing a new MSE thng everyday, and that worked very well to get me into things. I've slipped up a couple of times, but recovered too.

Next month I'm going to join the grocery challenge and keep up the pack lunches, biking to work as much as possible, and selling stuff on eBay. I'm also going to start buying Christmas things next month rather than leave it all to December!

jwil

Thanks Karma, we will get there!

patman99

I put a load of books and DVDs on Amazon earlier this year. They sell very slowly.
Just think, every week you earn more than you spend, you haul yourself that little bit further out of the hole.

karmachilovething

Gosh, I haven't really been keeping up with the diary at the moment! However I seem to be keeping up with the MSE-nes even when I don't write about it! Which is really good - means it's becoming habit. A very good habit.

So Thursday I had a date, and we went dutch but it was not a massive meal, mains a bottle of wine and coffee.

Friday was a NSD, and then in the evening friends arrived to stay for the weekend. It could have been quite expensive, but I managed to orchestrate a cheap and lovely weekend, which although none would have asked for that I know everyone appreciated. Went to a free museum in town on Saturday, coffees and teas out but no big meals, local bonfire and fireworks on Saturday night with soup, tatties and crumble for tea at home.

The desk I bought is now in place and looks gorgeous! Everything I'd hoped for and loads of drawer/storage space. And the other desk is getting a LOT of attention on eBay - I have 11 watchers and 1 bidder and there's still 3 days to go! Hoping for a good price now!

So tomorrow I'm going to join the grocery challenge, but will have to tot up my food spends which I note in a diary at work. And then I'm going to have a proper sit down think about Christmas this year this week and make some plans.

chevalier

It is good that you are changing how you think abut things as well as how you do things, ie the cheap weekend with friends. You never know they might have all been secretly relieved because they are a bit skint too.
chev

jwil

Sounds like you've had a really nice weekend Karma. Hope you enjoyed the date on Thursday too.

Fingers crossed for the desk, hope you get some good bids on it!

karmachilovething

Thanks Chev and jwil. It's nice to know people are reading my diary every now and again I'm not just spewing this out into the ether!

I did have a lovely weekend, jwil. The visitors are some of my favorite people, it's just sad they live so far away. And the date was fun, and the guy is lovely but there isn't any particular sparkle between us unfortunately.

So I've joined the Grocery challenge this month. I was quite surprised when I added up everything I spent last month - £115 in total, although that includes a big storecupboard shop that was more than half that, and then some breakfast supplies for the visitors. So I have high hopes for beating that this month!

And the table sold for £26, which is pretty good, especially as it was free to me! And mum reckons she only paid £20 for it about 4 years ago - that's not a bad return.

So next plan is to sort myself out for Christmas. Will let you know how that goes.

karmachilovething

I've just remembered another thing I wanted to put up here:

Yesterday I got home and my housemate suggested we go to our local pub for dinner. Now a month ago I would have shrugged my shoulders and said OK, but yesterday I was having a NSD and I didn't really want to have dinner out for the sake of it. So I persuaded him to re-style a pork chop casserole from the beginning of the week as stroganoff at no extra cost.

Was quite surprised and pleased at myself.