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

karmachilovething

OK so I just about made it to pay day intact! No going over the overdraft, but whittled away my slush fund and down to last bits in kitchen and bathroom.

It was good for me in DFW terms to remember what having a tight money month is like. Although I've been paid, I'm doing well on the do I need it/have I budgeted for it thoughts, whereas before I would have gone a bit crazy had 10 days of excess and 20 of pauper!

January I have been getting back into the boards, keeping up to date with the ones I'm subscribed to particularly the Crazy Clothes Challenge (I really need that one!), so now I'm going to expand a do more challenges.

So I'm going to join the February Grocery Challenge, and probably the weekly spend challenge too.

I'm also thinking I might try Piggy Banking and see if that helps me with budgeting. I write a lot of things down but that only gets me so far! So setting up the accounts ready for the end of the month will be another task.

karmachilovething

Had quite a spend-y day, but nothing too unnecessary. Some toiletries and local honey from the market (necessary) and then a domino's pizza this evening, not necessary but on 2 for 1 and the first take away since New Year's day, so quite MSE.

Then this afternoon I spent altering a waistcoat I bought a while ago from eBay. It was nice to get the sewing machine out again for the first time in ages and do something creative. And to have new clothes without any financial implications :money:

I'm going to alter a blouse tomorrow (can you tell I've been building up a things to do pile?!) and then off to see my Grandma and Sunday dinner with the family.

jwil

Well done on the clothes altering, I'd have no idea where to start!

Hope you have a lovely day with the family!

karmachilovething

OK I've not posted on here for a while: I've been getting back into various challenges, and keeping up with all the posts is pretty time consuming Well it keeps me out of the shops (both real and web based)

So, I have rejoined:
Crazy Clothes Challenge
Weekly Spend Challenge
NSD Challenge

Other tasks for the week/month include:
1. Setting up some Piggy Bank Accounts (I reckon I need 3 more on top of my existing current account and saving account).

2. Actually should look at the saving account, think [EMAIL="B@rclays"]B@rclays[/EMAIL] have dropped me to a silly rate of interest which is basically 0%!

3. And have another go at applying for a 0% CC so I can transfer my balance (thanks to jwil for the inspiration on that one)

jwil

I spend far too much time on here too

Good luck with the 0% credit card, fingers crossed!

karmachilovething

I've also noticed that today I have been upgraded to :j Money Saving Stalwart :j

Now I know it's actually about the number of posts you make, but it's funny I do feel as though I'm getting more proficient at this.

I also forgot to put earlier:
4. Post things on eBay - I've got at least 5 or 6 items that need to go on

karmachilovething

OK quite a spendy couple of days, but in a quite MSE way:

Friday:
£12 on veg box
£25 on a night out (not obviously MSE, but included a cocktail party for £5 drinks inclusive. Otherwise included a taxi, club entry and one extortionate drink!)

Saturday:
56p at Habitat, for 8 plastic glasses and some napkins in the sale (which are going to be part of a friend birthday present) with the help of a £5 ift card I got for doing an on-line survey for them.
£3.36 in @sda for two de-humidifiers, some peppers and spring onions
£1.97 streaky bacon from the butchers
£47 for some new jeans (planned for?)
£12 on a new lipstick and a foundation brush (that really wasn't necessary, so not MSE)
£1 on a reduced diary from the charity shops which I'm going to use to keep track of my piggy bank accounts.

Oh and another DFW activity to add to the list:

5. Stock take my cupboards and freezer to help with my attempts for the Grocery Challenge

karmachilovething

OK today I have done items 3 and 4 on my DFW TO Do List:

I posted 7 items on eB@y

And I applied for a 0% credit card on-line, and was accepted :j I have always been turned down before, but this is great because my B@rclay card is 24.9% interest :eek::eek:, so now I can transfer that debt to the 0% card.

Slightly scary thing though - new card has almost 3 x the limit of the current one :eek: I'm not sure I can be trusted with that yet :rotfl: So will probably leave it in a drawer, hang onto the B@rclaycard for genuine emergencies (where the interest rate will put me off using it unless I absolutely have to)

Although thinking about it, I could use Martin's system for clearing one's overdraft by spending on the card (I get 4 months of 0% spending too) and keeping the cash to pay off the overdaft. Will have a careful think about that one . . .

karmachilovething

Well my eBay items are doing really well - lots of watchers on all of them (a couple of pairs of shoes have 14-15 watchers each!)

Still thinking about whether I transfer my overdraft to the new CC. I need to have a careful look at the relative implications - so that's a job for the weekend. Will also drop into the Co-0p bank in town to set up my piggy bank accounts (concerned if I do it on line the system will think I've made a mistake if I apply for three in a row!)

OK so things to do:
1. Set up piggy bank accounts
2. Check and compare interest rates for CC and Overdaft
3. Look at moving my saving account
4. Stock take my cupboards for the grocery challenge

jwil

Hurrah to 0% cards and balance transfers! Fingers crossed for the ebay sales too!